I got notice this week that First Endurance is teaming up with Trakkers as the first official sponsor of Team Trakkers, which I am a blissful member of. Team Trakkers is a pretty cool team because rather than being the being a group with the highest level of race results, we all excel in the "electronic" world. We are a team of bloggers, twitterers and facebookers, who happen to train their fannies off (and blog about it) in triathlon. So, First Endurance must be pretty sure of it's product. Because by sponsoring Team Trakkers that means that 30-40 blog-aficionados will be testing their products, using them like crazy, and then blogging and tweeting the honest to goodness truth about them. Bold move, First Endurance!

So, when I think "First Endurance" I think Michael Lovato. What really sticks in my mind is that a "shipment" would be delivered to his condo in Kona when he was there for World Championships. I thought that was an amazingly rock star triathlete thing to do...rather than packing your goods in your bag, to actually be cool enough that your sponsor would ship you a box of goodies right to your location. I know, I'm easily impressed.

I wanted to learn a bit about First Endurance before we got to select some free goods to test out. I started by joining Team First Endurance. This is a place for athletes to educate, research, and commune. They have a "facebook" like setup on the Team FE site. You can create a profile, add friends, and post blog posts about your experiences. It's really quite cool and is so much more helpful than just a message board. Check out the profile I made:

Once my profile was made I started searching around. I found a great blog entry by none other than the Michael Lovato himself, outlining his Kona nutrition strategy.

I added myself to the Team Trakkers Group, and the Rev3 Group.

Then I clicked on Programs. This section REALLY impressed me. You can pick a program topic (Caffeine, Gluten, Sodium Loading, Anti-Inflammatory Foods, and Low Carbo Training). I picked Caffeine. They had an article summarizing and explaining the "Caffeine issue" including common misconceptions, and the history of it being a banned substance (in high levels by the US Olympic committe..now unbanned). There were recommendations on safe use, and a huge list of references. Then, the next link was "How to Implement a Caffeine Test" with great instructions on how to test it within your own body. Finally a link to their forum where the issue is discussed and a survey to take after you complete the test (along with the survey results). I was just really impressed.

Now I'm all giddy and excited to perform some of the tests, and to report my results.

My overall impression thus far is that they really take "individual" nutrition seriously, not only recognizing that each person is different, but providing a tool that athletes can use to educate themselves, and mingle with others to discuss issues.

Check out their site. And check out Team First Endurance.