Thursday, April 14, 2011

The Last Go-Round

So it begins, our last finals week. EVER. We had our Critical Care exam yesterday, which seemed to go very well. I already had a great grade (her tests are very easy and straight forward) so I'm not worried. My issue right now is FOCUS. We have two finals tomorrow - Ruminant and Small Animal Surgery that I just started studying for.

Why didn't I do anything except organize my notes last night? I decided that it was now or never for my 20 mile run. I had looked up the forecast for Wednesday the night before and it predicted 60-65 degrees, partially sunny and only 5 mph winds. How could I pass that up? I was supposed to do the run on Sunday, but we were at a wedding in Michigan, so I only ended up doing 10 on Saturday through the golf course community that we were staying at. Which, by the way, was beautiful and I saw lots of white tailed deer, turkeys, and quails - very cool.

My 20 miler started out awesome - I was holding about 8:30-8:45 miles and I felt great. At mile 13ish, I hit a wall - and I also realized that my iPod was not calibrated for my NikePlus running thing to track mileage. My iTouch is calibrated, but its been having some issues - so I decided to try using my new Nano (won it in a raffle at school - AWESOME). I had created a beautiful 20 mile course for myself on mapmyrun.com - but when I got a little closer to home, I realized that I was about 2 miles off - Nano was telling me congratulations, I only had 5 miles to go - but I knew I had about 7. I also made the mistake of doing the last 4.5 miles in a loop around our house - I really wanted to just go home and forget about the rest of the run... but I waved good-bye to our street and continued on in what turned out to be the slowest 4 miles of my life. When I finished, I had about a 0.25 mile walk to the house - it was incredibly painful and I was so tired! When I got home, I stretched a bit, drank chocolate milk and gatorade, took a shower, and decided a nap was in order if I was going to attempt to study. When my alarm went off at 8 pm - I made the snap decision that i would "organize notes" and pretend like that counted toward studying!

I feel MUCH better today, not terribly sore which is amazing for how awful I felt last night. Sitting in the library is making my leg muscles cramp up, but I'm loving the fact that I got tan yesterday. Its nice not to look like pale vampire that never sees sunlight!

I can't believe this is the last time I'll have to study for finals. I also can't believe that we are done with class. Forever. I start clinics in less that one month - which seems insane to me since I feel like I still don't know much about veterinary medicine... but I suppose that will come through experience :)

6 comments:

  1. Wow, congrats on the run, and being done with finals! I'm jealous :)

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  2. You know I have also found discrepancies when it comes to figuring out how far I run. I also use map my run and it will tell me 6.5 miles and yet my fitbit will tell me 7+ miles and I really dont feel like driving my route since I like to use different ones so I can see more of my town. So which one do you base your distance on mmr or your other devices?

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  3. Up until now, they've matched pretty well (my the NikePlus/iTouch and mapmyrun.com or usatf.org). I know I just need to get to a track or drive a mile and calibrate my new iPod, I just haven't had a chance to do it yet. I usually base the distance off the websites rather than the iTouch - and if the distances don't match up, I'd rather run more than less! What is a fitbit? Is it like a GPS device? I'm looking to purchase one this year, I just haven't priced them out yet.

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  4. Congrats on being done! I can't wait to see what clinics will be like!

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  5. I'm starting my first year of vet school this august. Any tips for scholarships and loans? Thanks!!

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  6. Hi Sarah :) I'm not sure how helpful I'll be, but I'll try! I think 99% of us do the standard FAFSA and get all of our money for tuition and living expenses through loans. Its usually enough money to last the semester. My school has scholarships that you can apply for and there is one deadline for all of them, so you can apply for as many as you qualify for and try to get more funds that way. They are also good about letting us know of national scholarships (Pfizer, AVMF, etc) that you can apply for. I imagine that other schools function in the same way. Other than that, in Illinois I know that if you have military parents, there are scholarships you can apply for in your county that will either pay for all of tuition, or a part of it, but I'm not sure if that is true for all states. Good luck with starting school!!! If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I'll try to help as best as I can!

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