Articles tagged “fitness”
RDU firing out-of-shape public safety personnel
Saturday, 10 April, 2010 — fitness
A number of both police and fire & rescue personnel at Raleigh-Durham International Airport have been terminated for not meeting physical fitness test standards.
Emergency response agencies all have similar standards for recruits - but they have different ideas about keeping workers in shape.
Like other employers trying to curb health costs, RDU has stepped up its emphasis on employee wellness. Fitness testing for police, fire and rescue workers started in 1996. Those employees were told in 2007 that merit raises would be postponed for those who could not meet an evolving standard.
In 2008, they were told they could be fired. That year, 11 police employees and 10 fire-rescue workers failed the test several times. [Lt. Billie C.] Rose was one of them, and she says the pressure was intense.
Rose doesn’t sound happy to be let go:
It’s not fair to measure a person’s overall performance by just one or two sections of a physical fitness test.
… I’ve been an excellent employee. I have the evaluations to show it.
Except, every job has key criteria and employers can say, “this is essential.” A multi-year warning seems quite ample to get compliant, particularly in a public safety situation where the fitness of the responder can be a significant factor in their ability to act successfully. Further, as the article states, RDU kept the criteria lenient. I’d find the standard challenging right now, but if my job depended on it, I’d get there.
I can see this happening elsewhere, in the not-too-distant future.
Physical fitness is only tangentially related for most white-collar work, but I can definitely see companies being more vocal in encouraging employees to get into shape to keep company-borne health-care costs down. Currently, there’s mild encouragement to improve health and bring issues like obesity, smoking, high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes under control. I can see companies setting fitness targets (body fat percentage, cholesterol balance, blood pressure, run time) in order to stay in a particular cost tier. Out-of-bounds? Your share of the premium is higher.
Forthcoming Raleigh greenway goodness
Saturday, 6 March, 2010 — fitness cycling
Former N&O outdoor writer Joe Miller has had some good Raleigh greenway news recently that I just caught up with.
First, the House Creek Greenway is going to connect the area near the NC Art Museum and Meredith College with the Crabtree Creek Greenway right behind Crabtree Valley Mall. That’ll make it possible to ride from east of Downtown near Millburnie, through Umstead and then south to Cary’s Black Creek trail.
That’s serious riding.
Then, there’s the Neuse River Greenway, which will open in phases and run from Falls Lake Dam to Johnston County. It’ll hook up with the Crabtree Creek Greenway and the Walnut Creek Greenway, too. The first stretch is slated to open in April 2011.
I’m still looking forward to the Crabtree Greenway extending west across Duraleigh Road and connects to the north-side of Umstead, but this is a fantastic investment for Raleigh. I’m looking forward to some epic all-greenway rides in the years to come.
After-action review: Krispy Kreme Challenge 2010
Sunday, 7 February, 2010 — fitness
Last year, I photographed the Krispy Kreme Challenge. This year, with WebAssign sponsoring the event, I took the opportunity to run the event while Robin took photos.
How did I do?
Not bad. I finished in 1:21:25 in the casual division. I ate seven doughnuts on site, two fully on the way back and the remaining three after I crossed the finish line. After running about a mile and a quarter with no real training program to speak of, I switched over to fast walking.
I managed to keep the doughnuts down, though in a couple of stints at running on the way back, that seemed iffy. The after-effects aren’t much to speak of, save the normal and completely expected pains of over-exertion.
Next year will be different.
Taking into account my own fitness level and the event logistics, I’m noting several things I want to do differently, in order to compete in the Challenger category:
- Be able to run four miles. I’m not even close to this right now. At a 10 minute pace, I should be able to complete the challenge in under an hour.
- Practice eating doughnuts. Easier, at least until considering I’m not talking about eating one or two, but six or nine, then running. This is a different sort of brick.
- Bring my own water. The Krispy Kreme water station was at the back of the parking lot. With 6,000 people or so trying to drink or just eat doughnuts — well, it was very crowded and you spend a lot of time trying to get something to drink.
- Plastic bag or paper towel. Something to help me mash multiple doughnuts together without getting my hands quite as glazed.
- Hand wipes. See the aforementioned glaze problem.
- Bottle of OJ or coffee on stand-by. I’d like something to cut the sweetness just a bit.
All-in-all, though, the weather stayed decent, I had fun and I didn’t injure myself. That’s a win.