Paul Arden | Wednesday, 4 February 2026
James has got manflu and so I’m filling in for him this week. I enjoyed his FP last week and there is a discussion about this topic on the Board, which I’ll link to below. Personally I find the 500 Euros additional fee for me to compete from a non-ICSF member country at the World Championships to be unbelievably excessive. 10 Euros would have been about right. I can’t think of any way I or anyone else can justify an additional 500 Euros charge and no doubt this is one reason why participating nations have plummeted from 20 in UK, to 9 in Sweden. Participation numbers have halved. This is not the growing and inclusive sport it once was, which is a shame because it had the potential to be great. Anyway, at least it means I’ll avoid the problems of casting against athletes I coach!
I may attend as a spectator for a few days, we shall see. I do have a European trip planned this summer, to visit the rod factory in Spain, sell some land in Hungary and catch up with my family members in the UK. Maybe I can fit in an Ironman while there. It would be nice to go to Italy to see many of my friends there but I won’t be competing with these excessive fees in place. I assume as participation numbers fall, fees will continue to rise, until eventually it’s last man standing.
I was listening to a podcast while trying to sleep last night, which I found brilliant. It was about marketing. One of the things that really attracted my attention was that items should be considered not just by their price, but by cost per hour of service. That makes Hot Torpedos very good value! (And also makes the ICSF very poor value). I must have had 20,000 hrs out of the HT8. Which works out at 6 cents per hour of fabulous use, and I haven’t finished yet! ICSF Trout Distance, by comparison, works out at 125 Euros per minute, and that’s before participation fees! Even my lawyer doesn’t earn money that quickly. Although judging by the invoice I received this morning it can’t be far off!
I’m in town today on a supplies run. Food, petrol, water mostly. I’ll also find the time for an evening run. I plan 21km over 12 laps of the local airfield. With 50 press-ups before every lap! I’ve been lifting weights this last week and have come to the conclusion that I really don’t enjoy lifting weights, but I do like the sore muscle feeling it gives me afterwards!
Running in the tropics is more about trying to control your heart rate than anything else. If I overexert, then I overheat, and I find very quickly I’m running in Zone 4 or even 5. And then the wheels fall off after about an hour. Staying in Zone 2 is hard when the temps are 32/33C and humidity is 85%. I drink 1 litre of water with electrolytes per hour and yet can still lose 1kg/hour in body weight. It’s staggering. But I enjoy it.
Typically, it’s the first day this week that it’s not windy!!
I will edit a video for next week. Promise!!
Cheers, Paul
Here is that Board link:
https://www.sexyloops.co.uk/theboard/viewtopic.php?t=4546#p90484
and here is a link to James' more articulate page:
https://www.sexyloops.com/index.php/ps/time-to-ditch-the-icsf