Firefighter Combat Challenge and Pain Tolerance
Pushing your limits is one thing, pushing your limit and holding it for 30 seconds is a whole new story.
Training for the Firefighter Combat Challenge is probably the most gruesome thing you can do… All for 1:30 or less. So you think that hmmm, one minute and thirty seconds is not bad for a full sprint, now trying on a Firefighting suit, boots, airpack, and breathing from a mask while sprinting as hard as you can under load. Sprinting up 6 flights of 10 stairs with 45 lb on your shoulder, hoisting a 45 lb hose in a rope to the top, and sprinting down the tower touching every stair as fast a you can. The tower usually takes 30-34 seconds to complete, then hop on a machine called the keiser/forceable entry and hit this 165 lb Ibeam with an 8 lb hammer, then run 140 foot slalom as fast as you can then pick up a charged firehose, drag it 75 feet to a target; (hose weighting 300 lb or more) and finally when you are at peak exhaustion, sprint 25 feet to the Rescue Randy (Dummy) which weighs 175 lb of dead weight. Pick him up from the ground and drag him backwards 100 feet… so how long would you think that would take you?
Training for this sport is not just hard core lifting.. you need to be well rounded, Cardio (Anerobic specific), plyometrics, Core Core Core, some weight lifting, and of course hours and hours of studying the videos and doing course work.
The mind truly takes over once you hit the dummy drag, if you say you are tired at that point of the race, you’ve lost. Your legs are so weak and numb that your body is on full redline and waiting for your mind to give in.. once you say that “T” word, (tired) the body responds faster than you can blink.. Training for this type of race is all about pain tolerance. Starts with the mental game.
