Challenge you to balance, Part II.

I got my last blog post completely wrong. I'm just as competitive with training as I ever was. It was all wrong because I failed to realize my biggest competition is schwork (i.e., when school is work).

04/08/2015 Piceance valley field reconnaissance -- A year of jumping through hoops later, we got to put some boots on this beautiful shale canyon's ground. Natural resource extraction and serious concern for safety means no one wanders around off the dusty roads out there .... Until Lani and Hannah arrived. Example of one weird rule, "no picnicking" in these gamble oak patches, damn.

Multiple times lately, people ask if I have been "training much" with school being so busy. This question catches me off guard, but yes I have been training much. Grad school has not prevented me from putting in two hours of training on average every single day for the past two months. Nor has my training prevented me from getting a shit ton done every day. It takes a lot of discipline (and the occasional mental shut down) to GO from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm most days, but that is the only way to have time to train twice, eat at least thrice, and put in the time at school. Most importantly, somehow it keeps me sane.

Winter field work on the Poudre River with Johnny<3

School is also busy. My eleven month anniversary of starting graduate school at CSU is approaching mid-May. In case anyone in the internet world wonders what the heck I've been doing,  I wrote and rewrote a research proposal, then discussed it with big scary smart scientists. The second time through, my proposal ended up being about how a non-native riparian plant may alter terrestrial and aquatic insect communities, and also the larger food web. Through collaboration with the best-group-project-member-ever, we will look at the diet and behavioral responses of riparian birds to this plant. On Monday, I officially start the field work portion of the project, and I hope it's interesting enough to deserve a Master's. Soonish I can finally finish analyzing the results of my attempt to use my adviser's, W.H. Clements' B.A.M.F (bad ass microcosm facility). I looked at how copper contamination may influence microbial respiration and aquatic insect communities differently in pools and riffles. I've gotten all but four credits of my coursework done, and maintained my streak of being the first finished with all five statistics exams this past year.

My friend Becca wrote a blog about wanting "less in life." I see her point in wanting to avoid the sickening addiction of more, but my tendency for perpetual productivity leaves me feeling I should contribute my own nuance. I want more out of less in life.  I want to get more out of my work and spend less time working on it. I am fixated on efficiency so I waste less time working or getting wasted running. Of all the people I've met who are shamefully and shamelessly addicted to their work or their running, I am shamelessly addicted to the challenge of finding balance in both.

Also, in case anyone in the internet world wonders where my cheesy engagement photos are, I draw the line at planning a wedding before my first field season. All I know is Tahoe at some point next year:) Cheesy engagement photos will probably never happen.