end of summer semester and things are looking up

I did it: I got all four rotation sites I wanted! Fourth year (2013-2014) will officially be spent:
May-Aug: Fresno VAMC (Fresno, CA)
Aug-Nov: Hickam AFB (Honolulu, HI)
Nov-Feb: Internal rotation: ocular disease and low vision (Portland, OR area)
Feb-May: Nationwide Vision (Mesa, AZ)

I'll be the first to say that I KNOW Fresno is the butthole of California. Sorry. BUT what's nice is that I'll be a 3-4 hour drive or less from my hometown, San Francisco, LA, Sacramento, anywhere I could want to be. And the VA there is supposedly amazing for ocular disease, which is the focus I took when choosing my rotation sites.

In other news, finals week is this week and can I just say that doing this in the middle of summer BLOWS? I took summer courses at UCD a couple of times, but it was never a full-blown courseload with a whole week of finals. I'm glad the semester is coming to an end. We still have clinic during finals week but oh well. Then we have one more week of just our normal 2 half days of clinic (what to do with so much free time?), and then I'm going back to Cali from August 11-20! I haven't been back since spring break and I think it's just what I need right now. I can't wait to spend time with my parents, brother, friends, godson, and the beach.

August 24-25 is Hood to Coast. I'd be lying if I said I was ready. I'm really going to start hitting the training hard, starting with my 10k run I did today. My legs are 6.32, 4.92, and 5.23 miles, with somewhere around 7-8 hours of rest in between. Manageable distances for sure, but add it all up and combine it with not being trained yet, and I'm nervous. I actually had a good self-reflecting session yesterday and realized that if I really want to do well on this, I need to stop biting off more than I can chew fitness-wise. I've been having a hard time juggling running and weight lifting, and I've decided I can't do well in both if I'm supposed to be training for a race. The barbell squats and deadlifts tear up my legs in ways that I adore, but the recovery time involved is just not conducive to getting myself to stick to my running training plan. Something is always going by the wayside, and sometimes it's both running and lifting, sometimes for 1 week+ straight. (Yeah, that happened.) No, I'm not ripped yet because when it comes to the gym I clearly have serious commitment issues. So the heavy lifting is going to go on the backburner until race season is over for me. Did I ever mention here that I got into that? Probably not. Well now you know. Anyway, I'm excited to rediscover (and recommit to) my long lost love for running.

And THEN!!: My man gets back to school the day I'm done with Hood to Coast. He's currently halfway through a 6-week backpacking trip in SE Asia, and was home in Canada all summer prior to that. I miss him, duh. I tell ya, life is looking up!

Alright, back to studying. That was the best post I've made in a while, so if you don't like it then you are way too hard to please.

PS I'm feeling much better than I was in my last personal post. Not 100%, maybe 65% with some days better and some worse. Thanks for all the kind comments. :) It helps to be looking forward to so many things.