Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Soldier Ride!

I am currently sitting in the LAX airport waiting for my flight to take me out to Santa Barbara for the beginning of Soldier Ride. This is my first time out of Chicago in over a month which may be a record and I wasn't a fan of saying bye to Dick early this morning for 4 whole nights. But now that I am in LA, I am more and more excited for the next few days. When I get to Santa Barbara I am meeting up with my CTS coach Mike and I think I'll be meeting a few other CTS folks as well. Mike is going to take me on a ride and then we will meet up with the Soldier Ride www.woundedwarriorproject.org crew tonight. I am pumped to see my Sadlers buddy, Susan Katz among may others. Tomorrow the ride will start and we will make our way down the coast to San Diego. I am riding only an arm bike this time as part of my Sadlers training. I didn't even bring my clip in shoe to avoid any desire to ride a normal bike. It is about 25 miles a day and then we drive the rest but we have multiple events to raise awareness for wounded vets. It never fails to be a great time.

Since I've written last there have been a few exciting things along the way. First, I have officially started my residency. It will be a 15 month one opposed to the usual 12 month one to allow me to do things like Soldier Ride and other events I have planned. I am really enjoying it so far and am glad Scheck and Siress is willing to be so flexible with me. I really enjoy the patient contact and the more I learn and remember in the lab the more fun it is.

It was Dick and I's 6 year anniversary this past weekend. 6 years, I can't believe it. We went up to Lake Geneva, WI to a B&B for the night and it was fantastic. It's so strange to look back and see how far we've come and how much has happened since that trip to Vegas in 2003. I am so lucky to have such a supportive and loving husband to spend the rest of my life with.

The training hasn't let up. I have decided that if I have to do anything over a 1.5hr ride it's best to get up early and do it before work. So last week I was up before 5am two days in a row and on the bike. it's nice to have it done but I am so exhausted by the evening that I'm ready for bed as soon as I walk in the door. As far as swimming, I did 100 x 100's for the second time in my life last Sun. My plan was to swim about 5,000 but I started doing 100's and then kept going. It got tough on #80, physically and mentally but I was so close I had to make it to 100. It was difficult to do on my own and was supposed to wake up early that AM and do it with a team but it was on a Sun so I slept in. Of course. I was proud of myself to finish them on my own.

I've been to a few speaking engagements, one at Oswego high school were I got to speak to the swim and dive team as well which was fun. They could relate with all the swimming so I got to talk swim times with those that understood them. I enjoyed myself.

I'm going to get some lunch before I head to my flight. Hopefully next time I'll have some fun Soldier Ride stories to share.

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