On the Tri-Med Lifestyle

First post of 2015!  And I'm sorry to admit, it happened again.  For the third year in a row, I was cruising along pretty good, posting to the blog every day (sometimes twice a day), writing all these entries, making all this headway, attracting new followers by the thousands, then BLAMMO - nothing.  Radio silence.  The EKG showing the electrical activity of my blog would look like this:

As you can clearly see, there is no T wave repolarization after that last QRS complex.
(Nothing about this strip is accurate, but the message is clear.)

That is precisely what happened last summer; my blog lost its pulse.  You might sadly recall, last spring, my numerous prophesies of upcoming posts and prolific artistry and celebrity cameos.  If you don't you can easily visit the annals of Andrew Langfield Struggles and have another read-through.  But I would really rather you didn't, because it's embarrassing.  All those macho decrees evaporated as I sank into the depths of med school year three.  Some of you with particularly astute memories might even be saying this: "Of course this is nothing new.  Langfield does this every year."  And you'd be right.  Because pretty much the same thing happened when I sank into the depths of med school years 1 and 2.  Damn.

I. The Problem: med-school is overwhelming, and I haven't raced

I think I've identified the problem, though.  I've had this really ambitious writing prompt in mind for some time now: that I'd put out a series of three posts on my professional and ideological progression as I've made my way through med school.  Sounds exciting, I know.  "A Trilogy of Tri-Med Posts" was going to be the grandiose title.  But I think the enormity of that idea has basically prevented me from writing anything at all, as I've been too overwhelmed by the prospect.  That and I haven't had as much opportunity to race the past two years.  My 2014 "season" consisted of one event: Wildflower, and that was it.  I didn't race, so I didn't write.  Very sad.

But readers, smarten up!  I'm about to make all of that frustration and painful heartache worthwhile.

Everything here on the blog is about to change.

II. The Solution: the tri-med lifestyle revealed

In truth, the gears have been turning on this transformation for quite some time now.  So hopefully it won't come as a huge surprise to most of you, or worse yet, a huge let down.  But here it is, in a nutshell: since my life these past three years has been as much about med school than it has about tris, I've decided I might as well write about it.

What do I mean?  Well, certainly the original charter of this blog will remain intact.  I still plan to document my wheelings and dealings in the sport of triathlon thoroughly on this webspace.  Probably too thoroughly, as has been my custom.  There will continue to be training highlights and photo journals and exhaustively long race reports.  But there will also be scattered entries about my medical exploits, including but not limited to: shocking insight into the inner workings of the medical system, the horrors of the operating room, gripping near death experiences (for me, of course, not my patients), the challenge of choosing a specialty, residency application drama, and other thrilling stories of life-saving/baby-catching/suture-throwing/antibiotic-wielding/anticoag-pushing antics.  That's all really good stuff too!  It's a huge part of my life, and since this blog is essentially a public journal, I'm going to share it all.

I know it's not triathlons, but I'll make it interesting, I promise.  Besides, I'm always tweeting about the tri-med lifestyle anyway.  Time to make the blog follow suit.

III. So, where to start?

Well, to kick things off, I'm going to finally share all those thoughts I've been meaning to put down over the last three years of school.  But before you all tune out for my next few posts, I have good news: I'm going to condense all of those thoughts, from three long-winded, excessively emotional accounts of soul searching, into one powerful, concise, and carefully-worded masterpiece.  "One Post to Rule Them All" I'm going to call it.  Believe me, that will be much better than a trilogy anyhow.  I think I still need to get those thoughts down, because it'll lay a foundation for future posts.  Plus, I've literally been thinking about those entries for years.  I can't just let them flounder and die.

And after that, then what?  Who knows!?  Not me.  I've got a few other med school topics in mind, we'll see which ones surface first.  But by that point the pre-season will be heating up too, and there should be plenty to talk shop about in the triathlon world.  We'll see.

IV. Some Truth

Before I sign off, I'm going to close with some truth.  This is straight from the soul.  Writing here has always been an entertaining and gratifying pastime for me, and I've had a ton of fun with it over the past few years.  But one thing I've realized - and perhaps the biggest reason I am finally embracing the tri-med identity here on the blog - is that I've always written the way I feel a "pro athlete" should write.  It's all about race reports and fun trips and good times.  And while I'm sure my triathlon exploits are somewhat unique - not everyone can be as clueless or carefree or long in the teeth - in a lot of ways this is "just another athlete blog."  And when I've written in the past, I've always subconsciously compared myself to other great athletes in our sport.  What I didn't fully appreciate is that my situation can stand up on its own two feet.  I don't need to be out there winning world championships in order to post to my own blog.  I can just be Andrew Langfield, and continue to struggle at triathlons.  I'm also going to be a freaking doctor, which carries with it certain realities.  Reality number one is you have to go to med school, and it isn't exactly a cake walk.  Rather than try and pretend those realities don't exist, I'm going to write about them.  Because this is my story; it's unique and interesting in its own right (at least to me).  I hope you all continue to enjoy it.  I can promise lots of good things to come, about tris, and medicine, and who knows what else.

Peace out,
Andrew