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.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, August 23, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
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.
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.
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