New Bri Tri

So I completed the New Bri Tri today. Jason just got home from work and won't let me tell him about it until I blog. Unfortunately he has a valid point. If I tell the story too many times I'll never get around to writing it down.

Back in January one of my classmates Maria and I started swimming at school to survive the winter. She is an amazing swimmer who has competed heavily in the past. With all of the overachievers in dentistry it wasn't hard to find encouragement or suggestions to do a triathlon. So Maria and I decided we would set a goal and start training for the summer for our first ever triathlon. Conveniently, our suburb has a triathlon which is near by and at a time we could both go - today.

The day started at 5:30am (actually earlier if you count that I couldn't sleep last night because I was so nervous I wouldn't get up.) I went to go pick Maria up and arrived at the park at 6:45.

Although it is June we finally got some rain. So while it's been beautiful all week it was cold and rainy today. The temp outside was in the neighborhood of 50 degrees and I'm guessing the water was about 67 degrees.

We set up our transition area. (FYI this apparently is a motivating factor for the intense athletes to arrive at 5am and take the spots nearest the exit. We are not that motivated.) This involved putting out our bike and laying our towel, helmet and running clothes out. One of my friends from school let me borrow a road bike his mom had for the race - it was awesome - super fast and red.

Maria and I were in the fourth wave - after the elite athletes and men. I'm assuming this is so small people like me don't drown in the rush for the water. (They were set at 3 minute intervals.) There were probably 100 people in each of the 5 waves. Despite the cold weather, with our wetsuits it was actually pleasant to stand in the water and easy to transition to swimming.

The biggest mistake I probably made preparing for this triathlon was not swimming in my wetsuit before hand or swimming in a lake. I got caught in the middle of what is referred to as "the washing machine." There is such a mob of people that you are being grabbed from everywhere and hitting others in the process. The water already has zero visibility but now is also being agitated. I've been practicing in a pool where I can see the bottom and track where I am going. It took me almost half of the swim course to figure out what my game plan was. I couldn't swim normal freestyle because of the mass of people and I couldn't see where I was going. My goggles had fogged up a bit so even with my head out of water it was tough to see. I tried breast stroke for awhile but there wasn't the leg room and the wetsuit was too restrictive for the kicks. A ridiculous amount of energy and time was spent just trying to stay afloat. We were supposed to swim out along the buoys and then come back in an elongated U. I was finally starting to get into the groove of just pulling in freestyle (which worked well with the buoyancy of the swim suit) when I realized I was drastically off course. I'm convinced I lost at least seven minutes in my detour - I didn't make the turn and kept heading for the other shore. I'm still not entirely sure how to get into a rhythm and be able to see where you are going - next year. The good news is that there was no one for me to run into way out there. I finished and walked out of the lake to my transition site where my friends Katie and Erin from school were cheering me on. I was so disoriented from the swim it was a good thing they were there to coach me through the change. I could barely stand and kept forgetting things like drying off before getting dressed.

I then walked my bike to the mounting area and was on my way. I think I did best in this part. I ended up pacing a guy for the entire 14 miles and fortunately wasn't passed by too many people. (I know this wasn't the point - I was competing with myself. However, you know I like a little competition to keep motivated.) It started to sprinkle during the bike ride but fortunately wasn't too bad and the roads weren't wet enough to have splash from the tires. (I absolutely hate that.)

Moving from biking to running is just weird. If you've ever been on a trampoline and then tried to start jumping on the ground or running you'll know what I'm talking about. It took me at least a mile to feel like I was moving normally. I kept a slow but steady pace and met my goal of running the 3 miles without walking. It rained the entire run but it didn't bother me too much. Fortunately it only started pouring while we were driving home.

The group that did the triathlon did a nice job. All the participants were well marked and we wore chips on our ankles to record our times. (I was number 85.) The data on the chip let them know who was coming so I crossed the finish line with the announcer bellowing my name to the crowd. My time was one hour and fifty-five minutes, next year will be faster as I improve the swim. The entire experience was a lot of fun. All of the volunteers and workers were awesome, lots of encouragement from everyone along the way. (Except the swim - that's all about survival. There are kayakers out there if people need to rest on something or be saved.)

How am I feeling you may ask? Pretty good. Each event works fairly different muscle groups so it wasn't too bad to start something new and carry through with it. I have a feeling I'm going to be a little sore tomorrow, but nothing terrible. Maria and I have decided we definitely want to make this an annual event. Thanks for every one's support along the way!


Here are my stats: I came in as 289 out of 359 and 80 out of 120 females in my age group. (Like I said - next year will be better once I figure out the swim.)
Swim: 17min 48 sec
Transition one: 3 minutes 53 seconds (I thought for sure it took longer than that)
Bike: 51:28
Transition two: one minute 4 seconds
Run: 32 minutes
Total according to the posted data: one hour, forty-two minutes and twenty seconds (the clock said 1:55:33 so I don't know where the discrepancy is)

School is over... oh wait

So I finished my finals on Friday. It was five finals in five days plus three more the week before. I enjoyed being done and have spent the last few days cleaning up and taking care of normal life stuff that gets put off for months at a time. Now I feel ready to relax and rejuvenate before the next semester, small problem though - school starts tomorrow at 7:30am. At first I thought two days off would be enough, currently I'm still feeling fried. On the bright side I'm hoping this semester will be less intensive. What I mean is that hopefully when I leave school I will be done for the day. Classes go from 7:30am until 5pm most days; however, they are mostly clinical so I'm hoping there won't be as much late night bookwork. If nothing else, it's only seven weeks.

It's been so long since I posted I'm not sure what I filled people in on last. In January a fellow classmate and I accepted the challenge to train for a triathlon. I have sent in my check and should be participating in the "New Bri Tri" on June 6th. It will involve a 1/2 mile swim in a lake, 13 mile bike ride and 3 mile run. I've been swimming about 3 times a week since January, the weather just got better so I've been biking to school which is about 13 miles a day. The running has been more challenging to improve in. Jason has been biking while I run to encourage me and I invested in a nike + ipod sensor which tracks my pace, runs and distance. I can at least run the distance I need to, we'll see if I can after swimming and biking too. If nothing else, I should be well prepared for my physical tests for the National Guard when I go for Officer Basic Camp in August.

This past semester has been an interesting one. While my social life and Jason's have pretty much died, we have still managed to accomplish much. My friend and classmate Priya taught me how to make some awesome indian food which has been fun. Let me just say that chili powder from the indian store is much stronger than anything you normally get at the grocery store. I have survived school for another semester and have done a few other enjoyable things. I won't put all of the details here but I learned a lot more than I expected to about making dental crowns. They are much more complicated than you can imagine. We had a simulated patient we have been working on all semester and will get to see what my lab results will be when the next semester begins.

I've spent far too much time at a desk and in front of a computer this semester. Hence, I would love to tell you more but I can't stare at this screen anymore.

Cruising Through Winter

It's hard to believe that it's February.  I'm not going to complain though, I'm in the middle of my first round of exams for the semester.  Additionally, we finally broke out of a couple of weeks of double-digit, negative-degree weather with the wind-chill.  Wearing three layers of clothing everywhere you go gets really old.  I get really excited when I kind start shedding the accessory/necessities like scarves, hats and gloves.  Unfortunately, it's usually April before those can be given up without worrying about frostbite.

My parents were kind enough to help us get out and enjoy the winter weather a bit more this year.  Jason and I were gifted with cross-country skiing gear.  I'm pretty sure more enchanted with the idea than Jason is, but at least it helps us get out in the winter.  So far I've been out a few times and Jason is working on it.  It was kind of awkward starting out but I feel like I'm getting it more. 

We have classical skis which is a lot slower than the skate skis.  Hence, it's been intimidating to go out and be smoked by the college and high school racing teams.  I like it though, it's  a fantastic workout which helps with the staying warm bit.  In fact, regardless of the temperature I'm usually roasting by the time we are done.  I still prefer going up hill and get nervous about wiping out going down hill but progress is being made.  For the most part we are sticking to nearby golf courses that have been groomed until we work up the endurance to go for some longer trails that are worth the drive.

School is school.  I will try and post some of the projects that we have been working on in lab.  I find our new lab course less relaxing than our waxing in oral anatomy but I am certainly learning new things.  So far the semester hasn't been as bad as fall was I"m sure that will change.  The material is less flashy however.  I don't have as many aha moments or run across information that is new and really interesting.  I suppose it just feels a little on the tedious side right now.  Some of that is because I'm basically taking four classes that I've been exposed to before.  Granted, that still leaves eight that I haven't taken but like I said it seems to be a little on the busywork side of education at the moment.  I also think it is kind of sterile and hard to be motivated without patient interaction.  I would tell people I worked with that the best thing about dentistry is the people.  Of course it is also the worst part of it too, but I still miss it.  Oh well... next year.

Jason and I have had more time to spend together which has been nice.  We went to see the Russian National Ballet perform Sleeping Beauty on Friday Night.  Let me just say that I love student tickets.  The performance was lovely, although I must admit the last two scenes were much better than the first.  The music was written by Tchaikovsky so how could you go wrong?  Several of my friends from school went as well, I enjoy sharing experiences like that with others.  I'm beginning to side with the arts camp that pre-recorded music is just wrong.  While the dancing was wonderful I think it lacked a certain depth without live music to adjust to the swells of the moment.

Oh, in other exciting news a friend and I are committing to doing a triathlon this summer.  I haven't put my money down yet but I've started training.  I am now swimming three times a week at the school (definitely not in the Mississippi).  The event is a 1/2 mile swim, 13 mile bike ride and a 3 mile run.  The run will take the most work for me to prepare for but the rest should be just fine.  My big goal is to finish and not do something ridiculous like drown or crash my bike.  It should be fun.  It's June 6th if any one out there is interested in joining us.

memories

So I was driving tonight and I heard this song and it reminded me of freshman year. Or maybe it was sophomore year. I don't know. For your listening enjoyment:

Happy New Year from Minnesota

Someday I'm going to enjoy these holidays at the end of the year again. Over the past few years I have both dreaded and looked forward to Christmas. I think it has something to do with the fact that nine of the last ten years I have had finals in December. These usually are close to the nineteenth leaving me precious few days to do what I hate most - go shopping for gifts. (I normally hate shopping, but even more so when the freeway is backed up because everyone is going to the mall.) So I spend the first part of my break preparing for Christmas and the rest trying to catch up on everything else that has been neglected during school. It's a good thing Ting and Murphy are such good kids otherwise we'd really be in trouble. I finally got my grades back on Friday - there is room for improvement but I am quite happy with them.

School starts tomorrow and while I've had a really nice week and a half....I'm still fried. I'm usually excited and ready for new classes, right now I'm not ready to start over again. Clearly I survived last semester but it was kind of painful. Jason keeps reminding me to take it just a day at a time which is really excellent advice. Jason has been a wonderful support to me through dental school, I can't imagine going through this without him.

I spent Christmas day with my family in Madison and went cross country skiing while Jason worked at the referral clinic. Jason and I should both have skis in a couple of weeks which I am very excited about. The key to surviving the winter is to find some redeeming qualities about it. For me, I'm hoping it will be cross country skiing.

The 26th I drove back and Jason and I flew to San Antonio, Texas on the 27th. We had a wonderful Doolittle family reunion and celebrated Jason's dad's 65th birthday. I have a bunch of very sweet nieces and nephews who are definitely all boy. We went to see the Alamo, look at some missions from the 1700s and of course gorge ourselves on barbecue and tex mex. I also had the chance to see two of my good friends from my BYU days which was a real treat. One of course being the fabulous red head Stephanie. I know you are all jealous that we got to hang out. We were discussing possibilities for our Crown 9er reunion. I make it down to San Antonio everyonce in awhile due to Jason's family. So that already puts two of our members in close proximity. Otherwise the state farm in Minnesota is probably the best in the country. Would could all hang out and drink lots of milk, enjoy butter sculptures eat things on a stick. It would be lots of fun.

Now that we have seen a little bit of sun and remembered what life is like without coats we are back in MN and bracing ourselves for at least three more months of snow. I'm hoping 2009 will be a good year. I'm grateful to have a husband who loves me, a happy and healthy extended family and the opportunity to further my education. If I can keep in mind that those are more important than the challenges I foresee in the next year - life will continue to be good.

Getting My Money's Worth

So when we began dental school one of our instructors told us that if we weren't being challenged we weren't getting our money's worth.  Rest assured, I am definitely feeling challenged.  For the last two or three weeks we have had something big due everyday.  It's either been a midterm, oral anatomy test or project, a paper, written or oral quiz and/or a dissection in anatomy.  I get up around 6 each morning and if I have time - do a little studying before class.  I'm in class until five most days and try to study and eat over lunch.  I then come home and push through some more studying until about 10pm.  At that point I just have to accept that I can't do anymore that day, go to sleep and then start all over again.

I usually get between 4-8 hours of studying in on Saturdays to stay afloat.  I think the worst of it is over now for this semester.  I have part one and two of a final tomorrow and Wednesday.  After that I should have at least five more hours a week to study and focus on my remaining classes.  So with my first drill weekend I think it was a solid two weeks without any sort of a break.  Trust me, this Saturday was very welcome.  I don't know if I've ever looked forward to Thanksgiving so hopefully before.

Last weekend I went up to Camp Ripley for my first National Guard drill weekend.  It went very well.  So well in fact that I think if all of my experiences are like this one, my military experience will be quite positive.  I even got paid when I was supposed to, it's amazing.  A fellow classmate who I also know from church was commissioned on the same day.  It was really nice to have another dental student to carpool and be new at everything with.  (There are so many acronyms and bits of information coming at you it was good to have someone to conquer and divide the info with.)  Coming in as an officer you start drilling without any formal training.  So it was pretty awkward to be saluted while walking around and called Ma'am (I didn't learn what I was supposed to do in response until 24 hours after it started.)  Being the daughter of an enlisted Marine I am well aware that there are plenty of enlisted people who resent the fact that I came in at a higher rank and know nothing about the military.  So I tread lightly and will certainly not flaunt my officer status.

Minnesota isn't exactly a military hub, so buying uniforms was a bit challenging.  There was a small place here in the cities where I didn't get any help picking out what I needed and they had limited supplies.  I had to guess the rest of the things I needed and order them online.  So Saturday morning at 4am I am trying to put my uniform on the way I think it might go.  We arrived at the base at 6:30am and I think it took maybe two minutes before people in my new unit stopped me and told me that I needed to be fixed.  Apparently my boots are all wrong, my top uniform too small (they don't come any smaller) I was either missing or had the wrong patches and my hair wasn't up properly.  They were very helpful in correcting how to wear my uniform, but they didn't hold back that they were thinking it was a good thing I wasn't part of their unit because I would have embarrassed them.  It didn't phase me too much though.  I figured I would have at least one event like that and everyone was more than happy to help.

I am in a program with medical and PA students so I got to meet a few other new officers as well.  Most of them were prior service so they helped fill me in a bit more in the ways of the military.  I think my general responsibilities each weekend will be helping with the dental examinations.  This will involve taking health histories, going through paperwork to determine radiograph and exam need as well as exposing radiographs.  Since I have a hygiene background I started taking bitewings on Sunday.  In a shorter day I took 119 bitewings.  (Thank goodness for digital radiography.)  I can only imagine what that total will be in future weekends.  (Our dental unit does an average of 350-500 dental exams a weekend.)  The people in my unit are great and I am looking forward to working with them.  My favorite part of the weekend was attending a continuing medical education seminar on cold weather injuries.  It was an hour presentation over breakfast with the MDs and other students.  I really hope to keep going to those even if they aren't directly related to the care I give.

The days are a little long, I was wiped out for the rest of the week but it was definitely worth it.  So far everything I've heard about the officer basic course is that it is fun.  It sounds a lot like camping with my family - orienteering, navigation, tents etc.  We will see.

One last note to this long post.  Tuesday was the Anatomy Memorial Service.  It was a service held to show appreciation to the families whose loved ones donated their bodies to be used in anatomy.   I sang in the choir with the med students and enjoyed my associations with them and utilizing my talents.  It was an emotional experience being able to talk to the families who came.  I may dislike the formaldehyde but the learning experience we gain is essential to training our hands and minds.  I feel recommitted to learning in that class when I remember the gift that people have offered to enable me to do so.

Teeth and Stuff

It's hard to believe that it's been several weeks since my last post. The weeks are just flying by. Dental school is going well. I am currently dealing with a few adjustments. In the last two weeks I've had 13 credits added to my schedule. That currently brings me to 22 credits with a total of 24 to be completed by the end of the semester. The time consuming classes right now are histology, gross anatomy and biochemistry. I know you are all jealous and wish you could be in class eight hours a day with lots of studying afterward. I'm sure you will get by. My favorite class is oral anatomy. We learn about all of the tiny details of each tooth and then in lab, work on creating them from wax to internalize the information.







I've also started using the new dental simulation clinic at the school. The University of Minnesota has one of the only simulation clinics this advanced. It uses GPS technology to teach students proper ergonomics and appropriate tooth preparations for restorations. The GPS detects where the handpiece is placed and what plastic tooth material has been removed. The preparation is then simulated into a 3-D image on a computer screen which can be compared to an ideal preparation. It also offers objective grading. The experience has been pretty good. I find the computer feedback to be helpful - I just wish the handpiece wasn't so heavy.

Here is a link to a video to see what I'm talking about:

http://www.dentistry.umn.edu/news/tvspot/home.html

We started gross anatomy this past week. Yes, we do work with cadavers. We are very fortunate to have people who have been kind enough to donate their bodies to allow us to learn. It's tough work though and there is a lot of preparation involved and ridiculous amount of information learn. I'm also practicing with a choir that will perform for the memorial surface to honor the families of those who donated their bodies.

In other news I have found a wonderful opportunity for school. I will most likely be joining the National Guard later this month. It's a very family friendly and flexible option to fund school and serve the country. I will be working specifically in dentistry and the tuition benefits are good. There are a lot of details; but the basic idea is that I will be drilling once a month for the next eight years. (Four before graduation and four as a licensed dentist.) Following graduation I will continue drilling but have the option (or need) to be deployed as a dentist with the Army. If that were the case it would only be for 90 days and I can't be deployed for 18 months after that. I've put a lot of thought into it and Jason and I feel this is the best option for us. I look at it this way: I will owe my soul to somebody in order to pay for school. It's either the military for eight or the bank for much, much longer.

Jason and I had a wonderful anniversary. Autumn this year has been amazing. It is an unusally warm fall and the leaves are changing colors at a reasonable rate. (Some years they start and drop leaves within three weeks.) Life is good, albeit busy.