Yesterday was my first official run on the new athletics track with the same surface as the Beijing olympic track! The stadium is at the AK reserve near Perry Lakes and is called the Shirley Strickland stadium. Poor Perry Lakes it was so sad to see it empty and run down, i know it is old but will always hold special memories for me.
Mum and i did get lost at first going up, down and through almost every aisle to find the registration! but eventually got sorted and i headed out for a warm up. What was so cool was the fact that Steve Hooker was just sitting on the pole vault site watching the WA pole vaulters train, it was very exciting to see him. But the feeling that soon followed especially as more and more athletes arrived was nerves, and it was only a friday night weekly competition in perth! but everyone looked so professional, lean and fit! in all their running uniforms and coaches i felt a little out of place but i wanted to be as professional as they all seemed to be and have a coach to talk to and guide me through the processes of warm-up, race, injury prevention, everything.
I tried to put it out of my mind though and just focus on having my first experience on the track in my new christmas tree spikes, running my first proper 1500m for 2... actually almost 3 years! I was placed in the second heat after putting down my PB of 5 minutes and 8 seconds from the previous years, my goal was to break 5 minutes as a blind estimate from my swimming and limited track trainings, i really wanted to. The first heat an extremely muscular, fit looking girl about 23 won by over a hundred meters in a time of 4 minutes and 33 seconds, amazing. The rest of the field was a bulk around the 4 min 55sec mark which i would of loved to of been in.
The second heat had about 12 people as well, we startesd off with a fast pace and a 54 seconds 300m pace which is a 4 min 30 sec 1500m pace, but slowed down. I was around the 6th spot and slowly over took some girls in front. Most were tiny! Alot come from little A's and run fridays night comps as well, but they are still so fast, and there are still some tall long legged older girls as well! I felt quite strong coming into the last lap and had a sprint finish to overtake the girls in front of me to come second in a time of 4 min 59 sec .89 which i was over the moon about. I originally thought i ran a 4.48min but that was the winner who stayed in front the whole way. But with the sprint finish confirming it, although it was still a fast race i know i can go faster! I wasn't hurting nearly as much as i should have been which gives me hope that next time i will keep a faster pace throughout the 2nd and 3rd lap to bring my time down. The open national qualification time is 4 min 40 seconds which is keeping up an 18.7sec 100m pace (or 2 min 30sec 800m pace) which sounds like something i could do with a little more training. The time frame is a worry though with less than 2 months until states and a nagging foot injury i'm worried about. I haven't done nearly enough track training because of my foot, i know i should rest it but i just can't! i am doing more swimming and bike riding to reduce impact on my foot and keeping up some fitness but it is frustrating not being able to give 100% into running. So I am very happy with my time considering. I would of loved to have run a 400m and be as fit as the 400m runners, i do
love the thrill and even the pain in a 400m, it must be an adrenaline thing! I'll build my confidence up and run one again one day. The main run i was always looking at working on is the 800m. I was hoping to myself in the 800m in perth next week but it is sarahs 16th birthday so although i would love it may not happen. I need to remind myself sometimes that there are others things more important than running. Then i will be going to adelaide for a week to visit bronte with emma and rhian which will be fun but i will also miss out on running again so wouldn't be able to run an 800m in perth for 3 weeks but even that is up in the air as i need to go to perth the next day to move into trinity again for uni and would be going back and forth two days in a row... i wouldn't mind actually lol! I'll get there eventually :)
"Excuse me, how do we get to the train station?"
'Mi scusa, come prendiamo alla stazione ferroviaria?'
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
1/6th of a doctor and going strong :)
I have neglected my blog for months and as a result i have now successfully completed my first year of uni and am 1/6th of the way to becoming a doctor! I know the next few years will be alot more than simply learning the organs of a fetal pig compared to a human, but after a taste of the 'real deal' in second semester i am so excited for this year.. 2nd year! wow i feel like it was only yesterday i was at orientation about to start my first year. so much has passed in that time and so much has been learnt... which needs revision also! I feel like i have learnt alot about myself through out the year as well. There are the odd times were i start to look at people and analyse their health as they say doctors do.... a tell tale sign i'm becoming one yay! but it does sound strange when i tell my family i was watching a rather large lady eat a freddo frog and couldn't stop thinking in my head 'please don't you don't need it! i can see atherosclerosis and fatty deposits giving you a heart attack right in front of me!!' but apart from that, living away from home for the first time but at college meeting so many great people, dealing with many different situations and experiencing many new things, yet there were still so many opportunities i passed up on the way to finding my feet. I feel like this year will be the most exciting year of my life yet as i find a good balance between study, sport, friends, family, work and many new experiences.
There was just so much in the past semester which we learnt and did! so i will highlight some of the most memorable things. The semester with normal systems and clinical practice as well as a continued MGC was based on the respiratory and circulatory system which is so interesting! We also learnt about cancer in MGC and oh my gosh the number of proteins and enzymes which are involved in a number of pathways all interlinked and affectoing each other to cause one or more effects to a cell to cause cancer is unbelievable! The human body (or any life for that matter) is so complex yet so unbelievably intriguing! The exam was the hardest to study for and being the last you would think that is good meaning you can eliminate all other study from your mind and cram it with proteins and pathways but no, for one your brain is totally exhausted from literally 24 hours and weeks of thinking and dreaming about study and all you have to know! i took a liking to making myself little palm cards and got out of my room and walked around matilda bay with them in my hands to test myself, i just had to move as well my but always became so numb!That part i found so so hard, to force myself down to study, although i did get in some running and walking, i strongly believe in breaks and balancing exercise with study as well, there is only so much concentration your mind can take before you need a break in order to study more effectively. Ok here's some of the semesters happenings...
1. Learnt how to use and practiced using my stethoscope on peers and family! we learnt the full cardio and respiratory examinations which are so interesting! i love how you can look under the tongue or inspect the nails and can get a good idea of what is wrong with a patient simply on inspection! Insepection, palpation, percussion and auscultation always in that order! learning how to take blood pressure was also a highlight and i bought one for myself as well (which came with a text message date from the seller at AMA called tony who was actually 28 years old.. bit uncomfortable for me!)
2. Normal systems labs... finger and arms pricking for blood samples! I have to admit especially after my fainting from the mantoux and blood tests early on in the year i was nervous with how i would cope with the pricking. We had three 'blood labs' the first one emma and i were so nervous but after swinging our arm around and running it under hot water to get the blood to the tips we managed to successfully gather samples for PCV and red blood cell counts. I did have to go outside ge to get some fresh air but thankfully everyone thought i was just going for a run to get my blood flowing to my fingers more! The second time was very interesting to find out our blood type which i didn't know myself using antibodies and antigens. My blood type turned out to be A+ :) a fairly common type in Australia. Emma was O+. spells this time yay! The third was a bit of a step up pricking the arms as well to test our blood clotting time, emma had taken aspirin which decreases the clotting time, but after asking the demonstator a 5th year med student to prick our arms for us we managed to find our blood times were around the same... bit of a variable experiment in terms of results but oh well we are better with prickings now! Not really looking forward to when we have to practice taking blood from each others arms but know i will be ready when the time comes. I sound so soft!
3. Patient visits. You can't help but to say 'wow' when a patient from the community volunteers to come in and you can hear their regurgitation of their heart valves, the click of an artificial valve from the other side of the room, feel an irregular heart beat or see a man with a bulging stomach and realise it is a major aneurysm and even better understand what it is! A man also came in who had a mild aortic stenosis which ended in a great aneurysm in his aorta, he had an operation and ended up with half a paralysed diaphragm and uncontrolled bowel movements for a while from a nick of the left phrenic nerve... and i know how this happens as it wraps by the aorta and supplies parasympathetic stimulation to the diaphragm and parts of the gastrointestinal tract! One thing which was most distinguishable from this man was his persistance to teach us what he had learnt in terms of what makes a good or bad doctor. It seemed as thought he had a rough time with one or two and was intent on making a difference and shaping us as future doctors. He did need to control himself at times as it would start to sound as though he was blaming us for what had happened, but health is so important and when you are so close to losing it like this man you realise its value and the importance of having a good doctor to help you get your health right!
4. Hospital visits. we had two visits to sir charles gardiner hospital, one was to the cardiovascular ward and the other was for a sleeping clinic. You don't realise how many things happen while you are asleep, it is amazing. The main focus was on snoring and we learnt how snoring or sleep apnoea affects people's lives, it can be very very serious on the very of fatal for severe sufferers. The cardo ward was amazing, we were taken in to a room to overlook a man having an angioplasty and angiogram to fix his blocked coronary arteries, something i will never forget. But boy did i feel so small and naive being a first year med student surrounded by professional doctors and nurses! i sure have a long way to go but i can't wait!
5. Balls! The first ball was the medicine ball in september. it is aimed and focused in the 6th years like a year 12 ball is aimed at the years 12s but year 11's go. i felt very young at the ball but it was great fun getting dressed up again! i wore a nice red dress in the medical spirit borrowed from Bronte. It was a fun night and very professionally set up! so must more stylish than the good old italian club around the corner from our house! the ball was in the convention centre with a great view over looking the bell tower and foreshore. We had finger foods with the best turkish bread and headed into the main table area through an indian themed doorway, there were about a hundred tables in front of a stage for presentations and a dance floor in the middle. dinner was served throughout the presentations and video clips of all the year groups, it was very interesting to see what the older med students get up to and makes it more exciting to know we will be doing the same things one day soon! I left around midnight but had a good time, looking forward to being a sixth year at the ball!
Trinity ball i thought was more fun as you pretty much know everyone there! the music was so good to dance to as well playing everything from Greece to the eagle rock and michael jacksin. it was so much fun dancing, taking pictures and just having a good time. i wore a blue dress i found in the city and fell in love with so spoilt myself buying it :) my favourite part is the back which is low but is criss crossed. i woud up load photos on here if i knew how to but most pictures are on my facebook and with all the events i'm talking about there could be quite a few photos! (plus i can get very snappy happy with a camera lol.) I would of loved to have worked up the courage to dance more with a someone always on my mind but that is something to work up my confidence for, the picture which has been on the fridge all summer is a good reminder to build my confidence up!
6. Trinity sport! I loved competing for trinity in intercollege sport! after participating in soccer and netball i also went in the cross country and athletics. it was so good to stretch out and see how my fitness is going. the cross country i loved running around the colleges and uni. trinity did a hat trick with first, secong and third place in the females and first in the males. I kept up a fast pace for me and only just won after pulling away on the final stretch! it felt good :) with my fitness not up to scratch i did have some good runs with the 800m and 1500m athletics events coming first for trinity and getting some times which weren't too bad considering. i went away with the cross country award and shared athletics award with Freya who is an awesome sprinter! unfortunately i missed the athletics award as i was out at the Australian Ballet with bronte and emma, it was a nice night and so good to see but i had to settle not being in two places at once. trinity came an equal first overall in the sports with st cats. We had a sports dinner one night with a past olympic swimmer coming in to talk to us, we even got to hold his medals! it was great to here his stories, i loved being inspired. but my gosh i can't remember his name atm! it is written down but has gone clean out of my mind, sorry guy.
I know there are many more things i could write about from the year. so much happens it feels as if each semester is its own year, yet still goes very quickly while being so packed. i will get out my diary and note some more events and happenings but for now i shall finish with a little italian practice (to any italians who happen to come across my blog i apologise for any miss spelt words or confusion in my language skills!)
Buono pomeriggio! Il giorno di Australia felice a tutti, il wheather è oggi così piacevole è perfetto per noi. La mia famiglia e piacerò guardando i fuochi d'artificio stasera dopo un buono barbecue Australiano.
Per oggi lezione italiana farò la domanda 'che è per la cena'? e la risposta semplicemente con 'l'insalata, la bistecca, le frutta ed il pane'. Desiderarmi la fortuna!
What i hope it says is (with some help from freetranslation.com)...
Good afternoon! Happy Australia day to everyone, the wheather is so nice today it is perfect for us. My family and I will be enjoying watching the fireworks tonight after a good Australian barbeque.
For todays italian lesson i shall ask the question 'what is for tea?' and reply simply with 'salad, steak, fruit and bread'. Wish me luck!
There was just so much in the past semester which we learnt and did! so i will highlight some of the most memorable things. The semester with normal systems and clinical practice as well as a continued MGC was based on the respiratory and circulatory system which is so interesting! We also learnt about cancer in MGC and oh my gosh the number of proteins and enzymes which are involved in a number of pathways all interlinked and affectoing each other to cause one or more effects to a cell to cause cancer is unbelievable! The human body (or any life for that matter) is so complex yet so unbelievably intriguing! The exam was the hardest to study for and being the last you would think that is good meaning you can eliminate all other study from your mind and cram it with proteins and pathways but no, for one your brain is totally exhausted from literally 24 hours and weeks of thinking and dreaming about study and all you have to know! i took a liking to making myself little palm cards and got out of my room and walked around matilda bay with them in my hands to test myself, i just had to move as well my but always became so numb!That part i found so so hard, to force myself down to study, although i did get in some running and walking, i strongly believe in breaks and balancing exercise with study as well, there is only so much concentration your mind can take before you need a break in order to study more effectively. Ok here's some of the semesters happenings...
1. Learnt how to use and practiced using my stethoscope on peers and family! we learnt the full cardio and respiratory examinations which are so interesting! i love how you can look under the tongue or inspect the nails and can get a good idea of what is wrong with a patient simply on inspection! Insepection, palpation, percussion and auscultation always in that order! learning how to take blood pressure was also a highlight and i bought one for myself as well (which came with a text message date from the seller at AMA called tony who was actually 28 years old.. bit uncomfortable for me!)
2. Normal systems labs... finger and arms pricking for blood samples! I have to admit especially after my fainting from the mantoux and blood tests early on in the year i was nervous with how i would cope with the pricking. We had three 'blood labs' the first one emma and i were so nervous but after swinging our arm around and running it under hot water to get the blood to the tips we managed to successfully gather samples for PCV and red blood cell counts. I did have to go outside ge to get some fresh air but thankfully everyone thought i was just going for a run to get my blood flowing to my fingers more! The second time was very interesting to find out our blood type which i didn't know myself using antibodies and antigens. My blood type turned out to be A+ :) a fairly common type in Australia. Emma was O+. spells this time yay! The third was a bit of a step up pricking the arms as well to test our blood clotting time, emma had taken aspirin which decreases the clotting time, but after asking the demonstator a 5th year med student to prick our arms for us we managed to find our blood times were around the same... bit of a variable experiment in terms of results but oh well we are better with prickings now! Not really looking forward to when we have to practice taking blood from each others arms but know i will be ready when the time comes. I sound so soft!
3. Patient visits. You can't help but to say 'wow' when a patient from the community volunteers to come in and you can hear their regurgitation of their heart valves, the click of an artificial valve from the other side of the room, feel an irregular heart beat or see a man with a bulging stomach and realise it is a major aneurysm and even better understand what it is! A man also came in who had a mild aortic stenosis which ended in a great aneurysm in his aorta, he had an operation and ended up with half a paralysed diaphragm and uncontrolled bowel movements for a while from a nick of the left phrenic nerve... and i know how this happens as it wraps by the aorta and supplies parasympathetic stimulation to the diaphragm and parts of the gastrointestinal tract! One thing which was most distinguishable from this man was his persistance to teach us what he had learnt in terms of what makes a good or bad doctor. It seemed as thought he had a rough time with one or two and was intent on making a difference and shaping us as future doctors. He did need to control himself at times as it would start to sound as though he was blaming us for what had happened, but health is so important and when you are so close to losing it like this man you realise its value and the importance of having a good doctor to help you get your health right!
4. Hospital visits. we had two visits to sir charles gardiner hospital, one was to the cardiovascular ward and the other was for a sleeping clinic. You don't realise how many things happen while you are asleep, it is amazing. The main focus was on snoring and we learnt how snoring or sleep apnoea affects people's lives, it can be very very serious on the very of fatal for severe sufferers. The cardo ward was amazing, we were taken in to a room to overlook a man having an angioplasty and angiogram to fix his blocked coronary arteries, something i will never forget. But boy did i feel so small and naive being a first year med student surrounded by professional doctors and nurses! i sure have a long way to go but i can't wait!
5. Balls! The first ball was the medicine ball in september. it is aimed and focused in the 6th years like a year 12 ball is aimed at the years 12s but year 11's go. i felt very young at the ball but it was great fun getting dressed up again! i wore a nice red dress in the medical spirit borrowed from Bronte. It was a fun night and very professionally set up! so must more stylish than the good old italian club around the corner from our house! the ball was in the convention centre with a great view over looking the bell tower and foreshore. We had finger foods with the best turkish bread and headed into the main table area through an indian themed doorway, there were about a hundred tables in front of a stage for presentations and a dance floor in the middle. dinner was served throughout the presentations and video clips of all the year groups, it was very interesting to see what the older med students get up to and makes it more exciting to know we will be doing the same things one day soon! I left around midnight but had a good time, looking forward to being a sixth year at the ball!
Trinity ball i thought was more fun as you pretty much know everyone there! the music was so good to dance to as well playing everything from Greece to the eagle rock and michael jacksin. it was so much fun dancing, taking pictures and just having a good time. i wore a blue dress i found in the city and fell in love with so spoilt myself buying it :) my favourite part is the back which is low but is criss crossed. i woud up load photos on here if i knew how to but most pictures are on my facebook and with all the events i'm talking about there could be quite a few photos! (plus i can get very snappy happy with a camera lol.) I would of loved to have worked up the courage to dance more with a someone always on my mind but that is something to work up my confidence for, the picture which has been on the fridge all summer is a good reminder to build my confidence up!
6. Trinity sport! I loved competing for trinity in intercollege sport! after participating in soccer and netball i also went in the cross country and athletics. it was so good to stretch out and see how my fitness is going. the cross country i loved running around the colleges and uni. trinity did a hat trick with first, secong and third place in the females and first in the males. I kept up a fast pace for me and only just won after pulling away on the final stretch! it felt good :) with my fitness not up to scratch i did have some good runs with the 800m and 1500m athletics events coming first for trinity and getting some times which weren't too bad considering. i went away with the cross country award and shared athletics award with Freya who is an awesome sprinter! unfortunately i missed the athletics award as i was out at the Australian Ballet with bronte and emma, it was a nice night and so good to see but i had to settle not being in two places at once. trinity came an equal first overall in the sports with st cats. We had a sports dinner one night with a past olympic swimmer coming in to talk to us, we even got to hold his medals! it was great to here his stories, i loved being inspired. but my gosh i can't remember his name atm! it is written down but has gone clean out of my mind, sorry guy.
I know there are many more things i could write about from the year. so much happens it feels as if each semester is its own year, yet still goes very quickly while being so packed. i will get out my diary and note some more events and happenings but for now i shall finish with a little italian practice (to any italians who happen to come across my blog i apologise for any miss spelt words or confusion in my language skills!)
Buono pomeriggio! Il giorno di Australia felice a tutti, il wheather è oggi così piacevole è perfetto per noi. La mia famiglia e piacerò guardando i fuochi d'artificio stasera dopo un buono barbecue Australiano.
Per oggi lezione italiana farò la domanda 'che è per la cena'? e la risposta semplicemente con 'l'insalata, la bistecca, le frutta ed il pane'. Desiderarmi la fortuna!
What i hope it says is (with some help from freetranslation.com)...
Good afternoon! Happy Australia day to everyone, the wheather is so nice today it is perfect for us. My family and I will be enjoying watching the fireworks tonight after a good Australian barbeque.
For todays italian lesson i shall ask the question 'what is for tea?' and reply simply with 'salad, steak, fruit and bread'. Wish me luck!
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