> On Dec 30, 2014, at 6:12 AM, Dave Long <[email protected]> wrote: > > > * I haven't been in the salle in ages, but in our fencing club we have an > octogenarian beginner. Legwise, he has no mobility, but he's still pretty > sharp with the hand -- and more importantly, he has an analytic mind, and > hence fixes holes in his game much more readily than some of our teenagers > and young adults do.
I frequently think about age, fitness, reaction time in the context of firefighting. I’m 62 years old. I’m a volunteer firefighter. In my department, as in most volunteer fire companies, 65 is the age of mandatory retirement. But as is typical in similar departments, most guys my age don’t “pack up” — that is, put on air packs and engage in fire suppression or rescue activities inside the hot zone. Most older guys run the pumps & gear on trucks or engines and/or are part of the incident command/control chain. They stay outside of the host zone. I still pack up. Two days ago I was second man on a 2-man backup squad in the basement at this fire: http://www.mvtimes.com/2014/12/28/fire-badly-damages-tisbury-house-displacing-family/ <http://www.mvtimes.com/2014/12/28/fire-badly-damages-tisbury-house-displacing-family/> It wasn’t a particularly scary fire, but it was definitely cooking when we went in there, and basement fires have a well-earned reputation for turning to shit in a hurry. (In fact, there was a roll-over on Saturday, when flames suddenly rose up, traveled along the ceiling, and came down behind the attack crew.) My point is, as a guy on an interior crew in an active fire, if I’m not physically in shape for firefighting I’m a hazard to myself and to everyone on the scene. It’s chief’s job (based on input from my captain & lieutenants) to decide whether I’m fit enough to put on a pack. But the officers trust me to be honest with them. At that basement fire, there was 6” of water covering the floor. A firefighter wears about 60 pounds of gear. It weighs more when it’s wet. If a guy had gone down. I would have had to help rescue him. If I’m not strong enough, and quick enough, to do that, I shouldn’t be there. I work out at the gym 4 or 5 days a week. And I know that I’m in better physical shape than several guys who are 20 or more years younger than I am. A quick rough measure of general aerobic fitness is how quickly you go through a bottle of air. Now, there are many factors — how good a seal you’ve made between your skin and the mask, how big you are, what kind of activities you’re doing, etc. But an overweight cigarette smoker is going to go through air faster than a non-overweight non-smoker. As soon as 1 person on a crew gets low on air, the entire crew must exit the building — you go in together & come out together. I’m never the first guy on a crew to run out of air. Departmental policy is that after your first bottle you get checked out by EMS — a quick visual inspection, and after your 2nd bottle it’s mandatory rehab, where you take off your mask, helmet, jacket, and EMS checks your blood pressure, pulse, respiration, etc. (Heart attack is the #1 cause of Line-of-duty-death among firefighters.) At the fire Saturday my blood pressure was 135/75. Twenty years ago, when I was much more sedentary, and overweight, my blood pressure was typically 150/90+ Some day, and not too far in the future, I’ll be unfit for this kind of activity. My goal is to make it to 65 and still be able to put on the pack. But I have to be honest with myself; if I reach that point before I’m 65 I’m going to have to ground myself. That’s a really hard thing to contemplate. I love putting on the pack. The temptation to ignore signs that I’m not up to it anymore will be strong. jrs
