Hello from the other side of summer semester! The final for our class was actually two weeks ago, and somehow it feels like it was ages ago. The days are long but the weeks are short? The months are short? The weeks definitely don’t feel short since the 5am wake up call is really hard on Thursdays and Fridays, but this summer did seem to fly by. Our clinical calendar doesn’t follow the academic calendar, so I have one more week at my current clinical site even though classes are over.
Summer has been quite challenging – we were in class from 9-5 on Mondays and then clinical 6am-5pm Tuesday-Friday. I get home around 6pm-ish and do work until I go to bed usually around 10pm. (I think I said this in my last post.) It’s been really tiring and trying to balance class and clinical wasn’t easy. Usually I perk up once clinical starts (adrenaline, much?), but by Friday night I’m ready for bed at 8pm. (And then I’m awake at 7am on Saturday and Eric is like, “WHYYYY are you awake?” I make him coffee and bring it to him in bed, so life isn’t too bad.)
My next clinical site is in city so I’m turning in my car on Friday – we probably didn’t take advantage of having the car as much as we should have, but driving two hours each day + all the work I had to do on the weekends anyway didn’t make for the most exciting summer. Fall semester is supposed to be even more challenging, so I’ve tried to enjoy having a little break from classes, but I’m actually get a head start on the reading for next semester, so I suppose it doesn’t feel like too much of a break.
I’ve also been cramming in all my annual doctor appointments. Mostly because I have pretty bad luck with the dentist, so those check ups are necessary. (Thanks for the bad teeth genes, dad.) And I wanted refill of medications that I need labs drawn for (hello, hypothyroidism) and I was about to run out of contacts so needed a refill on those. We don’t have any free business hours during the semester, so gotta cram them all in! Luckily everything checked out normal (even the dentist, minus the beginning of some cavities…) so we’re good to go.
So that’s the school update. One week shy of having only (only?? seems so far away…) one year to go, which is kind of crazy because I still feel like there’s so much to learn, but it also seems so far away. So many feelings.
As I’ve mentioned before in my posts, running has definitely taken a backseat this summer. Being a weekend warrior is really tiring! I try to do a 5-6 mile run on Saturday and a long run of 10+ miles on Sunday, followed by a recovery run of 4-5 miles on Mondays. I feel very springy for the Saturday run, usually good for the Sunday long run, and my legs are dead for the Monday recovery run. I’m mostly just trying to enjoy running and be happy that I can run what I can. I’ve taken advantage of Summer Streets (where they shut down Park Ave and you can run up and down it!) the past two Saturdays – one by myself and one with the team, so that was really fun. (Minus people who can’t figure out the bike on the left, run on the right thing – it’s not that hard!)
Summer Streets!
My one year anniversary for my hip surgery is this coming Saturday, and I was not-so-secretly hoping to run a half marathon before the one year date. My reasoning was totally to say that I did a half marathon within a year of surgery and for that reason only, which isn’t necessarily the greatest reason ever. August half marathons aren’t too easy to come by and I didn’t really want to travel too far just to do a half marathon I wasn’t all that interested in. I started eyeing some half marathons a little closer to home and a little beyond the craziness of summer semester (I’ll be eating my words come fall, I’m sure). Just as I was looking around, the Newport Liberty Half Marathon in Jersey City reached out to me and asked if I would like to be a blog partner for the race. I’ve heard good things about it, being super flat and having great views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. The Jersey crew loves it and a few other bloggers have run it multiple times, so I’m in! It’s on September 17th, so about a month away – we can hope for some cooler temperatures, but we’ll see what race day brings. Given my training for the summer, I know it won’t be a PR race, but I’m enjoying running for fun and am truly happy with how good my hips feel. I’ll take my time and enjoy those views. 
Please let me know if you’re running the race or have run it in the past! (And here’s my referral link if you’re looking to sign up!)
I did meet one person today who is running the Newport Half! You may remember that I’ve been having problems with my right calf ever since training for the 2015 New York City Marathon. (I almost feel ridiculous still talking about it.) An MRI earlier this year showed a stress reaction, but I don’t think that was really the cause of any pain, and my calf has continued to feel tight for almost two years. (Crazy, right?) I had some trigger point injections in April and May of this year, and that helped to loosen it up a little bit. I felt a little more spring in my step and less like my right leg was putting on the brakes with each step. My running feels much better, but my calf still feels tight all the time. The PA I see touched based with me in June (to really let the trigger point injections set in), and I said I was still having tightness. It’s not pain, it just feels tight all the time – that’s not normal, right? She suggested having ultrasound guided fenestration done, which is basically dry needling under ultrasound as far as I can tell. (Also known as……they poke a bunch of holes in your muscle.) I couldn’t get an appointment until today because of having no time during the semester, so I met with the radiologist who would poke holes in my calf.
The ultrasound tech took some pictures and the radiologist conferred with the PA to see what we were actually doing. (The ultrasound tech also asked if I’m a pro runner….I wish!! Also…maybe hobby joggers don’t get this procedure?? Who knows…) The radiologist was talking to me during the procedure and asked if I was training for anything – I said the Newport Half and she said she’s running it too! She’s done it a few times and liked it, so two thumbs up for that. She then proceeded to jab my calf with a needle multiple times. She hit a deep spot and I nearly jumped off the table – she gave me a little more lidocaine and it was much better. The idea is that the needle holes break up the muscle knot and promote blood flow the area (by causing trauma, basically), so hopefully that helps. The ultrasound tech asked if I felt better right away – I definitely did not! It feels kind of full and very sore and tender (I limped home a little bit but can walk normally now). I’m not supposed to run for a few days (that’ll be easy, thanks clinical!) so we’ll see how this goes. One of these days I’ll run normal again, ha.
One more week of clinical, then we get a week off from clinical and classes! Eric and I are heading to see his friends who live outside LA, but we’re going to San Diego for three days and Phoenix for day (specifically for a baseball game, gotta check Chase Field off the list!), so if you have any suggestions for either of those cities, please let me know! Right now my San Diego plan consists of running, beach, beers, tacos, and a Padres game. I’m also pretty happy with it staying that way, but open to suggestions as well.
Here’s the “too long didn’t read” version of my blog post:
- Running the Newport Liberty Half on September 17th – come join me!
- Summer semester was rough. One more week of clinical!
- Escaping to California for a week. Maybe not coming back.
- Needles in my calf, but my hips are great!
