My Dreams Went Up In Smoke

So today I did something I've never done before.....worn a complete set of firefighter gear......and ran in it. The gear was authentic and had been used so was a little sweaty and smokey but not too bad. We were using it in one of our exercise physiology labs. We ran on the treadmill without it first and then with it to experience the difference all the added clothing makes.

Now when I think of dressing up in firefighter gear I automatically think of the typical little kid with the firefighter hat that is too big and falling off covering their eyes. I think of how cute they look with the pants are too big and the boots they can barely fit into. Now granted....some of the smaller girls in our lab did look like that and I really wish I had had a camera. That aside, after you actually wear the gear you realize how unrealistic the picture of the kid in daddy's firefighter gear is. If you put the equipment we had on a kid they would likely fall over. We had everything but the oxygen tanks on and we weighed ourselves in our regular workout gear and then with the firefighter stuff on and the gear, without the tank, added about 20 lbs to our weight. It was difficult for us to walk, let alone a little 80 lb kid!

It was interesting to watch people run on the treadmill. We each ran 5 minutes in our regular workout clothes at a self-selected speek, 4% grade. Then we put the gear on the and ran at the same speed and grade for up to 5 minutes if we could. I say up to 5 because not many people made it that far. Most people only lasted a few minutes. I quit the first time with the gear on because my hearrate monitor wasn't working right and I wasn't going to get any useful data. Once we made sure the monitor was working right I only lasted 1 1/2 minutes before I gave up. I was panting after 1 minute. I don't think it helped that the pants were too short and pretty tight in the thighs. It would be interesting to see how long I would last if I had pants that fit right. It was really funny to listen to people run on the treadmill because the boots were too big on most people so it was like "CLUNK! CLUNK! CLUNK!". The treadmills took quite a beating as we dragged our feet. You could see a pile of shavings from the treadmill belts at the back of the treadmill. I've never seen so many shavings at one time from a treadmill!