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Posts Tagged ‘Nike’

Team Type 2′s Rob Coburn provides RAAM update

Posted on June 15th, 2010 by Lisa P.

: Rob Coburn, Team Type 2

Guest Blog: Team Type 2 rider Rob Coburn provides an update during Race Across America.

Over a quarter of the race down, and I’m somewhere in Colorado. The Milky Way is an incredible sight at night, and the Monument Valley just after sun up is truly breathtaking.

It’s 4 p.m. mountain time and I’m off to “bed”. We’re on the road for the next 3-plus hours in an RV to meet the squad that’s riding now. Sleep is hard to come by in shifts of approximately three hours in the RV. I’ll be back on the bike around 1:00 am, and there will be more climbing tonight.

We’ve logged 321 miles from Flagstaff, Arizona to Durango, Colorado in the past 24 hours at an average speed of 17.5 miles per hour. This puts a total of 857 miles behind Team Type 2, and we have 2,147 miles still to complete. Fortunately, the climbs and elevation of the Rocky Mountains will be complete soon, which will bring us to the rolling hills of Kansas and Missouri.

The team is really making good use of our Nike sunglasses which have replaceable lenses. I looked up as I was swapping out the dark lenses to the clear lenses for night riding and saw that two of my teammates were doing the same thing.

If you’re anywhere near our route, come out and cheer us on. We’d love to see you!

About Team Type 1 and VSP Vision Care
Team Type 1 is a group of athletes living with diabetes. The team includes professional race teams, a triathlon team and a development team. Team Type 1 strives to instill hope and inspiration for people around the world affected by diabetes. VSP® Vision Care is proud to be their exclusive eyecare and eyewear provider.

File under: diabetes, Frames & Lenses, sports, Team Type 1 | Tagged: bike, cycling, diabetes, eyewear, Nike, RAAM, race across america, Team Type 2, team type1, VSP, VSP Vision Care
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Jerry Willis competes in Race Across America for Team Type 1

Posted on June 13th, 2010 by Melissa W.

Jerry Willis is a member of Team Type 1′s Elite Team and is competing in the Race Across America. He’ll be providing exclusive updates for VSP throughout the race. Here’s a video Jerry recorded before the race started. He shares about his dream to compete in this race and why he got involved with Team Type 1.

Good luck this week, Jerry!

File under: diabetes, RAAM, Team Type 1 | Tagged: bike, cycling, diabetes, eyewear, Nike, RAAM, race across america, Team Type 2, team type1, VSP, VSP Vision Care
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Gearing up for Race Across America

Posted on June 11th, 2010 by Lisa P.

Rob Coburn, Team Type 2

Guest blog from Rob Coburn. Rob is a rider with Team Type 2 and writes about his journey and team goal for the upcoming race, Race Across America.

I’m Rob Coburn, a rider on Team Type 2, and a member of this year’s team set to take on Race Across America (RAAM). On Thursday, June 10th, 8 of us and a fantastic support crew met up in Oceanside, California to get ready to take off on a week-long, 24 hours-a-day adventure. We will be racing against other teams from around the world on a 3,000 mile route that ends in Annapolis, Maryland. The race starts on Saturday, June 12 at 2 p.m. PST. Our goal this year is to finish in less than 7 days.

Our team wears Nike cycling sunglasses throughout the race and I leave them in my helmet every time I get off the bike to make sure that they’re there for the next ride.

A bit of background on me: I’m 46 and on a mission to manage my diabetes and raise awareness of what people with Type 2 diabetes can achieve. Everyone on our team has type 2 diabetes and we all are acutely aware of the importance of regular eye exams and eye protection. I’m fairly new to cycling at this level and have been training for about a year. I found out I was on the race team in February and have been training just for RAAM since then.

I’ll be providing updates before and during the race to let everyone know how we are doing. I’ll try to include some action shots, but it may be difficult depending on where we are.

If you want, shoot questions back to the blog site and I’ll work with the administrator to try and capture a few to answer during the race. So stay tuned for a wild ride!

About Team Type 2 and VSP Vision Care
Team Type 2 is a group of athletes living with diabetes. Team Type 2 strives to instill hope and inspiration for people around the world affected by diabetes. VSP® Vision Care is proud to be their exclusive eyecare and eyewear provider.

File under: diabetes, eye health, Eye Safety, Frames & Lenses, RAAM, Team Type 1 | Tagged: bike, cycling, diabetes, eyewear, Nike, RAAM, race across america, Team Type 2, team type1, VSP, VSP Vision Care
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2010 Winter Olympics – Protect your eyes, just like the athletes!

Posted on February 23rd, 2010 by Liz B.

Joel Kestenbaum O.D. is a VSP provider in Long Island, NY.

In today’s guest blog post from Dr. Joel Kestenbaum of Optix Eyecare in Long Island, NY, he discusses protective eyewear and winter sports …

The 2010 Winter Olympics are upon us. Lets take a look at the common attributes most Winter Olympians have:

Athletic ability
Drive and determination
Support of family and friends
Excellent vision

If you look at all the skiers, snowboarders, speed skaters, lugers and bobsledders, they are all wearing some sort of protective eyewear. How do they know which lenses to wear? What if it is cloudy, sunny, snowing, sleeting, raining, foggy, nighttime, or early morning?

Think Safety First

You can be certain that the lenses in an athlete’s goggles are made of polycarbonate. For fast-moving winter sports, this material is much more impact-resistant than glass or conventional plastic. The frame also needs to be lightweight and flexible reducing the likelihood of the lens breaking or popping out in a bad fall. Prescription lenses can be made for inserts that sit behind the shield of the goggle or some goggles are actually made to wear over a regular pair of eyeglasses.

Think Visual Efficiency Next

Black, gray, or smoke lenses

Best for bright conditions – they dim the bright sunlight to ease the strain on your eyes. Depending on the intensity of the tint, these lenses do darken your vision but gray does not alter color. These lenses are best for wide-open areas, especially on sunny days. One should not ski or snowboard in trees or trails with dark lenses.

Amber Lenses
Amber is a color in between a light brown and a dark yellow lens. Amber blocks blue light, greatly increases contrast. This color is a good choice for seeing moguls out on the slopes. Amber is best for under cloudy skies or on dimly lit trails but is not recommended for sunny days.

File under: Uncategorized | Tagged: 2010 Winter Olympics, amber lenses, clear lenses, Dr. Joel Kestenbaum, eye exams, eyecare, eyewear, glare, gray lenses, interchangable lenses, lenses for different weather conditions, Nike, protective eyewear, red lenses, sunglasses, sunwear, UV protection, Vancouver, vision, Winter Olympics, winter sports, yellow lenses
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A Winning Team

Posted on August 6th, 2009 by Jace D.

Jace D. is a member of VSP's Corporate Public Relations team.

If you haven’t heard of World T.E.A.M. Sports, you have now. World T.E.A.M. (The Exceptional Athlete Matters) Sports is a group dedicated to creating opportunities for disabled and able-bodied athletes to join together to participate in a variety of challenging sporting events. Among many events over the years, the group has run Boston Marathon and even reached the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Currently, World T.E.A.M. Sports is in the middle of the 2009 Coastal TEAM Challenge, which concludes August 9^th. This year’s team includes fifteen disabled veterans (active or otherwise) from United States and Canadian military. Together, they will paddle their kayaks in open water from Anacortes, Washington to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Read more »

File under: VSP in the Community | Tagged: 2009 Coastal TEAM Challenge, disabled athletes, Nike, T.E.A.M Sports, TEAM Sports, veterans
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Help, Glasses Needed Quick for Race Across America!

Posted on July 1st, 2009 by Melissa W.

Melissa W. is a member of VSP's Corporate Public Relations team.

I’ve been a fan of Team Type 1 for several years. When VSP became the exclusive eyecare and eyewear provider for Team Type 1 and Team Type 2, I was excited that I would be able to work with the athletes.

My first opportunity to work with them would be the Race Across America (RAAM). As I started preparing for the start of RAAM, I created a blog for Team Type 1 Jeff Bannink’s daily blog entry, and I put together a Where in the World contest where participants could enter to win the same pair of Nike sunglasses worn by Team Type 1 and 2 athletes. As I was adding the athletes’ bios to our blog, reading about their enthusiasm made me wish I could be part of such a grand endeavor. And then, the phone rang.

It was Peter Cowley with Team Type 2. He needed prescription cycling glasses, and he needed them fast. Peter’s eye doctor is in Milwaukee, but Peter was headed to California for the start of the race. It was a very tight timeframe. The cycling glasses required a unique cut for the wrap feature and a special coating for the lenses. I told Peter I would work with his eye doctor and do my best to get the prescription sunglasses delivered to his hotel in California.

I first called the VSP lab closest to Peter’s doctor. They wanted to help but didn’t physically have the frame at their location, so they put me in contact with the VSP lab in Sacramento. The Sacramento lab offered to drive to our headquarters and pick up the sunglasses if we had a pair on campus. Now all I had to do was locate the exact frame that Peter had. Fortunately, our Sales department had a pair and loaned them to me. The lab immediately started working on the order. They would have to overnight the frames to southern California for the special coating, but they assured me everyone was doing everything possible to get the glasses to Peter in time for the race. I was very happy when I received the call that the glasses would be delivered on time. Peter not only received the prescription clear lenses for his Nike sunglasses, but he also received prescription dark lenses.

The day before the race, my new clear lenses for night riding were here, along with a pair of sunglasses. I think these will be a huge advantage when I’m riding at night,” said Peter Cowley.

Through teamwork and collaboration, I was excited to be part of RAAM history, even if only in a small way.

As the race finally began, I watched as Team Type 1 and Team Type 2 showed determination and commitment to show the world that people who have diabetes can do anything. I was thrilled to see that Team Type 1 placed first, and Team Type 2 successfully completed the race. And, I was also happy to see Peter wearing his glasses.

Congratulations to both Team Type 1 and Team Type 2! You’re an inspiration to us all.

http://vspactive.com/2009/06/22/tt2s-peter-cowley-gets-his-glasses-in-the-nick-of-time/