It is amazing that we are at the end of week 10, it has been a long journey for this academy. There has been some ups and downs but there what is more important is the character building that has occurred. This week was a week about safety, and then our third practicals. On a non academy side note this week has been a very restful and peaceful week. I notice that by going to bed early I am able to recover from the days activities better. I also notice that the heat and the stress of working out, being all hot and sweaty and being that hard worker comes easier with rest and proper nutrition. This week was not too exciting and I really do not have too much to say. I will break this week up by the Frontline Safety Class and then our workouts.
Frontline Safety Class:
We made history this week as we were the first recruit class in the country to receive the IAFF Frontline Safety class. The IAFF developed a 16-hour course entitled Frontline Safety. In this course, the IAFF gives students the opportunity to examine their own values, those of their work team, and those of their organization when it comes to safety. Students learn about the National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, which provides information about the causes of fire fighter injuries and fatalities. Students also learn strategies they can use to demonstrate safety is their primary value. The purpose of the course is to help decrease the number of injuries and deaths experienced by the fire service by helping students become safety leaders or advocates for safe behavior.
Fitness:
Monday we started out our fitness with FRAN 21-15-9, we did 21 Thrusters and then 21 Pullups, then 15 Thrusters and then 15 Pullups; then 9 Thrusters and then 9 Pullups. The first time I did FRAN it took some time this time I did it with 20 lbs more for the Thrusters and 3 minutes and 17 seconds faster.
Tuesday we did a TABATA of 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds rest 8 times of Wall Balls and then Box Jumps. So just so that this is clear we did 20 seconds of Wall Balls, then 10 seconds of rest, 20 seconds of Wall Balls and 20 seconds of rest 8 times. Then did the same thing with the box jumps. My numbers were like this for the Wall Balls. 10, 10, 9, 7, 5, 6, 6, 6 - and then for the Box Jumps 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7, 9.
Wednesday we did another type of FRAN 21-15-9 but this time it was Ring Dips and Clings. We are starting to move more towards the core exercises and gymnastics. It was a tough workout but getting her done.
Next Week:
There is really not much to talk about except that fact that this next week is going to be our Wildland Fire week. Even though I have my Wildland certificate I have to retake this again no big deal but what fun it will be to do it with my academy.
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Showing posts with label Academy 2010-01. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Academy 2010-01. Show all posts
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Week 8 Complete - Live Fire Training
This week was a success overall! This week was the week where we did some live fire training and it was awesome! For some reason I am very comfortable in my turnouts sitting in front of an inferno! I really do not feel the heat anywhere except for my big ears and that is about it. Just to keep it all well rounded let me tell you about this week. This week let’s mix it up a bit and do things chronologically.
Monday:
This Monday we had our written exam/ test on HazMAT, WMD, Loss Control and High Rise Fires. I studied like a madman all weekend but ended up with an 86% on the written exam. Not too bad but not that great either. From here on out I will send you a link to the exercise examples of what we are doing for CrossFIT at the end of this message. For the workout we had a great workout to start off Monday it was 1 min of work doing Wall Balls with a 25 lbs, Thrusters with 20 lbs, Jump Boxes and then Situps Max Reps for 1 Min then we rest for a minute after doing one set. We did this 3 times. We also worked on our gymnastic ring workouts with our dips and holding our C pattern. We did some classroom time and learned about protecting evidence in the fire service and also communications in the fire service. We ended the day going to City Communications where dispatch and 911 calls are taken. It was a great day!
Tuesday:
We ended up starting off our workout a little bit different where we did a Team Relay. Myself and another older guy who is 40 years of age were paired up and we pretty much split the workout down the middle. This workout was crazy glad we got to work together with someone on it. It was 50 pull ups, 75 push ups, 400M farmers carry, 100 Squats, 125 Situps with the Medicine Ball, 200M Walking Lunges, 100 Burpees, 75 Box Jumps, and then a 800 M Run. Crazy workout felt really good after doing it both myself and my partner kept pretty good pace. I ended up doing more box jumps but pretty much split the workout down the middle. Felt good to accomplish so much in a short period of time. The rest of the day we spent some time working on our Leadership Skills. We did a conference call with Chief Laskey who wrote a book “Pride & Ownership” During this time we had a question and answer session with him on leadership in the fire service. Then we went thru our own RTO’s hand written manual on Followership to Leadership. It talked about the fact that we are leaders in the community and some day we are going to become company officers, and we need to lead like we follow. It spurred on some great conversation with the RTOs and some Chiefs of NW Fire who were present.
Wednesday:
We met at the park near Golder Ranch Fire Headquarters were we usually train. We were about ready to embark on the workout of doing Crossfit Dodgeball but ended up taking a boot camp instructors workout area on the basketball court. So we ended up before playing Dodgeball; doing Browns Boot Camp Workout for Wednesday. I have to say it was different and it was a butt kicker. After doing this tough workout we got in about 30 minutes of Crossfit Dodgeball. We finished up some lectures and some classroom time in our Class A uniforms. Then we got right to our Live Burns with the fire simulator. This simulator has been known to scare some guys on the job with what it can do. Our team was one of the first teams to get into the fire. It was great we got to put out a simulated propane based couch fire, then crawl further into the darkness, swing open a door and see a stove on fire, then with the simulator the instructors can make the conditions rollover which is pre-flashover conditions. The rollover is where the fire rolls on top of the ceiling and then fingers down the wall of the otherside of the room. The combustibles, then throw fire in your face practically I know that some of us ducked or moved out of the way from the fire being thrusted towards us. It was really cool. My ears where kind of tingling which usually means I am around 400 degrees or so. When we got out of the simulator, I told my RTO that man that was pretty hot fire, and my Captain said that this was not hot at all and pretty telling us all that we were a bunch of wimps on our team. Then the firefighter who was controlling the simulator came out and said man I had that pretty hot around 700 degrees at the ceiling; we also noticed the Captains flashlight was melted also. So I guess it was hot pretty cool. Overall it was hot outside too about 100 degrees, and all of our fluid was running out of us. We had a great day it was an awesome experience with the team; we got to go in the simulator twice.
Thursday:
For the workout in the morning we ended up pulling a Tire across the pavement, 10 burpees, doing a Tire Flip, then 10 burpees, the Tire Flip again, and then 10 burpees did this twice. I actually felt pretty good. We went to the Air Force Base again to do a Class A Live Fire burn. This fire burn we ended up burning pallets and cardboard boxes in a burn room with the doors and windows shut, we were able to see a fire started from the incipient stage and watch the fire burn. As it burns we can start seeing the thermal layering of the fire, and the blacken smoke, as it starts to get lower, and lower. I can see how you can literally see nothing with the smoke, then we were told to stand up in the heat, and it got hot not going to lie here it was warm. We then got down and started to hydraulically ventilate the smoke and the combustibles out the building. We really got to spend a couple of times in the burn room putting out the fire. I felt that it was a great day. There were some mistakes made but like one of the RTOs said the best place to make mistakes is here while training not in the fire ground.
After we got home we got to spend time at Chipotle and Baskin Robins, meeting the other recruits families. I think one of the recruits called it family night at Chipotle. We had a nice time where we got to meet the kids, wives etc. It was fun and cool to laugh about some of the things that happened at the academy.
4 Day Weekend:
This weekend is a 4 day weekend of rest from the academy. I have a lot of studying to do for sure. Need to get some homework done for next week, need to study and need to workout a bit as well. Have to rehydrate because the past two days took alot out of me as I was in the sun the whole time and working really hard. This weekend should be nice I am sure we will spend time with the kiddos, swimming, playing at the park etc, and I am sure I will get some stuff done as well in those 4 days.
Next Week:
Another busy week of work it is only a 3 day week next week so we start on Tuesday at the Academy. Week 9 will be here and gone before I know it. During next week we are going to be doing a day of classroom and then a couple of days of outside activities. We will be doing Building Construction, Forcible Entry and Ventilation. So with these next 3 days should be interesting to see what happens.
I am feeling pretty good, notice that the more I rest the better I feel. I think the key here is to hydrate, eat and rest to make myself the best and the most efficient for the academy. I also need to do well on the test next week as well. Thanks for reading this blog hope you enjoy it.
CrossFit Workouts Mentioned:
Wall Balls
Trusters
Box Jumps
Burpees
Ring Dips
Tire Flips
Monday:
This Monday we had our written exam/ test on HazMAT, WMD, Loss Control and High Rise Fires. I studied like a madman all weekend but ended up with an 86% on the written exam. Not too bad but not that great either. From here on out I will send you a link to the exercise examples of what we are doing for CrossFIT at the end of this message. For the workout we had a great workout to start off Monday it was 1 min of work doing Wall Balls with a 25 lbs, Thrusters with 20 lbs, Jump Boxes and then Situps Max Reps for 1 Min then we rest for a minute after doing one set. We did this 3 times. We also worked on our gymnastic ring workouts with our dips and holding our C pattern. We did some classroom time and learned about protecting evidence in the fire service and also communications in the fire service. We ended the day going to City Communications where dispatch and 911 calls are taken. It was a great day!
Tuesday:
We ended up starting off our workout a little bit different where we did a Team Relay. Myself and another older guy who is 40 years of age were paired up and we pretty much split the workout down the middle. This workout was crazy glad we got to work together with someone on it. It was 50 pull ups, 75 push ups, 400M farmers carry, 100 Squats, 125 Situps with the Medicine Ball, 200M Walking Lunges, 100 Burpees, 75 Box Jumps, and then a 800 M Run. Crazy workout felt really good after doing it both myself and my partner kept pretty good pace. I ended up doing more box jumps but pretty much split the workout down the middle. Felt good to accomplish so much in a short period of time. The rest of the day we spent some time working on our Leadership Skills. We did a conference call with Chief Laskey who wrote a book “Pride & Ownership” During this time we had a question and answer session with him on leadership in the fire service. Then we went thru our own RTO’s hand written manual on Followership to Leadership. It talked about the fact that we are leaders in the community and some day we are going to become company officers, and we need to lead like we follow. It spurred on some great conversation with the RTOs and some Chiefs of NW Fire who were present.
Wednesday:
We met at the park near Golder Ranch Fire Headquarters were we usually train. We were about ready to embark on the workout of doing Crossfit Dodgeball but ended up taking a boot camp instructors workout area on the basketball court. So we ended up before playing Dodgeball; doing Browns Boot Camp Workout for Wednesday. I have to say it was different and it was a butt kicker. After doing this tough workout we got in about 30 minutes of Crossfit Dodgeball. We finished up some lectures and some classroom time in our Class A uniforms. Then we got right to our Live Burns with the fire simulator. This simulator has been known to scare some guys on the job with what it can do. Our team was one of the first teams to get into the fire. It was great we got to put out a simulated propane based couch fire, then crawl further into the darkness, swing open a door and see a stove on fire, then with the simulator the instructors can make the conditions rollover which is pre-flashover conditions. The rollover is where the fire rolls on top of the ceiling and then fingers down the wall of the otherside of the room. The combustibles, then throw fire in your face practically I know that some of us ducked or moved out of the way from the fire being thrusted towards us. It was really cool. My ears where kind of tingling which usually means I am around 400 degrees or so. When we got out of the simulator, I told my RTO that man that was pretty hot fire, and my Captain said that this was not hot at all and pretty telling us all that we were a bunch of wimps on our team. Then the firefighter who was controlling the simulator came out and said man I had that pretty hot around 700 degrees at the ceiling; we also noticed the Captains flashlight was melted also. So I guess it was hot pretty cool. Overall it was hot outside too about 100 degrees, and all of our fluid was running out of us. We had a great day it was an awesome experience with the team; we got to go in the simulator twice.
Thursday:
For the workout in the morning we ended up pulling a Tire across the pavement, 10 burpees, doing a Tire Flip, then 10 burpees, the Tire Flip again, and then 10 burpees did this twice. I actually felt pretty good. We went to the Air Force Base again to do a Class A Live Fire burn. This fire burn we ended up burning pallets and cardboard boxes in a burn room with the doors and windows shut, we were able to see a fire started from the incipient stage and watch the fire burn. As it burns we can start seeing the thermal layering of the fire, and the blacken smoke, as it starts to get lower, and lower. I can see how you can literally see nothing with the smoke, then we were told to stand up in the heat, and it got hot not going to lie here it was warm. We then got down and started to hydraulically ventilate the smoke and the combustibles out the building. We really got to spend a couple of times in the burn room putting out the fire. I felt that it was a great day. There were some mistakes made but like one of the RTOs said the best place to make mistakes is here while training not in the fire ground.
After we got home we got to spend time at Chipotle and Baskin Robins, meeting the other recruits families. I think one of the recruits called it family night at Chipotle. We had a nice time where we got to meet the kids, wives etc. It was fun and cool to laugh about some of the things that happened at the academy.
4 Day Weekend:
This weekend is a 4 day weekend of rest from the academy. I have a lot of studying to do for sure. Need to get some homework done for next week, need to study and need to workout a bit as well. Have to rehydrate because the past two days took alot out of me as I was in the sun the whole time and working really hard. This weekend should be nice I am sure we will spend time with the kiddos, swimming, playing at the park etc, and I am sure I will get some stuff done as well in those 4 days.
Next Week:
Another busy week of work it is only a 3 day week next week so we start on Tuesday at the Academy. Week 9 will be here and gone before I know it. During next week we are going to be doing a day of classroom and then a couple of days of outside activities. We will be doing Building Construction, Forcible Entry and Ventilation. So with these next 3 days should be interesting to see what happens.
I am feeling pretty good, notice that the more I rest the better I feel. I think the key here is to hydrate, eat and rest to make myself the best and the most efficient for the academy. I also need to do well on the test next week as well. Thanks for reading this blog hope you enjoy it.
CrossFit Workouts Mentioned:
Wall Balls
Trusters
Box Jumps
Burpees
Ring Dips
Tire Flips
Sunday, May 23, 2010
HazMAT & WMD - Week 7
This week was a week of brotherhood and love as we entered into being trained First Responder's HAZMAT and Weapons of Mass Destruction of WMD. The week started off with a bang our Mid Term Test. I got a 93%, noticed that since I have moved down here and been settled that life has gotten better. Adriana and I are working better together which is important, and the kids are getting settled in as well. This week was a really good week. I have been worried because my body has been pretty fatigued and tired, sore and beaten up.
But this week ended being a good physical and mental week for me. No more walls! With the mid term out of the way we spent this week a (5 day week) working on skills all voluntary in the morning. Monday morning I started off the morning working on throwing some ladders and doing some leg locks. I was pretty disappointed at how many people showed up early to get some extra practice in, but nevertheless I think everyday I practiced I learned how to do something better and learned how to be more proactive in getting things done and in an efficient manner. It was beneficial showing up early and getting the much needed practice in. Tuesday I worked on hoisting and knots. We are going to be skilled again on doing knots. I worked on tying knots which I have been getting pretty good at. One day in the class I was pointed out as the only recruit who had my knot right :) All that work is starting to pay off. Wednesday deployed some hose lays, flaked them out and then prepped for taking entry in a building with a hoseline. And then Thursday was me getting in line with others who needed to finish their VO2 Max for their fit test.
I mentioned before that this week was about brotherhood and love because it was Union week. Both of the locals IAFF came in and BBQ us burgers and dogs on Wednesday and talked about the unions. The instructors were from NW FIre but one was a captain from a HazMAT truck and the other was a Battalion Chief from NW Fire who works on HazMAT stuff. This week was a laid back week as we were not as strict during the day. It was long class room days but fun days. 5 days a week 3 days of HazMAT and 2 days of WMDs.
The fitness portion of this week was pretty good as well. We did PT for this week all 5 days this week. Monday we did an AMRAP of 10 minutes, 10 burbies, and a relay race to 3 different spaced cones, Tuesday did another AMRAP of 10 minutes of doing 10 Ring Pull ups or reverse pull-ups and 10 Push Ups. The next day is the FitTest I will talk about that next. Thursday was a 400M run, 25 Situps, 25 PushUps doing that 3 times. Friday we had a choice of swimming, doing a total body workout thing on a sled or a spin class. I went for the Swimming at the YMCA. Got an excellent workout mixing in Crossfit style lunges outside the pool and then swimming laps in various methods. Lucky enough I was the fastest in swimming :)
The FitTest is our midterm fittest to see how we have progressed. My VO2MAX from before the academy was 43 now it is 55. My Body Fat % went down about 6 or 7 points. My strength and flexibility went up a bit and my push ups went up by 6 or 7 push ups. So I was pretty happy with these results. This week overall was a really good week.
Next week I know we have some more classroom time. We have a test on Loss Control, High Rise Fires, WMD, and HazMat. So I hope and pray I will do well on this. My grade point avg is on the rise would like to continue that trend. I know we have a quiz on the next couple of chapters as well. This week is a 4 day week then we have a 4 days off because Monday is Memorial Day. This week we are going to be learning about Fire Evidence and Communications. Sprinkler systems, Reading Smoke and then Thursday we are in the Burn Room at the Air Force Base.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
I HIT a WALL! - Week 6
I want to preface this message by saying that things are on it way quickly to being better now! But like my beautiful and wonderful wife stated week 6 was a tough week for me. You have to understand and I am not one to try to make excuses but to capture the whole picture, this move and transition has been ruff on our family. With the whole noise thing within the apartment (not an issue anymore) and other items I have to say that there is a tremendous amount of peace in our home currently. I have had friends and family pray for our family after this horrific week. Sometimes we need to get beat up and get to the point of breakdown before we can be molded into something better. I believe that week 6 was about this. I have been very tired, emotionally, physically and spiritually exhausted. It has come to my attention that during week 6 I my head was not in the game and I literally checked out!
I passed my re-take exam with a 93%, and took my quiz for that week and got 100% on it. Again like I stated before though I have been in some serious pain and it has irritated me, including when I come home and I can not relax within my new home surroundings kind of drives me up a wall. Again like I stated before things have changed but it has been really keeping me edgy, my wife and kids have been edgy was well.
The physical fitness side has really been getting tough. I notice that my RTOs have been on my butt about keeping the momentum going I guess they noticed that I was out of the game as well. But have to admit that i am pretty impressed with these numbers in regards to my workouts. Monday we did ANGIE which is 100 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, 100 situps and 100 squats for time. My time was 40:07 about double of everyone elses, we did the 5K again, yes I ran another 5K and did it shorter this time about a minute and 4 seconds shorter. Wednesday we did MINDY amrap, where we did 5 pull ups, 10 pushups and 15 squats I did about 6 rounds this time in my 10 minutes. This was doubled what I did last time. Thursday we did the 1 ton workout 2000 lbs of lifting so 80 times I lifted a 25lb ball. CrossFit is great but when I look at the workouts they have a crazy workout and then a day of rest. We get no rest unless it is the weekends. But my body was hurting really bad.
This week was pretty cool as we got to practice high rise fires, and do some stuff with vehicle fires. We did alot of search and rescue at the Air Force Base location around here. It was good to be on the base love watching the airplanes take off and do their maneuvers mostly at lunch time or during breaks. Did a great job at taking that vehicle fire out! Did a great job at rescuing the 185 lb dummys also when doing search and rescue. My body size has alot to do with this but with that being said it was great to do some skills at a 100%.
With all that being said being mentally and physically exhausted my head was not in the game this week and it cost me. This next week is going to be all about repair and maintenance. I know that this next week is going to be a week (5 days) of HazMAT and Weapons of Mass Destruction. During the week in the morning I will be taking up on the opportunity to get some more practice time in with my RTOs on skills. Also next week is my Mid-Term test. There should be no excuse to fail any station and not be confident. Thanks again for your support and prayers. I will let you know how next week goes.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Week 5 of the Academy is Complete
A Pastor friend of mine today said hey we have not received an update on how things are going and what to pray for, I said oh I update the blog and he told me that he likes it when I email. So I guess I will update the blog and email out the updates at the same time. We live in crazy times, starting tomorrow morning while most of you will be sleeping I will be starting WEEK 6. I am still recovering from the previous week after you see the activities you will know why exactly I am still sore, bruised and kind of tired.
As you know we moved into our apartment and us Clesceri’s are not used to apartment living because in 3 days we received a noise ordinance on our doorstep that we were too loud. Kind of crazy but the biggest complaint was us walking upstairs. I have to say that I was pretty frustrated because we have been working hard with the kids and ourselves to walk quieter, be quieter but we got an ordinance notice anyways. After this incident my wife talked to the lady downstairs and I think we have some things figured out. Pretty much you are going to have to live with the fact that we are going to live in our upstairs apartment and you are going to have to deal with the walking.
This week in the Academy there was not too much cognitive (classroom) time, actually one day which was Monday. Tuesday we went to the PSA (Tucson’s Public Safety Fire Burn Building) and did a new drill not even out yet by the IFCA, IAFF and NFPA called the Firefighter Survival Skills Drills or Surviving the MayDay. With this drill we were training on what it would be like if we had to get ourselves out of a sticky situation. One of the first drills we did was being blacked out going into a building with our SCBA PASS device activated and searching for it in the building untangling it, putting it on, and then getting back out of the building. The second drill was jumping out of a second story building onto a ladder two different ways. The first one was jumping out head first, and then putting one hand on the second rung, and sliding the other hand down the beam of the ladder and swinging your body off of the window and flipping yourself around so that you go down the ladder feet first. Pretty fun did it multiple times, with SCBA on and off. Then we did a drill where we went off the building again onto the ladder head first and continue down the ladder head first and crawl down the ladder to the bottom rung. Again did this many times with SCBA on and off. The third drill was the interior wall breach. We had to get into an interior wall check it for heat and then in a tight spot get our ourselves and our pack thru this little narrow opening. It was pretty cool can not believe I made it thru, we did some additional drills where we had to take off our SCBA, and manipulate thru the prop as well. The next drill was an entanglement prop where we had to get ourselves thru a box full of wires with our SCBA on and blacked out. Another drill was hanging from a window with our SCBA on and off. And finally following a hoseline out of a building. After lunch we all did the confidence maze. The confidence maze put us in a blacked out blindfolded situation breathing air with our SCBA and there was some spots where we were in a tight confined situations. We all made it out but it was not my favorite thing to do.
Wednesday and Thursday was extrication days. We got to cut up about 20 cars. We learned all kinds of techniques to make the car cutting safe for us and effective for patient packaging. It was 3 long days of being in our turnouts all day and doing work. But well worth it. We got to use different tools, cut different types of cars and learned some tips and tricks in using tools like our haligan tool to help us get the job done. Extrication is so important and with airbag deployment and placements, and with hybrid cars it is so important to make sure we are safe when doing extrication. We did blow an airbag to see how fast and how powerful they are, it was pretty impressive. We tore up those cars pretty good.
This week I did not do well on my written exam for Test 4. I studied for it but for some reason and with the quizzes I seem to study the wrong things. I have a make up on Monday at lunch time. If you can say a prayer that I do well there is a great weight riding on it.
The workouts this week were pretty intense. We did a run for 200M and then did 15 box jumps (5 times) This was pretty good cardio, then the next day we did towers because we were at the PSA (5 stories) and then lunges in front of the tower and did that 4 times. Wednesday we did GRIFF again which is a HERO WOD from CrossFit. 800 M running forward, 400 M running backwards, 800 M running forwards, 400 M running backwards. Thursday we did a benchmark WOD 800 M run, 25 Pushups and then 25 Situps twice. I did this workout before and ended up this time shaving off 51 seconds from my time last time. Afterwards we played soccer for about an hour and a half.
This week is going to be another busy week. We have classroom time and skills on Monday getting ready for our practical test #2 on Thursday. I might stay afterwards to get more drill time in. Tuesday we are meeting later in the afternoon, and staying till 10pm doing a Night Drill at the Air Force Base, and then the next day we are back at the Air Force Base working drilling for High Rise Fires, and Vehicle Fires. Thursday we are at Golder Ranch Headquarters working on our Practical Skill Test #2. Search and Rescue, Extinguishers, Hoses and Ladders. Please pray that I do well on these skills as well as my test. This is my update for right now. My back is hurting a little bit but I should hopefully be good for the next day. Thank you again for your support and for partnering with our family on this Clesceri Adventure.
I am now off to bed!
As you know we moved into our apartment and us Clesceri’s are not used to apartment living because in 3 days we received a noise ordinance on our doorstep that we were too loud. Kind of crazy but the biggest complaint was us walking upstairs. I have to say that I was pretty frustrated because we have been working hard with the kids and ourselves to walk quieter, be quieter but we got an ordinance notice anyways. After this incident my wife talked to the lady downstairs and I think we have some things figured out. Pretty much you are going to have to live with the fact that we are going to live in our upstairs apartment and you are going to have to deal with the walking.
This week in the Academy there was not too much cognitive (classroom) time, actually one day which was Monday. Tuesday we went to the PSA (Tucson’s Public Safety Fire Burn Building) and did a new drill not even out yet by the IFCA, IAFF and NFPA called the Firefighter Survival Skills Drills or Surviving the MayDay. With this drill we were training on what it would be like if we had to get ourselves out of a sticky situation. One of the first drills we did was being blacked out going into a building with our SCBA PASS device activated and searching for it in the building untangling it, putting it on, and then getting back out of the building. The second drill was jumping out of a second story building onto a ladder two different ways. The first one was jumping out head first, and then putting one hand on the second rung, and sliding the other hand down the beam of the ladder and swinging your body off of the window and flipping yourself around so that you go down the ladder feet first. Pretty fun did it multiple times, with SCBA on and off. Then we did a drill where we went off the building again onto the ladder head first and continue down the ladder head first and crawl down the ladder to the bottom rung. Again did this many times with SCBA on and off. The third drill was the interior wall breach. We had to get into an interior wall check it for heat and then in a tight spot get our ourselves and our pack thru this little narrow opening. It was pretty cool can not believe I made it thru, we did some additional drills where we had to take off our SCBA, and manipulate thru the prop as well. The next drill was an entanglement prop where we had to get ourselves thru a box full of wires with our SCBA on and blacked out. Another drill was hanging from a window with our SCBA on and off. And finally following a hoseline out of a building. After lunch we all did the confidence maze. The confidence maze put us in a blacked out blindfolded situation breathing air with our SCBA and there was some spots where we were in a tight confined situations. We all made it out but it was not my favorite thing to do.
Wednesday and Thursday was extrication days. We got to cut up about 20 cars. We learned all kinds of techniques to make the car cutting safe for us and effective for patient packaging. It was 3 long days of being in our turnouts all day and doing work. But well worth it. We got to use different tools, cut different types of cars and learned some tips and tricks in using tools like our haligan tool to help us get the job done. Extrication is so important and with airbag deployment and placements, and with hybrid cars it is so important to make sure we are safe when doing extrication. We did blow an airbag to see how fast and how powerful they are, it was pretty impressive. We tore up those cars pretty good.
This week I did not do well on my written exam for Test 4. I studied for it but for some reason and with the quizzes I seem to study the wrong things. I have a make up on Monday at lunch time. If you can say a prayer that I do well there is a great weight riding on it.
The workouts this week were pretty intense. We did a run for 200M and then did 15 box jumps (5 times) This was pretty good cardio, then the next day we did towers because we were at the PSA (5 stories) and then lunges in front of the tower and did that 4 times. Wednesday we did GRIFF again which is a HERO WOD from CrossFit. 800 M running forward, 400 M running backwards, 800 M running forwards, 400 M running backwards. Thursday we did a benchmark WOD 800 M run, 25 Pushups and then 25 Situps twice. I did this workout before and ended up this time shaving off 51 seconds from my time last time. Afterwards we played soccer for about an hour and a half.
This week is going to be another busy week. We have classroom time and skills on Monday getting ready for our practical test #2 on Thursday. I might stay afterwards to get more drill time in. Tuesday we are meeting later in the afternoon, and staying till 10pm doing a Night Drill at the Air Force Base, and then the next day we are back at the Air Force Base working drilling for High Rise Fires, and Vehicle Fires. Thursday we are at Golder Ranch Headquarters working on our Practical Skill Test #2. Search and Rescue, Extinguishers, Hoses and Ladders. Please pray that I do well on these skills as well as my test. This is my update for right now. My back is hurting a little bit but I should hopefully be good for the next day. Thank you again for your support and for partnering with our family on this Clesceri Adventure.
I am now off to bed!
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Week 4 Complete
This week is the last week where i have to drive back and forth from Tucson to Gilbert (1.5 Hrs there and 1.5 Hrs back) Monday - Thursday. I do not have to get up at 3am anymore. After this week I will be closer to the community that I will be serving. It is kind of bitter sweet considering that fact that my wife and I and our children will be leaving everything we know and essentially starting over from a new location.
I am going to update you kind of out of order again. I am writing this blog in the apartment here at Crescent Ridge. The move went smooth. Getting stuff out of the house of Gilbert went really smooth thanks to the help of (2) great guys from Firefighters for Christ who are good friends; and another good friend of mine who is a Gilbert Firefighter and has been kind of involved in this academy experience. We literally loaded the truck up in about 2 hours. We went to Subway to share and just talk about things. One of the hot topics was working on a ladder company. My friend from Gilbert Fire works on a ladder. Then after our feast at Subway Adriana and I started cleaning the house out! I went to bed early and Adriana was up all night till about midnight cleaning the house. We spent the night for the last time in our home as a family.
The next day with the truck loaded, we did some odds and ends and then headed out and drove to our new apartment home in Tucson. The drive was not that bad and when we got there had to sign some paperwork. We were greeted with one of the academy members who brought his friends to help us move from their church. We also had 3 other academy members show up, my Dad was there, our good friends from 2=1 marriage ministry was there, and the leaders of the Tucson ministry for 2=1 marriage ministry was there, and another couple. It was awesome we got the truck unloaded upstairs in our apartment done in less than an hour and a half. Thanks to all who helped us out.
For the Academy the workouts I noticed are getting harder. For Monday we had to do 400M, 25 Push Ups, 25 Sit Ups, 4 times. The next day on Tuesday we had to do 25 Jump Ropes, 10 Dips, and 10 Ball Slams in 10 minutes how many rounds can you do. For Wednesday we did a Tabata 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest, 10 times per exercise. We did Pylo-boxes, Squats, Pull Ups, and then Knee Ups where we are in a pull up position hanging, and then we bring our knees to the inside of our elbows bending our body in half! Good stuff. Thursday we had to do a bottle breathe down, and then our max sit-ups….I could of kept going but I did 309 sit-ups. The workouts are going to get more intense next week I am sure.
This week was also a week of accomplishments, besides making it past week 3 as an accomplishment itself, we did lose one of our academy recruits and he is no longer with us. Our Captains did say that we need to evaluate why we are here and if we are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to be successful. I did get to climb that 105 aerial ladder and was pretty nervous about it but ended up really enjoying it. It was an 105 aerial stick, where we get on top of the stick, clip in, stand on some platforms, and then lean back letting go of the rungs. No big deal actually enjoyed it. Another accomplishment is that last week I could not do a leg lock, kind of frustrating because it is a required function when working with ladders is to lock yourself in. There were some other recruits who have big feet and are taller like me who had struggles with this as well. But actually got to leg lock this week. It was tricky but got it done.
We received our evaluations also in the academy. There are some areas I need to work in which is being a better listener in regards to instructions and not let my mind wander or jump ahead of what the task at hand is. Or try to figure out what I am going to do. Need to work on my skills this whole ropes and knot thing really was a challenge for me and will continue to work on my ropes and knots to make it perfected. Oh yeah need to need to follow the chain of command better. But there were some positives also. For anything regards to character, attitude, initiative, etc I received high marks. My RTO said that he can tell that I am just a nice guy, genuine, and have a huge heart!
This week we learned some ladder operation, did some HR paperwork for our benefits finally that will be effective June 1st, search and rescue and lifesaving drills. We learned about extrication as well. Next week we are going to have a couple of field trips. Monday will be like any other day, Tuesday we are going to the Tucson Public Safety Building to do some Firefighter Life Safety and Save your Own Drills, Wednesday and Thursday we are going to some location to cut up 20 cars.
Finally, because I moved here to Tucson now I can focus more on the academy, being closer about 15 minutes away I will not have to get up as early, I will have more time to spend with the family, I will have more time to study, and finally I will be able to engage in study groups etc with my academy members. Very exciting stuff. I will report on how this week goes. Thank you again for reading my posts.
I am going to update you kind of out of order again. I am writing this blog in the apartment here at Crescent Ridge. The move went smooth. Getting stuff out of the house of Gilbert went really smooth thanks to the help of (2) great guys from Firefighters for Christ who are good friends; and another good friend of mine who is a Gilbert Firefighter and has been kind of involved in this academy experience. We literally loaded the truck up in about 2 hours. We went to Subway to share and just talk about things. One of the hot topics was working on a ladder company. My friend from Gilbert Fire works on a ladder. Then after our feast at Subway Adriana and I started cleaning the house out! I went to bed early and Adriana was up all night till about midnight cleaning the house. We spent the night for the last time in our home as a family.
The next day with the truck loaded, we did some odds and ends and then headed out and drove to our new apartment home in Tucson. The drive was not that bad and when we got there had to sign some paperwork. We were greeted with one of the academy members who brought his friends to help us move from their church. We also had 3 other academy members show up, my Dad was there, our good friends from 2=1 marriage ministry was there, and the leaders of the Tucson ministry for 2=1 marriage ministry was there, and another couple. It was awesome we got the truck unloaded upstairs in our apartment done in less than an hour and a half. Thanks to all who helped us out.
For the Academy the workouts I noticed are getting harder. For Monday we had to do 400M, 25 Push Ups, 25 Sit Ups, 4 times. The next day on Tuesday we had to do 25 Jump Ropes, 10 Dips, and 10 Ball Slams in 10 minutes how many rounds can you do. For Wednesday we did a Tabata 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest, 10 times per exercise. We did Pylo-boxes, Squats, Pull Ups, and then Knee Ups where we are in a pull up position hanging, and then we bring our knees to the inside of our elbows bending our body in half! Good stuff. Thursday we had to do a bottle breathe down, and then our max sit-ups….I could of kept going but I did 309 sit-ups. The workouts are going to get more intense next week I am sure.
This week was also a week of accomplishments, besides making it past week 3 as an accomplishment itself, we did lose one of our academy recruits and he is no longer with us. Our Captains did say that we need to evaluate why we are here and if we are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to be successful. I did get to climb that 105 aerial ladder and was pretty nervous about it but ended up really enjoying it. It was an 105 aerial stick, where we get on top of the stick, clip in, stand on some platforms, and then lean back letting go of the rungs. No big deal actually enjoyed it. Another accomplishment is that last week I could not do a leg lock, kind of frustrating because it is a required function when working with ladders is to lock yourself in. There were some other recruits who have big feet and are taller like me who had struggles with this as well. But actually got to leg lock this week. It was tricky but got it done.
We received our evaluations also in the academy. There are some areas I need to work in which is being a better listener in regards to instructions and not let my mind wander or jump ahead of what the task at hand is. Or try to figure out what I am going to do. Need to work on my skills this whole ropes and knot thing really was a challenge for me and will continue to work on my ropes and knots to make it perfected. Oh yeah need to need to follow the chain of command better. But there were some positives also. For anything regards to character, attitude, initiative, etc I received high marks. My RTO said that he can tell that I am just a nice guy, genuine, and have a huge heart!
This week we learned some ladder operation, did some HR paperwork for our benefits finally that will be effective June 1st, search and rescue and lifesaving drills. We learned about extrication as well. Next week we are going to have a couple of field trips. Monday will be like any other day, Tuesday we are going to the Tucson Public Safety Building to do some Firefighter Life Safety and Save your Own Drills, Wednesday and Thursday we are going to some location to cut up 20 cars.
Finally, because I moved here to Tucson now I can focus more on the academy, being closer about 15 minutes away I will not have to get up as early, I will have more time to spend with the family, I will have more time to study, and finally I will be able to engage in study groups etc with my academy members. Very exciting stuff. I will report on how this week goes. Thank you again for reading my posts.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Week Three Complete
Well week 3 of the academy is complete! I am gearing up for week 4 here but wanted to share with you some exciting accomplishments with week 3. Instead of doing it in a chronological order this time I would just share with you highlights. First off for some reason I must be a retard or something because this is the week that it finally hit me! I am going to be a firefighter after this training is complete I am done! I am going to start my career the very thing that I have been working hard for the past 6 years is here. For some reason this week it really clicked for me.
I passed my written exam with a 91 so that is good, and passed my practical exams as well. Still have a tough time doing the knots. I can tie all the knots but can not really get the hang of actually dressing them correctly. I need to practice more on this because before i know it; it will be a requirement of me to have these knots ready and dressed.
I was so excited because I actually got to run a 5K! I have never run a 5K before in my life so I was able to do it with the academy. Even though that I might of been in very last place I made a snail pace of a time of 34:47 which for a guy who does not like running and has never run any longer than a mile I thought this was pretty good and so did the RTOs.
This week will be interesting, I notice that alot of the things that we are learning in the academy are building blocks. You know and we all do it when we go to school we learn something master it for the test and then forget it. Here we can not do this because it could cost someone their life! The training we are getting is required for us not only to master once but to keep working on training over and over and over again.
The workouts are getting more intense but with that being said I am not as sore so that is good. I think this weekend I even went for a run, weird and did some pushups etc. The physical fitness side of this things like stated before is getting more intense, we are doing parallettes , which allow us to hold our body up right, and work on our core. Eventually we will be doing handstand pushups etc.
This will be the last week I will have to drive out to Tucson from Gilbert so that is good. This weekend we are moving and pretty excited about this. I will have more time to study and spend with my family with this move. We have had a couple of great garage sales etc. God has been good to our family that is for sure.
Next week I will get to climb the aerial ladder, like running a 5K I have never been up on the high high. I would say that I am not afraid of heights but have more of a difficulty trusting the equipment. A good friend of mine told me something that I will have to remember for tomorrow. 90% of this academy is mental. I again will hold on to this when I get up on the high high! I also have my test number 3. Would like to do better on the tests and also on the quizzes.
I will keep you updated on the events of week 4. I am sure I missed some items but I wanted to share with you some of the highlights. Thank you again for all of your prayers and support it has been much appreciated.
I passed my written exam with a 91 so that is good, and passed my practical exams as well. Still have a tough time doing the knots. I can tie all the knots but can not really get the hang of actually dressing them correctly. I need to practice more on this because before i know it; it will be a requirement of me to have these knots ready and dressed.
I was so excited because I actually got to run a 5K! I have never run a 5K before in my life so I was able to do it with the academy. Even though that I might of been in very last place I made a snail pace of a time of 34:47 which for a guy who does not like running and has never run any longer than a mile I thought this was pretty good and so did the RTOs.
This week will be interesting, I notice that alot of the things that we are learning in the academy are building blocks. You know and we all do it when we go to school we learn something master it for the test and then forget it. Here we can not do this because it could cost someone their life! The training we are getting is required for us not only to master once but to keep working on training over and over and over again.
The workouts are getting more intense but with that being said I am not as sore so that is good. I think this weekend I even went for a run, weird and did some pushups etc. The physical fitness side of this things like stated before is getting more intense, we are doing parallettes , which allow us to hold our body up right, and work on our core. Eventually we will be doing handstand pushups etc.
This will be the last week I will have to drive out to Tucson from Gilbert so that is good. This weekend we are moving and pretty excited about this. I will have more time to study and spend with my family with this move. We have had a couple of great garage sales etc. God has been good to our family that is for sure.
Next week I will get to climb the aerial ladder, like running a 5K I have never been up on the high high. I would say that I am not afraid of heights but have more of a difficulty trusting the equipment. A good friend of mine told me something that I will have to remember for tomorrow. 90% of this academy is mental. I again will hold on to this when I get up on the high high! I also have my test number 3. Would like to do better on the tests and also on the quizzes.
I will keep you updated on the events of week 4. I am sure I missed some items but I wanted to share with you some of the highlights. Thank you again for all of your prayers and support it has been much appreciated.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Week Two Complete
Academy 2010-01 week 2 is complete. This week has been a tough week for me but a good week. I will break down what happen by the day. Remember while at the academy Adriana is at home working with the kids doing school, packing and trying to get everything ready. Adriana also has been diligent in getting me ready for the next day in the academy. This week the workouts were harder, the studying was more intense and the work required was more! My body is not use to being beat up like this. Something my friend CJ said to me that he had to do during his academy and that I need to adopt for myself is to "grow up" during this academy. Our Team #3 was promoted to being the lead team for a couple of reasons. From a firefighter skills perspective we are the fastest team throwing our SCBA packs and PPE drills. We also have the best team unity and team spirit. We wait for each other and encourage each other during our fitness and firefighting drilling activities.
Monday:
No real highlights for this day except for the fact that our team was promoted to the lead team. For the academy we did 25 sledges for each arm and then 50 birbees! Birbees are really hard. We learned about water supply and hose lays this day. We did some drilling in the evening where we worked on getting our skills for the fire department.
Tuesday:
Another great day where the workout was our Tabata Masher which was a farmers carry where one arm had 75lbs and the other arm had 65lbs. Then push ups after this. So 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest and then 20 seconds of work we did this for 10 minutes. We did more fire hose drilling during this day.
Wednesday:
This workout day was though for me I do not like to run at all. Thank God this academy is not a running academy but nevertheless this academy is tough physically so far. We did a 400 meter run, then did thrusters and slamballs. We did this 3 times. 400 meter run, 21 thrusters and then 21 slamballs, then 400 meter run, then 15 thrusters and slamballs, and finally 400 meter run again 9 thrusters and 9 slamballs. This day we worked on our knots in the academy and hoisting equipment.
Thursday:
This day for our workout we went to Golder Ranch Headquarters, for the workout we did the Tire Pull, 10 birbees, tire flip, 10 birbees and then flip the tire back in a relay race type of events. Again like I stated before physically this academy is really though on me. I have been really sore and tired. We spent all day in our turnouts doing drilling. I think I went thru 9 water bottles this day then drank a whole gallon of water on the way home.
The drive out to the academy each day is robbing me of my time. Plus sitting in the car for an hour and a half there and then back has been recking havoc on my body. So today as I write this I have been pretty sore. Your prayers and thoughts are always considered. I have been learning alot of things in this academy more so than the skill levels. I have been pushed pretty far beyond my limits. I am excited about how I feel when I get done during the day knowing that I did what I can do and tried my hardest. My RTOs have conveyed the same thing to me about my efforts. That I have been working really hard and that they know that I have been giving my 100% effort.
This week is going to present new challenges. I have test number 2 passed test number 1 with either a 92% or an 85% I do not know which because there was some miscommunication either way I passed. Test number 2 is going to be Monday and we are going to have a test on Ropes and Knots, Water Supply and Fire Hose. I am hoping that I will do better with this test then the previous test.
This week we are going to go over Fire Behavior, Fire Streams, Ground Ladders and then going to Golder Ranch Fire Headquarters to perform our practical skills. This will be the first practical skills test for us. We will be working on doing our PPE drills, SCBA pack throwing, getting a hydrant water supply, deploying a fire hose and the squirting water and then finally doing all of our ropes and knots. Just want to make sure that I get enough rest and ready for these skills. The skills test will be Thursday.
Something I thought was interesting that the academy went thru is that when a new person gets a job they are required to learn 8 skills typically for an entry level job. These 8 skills are essential to be successful with work. With being a firefighter it is required to learn 265 new skills for this entry level job. Amazing enough this is one of the reasons why this job is a very difficult job. There is a lot of things we have to learn and perfect in a short period of time.
This weekend Friday we had our garage sale and it was good we sold alot of our stuff. During the day though I started throwing my SCBA pack and doing my PPE drilling. Niko was timing me with my stopwatch. Did pretty good and made my times consistently. This weekend I will continue to work on my knots. My RTOs told me that I need to work on my push ups, pull ups and run intervals during the weekend. I will do this today. I have been really sore but need to push through the pain.
This is it for the update now on the week 3 of the academy. Thanks again for reading my blog.
Monday:
No real highlights for this day except for the fact that our team was promoted to the lead team. For the academy we did 25 sledges for each arm and then 50 birbees! Birbees are really hard. We learned about water supply and hose lays this day. We did some drilling in the evening where we worked on getting our skills for the fire department.
Tuesday:
Another great day where the workout was our Tabata Masher which was a farmers carry where one arm had 75lbs and the other arm had 65lbs. Then push ups after this. So 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest and then 20 seconds of work we did this for 10 minutes. We did more fire hose drilling during this day.
Wednesday:
This workout day was though for me I do not like to run at all. Thank God this academy is not a running academy but nevertheless this academy is tough physically so far. We did a 400 meter run, then did thrusters and slamballs. We did this 3 times. 400 meter run, 21 thrusters and then 21 slamballs, then 400 meter run, then 15 thrusters and slamballs, and finally 400 meter run again 9 thrusters and 9 slamballs. This day we worked on our knots in the academy and hoisting equipment.
Thursday:
This day for our workout we went to Golder Ranch Headquarters, for the workout we did the Tire Pull, 10 birbees, tire flip, 10 birbees and then flip the tire back in a relay race type of events. Again like I stated before physically this academy is really though on me. I have been really sore and tired. We spent all day in our turnouts doing drilling. I think I went thru 9 water bottles this day then drank a whole gallon of water on the way home.
The drive out to the academy each day is robbing me of my time. Plus sitting in the car for an hour and a half there and then back has been recking havoc on my body. So today as I write this I have been pretty sore. Your prayers and thoughts are always considered. I have been learning alot of things in this academy more so than the skill levels. I have been pushed pretty far beyond my limits. I am excited about how I feel when I get done during the day knowing that I did what I can do and tried my hardest. My RTOs have conveyed the same thing to me about my efforts. That I have been working really hard and that they know that I have been giving my 100% effort.
This week is going to present new challenges. I have test number 2 passed test number 1 with either a 92% or an 85% I do not know which because there was some miscommunication either way I passed. Test number 2 is going to be Monday and we are going to have a test on Ropes and Knots, Water Supply and Fire Hose. I am hoping that I will do better with this test then the previous test.
This week we are going to go over Fire Behavior, Fire Streams, Ground Ladders and then going to Golder Ranch Fire Headquarters to perform our practical skills. This will be the first practical skills test for us. We will be working on doing our PPE drills, SCBA pack throwing, getting a hydrant water supply, deploying a fire hose and the squirting water and then finally doing all of our ropes and knots. Just want to make sure that I get enough rest and ready for these skills. The skills test will be Thursday.
Something I thought was interesting that the academy went thru is that when a new person gets a job they are required to learn 8 skills typically for an entry level job. These 8 skills are essential to be successful with work. With being a firefighter it is required to learn 265 new skills for this entry level job. Amazing enough this is one of the reasons why this job is a very difficult job. There is a lot of things we have to learn and perfect in a short period of time.
This weekend Friday we had our garage sale and it was good we sold alot of our stuff. During the day though I started throwing my SCBA pack and doing my PPE drilling. Niko was timing me with my stopwatch. Did pretty good and made my times consistently. This weekend I will continue to work on my knots. My RTOs told me that I need to work on my push ups, pull ups and run intervals during the weekend. I will do this today. I have been really sore but need to push through the pain.
This is it for the update now on the week 3 of the academy. Thanks again for reading my blog.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Week One Done!
Week one of the Fire Academy is done! Wow kind of interesting to just say that for some reason again it is just not real yet for me? I am sure when I get my tail kicked Monday again it will hit me again. So what is new! Well the Academy is Monday - Thursday from 0600 - 1600. I get up about 0315 and get to the academy at 0520. Which means I have Friday, Saturday and Sunday to recover and catch up! I will run down some of the highlights for the first week by day.
Monday:
Well Monday was the day we were in our business attire because we have not received our red shirts or our uniforms completely. With this in mind we did not get our turnouts or SCBAs yet either. Which means we did some light PT in our nice dress clothes. One of the first things we learned to do is line up. Stand at attention and become motionless. We also learned how to put up the colors (the AZ state flag and the USA flag) and how to present arms. We also received a ton of information about the academy, the recruit expectations and the syllabus. We also received a ton of information from HR. We did not do too much PT and there was a ton of classroom time. Then it was time to go home.
Tuesday:
The next day it was a little bit more intense I will tell you that each day has been more and more intense for sure. Our Academy is filled with some interesting people 22 in all. 9 of us are from Golder Ranch Fire, 1 from Casa Grande Fire and the rest from Northwest Fire District. The Academy is run primarily by the Northwest Fire District but some of the RTOs (or the Recruit Training Officers) are from Golder Ranch. This academy day is broken up like this.
0600 - 0800 - PT
0800 - 1000 - Classroom Time
1000 - 1200 - Manipulative Skills
1300 - 1600 - Manipulative Skills
Our PT is CrossFIT. We are doing a dynamic stretch routine, CrossFIT and then working on our form with squatting for right now. A CrossFIT example like "MINDY" is 5 Pull Ups, 10 Push Ups and 15 Squats in 10 mins. Do as many rounds as you can in 10 minutes. While the average is about 6 to 8, mine was 4 I did 4 rounds and was pretty proud of this.'
Classroom time is about learning about what we are going to be performing out in the grinder. In Class A uniforms we learn from our instructors this week about Firefighter Orientation, Health and Wellness and PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)
Finally the Manipulative skills are the skills we learn in the class room we get plenty of practice out there doing it on the grinder or the concrete cement area where firefighting skills are performed.
Tuesday was another day of PT and doing administrative duties and uniform handout.
Wednesday:
Wednesday was the first day we really got it! We did our MINDY workout for CrossFIT, we did some dynamic stretching routines and then worked on our squatting with a PVC pipe and focusing on good form and making a quality movement. We had a couple of quizzes. So far I have done a 20 question quiz with an 85%, and a 10 question quiz with a 90%. We learned about our PPE and SCBAs.
Thursday:
Thursday typically is a full day or working on our skills. We do PT in the morning, This morning PT was a 800 Meter Run, 25 Push Ups and 25 Sit-ups and then do it again! It was tough for me and with the second round I ended up finishing almost last but made up a bunch of time tried to show the RTOs that I have heart! I gave it my all and in the end shocked my body with vomiting in the bathroom. We then worked on our PVC pipe squatting techniques. Afterwards we worked on SCBA stations.
The first station for our Team "Team 3" was to learn about getting the SCBA off the truck, getting turned out in our gear, get our SCBA on and then get seat belted and enroute to the fire. We practiced this many times including putting on our mask in the cab of the truck.
The second station was our PPE inspection station where we learned to look for flaws in our PPE, and how to work with the system of refilling our bottles for our compressed air for our SCBA.
After lunch we had to do some punishment for someone who did not follow the chain of command the results was the whole class performing lunges down a dirt path to a bell, yelling out our name and then lunging back. It was challenging for some people but not necessarily for me.
Finally the third station was the SCBA pack throwing station. Our team was awesome we ended up having our whole team all 5 of us throwing our pack under the 60 seconds required for the test. The RTOs I believe were pretty impressed with this.
Then the final station we worked on buddy breathing off of each others SCBA. Mind you we were in the PPE and carrying our SCBA for about 8 hours this day which was a lot of work especially after the rigorous PT. We were ended up blindfolded and then performing the same drill but touch and feel. We again Team 3 did an awesome job.
Finally we had to clean up and get things ready for the end of the day. We line up, take down the colors, and clean up the academy grounds. Including vacuuming and doing the bathrooms. We all pitch in and check off each others work. This has been about the excitement of week one! I have a written exam on Monday and about ready to get to bed but before I do this I wanted to let you know what is going on!
Prepared!
My thought is being ready for this academy is being prepared plain and simple! This weekend I got all the homework done for this next week, I read all of my chapters and reviewed my stuff for this week that I might need to get done. This way when I get home after a long drive and a long day I can just enjoy my family and go to bed!
Monday:
Well Monday was the day we were in our business attire because we have not received our red shirts or our uniforms completely. With this in mind we did not get our turnouts or SCBAs yet either. Which means we did some light PT in our nice dress clothes. One of the first things we learned to do is line up. Stand at attention and become motionless. We also learned how to put up the colors (the AZ state flag and the USA flag) and how to present arms. We also received a ton of information about the academy, the recruit expectations and the syllabus. We also received a ton of information from HR. We did not do too much PT and there was a ton of classroom time. Then it was time to go home.
Tuesday:
The next day it was a little bit more intense I will tell you that each day has been more and more intense for sure. Our Academy is filled with some interesting people 22 in all. 9 of us are from Golder Ranch Fire, 1 from Casa Grande Fire and the rest from Northwest Fire District. The Academy is run primarily by the Northwest Fire District but some of the RTOs (or the Recruit Training Officers) are from Golder Ranch. This academy day is broken up like this.
0600 - 0800 - PT
0800 - 1000 - Classroom Time
1000 - 1200 - Manipulative Skills
1300 - 1600 - Manipulative Skills
Our PT is CrossFIT. We are doing a dynamic stretch routine, CrossFIT and then working on our form with squatting for right now. A CrossFIT example like "MINDY" is 5 Pull Ups, 10 Push Ups and 15 Squats in 10 mins. Do as many rounds as you can in 10 minutes. While the average is about 6 to 8, mine was 4 I did 4 rounds and was pretty proud of this.'
Classroom time is about learning about what we are going to be performing out in the grinder. In Class A uniforms we learn from our instructors this week about Firefighter Orientation, Health and Wellness and PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)
Finally the Manipulative skills are the skills we learn in the class room we get plenty of practice out there doing it on the grinder or the concrete cement area where firefighting skills are performed.
Tuesday was another day of PT and doing administrative duties and uniform handout.
Wednesday:
Wednesday was the first day we really got it! We did our MINDY workout for CrossFIT, we did some dynamic stretching routines and then worked on our squatting with a PVC pipe and focusing on good form and making a quality movement. We had a couple of quizzes. So far I have done a 20 question quiz with an 85%, and a 10 question quiz with a 90%. We learned about our PPE and SCBAs.
Thursday:
Thursday typically is a full day or working on our skills. We do PT in the morning, This morning PT was a 800 Meter Run, 25 Push Ups and 25 Sit-ups and then do it again! It was tough for me and with the second round I ended up finishing almost last but made up a bunch of time tried to show the RTOs that I have heart! I gave it my all and in the end shocked my body with vomiting in the bathroom. We then worked on our PVC pipe squatting techniques. Afterwards we worked on SCBA stations.
The first station for our Team "Team 3" was to learn about getting the SCBA off the truck, getting turned out in our gear, get our SCBA on and then get seat belted and enroute to the fire. We practiced this many times including putting on our mask in the cab of the truck.
The second station was our PPE inspection station where we learned to look for flaws in our PPE, and how to work with the system of refilling our bottles for our compressed air for our SCBA.
After lunch we had to do some punishment for someone who did not follow the chain of command the results was the whole class performing lunges down a dirt path to a bell, yelling out our name and then lunging back. It was challenging for some people but not necessarily for me.
Finally the third station was the SCBA pack throwing station. Our team was awesome we ended up having our whole team all 5 of us throwing our pack under the 60 seconds required for the test. The RTOs I believe were pretty impressed with this.
Then the final station we worked on buddy breathing off of each others SCBA. Mind you we were in the PPE and carrying our SCBA for about 8 hours this day which was a lot of work especially after the rigorous PT. We were ended up blindfolded and then performing the same drill but touch and feel. We again Team 3 did an awesome job.
Finally we had to clean up and get things ready for the end of the day. We line up, take down the colors, and clean up the academy grounds. Including vacuuming and doing the bathrooms. We all pitch in and check off each others work. This has been about the excitement of week one! I have a written exam on Monday and about ready to get to bed but before I do this I wanted to let you know what is going on!
Prepared!
My thought is being ready for this academy is being prepared plain and simple! This weekend I got all the homework done for this next week, I read all of my chapters and reviewed my stuff for this week that I might need to get done. This way when I get home after a long drive and a long day I can just enjoy my family and go to bed!
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