I was going through some old photos the other night and happened to find this…

Sorry Tingle, I had to…At any rate, I then started going through all my old Timex Team camp photos beginning in 2007. I cannot even begin to express how far this team has come and how many incredible memories I have from the great times and amazing people I’ve been so fortunate to have in my life over the past years. Check out the team photos from the prior years and look how unbelievably studly the 2010 team looks!!!! Whooooohoooo :)

2007

2008

2009

2010

Last week the athletes and staff of the 2010 TIMEX Multisports team had a very unique opportunity to train at the TIMEX Performance Center in New Jersey. This facility is the home of the NY Football Giants organization and is the most state of the art facility in all of the NFL. Needless to say, I was like a kid in a candy store.

I flew in from San Diego on Thursday evening and Tom Shuler was there waiting to pick many of us up from the airport. We have quite the team this season . . . Forty-seven athletes in all, with nearly a third of the team comprised of international athletes. It was nearly a miracle that everyone arrived on time, but in happened. A great start to team camp!

After a quick check-in at the hotel, we headed over to the TIMEX Performance Center (TPC) to meet up with all the other team members that had flown in on earlier flights. It was a massive reunion for most of the team and I could immediately tell this was the exact atmosphere I was looking for when I applied for the team. After a great dinner covering about every food you could think of, we headed to the auditorium for a presentation by Keith Meyer and Tristan Brown. The team was introduced to members of the NY Giants medical staff (Ronnie Barnes – legend in his field), the President of Timex Business Group, Adam Gurian, and many other professionals that work very hard to keep the TIMEX Multisport team a very well oiled machine. Right before the meetings ended we were even given the new TIMEX Global Trainer that had been rush delivered to members of the team specifically for the camp (these will not be available to the public until late May at REI). All I can say is the watch system is amazing and will definitely be on my wrist for training and racing this season.

Friday morning came very early (still on West Coast time), but I was eager to see what the first day of camp was going to bring. The team headed over to the TPC for breakfast to fuel up for a long day of clinics and seminars. We were given an assignment to create short videos with FLips to embody the collaborative efforts of TIMEX and the NY Football Giants. We shot footage most of the morning before we headed in to some “round robin” clinics in the afternoon. After learning about the awesome TIMEX products, we were given the opportunity to play some football on the indoor turf field. It is amazing the quality of the field and overall facilities the Giants players utilize on a daily basis. Our team ended up with a sub par record (probably due to my multiple interceptions), but fun was had by the entire Multisports team and TIMEX staff. However, the biggest surprise was yet to come.

For those who have never been to Medieval Times . . . wow. This is where we went Friday night for dinner and it was quite the show. The entire team walked down the road to the restaurant where we were given cardboard head crowns to wear for our dining festivities. We were to cheer for the RED Knight, who fought a gallant battle, but ended up losing to the black/white knight in the finale. It is amazing how the spectators get so in to it, me included. I thought for sure our knight would have won on sheer enthusiasm alone. The entire TIMEX team was doing the wave and making sure EVERYONE in that place knew who we were. Oh well, can’t win them all.

Saturday was the dawn of a new day and a day in which our videos would be finalized. The NY Giants editing staff did an amazing job of putting our videos together and they all turned out very well. The legendary Giant Carl Banks was our guest judge and I really forget which team won the competition (I know, but I am not giving them an opportunity to rub it in even more). In addition to the FLip competition, we had various other clinics focusing on functional movement and a presentation of MELT, a series of myofascial release exercises in the arms and feet to loosen the muscle of the entire body. Cool stuff I will be using down the road to help with injury prevention. After a long, but great day at the TPC, we all went our own ways for dinner. I ended up visiting two of my childhood friends in the East Village that I rarely see anymore. It was great catching up with them both and we are really coming up with some great fundraising ideas for the DA Taylor Foundation. I am really hoping to meet my monetary goal for Kona with the help of the Janus Charity Foundation.

The last day of camp was very sad, but we did get to take some team pics and play the championship football game. The red team won in penalty kicks (that’s what you get when triathletes play football). After packing up the massive amounts of TIMEX product we were given to test, I headed to the airport to begin my long journey back to San Diego.

Last weekend made me realize how lucky I am to be chosen for this team. Every member of the team truly cares about the success and happiness of others. Results will surely come when you are surrounded by fellow competitors out there cheering and supporting you on the course. I am already looking forward to team camp next year!

Many thanks to the TIMEX corporation and the NY Football Giants organization.

Pics of weekend below:

Giants welcoming the team!

Giants have won three Superbowls!

Amazing weight room

Global Trainer – thing is dope

V02 Max testing

Starting RB Brandon Jacobs

Underwater treadmill to take the load off the lower extremeties

Bruce doing functional movement analysis

Final day of camp, it had to be done Keith! Sorry

I have also attached a short video clip below (Click link and 2/22 – Timex greets Giants)

http://www.giants.com/multimedia/

This year’s camp was held in a different setting than the 75 degree Southern California that we had grown accustomed to. We found our back drop to be the New York City skyline. The reason for the new location was Timex’s recent partnership with the New York Giants.   Timex athletes traveled from as close as Connecticut and as far away as Estonia to utilize the new High Performance Training Facility that Timex and the Giants built together. The facility has a five-star kitchen, a digital media center, and a staff that features medical personnel, trainers and nutritionists. The training facility would put most common health clubs to shame, and make any gym rat drool. The biggest thing the team took away from the camp was camaraderie amongst Timex athletes, and a solid partnership with the Giants. Not only did I find the facility inspirational, so was the sharing of life stories and experiences by my fellow teammates. This camp served its purpose as a team-builder, and strengthened us both as a team and individually.    It left us well prepared for the upcoming season. I am wishing my teammates, the New York Giants, and the staffs at Timex and Team Sports their best year yet.  

-friends

-the color red

-calamari for LUNCH!

-teaching international athletes how to play football (Jerzy!)

-testing on the Woodward

-Hodge’s fat lips and football

-meeting my mate Kirill who has a VO2max of 85 on the bike

-Meeker’s tackle

-daily shuttles

-Herbie as Quarterback

-underwater treadmills

-unlimited amount of hot cocoa

-Alex’s Wet Willy’s

-watching team movies

-interview with Schuler

-Newark Airport Security

-Rachel as the Statue of Liberty

-chatting with Kevin Boothe #77 and security at the TPC

-Timex Tap in BLACK, WS4 in WHITE,  and the Global Trainer hitting the Market in May!

Enjoy your training =) www.tristafrancis.com

So while its not quite triathlon season, it is still fun to get in a race here and there so Sunday morning I ran the Mercedes Half Marathon in Birmingham, AL. Although racing a half marathon usually ends up being pretty painful, I had plenty of incentives to run. First and foremost, racing a half on Sunday morning meant I didnt have to go biking on Sunday or Saturday which is a huge bonus in the winter. Biking sucks in general but biking in the winter is just plain awful. Additionally, this race had Jim & Nick’s BBQ and AYCD free beer at the end, so what else could you ask for?

The morning started with a nice jog with fellow Huntsvillian Tim Vinson who was “just using the race as a tempo run” and “wanted to get in four before the start.” So I jogged a couple of miles with him before finalizing my clothing decision. The weather at the start was around 30F and sunny, so I went with shorts, a singlet, arm warmers, a Timex Headsweats running hat, and, yes, compression socks. As silly as they look, I am not embarrassed to admit that I actually really like running in my Sugoi R+R Compression Socks when its cold out as they really do a nice job keeping my lower legs warm.

After a few brief words by the mayor, we were off. There was quite a bit of activity the first mile with people figuring out how fast they wanted to run but I was happy to come through in 5:27. The field was still sorting itself out so I set off looking for someone with whom I could pass a few miles. I came on one guy but he was already breathing pretty heavy so I left him pretty quickly.

I came through the second mile in 5:29 feeling nice and relaxed. By this time a group of three guys had formed about 20 or 30sec ahead of me. I wanted to run with them but at the same time didnt want to expend too much energy to catch them if it would only lead to a blow up later in the race. So I tried to reel them in over the next few miles but it seemed to be a rather fruitless pursuit. I was closing the gap a bit but not nearly fast enough. I did manage to keep them in sight and keep the gap pretty constant through about six miles but then they started to pull away a bit. The course was getting a bit hillier and it seemed that the uphills were outnumbering the downhills. Of course this couldve just been fatigue setting in, but who knows. Regardless, I just tried to focus and keep a good rhythm. I really just wanted to get to mile 10, telling myself it would just be a 5k to go after that.

Finally I came through 10 in around 54:40 or so and I hopeful that I could kick it in and finish around 1:11:30. Shortly after that we headed back into downtown and I knew we were getting close. Also around this time I saw another runner who must have been falling back quite a bit because he was not one of the three I had seen for the majority of the race.

At mile 11 he had 20 sec on me but I decided I could catch him. I set off, really focusing on keeping a high tempo and running faster. Shortly after passing mile 12 I had a bit of weird sensation, as I kind of started hyperventilating. I’m thinking maybe it was due to the cold air but I’m really not sure. Luckily though there was less than a mile to go so I just had to put if out of my head and keep running.

Finally, at about 12.5, I caught and passed him right before a right turn which proceeded a ~0.5 mile uphill stretch to the 13 mile mark after which we’d have a sharp left, right, and finally the finish line. So coming out of the turn he came back past me and I tried to go but started tying up. I really tried to quicken my stride but the slight uphill just sapped my speed and the legs really werent going to move any faster. I missed my 13 mile split but really just wanted to get to the finish.

I finally stumbled across the line in 1:12:12, about 6 sec behind the kid who out-kicked me. As for the group of three I was running behind earlier in the race, it appears that one of them ran the marathon and the other two ran 1:11:12 and 1:11:15. Too bad I couldnt have stayed with them. Finally, Tim Vinson, the guy I warmed up with, ended up 13th overall and 1st Masters in 1:17:32. All in the middle of a 21 mile day and a 100 mile week. Not too shabby!

All in all, I’m pretty pleased. Although I would’ve loved to out-kick that kid and/or go under 1:12, I cant complain about being 10sec off a PR as other than two tempo runs, I’ve only done easy running up to this point this year.

Finally, full results are here and my splits are as follows. Incidentally, I think the fast third mile was primarily downhill and not fully compensated for until the last mile. 5:27, 5:29, 4:19(!), 5:31, 5:32, 5:34, 5:41, 5:40, 5:31, 5:32, 5:24, 5:28, 6:58 (1.1)

Thanks for reading!

Andrew