Update

My last blog post was written during my spring break which was pretty much the last time that I had a minute or two to sit down and write something that was not work-related. Winter semester was pretty full for me; I taught two new courses (Earth Materials I and Water Resources), supervised one 3-credit independent study student (who presented a talk at the NE/SE GSA meeting on xenoliths from the Uinkaret volcanic flows in the Grand Canyon (Lava Falls area), served as the advisory for two environmental capstone projects (one comparing the regulation of offshore oil drilling on the US and Brazil and one looking at lead contamination in ancient Rome and modern America), and went through another round of job applications (see below). Right now, I am at the midterm for a 4-week term where I am teaching a new course called Environmental Field Methods. Even though it is a new course and we meet over 20 hours per week, I feel a bit more relaxed... Plus, I only have 6 students this term instead of 59.

Update 1: After sending out a bunch of applications, I made it to the telephone interview stage for 4 positions (2 of which were tenure-track) and I am very happy to report that I have accepted an offer to continue at W&L for another year! Hopefully, the tenure-track positions that open up next year will be better than for this year (there were only three positions that I felt were worth applying for and I was really only excited about one of them).

Update 2: I have not been running- at all, I have managed to injure my knee (surgery side) in a (probably) different manner than before the surgery. My running was going really well up until February and I had worked up my long run to 2:45 and was just starting to to hill reps when I started experiencing pain in the lateral anterior part of my knee during medium grade climbs. A few days of x-training and no improvement... A few weeks of x-training and no improvement... Now, if I go for a run, I will limp around for about two week before the pain clears up. I will try one more time about a month out from The Hill but I am not terribly optimistic. This is unfortunate because I am in pretty good shape from lots of cycling (see below)

Update 3: I have been riding quite a bit (I will try to update my training more regularly...); it's definitely not running but it has been pretty fun. Plus, Lexington is an excellent place for road cycling- certainly the best of anywhere that I have lived. In order to satisfy my racing jones, I have started racing road bikes. So far this year, I have raced three times and I have joined the university's cycling club, Team Traveller. I will write more about my racing later.