* * * * * FRED'S BLOG HAS MOVED! * * * * *
PLEASE VISIT FRED'S NEW BLOG AT http://blog.fredsommer.com/fredsblog/
January 21, 2007
A Chilling USAT Congress
This year's USAT Congress at Colorado Springs had to be the coldest conference I have ever attended. The conference coincided with a major cold front and the temperatures outside never went above freezing. The hotel claimed to have heating problems in the conference center area and the temperatures hovered in the 50-60's the entire time. I had to wear my heavy winter coat and sit on my hands just to stay warm in the sessions. I still find it hard to believe that a major hotel chain can go four days with minimal heat in the public areas. One of the vendors in the expo hallway had a thermometer and it registered a high of 46. I hope USAT didn't have to pay for the space.
At least the hotel rooms were nice and toasty. One advantage with the sub-freezing weather is that it is easy to keep your beer cold. All I had to do was set my brews out on the balcony for 15 minutes and they would become ice cold! The second day I realized I did not have to set them outside, all I had to do was place the beers along my sliding glass door inside my room and my beer would be kept ice cold. What a cool amenity!
I was at the congress to attend the USAT Race Director Certification Program. The USAT staff did a great job and program was run professionally. In retrospect I did not see much difference between the certification related sessions held this year and sessions covering the same topics at previous race director conferences. This could be the result of USAT using the same small pool of presenters for several consecutive years. Anyways, it was a good starting point and it laid a solid foundation for the race director certification program to build upon.
Posted by Fred at 01:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | More in: USA Triathlon
January 11, 2007
Westward Ho!
As I write this I'm currently en-route to the USAT Congress in Colorado Springs. This is USAT's big dance. They combined a Board of Directors meeting, a Regional Federation meeting, a coaching certification program, the annual Race Director's Conference, a new Race Director Certification Program, and the Regional Official's Coordinator meeting into one big party. There may be more, did I miss anything?
I'm attending primarily for the Race Director Certification Program. It is also a great opportunity to network with a bunch of people I will be working with later this season.
I serve on the Race Director's Commission and we plan to meet as well. I'm not sure how much of an impact the RD Commission actually has on USAT policies. The USAT Board has a habit of making decisions that impact us without asking for input before they make the decision. At least they come to us after they make their decision to ask for feedback, but our feedback doesn’t matter at that point. I still think that all of the Race Director's should band together and form a union for bargaining purposes, even though I'm not a big fan of unions. Race directors are USAT's biggest customers, and without us, USAT would crumble. The most recent example of the lack of advance notice was when they raised the USAT membership fees this fall without requesting input from us in advance. I am not a big fan of the increase in one-day fees.
Some things never change when it comes to the politics surrounding the USAT Board. It appears a few members have a personal agenda going on and they are plotting behind the scenes to oust the current Executive Director, for no apparent legitimate reason. This move is backed by a "good ole boy" West Coast magazine publisher who is still pissed that USAT started publishing its own magazine. This blunder, if it succeeds, would set USAT back a few hundred thousand dollars. Just think of all the youth programs you could fund with those dollars! It would also leave USAT in turmoil for the 2007 season while they deal with the negative publicity and search for a replacement. Oh wait....perhaps there is a new board member who could easily fill that role. Could this play into the behind the scenes plotting? Hhhhmmm, sounds sort of fishy to me.
I would say more, but then I may find myself buried alive in a Colorado Springs snow bank.
Posted by Fred at 01:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | More in: Random Thoughts, Triathlon, USA Triathlon
January 10, 2007
Outward Bound
While I wish I was referencing the cool outward bound program that has always intrigued me, but I'm not. I'm talking about my ever expanding waistline! While reflecting back on 2006, I could not help but realize that I'm in the worst shape I have ever been in. The biggest contributing factor besides old age is the plantar fasciitis I developed towards the end of summer. That has practically squashed my running, my primary means of exercising to burn off calories. I guess I'll have to dust the cobwebs off my road bike and substitute cycling for my running. Whatever I do, it is going to be a challenge.
I just set a goal of dropping 30 pounds by June 1, and a total of 45 pounds by November 1 (my birthday). If I can accomplish that, it would be one of the most rewarding things I could achieve as I get ready to enter my golden years :). So far I'm not off to a good start. I dropped five pounds since January 1, and gained 4 back already. Let the fun begin!
Posted by Fred at 11:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | More in: Random Thoughts
January 04, 2007
The big move!
It's time for another big move. No, we're not moving our office again. Being a pack rat, one office move in 15 years was enough for me.
Our next move has to do with our websites. About four years ago we consolidated our various websites into one master website and built our own online entry system. Now we are moving everything over to our own server and breaking our current website up into 8 individual standalone websites. A content management system will help tie them all together. We have a great programmer named Rich who is working on the back-end of things while I work on the design and content side. This is something I could only do during our slow season because it is taking hundreds of hours to create the new look we want and figure out how everything is tied together. Thank goodness sleep is so overrated because I have not been getting much of it lately.
My goal is to have most of the sites up and running before the end of January. I'll tell you more about some of the cool features we'll be adding as we get closer to the launch.
Posted by Fred at 03:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | More in: News, Triathlon
January 03, 2007
My new training partner, PF.
Normally I would look forward to having a training partner around, but not now. My new training partner is a real pain. Unfortunately I'm stuck with him for a while so I'll just have to deal with it.
Who is this mystery training partner? I'll give you a hint, his initials are PF. PF is short for plantar fasciitis. I've been running for over 30 years now and I have been real fortunate to only have a few running related injuries. The worst was when my gastoc or soleus muscle exploded about 6-7 years ago (something you never want to go through). That put me on the sidelines for over a year. Other than that I just had to deal with a few cases of shin splints and a couple of sprained ankles. I had always heard of plantar fasciitis but I had no idea what it was. I can tell you one thing, it is not fun. It is the type of injury that makes you feel old (older for me) as you shuffle around in the morning.
It started in late summer and I really did not pay much attention to it because it would come and go. When fall arrived it decided that I was going to make itself a daily nuisance.
Let the battle begin! I've spent hours and hours researching PF on the web and now I'm going to get a pair of these nifty ski boot sized splints to wear while I'm sleeping. I'm even going to try stretching, something I hate to do.
I'll keep you posted...
Posted by Fred at 12:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | More in: Random Thoughts
December 18, 2006
Which is worse, a double root canal or the GFT?
That's easy, the Great Floridian is much tougher than a double root canal. This question was put before me a couple days after the Great Floridian. I knew when I made the dental appointment the timing would be great. My mind was already numb following the GFT, so with a little Novocain and some gas, I was ready. Unfortunately both wore off later that day and the pain for both my root canal and the GFT lingered on for the rest of the week.....
Posted by Fred at 12:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | More in: Great Floridian, Random Thoughts, Triathlon
Blogging and training are alike
I finally realized there is a direct correlation between my blogging and my training. Both appear to be non-existent in my life lately. My running is hit or miss because I'm fighting off a case of plantar fasciitis. I did workout on my home gym today, so maybe that's what finally got me to open up my blog. The strange thing is that I have about 20 posts in my blog that I never published. It easy to jot my thoughts down, but tough to clean them up and hit the "publish" button. Maybe I'll publish some during the next week even though they are outdated.
Here's to my training and blogging (as I tip my beer bottle towards my computer screen in a toast)!
Posted by Fred at 12:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | More in: Random Thoughts
October 01, 2006
Only $10 more!
That's what it will soon cost you to race a USAT sanctioned race if you are not a member of USAT. This $10 triathlon tax, as I would like to call it, reflects a $1 increase from the $9 collected for the past several years. Like the past two rate increases, this one was railroaded through without obtaining much feedback from race directors, nor providing any financial data to justify the increase. One of main reasons I heard was so that race directors would not have to deal with the change issues associated with collecting $9. Using that logic, why not raise it to $20? You know what a pain in the ass it is going to be to make change for $10 when somebody hands you a $20.
This increase impacts the smaller races the most, and these are the races we need to grow to drive the grass roots growth of the sport. We are working on a couple of new events for other cities next year. They do not need the USAT insurance and I am going to have a tough time deciding if they should sanction or not. Maybe it is time USAT had some competition....
Posted by Fred at 04:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | More in: USA Triathlon
September 30, 2006
What's wrong with this picture???
It is 10:30 on a Saturday night and less than a dozen athletes are still doing the Choptank Shuffle, reeling in the last few miles of the ChesapeakeMan Ultra. Less than 200 participants entered and about 170 started the final leg of the race, a full marathon. The ChesapeakeMan is one of the few non ironman branded ultra distance races in North America. This is the third year of the race and the second year that we have timed it. A 2.4 mile open water swim, an ultra-distance Aqua Velo and a hybrid distance long course triathlon rounded out today's triathlon festival. Collectively all four races only attracted about 280 participants.
How can this be? Legendary Race Director Robert Vigorito is an icon up this way. His passion for the sport is unmatched and his events are awesome. Three of his events filled to capacity in record time this year (Eagleman, Iron Girl Columbia, and the Columbia tri), yet this weekend's event cannot even break the 300 participant mark. He expects registration for the 2007 Columbia and Eagleman Triathlons to close next week and I'm sure both of those events accepted more entries in one day than the Chesapeakeman did the entire year preceding it.
Like all North American Ultras, his race has been blessed with the curse of the ironman. There is no escaping.....too many athletes have been assimilated. Resistance is futile.
More to follow....
Posted by Fred at 11:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | More in: Triathlon
September 29, 2006
Better them than me...
That's what I was thinking to myself when I was gazing out over the Choptank Friday morning. The Choptank is where the swim takes place for this weekend's Chesapeakeman Triathlon. It is also the same venue used for the Eagleman Tri. The Choptank is called that for a reason, when the wind picks up it is just like a washing machine. This morning the river is all white caps as steady 20mph winds blow over the venue. Saturday morning's swim is a point to point swim and if the conditions are the same on Saturday, swimmers may actually end up getting blown 2.4 miles in the opposite direction. The bike would be brutal as well. It is overcast, cold and windy, not the best conditions for an ultra.
Back in my racing days this would make for a miserable race for me. I'm a hot weather person, my body does not do well in cold weather. That's why I say "better them than me".
Posted by Fred at 08:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | More in: Random Thoughts
