Yes, the similarities go on and on. But there is one aspect
of triathlon that I had never really compared to graduate school until today,
as I sat in a warm cafe, drinking warm espresso, with my laptop's warm battery
burning my legs. And, my friends, in
case you have not yet guessed, that aspect is the warm-up. Just as you need to
warm up for triathlon, I believe you need to warm up for graduate school. Exactly how you warm up will vary depending
on the event. Let me explain.
The longer the race, the shorter and less-involved warm-up I
typically do. Why? Because longer races (think Ironman) require me to use far less
intensity and far more pacing than do the shorter races. Shorter (sprint distance) races require a very
high level of intensity. In other words, I can ease into longer races during the event, whereas in a sprint
triathlon, I’m going full throttle from start to finish. If I don’t warm up, I
not only reduce the chances that I’ll perform my best, but I also risk injury. So, for a long race, I’ll generally do some
light stretching and loosening up, maybe spin through the gears on my bike, and
jog to the port-a-john and back. The entire warm-up might be 5-10 minutes. In
contrast, my warm-up for a short race can top half an hour: I’ll often run up
to 2 miles, throwing in some fast intervals, and follow up with about 10
minutes on the bike and some swim drills.
I argue that graduate school is so much like a triathlon in this
respect. Your entire grad school career is like an Ironman – it is challenging
from start to finish, but it is also an endeavor of long duration (about 12-15
hours for an ironman; 2-4 years for a MALS degree… close enough, right?) that
you don’t want or need to waste energy you’ll need for the day (or years) by
warming up for a long time. In grad school terms, this means you don’t really
study much before beginning MALS, but instead loosen up your mind and get your
ideas flowing during your introductory classes – MALS 5000 and 5100.
A semester, on the other hand, is much like a sprint
triathlon - intense, painful, and over before you know it while simultaneously taking forever. If you’re a returning MALS student, you know what I mean. If you’re
a new student, get ready to be busier and more challenged intellectually than
you perhaps ever have in your life. After years away from school, or even after a
summer off, your mind has entered a “rest” mode. When classes begin, you’ll be
running at full intensity from day one. Now, you can either have a really
painful first few weeks, or you can be ready to handle that intensity by
warming up.
I know what you’re going to ask: “How on earth am I supposed
to warm up for classes?”
The exact method will vary according to your individual
strengths, weaknesses, and personality. However, the objective remains the same
– you want your warm-up to loosen up your brain and prepare your mind, body and
spirit for the intense amount of thinking, discussing, reading, and writing you
are about to do. Practically speaking, you want to reduce the time you spend in
beginning-of-semester-panic-mode as much as possible. This means gently bringing grad school to the forefront of your mind.
Here are a few ideas for warm-up techniques that might
benefit you:
1. Do some organizing. Be that nerd who sets up a home desk,
complete with freshly sharpened pencils, file folders for each class, a wall
calendar and a pegboard. Before you pass this off as busy-work, or think “yeah
right, that’ll last about a week,” consider this: the benefit you receive
simply from the act of preparing for your upcoming semester is in itself
beneficial. Sort of like the act of writing to learn, the act of organizing will help you transition from summer
mode (or mom/dad/worker mode) to student mode. Here’s a link to an article
called Organization Tips for Graduate Students that you might find helpful.
2. Get your books a little early and start reading a bit.
Yes, this is by far the most obvious warm-up technique, and I know you’ve
already thought of this yourself. I only suggest it because this is probably
the warm-up technique you’ll be most resistant to. Who has the time to read
early, after all? I’m not talking about taking your Research methods book to
Key West, reading it cover to cover while you sip margaritas on the beach. Just get the books a week or two ahead of
time, look through the table of contents, read the introduction, and flip
through the pages. You can even just look at the pictures. That’s what I did.
Again, even just spending time with your books will alert your brain that you
are about to learn a whole lot more about a subject, and you’ll be more keyed
in on the first day of class.
3. Write. (Come on, you knew this was coming). But here’s
what you might not expect – write about anything! Write about turtles, write about dogs. Write
about dancing, write about clogs…. Before I intimidate you too much with my
stellar poetry, just start writing! Because, (speaking of clogs) writing kind
of unclogs your imagination and starts to get your critical-thinking-pipes
moving. By starting to write now, you will find yourself more quickly and
easily writing to learn when you begin classes. The topic doesn’t matter during
your warm-up, the fact that you write does. So get to it!
4. Finally, connect with other graduate students. If you’re an ETSU MALS student beginning work on your thesis or capstone project, you might consider attending
the ETSU School of Graduate Studies Thesis/Dissertation Boot Camp as a warm-up regimen. Otherwise, now
would be a good time to get in touch with one of your MALS core classmates from
last spring. Get together for a cup of coffee, or just get on the phone and ask
about your colleague’s upcoming semester. This will not only get you thinking
and talking about grad school, but will remind you that you are far from alone
in this arduous race.
Just like the longest, most challenging triathlon, the pain
of graduate school is temporary, but the sense of accomplishment you’ll get
from finishing is irreplaceable. Add a good pre-semester warm-up to your
routine and you’ll not only finish, but you’ll finish strong!
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| Me finishing the Watauga Lake Triathlon (a short, painful race); photo courtesy of my friend, Lauren Root, © 2012 |
