Nicole had been a successful high school swimmer and cross-country runner, and continued with cross-country in college. Now in her late twenties, she was still running occasional marathons, and more regularly, Olympic and sprint-distance triathlons. Even so, ramping up to an Ironman would take some serious training and planning.

Getting started
Nicole began her triathlon training in earnest in January 2007, a full six months before the event she'd chosen - the Coeur d'Alene. Initially she trained for 8-9 hours per week but that gradually grew to 15-16 hours weekly as the event got closer. Weekly workouts included 45-minute swims every other day, along with runs of varying lengths. On Thursdays she ran longer distances, up to 2.5 hours during the late-Spring months. Saturdays were set aside for long bike rides that typically spanned 3 to 6 hours. One day out of every seven she rested.

Ironman nutrition and hydration
As a long-time endurance athlete, the high-carb part of her sports nutrition diet was nothing new, and the carbs-plus-protein to promote recovery after training was easy enough, but staying hydrated was another matter altogether. Nicole found that she was absolutely drained and exhausted in the final third of her long workouts. She realized that a bottle or two of fluids over 4 hours of training just wasn't cutting it. So she adopted a discipline of sipping fluids every 10-15 minutes whenever she was on the bike or running. This enabled her to increase her fluid intake to the point where she was drinking roughly 28 ounces of fluid hourly. This was at least double the rate of intake she started at, and it made all the difference during those long workouts.

Packing her own nutrition
As an Ironman rookie, Nicole's goal was to avoiding running low on glycogen and to stay hydrated so that she could finish the event. She decided early on to pack her own nutrition rather than rely on what was being offered on course, and that she would train with the same nutrition and hydration regimen. To do this, her bike was outfitted with two bottle cages and a triathlon bento box on the stem of the handlebars. The bottles carried POWERBAR® Endurance sport drink. The bento box carried her favorite gel flavors along with Performance bars cut in half that together would supply the roughly 60 grams of carbs per hour that experts recommend. She also stuffed her bike jersey with a few extra gels. During runs Nicole used a waist belt to carry gels and a bottle of sport drink. POWERBAR® Recovery Shake was her beverage of choice to get the jump on recovery after workouts.

Countdown to Coeur d'Alene
In preparation for the race, she began to taper her long workouts about 3 weeks out from the competition. The days before the event were spent training, checking out the course, and getting her equipment and supplies ready.

The night before the race, Nicole woke up at 1:30 am to guzzle a 16 fl oz serving of POWERBAR® Recovery drink to hydrate and top off glycogen stores. At 4:30 am she awoke again, this time for good. Pre-race breakfast was peanut butter and jelly on a bagel, a banana, water, and sport drink. She sucked down a gel as the start time drew near, and washed that down with another 6 fl oz of sport drink. At 7 am the cannon went off and over 2000 athletes entered the chilly waters. A little over 71 minutes later, Nicole emerged from the swim.

On the bike, Nicole was careful to not go out too fast in the first 30-40 miles. She re-supplied with PowerBar fluids, gels, and bars from her special needs bag at mile 60, and eventually arrived at the transition area almost 7 hours after leaving. She changed into a clean, dry outfit. In addition she strapped on a waist-pack loaded with POWERBAR® Gels and a bottle of POWERBAR® Endurance sport drink and alternated gel plus water with the sport drink through the first 12 miles.

Sensing that muscle cramps might be setting in, she drank small cups of broth and cola offered by the aid stations mid-way through the race. She even stopped on a few occasions to do quad and hamstring stretches.

Four hours into the run she spotted what looked like the finish line off in the distance. Suddenly it occurred to her, she was going to survive. As she sprinted toward the finish line the crowd grew louder. They were cheering for her, and as she crossed the finish line she thrust her arms skyward in celebration. She had done it! With a time of 12:24:17, Nicole had earned her Ironman stripes.