Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Campy just had his yearly "senior" check-up yesterday. I'm proud to say that Campy is in great health. He is a strong 11 lbs, 4 ounces and even at the age of eleven, he still plays like he is a puppy. He is full of endless energy and still has a very strong personality. While he loves to sleep (a lot), he won't pass up the opportunity to take a long walk (or hike), go on a road trip or sprint in the backyard. Notice the left paw death grip around my neck. This is how much Campy loathes the vet.  As a furry parent, Campy's health is really important to me. I want to make sure that I do everything possible to give him the best life possible. Whether you are a furry parent, human parent or caregiver, there's a good chance that you are use to taking care of everyone......but you may often neglect yourself. If you are tired of being tired, listen up. Life is short and you need to take the time to take care of yourself. Most people have no idea how...

I have a long history with strength training. I think back to my early years of competitive swimming when was around 12 yrs of age, in the gym (supervised by our coach), lifting weights with my swim team. Since then, I can't think of a time in my life when I wasn't strength training. In the later years of college, I interned with the Strength and Conditioning coach of the UK male and female basketball teams. I then went on to graduate school to study Exercise Physiology to become a Strength and Conditioning Coach. Although my career choice has changed since then, I still have a strong passion for Strength and Conditioning. Although nothing beats the endorphin rush of cardio training, I love the feeling of feeling strong. You never realize how weak you are until you are forced to lift weight (or move your own body weight through specific exercise). While I have had my fair share of soft-tissue related injuries, I have never had a broken bone or stress fracture, and I'd ...

Although my last triathlon was Ironman Wisconsin in early September, since returning home from Kona, Hawaii on October 17th, I've done little structured triathlon training. I did, however, participate/race in two events (Hincapie Gran Fondo on 10/21 and the Spinx Half Marathon on 10/27) over the last two weekends in October just to use some of my leftover fitness as my mind and body still wanted to race. While I did keep up with structured swim sessions until Karel raced Ironman Florida on 11/4 (moral support :), it feels like forever ago when I had workouts in my Training Peaks. Over the past twelve years, I've given myself all different types of an off-season break. I've failed at many and have succeed at several. I've learned that taking "too long" of break didn't work for me (4-6 weeks) but return too soon (1-2 weeks) and well, that didn't work either. In reflection on what worked or didn't work, I think about the season that followed. Whe...

It's getting closer to that time of the year. New Year diet fads.  The start of the year (after the holiday season) is typically the time when people begin to "finally" get serious about the diet, in hopes of improving health, changing body composition, losing weight or getting rid of unhealthy lifestyle habits. While there's nothing wrong with a New Year Resolution, there's the tendency to take the wrong approach to changing your eating habits. Your old diet gets demolished instead of making a small renovation. You may be wondering why I am bringing up this topic right now in early November. Well, relationships with food are complex, especially for athletes. Whether the focus is on health, appearance or performance (or a combination of all three), focusing too much on your diet and/or body image can become harmful to your health. There's never a wrong time to talk about your current relationship with food and the body. I love my diet. It's easy...

Pre-race While the alarm was early at 3:45am, the recent time change made it only feel like 4:45am. Karel was quick to get out of bed for his morning espresso, followed by his typical pre-race/workout bowl of oatmeal. He ate standing to help with digestion and shortly after, he went for a quick jog around the neighborhood to get his digestive tract flowing even more. After getting all of his gear organized, it was time to drive to the race venue around 4:50am. It was a quick 2 mile drive from the Southern Dunes property to the Lake Eva community center/park (race venue). I drove Karel (and our other coach Joe) and dropped them off near the transition area. Campy and I then drove around to find parking. Thankfully, Haines City does a great job opening almost every parking lot available for their triathlon races. After parking in the lot of a pharmacy on 5 th street, Campy and I walked to the transition area to wait for Karel after he pumped up his tires. The weather was perfect ...

We all know that athlete who seems to bounce back remarkably well from a race, only to show up to the start line at another race just a few weeks later. and make it look so easy. You sometimes have to question if that athlete is superhuman. Earlier this year, Karel wanted to experiment with the idea of racing two Ironmans "back to back" - within three weeks. However, this wasn't just any two Ironman events. After Ironman Austria in early July, Karel's big race of the year was the 2018 Ironman World Championship. A lot of mental and physical energy was dedicated to that race as it requires a very healthy and strong body and mind to tolerate the race day conditions with the best of the best on the start line. However, due to Karel's bike mechanical issue of riding (most of) the entire bike course on one light gear, let's just say that Karel left all of his mental and physical energy on the big island. In the days leading up to IMFL, Karel didn't fe...

Hello from Haines City, FL! Here we go again. It feels like it was just a few weeks ago when we were one sleep away from an Ironman! During our travels back home from Kona, Hawaii on October 16th, we received an email from Ironman that Ironman Florida was cancelled due to extensive devastation from Hurricane Michael. In the beginning of the year, Karel wanted to do something that he has never done before - race two Ironmans within a month. While an experimentation to see how his body would handle two endurance triathlon events in such a short time period, Karel also wanted to see if he would be able to re-qualify for 2019 Kona. Seeing that Karel did not have the race that he wanted in Kona, he was really looking forward to another opportunity to race. Even though there's the uncertainty of what his body will be able to do in the later miles of the marathon due to the unknowns of what's still lingering in his heart, tissues and muscles, Karel was really looking forward to...