thoughts on progress

it was almost too hot to run today. i woke up almost at noon, and by then i could barely stand just being outside, let alone running. so my run was extremely abreviated. it got me thinking: is my training progressing as it should? then i started thinking about other forms of progress. is my residency training progressing at a sufficiently rapid rate? i think so.

in terms of my running, i'd like to be getting faster more quickly, but i know that this takes time, especially if i don't want to end up with an injury.

as far as residency goes, it's difficult to track progress. i wonder if it's like this for every profession, but i think any doctor with a reasonable amount of introspection questions her competence on a regular basis. more on this in later posts. 

i was thinking about this driving home: where do i need to be? on the one hand, i've done one residency (at a good program, i think) and been in practice for three years. on the other hand, i'm an intern, who is expected to know absolutely nothing. interacting with attendings is a ballance between demonstrating that, yes, i do know what i'm talking about but no, i don't know everything, so please teach me what you know.

rachel remen frequently leads an exercise for physicians where she asks: what surprised you today? well, this was a terrific surprise tonight. c, one of my fellow interns, left me a chai at my workstation tonight on her way out:

weekend update: i'm going kayaking in the mountains, finally!  saturday, we're going to hit up the green, which is the perfect beginners' run. then sunday it's on to the nantahala. although it's a bit of a stretch for newbies, i don't expect any problems. i'm really looking forward to being on the river again.