For starters, Friday was my baby bro's birthday. He flinches every time I call him my baby brother, so I like to do it as much as possible. But for the record, he's 23 now... what a geezer. Kidding. He's awesome. We didn't really "do" much for his birthday, but we had all 6 Larkins in one room for a meal, and that happens so rarely now. Plus it was great food, and good humor. Unfortunately, I can't repeat things that were said. Either they're too dirty, they're too non-PC, or they name names and that's just wrong. But it was an amusing dinner/drinks.
Jesse was in town (I think he leaves tomorrow), and we went out to dinner to catch up. I feel like I dominated the conversation a little (small side-effect of sitting with books all day and talking to no one... I become more of a chatter box than normal). Jesse's now engaged (I'm super excited for him, because Nora-from what I've seen of her-is great!) and planning the wedding while getting ready to start up a Masters program. Some of my friends are so cool.
Marathon Week #9: 8/18-8/24
Well. Hm. I missed the long run again this week. This is getting annoying. But, I'm cutting myself some slack. I can do hour and a half long runs, but if I'm giving up 3+ hours, it starts to stress me out (see the USMLE below). Plus, Sunday morning was rough. I'm not going to say I was hung over, because there wasn't enough alcohol to do that. But between the lamb (I don't eat red meat all that often), the potato, the garlic veggies (I'm mildly allergic to garlic... but it tastes SO good), the beer, the wine, and the really really sweet cake... I had like a long-running food coma. I was in no shape to run at 7am. Especially not a 12 miler.
I did hit every other run I was supposed to do this week, plus my two days of lifting, and two days of yoga. I changed my run schedule to right when I get up (between 6:45 and 7:15 every morning). It gets me revved up for the day, and I can sit for about four hours after on a nice little study binge. Plus, a spoonful of peanut butter gets me through the run and I can have a big bowl of fruit and cereal when I get home. It works better with my eating and my studying, so I'm going to stick to it. I may take a light jog the morning of the test too... just for the heck of it.
If it really is week 9 (and I'll have to check to make sure that's correct), I have another 9 weeks before the marathon... which sounds right. That's enough time to get my long runs going after the big test day. So I'm sticking with that idea for now. I think a lot will depend on how I work out running with whatever my schedule is at RCSI. But I'm going to keep it on the horizon.
USMLE Update:
This is where I had my worst swings. I took my second NBME, and failed it. I just passed the first and just failed the second. I freaked out. Really really freaked out. (Big thank you to Lianne for being the ever wonderful voice of reason). As a result, I amped up my studying. I'm running about 7 hours of productive studying each day (and maybe an hour more that's a complete waste). It's hard to sit still that long. It's hard to read that much. It's hard to write notes that often (It's how I learn... it's slow and stupid but it's how I learn). But, I'm getting further every day. I turned around and creamed three Kaplan quizzes in a row. Like, killed them. To which I say, WTF?
It's all rumors and conjecture. Who knows what you'll see on the test, how it will be worded, how you'll understand it at the time. But, I've been keeping track of a few things. 1) my overall % is going up. 2) my tests are consistently better. 3) I'm taking more of the alloted time to do the tests. 4) I've stopped changing answers (this was the worst.). Plus, I'm getting the hang of the software. I take a 3rd NBME tomorrow. Depending on how it goes, I'm giving myself Saturday off. I won't make it to the test on this schedule without a day off. It's good to know. I think I'll go see a movie with my mom.
Speaking of the test day, I've pushed that back. It was originally set for August 29th. After my freak out, i moved the test. It's not Sept 9th. It's still before the ND v. Mich game, but it gave me a two week extension that has already been to my advantage. We'll see how I'm feeling next week on this.
Summer Soundtrack:
- Life in a Nutshell - Barenaked Ladies
- Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne
- How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty
- In Da Club - 50 cent
- Handlebars - Flobots
- When I Grow Up - Pussycay Dolls
- Time to Pretend - MGMT
- Vampire Weekend - A-Punk
- Troublemaker - Weezer (I don't know why this song inspires me, but it does. It makes me laugh, and right now, that's what I need. So, week 9 = troublemaker)
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