Monday Giggles: if all of your friends jumped off a bridge

 link to the original on the xkcd website
the rollover text is: "and it says a lot about you that when your friends jump off a bridge en masse, your first thought is apparently 'my friends are foolish and I won't be like them' not 'are my friends okay?'" 

This week has been a crazy few weeks of activity: (can you say "how to cope with uncertainty stress?")

Monday Feb. 25: 

epic snow hike up Sunset Ridge, sled down!

Tuesday Feb 26: 

6 mile run, 

rock climbing gym 

Wednesday Feb 27: 

6 mile run at dusk by myself in the slushy snow (so lovely)

Thursday Feb 28: 

7 mile temp run, 

rock climbing gym - edging up the learning curve!

Friday March 1 : 

5 mile walk (rest? day)

Saturday March 2: 

epic snow hike up Sunset Ridge with my sister and buddies, 

80s dance party until way too late (okay, so 1am just feels really late these days)

Sunday March 3: 

10 mile run,

rock climbing gym - still improving 

(but my arms definitely could tell that I haven't been in days)

Monday March 4: 

early morning wake up for a snow-shoe up Teardrop, 

4 mile run

Tuesday March 5: 

skiing all day (so much snow predicted!)

at some point soon I'll probably need to rest.

but hopefully this will be really helpful with getting ready for the Himalayas!

White Out

Two amazing things happened this Friday: one, I finished my medical school requirements. 

Not for the rotation, not for the year, but COMPLETELY.  done. with. medical. school. requirements.

Second (and actually, equally as exciting) my sister came up to visit!

I wanted to show her a truly Vermont winter experience, so we went for a hike!  Now is probably a good time to tell you that the manfriend and I have just solidified all of our plans for a >20 day hike in Nepal.  

Yes, friends, we are going adventuring!  

And this time, it's not for away rotations or interviews, just us and some very, very large mountains.

In preparation - besides getting about a million administrative things done (plane tickets - check!  travel clinic with vaccines - check! learn what gaiters are - check!  order gaiters online - check! etc.) 

- is HIKE! a lot! in the winter!  and rock climb (even though we won't be doing any of this officially on our trip, it feels in the spirit of the trekking in large mountains, plus it's super fun)

photo source
by this amazing blog by a couple who did a very similar, if not the same, trek as we are!


I definitely feel like part of the fun of this trip has been in the planning and anticipation for it.

And a big part of that has been our "training" hikes.

(which we may have done anyways, but feel even more fun because we're training)  

***

Our hike was a lot more snowy and at a much (much, much, much!) lower altitude.

but it still felt pretty intense.

Chris took this photo, but if we include him, this was our trekking crew!

note Steve, the best dog ever

as well as how warm and colorful and energetic we look

(warning: some of these things do change as the hike goes on)

K and I in front of what could be rolling vermont hills

or just a white wall

couldn't see, didn't really matter

G and I in the snow - I'm so lucky to have the best sister in the whole wide world!

G gets fierce on the rock face as we reach towards the peak.

(and I zip up all my layers)

and yes, I used poles. for the first time ever.

no, not because I'm aging and my knees hurt more than they used to

(although those things may or may not be true)

but because they recommend them on our trek and I wanted to see if I liked them

the upshot: not really

G, C and I climbing in seriously deep snow up to the face

there are trees behind us

no, really.

you just can't tell because it's a WHITE OUT

and everything is all fluffy snow and WIND.

but we made it to the ridge!

and to our peak!

(not so warm and energetic now - but very, very happy)

as evidenced by the manfriend 

who sits proudly in the snow before we begin our 3 mile slide down :)

we ended the day with a Mardi Gras/80s themed dance party with a whole bunch of medical school friends that I haven't seen in ages.  it's so thrilling to have everyone back in one place and off of crazy schedules for a brief moment in time.  

sister visits, snowy treks, and 80s dance parties - 

can you think of a better way to spend a Saturday?

PS: stay tuned for more details about our trip to Nepal!

~~~~~~

"The mountains are calling - and I must go"

-John Muir

(one of my heroes, as you can see from my blog description above)

ingots and ferry wheels

a little bike adventure with the manfriend through the shapes and sights of Pittsburgh

"It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those yeas wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. what weather they shall have is not ours to rule.

- Tolkien

yoga breakdown

This past week I've had a "reading week" for my genetics elective because a) there's apparently a whole lot I don't know about genetics and b) my attending went out of town on vacation with his kids.  I have definitely read a whole lot about genetics, but I have also tried to use this week as a restorative week.  A week I could have traveled to visit friends or family (I did a little of this), a week I could have spent doing all the life errands I had to do (I did do a little of this), I chose to instead take my focus inward and try to reset my own internal balance, which has shifted drastically over the past year of clerkships with travelling, starting a new thing every 6 weeks, and not having a community to root into.  Plus, I start a month of night float this Monday night so I won't have too much of a life outside of the hospital for a little while - making me nervous that I'll be unbalanced even more.

So my skeletal structure of the week included a goal of coming to my mat and doing yoga every day for a whole week, starting last Saturday (my first day "off").  I'm not sure what I expected - a few days of feeling like I was getting more flexible, stronger maybe?  But instead I've been feeling more peaceful - well, up until yesterday's practice when I think I had a yoga breakdown.  About 40 minutes into one of my favorite podcasts, in the middle of a heart opener half-moon pose, I just started crying.  Not because I was sad or in pain, but I think (still processing) because I really opened something up.  Not just my ribcage, but like an emotional drawer that I had locked and barricaded over the course of this year, as I spent more time alone driving than ever before, as I witnessed people dying, futile attempts to try to prevent the inevitable, families grieving, babies being born, intimate never before asked questions - had opened.  I continued my practice for a few more poses, then I turned the podcast off and just flowed by myself through poses that I realized I had been craving, and by the time I got to the final pose, I was entirely spent.  Not renewed or refreshed or regenerated, just totally spent.  But I'm going for it again today and tomorrow - because now I'm curious.  What else might come up?  Here's a poem that was read at a yoga class I went to this week that just felt.so.right.  

Some thoughts to consider: 

What have you done lately that has been outside of your comfort zone?  

How do you reset your own internal balance?

Allow by Danna Faulds

There is no controlling life.

Try corralling a lightening bolt

containing a tornado.

Dam a stream and it will create

a new channel. Resist, and

the tide will sweep you off your

feet.  Allow, and grace will carry

you to higher ground.

The only safety lies in 

letting it all in -

the wild and the weak,

fear, fantasies, failures, and

success.  When loss rips off hte 

doors of the heart, or sadness veils

your vision with despair, practice

becomes simply bearing the truth.

In the choice to let go of your known 

way of being, the whole world is revealed

to your new eyes.

Trick Yourself Into Faster, Higher, Better ?

If I put you on a stationary bike in front of a video game screen with an avatar riding a bike and told you that the avatar would be going at your own personal best pace - would you try stay with it?  Would you beat it?  What if that avatar was actually riding a bit faster than your best pace, but I didn't tell you?  Do you think you'd still beat it?

A recent article sent to me by a good friend says that if the avatar is only going 2% faster than your best - you will beat it. It talks about research being done to show that we can actually trick ourselves to be faster and push harder than we ever have before - which is sort of what we do in races and competitions.  As a self-proclaimed runner who is always recruiting new runners (!!) I tell people that one of the hardest parts of running - especially marathon training - is getting used to the idea that you don't have to stop when your mind or body says you should.  Once you do this just one time - keep running after your body/mind has told you to stop - it's incredibly freeing because you realize that you are more powerful than your thoughts or signals.  But sometimes this motivation involves playing tricks on your mind like, I am going to run as hard as I can because maybe I'll rest at the top of this hill.  Then when you get to the top of the hill, picking a new place you're going to "stop".  These mind tricks are also how in competition we make ourselves go faster - not "I need to go faster than I previously have" but "I need to beat that person".

The experiments explained in this article are fascinating and makes me wonder what sorts of mind tricks I'm playing on myself - not only in my life as an athlete (which maybe more consists of tricking myself into running at all), but also as a medical student.  I find myself picking out the narratives that keep me motivated all the time.

From the article:
In their laboratory, Dr. Thompson and his assistant Mark Stone had had the cyclists pedal as hard as they could on a stationary bicycle for the equivalent of 4,000 meters, about 2.5 miles. After they had done this on several occasions, the cyclists thought they knew what their limits were.

Then Dr. Thompson asked the cyclists to race against an avatar, a figure of a cyclist on a computer screen in front them. Each rider was shown two avatars. One was himself, moving along a virtual course at the rate he was actually pedaling the stationary bicycle. The other figure was moving at the pace of the cyclist’s own best effort — or so the cyclists were told.  In fact, the second avatar was programmed to ride faster than the cyclist ever had — using 2 percent more power, which translates into a 1 percent increase in speed.  Told to race against what they thought was their own best time, the cyclists ended up matching their avatars on their virtual rides, going significantly faster than they ever had gone before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Work It Harder Make it Better

Do It Faster, Makes Us Stronger

More than Ever Hour After

Our Work is Never Over"

-Daft Punk lyrics to Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

(such a good workout song)

soaking up summer

This past weekend (pre-hurricane) a group of us decided to capitalize on summer and go on a 30 mile bike ride out to waterfalls with the added bonus that these waterfalls happen to be right next to the best brewery around.

game face ON, check. (~9am)

and we're off! check out that beautiful scenery in the background

we stopped at a farmer's market about 25 miles in and got some fresh tomatoes!

and then we got to the beautiful falls and iced our tired legs in the cold water!

and jumped off cliffs!

and got a little bit zen...

or not (she scraped her legs swimming under the waterfall)

and made new friends (we're collecting rocks)

check out that beautiful waterfall - oooh summer.

and then finally we got to go here for delicious local food and the best beer in the area.

my favorite was the pepper, chocolate stout

(of course about two sips in, I was ready for a nap - oohhh medical school)

the end.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes,

and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit.

A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief

that all is right with the world.

-Ada Louise Huxtable

burger party

If you've been reading any of this blog lately,

you may be wondering if I ever leave the hospital, if I ever see anyone who is not wearing the pseudo-smurf outfit that is surgical gear, if I talk about anything besides vital signs and not getting enough sleep, if I ever play outside or have any fun at all.

I find myself sometimes wondering the same thing

which is why I'm glad for nights that remind me how fun it is to be silly

(see below for details)

last Thursday night, I left the hospital around 6,

immediately went on a long hard run

which ended around dusk at the local baseball stadium

where I met a bunch of friends to chill outside, drink some cheap beer (and gatorade),

and play the 5th inning burger game!

TEAM one: PATTY CAKE

TEAM 2: MORE COWBELL

the bottom buns line up at the starting line

and they're OFF!

(in front of several thousand people)

throwing on the toppings (do I see bacon?)

a slider finish (oh-hoh): PATTY CAKE WINS!

a post-race burger bump!

with our favorite SP who also happens to be the guy who runs all the games at the stadium, not to mention about eighteen million other things around town.

and then I got sandwiched, I mean burgered...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and for an unrelated fun favorite:

Calvin: (peering under his bed) "Any monsters under my bed tonight"

Voice from under the bed: "Nope, No. Nooo monsters here."

Calvin: There better not be, I'd hate to have to torch one with my flamethrower!"

Hobbes: You have a flamethrower?

Calvin: (whispers) "They lie. I lie"