Life in Transit

Ski Utah... day one

2011-01-25T13:26:00.001-08:00

4 Years ago, I took a long trip to Salt Lake City, UT in a big 40ft truck.. The Timex truck. That was my second event with Timex and first driving the big rig. This trip marked my first experience skiing. Oh, how things have changed in four years..

Salt Lake City hosts the Outdoor Retailer show twice a year, once in winter and summer. OR as it's dubbed, is an outdoor industry trade show of the largest sorts. Companies ranging in size from The North Face and Arc'Teryx to small companies like Icebreaker fill the thousands and thousands of square foot expo hall at the Sal Pal Convention Center. Timex is among these companies, thus my involvement. My duties at OR are to help Timex at the booth as well as meet with current team sponsors and prospective partners. However, this year I was off the hook. No work at the booth and only one meeting with my friends at Nathan Sports. This year it was all fun.

Traveling with me, by plane this time, was good friend and co-worker, Jack Hirt and outdoor adventure seeker, Lindsey Kriete. The three of us made our way to the airport late Wednesday afternoon and boarded the plane bound for SLC, arrival time 11:47pm. Everything was going as planned until luck happened to strike while at our layover in Phoenix, AZ. Our flight to SLC was overbooked out of Phoenix and they were looking for a few folks to get bumped off the flight and take an early flight out the next morning. 'Why not', we figured. Get a $300 flight voucher and spend the night in a hotel. We weren't going to ski at midnight when we got in on Wednesday anyway.
As we filled out the paperwork for our flight vouchers, Lindsey got a text from her friend, Mary in SLC.
"You guys!" She yelled. "We can ski for free tomorrow! Park City gives you a free lift ticket if you can present your boarding pass from the same day flight". It was true, all we had to do was show up with our boarding pass, which was now an early Delta flight, and receive a lift ticket worth $90.

I don't think a trip has ever started better than ours did. We each walked out of the airport with $300 flight vouchers, a free shuttle to our free hotel, the Crown Plaza (aka Crown Jewel), a $10 food voucher, and a free day of skiing in Park City the following day.

The Crown Jewel was no let down either. While chatting away with our new friend, a 70-something, retired cop turned GPS entrepreneur/cancer patient who had missed his flight and was pissed at the world. A stranger (to me) walked over to our table. "Holy crap, Rajinder?" Jack stood up to greet the man. It was Jack's professor from UW Madison, Rajinder Chauhan. What a coincidence, Jack's prof from 8+ years ago was in the same hotel in Phoenix, AZ... But that wasn't it. Rajinder, lives in India.. Hillstation, India and was just returning to the USA for the first time since leaving the University nearly 8 years ago! Of all the places in the world.. Rajinder and Jack reunite in the Crown Jewel.
After chatting with Rajinder for some time we scored some free drinks from an older couple sitting next to us and managed to make it to our rooms around midnight, 4 hours before our wake up call was scheduled.

What a day.. and that was only day ONE.

Sifting through the past

2011-01-18T11:48:00.000-08:00

Spent some time searching through photos of 2010 today. Seeing that I failed to produced more than two blog posts in 2010, I figured a little photo montage of sorts was in order to recap the year. So.. the year in photos:New addition to the household.. Nala, the lion cub

Trip to the first ever Wal Mart.. kinda cool
Snow trip #2 Salt Lake City, UT
Our new fleet.. 5 Ford Flexs and the new team truck
Trip to Portland to visit the little bro (Logan)
Viktor took home the win for us in Canada!
Sara and I taking our annual trip to Kona, HI15 Timex athletes raced Kona in 2010. Just wait till you see what we have in store for 2011

Things to come.. shortly

2010-01-26T12:47:00.000-08:00

Tired of your old Timex Body Link system? Me too...
We've been waiting for a few years now and I'm happy to announce it is finally here. Well, almost here.
The new Global Trainer from Timex is due out later this year and I can tell you this, it was worth the wait. Several of us had a chance to use this baby while skiing the slopes of Alta in Utah last week. Not only did the Global Trainer meet all my expectations, it surprised me with it's ease of use and even introduced me to some new features I had never seen before on a GPS watch.
More or less, you get what you'd expect from a Timex timepiece.. reliability, ease of use, great features, and a great looking watch.
You'll find this on the shelves of REI shortly and everywhere else in September. Unless of course you're a Timex athlete... ;)

Back home!

2009-11-20T13:06:00.000-08:00

Although the traveling is great, I am very happy to be off the road for a few months. Of course, this is when the busy season starts.

Stay tuned for Timex Team updates and other cool industry news.

Cheers!

Apple Holler

2009-11-06T17:07:00.000-08:00

Last week Sara and I went on a little excursion to a local apple orchard, Apple Holler (AH). Located just outside of Milwaukee, AH is a full-on farm adventure land including a corn maze, pumpkin patch, enchanted forest, petting zoo, and of course... apples, lots of apples.

For forty dollars we receive a large plastic bad, a map of the orchard, and permission to go have fun.

As the time flew by, our bag filled up with Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Johnathan, Paula Red, and plenty of others I forget. After a few hours, our plastic bag evolved into a 40 pound weight.

All in all a great trip and some delightful souvenirs, about 50 of them. The only problem... we have 50 apples!

Anyone want an apple?

More bike porn

2009-10-25T07:42:00.001-07:00

First off we have my IM Wisconsin "spotting" bike. Built by Ray Waxman, senior advanced concepts engineer at Trek, this bike is a 2009 update on the aluminum/carbon bike sold back in 1991. It may be hard to see in the picture but this bike is a full carbon 9.9 SSL hard tail frame with all Bontrager XXX components (including carbon wheels). This custom build is a one of a kind carbon belt drive... yes, that means NO CHAIN! The belt drive single speed is fed to a custom built Shimano XTR crank. The bike is finished with a Rock Shox SID Wold Cup shock custom painted to resemble the 1991 shock that came stock with the bike. In short, this bike is pure sex, if you're into one-off bikes. You will never see another one like this...

Next up is the new Speed Concept bike from Trek. Another bike you will not be seeing on the road (at least this year...). This is the brand new ride that will one day replace the Trek TTX. Ridden by Timex athlete, Mike Lavery at the Ironman World Champs. Mike just so happens to work at Trek as an engineer, maybe why he got one?? I don't have to say much about it, just look and drool.

It's almost November

2009-10-23T07:43:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe the racing season is almost over. Ironman Florida and Clearwater are just a few weeks away and then Ironman Arizona closes out the season, for our athletes anyway.

If you would like to keep tabs on the Timex crew, here is who will be competing at the final three events...

Ironman Florida - Nov. 7

Pro:

Blake Becker

Tamara Kozulina

Gabriela Loskotova

AG:

Tim Hola

70.3 World Champs in Clearwater - Nov. 14

Pro:

Andrew Hodges

Kyle Marcotte

James Cotter

Lisa Mensink

Mary Beth Ellis

AG:

Bruce Gennari

Chris Thomas

Emily Herndon

Trista Francis

Christine Anderson

Ironman Arizona - Nov. 22

Pro:

Eric Bean

AG:

Barry Siff

Juli Fiocca

Jodi Thomson

Good luck everyone!

Shop gnomes???

2009-10-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

I come into the office today to find that some little helpers have been creeping around at Team Sports...

Seems like the gnomes really want my bike built before I head to Clearwater. Guess they want Doug and I to have our yearly field trip to the Tanasi Trails in Tennessee.

...I believe! I believe!

Speaking of orange bikes!

2009-10-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

My new project:

The same bike Will is using in Maui, also the same frame raced by Lance Armstrong during his record win at this year's Leadville 100. His wasn't orange though...

Xterra time

2009-10-17T17:01:00.001-07:00

It's about that time of the year when all the 'crazy' Xterra athletes converge onto the island of Maui for the Xterra World Championships. The Timex team will be represented by one lone soldier out there, his name: Will Kelsay. Will, a first year Timex athlete, has already proven himself worthy of this world class event after a top 10 finish at the US champs last month. Will will be riding his Trek Top Fuel 9.9 SSL, custom painted orange... of course.

Good luck buddy, we will be rooting for you!

Man you got to check this out!

2009-10-16T12:53:00.000-07:00

While I was in Kona I missed the show when it was in Milwaukee... Now, I love HI, but dang it! This'll make you want to slap on the climbing shoes for sure.

On a roll here..

2009-10-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

Just had to post this crazy music video. I am absolutely obsessed with this band, well only three of their songs I guess. Check these guys out!

7 months.. really?

2009-10-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

It has literally been 7 months since I last posted on my blog. I think..I know my mind went elsewhere while the weather was nice. Now, just like back in March, Wisconsin is cold. Time to get back to this thing!

A lot has changed since I last posted. Our kitten is no longer at our place (went back to her real owner, boo), I have moved.. down the street, sold my mountain bike to build a new one (still building it), and I have become even more obsessed with climbing and the sport of triathlon.

Several events have gone by, I have been to.. lets see... California, Florida, Boston, Boise, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, BC Canada, Wisconsin (home!), Vegas, KONA.. yeah that's about it so far.

The Timex team has been racing well with several podium finishes. The crew has also been hard at work performing clinics and conferences. I am very pleased and proud to be a part of such a great group of athletes.

Next up is the NYC Marathon. I was planning on racing this event but after very little training I have decided to back out. I raced (suffered) through the event last year with no training and I never want to feel that pain ever again. I may give it a shot again next year.

Cyclocross season has started, and is almost over already. I hope to race this Sunday in Madison but we'll see, life is a bit busy right now.

Hope to post again soon.

- T

Back at it

2009-03-10T15:23:00.001-07:00

Well it's been a while but what better time than now to get back to it. Life here in Tosa has been hectic to say the least. The latest focus is trying to get parts into the shop and bikes out of the shop. The team has partnered with three great companies this year who will supply the equipment needed to complete each bike. Trek is supplying the beautiful orange TTX frames, Bontrager is providing everything from rear-mounted bottle cages to aero bars, and SRAM is rounding out the bikes with drivetrain.

Had a chance to snap a few shots of a team bike in the works (thanks Paul!).

Check out the cool Timex sticker placement on the fork, my favorite.

With camp only a few weeks away, Paul is working overtime to turn these puppies out. With a little help from our

friends at Trek, I think we'll have all 45-ish bikes built before the truck leaves for Oceanside.

So the office work is quickly coming to an end for the 09 season and that means it's time to get on the road. My goal is to keep up with these blog posts as often and as frequent as I can. A lot goes on while traveling and this year I plan to have a few trips within a trip (even more fun). Just wait, the fun begins in t-minus 3 weeks.

I'll leave you with some eye candy...

Animal...

2009-02-08T14:34:00.000-08:00

We have a new resident at the Kane Place Manor; Jaya! Jaya is a one year old kitten who will be staying with us for an extended period of time. Sara's good friend Alefiyah is the real owner of this little kitty but is unable to keep her while she makes her move from Minnesota to Milwaukee. So we've got her for a good while, maybe even a whole year!

Sara and I actually met Jaya back when she was only 6 weeks old, she was the tiniest little thing ever and would literally fall asleep in the palm of your hand. Now, at about a year old, she is curious, crazy, and talkative! She makes more noise than any cat I've ever heard.

Every fast movement is accompanied by a little noise (she is like a female pro tennis player).

Jaya is a fun critter, keeps us entertained for hours, and is now taking over my computer... She must be cold.

It's not an office, It's a flat!

2009-01-27T14:00:00.000-08:00

You asked for it so here it is, a little photo tour of Timex Multisport headquarters. More game room than office, I am surrounded by bike parts, balance balls, and other toys including a ping pong table!

Located on the second floor of Team Sports, this is the warmest part of the building and the brightest office in the facility.

Why Tom never moved up here is a mystery.

Not all is fun and games. Amidst all the toys and ping pong balls, my large cherry wood desk sits. Donated by our neighbors at Gregg's Refinishing, the deck weighs a good ton (not really) and is where most of my work gets accomplished. Across from the desk is a large Post-it pad where the days "to-do list" looks me right in the face.

This is my home from 9-5 or 10-3.. or 9-7, Monday through Friday. That's it for now. Cheers!

Finally put a brake on my bike

2009-01-27T12:15:00.000-08:00

After several close calls and the encouragement of my close friends and family, I decided to cave in and install a front brake on my fixed gear bike. Thanks to my pals at Crank Daddy's bike shop in Milwaukee, I was able to install the life saving device for roughly $30. Not a bad deal.

To prove to everyone.. myself.. that I was still rad enough to ride a fixed gear, I decided to make the 8 mile trek to work on "SUP", the fixie. 13 degrees proved to be colder than I thought but I still managed to snap a few shots of Milwaukee's coast line..

What to do...

2009-01-25T14:49:00.001-08:00

Although traveling is a large part of my job description, all traveling comes to a halt during the off season. Unfortunately my off season is spent in a State which is said to have two seasons, winter and road construction...

The winter in Wisconsin has been especially bad this year reaching lows of -13 degrees, -45 with the windchill. Keeping oneself entertained is always a struggle during the cold months, but with a little creativity you can usually come up with something interesting...

Other than drinking the local brew (Lake Front Brewery), Sara and I have been hitting up the local climbing gym for a good workout and a bunch of fun. With two new pairs of climbing shoes (one is never enough) and a new harness on the way, I am excited to say I have added a new sport to my collection! Sara, new to my sport obsessions, is handling the situation very well and has accepted the fact that I will occasionally climb the walls in the apartment when I get bored... Love you babe!