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.