A week?!

I have officially been living in my apartment in Tampa for a week! So much has already happened, I can't believe it has only been a week. Yesterday I finished my clinic orientation, CPR certification and got my graduate clinician badge. Obviously the second I got my badge I ran over to the bookstore to look for a sparkle lanyard to put it on. Scored with this gold and green bedazzled lanyard!  

I hope that they let me wear it... we have a pretty strict code of what we can wear with our scrubs, but hopefully this will slide. 

Why does CPR take so long to learn, but you always leave feeling as though you don't quite know everything you should? Or maybe that is just me. I think CPR needs to be taken a bit more seriously, there were several times my partner didn't know what was going on, but they passed her anyways. I know that one a certain level this is just paperwork to get done, but now that we are going to be medical health professionals I think it is important to take things like CPR seriously. All I can do is hold myself to a high standard and set myself up to be competent in all the skills necessary for our various field work, but it makes me uncomfortable that everyone else doesn't feel the same way! 

My oh-so-helpful mannequins! 

The best part of CPR training you ask? Maybe the boy entering his sophomore year of college (yes, that means he graduated high school in 2011) informing me that I was remembering CPR completely wrong. Luckily a few of the instructors were older than me and they told him that way back when I learned it, aka my sophomore year of high school in 2003, that was the right way. I can't believe I am old enough to have these types of conversations. But the summer I first learned CPR through a summer internship with the parks department, training to be a beach lifeguard, was almost ten years ago! 

Somehow I managed to muster the energy to go to Running for Brews at Yard of Ale. The drive was a lot longer than I anticipated and I got there a few minutes after the group took off. I wasn't feeling to well, my late lunch wasn't sitting too pretty, so I considered not running and just grabbing a beer. Some guys on the patio told me "That sounds like an excuse" and that was all I needed to drop my keys in the bin and head out to chase the group down. And chase I did! I know I've said this a lot, but that seriously was my fastest 5k ever. 26 minutes of pain, sweat and naseau. It helped having so many people to try and pass. 

I felt terrible at the end and only stayed long enough to down 5 glasses of water and wait for the naseau to pass. I parked by the grocery store so I popped in to get some treats to enjoy at home. Nothing like some gluten free granola, gluten free beer and some melon. The melon didn't make it home, I devoured it on the 35 minute drive home! 

I was so excited about the granola, but unfortunately
I grabbed the wrong one, I am not a fan of orange flavoring! 

This morning I let myself sleep in, then headed out to do a bit of hurricane and back to school shopping. Took so long to find the notebook/binder combo I like! Once I got home it was time to tackle my closet. All my clothes are soo wrinkled. An hour of ironing later, they are beautiful! Jessie and I took more cardboard to the recycle then we decided we deserved to lounge by the pool. 

Our apartment is right across from the gym, pool and club house. We are so lucky. Our complex is huge and some people have quite a trek if they want to use the community spaces. I can't believe we have such a nice space to use whenever we want! What a delight to read by the pool. I could get used to this lifestyle... 

After the pool I decided to try out a workout I saw on The Petite Athlete's blog a while back. 

I posted about it on Facebook and almost immediately a friend responded "You can beat that." 

I knew I was going to have to do it before the summer was over. Today was the day. I had the entire gym to myself and was excited to break 26:04. I had the time written on my hand an everything. At the end of the third round I was making good time, on track to finish around 24 minutes. When I got off the treadmill and started on the last set of double unders I checked my timer. 

It had zeroed out. 

Talk about frustration. I was so upset and had such a hard time focusing on that last set of double unders. Which is even more annoying that I let it get to me. I had some seriously awesome strings of double unders during the second and third set. We are talking 20-30 in a row! So often I find that when I am really tired my body finds the most efficient way to work, and those are the times I suddenly do things right. I need my brain to shut up more often and let my body do it's thing. But back to the timer. 

Boy am I annoyed.

Ya win some ya lose some...

 Now I have to do it again so that I can have an official time and beat 26:04. This workout has really gotten under my skin, especially because when I first saw it I was so impressed and figured I'd never be able to do anything like it. Watch out for another post in a month or so, this may become a personal benchmark workout for me!

In good news I made a friend at the gym! A few minutes after I finished a girl my age entered the gym. We chatted for a few minutes and not only did she also just move into the complex, but she is starting a graduate program at USF -- medical sciences. I suggested we swap numbers, never hurts to have another friend in the hood, right? 

This morning while I was hopping from strip mall to strip mall, I discovered that there is a Play It Again Sports in Tampa! And they had a bike trainer for sale. After my work out I convinced my roommate to come with me so I could test out my bike and see if I could figure out how to use it.

 These things are so hard to use! 

I had heard that balancing on them was harder but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. To be fair my tires were a bit flat, but I still don't think this type of indoor trainer is for me! 

Jessie took this video of me trying to get on the dang thing. Honestly this was my best attempt, I ended up on my face/butt in earlier attempts! 

I tried one out at the bike store that built my bike, one of the wind resistance ones where your back tire is essentially locked into the equipment and then the front tire stays on a block. They are more expensive, but maybe one of you wants to send me one for my birthday?! 

Now I am just trying to decide what I want to wear for the Mud and Paint Run I'm doing tomorrow hosted by Mud, Sweat and Beers Run group. I'm so excited. It is going to be a mud obstacle course, then during the running portion between obstacles they have paint grenades that we can throw at each other, paint land mines and all sorts of other paint related fun. We are going to have some good old fashioned fun in the mud! Be sure to check in tomorrow night -- you won't want to miss these pictures. 

Do any of you use a bike trainer - any tips or favorite ones? Where is the weirdest place you have met a friend? 

xoxo Sweat&Sparkle