The day has finally come that school has started. The Anesthesia program at USC in the Keck School of medicine is going to be fantastic I can tell just from the first day. Orientation was given by Dr. Gold until 1:00 running over almost an hour cutting into our lunch. We had to run over to the Mudd building to get to the physiology class which started right at 1:00. Luckily I had an apple in my briefcase otherwise I would be suffering.

The course work is going to be tough but the class room is interesting meeting all of the new students. We total 16 as of today. The students all come from different backgrounds and clinical experiences. This is so interesting and will be amazing to see how this plays out. Right now I can feel the pressure of the first physiology lecture so I have to crack a couple of books to find out what they were talking about today.

The Cool breeze Century bicycle ride starts in Ventura this year before going to Santa Barbara. Every year for the past 10 years this has been one of the more popular Century rides in the Los Angeles surrounding area.

There is a climb starting at mile 30 which travels up the back side of Cassidas Lake totaling around 850 feet of evavation in 3 miles or so. It is just a steady climb without any switchbacks. The Cool Breeze Century is considered one of the easier rides coming at the end of the riding season. I am really looking forward to it this year.

This is the patch that is given away this year. For a look at previous years patches you can take a look here.

One of the interesting things to do when participating in these Century rides is to collect the jerseys that are available at these events. This years Cool Breeze Jersey looks very “cool” and goes for $65.00 dollars.

I will be posting all of my pictures from the ride probably on Sunday. After this ride and the drive back from Ventura, I will not be in any mood to do too much work on the computer. You can give me that much.

USC Student ID Card and stuff

This is the last weekend of freedom before school starts on Monday and I will be making the most of it. All the little ducks are in a neat row and I am ready for the gauntlet starting this coming week. I had the chance to run over to the USC campus this afternoon to sit for my student photo and ID Card. It even comes with money you can use from the card at most places around the USC campus including the USC cafe’s and bookstores. These are the places that I plan on spending money anyway. I just had them bill my student account for a couple of hundred bucks so that I could have “cash” available on the student ID card. Now I am official!

USC Football season is coming and the tickets are at a discount for students. Yipeeeee! I am going to try to get a couple of ticket to the Notre Dame game and maybe the UCLA cross town game. I will be updating the Blog on these happenings.

5963APChanpions.jpeg

For all of my friends back at UCLA. Thank you for your friendship and all that you have taught me about life and the practice of medicine these past many years. When it comes to football, I am sorry but UCLA sucks! And USC is King ranked #1 in the AP plole. Hail to the Champions because the Trojans rule. At least here in Los Angeles. Last year I have to remind you that USC was NATIONAL Champion and had the Hessman trophy winner. This year is a new start and let the chips fall where they will. I plan on enjoying it all. Thanks to you UCLA for the many years of friendship. I will think of you occasionally, especially when USC is kicking butt down the football field. See you later.

Hamilton wins Olympic TT; Julich takes bronze
By Jason Sumner
VeloNews associate editor
This report filed August 18, 2004

by AFP

As the sun crept above the horizon, bringing dawn to a new day here in Athens, Tyler Hamilton awoke with a terrible case of nerves.

The afternoon Olympic time trial that awaited him was his last shot to truly erase the disappointment of his failed Tour de France bid a month earlier. Hamilton had said all week he had a good feeling about the 48km race to be contested in the southern suburbs of Greece’s capital, but now it was time to deliver.

Half a day later the nice guy of American cycling had seen his premonition come true, besting reigning Olympic TT champion Viatcheslav Ekimov on a breezy and balmy day along the Saronic Gulf. In the moments after Hamilton crossed the line, he dropped his bike and helmet to the ground, then grasped his hands around his head in disbelief.

by Graham Watson

A case of nerves: Hamilton finally relaxed after the finish
“I was incredibly nervous,” said Hamilton, who posted a mark of 57:31.74, 18.84 ahead of Ekimov and 26.45 better than U.S. teammate Bobby Julich, who took the bronze. “Cycling has its ups and downs, but if you can’t deal with the low moments then you’re in the wrong sport. July was terrible, but days like today outweigh all the bad days. Now all that is just a memory in the back of my mind.”

Indeed, after coming into the 2004 Tour as one of Lance Armstrong’s chief rivals, Hamilton was caught up in a pile-up during stage six and was out of the race 83km into stage 13 with a back injury. From there he returned to his European base in Spain and took a week off the bike. He was hopeful that the body would come around in time to get ready for the Olympics, but there was no guarantee.

“I gave it a week and told myself if I wasn’t feeling better I wouldn’t race in Athens,” said Hamilton, who still had the brusies from the crash when he arrived at the Olympics.

The body did come around, though, and Hamilton spent most of the next month focusing on the Athens time trial, training later in the day to mimic the heat he was sure to face. Come race day the key was to stay calm. Hamilton admitted that he’s had a tendency to go out of the gate too fast.

“I was a little excited at first,” he said. “But I backed off some. I didn’t want to explode.”

At the first two splits on the rolling out-and-back course, Hamilton sat third behind the Russian Ekimov and reigning world time trial champion Michael Rogers of Australia. But from there the Massachusetts native twisted the throttle to full. He was the leader on the road 36km into the race, and his scorching final quarter time of 14:08.37 was 14 seconds better than Ekimov.

Rogers, meanwhile, was fading. His final quarter time was only fifth fastest, dropping him to fourth in the final standings. Even more stunning was the performance of pre-race favorite Jan Ullrich. The German never found his rhythm, posting the No. 8 mark at the quarter point, then gaining only once place the rest of the way. Ullrich hung his head as he crossed the line, then disappeared down a side street, with only a single photographer chasing behind him.

by Graham Watson

Julich: Morale played a big part
At the same time Julich was rolling up to the still shocked Hamilton, then embracing his teammate as the pair stood in the middle of the finishing road. Their two medals, plus the silver won by Dede Barry in the women’s time trial, capped the greatest day the U.S. cycling has ever had at the Olympics.

Julich’s ride completed a startling transformation for the one-time Tour de France runner-up. A year ago the 32-year-old had contemplated quitting the sport, but after signing on with CSC in the offseason, he’s enjoyed some of the best form of his career.

“This wasn’t my kind of course,” said Julich of the track that was all about power, with few twists or turns. “But this just goes to show that morale is such a big part of this sport. After 1998 I was bombarded with all this negative pressure, but the change in teams has really helped change things for me.”

Julich’s performance was all the more remarkable considering he was riding with a broken right wrist, which also came from a crash at this year’s Tour. He said it wasn’t bothering him all that much while riding, but in the days leading up to the race a doctor had told him he needed to get a cast on it as soon as possible because it wasn’t healing properly.

“I’ll probably get that done today or tomorrow,” he said. “I’m going to try to get something that I’ll be able to mold to my handlebars.”

Not to be outdone was Ekimov. At 38 his mere presence on the podium was stunning. The U.S. Postal pro had the fastest opening 12km on his way to a second straight Olympic Games medal.

“It was a good course for me, very straightforward” he said. “On the second lap I just lost some power, especially on the last climb.”

But this day clearly belonged to Hamilton. Despite a host of great victories during his career, he has always ridden in the long shadow of Armstrong. But with this storybook ending to what had been such an up and down season, he’s steeped out into the sun just a little more.

“Lance put us all on the board,” said Hamilton. “But Dede, Bobby and I showed that U.S. cycling has a great future.”

Cycling now takes a day off at the Olympics, before six days of track racing commence on Friday. Check back to VeloNews.com then for results and reports everyday.

OLYMPIC ROAD CYCLING MEDAL COUNT
Gold Silver Bronze Total
United States 1 1 1 3
Russia 0 1 1 2
Italy 1 0 0 1
Netherlands 1 0 0 1
Australia 1 0 0 1
Portugal 0 1 0 1
Germany 0 1 0 1
Belgium 0 0 1 1
Switzerland 0 0 1 1

This is the final week at UCLA for me. After nearly 9 years there are things about this institution that feel familiar and comfortable. I guess that just comes with time spent somewhere. In these past years there have been friendships that I have developed that will be treasured but now a new page is being turned and a challenging opportunity that I must accept. USC here I come.

Good bye UCLA, you have been a friend and educator, challenger and comforter. So its good bye to you for now UCLA. I will never forget you. You have given me a graduate degree and friends and for this I will always love you. Tomorrow is always another day.

Greetings USC

The day that I have worked for has finally arrived. It has been such a long journey these past 15 years or so that I have dreamed of this day. From the very beginning of my career in nursing, the reason I became a nurse, the reason that I went back to school in the first place, was to become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist. Its a long story and one that I will tell some day but for now suffice it to say that all of the hard work and effort has finally paid off. Really I am at the beginning of a new day and another life. There have been several of those in my time and this one is certainly one of the most significant.

Starting school again next week at USC in the Nurse Anesthesia program in the Keck school of medicine will be certainly be challenging and I have an excitement about it that has just kept my focus keen. These past weeks I have arranged all of the finances and purchased most of the text books that I will be using. All of the incoming students have each others Email address and a few of us have been in contact with each other. Talk about getting excited, there are some of the students that will be relocating from across the country and one from Hawaii. In a couple of days a new story will begin that I am sure will long in the telling.

The CRNA program is 24 months long with only a few days off. There will be no breaks and the time constraints will increase as the program continues. I have it as a goal to keep this, what ever it is “Blog”, going during school. Hopefully, there will not be too patchy updates.

Tommy Trojan my new mascot, I salute you.

The bill for the Fall semester from graduate school is sitting on my desk collecting dust. Every once and a while I look at it. This past week I have spent most of my time setting up the student loans so that this bill will not strike fear into my wife when she checks. Really I have to confess that she leaves these things to me and does not look and its the other partner in the marriage that has gotten nervous over this USC bill. One of the particulars about the first semester graduate bill that has had me stumped was the Student Health Center fee totaling $197.00 and the Student Health Insurance fee for $217.00.

The medical fees total around $400.00 for this semester. I have medical insurance, thinking to myself, so why do I need to pay another medical insurance bill. Why would I need double coverage? As it turns out I do not.

Contacting the USC Health Center today I got the info that I needed. For those students that are covered with health insurance there is a Waiver Form that you can download from the USC web site and fill out. After downloading the form this afternoon and copying my insurance card, I faxed these documents to the Student Health Center at 323-422-6212. Next week we will see what happens. Maybe I will save myself several hundred dollars so that I can spend more money on books. That sounds like a reasonable proposition doesn’t it?