PhDiaries, #3
A Week In The Life, March 2026
Monday:
Having been away over the weekend, I treat today like Sunday - so it’s a slow start and then I head out for my long run. My usual routes are just slightly too short for what I need to do today so I do an out-and-back along a cycle path, but I’d forgotten that it’s a long slow uphill out of town and end up taking a few one-minute walk breaks to get myself up the hill. On the way back down, I feel a ‘ping’ in my left knee and walk for a few minutes before gently going back to running. In total though I do a bit over 9 miles, which I’m happy with - then I shuffle home, have lunch, and sink into a hot bath with magnesium salts.
Tuesday:
I try and get some motion back into my legs, with an easy walk on the treadmill downstairs, before showering and heading into town to send some Vinted parcels and an M&S return and then catching a bus up to uni for some time at my laptop before board games. We play a few rounds of That Escalated Quickly (a very good game for groups, and I love how quickly we establish norms and shorthands, even if fishnet tights get mentioned more often in that game than I'd have expected) before it's time for an Organ Attack grudge match, and Werewolf (where for once I'm not a werewolf, but I still get murdered pretty soon...)
Wednesday:
Honestly, this is a bit of a zero day. I feel creaky and tired, and bounce between my desk and my bed for most of the day. At lunchtime I make a big pot of pasta with chicken sausages and red peppers (cooked in my air fryer), which will keep me going for the next few days’ worth of lunches - and it’s delicious.
By the time I finish up in the evening, I've got a few hundred new words written in my Literature Review, and I also feel like I know what I need to do next - which is a great start. My team squeak out a one-point win in our Online Quiz League match, which doesn't stop us being relegated to the next division at the end of the season, but at least makes it feel less ignominious?
Thursday:
The difficulty of conducting PhD research in a subject that comes from professional experience is that I find myself scrabbling around for references to support something that I was taught in a workplace training room or webinar eight years ago... I spend a couple of hours this morning producing a 100-word paragraph because of the need to find citations for the facts that new homes are still being built with gas boilers, and that businesses typically use loan finance to do things like building housing developments for sale. But hey, at least that’s written, and then I head out for my first run since Monday. It’s slow and creaky, but my knee feels *less* awkward as time goes on, rather than *more*, which I think has to be a good sign for the upcoming half marathon... (gratuitous opportunity for me to share my charity sponsorship link).
After lunch, I make an oatmeal-cookie inspired iced latte (i.e., it’s made with oat milk and I stir a pinch of mixed spice and half a teaspoon of maple syrup into it); it’s delicious. Over the course of the afternoon I have a couple of my new favourite things: Cadbury/Biscoff collaboration eggs. I’d take these over a Creme Egg any day.
I finish up the work day by joining a panel event from the ClientEarth summit over Zoom and it’s great to hear people outside of my specific bubble talking about the financial risk aspect of climate change - I used to go to these type of events all the time and I miss it.
Friday:
Another day at my desk… I draw out a plan of everything I need to do over the next few weeks and it leaves me feeling too intimidated to actually *do* anything on the list, which wasn’t the goal, whoops. I also get in a treadmill run and my knee feels absolutely fine!
I see a message in the run club WhatsApp (I still haven’t been to any group runs, I’m so conscious of being so incredibly slow!) about the Prosecco Running festival in Italy and after some back-and-forth with myself about whether it’s a good use of money, I decide that going on holiday at the start of December would probably a be a good idea from a mental health perspective. I always find the winter so depressing - so some fresh air and good food would be just what the doctor ordered. I sign up for the 10k and a hotel package, and then loop back to Rail Europe to buy an Interrail ticket (they’re 15% off until the end of this month!) which will cover the lion’s share of the cost of getting there and back.
Saturday:
Today we are hosting a quiz tournament for the first time! It’s a regional ‘varsity’ between a few unis in the South-West of England and our neighbours in South Wales, and it’s a bit shorter than a usual tournament so we have a later start time. The upshot of that is that I get to make a coffee and then spend an hour in bed playing Tiny Bookshop before I have to do anything - a huge luxury for a tournament day, as they usually involve leaving my flat between 6 and 6.30am.
The day goes really well and it’s great to see some of my quizzing friends from other universities, and to shoot the breeze over a beer and fried chicken at Wetherspoons after we’re done.
Sunday:
I eventually drag myself out for my last long run before the half-marathon taper… and I get two minutes down the road before my knee starts to be distinctly painful. Alarm bells go off in my head and I quickly change my plan and spend most of an hour on a cross-trainer machine in the gym instead, followed by a “treadmill strut” workout with a few minutes of running, which feel fine now I’m properly warmed up. My knee’s felt okay most of this week so I can’t tell if I’m just getting in my head about it now… time to eat plenty of protein and make sure to get some good recovery in over the next two weeks before the race, and hopefully I’ll get through it without doing too much damage? To that end, lunch is fishfingers and baked beans (yum).
I spend an hour doing “unf*cking the flat” type jobs and get a couple of things listed on Vinted; by the time the hour is up, one of them has sold, so I get that ready to wrap and print off the postage label for it.
Then it’s time to head up for the Sunday evening pub quiz; my team squeak out a win thanks to a music round that’s right up our street (one team-mate especially is very good on indie music, and I get extremely excited when I hear Sound of the Underground by Girls Aloud) and I go home having made a slight profit. It’s ages since I’ve had a “normal weekend at home” and it’s felt like just what I needed!