Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

I have spent much of my career focusing on the many ways to help athletes optimize physical health. But it wasn't until my life was turned upside down by the passing of my dad to cancer in May of 2014, followed shortly by a diagnosis of PMDD , that my mental health became just as important as my physical health.  Mental illnesses often come with the stigmatized belief that those who struggle with depression or anxiety are weak and fragile. Many people hide mental health struggles due to shame. To improve quality of life, it's important to work through any barriers that are preventing you from addressing your mental health in a positive and productive way.  Anxiety and depression are interesting. It's wild how certain words, pictures, videos, people or noises can be very triggering some days and I can be immune to the same things on another day. Over the years (with the help of medication ) I've learned valuable coping skills for working through the emotions, thoughts an...

  Over the past few weeks I've been progressing gradually with my run fitness. I'm not training with a specific race day pace goal in mind but instead, I'm training to become a stronger runner. A lot of variables contribute to running well off the bike and frankily, it really comes down to not getting injured. Running is corrosive and it brings a great risk for injury. I've been thankful that my body has not had a setback since August 2019 and for me - someone who has had a rocky relationship with running - that is a big deal. When I eased back into running after my short off-season break, I focused primarily on easy running with good form. I incorporated a lot of walk breaks in my runs to help reset form and neuromuscular firing (communication with the brain and muscles) and finished some of my runs with hill strides (10-15 seconds uphill w/ walk down) to activate the posterior chain and for leg turnover. After a few weeks of frequent running, I continued with easy run...

  Proponents of training in a fasted (or carbohydrate-depleted state) claim that exercising when your body's glycogen stores are low (or depleted), will improve fat metabolism.  Teaching the body to rely on the massive energy supply that fat provides as a fuel source is often referred to as "metablic efficiency" or "fat adapted." These sexy terms are frequently used among endurance athletes and can be intriguing when associated with phrases like; Burn more fat.  Minimize the risk of bonking. Reduced relience on sport nutrition (ex. exogenous fuel sources) during training.  Minimize the incidence of GI issues.  Body composition changes.  Steady energy.  Sparing glycogen. It's understandable how the above claims of fasted training can be appealing to endurance athletes. But with much of the available literature studying the effects of fasted workouts and carbohydrate-restricted diets concluding that there is no correlation with enhanced performances in e...

                           Few people know this but shortly after I completed graduate school and received a Master of Science degree in exercise physiology from FAU (in Davie, Florida), I accepted a 6-month internship with Ironman from January until June 2006 in Tarpon Springs, FL. Instead of utilizing the two new initials behind my name, I was 23 years old, broke, living with my parents in New Port Richey, FL and obsessed with triathlon - I was registered for my first half ironman distance at Disney in Orlando, Florida (May) and my first Ironman in Panama City Beach, Florida. I received a very small amount of money each week to perform various tasks at the World Triathlon Corporation (located in Tarpon Springs, Fl). At that time, Dr. Gills - a world-renowned ocular surgeon and Ironman athlete - owned the Ironman brand.  Much of my interning was learning about the behind-the-scenes of this event organization. Ba...

The holiday season is a time of socializing, celebration and reunions. Now is the time when families, coworkers and friends gather together around food. For those struggling with an unhealthy relationship with food and the body, the holiday season may not be so bright and merry. If you experience great emotional stress around the holiday season, you are not alone. Here are some reasons why the holidays can be so stressful when it come to food:  Fear of weight gain. Too many food items available. Guilt around indulging. Feeling weak or out of control. Stress and anxiety. Uncomfortable being seen eating food. Pressure or comments when eating. Worry of offending others. Struggling with "normal" food portions. Remarks about body weight/size. Inability to recognize fullness. Eating on another person's schedule.  Having the right tools to manage triggers and unhealthy thoughts can help you maintain a healthy relationship with food (and your body) so you can fully enjoy the hol...

  Most popular running races occur in the winter and spring, which doesn't work well in our triathlon training. We are either working on building our foundation for the upcoming season or we are deep in a training phase in route to the first race of the year. However, there's one race that always gets us excited - the Paris Mountain Road Race . As the oldest and most challenging road race in South Carolina, we are lucky that this event starts less than 2 miles away from where we live and it is usually held in Nov/December. Not only doesn't this make for a logistically easy race to get to/from but we know the course very well (primarily from biking it). The reason why we love this race is that it suits us as triathletes - it's a strength-based course.  My training has been going really well over the past few weeks. On average I swim 4x week, bike 3-4x week (one trainer session on the tri bike and the rest road and mountain bike outside) and run 3x week. The focus has bee...

This past weekend Karel and I watched " The Swimmers " on Netflix. We love watching true story documentaries, especially with a sport focus. Words can't describe how powerful this movie was to watch. It brought back some uncomfortable emotions and memories from Karel who immigrated to the US over two decades ago.  The film is based on the true story of 17-year old Yusra and 20-year old Sara who left their home and family in Syria to travel to Germany due to the escalation of the Syrian civil war. Yusra was determined to make the 2016 Rio Olympics as a swimmer, with the support and coaching from her father. Germany would give her the opportunity to pursue her (and her fathers) dream. The 25-day journey from Syria to Germany involved airplanes, boats, lots of walking, buses and taxies.  The film shows the many obstacles and struggles of being a refugee. Although swimming is the reason why the sisters left Syria, this movie shows the complicated lives that people from around...