Struggle #3: Moving to a New City

As a physical therapy student, we go on clinical rotations in order to help us learn how to be a PT through hands-on experience.  As a SLU student, yesterday we started our 3rd out of 5th one for 5 weeks.  I am located in Cincinnati, OH at a satellite clinic on the Cincinnati Children's Hospital.  I officially met my clinical instructor today and spent my first day in the clinic.  Some days I work long hours and trying to fit clinicals, CrossFit, and eating healthy in is going to be a struggle at times.

First off my clinical site is awesome!  So far (one day) my CI seems extremely nice and willing to let me be hands on and learn during my time here.  This is exactly what I look for in a CI, someone that is going to challenge me yet let me be my own person so I can learn and become a better physical therapist.  One of the huge downsides of my clinic is that it is located 26 miles from where I am staying. The drive without traffic is about 30 minutes but anytime I hit traffic, it is not going to be a fun experience.

I was lucky enough to find a great CrossFit gym, thanks to some detailed research by me and a recommendation from my coach!  While I am in Cincinnati for these 5 weeks, I will be training at CrossFit Conjugate.  They had 2 teams qualify for regionals and one of them went onto the games and is competing this week in Carson, California at the CrossFit Games.  They are very strength focused which is great for me because that is where I lack as a CrossFit athlete.

The affiliate I am training at for the next 5 weeks.

I met a coach who is willing to the competitors work with me in the morning for the next few weeks, which will be great to have someone push me.  I quickly learned they do a ton of accessory work first, before the WOD, to tire you out and then when you get to the WOD you have to figure out how to push your body through it.  This is going to be a great experience for me and will really help with my mental toughness!  I am so excited to get to train here.  Again the one downside is that it is about a 24 mile drive from where I am staying.

I would love to say that CrossFit Conjugate and my clinical site are in the same 20 plus mile direction but they are not... So needless to say, I will be making a loop around Cincinatti everyday and that I will have some very long days.  Today I left the house at 5:15a.m and returned home at 7:30 p.m. (but that did include an almost running out a gas fiasco after my clinical was done).  If you look at the map below, you will see I will be putting 74.5 miles on my car almost everyday. Yikes! It's going to hate me after this!

 You may think I am absolutely crazy for doing this everyday, but 

I have a lot of goals I want to meet and Conjugate seems like 

the best place to help me meet those.  

On top of all this traveling everyday, I will continue on my quest of eating to fuel my body.  I visited the grocery store last night and let me tell you, the trip was a SUCCESS!!!  I spent about an hour there for not a ton of groceries, but I carefully read over tons of labels making sure that what I put in my body was something that was going to help me fuel it!  Pictured below are my awesome groceries from last night!  I am very proud of my trip!

With all the traveling I am doing here, it is going to take a lot of meal prep in order for me to stay on top of my diet.  Every morning before I work out, I will have to make breakfast (most likely eggs and ham) and this will be around 5:15 a.m.  On Sunday I will make salads to last me for lunch every day of the week, this week's included lettuce, red pepper, tomatoes, mushrooms, and steak.  I will also have to pack my lunch every night before I work out because let's be honest, my brain is not fully functioning that early in the morning. Dinner I will be able to change up a bit because I will have my evenings freer!  

I know this experience will be challenging for me, but I am so excited for the challenge and to see where this takes me!  Hopefully it will be an awesome experience, stay tuned to find out!