2016 Trimarni Clermont camp - day 1

After a busy day on Wednesday, it was finally time to start our training camp... not-so-bright, but humid and early in the morning.

I was so lucky this year to find the perfect house for our campers - a Duplex just 1/2 mile from Waterfront Park (the race venue).
We love the idea of having all of our campers stay together as it promotes teamwork and it gives everyone an opportunity to really get to know their teammates. Although we do not force staying in the team house, this year, all of our campers wanted to stay in the team house which just showed me how much our athletes love the friendships and memories that are built during camp.

For the duplex rooming, the girls are upstairs and the boys are downstairs. We also have 3 athletes staying at the "coaches house".

We tend to have two themes at our training camps - a lot of training (the obvious) and a lot of education. We try to not let one overpower the other as it's so beneficial for every Trimarni athlete/camper to leave training camp with new tools, skills and knowledge but also a mindset that allows our campers to be more present in training. I find that during a training camp, our athletes recognize that the are capable of doing so much more with their body and mind due to the constant positive energy and support from one another. It's our hope that our campers can bring back the tools and focus for smarter training to assist in reaching performance goals.

For our first workout of the day (Thursday) we had a shake-out run on the schedule. We met our campers at the Duplex at 7am and by 7:15 we were down at Waterfront Park for our dynamic warm-up. We always stress the importance of a dynamic warm-up before training so we demonstrated a few of our favorite exercises. At camp, we make sure that our athletes are doing what we prescribe in their training as it's easy for our athletes (and any athlete) to be more focused on how much is accomplished in a workout rather than proper execution.

For the run workout, we had our campers run on the race course to get familiar with the route.
The workout was as followed:
1/2 mile jog warm-up
Dynamic stretching
10 min EZ jog
MS:
6 x 30 sec build to fast w/ 60 sec EZ

Cool down to house

We left our campers with enough time to refuel after the run workout and to get ready for our  9:30am Long Course Swim at the NTC. 

For many of our campers, this was their first long course swim in a long time (or ever) and first outdoor swim in a long time. We just love this pool. 

We try not to overwhelm our athletes with skill improvements when swimming but since swimming is so skill specific, having the opportunity to see our athletes swim is extremely valuable as it's easy to learn bad (inefficient) habits when you are a new swimmer. 

We did not take it easy on our campers for the swim and include a few very strong efforts in this workout.

MS: 4-6 x (100 STRONG, then 10 sec rest (grab buoy), then 200 active recovery swim. Rest 1 minute and repeat.)

After the 90-minute swim, our campers had a "long" break from 11am - 2:45pm to eat, rest, relax and think about their third workout  of the day. 

At 2:45pm, we met outside the team house (this is the team Duplex in the above pic) and Karel talked about the purpose of the workout and provided the team with the main set.

MS: 4-5 x (2 min build, 4 min strong) w/ 90 sec EZ

Our amazing photographer Taylor! 

We biked to the Oly race course and provided the team with one last talk before we sent each athlete off in TT order for the main set. We then regrouped and we all biked home together and covered the entire race course. 2 hours later, we were back home. 

Later in the evening we gathered the team for our nightly team talk/recap and I lectured about long run sport nutrition to ensure that our campers would know how to fuel and hydrate for the Friday long run and for future training and on race day.



Our campers enjoyed their team dinner (thank you Taylor for feeding our athletes!) and then it was lights out early for me and Karel.
I'm sure it was all laughs and chats for a while before their bedtime. 

2016 Trimarni Clermont camp - pre-camp

Every year, Karel and I feel overwhelmed with all that goes into planning a training camp.
But as soon as we see our campers, we get excited to have the opportunity to spend several days of one-on-one coaching with our campers.

This year in Clermont, every camper is a Trimarni coaching athlete - either a one-on-one athlete or a performance team member (after purchasing a training plan, for only $50 a month extra they receive all team/sponsor discounts and benefits, access to our private Trimarni Team Facebook page and they receive detailed check-in educational emails every Monday).

Every camper knows our philosophy for coaching and understands our training methodologies. However, as the sport of triathlon continues to evolve, the athletes who have been coached by us for more than a year (alongside the new athletes) are learning new skills, tips and information at our camps.

Although we put a lot of attention and focus into our training plans, nothing can replace the immediate improvements in skills and fitness that can be accomplished in just a few days at a training camp.

Although our training camps are a lot of fun (there's a lot of laughing and smiling), there's no shortage of challenging workouts and education to ensure that every athlete leaves camp with the ability to train smarter to train harder.

After I shook out my legs with a short brick on Wed morning, it was time to get all the swag together for our campers. 

I feel so lucky to have Clif Bar providing sport nutrition food and drinks for our campers to ensure that they put quality ingredients into their body while training.
This year I am doing something that I have never done before and that is spending at least 45 minutes every evening of camp educating our campers on how to use sport nutrition properly and then how to best fuel for the next day of training. This educational opportunity provides our campers with information that is not overwhelming but also applicable to each workout. 

I also want to send a big thank you to Oobe for producing our team and camp shirts, Veronica's Health Crunch for providing our campers with all types of crunch flavors (be sure to try her newest flavor - cinnamon apple cranberry, it's so heavenly delicious!), Oakley and Oakley Women for providing bags, Justine (Trimarni athlete) for creating awesome Trimarni swimsuits (for guys and girls) and all of the other Trimarni team sponsors for supporting our team all season. 

After I was finished setting up the swag in the Team Duplex, Karel and I headed to the NTC to check out our camp and then we moved all our stuff to our rental Townhome to finally get settled for camp. 

Karel is always in high demand at our camps for bike mechanic work and RETUL fits so a few campers get to take advantage of his expertise at our camps (he would do more but there isn't enough time with all the training!)

After a long day, it was finally time to eat.
I was excited to finally cook in a kitchen so I made chicken for Karel (I had cottage cheese), roasted potatoes w/ melted cheddar cheese and a salad w/ oranges, strawberries and cashews. 

Stay tuned for my recap of our first official day of camp!
(or you can just follow the camp on my Trimarni Facebook page).

Clermont, FL....here we come!

 It seems like it was just December and I was in the initial process of preparing for our 2016 Trimarni Clermont Training camp.

I know our campers are just as excited as we are to start 4-days of intentional training overload.

Our campers will be training over 4 hours every day with 3 workouts each day. There's just enough time between workouts to eat and rest.

Our campers know what they are in for at a Trimarni training camp - it's the perfect mix of fun, education and challenging workouts.
We will be stretching some comfort zones over the next 3 days.

And to conclude the training camp, every Trimarni camper will be racing (yes, racing) the Great Clermont Triathlon (Olympic distance) on Sunday. We included the race into our training camp last year and it was a perfect opportunity for our athletes to incorporate the many skills that they learned at camp and to execute without the pressure to finish with a specific time or place goal.

I will be updating the Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition Facebook page with pictures throughout our  camp and hopefully, my blog as well. You can stay up to date with our camp on social media by searching for the hashtags #Trimarni #Trimarni camp or follow on Facebook. 

Here are a few pics from our trip to Jacksonville, FL and then to Clermont, FL

Sweet snack on the road before lunch on Monday in route to Jacksonville, FL.

Late afternoon snack at Native Sun Jax.

Karel doing a pre-race tune up on our friend's bike at Open Road Bicycles. Karel is always in high demand with his expert bike mechanic and bike fit skills, even when we travel. 

Palm trees - it's been a while (I still love my mountains more than the beach)

But I really love outdoor swimming - anywhere!
Thanks Trimarni athlete and friend Adam for taking us to the perfect pool for our 4700 yard morning swim on Tuesday - and for joining us for some fun in the water!

Mix and match lunch from Publix grocery store as we made last leg of our trip from Jax to Clermont.
Karel got a Publix sub. 

After unloading our packed car, Karel and I needed to relax our tight legs from all the traveling. We enjoyed a 1:45 ride around the lake and on the Olympic race course. After two years of riding in Greenville, SC, the Clermont hills are getting flatter and flatter. :) 

After we cleaned up from our ride, we made a quick grocery store shop at Publix and then it was finally time to eat and call it a day.
I had a stuffed pita w/ mixed greens and arugula w/ chopped Cabot cheese and hummus, and a side of baby carrots and cottage cheese. 

Karel had "brinner" (Breakfast for Dinner) which consisted of oats, strawberries and almond butter (mixed with milk) and a side of eggs and ham with fresh bread (from Native Sun) w/ butter. 

Give it your best

Are you moving closer to your goals?
Are you making excuses or making the effort?
Are you settling for a "just getting by" mentality?
Are you distracted by life yet constantly wish that you could stay more committed to your goals?
Are you willing to accept the time that is needed to reach your goals?
Do you find yourself procrastinating and then looking for quick results when you feel the pressure to make a change?
Are you putting in the work?

We all have our own reasons for training for an event, exercising more, eating better or making a change in life. 

You get what you give. 
In four days, Karel and I will be leading our 3rd annual Trimarni Clermont training camp. Although we expect our athletes to be tired and exhausted (especially with an Olympic distance triathlon race on the last day of camp), we also expect our athletes to give a great effort throughout camp.
Our campers understand exactly what they are in for at camp and because of this, they each come with a great "give it your best" attitude.

If you have never been to a training camp, I highly recommend to find the right camp for you and your fitness needs and goals and to participate in group training environment that is unlike anything you can experience alone or in your home environment.

One of the best training effects from a training camp is learning what it feels like to give a great effort without any (or minimal) life distractions. 

Since training is not your life (unless you are a professional), you know you will have challenges in life that will keep you from training consistently. 

Some athlete choose to minimize these distractions by making relationship or career changes or making other investments (hiring a coach, sport RD, sport psychologist, massage therapist, etc.). But depending on your goals and intentions for change, you don't have to change your life just to be great. You don't even have to be a world class athlete to be great! 

The big takeaway is if you are constantly letting life interfere with your ability to give something your best effort, you will always fall short on reaching your full potential or reaching your goals.  

Perhaps you interpret this statement as you needing to train more, be more strict with your diet or to make more sacrifices in life, but an extreme approach is not necessary if you want to receive positive results from your efforts.

I invite you to bring three words to your life:

Proactive
Purpose
Present

I repeatedly say these words to our athletes as they can really make the difference between an OK workout and a GREAT workout.

So how can you use these words when you are about to give an effort? 

Proactive - focus on how you can set yourself up for great behaviors or actions. Perhaps planning your meals ahead of time, creating a great workout environment so it's easy for you to get in a workout even when you are busy or setting a schedule for yourself so that you feel rested and energized. If you constantly find yourself feeling guilty of something you did or didn't do, there is likely a barrier in your life that is keeping you from being more proactive. Plan for something before it happens.

Purpose - having a clear purpose will help you understand what you need to do to get to where you need to be. Having a purpose for how you train, why you do certain workouts, why you go to bed at a certain time, why you eat what you do, etc. will help you appreciate the steps that you are taking to reach the end result. When someone has a purpose for doing something, less excuses come about and actions are influenced by passion. If you don't truly love what you are doing, it's likely that you don't have a good or believable purpose for doing what you are doing. Rethink why you are doing something and if you can't find a clear purpose, perhaps your goals need to change.

Present - dwelling on the past or feeling anxious about the future will not help you in this moment in time. Wishing for a workout to be over so you can do something else or hating what you are eating are not the attitudes that you want to bring to your actions.  Keep in mind that food choices, sleep habits, stress in your life and unclear goals can all contribute to not being present.
Don't let yourself get distracted when you are doing something and don't let someone else distract you from your personal journey.

Remember that your intentions for your goals may be different than someone else's. But don't doubt your ability to do something by comparing it to another person's actions.
Be willing to take some risks, don't be afraid to fail and don't let your ego (or self-doubt) keep you from giving a bit more effort.

If you want to accomplish something, you have to be willing to give it your best effort every single day.

 The entire purpose of our training camps is to provide our athletes with a safe and motivating environment so that it is easier to give the effort that is hard to achieve at home.

This doesn't mean that our athletes are lazy or are not accomplishing workouts at home but I often find that athletes fail to realize their full athletic potential simply because the focus, time, energy, intent, purpose or attitude of achieving something is often difficult to do alone.

What we love about camp is that our athletes really get to know what it is like to give it your best.

Although a training camp can help you understand that you are capable of achieving so much more than you ever thought was possible, you shouldn't let a day go by without giving your best effort to whatever you are doing. 

You can either choose to give it your best, just get by or believe you are not capable of achieving something. 

Which do you choose? 

Trimarni Water Bottles - shop now

Trimarni Purist Water bottles are in stock!!!

It's time to recycle your old, used, dirty water bottles and invest in a new supply for your upcoming training and racing season. 

The Purist technology shields the Purist bottle from taste, mold and staining.
Nothing sticks, your bottle stays clean and your water tastes pure.

Each bottle comes with a leak-proof, hands-free, open and close heart valve Watergate top.

Bottle size: 26 ounces

Made in the USA.

Color choices: Pink, Orange, Green, Smoke

ORDER HERE

Athletes - Make peace with food

Some people exercise and some people train.
Either way - moving your body is great for the mind, body and soul.
 
Regardless if you are exercising to improve your health or training to improve fitness for an upcoming event, you know that if you eat better, you will perform better. 

For athletes, when you fuel your body optimally you have more energy, your fitness improves, you are happier, you think better, you delay fatigue, you sleep better and you have a more positive outlook on life. 

I hope that every athlete and fitness enthusiast is on a mission to be at peace with food.
Food should enhance your life and should energize your body and mind. 

I encourage you to think about your current eating and fueling habits to decide if what you are doing right now is working for you. 

It's important to have a great plan for good nutrition because good nutrition habits bring great workouts. And when you are consistent with your training, you can look forward to great race day performances. 

Sadly, for many athletes, food is not for energy.
It's the enemy. 

Are you habitually using food for reward (when exhausted, you completed a hard or long workout) or punishment (you feel fat, you hate your body, you had a bad workout)? 
Is food the awful thing in your life that keeps you from being happy?
Do you live in constant fear about gaining weight or becoming fat? 
Do you wish there was a way to stop your chaotic eating patterns and body dissatisfaction?

Do you find yourself unable to cope with day-to-day responsibilities and stressors and the only way to feel in control is to not eat, binge eat or excessively workout?

Are you constantly preoccupied with food?

Are you letting your desire to be thinner override practical eating habits and behaviors?

Are you pushing people out of your life so that you can maintain a strict eating and exercise routine?

If you are starving/restricting your body from key nutrients and energy, especially around and during workouts, you are moving further and further away from achieving attainable performance goals and you are slowly deteriorating your health.

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Clearly exercise is a great thing and for athletes we must train a lot in order to adapt to training stress. But a lot can be defined in many ways. If you feel irritable, guilty, anxious or upset if you miss a workout or do not complete your entire workout and feel depressed and are worried about gaining weight (or not losing weight), you may find yourself with little energy for the rest of your life because you are addicted to exercise. 

As athletes, we must be able to turn on and off our commitment switch. That means installing great lifestyle habits to ensure that our workouts and eating habits have positive outcomes.

If you find your training excessively to burn calories or in an effort to experience an emotional high that you may think you are missing from your ever day life, ask yourself how you can achieve a more balanced life.
Address your priorities in life and bring good intentions to your workouts. 

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While there is nothing wrong with the occasional indulgence, coaxing yourself to get through a workout with the anticipation of guilt-free unhealthy or excessive eating may create a dysfunctional relationship with food. 

If you are intentionally restricting calories before or during long workouts so you can "reward" yourself with "off-limit" food or food with little to no nutritional value, this will not only increase cravings for unhealthy foods but this habit undermines the importance of developing appropriate fueling and hydrating habits around/during workouts. 

If your daily diet is so unappealing, boring or awful that you feel the need to "cheat" with your diet or workout for hours in order to remove the guilt of eating something "bad", you are creating an unhealthy relationship with food and the body. Eventually, you are going to find it difficult to improve performance and/or meet healthy body composition goals.

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Restricting food or calories or excessively exercise, all in attempt to improve performance or to change body image is no way to live your life.

There are many healthy strategies to achieving your health, body and performance goals and those practical strategies won't impair performance or destroy your health.

Thinner doesn't mean happier.
Leaner doesn't mean faster.
Eating doesn't mean cheating. 

Make peace with food.
Don't bash your body for what is it not. 
Love your body for what it allows you to do.

My educational journey - from passion to profession

Today is Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day.
I feel so lucky to be one of many qualified nutrition experts who are helping people improve their lives through food and nutrition.

My educational journey to today has been a long one so I thought I would share it with you today. 

2000-2001
After graduating from Paul Laurence Dumber High School in 2000, I went to IUP in Indiana, Pennsylvania for my freshman year. I continued competitive swimming at this Div II University, specializing in 100 butterfly, 200 IM and 200 butterfly.
I was swimming more yards than ever before and we had swim meets almost every weekend during peak season.
I started my educational journey focused on medicine, wanting to be some kind of doctor. I was having a hard time balancing school with swimming as swimming was taking a big toll on my life and I was struggling to obtain the education that I wanted. Plus, I missed my family and friends back in KY.

2001-2004
I transferred back home (Lexington, KY) and went to Transylvania University - just down the road from UK. Transy (as it's known) was perfect for me as it was a small liberal arts school with an emphasis on writing, with a great student to teacher ratio and just 20 minutes from my home. I swam competitively at Transy for the next 3 years. Transy was NAIA turning Div III.
For my first year at Transy (Sophomore year) I continued to focus on chemistry as my major. As much as I loved science, I didn't find myself truly passionate with this educational decision.
Sometime near the end of my Sophomore year, I transferred majors to Exercise Science. I had the most amazing mentor Dr. Brown (and one of my teachers) to help guide me in a new educational direction. I absolutely loved every class that I took as I found myself eager to learn more and more and more. In my Junior year, I minored in psychology as I loved learning about the mind and how it affects exercise performance. By the end of the Junior year, I was focused on being a strength and conditioning coach and I even interned with the UK basketball team and cheerleader team. I thought it was so cool to write strength programs for athletes who were almost double my height!
As my on and off back issues continued (swimmer problems) from so much butterfly, I switched to 100 breastroke to give my back a break. I found myself improving a lot with my swimming from 2001-2003 but by my senior year, I was a bit burnt out from swimming so I thought it would be fun to try something completely different - cross country running.
I joined the cross country team my senior year and trained and raced from the late summer until fall during my senior year. Well, I sure did miss the water so my burn out didn't last long as I was finishing my last year of competitive swimming my senior year of college.

2004-2005
During my senior year, I applied to several Master programs to continue my education in strength and conditioning. I figured if I was going to continue with higher education, I would go somewhere warm and sunny....so I choose FLORIDA!
I was accepted into FAU (Florida Atlantic University) on the Davie Campus and received a stipend to be a graduate assistance - collecting research, assisting in lab studies, teaching undergrad classes, etc.
Without knowing anyone in FL, my parents helped me move and I was starting a new life, in a new state.
I forgot to add that in the summer of my junior and senior year, I participated in two triathlons. A sprint and Olympic distance, respectively. I actually received my first bike (A Giant hybrid - with a kickstand) the week of the sprint triathlon. My dad went with me to the race (I can't remember where but I still have the t-shirt!) and I won my age-group...At the age of 21, I was the only one it it (18-24). Then in the Olympic distance, I think I won my age group again (not for sure). Needless to say, I had quite the advantage after swimming competitively for the past 10+ years.
Graduate school was extremely challenging. It was my entire life, all day, ever day. It was stressful and overwhelming but I learned a lot. Many of my teachers were involved with the International Society of Sport Nutrition and I was involved with a lot of research studies (the behind the scenes stuff like pricking fingers, underwater weighing, doing pulmonary functioning tests, taking or conducting other performance tests).
My professors focused their research on creatine and beta-alanine so I was learning a lot about supplements.
As a former water aerobics, personal trainer, spin instructor, core instructor - you name it, I also taught undergrad classes at FAU on the Boca Campus. (I actually fell in love with FAU as Transy would go there for winter training - "hell week").
Although I was extremely busy while in graduate school, something was missing in my life. I missed training. I was staying active exercising and taking aerobic and spin classes at 24 hour fitness and swimming several times a week but I really wanted to train for an event. I missed competition and the student athlete in me didn't feel balanced without sports.
I signed up for my first marathon (why not?) and created my own training plan.. I also participated in a few more sprint and Olympic triathlons. After the Miami marathon, I learned that I had qualified for the Boston Marathon (3:38) and discovered that my passion for exercise physiology extended to sport nutrition.
Nearing my last semester of graduate school, my desire to be a strength and conditioning coach was subsiding as I wanted to do something that included nutrition and physiology. 

2005-2006
After graduate school, I had no money because I spent it all on triathlons and running races. At the age of 23, I moved in with my parents (who had moved to New Port Richey, FL as my dad got a job as the chief optometrist of the VA clinic) and took an intern position at the WTC (formally owned by Dr. Gills). I came across the internship position and with a new love for endurance training and racing, I wasn't sure how to use my MS in Exercise Physiology so I decided to do something fun and intern with Ironman and IronGirl.
During my 6-month internship stating in Jan 2006, I was bite hard by the endurance bug - I was training for the Boston Marathon, my 2nd marathon (April), my first half ironman in Disney (May) and my first Ironman in FL (Nov).
After my internship I took a position as the Wellness Coordinator of the YMCA Suncoast. I had a wonderful boss Lesley (also a triathlete). I taught spin classes and was a personal trainer alongside my coordinator responsibilities.
In May 2006, I met Karel.
After winning the 18-24 age group at IMFL (my first IM) and qualifying for Boston after my first marathon, I felt my calling was in endurance sports.
I wanted to write articles and write a book, speak, coach and counsel and I felt that the only way I could gain the credibility of being a nutrition expert would be to obtain my RD credential. Little did I know how long, hard and expensive of a journey that would be, but I didn't consider any other options. It was the right thing to do.

2007-2010
A lot happened in these three years. Karel and I got engaged (2007), then married (2008), we moved to Jacksonville for Karel to become the GM of Trek Bicycles of Jacksonville, FL, I completed my first Kona (2007) after getting injured a month before the race (the start of 6 years of chronic on and off hip/back issues), I continued to race triathlons more competitively, I supported Karel racing bikes as a Cat 1 cyclist and we added to our furry family (welcome Campy and Madison).
Oh yes, and I went back to school to become a RD!
Seeing that I had my bachelors in exercise science, I discovered that I could obtain a verification statement to meet the requirements to apply for an internship. I took my dietetic classes online from UNCO (in Colorado) and took other pre-req classes locally (Clearwater, then Jacksonville).
During this time, I completed my 3rd Ironman (IMKY in 2009) and found myself improving as a self-coached triathlete. I did a lot of speaking, consulting and writing for free as I continued to build my knowledge (and reputation).
In 2007, I completed my level 1 coaching certification for USAT and become a triathlon coach.

2010-2011
If graduate school wasn't stressful enough, my dietetic internship really took over my life. I managed to squeeze in one Ironman at the beginning of my 10-month, 1200 hour internship (distance internship - from Marywood University) during my community rotation with Preferred Nutrition. I ended up qualifying for Kona again but thankfully it was for the following year. I ended up hurting my back/hips again so I didn't race a single run or triathlon race between IMWI (Sept 2010) until Kona (October 2011).
There were things that I liked and didn't like during my internship but I learned a lot regardless if I was passionate about what I was learning. I didn't want to become a RD to be a dietitian but instead to be a qualified nutrition expert - not sure if that makes sense. Oddly enough, when I was finishing my clinical rotation at St. Vincent's, I actually found myself enjoying the constant learning of the human body when working with patients in the hospital. I found this to be a great compliment to applying nutrition to "healthy" athletes.

2011-2014
After several months of studying, I passed my RD exam on the first try. What a relief!
After not wanting to be a dietitian, I found myself with the most amazing opportunity to be a PRN (as needed) clinical dietitian at Baptist Medical Center Beaches. I learned so much and I loved the constant challenge of having to make decisions for each patient. After completing my 2nd Ironman World Championship in October, it was time to turn my passion into a profession.
In Jan 2012, Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition, LLC was created. 

As I continued to develop my philosophy and voice, I started speaking and writing more on sport nutrition and found myself balancing being a clinical dietitian with being a sport dietitian. I loved every day of the constant learning. I started consulting with athletes and coaching more triathletes and runners.
By 2012, Karel found himself wanting a new challenge and after racing bikes all his life, he decided to train for a triathlon - and learn how to swim!
By the summer of 2013, Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition was growing and I found it critically important to keep myself learning to stay up with current research and practical applications. After qualifying for my 3rd IM World Championship at IM Lake Placid and sharing the course with Karel for his first Ironman, I realized that my knowledge of sport nutrition and endurance training and racing was not only benefiting me, but I could help other athletes. However, in order to continue to help athletes with triathlon nutrition, training and racing (all distances), running nutrition and fueling and endurance sport nutrition and training, I needed some help to be able to focus on my specialty areas. 

2014-2016
With some changes at the Trek store, Karel and I decided that it was time to grow Trimarni together. And in order to do so, we needed to live in a place that catered to our love for healthy eating and active living. We picked Greenville, SC and have never looked back since we moved in May 2014. Our job is coaching athletes and improving performances through the diet and sport nutrition and through RETUL bike fits (Karel). 
After holding my RD credential for 2 years, I met the minimum requirement to apply for my Board Certification in Sport Nutrition. This was a goal of mine since earning my RD credential and the first time since my Masters that I found myself 100% focused on exactly what I want to be doing with my career - sport nutrition, daily nutrition and training for athletes (specifically triathletes and runners). With several months of studying I was loving this chance to improve my knowledge in sport nutrition even more. I ordered several textbooks and materials to help with my studying for the 3 hour exam, I was reading more research studies than in graduate school and I was loving training in Greenville for my 4th Ironman World Championship (with Karel).
I passed my board certification (found out in October, took the exam in July) and since then, I have been writing and consulting more than ever - and loving every opportunity that I have to help athletes improve performance and health. 

As I look at these expensive pieces of paper on my office wall, I am constantly reminded of the steps that it took to be the nutrition expert that I am today.
Learning and communicating the "best" way to educate athletes can be challenging, especially with so much information available to the public.
But I have been determined to maintain a similar philosophy for my nutrition practices since the day I became a RD. While research and my recommendations may change, I still feel strongly that it is my responsibility to provide trustful, accurate and realistic information to each of my athletes based on my athletes needs and goals.
I am performance focused but not at the expense of sabotaging good health.

Now that my passion has turned into a profession and I have a specialty area of sport nutrition, I wake up excited every day to help athletes from all over the world improve health and performance by training smarter and learning how to nourish and fuel an active lifestyle. 

I realize that there are many nutrition experts out there.
Thank you for choosing Trimarni.

Tomorrow I will.....

Are you a tomorrow person?
Do you constantly find yourself saying that you will do better tomorrow?
Do you find yourself stuck in a hamster wheel, day after day, not starting something today that you promised yourself yesterday that you would do tomorrow?

As you continue to check off another day of your life today, what's making you feel like things aren't going as you planned today? 

Are you already looking forward to a fresh start (or a better day) tomorrow?

Many times, tomorrow brings hope that it will be a better day.
My question to you is what makes tomorrow such a better day than today? 

What makes today such a bad day?

The idea of waiting until the right or perfect day or time to start something is likely causing you to put off making the change(s) that you need to make, right now.

Whether it's diet, training, exercise, career, relationships, travel or something else in life, you don't have to wait for the perfect opportunity to start something that is important to you. 

One reason why you may be waiting until tomorrow to make a change (or start something new) is because you are letting your feelings get the best of you. 

Sometimes feelings are inaccurate and can be road blocks in an attempt to make progress.

If you are letting your feelings become your reality, you may find it difficult to make smart decisions which can help you move closer to your goals. 

The truth is that you may always feel too busy, too scared, too overwhelmed, too insecure or not good enough.

You can try to not bring your feelings and thoughts to tomorrow or you can choose to change your feelings and thoughts today to take immediate action.

Tomorrow is just another day.
Your thoughts, feelings and emotions will always present. 

How you deal with them is up to you. 

If you keep procrastinating, you will look back with regret, wishing you would have started earlier.

Bring confidence to every day of your life and make things happen today. 

Private Trimarni training camp

I took this picture on Friday evening while driving to dinner at Restaurant 17 with our athlete and private camper Jim.

While driving, I wanted to capture this moment because I just can't get over where we live. If it's not obvious, I just love Greenville, SC and everything that we can see and do. The living is affordable, we have endless options for local foods, there are countless restaurants that take pride in supporting local farms/farmers, our roads are bike friendly (seriously - we often have to wave to cars to pass us as they will just patiently ride behind us until we give them the ok to pass), people are so nice, we have the BEST downtown and we have endless mountain and nature views. 

This picture just reminds me how great it is to live close to the mountains and how lucky we are to call Greenville our home.

And because we love Greenville so much, we want you to enjoy it with us!

If you are interested in training with us, send us an email. Our private training camps are a great way for you or you and your spouse/friends to experience some unbelievable training terrain and beautiful scenery. 

Our private training camps are ideal for all ages and fitness levels. We take pride in catering to your individual needs. Above all, we want to help you become a better, smarter and stronger athlete but we are mindful of your personal developmental processes. We will give you the most appropriate advice, at this time in your journey, that will help take your fitness to that next level.

Although our group camps provide the perfect mix of challenging workouts, fun and socializing, our private camps give you the individual attention that you need to improve your skills, form, confidence, mental strength, nutrition or any other area to help you reach your goals.

For Karel and myself, we love coaching our athletes. Coaching is extremely rewarding and we load our athletes with education every single week (check-in emails are emailed every Sun/Mon throughout the entire year). But the best way to coach an athlete is to see the athlete in action. This way, we can focus on specific areas that we feel are of concern or improvement.

Some of key areas that we discuss at our private camps:

Swimming - how to hold the body in the water, changing old swimming habits to learn a more appropriate style of swimming that will transfer well to open water, how to love swim training, how to use swim toys more efficiently and much more.

Cycling - (with Karel's expertise and lifetime of cycling experience, athletes will gain so much from riding with Karel) - how to change gears, how to descend/climb, how to ride on rolling hills, how to ride in turns or bumpy terrain, when to stand, sit or stay aero, how to ride in side or head wind, bike fit/position, how to ride more comfortable on the bike, how to ride with more power, how to race smart to still have the legs to run off the bike, what are the best tires and wheels for the athlete, how to ride safer and more confident and so much more.

Running - discussing common running myths for triathletes, learning how to run like a triathlete (not a "runner"), how to run more efficiently, how to run on hills (up and down), how to incorporate walking into running, how to pace better in training and racing, how to stay comfortable running longer distances, how to love running off the bike and much more.

And in addition to all the topics discussed above, I cover daily and sport nutrition in great detail.

When I work with athletes, I am very focused on how athletes fuel so that they can maximize performance. Sport nutrition can be complicated and I try to make it simple.

Far too often I see athletes not bringing the right (or enough) fuel when we train and it shows during a workout. Although our workouts may be challenging at times, I can see how comfortable (or not) an athlete is with his/her fueling. Many times, athletes are slowing down because they are not fueling adequately and this delays improvements in fitness.

This is important because we try to provide the best training environment for the athlete at our camps and we are focused on the best execution possible. When athletes train alone, it's easy to get by and not realize that your nutrition strategy (or lack thereof) is not helping you improve. You are simply getting more comfortable with a given effort but not making the necessary physiological changes that are needed to take fitness to that next level.

Far too many athletes don't realize that they can perform better, more efficiently and go longer if sport nutrition was better planned and executed. Some athletes are scared of sport nutrition and I am here to educate on the best way to fuel to ensure that sport nutrition is used properly.

That is my job as a sport dietitian, to help the athlete learn how to fuel smarter to train harder (and recover faster). I can't tell you how many athletes have told me that their nutrition strategy is just fine....until we train together. I can see all the little limiters that are not helping the athlete get to the next level. When athletes don't feel comfortable grabbing bottles while cycling, bringing or consuming nutrition while running, have complicated fueling strategies (that are difficult to replicate or execute in training and racing), are not fueling "enough" or not eating well before or after workouts, the athlete is not adapting well to training stress.

 I never want my athlete leaving our camp without an improvement in fueling and daily eating.

Oh, and did I mention that when you come and visit us, I prepare all recovery snacks/drinks and we make sure to visit a few of the many great restaurants in Greenville. And we do not rush you after the end of the workout. We spend as much time needed talking about your needs, concerns and goals as an athlete and what changes need to be made to ensure great health and progress as an athlete.

We can help arrange lodging, travel and anything else you need. And our private campers have the opportunity to be RETUL fit (or refit) by Karel.

We take care of all the routes and workouts so all you have to do is show-up and do what you love to do - TRAIN!

Since our private camps are customized to your fitness level, all you need to do is contact us and we will start planning your perfect camp environment.

Here are a few pictures from 3 great days of one on one training.

Thursday:

3.5 hour interval ride (3500+ feet of climbing, specific focus)

40 min T-run (hilly run with short walk breaks)

Friday:

90-minute interval run (specific main set)

90 minute T-bike (specific focus)

1 hour swim

Dinner at Hotel Domestique

Saturday:

4.5 hour ride (6500+ feet of climbing)

15 min T-run

Dinner at Tupelo Honey

2016 TRIMARNI KITS - ORDER NOW!

We are so excited about our slightly new design in the 2016 Trimarni Canari custom kits.

New this year are longer tri tops with a very comfortable fit (and a flap on the pockets) alongside new tri shorts with a very comfortable waist band and pockets!

The Trimarni store will be closing on 3/6/16 so be sure to place your order soon to sport and support Trimarni in training and on race day.

We have the following items in our store in Pink (female sizing only), Green and Orange (female or male sizing).

Our kit items come in a range of sizes (XS-2XL) to fit your amazing body in motion.

ORDER HERE

Triathlon clothing
Tri top

Tri shorts

Tri suit - shortsleeve and sleeveless

Cycling clothing
Cycling jersey - short sleeve

Cycling jersey - long sleeve

Vest - winter and wind
Arm warmers
Leg warmers

Running
Run top (with pockets)

Extra
T-shirt - black or pink (pink - female fit)
ORDER HERE

This is our 4th year using Canari for our custom Trimarni kits. Canari recently made some great improvements with their triathlon gear. Karel and I each did a video reviewing the sample clothing for your viewing.

Any questions about ordering, send us an email via our website contact page.

Canari women tri kit review

(There appears to be some technical difficulties with this video upload. To finish the video review on the shorts, you can check out the video on the Trimarni Facebook page. (Feb 26th). 

Canari men tri kit review

The point of diminishing returns - part III

Train smarter

At the most basic level, performance gains occur when the body adapts favorable to a training stressor.
Strength training, plyometrics, intervals, easy efforts, tempo or long workouts....there are many ways to stress the body.

You may be awesome at squeezing in or completing your workouts but don't forget that an overly stressed body when NOT training does not handle training stress very well.

Every training stimulus that you place on your body should be sport specific. This makes sense, right? You wouldn't sign-up for tennis lessons hoping to be a better swimmer?
With every week of training, there should be smooth progression. The training should not be rushed and steps shouldn't be skipped.
If you were not able to get in your 2 scheduled runs during the week, what makes you think that your body can handle a long run on the weekend? If you are not performing specific heavy gear, high cadence or high intensity intervals on the bike, what makes you think that your body can handle a 5 hour ride on the hills?
Workouts should be progressively increased overtime, with your current fitness level and any other limiters or restrictions taken into consideration. You or your training plan should never let you feel as if you should be doing more as it's through varying intensities and duration, with the right amount of recovery, that your body can positively adapt.
One hard or long workout every now and then will not make your season but if not timed appropriately in your development, it could set you back with an injury or illness.

As for endurance athletes, the ability to sustain a given effort for an extended period of time is dependent on how you train your body. Every time you train, you are (hopefully) improving the metabolic energy demands of your body. Specific to long workouts, it is imperative that you progress slowly so that you can train your body to supply sufficient delivery of oxygen to active muscle fibers and adequate fuel to support oxygen consumption within the cell for specific durations.

Yes, you can "get through" a long workout but are you turning into a great exerciser or are you actually training to change the physiology of the body?

As it relates to the sport of triathlon, there is a lot going on within every single workout in your training plan....burning calories is not the primary goal of training for an event.

You are redesigning your body's physiology so that you can improve maximal oxygen consumption, lactate threshold and economy, among many other physiological adaptations for three sports that you will eventually put together in a swim, bike, run sequence on race day.

Having an understanding of the physiology of the body during exercise is important when designing or following a training plan. When coaches, nutrition experts and athletes get stuck on one specific training ideology or fueling strategy and are resistant to change, the individuality of training is lost.

And when critical training applications are rushed or skipped, this can be concerning to the human body when training for an event as the body is overly stressed when training and performance adaptations for race day are not well accomplished in training.

I can't tell you how many athletes I have seen become burnt out, injured or sick when training for an event from having a training plan that didn't make sense for the athlete's life or fitness level. There are also athletes who get too consumed with following a training plan that relationships are disrupted, proper sleep is an afterthought and training volume or intensity can not be matched with healthy eating and fueling because there is simply not enough time in the day to fit everything in.
And I wouldn't be surprised if more than half of the athletes who arrive to an endurance triathlon event have failed to master a smart fueling and hydrating plan in training to be used on race day.

With so many different fitness levels of athletes, it's very important to consider your personal development in your sport to ensure longevity as an athlete but also to maintain a high enjoyment for training.

Considering that one of the main goals of endurance training is to teach the body to become a more effective energy provider, don't expect quick results.
To improve performance, regardless of your fitness level or experience, the most optimal training plan is the one that you can safely follow with great consistency, without compromising health.

Listen up athletes - Illness, injury, burnout and other health issues are not "normal" when training for an endurance event. Sure, endurance training is hard on the body but health issues can often be avoided.
Certainly, the more ambitious the individual or the newer the athlete, the body is going to be stressed a bit more in an effort to make the necessary physiological improvements to match race day goals.

I can't say it enough but if you want to maximize your performance and keep your body in good health, it's very important to have a smart approach to training, eating and fueling.

If you want to train smarter, answer the following questions to determine if a change needs to be made in your diet, training regime or lifestyle.
If something isn't working in your quest to be a better athlete, discuss with your coach or a professional who can help.

TRAIN SMART
1) How many hours do you have each day of the week and weekend, without life being negatively affected?
Factor in time to warm-up, cool down, change, commute to/from work, spend time with family, sleep, prepare food, eat, run errands, clean, pay bills, relax and fuel.

2) What have you been neglecting in life or in your training regime which can help you adapt better to training stress? 
The key to being an efficient athlete is to find the best way to improve performance with the least amount of training stress. Dynamic warm-ups, proper pre and post workout fueling and hydrating, fueling during long (75+ min workouts), strength training, interval training, meditation, mental strength skills, mobility work, sleep, stress management and meal planning are some of the many ways that you can improve your workouts without having to train any harder. 

3) Does your training plan and racing schedule make sense?
On a personal level, is your training plan ideal for your life, fitness level and goals? Are you making the necessary investments to be consistent with training? Are you committed to the work that you need to do to prepare yourself for your upcoming event? Are you trying to get by on your own or do you need help from a professional to help you in your journey?

4) How can you change/improve your daily eating, fueling and hydration regime to better adapt to training stress? The best physiological outcome that you can gain from training is an improvement in fitness. The easiest way to make the necessary improvements is to be consistent. You should be extremely focused on what you eat before, during and after your workouts to ensure that your body is adapting well to the training stimulus so you can continue to repeat the effort, day after day, workout after workout with minimal setbacks.

5) Are your current lifestyle habits, training plan, eating habits or thoughts on training, eating or life working for you?
If no, why can't you change or why won't you change?
In my experience as a coach and sport RD, it's very easy to get stuck on one way of eating, fueling and training.
Remember that the best strategy for you may not be what everyone else is doing.
Don't let life or your season slip by and one day you find yourself looking back, wishing you would have done something different or made a change when you knew you needed to change. 
Change is hard and it's scary.
If you can't make a change alone, reach out to a professional who can help. 

The point of diminishing returns: Part II

                              

Sports are not for everyone, especially endurance sports.

Successful age-group, elite or professional athletes and those who seek or crave endurance training carry specific traits and characteristics that are found in highly ambitious individuals.

If this speaks loudly to you, ironically, the same traits that help you stay dedicated, committed, consistent and goal-focused in your sport may also help you function at a high capacity in life, with your career, relationships and family.

As every endurance athlete and coach understands, there is a specific type of training stress that needs to be applied on the body to encourage physiological changes to improve athletic performance.
As a coach with a background in exercise physiology, I can't stress how important it is to place repeated stress on the body in the form of specific workout frequency, intensity and duration at the appropriate times and phases throughout the season in order to ensure smooth progression throughout the season.

However, a careful approach must be applied as every athlete handles training stress differently and this isn't specific to an athlete's fitness level (ex. newbie vs. veteran). Many top, elite or professional athletes prescribe to a training and eating plan that works for their body and individual goals.

It can be blatantly obvious or unbeknownst to the athlete that he/she is not adapting well to training. Sometimes, a plan or approach is risky before initiation whereas other times, it takes several weeks or months of repeated stress for an athlete to exhibit signs or symptoms that the lifestyle he/she is living or the training regime (or a combination of both) is causing too much stress on the body.

For the committed, dedicated, goal-focused, hard working, mentally tough and determined athlete, change is extremely (did I say extremely, I meant VERY extremely) hard, especially when you fear losing your identity as an athlete, which you feel also "makes you" who you are as a human being.

We all know how great it feels to have a great workout and even better, how awesome it feels to be consistent with training. But when/if you find yourself exhausted, injured, unhealthy, depressed, isolated and continuing down a path of diminishing returns, it's time for a serious conversation with yourself (or your coach) to determine a smarter training regime that will provide you with favorable results in fitness and health.

The following list describes some of the habits that may post a threat to your health and athletic development. The more risks that you take, the greater chance that you may experience a point of diminishing returns. 

Risky business
-Getting less than 7 hours of sleep per night, inconsistent sleeping schedule or restless sleeping
-Starting a workout within 20 minutes of waking and not properly warming up before a workout
-Not fueling or hydrating around most workouts
-Not fueling or hydrating during longer workouts
-Knowing that you are not eating enough
-Knowing that you are eating too much
-Struggling with an unhealthy relationship with food, the body and/or exercise
-Constantly feeling rushed - going from one thing to the next
-Never feeling caught-up in life
-Never feeling like you can follow (or keep up) with your workout load/training plan
-Feeling like life is passing by too quick yet you can never slow down

-Constantly feeling underfueled and/or dehydrated
-Obsessing about total miles completed, never feeling like you are doing enough
-Barely getting by during workouts (especially long or intense workouts)
-Constantly metric driven
-No/little strength training
-No/little mobility work
-No/little time to food prep and/or to eat on a schedule
-Unhealthy eating habits
-Obsessive eating habits
-Not flexible, strict to specific paces/watts to hold for most workouts
-Working out no matter how you feel (sleep deprived, sick, injured, etc.)
-Exhausted during the day, struggle to fall asleep at night
-Rewarding good, intense or long workouts with normally "off-limit" food (or restricting specific foods around "bad" workouts)
-Overly stressed from work/life
 -Bringing work/life stress to a workout
-Constantly skipping workouts, little structure or frequency for training
-Not following a plan, haphazard training

-Trying to make up training hours/workouts on the weekends
-Squeezing in too many workouts (or training hours) in one day
-No/little understanding how to fuel and hydrate before/during/after long workouts (or ignore practical advice)

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Sadly, many athletes won't admit or come forth when there is a problem (like the ones mentioned below) because athletes may feel it shows a sign of weakness, failure or giving up.

Something isn't working for you
-Chronically fatigued, exhausted or tired
-Constant achy or sore muscles
-Chronic sickness or upper respiratory infections
-Sever mood disturbances (anxiety, depression, irritability)
-Loss of appetite
-Uncontrollable appetite
-Unintentional weight loss or gain
-Hormonal issues
-Adrenal fatigue
-Anemia
-You are showing signs/symptoms of an eating disorder in order to control weight or to improve performance
-Stress fractures, tendon or ligament injuries
-Nausea/dizziness
-Cardiovascular issues - heart racing or altered normal heart rate during rest and exercise
-Painful joints
-Headaches
-Loss of energy, speed, stamina or power during workouts
-Gut issues
-Constipation, bloody stools, diarrhea, vomiting around workouts (or during the day)
-Loss of motivation/ambition
-Decrease/loss of sex drive
-No energy
-Metabolism changes
-Poor recovery
-Exhausted during the day, trouble falling asleep or sleeping well at night
-Your body can not match your drive/passion
-Loss of excitement for social activities
-You've made an extreme change in life with your job, family or friends and have become a "different" person in order to train more/harder
-You feel unhealthy or constantly run-down
-You've lost your joy, passion and love for training and/or racing
-You always feel injured
-You feel isolated

---------------------------------------------

Despite the body yelling at you to stop, get help and make a change, you ignore the signs and symptoms and try to get by.

Trying to get by
-Loading up on caffeine and/or energy drinks to get through the day

-Loading up on caffeine and/or energy drinks to get through workouts

-Restricting food to try to lose weight
-Using diet drinks, laxatives or pills to curb cravings or to lose weight
-Overexercising or pushing hard, intentionally, to try get fitter, faster
-Reaching for sugar for pick-me ups throughout the day
-Relying on sleep aids to try to sleep at night
-Excessively (more than 3 times a month) using NSAID's or other anti-inflammatory medications to heal aching muscles/joints
-Using alcohol or other drugs/medications to get through life (or to relax)

In part III of this blog post series, I will talk about how you can make changes to train smarter in order to train harder without compromising your health. 

The point of diminishing returns - part I

Training for an event can be very rewarding. Considering that you have to exercise to train yourself for an event, preparing for a race can actually be a healthy way to de-stress and to keep the body in good health. 

But when the body becomes overly stressed from training OR an overly stressed body tries to adapt to consistent training stress, there is a point of diminishing returns when an active lifestyle becomes unhealthy.

Much of our society has an obsession with productivity.
To-do lists are never ending and there is always something to do to keep busy.
Yet athletes still find 10-20+ hours to train, despite already living a very busy lifestyle.

Sadly, an overworked, always on the go, constantly connected, squeezing everything in athlete can become so accustomed to living a busy lifestyle that healthy habits become expendable all in an effort to get in a workout.

As an athlete, healthy lifestyle habits can enhance training. Whereas you may think that you have to get in x-miles or hours to improve performance, what you do when you aren't training can actually help your body improve fitness quicker than feeling the need to always train harder or longer.

If you are a triathlete training for an event this season, you are likely at the point in your training where the volume and/or intensity is increasing. This is exciting but also concerning.

Is your body ready to handle this increase in training stress?
What are you giving up in your life in order to add in more training hours and to be able to recover properly between added workouts or are you trying to add more training stress without adjusting your life?

Seeing that the body needs repeated stress to produce advantageous physiological gains, it's important to pay attention to the noticeable signs and symptoms that your body may not be adapting well to consistent or residual training stress.

Sometimes the training plan and recovery routine needs to be adjusted whereas other times, there is an issue with the daily diet, sport nutrition/fueling, sleep or other lifestyle habits.
It's important to be honest with yourself when something needs to change. Otherwise,
if an immediate change isn't made, it's only a matter of time before a more serious health issue and performance decline could arise. 

This is a hard subject to debate about because every athlete adapts to training stress differently.
It's difficult for dedicated, hard working athletes to understand when training stress is normal and needed or too much and unhealthy.

When I work athletes, I'm always considering the athlete and his/her lifestyle, personal life stressors and other life responsibilities when designing a training plan or discussing a nutrition strategy so that any plan or change is conducive to optimize performance and health.

I'm all about maximizing performance with a healthy body and mind.

Considering that athletes have the discipline and motivation to make sacrifices in life to get in a workout, I want you to understand that your love/desire to train, if not done in a smart way, may actually make you less fit and unhealthy. 

In part II of this blog post, I will discuss some of the signs and symptoms that your body is not handling life stress or training stress very well and how to train smarter to train harder.  

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Remember, performance gains are not linear. It takes time to develop your skills and fitness. When you think you aren't making progress, you may actually be doing exactly what you need to be doing. Give yourself time and be patient in your journey.

But if you are training for continuous fitness gains in order to complete or to compete in an event and you know that something is limiting your performance or health, consult with a professional to provide an objective expert opinion to ensure that your hard work will pay off by race day. 

Broccoli and cheese spaghetti squash casserole

In my last blog post, I talked about the importance of meal planning for athletes with a few of my helpful meal prep tips.
It's important that you do not overwhelm yourself with food prep and meal planning but instead, make the effort to plan ahead instead of always making it an afterthought.

Sometimes good intentions backfire when you try to do too much at once or have this vision of "healthy eating" that isn't practical for you right now in your nutritional journey.

Every athlete is going to have a unique starting point when it comes to meal prepping.

Perhaps you are trying to move away from always having an English muffin, egg, piece of ham and chips for dinner or you trying to break a habit of always having pasta or fast food, or eating out or a frozen meal for dinner most nights per week.

Or maybe you are in a meal prep rut and need to challenge yourself with a more complicated meal or recipe as you have been resorting to quick and easy, despite having the time, passion and energy for cooking.

With so many food blogs, magazines and articles promoting recipes, sometimes looking at perfect food pictures, a list of ingredients and many steps can be overwhelming for some athletes and it can actually take the fun away from creating a meal that you will eventually yum over.

Sometimes cooking is like a hard workout. It looks daunting at first and you assume you will fail (or you don't have the energy or time for it) but when you give an effort and the process is over, you are not only happy that you did it but you feel really great about what you accomplished.

For myself, I like to plan and prep meals that are quick and easy for me but perhaps for someone else, my meals may look complicated and time-consuming.

 When considering what you will eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, if you are new to meal prepping and planning meals, don't overwhelm yourself with extremely detailed recipes or dishes that require lots of steps or extended cooking time every night of the week.

Healthy eating is much easier to accomplish when you shop, plan and prepare ahead of time.

What you make is up to you!

 Broccoli and cheese spaghetti squash casserole

Cooking time: 10 min to prep, 25-60 min to cook

Ingredients 

1 spaghetti squash (a 7-9 inch squash should feed 2 but buy bigger if you want leftovers)
Marinara sauce
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
2 heads of broccoli
Cheese - sharp or cheddar (I use Cabot)
Parmesan cheese
Olive oil
Salt/pepper

1. Preheat oven to 450°F

2. Cut squash length-wise and place cut-side down on baking sheet (sprayed with non stick spray) for 40-50 minutes. (You can also cook in microwave in 15 minutes.).
3. Steam broccoli on stove top in large pot (stems removed).
4. Use a fork to remove the seeds.
5. Drizzle olive oil (a few tsp) on bottom of a casserole dish to lightly cover.
6. Scrape squash from the shell and place into the casserole dish. (this is fun, have your kids help!)
7. Add chopped garlic, a pinch of salt/pepper and about 1/2-3/4 cup marinara sauce to cover the squash. Mix together with your fork until evenly combined. OK to add more sauce to your liking.
8. Add steamed broccoli and mix together in dish. Broccoli will fall apart but OK to leave some chunks of broccoli.
9. Top with a little Parmesan to lightly cover the top of the broccoli/squash mixture and then sprinkle on a little shredded cheese.
10. Place casserole dish on lower rack (in oven) and bake for 10-15 minutes.
Best if served warm.

Serve with your choice of protein (chicken, beef, tempeh, tofu).

I hope you yum as loud as we did!

No more excuses - meal planning

Sitting down to a home-cooked meal in the evening is not an everyday occurrence for many people in our society for a variety of reasons; being too tired or hungry, wanting something easy, needing something quick and convenient, feeling too busy, not knowing what to eat or not liking to cook.

As an athlete, you already have so much to squeeze into the day that it’s easy to see why dinner may be an afterthought, especially if you have been up since 5am or you are finishing an evening workout around 6:30 or 7pm. 

But, that's not a good excuse. 

Let's get serious...
You aren't too busy to train so it's all about priorities when you say you are too busy to cook. 

As an athlete myself, I can empathize with how overwhelming it can be to plan nutritious meals, every day of the week and still squeeze in workouts. And this is in addition to work, family and everything else on a never-ending to-do list. 

I realize that I do not share many of my meal creations on this blog but I have to be honest with you, I'm passionate about healthy eating and I love sharing my food pics but my job is not a food blogger. And I also don't like to measure food and make my meals precise for you to replicate.

I am a board certified sport dietitian who spends all day helping athletes maximize performance by personally addressing and tweaking lifestyle, nutrition and sport nutrition limiters.

I regularly share my food pics on Facebook with the hope that you can be inspired to prepare healthy and satisfying home-cooked meals that will work for your active lifestyle but I never want you to feel overwhelmed when it comes to food shopping and food prepping.
There are hundreds and hundreds of food bloggers with amazing pictures, stories and recipes of food.
You should have no problem finding recipes that will work for you...but the key is making the time to actually prep and cook those meals. 

As far as I know, athletes love having a plan to follow so if it works for you to have a training plan, consider a meal plan to guide you in a successful week of eating. 

There’s no need to be obsessed with food as you need to let food enhance your life, not control your life. And there is nothing wrong with the occasional off day of eating. 

I actually feel that allowing yourself an "of" day (ex. breakfast for dinner, yogurt, granola and fruit for lunch, PB & J and a smoothie for breakfast, etc.) can actually keep you on track for healthy eating the rest of the week. It's kinda like a vacation from "typical" eating.  

Above all, you should love to eat and your meals should work for your health, body composition and performance goals. 

Place a similar amount of passion, effort and enthusiasm into your daily diet (and fueling regime) so that you can experience the rewards of having a healthy, nourished and well-fueled body. 

Here are a few of my meal planning tips that will work for your busy lifestyle. 
But in order to make them work.....
 make an effort, not excuses. 

1. Prepare meals on the weekend and always plan for leftovers. A little meal prep goes a long way. Dice, chop, wash, cook — do as much as you can when you have the time so you at least have options for a upcoming meal. Don't overwhelm yourself. Plan for 2-3 days and then do a light meal prep to last you the rest of the week.

2. Prep a meal before a workout.
You don’t want to finish your workout hungry with no patience to meal prep. Prepare as much as you can before working out. This is a game changer. You won't believe how your food choices will change (and how less complicated "healthy" eating can be) when you know that a meal is prepared before you workout. More often than not, if you finish a workout hungry, you will almost always go for what's quick and easy and not always healthy or performance enhancing and find an excuse or reason to eat it (even though you know you should be eating something healthier.)

3. Have a menu for the week.
Knowing what you will eat for dinner (and breakfast, lunch and snacks) will ensure you have those items available. No need to make this menu extravagant, just make a plan. Theme meals or staple meals work really well, especially when you are getting started with this habit.

4. Allow yourself one night a week to get a little help from a pre-made or semi-homemade meal.
Sure, you could dine-out but let's be honest, eating out takes time and it's expensive...you have to wait for food, eat and pay and travel to and from the restaurant. Consider getting help once a week (Wed or Thurs) from a salad bar, pre-made meal option from the grocery, pick-up/take-out healthy item or making something super easy and semi-homemade. Make sure this meal works for you as your meals should never make you feel guilty or should negatively affect your next days workout. 

5. Use your time wisely
Think about your entire day (M-F) - when do you have the most free time? And by free time, this means watching TV or spending time on your smart phone/computer at home. Could you make more time in your day?
Hopefully, there are times when you are home and you can find 10 to 30 minutes in the early morning, when you get home from work or in the evening that you can do some cooking or prepping. Oftentimes, the cooking and meal prep is an afterthought and athletes get busy doing something else or feel too exhausted and hungry to do anything but sit.....and eat something convenient.

As an athlete, food should be high on your to-do list. This means eating, cooking and planning. 

You know how important consistency is with training and you love the results when you follow your training plan.
Put that same focus and attention on your eating habits as you do with your training and you will find yourself doing amazing things your healthy, well fueled and nourished body. 

Mobility tips for athletes

Tips for improving mobility

1)      Make dynamic stretching part of your DAILY routine. Dedicate up to 15-20 minutes before every swim, bike and run workout to warming up your body, before you “warm-up” and an additional mobility session before bed (or after long periods of sitting).
This means before you jump into the pool, get on your bike or start a run, you need to perform dynamic stretching. Do not neglect this important habit of being a mobile athlete.

With our coaching, we are always looking for ways to help our athletes train smarter with the least amount of training stress possible. Improving mobility can help!
Dynamically stretching moves your body through different movement patterns to actively stimulate muscles, tendons, ligaments, fibers, tissues and joints.
You will also notice that dynamic warm-ups increases blood flow to the working muscles which gives you energy before you start working out. This will help you improve your range of motion, which will improve your power and speed. And, you'll find yourself more motivated to work out.

2) Do not go long hours sitting. There are several work break timers which remind you to stand up and move when you are at work. Consider sitting on a stability ball, standing every 60 min for 10 minutes, sitting less and standing more, walking around or doing yoga poses each hour while at work. When you sit, shoulders should be relaxed, arms close to sides, elbows bent at 90 degrees, feet flat on the floor and your lower back should be supported.

3) Move your body. If you are only working out once a day, consider adding walking, riding your bike “for fun” or yoga to your daily routine. If you think about it, even if you work out for 2 hours a day, 92% of your day is likely spent sitting in a crunched, tight position.
Sadly, many athletes who engage in endurance training to become fitter actually become more sedentary because training becomes so exhausting that athletes actually sit more and move less than before they started training.
Regular movements are key to a healthy life, mind and body.

4) Stop the self-manipulating and visit a trained sport massage therapist. It’s very common that athletes will feel tight and with every niggle, will immediately resort to deep trigger point, foam rolling or excessive stretching. Many times, athletes increase inflammation and create more damage to already tight muscles.
By adding regular (1-3 times per month) massages into your training regime, you will find yourself more mobile when you train. A trained massage therapist can help you understand your body. However, he/she should not “spot” massage for more than 20 minutes as many times, your symptoms for pain/tightness are likely from a different source (ex. foot issues could be from tight calves). It’s best to get a massage before you need it and to stay up on massages at least 1-3 times per month. The best days to get a deep tissue massage are 24-48 hours after a hard workout. Allow up to 48 hours to recover from a massage and be sure to stay well hydrated.

5) If you are experiencing chronic issues with tightness, mobility issues, aches or pains, it’s important to connect with a trained PT who can assist in your athletic journey. Despite all the steps that many athletes take to prevent injuries from happening, some bodies are more fragile and/or weak than others.
Don’t let a weakness or mobility issue be an excuse and don't assume that "this is just the way I am" as if you are no treatable or fixable.

I come from 6 years of chronic hip and back issues which took me out of running for 1-3 months every year for those 6 years. I found myself rehabing before a race instead of training for a race.
I became so frustrated that I even told myself I would never be healed and this is just the way I am and convinced myself that I would never be a successful triathlete because of my body.
Well, I am now going on almost 3 years of no injuries. Although I do have to do a lot of extra work when I'm not training to keep my hips and back healthy and strong and I still get some niggles that remind me that I am not injury-proof, I was able to treat what I never thought was treatable.
(I did get a lot of help along the way - Thanks Gloria and Chris!)

If you are injured or recovering from an injury, don't give up!
Always focus on your individual needs for your body.  

Mobility for athletes

Good mobility and great performances are closely tied to one another.

As it relates to performance declines and/or injuries, lack of mobility can be a culprit.

I'm a huge proponent of mobility work and I often spend up to 15 minutes before a swim, bike or run workout slowly working my body through a range of dynamic and mobility exercises to warm-up, before I warm-up. Going on almost 3 years without an injury, routine mobility work (I never stretch, trigger point or foam roll) is one of a few key improvements that I have made in my training regime to help reduce the risk for injury.

Why is mobility important?
If you cannot move your muscles, limbs and joints through their full range of motion and you are limited to one plane of movement, your body is not being used to its full potential. When mobility suffers, performance suffers because you can no longer generate the power and speed that you are capable of producing.

What happens with poor mobility?
Aside from not being able to train to your full ability, when one part of your body (ex. hips, knee, ankles, shoulders) loose full mobility, those muscles, joints or ligaments can become weak or tight. To compensate, another part of the body has to pick up the slack. When your glutes are weak, the knees or lower back is forced to take over. Poor ankle mobility or tight calves can contribute to plantar fascia issues. A tight neck can cause back issues.
It’s much safer and healthier for your body to train when you can move through full range of motion when you train as this will reduce the stress on your entire body.

Why you need to improve mobility
The best way to improve mobility is to reduce the chance for immobility.
 How many times have you visited a massage therapist and said “my x is so tight or stiff!” with hopes that he/she will magically “release” and fix you in an hour.

 Many athletes neglect mobility for two reasons:
1) They don’t/have make the time for mobility work
2)
Ok, so there is really only one main reason.

Athletes love to prioritize cardio or strength training over mobility work because mobility work takes away valuable training minutes.

If you say "I don't have time for mobility, I only have x-minutes to train," I want you think about this.

Your ability to have a great workout is affected by many things - sleep, nutrition, motivation, economy, muscle strength, etc.
When considering the importance of spending 5-15 minutes to mobilize your body before you start your workout, if you could go into the workout with better range of motion and a more relaxed body, even if it means working out 5-15 minutes less if you are crunched for time, you wouldn't only enjoy the workout more because you felt better when training but you would actually improve performance because you could go a little harder and a little faster (perhaps even going a little further) with less work.

Great idea, right?!
That's what we call training smarter to train harder.

Every time you take a stroke and kick in the water, pedal on the bike and run forward, you are forcing key muscles, ligaments, joints, tendons and bones to work. When you go into a workout tight, your warm-up can only loosen you up to a certain degree. You may think that because you are time-crunched that you have to make every minute count for cardio (or strength training), but the main goal of training is to have quality workouts.
With poor mobility, economy decreases. And when economy decreases, it’s more difficult to be fast, strong or efficient when training.

Seeing that you work so hard to improve your cardio fitness, your strength and your stamina, it’s important that you can ensure full range of motion with every stroke, foot strike and movement forward.

It can be very frustrating to feel like performance is declining, despite you feeling like your cardiovascular system is very robust and your mind is completely committed.  But this is a common occurrence that athletes will train and train and train and get tighter and tighter and tighter. Eventually, you get an injury that may have been prevented from an improvement in mobility. 

In my next blog I will provide a few helpful tips for improving mobility. 

A well-fueled body on the weekend

It takes a lot of food to fuel an endurance athlete.

But not every food is well tolerated before and after a long workout.

I'm constantly aware of the food that I eat around long workouts for two reasons.
First off, food is my fuel. I do not use food as reward or to control emotions. Seeing that long distance training is very stressful on the human body, I do not want to self-sabotage myself by under on my longest workout days nor do I want to throw away a great workout by eating (or not eating) food that will not help me recover and refuel. 

Secondly, I know what foods work and do not work for my body.  This has little to do with body image and a lot to do with performance.
Ironically, my body stays in good health, despite not counting calories, eating carbohydrates at every meal, every day of the week, using sport nutrition during workouts, eating before all workouts and not having a "bad" food list.
This isn't because I'm lucky, this is because I understand exercise physiology, nutrient timing and sport nutrition.

The"diet" that I follow around my workouts is my style of eating that is guided by a focus to ensure that my body performs well when I need it to perform well and recovers and refuels adequately so I can repeat the training stress the next day.

There are no food rules for how I eat but you better believe that I am going to eat the foods that work best for my body when I ask my body to train.
When I eat well, I perform well and this keeps my body in great health.
If I didn't eat well around my workouts, either my health or performance would decline.
Typically, it's one before the other but often, both decline overtime. 

I find that many athletes get confused when they hear a pro or elite athlete say "I don't eat x" before or after a workout or race. This statement doesn't mean that x food isn't "allowed" at other times in the day or this is a "bad" food.

When you are performance focused, you are going to prioritize foods that help you improve performance. If you focus on body image or something aside from performance when making food choices, it's very difficult to ask your body to perform (go harder or longer) without adequate energy and nutrients in a restrictive diet.

The issue of not fueling properly before, during and after long workouts is very common for the fitness enthusiast turned athlete who doesn't understand the great metabolic stress of going long, the athlete who struggles with an unhealthy relationship with food or the body or a chronic dieter who is training for an endurance event. 

These athletes have built a diet from healthy vs unhealthy, good vs bad foods and haven't learned or accepted that some foods that may not be "healthy" throughout the week or on lower volume/intensity workout days, but are actually best consumed before/after workouts for performance benefits....and actually keep the body healthy because metabolic needs are met.
 

And as far as those "healthy" foods that we should be eating every day, well I eat a salad every day for lunch but I do not eat my normal fiber-rich salads on the weekend, when training long.
I am not going to refuel with a salad after a 4 hour bike ride and 2 mile brick run but this doesn't mean that I have freedom to eat whatever I want or I don't eat veggies on the weekend.

As I said before, I know what works and doesn't work for a body that is training long. I have a different diet on the weekend and it's not built on "reward" food or "bad" food but instead, food designed to fuel, refuel, recover, repair and nourish.
And I never feel deprived, with an empty pit in my stomach or suffer from extreme food cravings when training long on the weekends.

I'm sure you have a list of foods that are best enjoyed on long weekends but my hope is that these foods are not for "reward" because you earned it or because you can "burn off those calories." I also hope that you are not strict with your diet because you want to lose weight through long distance training and intentionally underfuel.

I encourage you to create two different diets, with foods during the week helping to keep you satisfied, nourished, fueled and to control blood sugar and then on the weekend, to help you adapt well to longer training stress, in order to postpone fatigue and to recover the damage that is done from long distance training.
 
Be mindful that some foods will not work well before and after your short and long workouts and this is ok. It's actually very good if you can recognize this as you will create a diet that works for you and your body.

Be respectful to your body and always have a great relationship with food, especially when going long.
You can only maximize performance if you have a well-fueled AND healthy body.

Here are some of the foods that we enjoyed over the past two weekends of long training:

Fresh rustic farmer's bread, grilled cheese sandwich with mozzarella, sliced tomato and arugula. 

Tomato soup packed with sauteed veggies, beans and boiled potatoes (pretty much a bunch of leftovers added to homemade tomato soup)

Egg and veggie scramble - plenty of leftovers for two long workout recovery meals

Veggie and egg scramble with fresh rye bread and oranges

Yogurt w/ berries and oranges (this is an older picture but I eat at least a cup of Greek 0% plain yogurt every day)

Cottage cheese (2% Daisy brand) with a spoonful of fig preserves

Homemade grilled pizza made with Publix pizza dough (aka "salad" on bread)

Homemade crepes made by chef Karel (think thin pancakes with lots of surface area for topping)

Baked sweet potatoes with cinnamon and honey (served with 2% Daisy Cottage Cheese, not pictured)

Mashed cauliflower and sautéed onions and garlic, baked sweet potatoes, cooked tofu and a romaine and arugula salad with pecans, orange slices and avocado.

And in addition to all this delicious food, I still eat before ALL workouts and use sport nutrition during any workout over 75 minutes (or intense workout less than 75 minutes).

Don't destroy your body and health with excessive exercising and poorly planned eating.  

Just imagine what you can do with a well-fueled and healthy body......

Enjoy the view!

After almost two years of living in Greenville, SC., I've learned that there are no "easy" days for cycling when you ride near the mountains.

After another strong week of swim, bike, run and strength training, my legs felt a bit trashed this morning.
Well, we all know that you can't get much done if you only work on the days that you feel good.

With our new Alto cycling race wheels arriving last week, we couldn't wait to take them for a test ride.

With legs that were not interested in pushing hard, I found myself with a few different conversations in my head...
"I feel so slow."
"I wish I could ride stronger."
"This is so  hard."
"This is not fun."
"I should be faster."

Every time a negative thought came inside my head, I looked at the mountains and stopped my negative thinking.
With 4 hours of riding and over 5000 feet of climbing, I had plenty of opportunities to enjoy the views with Karel as my cycling guide. 

I knew going into this ride that I had a solid week of training and that my legs were really tired. I actually even told myself "Wow, your fitness is really building this week!"
This was one of those weeks where after several weeks of consistent training, I really felt a big jump in fitness.

Every now and then, we, as athletes, are going to have a rough training day. If form suffers or the body is sleep deprived, injured or sick, it's best not to train as you can't gain fitness from a body that isn't in good health.
But if the body is healthy and feeling slow or tired is the biggest concern in your head, give it a go, workout and enjoy the views.

Remind yourself that your body puts up with a lot to keep you functioning well in life. Training for an event is a hobby. You don't have to be an athlete to be healthy. 

If you find yourself suffering through most of your workouts, something needs to change with your life, diet or training as your body isn't adapting to your training.

But if you find yourself having the occasional off day, be grateful that at least you can still train even while feeling off.

Don't forget to thank your body....even on the off days.

And always enjoy the view!

Stewed vegetables with barley

                                 

Wouldn't it be nice if you always had a meal ready for you immediately after your workouts?

Think about it.
No more processed food because you are too hungry to cook.
No more fast food/take-out because you can't find time to cook.
No more incomplete meals because your food options are limitless.
No more snacking your way to a meal because you are too starving to wait for a meal.
No more sabotaging workouts from not eating the right foods at the right time to repair and recover. 

Sadly, athletes are busy and ironically, food is an afterthought. Well, not so much food being the afterthought (as athletes do eat) but food prep isn't always a priority. With every minute of the day planned and occupied, many athletes don't put meal prep on the hierarchy of "things to do" each day.
This often backfires as athletes will find themselves not meeting energy needs, not recovering well, eating too much convenience/processed food (quick and easy), struggling with aches and colds (immune system depression) and not feeling good inside.

Simply put - food is your fuel!

When you eat well, your body performs well.
When your body is starved for energy or key nutrients, it's easy to reach for pick-me-ups like energy drinks and/or caffeine. It's also common for athletes to overly use NSAIDs and sleep aids because the body is not recovering well from workouts. 

If you read the recent article on Gwen Jorgensen, you'll see that Patrick (her husband) makes sure that Gwen always refuels and fuels. 

"Food preparation is arguably Lemieux’s most important job. When they travel to races, Lemieux turns the couple’s hotel room into his own kitchen. He insists on packing his own knives, cutting board and rice cooker. He gathers food from a local grocery store and uses his rice cooker to prepare everything from meat to vegetables to quinoa.

During the season, Lemieux shops at a grocery store six days per week. 

After serving Jorgensen her morning oats, Lemieux transitions to preparing lunch, which usually consists of rice with meat and vegetables, followed by a piece of dark chocolate, a staple for Jorgensen after every meal. Lemieux looks at his watch often, knowing his wife will return home from her swim workout at 12:30 p.m.

“Lunch needs to be on the table immediately,” Lemieux said. “She is hungry.”

Jorgensen is grateful that lunch is served so soon after her morning swim. This allows her to relax and stay off of her feet for several hours until her next workout at 4:00 p.m.

Not all triathletes are as fortunate.

Many of Jorgensen’s rivals spend this critical recovery period between workouts shopping at the grocery store, cooking lunch and cleaning dishes."

I realize that not every athlete is this lucky but it is important to emphasize how critical nutrition is as it relates to how your body adapts to training stress.
Because you don't have to be an athlete to be healthy, I suggest to see meal prep in another light - it nourishes your body for disease prevention and healthy weight maintenance. 

Whether you see food as fuel or nourishment (or both, as I do), I encourage you to make an added effort to not let meals be an afterthought in your busy life.

Try this.....

Think about how you eat when you don't have a meal planned for after the workout.

Now, plan a meal for post workout.
No, not right now, but in your head. What would you eat after the workout? Maybe oatmeal, eggs and spinach or chicken, a baked potato and sauteed kale or homemade pancakes with eggs, yogurt and fruit.

Think about how you would eat differently if you had your meals planned ahead of time, before the meal. 

Instead of having a bowl of cereal, a packet of oatmeal with a protein bar or a rice cake plus avocado and a hardboiled egg for a meal, you could have something more substantial and filling.

But the only way to make this happen is by preparing your meals ahead of time.

Try to make this more of a habit. Tell yourself that you can't start a workout unless you have food options or a meal ready for after the workout (I suggest to have a meal ready as much as possible because we all know that food cravings change post workout - it's easy to eat what's craved versus what is most "healthy" and practical for post workout.)  

If you make time to train, you should make time to fuel and refuel with nourishing food options. 

If you complain that you just don't have time for meal prep or healthy eating, perhaps you need to rethink your priorities as you can't optimize your fitness and health with a poorly planned diet. 

Stewed Vegetables with Barley
1 cup barley (measured dry) - or your choice grain or potato

1 eggplant
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 green pepper
Pasta sauce
Olive oil

Salt/pepper

Protein of your choice

1. Cook barley. Rinse, then cooked in 2.5 cups boiled water, on low heat, for 40-50 minutes. 

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

3. Chop peppers and eggplant (into chunks). 

4. Drizzle olive oil on bottom of large casserole dish until evenly coated (thin layer, a few tbsp). 

5. Toss peppers and eggplant in olive oil and spread over casserole dish.
6. Add pasta sauce (enough to cover the veggies). Toss to evenly coat. 

7. Cook for 30-40 minutes. Let veggies sit on oven (turned off) while barley continues to cook.
8. Cook protein of your choice (I made tempeh, Karel made chicken). 

9. Prepare your dish: 1/2 - 1.5 cups barley tossed with veggies (as much as you want), topped with 4 ounce protein.

This is an easy hassle free dish as you can let veggies and barley cook without having to stand around in the kitchen. You can ride your trainer or run on the treadmill for 30 minutes or fold laundry, pay bills or play with your kids. There's no reason that you can't find 60 minutes to prep and cook this dish in your day. Be sure to plan for leftovers. You can add dark leafy greens and a different protein to leftovers the next day to make it a whole new meal!