Motivated by chocolate.

Well, it's that time again. Time for another update.

I have officially started my residency and it's great. It keep me busy, real busy in fact, but I love it. I feel productive, I enjoy learning more about prosthetics, I love the patient contact and I love my co- workers... it is just great. It's been working out well with the part time. I am able to get my workouts in and still work a good amount. Last week it was about 35 work hours so more than part time which is good. My goal is to finish my 2000 hours and take the board exams next summer, 2010. So I need to work more than part time to do that especially since I will be gone for a few weeks in there.

I have turned 29 since I last wrote and it was a good day. Dick had a test on Monday so I thought he would be studying all day. He surprised me with taking the day off of studying and spending the whole day with me starting with a 0 degree sunrise on Lake Michigan. He had a whole day of plans ending with the now infamous Chocolatefest. Chocolatefest is exactly as it sounds and was absolutely wonderful. 200 people, 200 pounds of chocolate, 50 pounds of butter, and 30 of heavy cream made any and every type of chocolate dessert you could imagine. Now take that amount and multiply it, By three. That was the glorious amount of chocolate that was there and what a way to celebrate a birthday. It was sooo tasty. It was a well worth the 5 pound weight gain. The picture on your right is 1 of the 10 tables filled with chocolate.

At Chocolatefest I ran into a friend who just broke the above the knee amputee marathon world record by 40 minutes. Yes, 4-0. Impressive to say the least.
She gave me some motivation and on Monday I got on the treadmill and ran for 30 min and actually ran 2.1 miles. When I say run, I mean run a few min, walk one, run a few, walk one, etc.. But I was so so pumped about it. Hard, yes. Sweaty, yes. But the out of the pool sweaty feeling that I've missed was there and that was great. I have run 2 more times since then and am progressively getting faster. Just a little bit, but today I ran 2.19 miles in 30 min so that's progress. Little be little right...

I have been on the armbike quite a bit as well. The intensity is only going up and it's getting harder. Since I'm working now I have to do some of my workouts after work and that makes it more difficult as well. But I'm sure the last day or two in Alaska will be pretty tough too, so that's OK.

I think that's about it for now. This week I'm going to speak at a high school assembly and to there swim team. Then this weekend it;s Dick and I's 6 year anniversary. 6 years since we took the ride in that helicopter. Seems like it was only yesterday.

Until next week, have a good one.