Special Visitor...

Dr. Shim is the guy on the far right with the blue sweatshirt on. In this picture, he is administering a choice reaction test to Kirky (kneeling girl at the end of the table).

Well, this weekend, we here at Western State College of Colorado were blessed to have a special visitor and good friend of mine, Dr. Andrew Shim (formerly of IUP), now out of Dakota State University in Madison, SD. Scott and him had been planning a Health-Fitness and Anaerobic Performance Seminar for the past month and a half, and Friday/Saturday were the implementation of said planning. I am always happy to have a visitor come to Gunnison, and that now makes 2 visits for Dr. Shim in the last 2.5 months!! Wow, my family and friends are being put to shame, ha ha ha?

The students that attended - mostly all ESS Majors (exercise and sport science) hopefully got something out of the 2 day seminar; at worse some of them got free weight-vests and pants from Arnie @ Ironwear fitness in good old Pittsburgh, PA! (an awesome guy Andrew and I had the pleasure of knowing when at IUP - his website www.ironwearfitness.com).
We had Andrew lecture for the morning sessions while the afternoon sessions were all hands-on. If you go to my pictures online, you will see some pictures of the labs and lectures that he did here at the college.

Other highlights of the weekend? Well, with a special visitor in town, that means special dinner plans! Scott and Liz were most gracious in housing Dr. Shim for the duration of his stay and on Friday evening post-seminar, post-exercise/working out, we found ourselves in Crested Butte at the Ginger Cafe for a delicious and authentic Thai meal (Scott and I's mutual friend Tim "vegetable" Curry, joined us for dinner as well - We call him "vegetable" Curry b/c he ordered such for dinner and his last name is Curry...ha ha). If any of you ever make it out to here, I will take you there if you'd like...or any of the other wonderful places. Speaking of which, Saturday night, we went to the Gunnison Brewery for dinner. In addition to brewing their own micro brews, which are highly palatable, the Brewery serves up fresh organic beef! (& chicken too). Another great place to stop in and eat if you are ever here . I think that makes it my 4th or 5th time now eating at the Brewery.

In other news, I'm still waiting to hear about the personal training job at the country club in Crested Butte. I will keep ya'll informed when I know more.

BIG NEWS, for those that may read this in the next week...I am traveling back home (via car) to Indiana!!!! I need to return my parent's vehicle to them and pick up my own car. Also, I am looking forward to visiting family and friends and hopefully hitting up Gatti's for some needed things:) Thanks in advance Steph! I will be in town from Friday afternoon till Sunday morning. If you read this and would like to see me, get a hold of me! (724 388 5449)

Lastly, this blog is now PUBLIC!! That means no more logging in with user names and passwords. Just go to this website and read away, worry-free. If you have anyone else in mind that may like to read this, please pass on the word and the web URL (http://whatisaldoingfuntoday.blogspot.com/).

Hope things are well and that this weather front moving in doesn't bring snow!!!! Finger's crossed and breathing slow, whew. Talk to some of you soon, and more of you hopefully later. Be well.

Alan

Friday the 13th! (at least here in CO still)

It looks chilly with long pants and a fleece on but just the cool breeze from the ocean kept me a tad chilled. The sun was warm and lovely :)

So there is no big connotation with it being Friday the 13th, just thought I'd mention it....owowoh spooky! haha. Well, here it FINALLY is; the update I promised yesterday delivered a day late. My apologies. I had all intentions of having it out hot and fresh yesterday but a hectic 9.5 hour day at work washing and cleaning cars wore me out! So tomorrow (Saturday) is a big big day for us at Hertz. We have 31 rentals coming between 9 and 5pm. Doesn't sound or seem like much maybe to you, but for small-town airport us, it's huge! Unprecedented possibly since last spring break time. As mentioned, Terri (also an employee at the college like me-who works at Hertz, the reason I got the job) and I have been slaving getting cars cleaned for the big day tomorrow. We had to have about 10 or 12 vehicles brought over from Grand Junction and Montrose CO so that we will have enough for all our rentals. In addition to getting ready for the big day tomorrow, we have had some busy days renting 12+ cars in a day the last 3 days. So you go from cleaning and washing a car as fast as possible to renting cars and back again...what a madhouse of activity and constant physical and mental stimulation. The rental business (at least here) is like playing a board game, you gotta plan your moves ahead so you don't screw yourself in the end.

So, beyond that exciting chunk of news, I was privileged to travel further west to sunny San Diego from last Saturday till Tuesday evening. My friend Madison here at the college was driving back to her home for spring break and invited me. I obliged and proceeded to secure a plane flight home Tuesday afternoon b/c I had to work Wednesday through Sunday at Hertz. It was awesome to get out of CO for a bit and see some new beautiful country. We spent 15 hours driving all day Saturday to arrive in San Diego Saturday evening. Please check out my pictures to see all of the lovely shots I got!!! Here is the link for those that forget to bookmark it!!!! (http://picasaweb.google.com/aldsmith3) Do check out those photos, in may ways, it is self-explanatory, though if you would like further clarification, etc. please feel free to email me (aldsmith3@gmail.com) or call me (724 388 5449).

Let us see...what else. OH! Also another reason why I'm glad I put off blogging till tonight. This morning I had the great opportunity to go up to Crested Butte (the beautiful and much more plush-monetarily speaking-ski resort community 30 miles north of I) to interview at the Country Club @ Crested Butte. I was interviewing for a position as a personal trainer. A non-traditional student and mother of another student at the college personal trains there and she spoke highly of me to the managers. From which of course, I sent a formal cover letter and my resume and 1 week later I am asked to come interview. Yay! Anyways, I spoke with Madelyn (the mother of my friend Tim and non-traditional student) called me later today after my interview saying they were very impressed with me. I thanked her for getting my foot in the door and speaking highly of me. So, it's not official yet but I imagine I will have a job opportunity coming my way soon hopefully! Besides a beautiful drive up to CB everyday that I'd work, the club is undergoing a 2 plus million dollar renovation and everything in the health club is getting updated! What a great way to start for me and for them! (Pending I get the job of course). Oh and also, the going rate for personal training is $60 bucks an hour! Not too shabby eh? I'll keep yins up on that.

For now the love/social life continues to go well. No new developments. I am not upset by such though b/c I have enough women friends to fulfill my company for women (read: non-sexually). Hope all is well else where! Is it me or does it seem like spring will maybe spring early this year?

Take care ya'll :)


Alan

...

Dear Readers,

Thank you for your patience as I quite sparse and sporadic in my posting. No worries though, one is coming your way tomorrow! (hopefully), hot and juicy. Bib-up. Catch you then...



Alan

Well, this picture can sum up the past weekend, minus a few other events which I will reveal. If you aren't entirely sure what you are looking at I'll fill you in...It's the Olympic circles obviously at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. There are many more photos (same naughty, some nice) on my picture website (http://picasaweb.google.com/aldsmith3)

We were at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) for the Rocky Mountain American College of Sports Medicine conference. The ACSM is a governing/educating body for us in the Sports Science field and many times the position stands our government adopts on exercise comes directly from them. The Rocky Mountain is just a more local extension of a national group. Back home in PA it was the Mid-Atlantic ACSM.

In addition to attending lectures and hearing various people talk, myself and 2 other students went mountain bike riding at Palmer Park in CO Springs. It is a very rocky and beautiful area just northeast of the OTC. Plus it was nice to have a chance to do some outdoor activity without snow impeding our fun. Anyways, some of the lectures/speakers...one was from a guy who had run across America (from San Francisco to New York City) in 51 days! When free from injury, he was averaging 60-70 miles a day! He'd sleep about 4 hours a night and do it again. What an experience! The other notable speaker was a Medical Doctor who is one of the doctor's in the medical tent for the Ironman triathlon in Hawaii. He has been doing such for a number of years now. His spiel was about hydration, more so along the lines of not only being hydrated, but having the correct sodium (salt) balance. Often times, endurance athletes are hydrated but they are hyponatrimic (low salt). Words of wisdom to those of you planning any intense outdoor sessions where you'll be sweating in the heat...get your fluids and make sure there is some sort of sodium content in them (i.e. Gatorade, etc), but don't overdue it. Secondly/lastly, he also spoke about prevention of heatstroke. If you remember the Minnesota Vikings football player Cory Stringer, who died a few years ago from heatstroke. Often times, the mistake medical personal/trainers/coaches make is to call the ambulance when in essence you can save someone from dying from heatstroke by simply immersing them in an ice bath. 9 times out of 10, cold fluids or even an IV to boost hydration/speed cooling will not work and a simple ice bath will save them. He referenced 2 amateur runners in the Marine Corps Marathon (Washington, DC) where 1 died and 1 lived. The 1 runner who was put into an ambulance and sent to the hospital ended up dying b/c their core body temperature was too high and the life-saving steps to bring it down weren't taken; where as the other runner who suffered from heatstroke was put into an ice bath at the medical tent and lived to run another day. The simple lessons...Rob, this is for you.

Anyways, I didn't mean to write so much about that last deal, but it obviously meant something to me and in ways you can pass it on for those of you that find yourselves running/exercising in more extreme conditions.

In other news, I am currently applying for a job personal training at the country club up at Crested Butte. They currently do not have any or many male personal trainers and are in need. I wouldn't probably start until May and the club is undergoing an extensive make-over so I have hope of being able to work there. A non-traditional student (40 some year old mother) works there now and she put in a good word for me. I'll keep you updated on that.

Hertz Rent A Car continues to go well. I make almost as much money there in a month as I do with my job here at the college, so it's nice to have a 2nd income. Gotta crawl out of the debt hole somehow! haha.

Hope you all are well, I hear from bits and pieces of you and quite frankly, I'm not sure everyone who is signed up for this blog even reads it anymore, so for those of you that read it, thank you!! Take care, be well, and don't forget to smile.

Alan