COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - This is one of my favorite times of the year.

I love fall. I love the cooler temperatures and I love pro and college football. Can't wait to see how my two favorite teams, the Washington Redskins and Iowa Hawkeyes, do this season.

But my favorite part of this season is having the opportunity to travel to the World Championships and the Olympic Games for wrestling.

This year, I'm traveling to my fifth World Championships as the communications manager for USA Wrestling.

The Worlds are in Moscow, Russia, this year. Russia is the mecca of wrestling. They have the best freestyle team on the planet, and I'm looking to forward to seeing how the young, hungry and talented U.S. team stacks up against them and the rest of the World.

The U.S. is sending strong teams in all three styles, and look for the Americans to step up with a strong showing as we move closer to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

I am scheduled to leave Thursday morning out of Denver, along with communications director Gary Abbott and broadcasting/video man Jason Bryant. We fly to Atlanta and then will fly over the Atlantic Ocean on our way to Moscow.

We are busy scrambling to make sure we don't forget anything for the trip. I will pack two suitcases and a computer bag for the trip.

The weather forecast looks like cool and rainy in Russia with temperatures in the 50s and 60s.

We will arrive in Russia a couple of days before the event to acclimate and check out the venue.

We plan on providing the best coverage we ever have for this event. We are going to do an audio webcast, Twitter updates, stories on the event, video interviews, features, blogs, brackets, etc.

Stay tuned to TheMat.com for updates from Russia. The seven-day tournament is scheduled for Sept. 6-12.

Let's hope the Internet is up and running in the arena when we get there.

DENVER, Colorado - I am on the road again.

My alarm was buzzing at 5:30 a.m. today, and I finished packing before meeting colleagues Gary Abbott and Jason Bryant at USA Wrestling World Headquarters.

We made the 1 hour, 15 minute drive from Colorado Springs to Denver International Airport, went through security and are now waiting at our gate to fly to Atlanta.

We only have 50 minutes between flights, so any kind of delay could be crippling. We will have to hustle to make our Delta flight from Atlanta to Moscow. It looks like about a 10-hour flight.

You may see three frazzled looking passengers sprinting through the Atlanta airport in a couple of hours.

We will meet up with officials Rick Tucci, Tom Clark and Zach Errett in Atlanta and fly with them to Russia.

Our iPods are fully charged, and hopefully we will see a few decent movies on the flight.

I already bonked my head on the tailgate of Jason's truck when we were unloading bags, but I think I'm going to be OK.

I had my "last supper" last night before heading on the trip. I took my daughter, Hayley, to dinner for her 18th birthday. We went to Phantom Canyon in the Springs, and the pot roast was outstanding.

I've heard the food in Russia is not the best, so I've packed a few crackers, granola bars and items like that.

It's going to be a long day, but I'm excited to be headed to the World Championships again.

We will arrive a couple of days early to acclimate and check out the press operations for the event. The seven-day tournament opens with the Greco-Roman competition on Monday at the Sports Complex Olimpiskiy in Moscow.  

MOSCOW, Russia - I've had datelines from stories I've written all over the World, but I never thought I would ever have one with Russia on it.

Well, that just changed late this morning when our 10 hour, 12 minute flight from Atlanta touched down in Russia for the World Championships.

We left Denver 30 minutes late on the flight to Atlanta, so we had to hustle down to the gate to narrowly make our flight to Russia. Jason Bryant and Gary Abbott of USA Wrestling were with me, and officials Rick Tucci, Tom Clark and Zach Errett joined us in Atlanta.

Tucci was sitting up in business class and I ended up in the worst seat on the plane - in the middle seat in the very back row.

I told Gary I wasn't going to complain, and I managed to do that for 10 hours as we flew across the Atlantic Ocean and part of Europe. I know I am very fortunate to have the opportunities I have in my position as communications manager for USA Wrestling.

I watched the three movies they showed on the flight - Karate Kid, Bounty Hunter and Quantum of Solace - and all of them were decent. Tom Clark and I were joking how surprising it was that the Karate Kid won the tournament on one leg and how James Bond killed all the bad guys. I never would have guessed that would've happened!

We were picked up in a van at the airport, and it took us about two and a half hours from the time we landed until we arrived at our hotel. The traffic was pretty bad, similar to New York City. We finally checked into our hotel - the Hotel Cosmos - and went up and ate lunch in the hotel. We then received our credentials, and were lacking access to the warmup area. Gary and I will have to talk to the event press chief to straighten that out.

I exchanged $100 of U.S. currency for 2,700 Roubles, so I could pay $55 for 24 hours of Internet access at the hotel. This is a very expensive city. Jason put $30 in a machine to try and get Roubles, but the machine ate his money. You're not in Virginia anymore, Son!

As I type this late in the afternoon on Friday, Gary is asleep on the bed in our 11th floor room and sawing a few logs. He didn't follow his own advice where he said to stay awake as long as you possibly can to adjust to the time change. We are 10 hours ahead of Mountain Time here in Russia. I am going to try and stay awake as long as I can so my body adjusts, but it won't be easy.

We plan to check out the competition venue tomorrow and we also plan to go check out Red Square.

The U.S. Greco-Roman World Team was scheduled to arrive in Russia on Friday night. They had been training in the Czech Republic for the past few days. The Greco boys start competition when the event begins on Monday.

The travel to Russia was relatively smooth for us. A lot can go wrong when you are traveling overseas, and we made it here relatively unscathed.

Looking forward to a great tournament!

MOSCOW, Russia - Red Square is one of the most historic places on the planet, and it more than lived up to its billing on Saturday.

Jason Bryant and I climbed aboard the Metro train system in historic Moscow - a great deal at 52 Roubles round trip (less than a Starbucks coffee, with a train ticket at $1.69) - and headed down to Red Square.

It was an amazing day, to say the least.

We started by hitting McDonald's. It was mid-afternoon, but the place was still packed. I got a No. 1 Value Meal with a Big Mac, french fries and a Coke for 180 Roubles ($6 U.S.). It tasted about the same as McDonald's in the U.S., plus I hadn't eaten all day so the timing of the trip there was perfect.

We saw Moscow's showpiece, the spectacular St. Basil's Cathedral, along with the Kremlin. The buildings are nothing short of impressive.

We walked nearly all of the way around Red Square before running into officials Rick Tucci, Tom Clark and Zach Errett, and Iranian native Ardeshir Asgari. We decided to walk around with them, and checked out the large outdoor market there.

I ended up buying a black, fur Russian hat, a Matrushka doll, and a few other items. We had fun negotiating with the merchants and driving the price down.

Tom was the master at driving the price down, walking away a couple times to get the man to drop the price. I was giving him crap for buying an Ohio State Buckeyes Matrushka with OSU quarterback Terrelle Pryor on it. I grew up near Iowa City and I am a big Hawkeye football fan.

After dinner, we did some more shopping and then started walking back to the train station.

There was a huge festival going on, with a Russian band playing Hip Hop music. It was amazing to see thousands of people singing along. The streets were filled with people. It was Moscow City Day. They were celebrating Moscow's 863rd birthday today. Around 3 to 4 million people were expected to be out celebrating. Russia is a city of approximately 10 million people.

We found our train and headed back to the hotel. We spent about seven hours at Red Square. On the way back, we spotted a familiar face in the subway. Photographer Tony Rotundo has arrived in town, and he rode back with us to the hotel.

It was a great day! The tournament is set to start on Monday afternoon at 1. Looking forward to seeing how the Greco-Roman boys from the U.S. fare. The first three U.S. Greco-Roman wrestlers - Spenser Mango, Faruk Sahin and Justin Ruiz - will weigh in and receive their draws tomorrow afternoon.

MOSCOW, Russia - We have arrived at the Olympiysky Sports Complex.

We hopped on the shuttle bus for the short 15-minute ride from the hotel to the arena early Sunday afternoon.

On the drive to the venue, we spotted two McDonald's restaurants. McDonald's may become my new favorite restaurant over the next week. The mystery meat we had at lunch in the hotel today did not agree with most of us. And the McDonald's I had yesterday actually was pretty good.

I took about two bites of the food on my plate at lunch today, and simply couldn't eat anymore. Jason Bryant and I decided to walk down to the grocery store that is two blocks from the hotel. Nothing looked too appealing, so I bought a small can of Pringles and a Coca-Cola for 88 Roubles (less than 3 bucks U.S.). Good thing I brought some crackers and snacks with me from the U.S.

One of our Greco-Roman coaches, Olympic gold medalist Momir Petkovic, told me he can't eat the food they have at the hotel. And he grew up in this part of the World.

The venue for the 2010 World Championships is massive. It is an older facility, but the set-up for the tournament appears to be pretty good. The Olympiysky Sports Complex was the home for the basketball and boxing competitions during the 1980 Olympics. The U.S. did not attend those Games because of a boycott by President Carter.

The press work room and the press tribune in the arena all have good working Internet, which is a must for us to cover an event of this magnitude. We will be doing an audio webcast of the event, with Jason doing the play-by-play.

The warm-up area is adjacent to the competition area, making it easy for the athletes to get back and forth. In 2007 and 2009, the warm-up area for this event was not close to the competition area and created some problems. Doug Schwab nearly missed a match in 2007 and Jake Varner nearly missed his quarterfinal bout last year. The bout order was changed in Varner's class, and none of the American delegation was notified of the change.

We ran into Justin Ruiz at lunch in the hotel. The 2005 World bronze medalist is wrestling in his fifth World Championships. He was scheduled to weigh in later today, and had a plate filled with food. He assured me he has his weight down to 96 kg/211.5 lbs.

Ruiz, Spenser Mango and Faruk Sahin will compete tomorrow as the seven-day event kicks off in Moscow. I ran into Spenser down in the hotel lobby and he is ready to go. This is Spenser's third straight World-level event, after he placed in the top 10 at the 2008 Olympics and 2009 Worlds, and he's ready to win a medal.

We received more good news when Gary Abbott and I were able to receive credentials to gain access to the warm-up area. That is critical for our coverage of the event as press officers for USA Wrestling. We need to be able to follow the athletes back to the warm-up area to conduct interviews.

MOSCOW, Russia - The first day at the World Championships was a prime example of how tough this event really is.

The American squad fell short of winning a medal on the first day of the event Monday. Justin Ruiz reached the bronze-medal match, but fell just short and settled for fifth. Teammates Spenser Mango and Faruk Sahin both lost to Olympic champions en route to finishing outside the top 10.

Mango looked like he might get to wrestle back, but Russian Nazyr Mankiev lost in the semifinals on a controversial call. Mango would've had a chance to come back if Mankiev had made the finals. Mango could've come back to make a run at a bronze medal if Mankiev wins his semi.

It was an extremely long day today. Wrestling started at 1 p.m. local time and didn't end until almost 10 o'clock tonight. There was no break, so we were pretty exhausted when we got back to the hotel. We left the hotel on a shuttle bus at 10 a.m. today, so we could grab our seats in the press tribune and set everything up.

The U.S. sends its heavy hitter, Dremiel Byers, to the mat on Tuesday. Byers is on the opposite side of the bracket from where Olympic champions Mijain Lopez of Cuba and Khasan Baroev of Russia are. Byers was second in this event last year and beat Baroev earlier this season. Byers could deliver a spark for the whole U.S. team in all three styles with a big performance.

Jason Bryant, Gary Abbott and myself took our chances by riding in a cab back to the hotel. The cab had no markings on it that it was actually a taxi, but it only cost 300 Roubles (10 bucks U.S.) so it was worth it. Not sure I want to do that again.

We hit McDonald's again as Gary popped for dinner. McDonald's is good here, but it's probably not a place I will be hitting much when I get home.

The wireless internet in the hotel has helped us a lot. We typically have more work to do when we get back to the hotel.

MOSCOW, Russia - Covering the World Championships has been a bit of an adventure for the media and the press officers in past years at this event.

Internet has been hit and miss, and we didn't even have a press tribune to work at in 2007 in Azerbaijan.

But this year's Worlds have been run much better.

We have a press tribune, press center and access to the athletes in the warmup area. Plus the Internet is working well and they have done a nice job distributing information to us here. That makes an already difficult job that much easier for us.

I have covered sporting events all over the World, and it can be a bit of a challenge with the language barrier. But the folks here should be commended for their efforts.

Hopefully, that will continue in the five days we have left in this event.

The support from everyone back home means a lot. It's great to see messages and comments on Facebook, and e-mails from a lot of friends and wrestling fans. Hopefully, we will have some more good news to give you over the next few days.

MOSCOW, Russia - One of the misconceptions about Russians is that they are not friendly.

In the week I've been here, the people have been very nice. We had a young lady help give us directions at the train station. She went out of her way to walk us down to make sure we boarded the right train in Moscow's massive, Metro underground train system. It would be very easy to get lost here.

The people in the hotel and the venue also have been very friendly and polite. Many of them are eager to try out their English when they see an American.

The people here have helped us feel very comfortable here. That makes a big difference when you are here for a seven-day tournament.

We returned to the hotel last night and received some bad news. The Internet was down in the entire hotel. We still had some work to do, plus I was hoping to talk to a friend on Skype. It was a little frustrating, but you have to expect things to go wrong when you are halfway around the World.

The shuttle buses from the hotel to the venue have been very helpful. I rode over this morning with Jake Fisher and his training partner Cheney Haight, along with the entire U.S. women's team. I didn't recognize Keith Wilson, one of our women's coaches, until he pulled a white towel out of his bag and wrapped it around his head.

This tournament can be a grind. The days are long - very long - and sleep is a precious commodity.

Gary Abbott and I arrived early at the venue this morning, so we could get online and catch up on a few things. I've traveled overseas enough times now to know the drill when things go awry.

The U.S. is 0-for-6 in medals so far in this tournament. Hopefully, the Americans can change their fortunes today with Jake Fisher, Alyssa Lampe and Jessica Medina taking the mat in Moscow.

My old buddy, Bill May, is back for his 999th World Championships (actually he guesses it is around 20). The veteran journalist grew up in Minnesota and is part Japanese. He now lives in Prague, Czech Republic. He covers the Japanese teams here and knows everything about this tournament from a media perspective.

Bill also is fluent in Japanese, and just had a question about a Japan women's wrestler answered for me. I was asking him why six-time World champion Hitomi Sakamoto had moved down a weight class from 51 kg/112.25 lbs. to 48 kg/105.5 lbs. Sakamoto, 29, reportedly is moving down to prepare for a run at the 2012 Olympics. Her weight class of 51 kilos is not an Olympic weight class.

MOSCOW, Russia - One of the coolest parts of the World Championships is seeing all the different people from around the World gathered in one location.

On the bus ride over to the venue today, I sat in the seat next to the girl from Kazakhstan who American Clarissa Chun defeated to win the 2008 World title in Tokyo, Japan.

Seated directly in front of me was a wrestler from India and to his right was a women's wrestler from Russia.

A Bulgarian wrestler was in the seat directly to my right.

After returning to the hotel last night, Gary Abbott and I were on a jam-packed elevator and at least five different languages were being spoken at the same time.

Our seats in the press tribune are right next to the Iranian broadcasters. The guy sitting right next to me, Pirirani Gholam Ali, is a great dude. He speaks good English, so we've been able to chat. He offered me some cashews they brought from home. They weren't bad. I gave the Iranians some of the USA pins we brought along. Jason Bryant, who is doing our audio webcast for USA Wrestling, said he doesn't speak a lick of Persian but he thought the Iranians sounded good on their broadcast.

Wrestling is the National Sport in Iran, so the Iranian broadcasters are major celebrities back home

The Iranians are taking the day off today since their women do not compete in athletics. They will be back for the freestyle competition over the final three days of the tournament.

Our hotel is having some issues with its elevators. Terry Brands, a two-time World champ who is one of our freestyle coaches, got stuck in one of the hotel elevators after the freestyle team arrived a couple of days ago. Fortunately, he was able to make it out of there OK.

MOSCOW, Russia - Winning is a great cure for what ails an athletic team.

And the U.S. achieved some much-needed success on the mat Thursday when Elena Pirozhkova captured a silver medal, Tatiana Padilla won bronze and Kelsey Campbell placed fifth.

The U.S. displayed some of the fire and fight it traditionally is known for.

The Americans had been shutout in the medal department in the first three days of the event.

Ran into Olympic gold medalist Randy Lewis in the lobby of the hotel last night. Randy, in my opinion, is the best Iowa Hawkeye of all-time. Randy wrestled an entertaining, wide-open style and wasn't afraid to go for broke. He may have won a second Olympic title in 1988, but he was beaten out for the U.S. team by a young man named John Smith. All Smith did was win four World titles and two Olympic titles.

The Metro train system has been a life-saver on the trip. The underground trains go everywhere. A one-way ticket from the hotel to the venue is 26 Roubles (just under a buck in U.S. money).

My stomach is in knots today. All I've been eating is McDonald's, so maybe it finally caught up with me.

MOSCOW, Russia - One of the biggest challenges when you travel overseas is trying not to get sick.

The food in foreign countries is different from what we have back home, so it's a challenge trying to make it through a trip without your stomach having a bad reaction to something.

This is my seventh overseas trip. I've been pretty fortunate to avoid getting sick in the past, but this year has been a different story. I have been sick twice on this trip. I had a bad reaction to some Russian cuisine and a Big Mac from McDonald's, and it has been affecting me for the past three days. I feel a little bit better today, but I'm not going to eat a whole lot until I get on the plane Monday to head back to the U.S.

My diet today will consist of two granola bars and bottled water.

The U.S. is looking for a big day today with past World silver medalists Mike Zadick and Jake Herbert set to compete along with J.D. Bergman. All three guys have wrestled well this season, and all three are legitimate contenders to win medals.

It would be nice to put a couple of guys on the podium today.

MOSCOW, Russia - Rode over on the bus this morning with our last three American wrestlers to take the mat.

Les Sigman, Travis Paulson and Brent Metcalf are three wrestlers I've followed closely through their college and international careers.

Each wrestler has a chance to win a medal today.

Sigman has come out of nowhere this season to have a great year. He beat one of the best wrestlers in the World, World bronze medalist Tervel Dlagnev of the U.S., just to make the American team at heavyweight. Don't be surprised to see Les turn in a strong performance today.

We are scheduled to fly out of Moscow tomorrow around noon. We fly 10 hours to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, have a four-hour layover and then fly to Denver. We are scheduled to arrive in Denver around 9:30 p.m. Monday. We gain the 10 hours back we lost on the way over.

I'm ready for a big day of wrestling today, and I'm ready to get back home to see my family and friends. I'm ready to hug my daughter and spend time with my girlfriend.

Ran into Nebraska coach Mark Manning this morning. He is a huge college football fan, and we are good friends after the six years I spent covering Cornhusker wrestling for the Omaha World-Herald. It is weird being here when the college football season is going on. I spent the first 17 years of my career covering college football for newspapers in Burlington, Iowa, and Omaha. It will be strange seeing Nebraska in the Big Ten next season.