Twas the night before boards...

Sitting here in good 'ol MPLS. It is home to overcast skies, rain, possibilities for snow, wind, and fortysomething temperatures. I have the feeling like my execution is tomorrow and I am waiting for the governor to call to pardon me to get out of it. I'm not being too hopeful. :)

I guess the best similar situation I have to this in my life is the night before an Ironman. Here I am, sitting in a hotel, in a faraway place, with a lot of crap with me (instead of bikes, wetsuits, nutrition, etc, it is now $$$$$ worth of dental equipment). Friends are here to cheer me on. I have spent years to get to this place. The funniest part, is that boards makes an Ironman look cheap! :) However, when I think of what is to come tomorrow, it is not fun in the sun and pushing myself to the limits of what I thought is physiologically and mentally possible, it is just drilling out a few cavities. Not quite as alluring, but necessary nonetheless. Oh well.

Kelsey interviewed at a practice in town while I took a tour of the UofM dental school today before orientation. It was sort of fun to look at a different dental school and how their lives here in MN are different from ours in NE. Pretty much variations on a theme and crazy to think that I almost went here for dental school. All I can say, is I am glad that there is not a Noodles and Co accross the street from Creighton dental, or else I would have turned into one giant bowl of Pad Thai over the course of four years in school.

Took the afternoon to get a burger and beer at Sally's, a venue which has 'the best burger in town.' A pretty darn good piece o' beef. I had their signature burger with mozzarella and balsamic mushrooms. An interesting take on a classic, yet very tasty. Afterwards, neuroticly got my paperwork ready for tomorrow, and headed to Mall of America for a bit- it was great to get my mind off of things. It worked.

Now, it is go time. Ready to get this behind me.

Earth Day...

So, we bring ourselves to another Earth Day (also my friend Sara's birthday!)


I've known Sara (black dress, pictured above) since preschool, which is pretty darn cool. This weekend, she competed in her first tri and now has the bug big time! Good work Sara!

I find Earth Day an interesting phenomenon. I love the earth, I think its great, and I want to keep it clean, beautiful, and wonderful. I really don't know anyone who doesn't. I don't know anyone who says 'hey! I think this planet should be dirtier and uglier!'. I do what I can, which is more than lots of people, less than many others, but I don't feel the need to judge or degrade others or make my self feel better by bragging. It is what I do because I think it is the right thing to do; however, I am, by all means, not perfect. I'd rather call it 'living your life intelligently and conscientiously' than 'going green' or 'hugging a tree.' It is wonderful that we have a day to think about the world around us and what we can do to make it better and appreciate its beauty, but unfortunately I saw something this weekend that epitomizes all that is wrong with Earth Day.

Case in point. On Saturday, I was riding my bike through Elmwood park, more on the outskirts of Elmwood park (the road that parallels 60th, through the golf course, east of the park if anyone is wondering) heading to the Keystone trail to take it up north to ride. I was wondering what was going on. There were cars everywhere. The road was packed, the park that I could see below the road was packed, and people were parked all over the grass, every which way. One car tried to run me over on my bike. I was wondering what was going on since I hadn't seen this many cars in Elmwood for a long time. After my ride, I found out. My roommate informed me that it was an Earth Day celebration. I started laughing.

I will refrain from further comment an let the situation speak for itself.

this is why there hasn't been too many posts...

wake up.
shower.
get ready.
iron while water is boiling.
press coffee.
go to school.
do dentistry.
make phone calls to patients.
do related dental lab work. lots of it.
come home sometime late evening or early morning.
training. ( if not too ridiculously late)
If training can be done before 11 pm, assume crappy workout.
go to bed, get too little sleep.

repeat.

That's about it. other comments...

- Last week, a school bus driver decided that driving past a woman with a green trench (aka ME) and spraying her with the many wheels of a school bus would be common courtesy and that I wanted a shower of road grime. Yes, I too, thought that this only happened in movies. Wet wool pants smell like a wet sheep until they dry. I inadvertently started swearing at the bus, then I realized that it was full of elementary aged kids.

- my SRM is out of commision. Great. It is now in Colorado at the SRM hospital. I'm hoping that all this requires is a battery change and a re-calibration. I guess of all times, it is probably the best not to see my power numbers right now with all that is going on in my life not making a situation very amenable to quality training.

- there is no housing crisis. Believe me. If anyone can find a house that actually has some style in Madison, please let me know, because apparently realtors can't do it. (Isn't that what they do? aka their JOB?) Dear realtor: no, I do not want a 60's ranch.

- Dental instructors are really good at saying very ignorant, derogatory, and completely out of line comments.

- My board exam retake is this coming weekend. By the time that I start the exam, I will be so relieved to be able to start, that the dentistry part will be a joy. I don't think I have ever been so stressed out for so long in my life than in the weeks between my previous exam and this one.

Weekend occurences...
(warning, this got a little long...)

This nice weather couldn't have come any earlier!! What a beautiful weekend!

- Got a nice, long, run in on Friday evening. For some reason, it brought back memories when I first moved to Omaha when I would put my long runs in on Friday evening on a certain route. It was my 'me' time for the week, and also made a lot of people that I had just met why I always had 'something going on' on Friday nights. :) There is something just great about the monotony of a long run that makes you forget about everything that went on that week in academia. Went great and held a good pace. In addition, I was very excited that I hopefully have figured out how to keep the belly trouble that comes on my long runs away. Unfortunately, this requires some pretty intense planning as far as meals beforehand and timing, but it is completely worth it for the result. After an entire winter of treadmill running I have been conservatively making the transition to outside and now it is in full swing. I am pretty sure that the consistent and scientific bubble of the treadmill has kept my IT band happy and healthy all winter, and now I am trying to make sure that the changes in surface slant doesn't mess anything up (historicly speaking, this is one of the things that triggers it). Things are good so far. I can tell that my stride is different from what I have done this winter- I am pretty sure it is different in a good way. :)

- I am very excited for my buddies who were road racing this weekend. From what I hear of the preliminary results, things went well. Awesome. I am very proud and honored to know all of them, and know what hard work that they have put in to get to this point. Good job dudes!

- It was a little hard for myself to not be racing (the Altoona RR was my very first RR last year), but it is my own decision not to be there. On top of the fact that I have a mess of things to deal with my boards up in MN, a very soon move to Madison, and finishing up school, I have made the decision not to do any crits or road races until I have a disability insurance policy in effect. Some may frown on this decision and call it ludicrous and unfounded; however, the reasons are as follows:
(1) as it stands right now, my source of income and only hope of paying back my student loans next year is what I can do with my hands [dentistry]. Any damage to my hands/ wrists, and I am out of a job and the subsequent income. For a few weeks and missing a couple races, this risk is not worth it to me.
(2) if you think that the chances are the same that I will crash during a race versus just riding outside with friends or on my own, please spend some time in a Women's cat 4 peleton. It that isn't bad enough, please keep in mind that cat 4 women usually race with the cat 5 men. The men's cat 5 peleton is even scarier. Combine the two, which is usually the group that I race with, and you have what is called a 'crash factory.' Not a good situation.
(3) With that being said, I am looking forward to getting my racing fix in with some upcoming TTs and hopefully a 5 or 10K in the for the next few weeks (unfortunately, its not tri season yet). Then I am looking forward to getting in a few good road races once again.

- Did a breakfast and a ride at my place with buddies Jen, Todd, Matt N, and new neighbors Mark and Ann. Fun times had by all. The coffee, fruit, eggs, and take two on the 'mango, pineapple, banana, orange, oatmeal whole wheat pancakes' went well. Had a great time riding in the sunshine with some good company.

- As a soon to be dentist, I am intrigued and learning more and more about a phenomenon that I would like to call 'endurance racer mouth.' I myself am not immune to it. Characteristics include cavities galore that cannot be prevented or even stopped even with frequent and meticulous brushing and flossing in addition to high dose fluoride. I am pretty sure that it has something to do with concentrated simple carbohydrate consumption in a xerostomic environment for hours on end, possibly combined with a love for coffee while not exercising. Thank goodness I have all the free dental work that I want, but I am thinking that there has to be some sort of protocol that can prevent this from happening. This may be leading to some sort of research project...

- After a winter of putting it off (and not having a good place to wash bikes when it is 0 deg outside), I finally got to wash my bikes after riding on Saturday. This took WAY too long (think hours), but it was required to get the layers of hardened sludge of road grime, grit and grease off of my precious machines. Its like the pertroleum lube turned into coal which was fixed to everything. I'm usually meticuous about my bikes and how clean they are, but pragmatics took over this winter. Did the full and intense clean- once again, my drivetrains are actually *gasp* silver colored!

- Took the morning being lazy for a little bit, being productive for another little bit, and another few hours (not kidding) to try to find a missing knee warmer of mine. This only lead to a fruitless search, a delayed ride, and much frustration on my part. I have been using some old Nike knee warmers that I have, but these are the most unintelligently made knee warmers known to man. Making a knee warmer cannot be that hard- it is literally a tube of black spandex. However, Nike has found a way to screw up this simple task by making the tube too big, and putting a tight band of elastic around the calf. This is a nice recipe for your calfs to cramp on every single ride. If anyone wants to come over and comb my house for a black Descente knee warmer withOUT tight elastic, they will have a free pair of Nike knee warmers in return.

Real life... here I come...

So, after much and much interviewing, traveling, contemplating, and whatnot...not to mention approximately twenty three years of school (which will soon be over)... I have a job!

Come this summer, I will be joining the team at Madison Family Dental Associates as their newest dentist on board. I am so excited about this change and the practice that I will be joining. I am really looking forward to all of the new challenges, opportunities, and rewards of not only starting to practice dentistry outside of dental school, but to move to a new community, town, and area that I love.

What this means, is that this summer I will be moving to lovely Madison, WI. If anyone hasn't been there, in my book, it is one of the best towns ever- hence, why I am moving there. Lakes, endless roads to bike on, fun community, great culture, awesome people, and yes, winters... where I can cross country ski!!!!

I couldn't be more excited about what is to come, and if you are in Madison, you know where I will be. :)