It must be from my triathlon days or an internal clock, but I am an early riser and most productive in the “wee” hours. So what’s on the cards today? I am generally up between 5:30-6:30am. This morning featured a 6am rise. Shower, then to my parent’s kitchen – I am in Ireland right now with family. At this time of the morning, there’s nothing but peace and quiet in what is typically a busy house. It wouldn’t be any other way. Our house is very open, people visit daily plus I have five younger brothers.

First things first, it’s fruit and some juice mixed with water, then maybe a pint of water (in Ireland we don’t do the whole milliliters deal – well I don’t anyway!). My day kicks off with some surfing (not the water type!!!). I won’t lie – I think facebook’s great and with my travels a great way to keep in touch with all friends and family dotted around the globe. So I pay a brief visit. It’s also great as a marketing tool and I try to post as much Specialized news as possible. From there I check various cycling websites like cyclingnews, velonews just to keep track of things and then it’s to Triathlon. I always check Triathlon Ireland just to keep in touch with things at home in Ireland, but I also visit “Slow Twitch”, “Inside Triathlon” and “XTri”. The ITU is also a great site and their coverage of events via the summary video gets a big thumbs up from me.

I will then scan through “I Am Specialized” and read some of the athlete’s blogs. I have a few favorite websites if I call a spade a spade. Two of the funniest characters I have met are Gavin Noble and Conrad Stoltz, their sites are updated almost daily and their blogs are always good for a read. I always try to check the Specialized Athletes (Susi’s one liners can also carry a witty heavy weight punch!). My surfing isn’t related to solely Specialized Athletes. I will always check in with friend’s sites such as Tim Don’s, Jan Frodeno’s plus I will read blogs from athletes whom I find intriguing and interesting. It’s always good to know what’s going on. I love athletes who are pro-active and update their sites regularly. Dan Hugo and Gavin are too good examples. In my opinion a website should be like a newspaper.

Back to the kitchen for round two! My brother has a grocery shop with an adjoining café one mile up the road, so his homemade brown bread is awesome with a nice cup of coffee - there's always a loaf in my parents kitchen. Not long after maybe 8am and my dad has arrived (he’s like a kid!!), my mum is running around and so the day of the busy house starts!

Some days if it’s a biggy I can have 150 new emails! Today my inbox reads 50 new emails. I am that person whose inbox is always empty. I pride myself on attempting to get back to people quickly, delete or move to my folder system. I can find an important email in a matter of seconds. Yes I am one of those organized people – well I try! If my inbox has something in there, then it needs to be addressed!

I have emails from some of our athletes today. Free-riders: Trond Hansen, Matt Hunter and Darren Berrecloth (all three in one day is not normal). Triathletes: TJ Tollakson, Terenzo Bozzone and Macca’s Manager Scott Fairhild. I also have four – five emails from Conrad (what a character) with one subject line “Tulip” so I know there’ll be some humor in there! The MTB Team are quiet today – nothing from their side., which is a surprise as there’s generally something from Benno our road and equipment manager.

I try to respond to all emails before late afternoon, meaning when the Americans arrive at their desks, they will hopefully have their desired answers or at least a start. Given that there’s currently a 9 hour time zone gap, I will work into the evenings, so I have some one to one time with the USA. Somedays I might have a conference call. On Tuesday evening I had two calls, which lasted 1.5 hours.

Apart from replying to emails, today is a day where I will be looking at 09-10 budgets, I will be finishing a 2010 product forecast order for all of our mountain bike athletes and triathletes. The forecast thing takes time. It’s important to plan ahead. Apart from athletes, I will probably end up today dealing with our accounting and legal departments plus PR (I see some emails from Nic our PR man) and most definitely our web team, which is really key.

In between all of this, I will hit my brothers café for lunch, I will fit in a bike ride or gym session (one of the beast workouts). Exercise is important for me & it’s very much part of the culture at Specialized, which I think is really unique and cool. On Tuesday I managed two sessions, which is not the norm (norm is one per day). Right now in Ireland the biking is unreal with the sun splitting the trees. I like to train with people, now that I am no longer a driven athlete. Sport for me is now very social yet it’s important to have goals. “The Hell” MTB race in South Africa in November looms on the horizon! That’s pretty much it for my day apart from a little kicking the ball with my parents bear dog “Ali” our Newfoundland.

I have one quirky thing I do everyday, when I have a chance. It could be in the evening before I go to bed. I am quite a passionate car enthusiast, so I can be found checking used car websites, typically autotrader. There might be a specific car I am tracking – don’t ask me what drives me! It’s not that I am purchasing either, I am just interested to see what type of price a car is commanding. I drove a friends M5 in February in San Francisco. That thing blew my mind (the best car by far I have ever driven), so lately I have been looking at their prices ………!

8:10am – better get to these emails ……..