It’s been a while
Wow, I thought I would update my blog once it went over the 10,000 hit mark but I guess that happened a while ago! Not much new to report here. I am digging the new website layout and have to get used to the new setup. I finished up my Family Medicine rotation about 2 weeks ago and this Friday will bring to close my two week Sports Medicine/Ortho rotation. I was hoping to get an idea of what different types of sports medicine doctors do since that’s an obvious interest of mine and while these two weeks have been helpful, I think I need to spend a little more time with other physicians. I’ll start my Pediatric rotation on Monday after going to NYC to say bon voyage to my brother-in-law as he heads out to Africa for Peace Corps. There’s a 5M race on Sunday that the Wife and I are looking into. It brings back memories of NYC marathon last year. After Peds I’m doing two months of Medicine, so I’ll be through most of my core courses by the time the spring racing season hits. It’ll also be the Step 2 prep time.
I haven’t been on Sweat365 as much to record my workouts as I found it was taking a little too long to imput my training info if I didn’t have access to internet so I’ve gone back to my old excel spreadsheet model. It still needs some revisions to mimic the charts/graphs from here but I’ll try to upload my training images. I suppose the big news is that Collegiate Nationals is scheduled for April 18th, 2009 in Lubbock, TX. Internet forums originally guessed it would be out in CA, which would have been pretty prohibitive but seeing as Lubbock is pretty centrally located there may be a chance that I can make it. The problem is that I’ll be doing a 70.3 on the 5th, a 10K on the 11th, then that race on the 18th. I might as well tack on St. Anthony’s at the end of the month while I’m at it.
That’s about it, I’ll try to do a better job of posting but no guarantees. Hope everyone out there is enjoying the fall weather as much as I am and are taking a much needed break before cranking it back up for winter base training. Peace!
Filed under: Uncategorized
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Still Kicking it
Don’t worry, I’m still here just busier than I anticipated. I’m sure I mentioned it before but it’s worth mentioning again, commuting by car is miserable. For my family medicine rotation I’ve been assigned to a preceptor whose practice is about 45′ to an hour away which means I spend 1.5-2hrs driving every M-F. Not to mention the added gas cost to my monthly budget (goodbye $300). The hours may be a little bit better than surgery, but at least I enjoyed what I was doing and got to ride my bike to and from work.
In an effort to make my time more productive I’ve downloaded some podcasts from the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), JAMA, and the New England Journal of Medicine. Plus a couple of NPR podcasts to keep things interesting. I’m also looking for some free/cheap audio files of heart murmurs so I can get proficient in recognizing abnormal sounds. The importance of this is highlighted by this article. After reading it, I do remember having a cardiac question on Step 1 and my Physical Diagnosis exams. Crazy.
I only have a couple more weeks of Family Medicine before I start my first emergency medicine rotation. I’m excited and anxious because I am leaning heavily towards EM as a specialty but I really don’t have much clinical experience yet. Plus, our university cut the EM rotation so we’ve having to double up with the other medical schools program which is already undermanned and overcrowded. I had planned on doing an “away” rotation there next July since they only accept MS4’s so I’m curious as to how this will turn out. One possibility is that I do well enough that I don’t have to come back in a year and burn up 4 weeks of elective time that I could spend looking at another program. But also I could get involved in some ongoing research projects they have. Plus, ACEP’s Scientific Assembly is at the end of October, which would be sweet to attend but again, that’s another $300 I don’t currently have.
Training is going ok, even if it’s not really structured. Apparently my PT has paid off as I’ve gotten a couple of comments from the running group and some of my classmates who’ve seen me out. I tell them I’m just trying to grow into my white coat, ;-).
However, the really exciting news is that my wife officially got hired by the university, working in their international development center. This has been about a 6 month process to secure a job as there isn’t quite the demand for public health program managers here and with two schools of public health in the city, the market is quite saturated. While the paperwork still needs to be processed through HR, she should make the transition from contractor to staff by the end of this month, if not next at the latest. Hope all is well with everyone in the Sweat365 community and elsewhere! Peace!
Filed under: Flexibility, Grad Student, Medical School, Medical Student, PT, Random Thoughts, Running, Step 1, Strength Training, Triathlon, commuting, emergency medicine, surgery
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Running with the Deans
The Wife and I slept in a bit as she had a long day of work ahead of her. Nonetheless, I set out the door at 7:45 to meet up with the Deans and some other students for their organized Sunday long run. There was a very large turnout (2o+ people) but I felt a little sheepish seeing the crowd I usual run with hanging out in the park after they finished up their 13M routine, having started around 6am. The first half mile was slow and conversational then I got hooked up with a group of 3 or 4 that were keeping a pretty good clip. It’s nice to get together with students from other classes but I know I should run with the track group instead. If only they ran on alternate days.
In other news I read that Collegiate Nationals this year is likely to take place in California, possibly San Diego or Santa Barbara. Unfortunately that means I’d have to travel cross-country and I’m not sure how realistic that might be. So instead I signed up for the Ochsner 70.3 in New Orleans which is at the beginning of April. A couple of my triathlon friends from undergrad mentioned the possibility of doing it since people are so close and there would be cheap places to stay. Checking out the calendar puts it 28wks away, just in time to start base training. Peace!
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 09/07/2008
- Time: 07:45:00
- Total Time: 1:11:46.00
- Average Heart rate: 156
- Max Heart rate: 184
- Calories: 1100
- Distance: 9.5 miles
- Average Pace: 7:33.4/mile
Filed under: General Cardio, Grad Student, Medical School, Medical Student, Random Thoughts, Run, Running
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Fast Quarters
It’s been a while since I did an interval set, the last being the 20×200’s a few weeks ago. I find that I really struggle to put in specific, directed training unless I put a plan on paper. Sounds like an obvious statement right? I generally have an idea of what I want my training to look like from week to week and I know about when the big races are throughout the year but if I really want to see improvement, I need to get focused on my training. Today’s workout was a start.
One of my standard workouts is 10×400 @ mile pace with 1′ standing. The term “mile pace” is flexible since I don’t often do 1M TT’s or races, but more or less implies what I think I should be able to do for a mile race. Typically I aim around 75-77secs if I’m in moderate shape, hopefully bringing it down to 70-72″ if I’m in good shape. Sorta like starting my swimming “fitness sets” at 2′ per 100m descending 5″ (5×100, 4×100, 3×100, 2×100, 1×100). But that’s a different story since I haven’t been in the pool in ages. Here’s how the quarters turned out: 77.0, 75.7, 77.2, 76.1, 76.4, 76.1, 74.8, 76.4, 74.9, 75.0 (avg 76). This weekend I’ll start laying out the specifics of my training plans for next season. Let’s get it started!
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 09/06/2008
- Time: 15:00:00
- Total Time: 00:46:23.00
- Distance: 6 miles
- Average Pace: 7:43.92/mile
- Max Pace: 5:00/mile
Filed under: Flexibility, General Cardio, Grad Student, Medical School, Medical Student, Random Thoughts, Run, Running, Triathlon, Uncategorized
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Missing Footpod
After this Labor Day vacation I misplaced my footpod for my HRM. Hopefully it’s at my sister’s house and not at the bed and breakfast where the Wife and I snuck away for a quiet weekend. It was nice to be back in the city and catch up with my older sis. I’m aching to race to get a feel for my fitness, hopefully there will be a 5K soon. PT afterwards was 15 pull-ups and 75 pushups.
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 09/04/2008
- Time: 11:30:00
- Total Time: 1:06:22.00
- Average Heart rate: 130
- Max Heart rate: 161
- Calories: 460
- Distance: 7.75 miles
- Average Pace: 8:33.55/mile
Filed under: General Cardio, Grad Student, Medical School, Medical Student, Random Thoughts, Run, Running
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