summary: sub-hobbyjogger-tier, trying to get good enough for medium-selective wildland fire jobs. have some ideas but searching for further input. General discussion of preparation for fire, military, etc. welcome.
(may turn this into a training log at some point, what the hell)
details:
was the fat kid on my high school xc team, started lifting and stopped running in college. still plenty of recreational hiking/mtb.
got a wild hair up my ass and took a job with a wildland fire contractor
overall, enjoyed it,
looking to get on a more selective federal handcrew (ihc/fire use module) for the 2019 season
where I'd like to be around late april/early may:
(averages, not minimums, obviously). and be able to keep up with the crew on training runs without getting hurt.
where I'm at: easy 20-25 minute jogs 3-4x/week, some lifting (I know, I know--but it helps with carrying pumps and hose, running saws or hand tools, etc), chins and pushups scattered throughout the day (about 200-250/400-500 reps/week of each respectively). some recreational hiking and volunteer trail work.
can knock out 20 chins any day of the week.
contactor encouraged us to try real hard on the pack test (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_Capacity_Test
, federal crews will usually just do pass/fail and don't care as long as you're under 45:00--the tests where performance matters are as in imgur link) and I did it in 34:12
the plan: build up to easy 30 minute jogs ~6x/week by the end of December (maybe a down week every 4th week or so, watching out for stress fractures) (leave 1 day a week for trail work and hiking, specific preparation!)
Around December drop or drastically reduce lifting, add in 1 session of track intervals at goal pace (6:00 mile, yeah I know) and 1 long run per week (work up to an hour at a time) on top of daily 30 min, keep doing bodyweight stuff, trail work, and hiking. Maybe start doing some easy doubles too. Hill work instead of track intervals when logistically feasible. LOSE WEIGHT from current ~200 to 180-185 at most (getting a start on this now, but will bump it up the priorities list after mid-December)
possible concerns:
mystery forefoot pain (saw a podiatrist with very good reputation who diagnosed "metatarsalgia, it's not hallux rigidus, it's not a stress fracture"--diagnosis of exclusion, I suppose)--collagen supplementation seems to help
left shoulder tweak that comes and goes--not running related, of course, but should monitor this closely
tibial stress fractures a few years ago, small per imaging but took forever to go away--I suspect there may have been some sensitization issues here per e.g.
https://www.painscience.com/articles/central-sensitization.php
Comments/suggestions/other discussion of running training in similar contexts?