Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

With the taper-induced phantom pains and niggles and lethargy behind, you may find yourself with a bit of self-doubt, worry and anxiety with only a few nights of sleep before your triathlon race. While it's perfectly normal to feel some stress, nerves and pressure before an important event, use that powerful energy to fire you up so it brings out the best version of yourself on race day. Because lack of self-belief and worry can have a disastrous effect on your race day performance, here are a few tips to improve your confidence for race day: Stop worrying about the uncontrollables - If you find yourself emotionally stressed out in the week or two before a big event, there's a good chance that you are dealing with a roller coaster of emotions dealing with the "what ifs". Worrying about things that are out of your control, like the weather or competition, is self sabotaging. Turn those negative thoughts into something positive so that those thoughts do not ...

Running is the most convenient sport of triathlon - you can do it anywhere, anytime.  Running is the most cost effective sport of triathlon. Running is the sport where you will likely experience a big endorphin-rush. Running is a way to relieve stress. Running is a way to get outside. Running is familiar to most triathletes - either from road racing (ex. 5K, half marathon, marathon) or running for fitness. Running is a way to change the body composition. Running is the sport where most triathletes feel there is much room for improvement. Running is the sport where most triathletes experience GI distress. Running is the sport that is most remembered at the end of a triathlon. Most triathlon performances are defined by the run portion. Most triathletes feel they need to run harder or longer to run better off the bike.  Many triathletes feel that if they lost weight, they'd be a better runner. Running has the greatest risk for injury. Based on the ab...

The bike portion of a triathlon represents the majority of your overall racing time. However, most athletes look to the run as the area where significant improvements in fitness need to be made. But to run to your potential, you must consider what precedes the run - the swim and the bike. When it comes to training for the cycling portion of a triathlon, we can't see the bike as a time trial event. If you are simply seeking a personal best time/power wattage/speed, you are likely overbiking. On the flip side, if you simply "save your legs" on the bike because you are worried about running out of energy for the run, you'll underbike. To deliver a strong race day bike, you must train to do so. Instead of putting all of your focus on FTP, TSS, IF or average power watts, consider the following that will have a huge impact on your cycling and running abilities: Posture and form Skills/bike handling Pedaling mechanics Terrain management Fueling/hydration Pacing...

It's National Triathlon Week! National Triathlon Week is an initiative created by USA Triathlon to celebrate multisport and all its constituency groups. "National Triathlon Week is a celebration of not only triathletes, but all members of the multisport community, including officials, coaches, race directors, families and friends of triathletes and more." On behalf of Triweek, I'll be sharing some information on each sport (swim, bike, run) to help you make the most of your triathlon training journey. If you are new to the sport (or thinking about training for a triathlon), I hope you find this information helpful.                                                  ------------------------------------------------- Without a doubt, a pool offers a very controlled, safe and consistent swimming environment. Add in 1000+ athletes in the open water ...

A year ago, we experienced something incredibly scary as we had a coached athlete suffer from SIPE (Swimming induced pulmonary edema) during the swim portion of IM 70.3 St. George. Thankfully, he survived. Other triathletes, sadly, have not been so lucky. He is an experienced and fit triathlete so this was a big shock for us all. The water temp was in the low 60's and he was wearing a wetsuit. He didn't have a warm-up in the water. After entering the water, he started out with his effort  and quickly felt tightness in his chest. He mentioned he felt a similar tightness (but not as severe) on the day before the race during a pre-race practice swim. He started to cough severely and noticed pink phlegm coming from his cough - he was able to get to a kayak to rest. He tried to swim to the next kayak but was getting weaker. He finally exited the water and went to medical. The med tent didn't take his BP after the event but he later followed up with his doctor. All was ok w...

Several weeks ago I was contacted via email by someone from a company who asked if I was interested in receiving a complimentary  DEXA Scan  (along with Karel) in return of a review. As you may know, I am not a fan of the scale and I never weigh myself. Considering all that makes up your body, your body weight can’t accurately be told by a number on the bathroom or BMI scale. But this doesn't stop far too many athletes from daily or weekly scale weighing - often feeling like the scale runs or ruins the day. A DEXA Scan is a reliable, gold-standard way to precisely measure body composition (I discussed this in my book Essential Sports Nutrition ). DEXA stands for dual energy x-ray absorptiometry.  More than just a weight, a DEXA Scan tells you what you are made up of - muscle, fat and bone. You can see muscle asymmetry, visceral fat and bone density. For the athlete with excessive body fat, weight loss may improve health and sport performance. However to pressure f...

This isn't my first rodeo of training for an Ironman but life has presented me with an incredible opportunity to take my training up a notch with the professional guidance of my coach, Cait Snow (with the JD crew). Having already qualified for the Ironman World Championship at IMWI last September, this upcoming Ironman is an opportunity for me to remember what it's like to race an Ironman. While I have processed-driven goals for the race (which are keeping me motivated, patient and disciplined with my training), I have no time goals. With ~8,000 feet of elevation gained on the bike and unpredictable weather, my goal is to simply put together a race with the fitness that I've accumulated over the past 8 months and to cross the finish line feeling like I made good decisions for all 140.6 miles. With my 15th Ironman distance triathlon approaching in just 41 days, I thought this would be a good time to share some feedback on this Ironman journey. HEALTH My health is the...