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.