Surf we need to schedule dissertation goals... what do you think?

RunChic-- too funny. I'm in psych too. I was in neuroscience. Can you believe I am now in health psychology because the lab I work in, I'm basically doing all of their stats and stuff (I am the resident stats nerd) and low and behold, I've got posters and all of this stuff in their lab and 1 publication and only 1 poster in the neuroscience lab. The other guy NEVER offers any research to me and after approaching him once, he actually got passive aggressive on me and told me I was trying to "overcomit myself." So I just looked elsewhere to beef up the vitae. And I have to pay HIM for doctoral research units? F-ing bunch of crap! Yes I have been totally upset about being back-burnered for the comps. That is nothing compared to the crap I dealt with during my master's thesis. I was totally left to my own devices to go to another site to collect my thesis data using physiological equipment (EEG) on 70 subjects. Well wouldn't ya know... the monitors were all set up incorrectly and my data was totally unreadable. I had had a bunch of problems along the way and he only came to the site once to help me. But the reality was that he didn't even know how to use the equipment himself, meanwhile he is the one who suggested to me that I do my thesis on this area. And then when I tried to contact the manufacturer of the equipment he got really huffy and annoyed like I was overstepping him. As a result I had to defend my thesis with a huge HUGE hole in it and the only results I got were from things I thought up that he wasn't even interested in looking at anyhow! hah! grrrrr... BAH! This is why I started running. I am going to cry now. Okay, I'm not ... I'm at work actually! Better get to it. thanks for letting me vent fellow unrecognized grad students!

now i wish my real name is Surf...it would be fun to have people call me surf all the time...hey how's it going surf ? Not bad...four feet glassy..anyway, back from my mornin surfcheck run feeling good, now facing dissertation chapter that good feeling is slowly ebbing away. Deb i hear ya on the dissertation part. Its rare that you get a hands on advisor that actually is willing to help you along the way with the research/analysis/actual writing. For my masters my original advisor took another job two semesters before i finished my masters, which actually worked out great because the advisor that took over was pretty hands on. So I took a PhD offer with another advisor who I knew pretty well, liked what field he is interested in...lo and behold two years later he took on a different position and stop doing research, meanwhile i'm thrust into another advisor who is much better but turn me into projects that i wasn't really excited about. IIf i had to do it over again i would go into early education i think, i never realized how much into kids i am till i had one. Good luck with the oral defense. I'm dreading that one, mostly i'm worried that people will think my research is crap...but when that time comes i wouldn't care... Jen, that comps thing is a lot of crap. Did you have comps committee or is it just your advisor ? What did the other people think in your committee ? One thing that i regret is being extremely accommodating and not sticking up for myself these past few years. Sometimes these guys need to be put in their place, they're not your bosses really, they're advisors who suppose to help you finish your research. Sorry to continue the extreme lo-jacking of your training log Steve

Actually guys, I'd totally prefer the sidebar about our PhD woes. I am sooooo fuming. I mean it has been through out the history of time that this guy has been an a-hole to me. Totally straight up ignores me. Offers me nothing. I sent him an email last week saying "I'm concerned about my comps" blah blah. I get back "thanks for your concern... we are awaiting review from the other committee member." BLAH! F that. It's been almost 2 months now. If I didn't have a job (which they don't even know about) I'm just curious what it is that they think I'm doing with my time meanwhile I am paying them $520 a unit to "supervise me". You know I really should get down to the dean and say something. I'm so pissed I could just SPIT! sighhhhh crap crap crap crap crap You know I have been the most absentminded person for like the past 5 weeks and I know why. It's because subconsciously I know I'm being "taken for" a fool and that he's just sitting pretty wasting my time to keep me at the university as long as he wants. Oh I should add that he pretty much despises me because he doesn't like women who stand up for themselves. Surf your situation sounds as bad as mine does. This is what I think about the "culture" of learning: it is a giant black whole of crap. The only thing I've learned thus far is that life is filled with a lot of fakers and if you want to learn something you can either: fake it, put your name on it and fake it, or actually do the work and get no notoriety for it. Well I'm sick of all of those options so I'm pretty much going to take my degree and do something ANYTHING other than be in academia. phew I am pissed. I've been bottling this stuff up for a good 2-3 years. I know I'm not alone. My best friend's husband who is venting through marathon training and getting his PhD in biology has similar problems to us. The MIA advisor is the biggest pain in the ass. If anyone would have told me that this is the worst part about getting a PhD, I would have prepped myself more for assertiveness training than a stupid GRE course!

I have TA'd about 4-5 courses. I am so-so on it really. I want away from academia for a while. Okay I am going to talk about the track now. So I did my 1200's too slow. I kind of thought maybe I did, because during the workout I never pushed it until like the last repeat. But my feet have been kind of puffy and filled with a little swelling lately so I was just trying to be smart about it. But the end result is that I didn't really feel like the workout did me much. Then I went to my sources and found out that I didn't run them too much faster than I did last December. So the goal is to increase the speed just a touch. I think 1200's at a 7:10 pace is about right. So what it's looking like now, based on feel and effort, is that my 400's are good, my 800's are too slow but feel really fast, and my 1200's are pretty on the nose but feel too slow. I've always had problems with pacing 800's. So that's going to be something I can work on until fall. I'd really like to get 22:48 for my 5k but I realy have to taper for something like that and I wouldn't be surprised if I hit high 23's since it has been forever and a day since doing anything remotely 5k-ish. I'm willing to have a broad goal of 23:30-22:48. I'll have to start slow and finish fast, and that is going to sooooo hard for me. I do want one more speed workout before the race and just based on my own superstitions I'm gonna say that the next workout will be 5k goal pace repeats. I'll do 3x1 mile with full recoveries. I think? My schedule is allllllll set up for mechanics (speedy 200's). Oh what to do. Maybe I should focus on mechanics. hmmm oh well. hey at least I love the track now. who would'a thunk!? We'll see!

I don't know that you did the 1200's too slow. First off, you did them faster than your current 5k pace. Second, you need to get used to the idea that on any given day your pace at a given effort will fluctuate based on a lot of factors--this is why running a good 5k depends so much on having "one great day." A workout does not have to hurt to be effective. My bet is that was a really, really good workout for you. You were certainly in the appropriate pace range to get a lot out of it. To be honest I think what you (and I) need is a 5K race as a fitness test. This will give you a better idea what paces you should be training at. You need to do most of your work based of of current 5k pace. 5 x mile at 5K is a great workout, but you should not need full recoveries between reps. If you do, that's not 5k pace. You should be able to do that workout with an 800m jog (not walk/jog) in between reps. You're doing great, muse. You have a ton goin on in real life that really can affect your energy level on any given day. It's really important not to put too much emphasis on any given workout. Each one is just part of an overall journey. Make sure you stay basically on track toward your goal in this journey over the long haul. That's the key to success. Oh and breathe. Have some runs that are just for themselves, which you do.

I think those 1200s' were right about 5K pace (on that day) for you--just based on the fact that you did 4800m worth of work with short recovery jogs and you were getting faster at the end. To me that's definitely not a 3k pace workout--I couldn't do that at 3k pace--that's a 5k pace workout. So mile repeats at about 7:20 should be very doable. Go by effort but try to aim for 7:22 on the first one, then 7:20 then 7:18 maybe if you're feeling it...see how the day goes. 9:50 pace for recovery jogs is fine. Even slower is fine...just keep jogging so it's essentially a continuous run. Some of my recovery jogs are that pace or even slower. I hear ya on doing recoveries too fast sometimes--I do the same thing and then pay for it later in the workout sometimes. Recovery jogs take as much practice as the reps themselves... You owe me nothing, sista, I love this stuff...

So.... fellow graddies, News today. FINALLY. I passed my exam with honors. I'm the first student he's #1 passed on the first go, #2 passed on the first go with honors.