Humbled by the Knee Pushup

Monday was the third day of my 72 hours at work and was fairly easy as far as workouts go, but still surprisingly difficult.

For as long as I've been coaching, I've prohibited my volleyball kids from doing knee pushups. The kids learn very quickly to never call them girl pushups in my presence. So you can imagine I wasn't to thrilled about starting step three of the Convict Conditioning pushup. Still, I want to be as fair to the program as possible in determining it's efficacy.

I performed the following reps

Knee Pushups 3x30

Bent Knee raises 3x30


Keeping my elbows tucked in tight to my ribcage worked my tris, lats and delts more than the standard wide pushup. In fact, my tris were decently sore the next day.

For the bent knee raises I again focussed on keeping the small of my back pressed into the floor to maintain the hollow position and further work my abs.

Later that day I got in a little bit more of a workout carrying a sick patient down a narrow flight of stairs. My crew member and I performed a "sit pick" where I wrapped my arms around the patient's torso and my crew member grabbed the patient's legs. The best thing here was the patient waited until the bottom of the stairs to puke, only getting a little bit on my gloved hand.

August 22, 2010 - Post Fire Mini Tri

We spent about 5 hours at the fire. Once we got back to the station I figured might as well just go ahead and get my workout in then since I was already all sweaty. I performed three exercises back to back for 15 minutes each to simulate a mini triathlon.

First up 1 arm swings
16 kg bell
Viking Warrior 15:15

Exercise Bike
15 minutes, random hill program, level 11, 15:15 interval
total distance 4.88 miles
average speed 19.2

Stair climb
15 min, 15:15, interval program, level 13

I'm glad I hopped in the weight room when I did, because it would've been a lot harder to muster the motivation if I had let myself sit down for a bit once we got back. The machines aren't the greatest, but are the closest I can get to sport specificity for tris and stair climbs while at work.

August 22, 2010 - 3rd Alarm Structure Fire

Sunday I did a last minute trade and worked for a coworker on another shift. That morning after we finished our morning station duties, we went out and trained a bit on rig placement and walked a roof of a building in our first due. Rig placement is important because once an incident gets under way, more rigs arrive and hoses are put down and charged, it becomes increasingly harder to move the rigs. It's much better to set ourselves up for success from the beginning of the incident.

After figuring out the best spot for the truck, we raised the aerial ladder to the roof of the building. I and a few other members of the crew climbed the ladder to get a better look at the roof. We saw that one side had about a 5' drop from the parapet wall to the roof while the other side had a two foot drop. If there's a fire in this building we may have to take an additional ladder to the roof to climb down the parapet, depending on which side we raise the aerial ladder to. Additionally, one of the engineers pointed out a drainage pipe at the base of the building under the side of the roof with the bigger drop off. The roof was slanted to allow for water runoff, thus causing there to be a bigger drop on one side than the other.

Just when we were wrapping up our training, we dispatched on the 2nd alarm to a fire in San Jose's east side.

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_15860272?source=most_viewed

Once on scene we were assigned as the Rapid Intervention Company (RIC). Sometimes when people see larger fires, they don't understand why there seems to be quite a few firefighters standing around, apparently not working. Well, RIC is one of those jobs. RIC companies were established to be a readily available resource incase any of our personnel become lost, trapped or incapacitated inside the structure. If we were engaged in other activities at the fire when someone became trapped in the structure, that would delay our response to that person by precious minutes. Still though, standing outside the structure in full gear for two hours proved to be physically challenging in its own right.

Other reasons people might seem like they're just standing around is because we rotate crews throughout the incident, and also to allow for a "cool down" period once the main body of fire is knocked down. We rotate crews after about 40 minutes usually so that we can make sure the crews are staying properly hydrated, give them a chance to cool off, and monitor their vital signs. Working in superheated conditions while wearing 75 lbs. of gear for 40 minutes can be pretty arduous work, that can get your heart rate and blood pressure up in a hurry. At fires, all of us want to get in there, work and help out as much as possible, sometimes to our own detriment. Overexertion/strain was listed as the number one killer of firefighters from 1990-2000.

http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa-220.pdf

This is why they mandated rotating crews during an incident. The "cool down" period also allows crews to get a break, while letting smoke and fire gasses vent from the structure, and gives us a chance to reevaluate the structure for structural stability and any other hazards that we might not have initially seen while engaged in the firefight.

After close to 4 hours as the RIC, we were assigned inside the structure to salvage what belongings we could, and to overhaul (find and extinguish any hidden or smoldering fires).

August 21, 2010 - Water Vac Day

Sometimes at work, the shifts tend to have themes. The theme for Saturday was flooding calls with us responding to 3 such calls. During a flooding call, we secure the water supply, do what we can to salvage personal property and belongings, and then remove as much water as we can from the building through the use of water vacuums and squeegees. We have two water vacs at my station. One is a backpack unit and the other is a larger one with wheels on the bottom.

On the second water vac call of the day I was wearing the backpack unit while the other firefighter on my crew operated the bigger vacuum. Luckily this apartment was unoccupied at the time so we didn't have a bunch of furniture and possessions to worry about. Good thing too, because there was a ton of water in this place.

Now, due to the amount of calls we were running that shift combined with cooking, I wasn't able to get in a workout. Still though, this water vac call just might count as a workout. The water vac I was wearing holds 6 gallons. When you figure 6 gallons of water weighs a good 50 lbs., and that I filled up and emptied the water vac 11 times, I removed over a quarter of a ton of water from the residence. Then bigger water vac no doubt removed much more than that, meaning "a ton of water" might actually not been that far off the mark.

August 21, 2010 - Healthy Firehouse Meal

Saturday was once again my turn to cook at the station. We were pretty busy with calls during the day so we had to eat out for lunch. For dinner I cooked curry coconut milk shrimp with mango couscous.

http://chefmd.com/recipe_display.php?id=46

and paired it with a spinach, tomato and cucumber side salad and whole wheat french bread.

There are two general rules when it comes to cooking in the firehouse 1) it has to be edible, and 2) there absolutely has to be enough. I was worried that it might be a little light for a dinner meal, or that quadrupling the portions might not be enough, so to compensate I cooked 5 lbs. of shrimp instead of 4. I also cooked 4 cups of couscous with 2 packages of dried mango. There are 10 of us per shift at my station. I probably could have gotten away with 4 lbs. of shrimp and 3 cups of couscous. The whole meal took about an hour and a half to prepare.

All in all the crew loved it, saying that this is definitely one to make again.

Thank Goodness for Small Favors

Recently I wrote a post on a bird/boy rescue.

http://nuffsaid6.blogspot.com/2010/08/no-we-dont-get-cats-out-of-trees-but.html

Regardless of who got the applause, at least I'm not known across the country as the "Bird Whisperer." My Department wrote a short piece about the boy/bird rescue in the department blog

http://sjfd.blogspot.com/2010/08/truck-13-crew-saves-man-and-bird.html

That's me on the ladder putting the harness on the kid. I found out the next shift that my engineer didn't use the plastic bag that owner had given to him, like I had originally thought. Instead he just grabbed hold of the bird and held on to it the whole way day down the ladder. Luckily he was wearing his structure gloves because the bird was biting the crap out of his finger as he climbed back down.

Well apparently a couple of newspapers across the country have gotten a hold of the blog post and have been reporting it as well.

http://blogs.sacbee.com/crime/archives/2010/08/san-jose-firefi.html

Yep, thank goodness for small favors.

August 20, 2010 Convict Conditioning, Vision Training and Rugby Skills

Friday I spent a good portion of the day watching the Women's Rugby World Cup online at the IRB website.

http://www.rwcwomens.com/index.html

I interspersed my training into the game watching. Initially, every time there was a scrum, I did a set of Convict Conditioning. My reps were as follows

Horizontal Pulls 3x30 using my dining room table

One Legged Squats down to my coffee table 2x20

I finally met the progression standard in the pulls. I'll stay here at least 1 to 2 more weeks before progressing to step 3 - Jackknife Pull ups.

Whenever a try, conversion, or penalty kick was scored, I did 1 minute of eye training using the near/far eye chart from the Z-Health Essentials course.

Once I had completed the sets for CC, I switched over to Rugby Skills practice - around the body passes, through the legs figure 8s, over/under the legs figure 8s, first with eyes open, and then a second set of each with eyes closed.

August 19, 2010 - It's Good to Feel Like an Athlete Again

Thursday at practice we covered plays from the scrum, ruck and lineout. It's looking like my main position will be number 7, the open side flanker. This means that when there's a scrum I'll set up on the side left or right of the scrum that is next to the biggest portion of field. My main job on defense will be to get to the other side quickly and disrupt their offense. For me, this is great, because I get to run as hard as I can, and then tackle people. After never having played contact sports growing up, there's something really quite satisfying about a good tackle. As much as I love volleyball, I had always wished for a way to mix it up a bit more with the other team. Rugby definitely provides this.

In general, overall it feels really good to feel like an athlete again. This may seem like an odd statement to those who know me, because I've still worked out hard and maintained a decent level of fitness over the years. What I hadn't realized though, is how much I've missed the pure joys of sprinting, agility, and quick reactions. Firefighting and rock climbing require me to be fit and strong, but neither require any of the skills previously mentioned. Rugby is basically a big game of keep-away, combined with tag, where you get to tackle people. This is fun on a basic, almost even primal level. It keeps my brain engaged and motivated, and relieves stress, This, plus the benefits gained through the application of speed power and agility, has been the missing component in my workouts over the past few years.

August 18, 2010 - Stair Climb, Rock Climbing, Flying Trapeze Day

Whenever Mike Castrogiovanni and I meet up, the day usually turns into a crazy play day. Wednesday was no exception. This time he drove up to my neck of the woods and met me in Oakland. We started the day with a quick climb up the stairs at Joaquin Miller Park, one of my favorite places to train.

From there we cruised around several of the bouldering areas in the Berkeley Hills, including Indian Rock, Mortar Rock, Cragmont and Remillard Park. This is one of the great things about rock climbing in the Berkeley Hills; there are several spots with good variety, all within about 5 minutes of each other (and the sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay area aren't too shabby either). Two of the problems we climbed were a V3 which required balance, and core and grip strength, and a V0 which was a relatively easy climb with plenty of holds, but was mentally difficult in that it was 20' off of the ground.

Later that day we faced another mentally difficult challenge. We took a flying trapeze class at Trapeze arts in Oakland. This was the first time either of us had tried this. A video of what we learned to do in the class can be seen here on there website.

www.trapezearts.com

The trapeze platform for the trapeze was about 30' in the air. At the start of the class the instructors told us that on the platform once we had the trapeze, they would tell us "ready," which was the cue to bend our knees, and then "hep," which was our cue to jump off of the platform and swing through the air. They also told us that neither of these were questions. Something about that made it easier for me to not over think the movements, and to find my "flow" quicker than usual. The instructors would call out each step of the evolution. Our job was simply to do what they told us to do, when they told us to do it. Simple, but not necessarily easy. This gave me a great opportunity to work on staying in the moment and reacting to verbal cues. All in all it was a great class and ultimately felt like a giant jungle gym, making it feel both physically and mentally invigorating.

August 17, 2010 - Rugby Skills and Practice, and Active Recovery Sprints

Tuesday morning as I was driving home from work, I swung by Costco. I got there a bit before they opened and decided to make use of the time. An out of the way space in the parking lot in front of my truck allowed me to practice a few of the skills outlined in "Rugby: Steps to Success." (Yes, I'm that dork). I performed each of the skills for 25 reps in a row, each direction first with eyes open, then closed. They were as follows

Around the body passes

Through the leg Figure 8s

Over/Under the leg Figure 8s

The through the legs did a nice job of engaging my abs, and the over/unders gave my hip flexors a surprisingly good workout.


Later that night at practice, We started off with a few conditioning sprints. My stamina is improving, but it definitely has a ways to go. Afterwards, the coach put me back with the forwards at flanker, and also at a new position, 8. We practiced scrummaging against the scrum machine. As much as I love driving with my legs, this just made me absolutely giddy. Here we had eight people working together to produce power in a well coordinated effort. At one point we had all the backs hop on the sled and we were able to easily drive them forward.

At the end of practice, I performed 5x50 yd sprints jogging back, and with 5 breaths rest in between each. This time I remembered some advice Craig Gilkes gave me at the RKC II and ran them while wearing my mouthguard. The mouthguard slightly restricts air flow and makes breathing a bit tougher. Still, these felt as if they were getting easier.

August 16, 2010 Structure Fire, Convict Conditioning, Bike and Pack Test

This past Monday we were called out to another house fire. We arrived on scene of a single story, single family dwelling, with light smoke showing from the attic vents. We were the second due truck company, so we were assigned to the exterior of the residence. We had an extra firefighter on the rig this shift, so he and the other firefighter laddered the roof, the two engineers went up top with a thermal imagining camera and chainsaw to cut a ventilation hole if needed, and I was assigned to utilities. During fires we shut off the gas to the house for obvious reasons, and the electricity so that we don't fry ourselves as we're poking through walls looking for hidden fire. The first due truck company was assigned to the interior of the house for search and rescue. As I was getting off the rig and approaching the house, one of the engine companies announced that they had secured the utilities, so I was reassigned to help out in the interior of the residence. The fire was hidden and smoldering under the blown in insulation making it fairly difficult to initially locate. The engineers on the roof used their TIC to try to pinpoint the fire from up to, while we used one from inside. We removed the occupants belongings that were in the affected rooms, tarped the floor to minimize the mess we were going to make, and then began pulling the ceiling under the hot spots. The engine company then quickly extinguished the fire once we had opened up the ceiling.

Afterwards I took a lap around the building as a learning opportunity, and am very glad I did. The first thing I sized up were the bars on the windows and the best way to force them open. One of the other jobs truck companies are responsible for is forcible entry. Making access into the structure to allow the engine crew to go in and put the fire out. In addition to this, if the fire had really been going, we would have been responsible for forcible exit, making sure the building was "softened up," other doors and windows forced so that if the interior crews needed to bail and get out in a hurry, they would have an easy means of egress.

The next thing I sized up was the utilities. As I approached the structure from the street, I noticed that the power lines were located behind the house. Therefore, the main electrical shutoff would most likely be in the back of the house. As I continued around to the back, I located the power drop from the lines, followed it to the weather head where it connected to the house and looked down for the panel, but didn't initially see one. On second inspection I noticed that the weather head was set back about 15' from the edge of the roof. The panel was in fact inside the house. The house had a remodel where two more rooms and a bathroom were tacked on to the back of the house. The interior wall with the panel still had it's exterior stucco on it. This is important to know, because if we become trapped in a room with heavy fire, we can usually quickly punch a quick hole in the sheet rock, and wriggle through the studs to the next room. In this case having a reinforced exterior wall inside the structure could have prevented us from quickly doing this.

And the last thing I noticed during the lap around the structure was that the gas meter was located at the front right side of the house (Alpha Delta corner) away from the electrical panel. All in all a great learning experience, and we saved another bird.


Once back at the station I performed the following reps for Convict Conditioning

Incline Pushups 3x40

Bent Leg Raises 2x30

The Smith machine was set at the 6th hole from the bottom for the first set, but then moved down to the 5th hole since my wrist was feeling fine throughout the movement. I didn't have my book with me that day, and didn't remember the exact numbers for the leg raise progression standard, so just did 2 sets of 30. As with last time I kept focussing on the hollow position and pressing my low back flat into the ground throughout the whole range of movement.


Next up 15 minutes on the exercise bike

Level 11

Random interval

15:15 work sets

Distance 4.75 miles

Average speed 18.8 mph


And then I finished up the day with a Pack Test

15 minutes mystery hike

40 lb weight vest and Vibram Five Fingers

Max speed 5.0 mph

Max incline 5.0%

Average incline 3.0%

Distance 1.18 miles

Working out in the Five Fingers has made me much more aware of my foot positioning and gait. When my knees would start to hurt, I'd smooth out my gait and foot strike and the pain would disappear.

Workout August 15, 2010 - Stair Climb, Swim Day

I started the day getting off shift at the station with 15 min on the stair master, interval program, 15:15 work sets. This gave my glutes, qads and hammies a decent workout, but didn't really tax my cardio.

On the drive home I got in a swim.

Warm-up

1x25 yds 6 glides - focusing on a good hollow position to keep my legs higher in the water

1x25 4 glides with flutter kick - focusing on a smooth kick, flicking the water off my toes


Workout

12x25 yds freestyle

The main goal of this session was to relax in the water and make the swim feel as easy as possible. To do this I rolled over farther towards my back during the breathing rotation, dove into each stroke rotating to near sideways and focusing as gliding as far as possible with each stroke. Overall the swimming is nowhere near where I want it to be, but it is improving with each session, which is always a good thing.

No, we don't get cats out of trees, but occasionally people and birds

I had a feeling this morning that today would turn out to be an interesting shift. We started out the shift with a structure fire in a neighboring engine's first due. It was literally right down the block from their station. An unattended candle caught the closet on fire and charred a bit of the wall and ceiling of the bedroom. The engine made a great stop on the fire and held the damage to a relatively small area. The truck treated the homeowner for smoke inhalation and burns to the hands, and helped with salvage of the room's contents, and overhaul.

Afterwards were dispatched to several pretty uneventful calls throughout the day. Then, at dinner time, we got a walk in request for a service detail. A few blocks away from our station, kid had become stuck in a tree after trying to retrieve his escaped parrot. We arrived on scene to find the kid about 30' up in the tree, in a harness jury rigged out of a tow strap, clipped to the end of a winch. Yes, you read that correctly. He and the friend had taken the end of the winch from his friend's SUV, thrown it over a branch and hoisted the kid up into the tree. The cable had cut into the bark of the tree and become bound up, so that they were unable to lower him back down to the ground.

My engineer's set up the aerial ladder on the truck, allowing me to climb up, unbind the cable and put a little more slack in the line. I back down so they could reposition the ladder to the other side of the tree, allowing me to make access to the kid. I tied a chest harness out of webbing around myself, climbed back up and clipped my ladder belt into the top rung of the ladder. Once clipped in I was positioned too low, so the engineer at the ladder turn table had to raise the ladder up a bit, allowing me to tie another chest harness around the kid. I then clipped his harness into my harness with a carabiner. This was a safety measure in case he slipped trying to get on the ladder. He was now attached to me, and I was attached to the ladder. My engineer very carefully lowered the ladder about a foot to make it easier for him to step onto the ladder. I assisted him onto the ladder, unclipped him from the winch and then guided him down to the ground.

Once on the ground his mom pleaded with us to try to get the bird which was still on a branch higher up in the tree. Normally, we wouldn't respond for this type of call, but since we were already on scene, my chief made an exception this time. She told the mom that we would give it one shot if we could do it safely, and made sure she knew that we were still in service, so if a fire or medical call came in in our area, we would have to pack up and go.

Surprisingly the bird stayed perched on its branch as we repositioned the truck to the other side of the tree,and re-raised the ladder. One of the engine engineers climbed the ladder with a corn cob and plastic bag and made his way toward the bird. After a bit he was able to grab the bird, put it in the plastic bag and climb back down the ladder, to reunite it with its family.

Here's the kicker. When he rescued the bird, cheers erupted throughout the crowd in the park. When I rescued the kid, dead silence. Not a peep. That's okay, though. Once back at the station, my captain made a medal for me by writing "I DUD GOOD" on a post it note and sticking it to my sweatshirt.


For an update on this call see the following post

http://nuffsaid6.blogspot.com/2010/08/thank-goodness-for-small-favors.html

Workout August 13, 2010 - Convict Conditioning, Swim Day

Yesterday morning as I was getting off shift I performed the following reps

Horizontal pulls 3x40

Half one-legged squats 2x20

Due to my wrist still being a little sore, I performed the Horizontal pulls at a little higher incline than usual, with the Smith machine set at the eighth hole from the bottom. I'm going to take a page from Naked Warrior and decrease the setting down to the 7th hole for the next session.

The half one-legged squats are also straight out of Naked Warrior. I squatted down to a weight bench, lightly touching down before standing back up. Last session I performed step 7 of the squat series, using a medicine ball. My left leg is still not quite strong enough for the full range of this motion. Additionally, when performed with my right leg, this step gave me a bit of pain under and lateral to my knee cap. This is the same area that used to hurt during my volleyball days. Interestingly enough though, my right knee is pain free when performing full pistols. This is why I chose to mix in the techniques from the Naked Warrior into this step.

Workout August 12, 2010 - Run, Bike, Rugby Skills Day

On a side note before I get to the workout, this shift started out on a very positive note. When we arrived at the station this morning, a plate of brownies with a card was waiting for us in our fridge. Apparently, a few days ago marked the one year anniversary of the the engine saving a two year old baby girl from drowning in a pool. One year later the kid's doing great with no deficits. With all the new changes in patient privacy we can't call up the hospital anymore and find out patient outcomes, so it's always nice when we can get updates on calls like these.

Now, on to the workout

Warm-up
Super joints/ Z-Health

A quick run for a car wreck and then resumed the main workout once back at the station

Run
Wearing Vibram Five Fingers
Mystery Hike
Max Speed 7.0 (8:34 min/mile pace)
Max incline 5.0
Average inline 3.0
Distance 1.59 miles


After the run, I hopped on the exercise bike
15 min
random hill program 15:15 interval
distance 4.9 miles
ave speed 18.8 mph


After dinner, rugby ball handling skills

Around the body passes
Through the legs figure 8s

50 times each, each direction



I was still a little hesitant to wear my five fingers on the treadmill while running at a faster pace. I thought the lack of cushioning might be pretty rough on the knees. Surprisingly the knees held up just fine. My body mechanics in the run felt smooth and fluid, with my arches getting a nice workout as well.

The run felt really good cardio wise better than I can remember in years. My heart rate averaged around 160 bpm, yet my breathing stayed nice and even, and my lungs never got anywhere close to that out of breath pukie feeling. I had an inkling yesterday that my cardio was improving. My heart rate monitor yesterday morning was reading as low as 34-36 bpm. A quick manual check of my pulse proved that it was indeed significantly slower than my previous low of 45 bpm. I took this as a good sign that my training and nutrition regimen are on the right track, and that my body is in fact adapting to more efficiently use oxygen. Today's workout supported this.

Workout August 10, 2010 - Rugby Pratice and Active Recovery Sprint Training

My work schedule finally cycled off Tuesdays, so yesterday was my first practice in a few weeks, and my first 15s practice since 7s ended. We covered tackling, passing plays, clearing defenders off the ball, and offensive plays from the line out. Playing and practicing with the Grizzlies in Denver greatly improved my tackling technique and confidence. I was able to key in on the attackers hips, stay low, wrap the legs and keep driving through them to the ground.

The passing plays not only gave me more practice with ball handling, but also an opportunity to practice reading my teammates body language and looking for visual cues to anticipate their movements. This is especially good, because the last half of practice they moved me to a new position, full back.

With the limited time I have played, I previously played in the forwards as either a lock or a flanker. Locks are the second row of the scrum and are its engine room. They also generally jump in the line outs. These are two of my favorite things in rugby. As a flanker I had a bit more freedom to move around, which was also nice. As much as I love being a forward, I found with sevens that I really like having more space and freedom to run around. Well, the fullback has the most freedom of anyone on the field. One of the responsibilities of the fullback is to be the last line of defense for any attackers that break through the line. I loved being the sweeper in sevens. I got to chase people down, which as always fun and along with outrunning people are two of my other favorite things in rugby. For me though, it also simplified my defensive positioning - someone breaks through, go get 'em.

The difference between the forwards and the backs in 15s has been described as the difference between a wrestling match and a chess game. As a fullback though, now I'll be responsible for reading the defense, filling in any gaps, and properly positioning myself to be an extra attacker on offense. All this while reading the other team and staying in position to field the ball in case they decide to clear it with a kick. This means I need to increase my understanding of the game in a hurry, work on fielding kicks, and learn how to kick. There's about 3 weeks before our first match of the season to get this done.

So plan of attack, watch as much rugby as possible paying attention to the the fullbacks, read "Rugby: Steps to Success" downloaded to my ipod via the Kindle app, reread "Rugby for Dummies," and whenever possible commandeer any willing person to practice passing and fielding kicks.

Also, it looks like the conditioning and fitness demands for a fullback are very similar to those needed for sevens. This makes me very happy. After practice was over I sprinted 5x50 yard sprints, max effort jogging back to the start. My watch wasn't working so once at the start I'd rest for 5 breaths and then start the next sprint. While it definitely got the heart rate up, it proved to be easier than expected, with my recovery rate improving as well.

Workout August 9, 2010 Convict Conditioning

Today I performed the following reps

One armed wall pushups 3x50

Flat Knee Raises 3x35


My right wrist is still a little sore so I stuck with the one armed wall pushups again this week. This is providing a nice burn in my front and rear delts, and my lats.

This was the first day I've tried out the flat knee raises, step two of the hanging leg raise series. This step provided a very nice ab workout. I focused on maintaining the hollow position that we learned in RKC II, throughout the whole exercise. To do this a pressed the small of my back flat into floor especially during the lowering phase. Interestingly enough, this made the lowering phase work my abs harder than the raising phase, and also caused my obliques to engage.

Since I'm itching to get to 3 day a week, 6 exercise Good Behavior program, from now on I'll give each step 1 month like the book suggests, but then after that if I am not at the progression standard I'll start GTGing to increase my reps.

Workout August 8, 2010 - Bike, Climb, Trampoline Day

Yesterday morning I started off the day with 15 minutes on the exercise bike, random hill program, 15:15 interval.

Next I met up with Mike Castrogiovanni. We headed to Castlerock State Park in Santa Cruz for a few hours of bouldering. The hike out to the boulders was a nice little mini workout in and of itself. My glutes, hammies, and quads got a nice little burn, as well as the arches of my feet. Hiking in the Vibram Five Fingers is proving to be a lot of fun. I'm also noticing that since my feet can feel more of the terrain below them, I am a lot more aware of where and how each foot is placed with every step.

Once at the boulders, Mike easily scaled a V0 he had been working on since the last time we climbed. We then moved to one of my favorite V2s, the Spoon. This is a piece of rock where the front of it looks like it has been shallowly scooped out. To climb it involves getting a good handhold in the middle, stemming (bracing the feet on either side by pushing out with the legs), walking the feet up as high as possible and then reaching up and over the concave part to a little lip on the top of the rock. Both Mike and I were able to get the hold on the top, but kept losing our feet once we did, and weren't able to top this problem out this time. Well, one of the many good things about climbing outdoors, is that the problem's not going anywhere. We'll have plenty of time to work on this one.

As we were hiking back to the parking lot, Mike got a call from Jeremy Layport inviting us out to the Sky High trampoline gym in Santa Clara. This place has trampolines on the floor and the walls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3DrxrtZAbA

Pretty soon we started laying out challenges for each other - jumping around as many times as possible in a four-square pattern, jumping back and forth between two panels sideways, then forwards and backwards, two people traveling around 6 panels and jumping off the walls.... Pretty much it was just endless possibilities for fun. The cost was $12 for an hour. By the end of the hour both Mike and I felt like we had a really good workout. Between the amount of exercise and fun we were able to pack in, I'm seriously considering getting a trampoline for the backyard.

Workout August 7, 2010 - Structure Fire and Pack Test

This afternoon at work, my station was dispatched to a fire in a non-sprinklered apartment building. Dispatch reported heavy smoke and fire with multiple calls received. My company was the first truck to arrive on scene, meaning that the other firefighter and I were tasked to search the fire occupancy and the surrounding apartments. From the street, it looked like the column of black smoke was coming from the rear of the building. We took off down a side alley way, entered through a gate in the back into the courtyard and found dark smoke pushing out of one of the apartments. The engine crew was stretching a fire hoseline through the front door to attack the fire. Since there were about three people in the doorway, I grabbed the other firefighter and went through the sliding glass door to the right of the front door, in an effort to get around the log jam of people and search for anyone that might be inside. Turns out the sliding glass door actually led to an adjacent apartment.

We cleared that one quickly and then went back to climbing over the engine crew to search the apartment. The thick black smoke was banked down to the floor, so visibility was pretty minimal. I was able to use the TIC (thermal imaging camera) to see a little more clearly through the smoke. We started our search along the right wall and ended up in a bathroom. There appeared to be a small closet to the left of the bathroom, which we scanned quickly and then headed out looking for the bedroom. After searching the living room and kitchen and not finding the bedroom, we doubled back to the bathroom to search it again. That just seemed and odd place for a closet. It turns out this "closet" was actually the bedroom, but with a night stand directly to the right of the door frame and a book shelf on the left wall a few feet directly in front of the door made this room initially seem to be closed in like a closet. We were crawling to stay under the heat, so these felt just like walls.

The engine crew made an excellent knockdown of the fire, holding it to one apartment when it had the potential to be much worse. After the fire was out we overhauled it (removed smoldering and charred debris from the apartment and looked for any hidden fires or hot spots). This involved tearing out cabinets, window moldings, door jambs, and sheet rock and hauling it all outside.

While this was a workout in it's own right, it didn't really do anything for my cardio. Once we got back to the station, cleaned up our gear and equipment, I had a little bit of time to squeeze in a workout before dinner. I donned my 40 lb weight vest and vibram five fingers, hopped on the treadmill, and set it to mystery hike, max incline, max speed of 5. I was able to get in a good 10 minutes before the called chow. This was about half as long as I would've liked, but did prove to be a decent workout.

Workout August 5, 2010 - Cardio Day

Taking a bit from ETK, my cardio workouts this week will get progressively harder throughout the week and then restart at the beginning next week. For cardio day 2 I hopped on the stair master for 15 minutes, random interval level 11.

Overall, I like the new variety. There's something to be said for sport specificity. Still though, I miss Viking Warrior and will return to 15:15 as soon as my wrist heals up. I had great results with this version of the program, but stalled out a bit on the 36:36 protocol. My forearms'd tire out before my cardio would really get a workout. I'd like to work up to 80 work sets of 15:15 with the 26 kg bell, and then move up to the 16 kg, still sticking with 15:15.

Workout August 4, 2010 Bike and Swim day

As I was getting off work I got in a quick 15 min on the exercise bike, 15:15, random hill program. Afterwards on the way home, I stopped off at the pool.

Warm-up
2x25 glides w/ alpha fins
2x25 kicking glides w/ alpha fins
2x25 freestyle swim w/ alpha fins

Workout
8x25 freestyle

Workout August 3, 2010 - CC

Tuesday I started out with CC. Since my wrist is still a little sore from Denver, I performed step 1 of the pushups, one armed. My reps were as follows

Wall pushups 3x50

Knee Tucks 3x40

Once my wrist heals up I'll progress to step 3 of the pushups. Next week I'll progress to step 2 of the knee tucks.


Afterwards I hopped on the treadmill and did 15 min of 15:15 intervals

Rugby 101 and sprint training

Last saturday, my rugby club held their Rugby 101 recruiting event. This is a way for new folks to learn the basics of rugby in a fun no pressure atmosphere. This is how I got my first intro to rugby 4 months ago. The difference this time from versus last time was slight, but definite. For the first time since I started playing, rugby started to feel like home.

Now, considering how much I dislike distance running, it's fairly remarkable that I fell in love with a sport where even the refs run on average 5 miles during games. This is good. It's pushing me out of my comfort zone. Without having regular specific events to prepare for, my training has tended to be fairly randomized and experimental. Now I have this plus a tri, possibly another stair climb, the tough mudder, and CK-FMS in what I just realized today, are all within the next three months. When I was training hard core for forest service, it'd take a good 2 months for my cardio to get into shape, doing the traditional 3-5 mile runs alternated with 1-3 hour hikes 5 days per week. 15 years later, I want to spend less time working out, and achieve better results.

To start working toward one of the goals, Saturday after the clinic I performed 10 sprints of approximately 15 yards, with 5 seconds for the sprint and 15 seconds for the jog back. I completed 10 no problem. Next time the sprints will be from the try line (front of "end zone") to the 22 meter line. Each time I complete 10 sprints at a certain distance I'll progress to the next line on the rugby pitch, until I can complete all 10 sprints at 100 meters.

Workout July 30, 2010 CC

Friday Morning I performed the following reps of Convict Conditioning

Vertical Pulls 3x25

Close Squats 2x20


Since my wrist is still a little sore I did the vertical pulls hanging off the side of a smith machine. While still pretty easy, this did give a nice little burn to the rear delt and lat area.

The close squats are feeling pretty good. Next week I'll bump up to step 7.

Workout July 29, 2010 - Hydrant Testing and Pack Test

This morning at work we did our yearly hydrant tests, to make sure that the hydrants in our area are in good working order. I turned it into a mini workout by wearing a set of running shoes and jogging at a moderate pace from one hydrant to the next. I focused on maintaining good breathing technique, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth as detailed in mc's begin2dig post

http://www.begin2dig.com/2010/07/run-longer-easier-right-this-minute.html

Later this afternoon, I drew inspiration from the Forest Service Pack Test for the second workout of the day. The Pack Test is part of the basic requirements for all FS wildland firefighters. It involves walking (no running allowed) with a 45 lb. pack, 3 miles in under 45 minutes on level ground. Smokejumpers perform the same test with a 110 lb pack in 90 minutes. My first wildland pack weighed 40 lbs, so I started there with my weight vest. Then I programmed the treadmill to mystery hike, max incline and max speed of 4.5, for 15 minutes. My Vibram Five Fingers worked out better than expected on the treadmill. I could feel my feet working the entire time, in addition to my hammies and glutes, especially on the incline portions. This was a nice compliment to the stair master and bike workouts that focused on my quads. At the end of the 15 minutes I completed .83 miles. Next time I'll increase the max speed to 5.0. Once I complete a full mile within the 15 minutes, I'll add 5 lbs. at a time until the weight vest is maxed out at 60 lbs. Once both weight and distance goals are achieved I'll start adding on time until I complete 2 miles in 30 minutes with a 60 lb weight vest. At this point, I want to keep my cardio sessions at half an hour or less, working instead on increasing the intensity, rather than time.

July 27, 2010 Healthy Firehouse Meals

Yesterday was my turn to cook yet again. For lunch my crew and I shredded the meat of two rotisserie chickens, mixed it with pesto sauce and parmesan cheese, topped it with tomatoes and fresh spinach, and then toasted provolone cheese on ciabatta bread. This is a quick and easy meal that's pretty much always a crowd pleaser.

For dinner we had Chipotle Macaroni and Cheese

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=671466


Marinated grilled chicken


Garlicky sauteed kale

http://www.chefmd.com/recipe_display.php?id=118


and Watermelon, Pine nut and Feta Salad with fresh Mint

http://www.chefmd.com/recipe_display.php?id=30


I like to add corn, olives and occasionally black beans into the mac and cheese. One station I worked at loved this recipe so much that they requested it every time I cooked. The kale went well with the mac and cheese. The mint did a great job of accenting the flavor of the watermelon. This was made for a very crisp and refreshing summer salad. All in all it took about two hours to prepare this for ten people.

Time to Ramp Things Up

After Denver I decided it was time to start training like I mean it. There are several upcoming events for which I want to be in peak condition. The first is rugby sevens. There's an even slimmer chance that I'd be selected to go to New York with the Grizzlies, but I didn't think there was any chance that they'd pick me to go to Denver either. After that there's a sprint triathlon in September as well as possibly another full gear stair climb, the tough mudder in October and Rugby 15s season in the fall.

A minor wrist sprain this past weekend edged me away from my kettlebells and towards the cardio machines at the station. This actually worked out well. I'm using a slightly modified version of the tri-newbies sprint tri training program. Yesterday I spent 15 minutes on the stair climber, borrowing a page from Andrew Read RKC II's post in Hardstyle magazine Summer 2010 and performed 15:15 Viking Warrior style intervals. I slowed my pace, but kept moving to work on my active recovery. The plan is to rotate between stair climbing, weighted hiking, and running on the days listed as run days. This should help to build up my leg strength and save my knees.

I also performed the following reps for CC

Wall pushups, 1 arm - 3x25

Knee Tucks 3x40

Since my right wrist is healing, and my left arm is a bit weaker than the right, I went ahead and went back to step 1 of the CC pushup series, cut the progression reps in half, and only used my left arm. The knee tucks are feeling good, and will probably progress to the next step after another week or two.

This morning I performed 20 minutes, random hill program of 15:15 on the exercise bike. I'll treat the cardio the same as the Viking Warrior Protocol. When I reach 40 minutes in this fashion then I'll move on to 36:36 protocol.

Once my wrist heals up the kettlebells will make an appearance again following the new TRX Kettlebell video.

http://www.dragondoor.com/dv068.html

I can feel the burn already just thinking about this workout plan.

Playing with the Grizzlies at the Denver Sevens Rugby Tournament

A while back I wrote a post about my experience trying out with the Pacific Coast Grizzlies Rugby Sevens team. This previous post details my experiences at the tryout.

http://nuffsaid6.blogspot.com/2010/06/rugby-sevens.html

Again, I went to the tryout simply to learn as much as possible about the sport. Since I had only been playing rugby for 3 months at the time, the chance of making the team seemed pretty remote. I continued experimenting with my minimalist training routine of CC and Viking Warrior. About a month later on July 8, the coach sent out an email with the team roster. My name was listed as a reserve. I had to reread the email about 4 times to double check, but there it was. For me, this was a huge honor in and of itself. Still, I didn't think there was any real chance I'd be asked to Denver. Well, July 14th I got another email saying that they did in fact need me to attend the tournament July 23-25th. After I ran around my house and jumped up and down a few times, it finally sunk in the Denver is in Denver. They don't call it the mile high city for nothing. Last time I was at Altitude for any real length of time was 11 years ago working on the helicopter rappel crew. The station was at 7500' elevation, which made those first few workouts absolutely kill. Sustained cardio has never been my strong suit. I had begun to work in and experiment with my active recovery routine, but this was a program designed to be carried out over months, not a week. Most articles I've read on the subject state that it generally takes a good two weeks for the body to benefit from the effects of cardio workouts. This was well past my 9 day time frame.

I stayed with the same workout routine but began focussing on nutrition, adding in a chlorophyll supplement to increase the number of red blood cells in my system, and also iron, to increase the oxygen carrying capacity of those red blood cells. Three days later I participated in the Transamerica Building Stair Climb

http://nuffsaid6.blogspot.com/2010/07/july-17-2010-transamerica-stair-climb.html

While my stamina and recovery had improved since the last climb, I still didn't climb it as hard as I would've liked, which might've been slightly influenced by the wildland fire the shift before. Hydration and nutrition remained my main focus.

My flight to Denver arrived a good 8 hours before the rest of the team. I used the time to rest and hydrate, drinking a good gallon and a half of water. This apparently was not quite enough as my eyes and throat both felt pretty dry upon waking the next morning, and at the tournament site before playing I felt a little lightheaded upon standing, from the altitude. Yeah, not a great sign.

We had 14 people, just enough to make two teams of seven. This meant that I played on team two, the whole time for all three games that day. Yup, another surprise. The first game absolutely kicked my butt. Due in large part to being new to rugby sevens defense, I often found myself out of position and ended up doing a whole lot of sprinting to make up for it. The second and third games I was able to learn bit by bit, my positioning improved some and I didn't get nearly as winded.

The next day I continued to learn as we had a combined 5 hour practice with another team that was at the tournament. I made a ton of mistakes, got yelled at a lot, but this was another incredible opportunity to learn from players and coaches alike. Besides, I don't mind getting yelled at if it makes me better. There was so much new info to process that I wished I had brought along a notepad to write it all down. Feeling a little bit more pressure to perform, I found it a bit tougher to relax and just have fun like the tryout. Once I reminded myself that ultimately my main goal was simply to learn and improve, which I did steadily throughout the weekend, I was able to relax and enjoy this incredible opportunity.

Still though, the major lesson here is even if I think there's a barely a chance of making the team, I need to be fully prepared for that possibility. Rugby knowledge will come over time with practice and experience. Physical conditioning on the other hand, just takes knowledge that I already have and hard work.

July 22, 2010 CC, Hike, Rugby 7s Practice

Today's workout

Warm-up - Joint mobility/Neural warm-up, balance and vision drills


CC

Horizontal Pulls 3x25 performed using dining room table

Close Squats 3x20

Finally noticeable improvement in the horizontal pulls. My grip and overall strength both felt a significantly stronger. Hopefully in a few more weeks I'll be able to progress to step 3 of this progression. My ankle flexibility and range of motion is also improving. I'm having a much easier time staying balanced in the bottom position of the squat, unsupported and without a counterweight. I'm really itching to get to level 6 in all four of the exercises so that I can add in the bridging and handstand work. Ultimately though, my strength is improving on this program, which is what matters.

Later this afternoon I met up with a friend and went for a 2 hour nature hike in the Oakland hills. One of the things that makes this area such a great place to live is that with just a 15 minute drive I have an amazing view of the bay, and then with just a few minutes more of hiking find myself in the middle of a redwood forest. Getting out in nature has this incredible way of instantly putting me at ease, while invigorating and restoring balance. Hiking in the Vibram Five Fingers made me much more aware of foot placement and used a lot more muscles than hiking in my wildland boots. It will be interesting to see the effects hiking in these while wearing a weight vest will have on my athletic performance.

Right after the hike I gathered my gear and scooted out to rugby 7s practice. I arrived at the pitch a bit earlier than most so began jogging around the field to warm up. My stamina was noticeably improved, which is nice. This has long been the hardest area for me to make improvements. I've been taking iron and chlorophyll supplements to increase the amount of oxygen my blood cells can deliver to body. It's been about a week and a half, but so far it seems to be working.

July 20, 2010 Active Recovery, Bike, and Structure Fire

Yesterday at work, I performed two rounds of my active recovery routine, getting 12 dynamic crescent swings the first round and 11 the second. My goal is 12 of these each work set. Once I accomplish that I'll add in another minute, progressing in this fashion until I get to 3 sets of 10. Afterwards I hopped on the exercise bike and rode a random hill program at level 10 for 20 minutes. It got a decent sweat going. I'm working on finding the right balance between getting in the workout and staying ready for the tournament this weekend.

Later that evening, right before dinner time we were dispatched to a structure fire in a neighboring station's first due. As we were responding, we heard an initial report of "nothing showing" meaning that everything appeared normal from the outside. We reduced from code 3 response to code 2 response, shutting down our lights and sirens. Next thing we know, the next report that we get is that the engine has a supply line to a hydrant and extended an attack line into the structure. That was unexpected. We upgraded back to code 3 and continued up the hill. My Captain assigned the other firefighter and I to open up all the windows in the structure for ventilation. This was a 3 story structure of lightweight construction, with a garage underneath, set in a complex with about 5' of space between units. As we entered the structure we had close to zero visibility throughout the entire structure. We completed a primary search ensuring that all occupants and pets were out of the house, as we opened up the windows.

One of the main lessons learned here was the need to sound the floor as going through the structure. As the engine from my station made entry, one of the engineers noticed a soft spot in the floor. He dug into it with his axe and had fire erupt out of the hole. The fire was running in the void spaces between the first floor and the garage, in the walls and above us between the first floor and the second floor. The main floor support below us, the glue-lam, was charred more than half way through, and the wooden I-beam was burned almost completely through. New construction is very light and strong, which is great for builders. It uses less materials which cuts their costs. Unfortunately for us, lighter structural members that are full of glue and adhesives mean they burn that much more easily and fail that much quicker. I initially didn't think of sounding the floor because we entered to structure at street level on the first floor. What I didn't see until a bit later was that the garage was below us entered from an alleyway on the backside of the structure. I'm used to sounding rooftops for structural stability and anytime when operating above a fire. After this fire I see how this is just a good habit in general, especially in lightweight construction.

On a side note, the station who was first due to this fire is scheduled to be closed next week. We already have one of the lowest ratios of firefighters to citizen population at 0.7 firefighters per 1000 people. Despite this, the city is chomping at the bit to close 3 fire stations, eliminate 5 engines and 1 truck company and layoff close to 80 firefighters. The city is claiming this is a cost savings measure, but many of the the firefighters they are proposing to lay off will be two days away from getting off of probation and gaining permanent status. This would mean that we would be able to hire them back later down the line without having to put them through all of the training all over again. Training is expensive, and as people promote and retire we will have to hire new people to fill these spots. We could ideally keep these folks on the line that have already passed the training and proven that they are capable. If not, then we should at least let them work the two days so we can hire them back and save that cost farther down the line. Even then, we're still risking losing them to other departments that are more than happy to snatch up candidates that are already trained and save their cities money. There's a lot here that just doesn't quite add up. If you are a resident of San Jose or just want more information, please click on the link on the right for San Jose Fire Facts. Thanks in advance for checking it out.

July 17, 2010 Transamerica Stair Climb

I got off work feeling surprisingly good. We had a pretty easy night with one call around 1:30 am. My legs felt limber and springy even after the wildland fire the day before. I grabbed my gear and drove up to the Transamerica building in San Francisco. One of my biggest supporters, my dad, met me there. That's always going to put a little pep in my step.

My goals for this climb were to break 20 minutes and for my air bottle to last all the way to the top. I didn't train nearly as much as planned for this one, but easily accomplished both of those goals. I made it to the top of the 48 floors in 17:05 with 1000 psi of air left in my bottle. In addition to this, I recovered almost instantly and had enough energy to go bounding back down the stairs and encourage others as they were on their way up. Here's a link to an article the San Francisco Chronicle ran on the climb. I was super impressed by the National Guardsman that ran it in full kit including gas mask.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2010/07/18/BAFM1EG20R.DTL&object=%2Fc%2Fpictures%2F2010%2F07%2F17%2Fba-stairclimb18_0501979305.jpg


Still though, that little competitive bug is kicking in and the next time I'd like to finish in the 15 minute range, ultimately finishing in 10 minutes. To do this, the main thing I need to do is climb stairs and figure out my pace. I didn't spend any training time under load preparing for this event. I was mainly curious to see the carryover effects my minimalist training routine would have during the climb. The weight felt fine. I didn't notice any aches and pains or discomfort from the gear, which is always a good thing. For the next time I'll spend time with my weight vest on the step mill, the steps at Joaquin Miller Park, and hiking on trails. I can't wait for the next one.

July 19, 2010 Viking Warrior, CC and 50/50 GTG

Viking Warrior 36:36 snatch protocol 12 kg bell, 7 work sets. This one is still burning out my grip and forearms more than anything else. Thinking about rugby and conditioning today, I'm going try a little experiment, going back to the 15:15 protocol and adding in active rest to the Viking and see what happens. I'll have to play around with it and see what works best. For starters I'll use the same bell and do two hand swings during the rest sets.



CC for this day was as follows

Inlcine pushups 3x40

Knee tucks 3x40

The release of the new Kettlebell TRX video got me thinking.

http://www.dragondoor.com/dv068.html

I've long loved combining kettlebells with the TRX system, usually doing a set of 15-25 two handed swings in between exercises to keep my heart rate up. It's been a while though, since I've used the system with any regularity, focusing mainly on Viking Warrior and Convict Conditioning. The release of this DVD provided the perfect incentive to get back into using it again. While waiting for the DVD to arrive, I remembered the 40/40 challenge on the TRX website. Since I like a good challenge, I figured I'd start training for it.

http://www.fitnessanywhere.com/40_40_challenge/

I started out with 5 easy GTG sets done on the hour, 5 reps each of atomic push ups and rows, with a minute break between the two sets. Once I complete 12 sets of this for total of 60 reps of each exercise I'll bump it up to 10 reps per set.

July 15, 2010 Fire Olympics, Rugby Day

I came in last, but am completely happy with that. First off, there were only two of us competing in the women's category, my coworker Vivian and I. Vivian is an incredible climber and pound for pound one of the strongest people I know. Now, on to the competition.

The comps are set up so that each climb is given a point value according to its difficulty. A competitor is given 5 attempts to complete a climb, with the point value decreasing for every attempt over one attempt. The competitor's top 5 highest scoring climbs are then totaled up. I onsited (climbed first attempt) my first four climbs, a V0, V1, V2 and V3. I picked the top climbs in each of the category. Encouraged by this I attempted the first V4 and climbed it after only two attempts. I completed another V4 on my 5th attempt. I emboldened by my success, I attempted a V5, but found it to still be a bit beyond my reach. I climbed a few more V3s to round out my score. At the end of the day I climbed two grades higher than I had been climbing for the past few months and higher than I've climbed in years. My main limiting factor was technique, which was very encouraging to see. My core, grip and forearm strength all felt surprisingly good. All in all it was a great day of climbing.

July 14, 2010 Indian Clubs Recovery Day

Tomorrow is the climbing competition so I took it easy today, mainly practicing and learning Indian Club Drills from the DVD. I finally learned the forward figure 8 pattern, which reminded me how exhilarating it is to learn a new skill. This just serves as a reminder of the importance of continual growth and learning.

July 12, 2010 CC and Climbing

Today's workout

CC
Incline Pushups 3x40
Knee Tucks 3x40

Climbing
1 v0, 3 V1s, 2V2s

Fire Daily Journal July 11, 2010

Today we started out the shift helping with some training for the life guards at a local pool. We ran two scenario stations. One was a trauma station where we simulated a person unconscious in the pool after a diving accident. This was a learning experience for both of us. We were able to see their methods for removing an unconscious person from a pool. This way we have an idea of what to expect when we arrive on scene and transition into our treatment protocols that much more smoothly. Firstly we trained them to be authoritative and loud. Next up was the need for efficiency, knowing where all of their equipment is, right off the bat, designated roles and team leader, and thinking ahead to anticipate needs. I got to role play as a hysterical distraught mom and pretty much caused havoc throughout the scenario. After a bit they started to get the hang of shepherding me away from the rescuers and putting me to work giving information about the patient.

The second station we gave them a medical scenario ranging from allergic reactions to bee stings, to strokes. The main lessons for them here centered around asking questions, using all of their available resources such as bystanders and family to gather information about the patient, and how to effectively organize that information into a well ordered turnover report. In the end we gave them a lot of information, but they were very receptive and eager to learn and implement what we had taught them.

July 9, 2010 CC

CC for the day

Horizontal Pulls 3x20

Close Squats 2x20

July 8, 2010 Viking Warrior and Bouldering

Today's workout

Viking Push Press 12 kg, 10 minutes, 15:15 protocol, 8 reps per work set

Afterwards I climbed 1 V0, 4 V1s and 1 V2. The climbing felt good. I onsited (climbed first attempt without prior information of the climb) all of the climbs.

July 7, 2010 CC and Active Recovery

CC sets and reps

Incline pushups 3x40

Knee tucks 3x40


While I'm meeting the progression standard, the sets still aren't feeling as easy as I'd like. I'll stay here a bit longer and will probably start working in a few GTG sets throughout the week.

I also started testing out my active recovery routine. 20 seconds of dynamic crescent swings coupled with 40 seconds of 2 hand swings using a 12 kg bell, performed 3 times with a 1 minute break in between sets. This felt quite good. I managed 12 crescent swings each set, which is where I'd like to be for my eventual goal of 3x10.

July 6, 2010 CC

My reps the CC workout of the day are as follows

Horizontal pulls 20, 30, 30

Close squats 2x30


The horizontal pulls were performed in sets of 5 due to my hands sliding off of the dining room table, but my arms felt great. This is the first time I've felt a significant sense of improvement with this exercise. The close squats felt really good and did an excellent job of mobilizing my talus.

July 5, 2010 Bouldering and Z-Health

For this workout I climbed 1 V0 and 5 V1s. The climbs felt very good and fluid. My forearm strength and endurance are both improving. My core strength felt solid as well.

Afterwards I practiced a few Z-Health eye drills. My results are as follows.

saccadic 102
near/far 55
hand/eye 105
foot/eye 90

Near/far is definitely the toughest one for me, but I will continue to work on and improve this one. This one seems to offer the best results as far as increasing my filed of vision and night vision.

July 16, 2010 CC, Stair Climb Prep, Indian Clubs, Rugby Drills, Wildland Fire

Today is the day before the Transamerica building stair climb. We'll be hiking up 48 floors with full firefighting gear, weighing approximately 75 lbs., while breathing air from an SCBA bottle. Last March we climbed the Bank of America buidling in SF. It was 52 stories and took me 20 minutes to complete. My main goal that day was for my air bottle to last all the way to the top, which it did. My goal for tomorrow is to break 20 minutes.

To prepare for it today I have mainly been hydrating, going light with the workout, and eating as healthy and warrior like as possible at the station today. This includes having my willpower sorely tested by the Costco 7 lb. All-American chocolate cake and the tray of cupcakes that greeted me in the station kitchen this morning.

This is the best I've done with hydration in a while, managing to guzzle down 5 quarts of water today. My workout began with a Super Joints/Z-health warm-up, and then the following reps/sets of CC.

Vertical Pulls 3x20
Close Squats 2x20

The vertical pulls are progressing, but very slowly. I'm tempted to start adding in a few GTG sets per week on this exercise. The close squats feel great. My ankle is continuing to gain mobility through them.

Afterwards I did a few Indian Club exercises to help loosen up my shoulders, thoracic spine and rib cage in preparation for being under load tomorrow. I finished up with a few rugby footwork and passing drills, to keep things short and light and save my legs for tomorrow.

The best laid plans. From about 6 pm to 10 pm, my crew and I were hiking all over the hills of San Jose fighting a wildland fire. (Yes, I realize I'm a trucker, but that's a story for a different post.) I'm sure I sweated out at least half the water I drank today working and hiking up and down the hills. Ain't it just a shame when work gets in the way of play? But, this adds a bit more of a challenge and makes it all that much more fun. On the bright side, my stamina and muscular endurance both felt great at the fire. My legs didn't start to burn until towards the end of the incident when I grabbed another company's hose pack weighing approximately 60 lbs., and hiked it back up the hill to the rigs for them. My legs and traps are a little sore right now, but overall everything feels pretty good. Now since it's almost midnight, i've gotta drink some more water and get some shut-eye for tomorrow, and hopefully find that delicate balance between adequate hydration and having to get up to pee all night.

July 13, 2010 Climbing Rugby Day

Yesterday I went to the gym and climbed 1 V0, 2 V1s, and 3 v2s. Since today is a rest and recovery day, this will be my last climbing session before the Fire Olympics climbing comp tomorrow. I didn't realize until after I signed up that the open category was for V4 and above. I haven't climbed a V4 in quite a while and currently consider myself to be a strong V2-3 climber. Yesterday I did onsite (complete the climb on the first attempt without any prior knowledge of the climb) all of my climbs except for one V2. That one took 3 attempts and it was more of a problem solving and footwork issue than anything else. My grip, core and forearms all felt strong. My goal for the comp tomorrow is to complete one V4 to justify my open category registration. We'll see how it goes.

Afterwards I met up with a teammate and we did rugby/kettlebell knowledge swap. She gave me pointers and drills to help with passing and I put her through my intro KB session. Both learning and teaching back to back like this made for a fun and relaxed format. Hopefully we can get in another session this weekend.

Saturday July 10, 2010 is a Rugby Sevens Day

The next morning I skipped my usual Viking Warrior workout because I didn't want to work out then have my muscles cool down in the car during the half hour drive to the rugby pitch. Still feeling full from the day before, I had two small plums and a quart of water for breakfast. I arrived at the pitch around 8:50 to find out that of course, we were up first to play at 9 am against the Sequoias. I went through a quick neural warm-up/super joints combo warm-up and got ready to play.

The coach put me in for a few minutes in the second half. I still get butterflies and pre-game jitters, but they all disappear after the first few tackles. Then it all just becomes really fun. The game is mostly a blur except for a few tackles and sidestepping around a defender, but having it called back being ruled a forward pass. Here I have to remember to stay steeper behind my teammates to ensure that the ball is passed behind and that I can run onto the ball full speed onto the ball. Sort of like a game of Red Rover - I'll have a better chance of breaking through their line if I'm running full speed.

The second game we played against the Sacramento Amazons. Last time we stuck to the game plan, passed it wide back and forth until we found a hole and ran it up the field. This time they stuck more to that game plan and we ran straight up the field and into contact. I had a much tougher time making effective tackles. One of my teammates, Erin commented that it seemed like I was thinking too much. I had a banana for lunch and got ready for the next game.

Next up was the East Palo Alto Razorbacks. Game face - check. Pissed off about the last game and looking to level a team - check. To start the game, the razorbacks kicked the ball off to us. For some reason in the past kickoffs have never come anywhere close to my general direction. As the ball sailed right towards me this time I couldn't help but think "Really, you just kicked it to me? Alright, game on." The ball continued to sail right over my head and into our try zone. I picked the ball up and ran it out, saw a hole cut to the right, saw another hole, cut to the left, was into open space, outran the other teams sweeper and touched the ball down right between the goal posts. This was the first time the game has felt instinctual and fluid for me. It felt like a game of touch, but with the realization that if I was at or just beyond their fingertips, they weren't going to be able to make the tackle. Now the challenge is to be able to access this feeling on a more consistent basis, and to have it with all other skills including passing, tackling and kicking. With the momentum on our side we went on to win this game pretty decisively.

The third game we played the Berkeley All Blues. We beat them in a close game the last tournament, but they ended up with the win this time. Both teams went scoreless the first half, but Berkeley managed three tries in the second. Again, it seemed like we resorted to 15s style play. For me, my try the game before might have gone to my head a bit. I ended up running into contact when I should have been looking to pass earlier and get the ball wide. Conditioning was also a factor here. I had 3 quarts of water during the day and probably could have used at least another one to two quarts. When I stood up before the match, my head started throbbing, a sign of dehydration. I did feel better out there than the last tournament only having 2 quarts of water, but not to the level I wanted to be at. My goal is to go as hard and as fast as I want for full time, and to not even have to think about my conditioning on the field. Luckily, all the info I've been learning over the past few years since becoming a part of the RKC community has given me the tools to make this a reality. My conditioning level has definitely improved over the past few months, and with a liberal application of hard work will continue to improve

B2D article with Dan John and the relationship between fitness and injury prevention

I just came across this post by MC on her blog begin2dig. In it she interviews Dan John and discuss a template for pressing power and references one of my training regimens.

Pressing Matters Part II - Dan John

In part one of this article MC and Dan discuss the relationship between physical fitness and injury proofing. Here's a quick excerpt.

"Training colleague Kira Clarke recently suggested that a coaching colleague has seen a correlation between strength and persistent well being. This is worth repeating so let me post it here, from Kira:
'My coach friend (Will Heffernan) has a simple test (and benchmarks) he uses regularly on his athletes (he adjusts them for different types of athletes, but these are his general guidelines)
Squat or deadlift: 2 x bodyweight
Inverted rows in 1 minute: 30+
Pushups in 1 minute: 50+
Pullups in 1 set: 10+
Bench press: 1.5 x bodyweight

In his experience, once his athletes hit these numbers (and ratios) their injuries drop significantly. And as they surpass them, he still likes to see lower/upper body strength numbers increase together, and the bodyweight numbers increase maintaining the ratio of approximately 5:3:1.'
[...]
He recommends the following for female athletes ...
deadlift: 2 x bodyweight...
pullups: 8+
pushups: 50+
inverted rows: 30+
bench press: 1-1.25 x bodyweight
(It's basically the same benchmarks he uses for 100kg+ male athletes)

He also shared the following snarky remark ...

'The biggest problem that female athletes suffer from is the low expectations of male coaches"


In college I often felt that my muscles were what held my body together through all of the wear and tear of playing volleyball. At the beginning of the season during triple days, we would practice 43 hours a week with 3 hours of lifting a week thrown in on top of that. With a 33" vertical, that much jumping and landing put a beating on my joints. My knees ached like crazy pretty much from September to June, but through it all, all of my tendons and ligaments stayed strong and intact.

College was the first time I had ever really lifted weights or been on any type of auxiliary fitness program. What I did have growing up, was playing outside. I skateboarded and rode my bike everywhere from the time I got up to the time the street lights came on. Every push off with the skateboard is basically a mini one-legged squat with one leg and mini lunge with the other. It also developed balance and muscular endurance.

Once in college, I fell in love with the muscle burn and the strength development gained through weight lifting. At our first max test session, my leg press max came out somewhere around 350 lbs. During one of our lifting sessions a month or so into the season one of my teammates noticed my relatively light weight and remarked half jokingly that I was "sandbagging it" or not giving it my all. This rankled me a bit. I went rogue and began piling on the weight. By the end of the season max test in May, my leg press max was calculated out to be 1280 lbs. I say calculated because they ran out of room to put weight on the machine, even after piling weights on top of it. My squat max went from around 150 to 400. I never truly lifted heavy in the squat because it felt like it was compressing the hell out of my back.

A test of my leg strength came later that year when a few friends and I were driving back along a pretty desolate portion of I-5 in the middle of the night. We took a wrong turn off the highway and ended up high centering the car on a mound of dirt. This was a time long ago, before cell phones were common, so we were on our own. It was a late '80s four door honda civic, not that big of a car. There was enough room, so I wedged myself under the front of the car with my back on the ground and feet on the bottom of the bumper, and after a bit of time was able to push the car off of the mound. I'm 5'10" and at the time weighed around 165 lbs.

This level of strength correlates with the standards mentioned in the article. My knees never felt unstable during any movement through five years of volleyball. Another factor that helped my leg strength and knee stability was my summer job. During the summers in college, I worked for the US Forest Service as a wildland firefighter. Every morning we would alternate between a 3-5 mile run or a 1-3 hour hike with a 40 pound pack. Hiking on the trails with a pack forced my legs to develop strength through different and varying angles and foot positions. Every once in a while my Captain would get this little smirk and a maniacal twinkle in his eye and billy goat it right up the side of the hill. His reasoning was that wildland fires rarely happen right along a trail side. We'd all fall in line behind him clawing and climbing our way to the top. In addition to this, we'd also practice 1-2 500' hoselays a day. A hoselay is where we extend lengths of hose off of the engine, one 100' section at a time, fighting fire as we go, in an effort to catch and cut off the most active edge of the fire. For this we would have an additional 60 lbs on our backs for 100 lbs total, and the Captain would usually find something so steep that we'd have to sprawl out across the hillside and/or hang on to the base of shrubs as we fought our way to the top, if we didn't want to go tumbling over backwards down the hill. All this while dragging a charged hoseline. All in all, a great way to develop a whole lot of usable and functional leg strength. I highly recommend it for any athlete.

So, where does this leave me now? When I started playing rugby a few months ago and found out I'd be a forward in the scrums, my first instinct was to go running for my beloved leg press and hack squat machines. My livelihood as a firefighter depends on my staying healthy, despite any bumps and bruises I might take through rugby, firefighting or anything else. I want my legs and whole body for that matter, as strong as I can get them. But then, as I began to think about it, since working out with kettlebells and following "Convict Conditioning" and Pavel's program in "The Naked Warrior," I am much stronger through a full range of motion. With the leg press and squats my thighs were only going to parallel. With the pistol my body descends all the way down butt to heel. Plus, this also trains balance, functional movement, and body awareness, especially when performed with eyes closed. After using Viking Warrior snatch and push press protocols, I noticed that my body felt much more stable under load during a 52 story full gear stair climb. So, for now, staying the course, and continuing to work my way through these programs. Although, after getting all nostalgic writing this, you just might see me sporting a weight vest hiking and traipsing about trails of the Oakland and Berkeley Hills.

Rugby Sevens Tournament Prep

Friday morning as I headed off to work I was looking forward to playing beach touch rugby Saturday morning. I packed up my sand socks from beach volleyball, a change of clothes and for some odd reason grabbed my rugby cleats as well. I guess having them in my truck makes me happy. I'm very glad I did grab them. Once I arrived in San Jose, a quick check of my facebook page showed one of my teammates inviting everyone to come out and support the women's team on Saturday in Palo Alto. Last I had heard from the practice the week before was that the tournament was in Santa Barbara, meaning I would have had to take two full days off from work on short notice. I contacted one of my teammates and found out that the tournament was indeed on the Stanford campus again. Then began the scramble.

In the afternoon, in between calls, my crew was nice enough to make a quick run to a local sporting goods shop to pick up a mouth guard, socks, compression shorts and a sports bra. That took care of the basics gear wise, diet wise I chose to do a modified warrior diet. In the past, when I've done the warrior diet at work, it became very difficult when the evening meal was delayed due to calls. So instead, on Friday I pretty much carbo-loaded the whole day to prepare for Saturday. My meals were as follows:

Breakfast - Bowl of oatmeal with cranberries, honey, and a little bit of butter and salt

Lunch - 3 vegetarian chili dogs and a big bowl of fruit salad with yogurt

Dinner - Salad, big plate of spaghetti with marinara sauce and veggie patties

Desert - Small bowl of peach crisp cobbler with vanilla ice cream.


At dinner I was still full from lunch, but knew that I was going to be playing a full day on Saturday so I packed in as much as I reasonably could. The desert wasn't truly part of the diet, but my chief made it from peaches that my Captain brought in from his trees, and well to refuse would've just been downright rude.

I skipped my planned workout and only did CC to give my muscles a chance to be rested and fresh the next day. Also,I drank 3 quarts of water and that night I took vitamin D and magnesium in an effort to make whatever sleep I would get that night to be as restful as possible, and vitamin C to help my body use iron more efficiently and allow my red blood cells to carry more oxygen to my muscles.

I tried a little experiment as well. The Feb/Mar issue of "Fighting Fit" magazine just happened to be in my bag, so I gave it another quick read through. One of their articles mentioned a study where boxers were given a spoonful of baking soda dissolved in water prior to exercise. They found that the boxers landed more punches per round during sparring than when given a placebo. The theory behind this is that the body uses sodium bicarbonate to neutralize acidity including lactic acid build up. When lactic acid accumulates in our muscles, it causes us to feel fatigued. Therefore, preloading the body with bicarb should allow us to exercise longer before feeling fatigued. I had first thought of this years ago during the fire academy. Before our morning runs I'd take 2-4 Tums tablets in an effort to increase my body's alkalinity. I can't honestly tell if it helped or not. Same thing with Friday. I drank 1 tbsp of baking soda dissolved in a glass of water that evening. I'll have to set up a series of controlled tests to see if this has any effect on my conditioning and rugby performance.

July 1, 2010 Viking Warrior, Kettlebell Partner Passing, Indian Clubs, Bouldering, Rugby Day

Thursday proved to be a very full, very fun day. I started off the day getting off shift with Viking Warrior 36:36 snatch protocol, 12 kg, 20 reps, for 10 work sets, wearing my SCBA mask.

Next I met up with Mike again to practice some diagonal crossing patterns and Indian club work. I had previously only thought of Indian clubs as a great tool for shoulder mobility, but Mike showed me several drills for wrist and hand mobility. Mike's 1 lb clubs felt much more fluid than my 2 lb clubs. I found an antique set of 1 lb Wilson clubs on ebay and can't wait to try them out when they arrive.

Once we had worked out, it was time to go play. We drove to Castlerock state park to do some bouldering. Climbing outside felt very good, regardless of the mosquitoes. Something about getting out in nature instantly has a very good effect on me. Sometimes I have to make more of an effort to remember the the climbing gym is a tool to get outside more. We spent the afternoon working a problem in the Magoo's section of the boulders. This is one of my favorite things about bouldering; hanging out with friends and figuring out different possible ways of climbing a problem. Hopefully we'll get to climb together again soon.

Afterwards, around 5 pm, I drove back up to Oakland. Something about that drive has a way of sapping the energy right out of me (yes, the drive, not the 9 hours of working and playing before hand). We had a few runs after midnight the night before and it was starting to catch up to me by the time I got home. After going back and forth a bit on whether I should go to rugby practice, I asked myself what I'd do if this was my very last day on earth. The answer became very clear. Besides, I had to test out my new go-fast cleats. I took a 20 minute nap and headed out to practice, and was very glad I did. It was good to be with the team again. We practiced passing patterns, defense and then put it all together in a few games of touch.

All in all this turned out to be a great day.

June 30, 2010 3 Minute Workout

The day before, as a precursor to the freestyle partner passing, Mike taught me a 180 crescent swing. He then taught me a more dynamic plyometric version of this swing. It got my heart rate up in a hurry and got me thinking of a new workout plan. For a while I've been trying to develop a good program to meet the conditioning demands of rugby 7s. The exercise demands this exercise placed on me felt very similar to the sprint conditioning test from the Grizzlies tryout. Therefore I decided to incorporate this into a similar template to train my active recovery.

I used a 12 kg bell and performed 20 seconds of plyometric crescent swings immediately followed by 40 of regular two handed swings. I did this for three rounds with no break in between for a total of three minutes. This proved to be a pretty challenging workout. The three minutes felt even tougher than the 4 1/2 minutes I made it through for the Grizzlies test. This makes me happy. My ultimate goal with this plan is to work up to 3 sets of 10 minutes with a 1 minute break in between. This should cover a 7s championship match with two overtime periods.

Workout June 29, 2010 Viking Warrior and Kettlebell Partner Passing

Tuesday as I was getting off shift I got in 17 rounds of 15:15, 8 reps w/ the 12 kg bell. I added in my SCBA mask to help prepare for the Trans-America building full gear stair climb coming up on the 19th of this month.

Afterwards I met up with Mike Castrogiovanni for another session of kettlebell partner passing, a video of which can be seen here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6U4qDodptM

We reviewed some of the techniques from previous sessions such as the basic two handed pass with a flip, and then one and two bell progressions. Afterwards we progressed into the freestyle techniques. The applications that this has for sports are almost limitless. In one session, we trained strength, cardio, redirecting forces, situational awareness, reading body language, agility and balance. I'm very excited to see how this affects my rugby game, and am very eager to train up a few teammates to have a few practice partners.

Acting Captain Lessons Learned

I was Acting Captain all three shifts of last tour. Captaining is something that I'm called upon to do periodically. It's something that is definitely outside my comfort zone, but it's something that I'm required to do, so I will figure out a way to do it to the best of my ability. The main part about Acting as Captain that makes it seem overwhelming is there seems to be an incredible amount of information to learn, absorb and be able to quickly use to form a plan of action. As with other things though, that might initially seem overwhelming, the best way I've found to tackle them is just to get a foothold somewhere, break it down into bite size chunks and start methodically accomplishing it bit by bit.

This was the first time I've been called upon to act as Captain for three shifts in a row. While it was a bit daunting, it proved to be preferable to be randomly being called upon for a few hours here and there. Having more consecutive time in the seat gave me the opportunity to implement the lessons I was learning quicker, and thereby reinforce the learning process.

One responsibility of Acting Captain is navigating to the call. This is especially important because getting to the call can often set the tone for the whole call. To help learn the area I have been hopping up and figuring out the route anytime one of the rigs in the station gets a call, as well as driving the neighborhood when getting off work. Other things that have helped as well are learning to use all of my resources. I am a big fan of the printed maps that we have in the rigs. I like to be able to see the big picture of where we are going. We have GPS devices in the rigs, but they can be a bit temperamental and only show one turn at a time. When using the maps I also have to be aware that sometimes water stains or scratched areas on the map might obscure an address or street, some of the lettering is ridiculously tiny, all of the lettering seems tinier and blurry when driving en route to the call, especially at night, and once a little bit of adrenalin and tunnel vision kick in, it makes it all that much harder to navigate. The key here is to use all of my resources. Grab a run card from the file that shows the route from the station to the call's street. Find the location on the big wall map in the station before leaving. Show the engineers the route before heading out. Use members of the crew that are familiar with the area if there is any doubt to the exact location of the call. This last one is important for me to remember, because while I am ultimately charged with determining the route, it's still okay for me to ask for input from the crew.

Another lesson learned dealt with nutrition. My ipod was on shuffle the day before when an audio track from Dr. Mark Hyman's UltraMind book began to play. This track mentioned the importance of magnesium. He stated that the body uses magnesium to help it cope with stress. When the body is stressed, it depletes its stores of magnesium and they need to be replenished. Captaining is shall we say, a bit stressful for me. The first shift I increased my intake of magnesium and noticed feeling more relaxed and resilient. I'll have to research and play around with this further.

Call wise, there was a ton of learning that took place. We responded to 3 different type fires in 3 shifts. The first shift was the previously mentioned wildland fire. Lessons learned here mainly dealt with need to remain hands off, keep me head on a swivel, direct, and keep up constant communication with my crew. With my background in wildland, I'm very eager to jump in and help work. That's great as a firefighter, but can be a little counterproductive as a Captain. Communication, as always on the fireground as key. When we arrived on scene initially, several different members of the command staff were trying all give me different assignments on different radio frequencies, all at the same time. Here communicating to each of them my current assignment and the requests from the other officers on scene, and being patient while they figured it out among themselves seemed to be the best plan of action. At another point Division Alpha requested I walk the perimeter with him to get another set of eyeballs on the fire and our containment efforts. Next time in this situation, I will communicate better with my crew to make sure the know my assignment as well. Another item that will help with communication is my helmet. Captains' structure helmets have red reflectors on them, and the wildland helmets are completely red, while yellow denotes all ranks below Captain. I grabbed one of the other Captain's structure helmets at the beginning of the shift, but didn't grab his wildland helmet as well. This would have made it easier for the Chief's and overhead to pick me out on the hillside. Additionally, one other minor lesson learned was as I was hopping out of the rig making sure that I had both radios, they were tuned to the correct channels, and communicating with overhead, that I initially forgot to grab my gloves from structure gear and transfer them over to my wildland gear. This is a simple fix; I'll just have to get another set of gloves to keep with my wildland gear.

The second fire was a car fire in the parking lot of a mall. This is something that we had pre-planned and practiced just a few weeks ago. As we pulled up, the car was completely obscured by the thick dark smoke. One of the engines that responded with us and was first on scene, runs with a smaller wildland engine called a patrol. The patrol pulled into the garage in an attempt to quickly extinguish the fire. The lesson learned here was that the smoke was so thick that it actually caused the patrol's engine to stall from lack of oxygen. We extinguished the fire by laying a pre-connected hose from the other engine, and then extending off of it with one of our hose packs to reach the vehicle. If the fire had been on one of the upper levels, we would have had to extend a hoseline off of the tip of the truck's aerial ladder.

This reminded me of another call where I was higher classing a month or so prior. We got a rescue response call early in the morning for a vehicle rollover. We arrived to find an older model toyota pick up truck on it's side, with the engine running and a small fire sparking from the catalytic converter. The driver had fled the scene long before we got there. My quick thinking engineer grabbed a CO2 fire extinguisher and sprayed it into the undercarriage. The CO2 displaced the oxygen around the engine and effectively shut it off. Here was an instance where we were able to use the same principle to our advantage.

The third fire on the last shift also had quite a few valuable lessons. The beginning of this post discussed lessons learned navigating to the call, which in large part came from this call. In addition to this, once on scene after the fire as knocked down, the homeowner came barreling into the apartment complex, through the cones we laid down to block off the road, driving over our 5" hose and almost running over a few firefighters. Again, I've got to stay completely aware of my surroundings even with the simplest of tasks and when everything appears to be calm.

Three Legged Squirrel

Recently while visiting my grandma's house I noticed a squirrel running across the street. The first thing that caught my attention was that the squirrel only had half of it's tail. It wasn't until later that I realized that it was also missing one of its rear legs. This amazed me in that this animal was able to compensate and still move naturally and gracefully enough that I didn't even notice it's missing leg.

When I have any injury or a bit of stiffness in my joints, my body mechanics tend to change and become more rigid and less graceful. This opened my eyes a bit that I could make more of a conscious effort to move more fluidly in my daily life, concentrating on the areas that felt good, instead of the ones that ached or were stiff. I had been doing this for a bit during the conditioning portion of rugby practice, and noticed my body warmed up much faster.

This led me to think of the role of grace in athletics and longevity. When I was younger, I was bristling with energy. I was driven to push myself and run, jump, play and frolic as much as possible. It seemed though, that society at the time wanted me planted firmly on the sidelines, to be the cheerleader instead of the athlete on the playing field. The first time I can remember noticing this was when it came to wearing skirts and dresses to school in first grade. Initially I had no problem wearing skirts, not until I was told that I couldn't hang upside down on the monkey bars like the other kids, for fear of flashing my little bloomers to the whole school yard. In later years it began to seem that women's clothing prized form over function to the point where it was almost a conspiracy to hobble and hamstring function. The clothes were made out of lightweight, delicate frilly fabrics that couldn't stand up to the lightest bit of use. Heaven forbid that women's winter clothing would have enough fabric to actually keep a person warm, that would ruin the cute little cut of the garment. I tolerated the ballet lessons my parents enrolled me in so that I could take the more fun tap lessons. Then of course, there was the worse offender of all, the high heel. Here was something that was unstable, would use the person's body weight to force their toes into a painful little point at the end of the shoe, not to mention would lead to foot, hip and back problems later in life. None of that seemed like a good trade off, yet this is what society expected of me. That didn't sit too well with me. I began to focus solely on function, seeing any effort put into form and thereby gracefulness, as a waste of energy that could have been put into strength and speed.

Now, later in life, I'm seeing how form and function don't have to detract from each other, but can actually work together to create an incredible synergy. Grace is smooth, coordinated movement, which is inherently faster, stronger and beautiful. The book and DVD series "Kettlebells from the Ground Up" explained that the word calisthenics is derived from the Greek "Kalos Sthenos," meaning "beautiful strength." The ancient Greeks, who were some of the fittest athletes around, realized the need for gracefulness in their practice. As I played volleyball, I eventually unintentionally found a level of grace through practicing and refining my function. Now I'm curious as I take up a new sport, rugby, how putting a strong emphasis on grace from the beginning will affect my game. In order to do this, I've incorporated work with kettlebells, in particular the ballistic swinging movements, as well as indian clubs. Another option would be to take up dance. In a Time.com interview, football player Lynn Swann stated that his years of dance lessons in tap, jazz, and ballet had greatly helped his sense of balance, body control, rhythm and timing. Who would have thought all those years ago that sporting a frilly little tutu might actually help with my rugby game.