Red Card

I was having flashbacks to my days in college when I decided it was a good idea to throw a forty five pound plate into my backpack and run a mile. In short it was not a good idea back then or really now either

Today the weight was a little over half of what it was in college but the distance was three times the above. I walked a mile and a half a way from my apartment complex in a light misting rain and turned around and walked back with the weighted pack.

No, I am not going stir crazy, well yes I am but thats not why I did it. As I mentioned before I am starting training to do seasonal wildland fire work. A spot on the state, and federal or private, crew is closely guarded. In addition to completing my up coming wildland firefighter and fire behavior class, I need three letters of recomendation and I need to pass "The Pack Test"-- a three mile hike in forty five minutes or less with forty five pounds on your back.

I plan on alternating with running and pack hiking for cardio on four out of seven days a week. I will still be following the mass building program that I picked up about a month ago involving kettlebells.

The pack test itself needs to be completed in the boots you will be wearing should you be accepted to the crew. I need a pair of boots anywhere for the class so I have invested in a pair of White's SmokeJumper boots. They're all leather 10 inch boots which will need a good deal of breaking in so as to be comfortable for my purposes. Once the weather gets better I plan on wearing the boots for my recreation hikes as well as my training. Antecdotes on how to cure the leather and break in the boots include filling them with boiling water or wearing them in the tub. Most guys I've talked to say you just need to keep wearing them and applying shoe grease or mink oil.

My current routine brings me back to my college days and, a bit sadly, it reminds me that those were a little while ago. Today's hike was not a killer but I felt it when I was done. My knees tend to pop and crack when I do my kettlebell front squats. And I'm still sore from four hours of spliting wood for my father in law.

The State fire crew is exceedingly competitive so I have also started making contacts with people in various federal organizations. As I am only part time (though I do get a decent amount of hours allowing me to live my lavish lifestyle) at Northern Fire Rescue, I could conceivably be a seasonal bum. In other words I could work out west on a handcrew or a helitack unit durring fire season and come back to New Hampshire for the off season.

As of right now, my wife says she would be okay with me doing the seasonal thing. Most guys don't even work on their off time as the money made from a season is padded generously with overtime. I think doing both would certainly be a nice balance. But I am trying not to get ahead of myself. I need to take one thing at a time and not get too excited because the reality is that I might not be accepted to the crew despite jumping through the hoops.