Well, I am four months in to my development as a firefighter trainee. Four months of working out and I do have results. I've lost 11 pounds, dropped about 7% in body fat, and can now can be found lifting weights in that forbidden section of the gym!
I can also be found running High Impact Interval Training in my garage on my treadmill on the days that I'm not lifting. That involves running at 8 miles an hours for 30 second sprints, follwed by 90 seconds walking at 3, 6 sets of that at a 6% grade. I'll be adding a weight vest to that to help me increase my speed for wildland since it involves me wearing a pack to get up a steep hillside at a pretty fast clip.
I've been through one large wildland drill with a lot of participating Engine Companies and am scheduled for a second exactly one month after the first one that will be just as big. At this point I'm getting more practice doing wildland stuff than I am doing structural. Weird that I'd be working on Firefighter 2 skills before completing Firefighter 1, but that's how things are going for me. Then again, given the area that our station is in, brushfires are our biggest threat after traffic accidents.
While I am expected back at the Paid Call Academy in August, my real concerns are what happens after that. As a volunteer I am not required to go through a full time Fire Academy but I feel a strong need to do so anyways, though it isn't required of me. To that end I feel the need to do well on the Biddle to prove my worth. Whether or not I go through a full time Academy, passing the Biddle would certainly gain me respect among firefighters. If I don't I'm concerned that people will feel that I was given breaks that other firefighters don't get because I'm petite.
To do well on the Biddle I'm going to have to prove I can handle a 24 foot extension ladder all by myself. This unfortunately means that the ladder is above my shoulder height when I stand next to the Engine or mounted wrack for the test. This means I have to pull the thing off from a position about level with my head and lower all 90 pounds of it down to my shoulder. After walking around with it in a diamond pattern (and not losing control of it) I'm going to have to hoist it back onto the wrack to pass that part of the test.
Is four months enough time to get this ladder under my control?
Its about time to find out.