Hi friends! How is your Thursday morning going?

Posts have been a little sparse this week since grad school has amped up. Right now I’m frantically trying to finish up 2 journal papers. One is bad enough, but two on completely different subjects is a whole ‘nother ball game! One paper is on some silver nanowire research (can you spot the nano?) and the other is on some thermoelectric and heat sink research (not very nano, but will be in the future).

A huge misconception about research is that we spend all day in lab coats/gas masks plotting to take over the world (MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)

While this is a major bonus to research, we actually don’t spend as much time in the lab as you would think. I made this handy chart to show how a typical day breaks down…

A good portion of time is spent writing, reading, drinking coffee, or doing all three simultaneously. Obviously the drinking coffee and actual research parts are all the fun. As is playing on the spinny chairs in the lab (wheeeeeeeeee!)

In other news, I’ve starting increasing the amount I work out because…..my training for Ironman Raleigh 70.3 starts in less than 2 weeks! -insert freaking out- Here’s a pic of me and my mom (HI MOM) from right before the race last year.

It was an ok race. I finished in 6:47 which isn’t horrible for a first time, but I felt like I was capable of more. I made a few newbie mistakes which will probably be talked about later, and overall I felt like the course ‘beat’ me. SO I signed up again, found a training plan more suited to my totes cray schedule and am ready to take it on again!

Today is more writing, more research, swimming lessons, and a hockey game! Should be fun!

Have you ever had a race that ‘beat’ you?