Chapter Elections...

Today we had frat chapter elections... started at 2... still going at 6:50... I envy those with so little to do that they are building "wizard sticks." A wizard stick consists of the finished beverage cans consumed by the one individual all duct taped together. One rather crazy/ridiculous brother built a stick of 14 cans! All the while im chillin in the back studying magnetism and electric fields. And the way things are going, im not going to be running today, which would make it my 2nd day not running - i was planning on doing a 22 miler today, but then this came along. wow i feel productive... :-/

Mileage Tally

117 miles in the last 24 days

24 days until the marathon....

Tuesdays Suck

11:30am - 9:30pm. Straight. Classes from 11:30 - 2:15. Physics lab 2:30 - 5:30. MCAT class 6-9. Group meeting tonight @ 9:30. And now? more work at the library. This sucks. That is all.

Geekin' out...

Just now i was skimming NYtimes, and something in the science section caught my attention(most things that do are either in health, science or automotive...). It was a Tierney Lab blog, with youtube video of a science rap! i opened the video, and watched, jaw dropped, at the music video before my eyes. it was ridiculous, so much so that i feel the need to share it. (ridiculous in that i had a "Geekin' Out" moment -translation: moment of intense nerdiness)... enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/user/tomcfad#p/a/u/0/VCpNk92uswY

A beautiful sunny day in the ATL...

I woke up this morning to blue skies and 60 degree weather in Feb... It doesnt get much better then that, and the only thing on my mind was getting outside for a nice long run. So... I went to the library and took a practice mcat... The only thing that got me through that ordeal was knowing that as soon as i finished id be able to put my running shoes on and get outside.

I originally planned out a ~12 mile route, figuring i would be home in under 2 hours. The first 8 miles or so went as planned, but then i saw a road i recognized and decided to turn on to it... a few miles later i realized that i made the wrong turn... I hate backtracking, so instead of turning around and heading home, i decided to find an alternate route home. And i make yet another wrong turn... or two or three... 4 hours after i set out, i finally made it home. The sun was starting to set, and all my room mates were in the middle of eating dinner...

As much as i hate getting lost, i really enjoyed the experience. There is nothing like getting to know an area by running through it... twice. I feel like I can now navigate the Virginia Highlands in my sleep.... and get to the bars without my GPS when im sober d... gotta love atlanta...

here is the route i think i did... i dont think its 100% accurate, because i think i did more miles then it says, but around here.... http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/ga/atlanta/276126679809453116

Quiet Saturday....

Yesterday my lab threw the monthly departmental party... FYI whoever thought that researches dont know how to have fun are just wrong. I also spoke to my PI for a while about London and backpacking Europe - i cant wait to go this summer!

Another twenty minutes in lab

10 miles yesterday, hopefully another ten today. This marathon training shenanigans is starting to take over my life. Once I got past the hour running point, it turns into a whole process that somehow turns into a three hour or more ordeal... I don't mind it, except my schoolwork does mind. I wish there were more hours in the day to get everything done that i would like.

Day:

8 hours sleep

3 hours class

4 hours lab

3 hours hw

2 hours mcat and med school stuff

3 hour gym process

-----------

total - 23 hours. So... .technically possible, but really? Yea, not gonna happen. I wish i could be this productive, but in all reality.....:

Real-ish day:

5.5 hours sleep

3 hours class

4 hours lab

3 hour gym process

2 hours hw.

~17.5 hours. I could do better, but.... I'm only human.... Ill work on being more productive i guess... got to stay focused on the immediate end goal - get into med school.

focus alex, focus!

Thoughts in Lab...

I'm at my lab now in the middle of an experiment... That sounds intense and all until you realize that an experiment is a three day ordeal with a jillion steps that involve"put in solution X for 1 hour..." so i might technically be in the middle of an experiment, but for at lease the next 6 minutes and 33 seconds, I have nothing to do. What do scientists do then, if they have so much free time on their hands? (of course lets over look the fact that I am begging the question that I am even a scientist...) Well, for one thing, I am writing this blog. I also check facebook every 34 seconds, as well as Learnlink (Emory email) every minute or two. Then i surf the web for various pointless things, all the while pretending to look productive. I'm actually contemplating getting a headstart on my homework... oh wait, that would mean i'd be productive, god forbid. Or i can just sit here, and try to look busy. I like that idea.... Ill just look more into housing options in london and more marathon training schedules online.... oh wait, my 6 min and 33 seconds are up....

The ings.... Blogging, Running and the Atlanta ING

So.... this whole blogging thing is new to me... I've been thinking of setting up a blog for a while, but always thought it fairly presumptuous to say that my life and/or thoughts are worth sharing over the world wide web.... whether or not it does warrant sharing, ill post anyways...

So since this semester started things have been pretty hectic - MCAT pre, classes, research and .... running. Its hard to try to do so much at once, but "if not now, when?" with that in mind, and 35 days to go until my marathon, i ran a half-marathon on a treadmill yesterday.... very boring, but rewarding as well. its nice to know that im at least halfway there (on a treadmill....) Hopefully ill be able to make it in under 4 hours come race day. who knows. i just hope im able to accomplish all my goals for this semester....

goals:

1) Good grades

2) Good research

3) med school prep (mcat, apps, etc)

4) 26.1 Miles in under 4 hours on March 21st...

If I can pull this off, ill be one happy med student 18 months from now....