Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

First off, thank you for your continued support and encouragement. Karel and I are incredibly grateful for this incredible opportunity to participate together in the 2019 IM World Championship. We will also be sharing the course with three of our coached athletes. Your virtual high fives and kind words will help us get to the finish line so keep the cheers coming. If you are planning to watch the race, here's a link on how to watch the Ironman World Championship. There will be 20 hours of coverage on Facebook ( Ironman Now ), beginning at 10:30am EST (4:30am Hawaii Time). You can also track via the Ironman Tracker App or online.  Thursday was a low key day of training. We have been trying to sleep as long as we need (~9 hours) so we are never rushed to get up and train in the morning. We started off with a quick 20 minute swim in the ocean around the time of the end of the underpants run. The pier/swim start was packed with athletes so it was a bit chaotic swimming out into t...

Now that it's race week, the training volume has dramatically decreased whereas the craziness of the town has dramatically increased. Every day there is something to do, see and visit - but we are resisting the temptation. It's far too easy to see/do everything that is offered during IM Kona race week but with that comes lots of time on the feet and out in the hot sun. As for training, on Monday we started our 80 minute ride from the energy lab. After a warm-up, we did 4 rounds of 20 sec burst and then 1:40 easy pedaling. Then after 6 minutes of easy spinning we did 2 rounds of 10 minutes at IM effort w/ 3 min EZ. Then cool down. It was a perfect set to wake-up the legs. After the ride, a quick and easy 20 minute run. I managed to keep an average heart rate of 130 bpm for the run. In the early afternoon, we drove to the high school pool and did a 3000 yard workout. Luckily, the pool was not as crowded as last week so we were able to do our planned workou...

On Saturday, I'll be racing my 17th Ironman. It's also my 5th time racing at the Ironman World Championship. When I completed my first Ironman distance triathlon at IMFL at the age of 24, I was very young, stubborn and naive. Over the past 13 years, I've had many race day successes, failures and lessons learned as a long-distance triathlete. With growth and development (athletically and personally), comes maturity and integrity. Many years of coaching triathletes has also taught me important lessons that can make or break a race day performance. Because your current fitness level can only take you so far, there are certain qualities that can separate you from your competition. The decisions that you make before and on race day have rewards and consequences. Since your race day performance outcome is built from many decisions, here are some common Ironman race day mistakes and how to avoid them before and on race day. Body image -  Sadly, we live in a society that fo...

The time has finally come for us to say that it's IM Kona race week!! The town has transformed into a bit of a spectacle but that's all because the Ironman World Championship is a big event for triathletes from all over the world. With signage on buildings and triathletes everywhere, it's an exciting experience to be surrounded by so many like-minded, fit and dedicated triathletes. The picture above is from our condo, overlooking the farmers market and the Ironman Expo. It's always a beautiful site to see the big cruise ships settling in for the day.  On Friday evening, we ventured out to White Sands Beach (just past the airport) for a relaxing dip in the ocean and some snorkeling (we used our pool snorkels). We timed it perfectly as it was a bit cloudy and in the late afternoon to minimize our time out in the direct sunlight. We have been using lots of sunscreen to prevent burning.  It was so great to welcome our athlete Ericka to town. This is her fi...

Compared to years past, it feels much warmer than before. Although the temperature only reads around 86 degrees in the forecast, it's much more hot under the scorching sun. Coupled with the lava and heat radiating off the ground, it's hotter than hot here. The wind has also been rather gusty. All this said - IM Kona will be living up to its epically challenging standards if it stays like this on race day.  Since arriving to Kona on Sunday, we have had some quality training sessions on the Big Island. We are staying in town behind the expo/farmers market which makes it easy to train right from our doorstop. However, due to the traffic and debris covering the shoulder of the road, we have been driving away from town to start most of our workouts. Also, because the local Kona aquatic center is closed right now, we have to drive ~20 minutes south of the island to use the local high school pool (which is free). The biggest adjustment has been the heat - which is the biggest...