as you may know, i’m a new professor coming to the end of my first academic year. i’ve had the opportunity to write my first proposals, arrange my first collaborations, and teach my first class at this new institution. i’ve gotten to choose my first graduate students, join my first university committees, and attend my first faculty meetings.
with all these firsts, during the beginning of the second semester, i was starting to become overwhelmed with all the firsts and was losing more balance than i was willing to give up. by “balance”, i mean, “sleeping when i want to sleep without being awakened by cluster headaches” and “moderating my emotions so that i’m not always worrying about what my next idea will be and how long it will take to become a funded proposal.” balance can also include “spending time with my wife and attending to household business,” but i have lovingly forceful enough wife not to let me fall into that problem.
so in summary, balance for me was really coming down to the health effects, both emotional and physical, that come with not being able to physically and spiritually moderate the new stresses in my life. so when in early February, i received an email inviting participants in the 2010 baltimore running festival to race the 2011 baltimore 10-miler, i jumped at the chance. my thinking went something like this: “for me, exercise and Bible study go hand in hand, and are the most important parts of my overall health. i’ve recently started [and finished yesterday] a reading plan that is heavy enough to focus me on the Bible, but i don’t have a physical goal compelling enough to take me away from work on a regular basis. let’s try this running thing…”
since i’ve tried it, it’s been better than i’d imagined. i can’t say it’s an addiction just yet, because i still find it work to anticipate the struggle of finishing the final mile or so beyond your current fitness limits in your weekly long run. but i will say that running is a great way to learn practical lessons about discipline in research. i told myself i’d tweet my thoughts whenever something came to mind while running, but i have too many, and they seem more attractive than they should when i’m at my aerobic fitness limits on the trail. let me share a few ways i’ve found research a lot like long-distance running:
1.) there comes a point where every route you will do is far beyond your fitness limits. beyond this point, you will be breaking your PR’s at least once per week
this came when i was studying my training plan (i’m following a half-marathon plan for my 10-miler) and i realized that my current distance PR (5.7mi at the running festival–i ran the first leg of the marathon relay) is shorter than the long runs at the beginning of the half-marathon training plan i’d chosen. i’m an athlete that has been through a few injuries, so i knew better than to just start on the plan–i’ve modified my plan with an additional 6 weeks of shorter distances to get up to the 6mi long runs the half plan starts with. but now, every week, i’m going to be running farther than i’ve ever run before.
this is very similar to my situation as a professor. the first semester felt like i was a post-doc, only with respect and a real salary. the second semester helped me learn that teaching experiences are very sensitive to the group of students sitting in front of you at any given semester. but now every time i go to the office, i have to be more careful about how i plan my time than i’ve ever been, i have to be more disciplined about writing than i’ve ever been, i have to be more strategic about reading than i’ve ever been, and i have to raise more money than i’ve ever sought before. every semester, in almost every way, i’m going to be stretching my fitness limits in ways analogous to my running plan.
2.) when pushing your limits, you have to remember to run at a pace where you can run every step. otherwise, you risk injury
this point came when i was finishing a run early in my plan that was at my current fitness limit (since i hadn’t run through the winter, my limits at the beginning were between 3-4mi). when you’re tired, you’re head starts to droop, your shoulders and back are not aligned, and your steps become very sloppy. if you’re paying attention to your body, you can feel yourself almost stumbling (and the attendant systemic shocks) instead of intentionally “running” each step. you can feel the strain on your stabilizing muscles and the onset of injury during these stumbling bouts. also during a bout of stumbling, i tripped on uneven sidewalk and almost fell. at that point, i realized that i have to be in control of every step, even while tired, otherwise i will injure myself. although i thought that because i’d run farther than this before that i could be careless, i realized that even familiar tasks must be approached with great caution and great concentration.
this is very similar to teaching a new class or writing a proposal based on an idea you are greatly familiar with. even though you know the intuition behind the idea, your familiarity must be placed with great control in strategic positions which optimize communication of complex ideas to audiences that don’t want to feel stupid when you’re communicating with them. with students, if they feel stupid, you will feel emotionally and physically drained by your efforts. with proposal revieiwers, if they feel stupid, you will receive no funding, and hostile comments to boot. although you may be tired of the subject, you must place each theoretical thought carefully upon the previous one, and be sure not to underestimate your unfamiliarity with the intricacies of communication and instruction.
3.) when you’re building a stamina foundation, don’t run against the other runners on the trail, run against your plan
in almost every distance training plan i studied, they emphasize that you are to run 1.5-2mins slower on your long runs than your goal pace or short run pace. this is to develop stamina while minimizing the risk for injury. this will also help avoid burnout while maintaining enthusiasm for endurance sports.
i can’t say enough how important this lesson has been during my experience as a new professor. although a new professor is always haunted by the imminent tenure dossier, no matter how long they have until it will be required of them, i have realized that i must not fail to take this lesson to heart and compare my career to endurance sports rather than, say, sprint distances or individual competitions (although some of the same training lessons apply).
let me explain using an example as to why i feel endurance training is most important as a metaphor. i was reading about a champion marathoner named liliya shobhukova in a british running magazine. she was the defending london marathon champ (she didn’t successfully defend this year) and they were interviewing her about her training history. she told the interviewer that her best times had come in her 30’s, even though she’s been training since she was a child. although she is now running marathons at sub-5min mile pacing, her approach has been to run slowly and steadily over the distances to minimize injury and to build her foundation. at an age when most sprinters, basketball, football, and soccer players have faded, most long distance runners are just reaching their fastest times.
as a professor, whenever someone asks me a question, they expect me to know not only the answer, but also what everyone else that studies anything remotely close to their question thinks about my answer. thus, i have to resist overstating my expertise. this is directly in contradiction to the pressure felt to raise as much money as possible, in the shortest time possible, in the broadest number of areas possible [as an urban sustainability researcher]. however, one of my goals is to become a full professor, and being a CMU alumnus, i take prof. simon’s admonition to heart [10 yrs or 10,000 hours doing something will invariably make you a world-class expert or practitioner in that thing]. to do something for 10,000 hours, or 10 yrs, or to obtain the expected expertise, you cannot front-load the training plan. you must go very slowly at the beginning to make sure the foundation is right, then rely on exponential growth in expertise and translational knowledge towards the end of those 10 yrs. i find it deeply satisfying to know that running helps to develop the 10-yr discipline required. [and i know that at least one of my role models, david dzombak, practices long-distance running as his sport of choice]
i think i’ll stop here, and hopefully put some other thoughts in subsequent posts.