Board Exams and Winter Training

Again been longer than planned since the last post--again, largely because the training hasn't been what I've wanted it to be.  Secondly, I have taken it easy with the training up until last week as I finished my 3rd board exams!!!  You might think that after 22 years of school and a couple extra years of training beyond that you wouldn’t have tests anymore.  You might also think that after this time I might feel confident in the knowledge I do have.  Sadly you would be wrong on both accounts if you thought either of those to be true.  Again, another exam completed, another humbling experience.  To be a licensed physician you have to take 3 steps of the USMLE exam as well as your specialty board exams (which comes at the end of residency—next year for me).  The USMLE Step 3 exam is a 2-day exam that consists of about 8 hours the first day and 6 hours the 2^nd.  It seems somewhat like a marathon each day although for a slower reader like myself I felt like I was sprinting to stay on pace to finish each section on time.  Everyone has strengths in life and these standardized exams are certainly not one of mine.  Now I just have to wait 3 weeks to find out if I pass. The good side of being on the other side of the exam is that I don't have to feel quite as guilty with spending the time working out.

I have been running intermittently but each time I try, I can tell my hip isn't quite ready to go yet, and it does me nothing to be in top shape in March or April.  So I've been relinquished to rehab, swimming, and the indoor bike trainer.  I'm am up to date on the latest news in the sports world via Mike & Mike, as well as all of the Office and How I Met Your Mother episodes thanks to the hours with the trainer.

The difficult part in this is that I don't feel like I'm truly training unless I can get in regular 12-18 mile runs which I'm nowhere close to right now.  I really do get a sense of satisfaction of coming in from a cold weather run where there is either new snow or the conditions leave the trails desolate.  I haven’t had any of that this winter and it is starting to wear on me.  At this point and after much debate about starting to run vs not, I guess my challenge is that I continue with my training by increasing intensity of my bike rides and swimming and continue to play it smart with not running. 

Fortunately I have access to a great pool where I can get my laps in (Big thanks to Marc Lopez—part of Team Lingor at Madison Wisconsin).  Swimming is one of the things you just have to learn how to do for the Ironman.  The cliché with the Ironman swim is that "you can't win the race on the swim, but you can certainly lose it."  The primary objective in an Ironman race is to be efficient as possible throughout the day.  That means my goal to conserve energy as much as possible on the swim but also be somewhat fast.  I would say I’m a fairly average swimmer, but for the Kona race, I’d like to take off about 4 minutes from my previous swim times.  Unfortunately, the Hawaiian Ironman doesn’t allow wetsuits to be worn and this is a disadvantage to someone like me that doesn’t have the most efficient swim stroke as the wetsuit provides a good degree of buoyancy and allows the hips to come up to make a more streamlined position.  Right now my swim pace is about 1:30 for 100 yards.  I’m hoping by Kona I can bring this pace to 1:24 / 100yds. The 6 seconds doesn’t sound like much of a difference but it is an important one that would mean over 4 minutes off the overall time.