Day 2 and 3 CIOR

Day 2 CIOR

The morning started at 0500 hrs for me. I had to go pick up the ammo from the Ammo compound because I am the only one qualified Hazardous Material. After this it was the 9mm range. We shot from about 0715 until about 1000. We are being instructed by a QPP Swat team leader. After 1 hour of personalized instruction I was shooting like a Special Ops guy. Okay maybe not that good. But it was a large improvement. We then moved to the rifle range and shot there for another 2 hours straight. I don’t know how I did on that yet. We never saw our targets. We were just focusing on natural body alignment and weapon control.

After lunch we spent 2 hours on the obstacle course. It is the NATO standard obstacle course. It was so cool. We were doing all the moves you wanted to do but the military wouldn’t let you. I think my favorite was jumping off the 12 foot wall. It was like the parkour stuff you see on Youtube. I was loving the sensation of jumping off the wall, landing, and starting to run as soon as you hit the ground. I am looking forward to the 14 foot ladder.

Then at 4pm it was in the pool. I like swimming but the pool sucked. We were in there for 1.5 hours. We started with the 50m Swim. I did it in 36 seconds. I screwed up the flip turn and had to start from a dead stop on the way back. I think I will practice that maneuver some more. Front crawl for 10 lengths, flutter kicks for 6 lengths. Talk about sore hip flexors. Front crawl again but no legs this time 10 lengths. To finish off we did 25 meters sprints for 5 minutes. That was not as bad as the flutter kicks but my shoulders were smoked.

I can see that Crossfit has really given me the strength and agility for the O-course but I need to work on the running and swimming. But I saw that coming.


Day 3

Today started a little later then yesterday. It was nice to be able to sleep in until 0615. After breakfast we loaded up in the vans and headed off to Farhnam Training Area. First order of the day was to throw hand grenades at targets. During the competition for the Orienteering portion at one stage you have to throw grenades at targets and are awarded points for each one. You can get either 14 or 24 points depending on the targets difficulty to hit. This is important because for each 12 points represent 1 minute being taken off your over all running time.

We then had orienteering class (instructed by a member of the National Team) for a couple of hours the get familiar with how to do it. It is not as simple as I first thought. Orienteers have their own language when it comes to maps and navigating. With these details sorted out we headed outside (In the rain no less). We practiced range estimation and pacing for the nav portion.

Once we were handed our maps and compasses it was 4 hours of running around in every puddle and creek there was on the base. I had a lot more fun doing this then I had though. It is not mindless running. I felt like I had a purpose. Somewhere to get to fast. I think I did pretty well. Out of 8 maps I only missed one point.

After all this time someone finally saw my pukie sticker and I got to give a ramble on what Crossfit is. That was fun. The head coach and I had a great talk about fitness and different training methods. He is the head trainer for a Quebec Junior Hockey team so he has some experience with this type of thing.

Well that is all for now. I am off to bed. I am very tired and pretty sore from all that running and swimming.