Training for a marathon while running a mental marathon

Running. Everyone has an opinion on the topic—some in favor and others in strong opposition. It’s understandable, I get it. But, in the words of my PI, “it’s cheaper than therapy!” Whether you are at the beginning, smack in the middle, or inching toward the end of your PhD journey, maintaining a healthy physical and mental balance can be critical to finishing your marathon. Personally, learning how to cope with stress while maintaining my sanity and the core of who I am as a person came with me adopting the mantra: “leave it on the pavement!”

 

Like most people, I began running one mile at a time and under favorable weather conditions. Eventually, the mile turned into miles, the weather didn’t have to be ideal, and I didn’t need to be listening to music. I began regularly running during my first year of grad school. For most of us, it’s a time when we are often mentally taxed due to classes and constantly adapting to new people or environments (such as lab rotations). In an effort to find some consistency and balance, I ran almost every day. Some days I ran more, some days I ran faster and other days I would finish my route with a slow, lackluster jog. Honestly, I didn’t dwell on the details. What mattered to me was carving out time for myself and my thoughts in a noisy world, where someone or something is always demanding attention. Thus, it became therapeutic to put my shoes on, take a breath, and move step-by-step toward moments of reflection and mental stillness.

 

For most of us, pursuing this degree is in many ways similar to running a marathon. It requires a certain drive, determination, and focus to accomplish this arduous journey. I built upon this drive by also challenging myself physically. This manifested in the form of participating in races and running competitively, which quickly snowballed into me signing up to run my first marathon during my second year.

 

As any good graduate student would do, I did my research and had a proposed training schedule ready to put into action. And as usual, over the course of those months, some training days were better than others. More importantly, I never felt like my time on the pavement was wasted, irrespective of how sore I felt. While I ran, I thought through potential experiments, their favorable and unfavorable outcomes, and the significance of those outcomes. I thought about published papers and if/ where my results fit in the field. I thought about how to organize my data into a paper and upcoming presentations. All of those moments of reflection ultimately resulted in an increase in my productivity as a graduate student.

 

I also experienced moments of mental stillness while running. Often underrated, these were the moments when I was able to recharge. Pursuing a PhD takes a mental and emotional toll in many ways. We are in some sense in the business of overthinking. Thus, taking advantage of instances when you can pause and breathe provides you with the unique opportunity to mentally recharge.

 

My prescription for becoming an awesome graduate student is by no means a dose of running 3-5 times a week. Simply put, there is no magic formula. You should be prepared to partake in a mental and emotional marathon that will challenge you in a variety of ways. However, you can make it easier on yourself by finding an outlet, such as running or something else, when you take time for yourself (without feeling guilty). These could be the most beneficial moments, adding tremendous value personally and professionally. To this day, I run. I do so for the same reasons I did when I was a first year, because there is something I need to leave on the pavement…

 

 

 

 

About the Author:


Dolly Singh is currently a graduate student in the laboratory of William Wright at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her doctoral dissertation is focused on understanding the role and mechanism of the growth factor GDNF (Glial cell -line derived neurotrophic factor) in regulating human spermatogonial stem cells and spermatogenesis. The long-term goal of this project is to translate these findings into the clinic as a mode of therapy for a sub-population of infertile patients. E-mail: Dsingh14@jhu.edu