Day 9: Cold Baths and Indian Runs

There is a lot of "NEW" to this career of mine. I'm not just talking about fire suppression, 24 hour shifts, and a pension.

There's the military atmosphere, the PT exercises, Indian Runs, cold baths...

Yes, that's right Indian Runs...What's that you say...

All 32 of us, break out into two 16 group lines. We line up two by two 16 deep and simply run. Here's were it gets fun...

As you run, the training officer gets in his vehicle (equipped with radio) and yells go. At this point, the last two in line sprint to the front and become the new leaders. He yells again, and the next to go, and so on and so on. By the end of the mile run, we had done 6 or 7 complete cycles. Chief picked up the pace on the final stretch. I have to admit, while it doesn't sound that great, it's actually a great running tool.

That alone is enough to tire you out, but we had our usual dose of exercises and then full court knee bends, Hurdle bends, and Tennessee Bends. After my round of Hurdle Bends, my legs felt like jello. In fact I lost my balance several times. Fortunately, the Tennessee Bends stretched our muscles out. Those felt great.

But as we were running to the start of the mile run outside, my legs felt weighted down. But that didn't inhibit my sprints to the front. It's surprising how your mind makes you think that you are dead tired, but the next minute your sprinting down the road. Mind over matter....That is the only thing keeping me through the leg lifts.

I took the advice of the training staff and jumped in a Cold Bath tonight. Pure torture. I sat in a freezing cold bath up to my waist for 10 minutes. But I have to say, they know what they are talking about. A little cold water is going to be fine.

Tomorrow we see fire...I promise to not get burned....well, maybe not.