Noquemanon

Last weekend (wow, its been a week already?!) was the Noquemanon in Marquette. There are many different races. Travis (my roommate) did the classic marathon, as did several Tech alum skiers (Karl W, Dave S, Mik K, Adam A). My boyfriend did the half marathon skate (25K), and I started before him in the 25K classic. It was my first ski race in several years, and I feel like I've become a much better skier than when I was thrown into the sport my senior year of college :) Anyway, my time wasn't phenomenal, but the conditions were slow (it was about 10F when I finished). I won my age group and finished 6th overall for women, and it really got me itchin' to do a full marathon. Maybe I can classic the Birkie?

I've also started my marathon training for Lincoln in May. I'm both excited and nervous about it, because after my first scheduled intensity training day (R intervals on the indoor track), I was sore and ... well, sore! I'm hoping its because I did them on the indoor track, didn't change directions, and haven't ran hard not-on-a-treadmill in a while. I am excited, though, because I will get to see my old roomie from Bozeman and catch up, as well as tick off Nebraska from my 48 remaining states. I am also hoping that a few of my friends will be able to make it to Nebraska with me... another running reunion perhaps? And of course... I hope for a PR. The course doesn't appear nearly as demanding as Whidbey was, and with a little experience under my belt, maybe I can break 3:20. My training schedule seems to work out perfectly; after Lincoln, I will have about a week of recovery, and then back into training for Ironman (right on track with the Daniel's marathon plan). I still plan on training for the marathon throughout Ironman training, but will use my easy days for other things like cycling, swimming, etc. And, of course, I won't be putting back-to-back high intensity days together. I am excited to see how I can work out hard swimming, cycling, and running workouts in a week's worth of graduate researcher's free time.

Doctor Meg

By the way, I'm a doctoral candidate now. My qualifying exam went well, and although I have a lot to do in the next few years, I'm pretty excited to have passed this milestone.

Brr!

It got pretty chilly the last few days... right now I feel the draft through the kitchen window because we now have the INTERNET! ya hoo. I can work from home on the weekends, now. :)

I have been mega-ultra-busy the last few days. Tomorrow was supposed to be a deadline for ASME Bioengineering conference, and I have two projects that I wanted to submit papers for... So I've been in my office trying to get these done. Earlier today, they extended the deadline, which is nice because I haven't yet sent both of the papers to the co-authors. Anyway, I got them done, and I completed the manuscript that I've been hammering away at since October. It's a good feeling to know that it will be submitted for review.

Other than that, I've been teaching (I teach biomedical instrumentation laboratories on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and will also be teaching some of the lectures!!!) and working in the lab. I have data collected, and more to come. I sectioned a new experimental group today, so I will get to see how impaction and surfactants influence cell death in knee menisci! and I feel as though I've accomplished something, because I found some pretty significant stuff with my recent papers for ASME.

Quick word before my date

Just an update briefly, then off to the gym for a date with the treadmill and some stress relief :)

The Fun Run/Walk went off AWESOME! We had over 80 people show up. And, best of all, everyone seemed to have a good time. It was a lot of work (and still will be a lot of work... I have to do the t-shirt screen-printing now!!), but it's out of the way. Now, the focus is my defense!

Yikes. Proposal defense/oral qualifier is on Friday. If I pass, that is awesome. I will be a doctoral candidate. If I fail, I'm still just a lowly grad student, with a full-tuition fee and one more chance to pass the qualifier. I feel like I know everything I need to know. I've connected with my committee members, I know what to expect, but I am afraid I am going to get caught up in something or get asked some off-the-wall question that I didn't study for. I'm just trying to be as best-prepared as I can be.

Also, I like this shirt: http://www.shirtsy.com/2007/11/if-youre-not-part-of-solution.html
Pretty sweet, yeah?

Alright, off to the gym. :) I need to start putting down the hammer... Only 249 days until Ironman!