A Deep Breath
Thursday, May 1, 2008
'sup? Last Friday, two of my teammates and I walked about 48km. The plan was only to do about 30ish, initially, but a few extra kms, a miscalculation and a brief route error meant that we were good for about 45km. The navigation boo boo accounted for the other three.
It was a beautiful day, around 25 degrees and for the morning and most of the afternoon bright sunshine, and depending on the location, a few breezes here and there. The exercise was both endurance and research, as 30km of the trip was on the actual track we'll be walking in July, almost certainly in the dark. A solid 9 hours of walking - 8.45am til 5.45pm actually meant that we made pretty good time for the day. So yeah, overall a really enjoyable experience and a good stroll to get under the belts as training.
The beer pong tournament wasn't as successful as last time, with the top two seeded players being drawn to play on the same team. I was drawn to play with Batman (my girlfriend), and whilst we made short work of our first round opponents, we came up a cup short in the quarter final to the eventual runners up. Close, but no cigar.
This week the run into exams has started and, unlike the Kokoda Challenge, it's more of a sprint to the finish line for say, 6 weeks. This week is all about the deep breath before the run, just making preparations, checking that all the material's there and consolidating existing knowledge as much as possible. All the creative stuff has taken a back seat, and for the next 5 weeks it's going to be me and my books (and notes and websites and journals and flashcards). You get the picture... In short, this year is considered the most challenging of Med, as it's all the physiology, pathology, pharmacology for everything so you can make the most of the actual clinical years.
This week's piccie was a wee while ago; around the time I first started using a camera proper. It's glass half full stuff, really!
It was a beautiful day, around 25 degrees and for the morning and most of the afternoon bright sunshine, and depending on the location, a few breezes here and there. The exercise was both endurance and research, as 30km of the trip was on the actual track we'll be walking in July, almost certainly in the dark. A solid 9 hours of walking - 8.45am til 5.45pm actually meant that we made pretty good time for the day. So yeah, overall a really enjoyable experience and a good stroll to get under the belts as training.
The beer pong tournament wasn't as successful as last time, with the top two seeded players being drawn to play on the same team. I was drawn to play with Batman (my girlfriend), and whilst we made short work of our first round opponents, we came up a cup short in the quarter final to the eventual runners up. Close, but no cigar.
This week the run into exams has started and, unlike the Kokoda Challenge, it's more of a sprint to the finish line for say, 6 weeks. This week is all about the deep breath before the run, just making preparations, checking that all the material's there and consolidating existing knowledge as much as possible. All the creative stuff has taken a back seat, and for the next 5 weeks it's going to be me and my books (and notes and websites and journals and flashcards). You get the picture... In short, this year is considered the most challenging of Med, as it's all the physiology, pathology, pharmacology for everything so you can make the most of the actual clinical years.
This week's piccie was a wee while ago; around the time I first started using a camera proper. It's glass half full stuff, really!
