Where art thou spring break?

This is the crew that finished off a week of fun, hardcore training with an off-road duathlon (run/bike/run) at Leawood City Park. It was awesome to ride my bike on trails again...it's been way too long. Ben Schleogel graciously allowed me to participate in this EnduraCamp winter session that included spinning, yoga (at Jiva Studio), urban adventure running, plyometrics, strength work (at the Fit Pit), swimming, etc. The week of activities was super well planned and was geared toward people who work during the day so I was pumped to be able to make it to most of the activities. Ben, Cameron, Pat and Ken put in all kinds of work in order to make it happen and I really appreciate it! In case it's not completely evident, I highly recommend doing one of these camps. I had such a good time training with a great group of people all week long and now I'm full of motivation to continue getting into better shape.

Next week Steve and I are heading down to Florida for my last spring break ever. I didn't think about it being my last one until this very minute, but I fully intend to savour every minute of it. My major objective for the week is to go to the beach and get a tan. I think it's been almost 2 years since my skin wasn't pasty white and I intend to do something about that (I'd also intend to relax and destress). Steve's main objective for the week is to mountain bike on trails that aren't covered in snow, ice, or mud. Thank God for sandy Florida trails. While in Florida, we are going to try to see as many people as we can in Gainesville, Daytona, and Tallahassee...so give us a ring if you live in or near those places-we want to see you!

Continuing on with my school countdown...I've got 1 full day of classes next week (then lab and exams) and then 5 more weeks after spring break!! Woo hoo!

Light at the end of the tunnel

This is a picture of my hubby the year before I met him and before he had to work all the time and he had time to ride his bike (or lay out in the sun with his jersey on). 

So after this week, I officially only have 7 weeks left of real med school classes!!! I will still have classes over the summer, but they are supposed to be more fun, hands-on type classes where we learn things that will help us not look like morons when we start rotations in September. I also have to take Boards in June, but at least we will be finished with all the systems in 7 short weeks! I almost can't believe that I've made it to this point. I remember starting class last year and thinking that 2 years of classes seemed like an eternity; it has really flown by. The problem with the time flying by is that I don't exactly know what I want to be when I grow up yet. I feel a lot of pressure to know what residency I plan on applying for and it's almost impossible for me to look into potential residency programs at this point because there are so many that I think I might be interested in (I don't even know which type of residency, forget specific programs). I have been using AAMC's Careers in Medicine website and it has been really helpful. These are the specialties that I am currently considering:

Pediatric Emergency Med, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Neuro surgery (is it too bold to say that I'm interested in that out loud??), ObGyn (not so much on the Gyn part, but we'll see), Peds Ortho, Neonatal/perinatal, Interventional cardiology, Peds Cardiology, Peds endocrinology, Peds plastic surgery, radiation oncology, interventional radiology, Thoracic surgery, and Congenital cardiac surgery. 

Ummm....yeah, so that's my problem. I listed 14 specialties!!! I have almost narrowed the list down to just pediatric specialties, but I believe it's going to take me shadowing each type of doc in order to rule them in or out. Awesome, I'll go ahead and do that in my spare time. I know I will eventually figure it out, I'm just feeling anxious to know what I am meant to spend my life doing (as far as my career goes).

**Feel free to make suggestions!**

So aside from school, I am trying to get my butt back in shape for the upcoming mountain bike season. I have been going to spin class at the gym because I'm a baby about the cold and I like the torture of doing intervals. I said in my last post that I was going to do the PsychoWyco run last weekend, but I decided I didn't have the $40 to spend on the entry fee so I did the LisHeal Trolley Trail Run instead. I have been wanting to run the whole trail since we moved here in August and finally did it. It was the longest run I've done since we moved to KC (12.5 miles) and it was a real challenge. I feel that I'm on my way back to doing regular long runs again, which I have really missed. I would absolutely love to be back at the San Felasco trails in Gainesville.