Merry Christmas! The top 10 of 2010

This is a top 10 list for this year. A bunch of great things happened.

1. Getting to see the Descendents on November 7th, 2010.

Holy crap this day was so meaningful. Day 1 was my discovery of the Descendents in a dorm room while at summer camp in Frederick, Maryland. A lanky kid from San Francisco stuck 2 outdated computer speakers in my face and in 12 seconds I had an introduction to punk rock. I stuck with it for the next 10 years and my passion for punk rock is still strong.

2. Couch to 5k

A meaningful way to get my physical life back into gear. I was missing out on exercise. It's such a great activity and it has severely improved my mood. I'm also gaining a lot of confidence in my body that had been absent for so long. Out of all the considerations, however, the most important is ensuring my long term health. Therefore this needs to be a life-long pursuit.

3. Working at Honeywell again

I had a great experience at Honeywell. My group was fantastic and I was supported by excellent engineers. The creative environment allowed me to feel independent in my approach to solving problems. I was also able to gain invaluable experience toward my understanding of computational fluid dynamics.

4. Supercomputing 2010

SC10 was very exciting and the nine days I spent in New Orleans were a necessary step forward in my career. I met some outstanding people. The Student Cluster Competition is evolving into a very cool event. The food was excellent and the parties were superb. The accommodations were really comfortable and the staff volunteers were extraordinary people. What a great time!

5. AIAA Phoenix YP Officer

This experience was especially rewarding because our AIAA section has great representatives. These are folks who really care about what they do. They are also some of the best engineers I've met. They understand why we do what we do. This was a great experience and I look forward to additional involvement with AIAA sections.

6. The Aerospace Engineer

This blog was a preparation for my NEW blog. It's called The Aerospace Engineer. I've come a long way in my writing (there hasn't been much effort, but there has been much practice) and it has prepared me for the mental aspect of writing.

7. Getting accepted to UMD

Well, it's an understatement to say I'm excited about moving to Maryland and starting my graduate work. Getting accepted to UMD was a huge step forward in my career.

8. Mad Men

The greatest show I've ever seen! This show helped to reshape my perspective on the world. I am now a chauvinistic bastard.

9. Senior Design

I worked with some amazing people at ASU. My senior design project was a result of the collective work by amazing people. I treasure my memories with those folks and I wish them all great careers. Our project won 2nd place at the AIAA Space Transportation Design Competition. It was pretty cool.

10. Meeting Greg Graffin

And snapping a photo. And asking the man a question. And recording part of the interview. And shaking his hand. And in that short amount of time, having one of the best experiences of my life.

Couch to 5k W7-W8 Intermission - Mile Time

I ran to find my mile time tonight. It's 8:47.

I didn't know what to expect, so I'm not impressed or disappointed. I knew it would be lower than my average mile time for longer distances, but I didn't know how much lower.

The weather started getting CRAZY once I walked outside. It's been a little rainy lately but wind picked up once I started my warm-up walk and by the last 3 minutes of my run it was a wild mixture of rain and wind. It was not nice. I couldn't see once the acid rain got in my eyes. I was a very angry blind man until the end. I had some pretty labored breathing during the last three minutes and it was clear that my legs are well ahead of my cardio stamina. I could have run faster but my breathing limited me a lot.

The interval training I have done is medium intensity from a cardio perspective. I am certainly building up endurance steadily, but I hardly have high intensity workouts. The mile run was a high intensity workout because I was trying to run my hardest. I'd say after about just two months of running, an 8:47 mile is pretty good. I want to do this mile run at least once a week because it's much different than what I'm used to and it will certainly improve my breathing and high-intensity stamina.

I was able to get a great pace during the first minute. Then I was brought back down to Earth steadily. I never felt like I went slower than my normal pace, but I definitely had a few moments where I had to slow to my normal pace. It was a tough run but it was exciting.

I should have done this earlier, but I would have probably been disappointed. It was such a different exercise. I felt like I was working hard the whole time and pushing my limits. It's great to put on a number on the feeling. I'm looking forward to the next run. 28 minutes!

Setting Goals for This Year

I want to set 10 goals for this year of 2011. They are ranked in order of how-quickly-I-thought-of-them. This is part of becoming an unstoppable force. So far I'd like to think of myself as more of an immovable object. But lately I've done a ton of legwork to prepare myself for the transition.

1. Get an A grade in each class taken during my graduate education for the Spring 2011 and Fall 2011 semesters.

This goal is non-negotiable and my classes will take severe precedent over my other activities. This will involve constant and consistent study habits, organized study groups, and other necessary study tools to succeed. I plan on taking Hypersonic Aerodynamics and High Temperature Gas Dynamics in the spring.

2. Master the python programming language.

This goal is very important for my success as an aerospace engineering programmer. I've already put together a few scripts, but I will likely pick up the remainder of my experience during my graduate research.

3. Lose an additional 30 pounds

This goal is very realistic if I keep up my strong exercise habits. I have weighed as low as 223 from weighing 248. There are only 30 pounds to go. It has been rough and exciting thus far.

4. Create a start-up company for each quarter of the year.

This is a very ambitious goal that will serve to improve several skill sets. Creative and critical thinking, entrepreneurship, business sense, web programming, organization, and communication. At least one of the start-ups will be non-profit.

5. Migrate this blog and document all of my processes thoroughly.

I plan on evolving this blog into a readable format. I've been joking around a lot and it's been fun, but I want to get serious. Not really, there will still be plenty of joking around. The website may just look different.

6. Refine several hobbies.

Practice harmonica at least 30 minutes, 3 times a week. Neighbors love to complain so it has been difficult lately. Practice ice skating for 2 hours, 3 times a week. Continue running 3 times a week for 30 minutes (after completion of C25K), with increases in 2 minutes every 2 weeks. Read at least one hour 3 days a week.

7. Enjoy new hobbies.

Take up two to three of the following activities: amateur astronomy, flying (small planes), complex cooking methods, karate (black belt), guitar, or ballroom dancing. Decision to be made by 1/15/10. Second task decided by 6/15/10. More detailed goals within these hobbies will be developed later.

8. Create an actively maintained budget.

A monetary budget has been absent from my life and I'm certain that its creation will make me a more responsible person.

9. Master LaTex.

So far I'm getting pretty good at LaTeX. I'll probably write an AIAA paper in LaTeX to achieve "mastery". It's very expansive.

10. Something creative.

Be able to recite a poem in a different language by the end of the month, for every month. The poem will change every month, along with its subject. English will occupy the first week of memorization. The twelve languages occupying the last 3 weeks of each month will include German (Jan. and Feb.), Spanish (Mar. and Apr.), French (May, June), Mandarin (July, Aug.), Russian (Sep., Nov.), and I'll probably do something quite different for the last month.

Couch to 5k W7D3 Progress and Pizza

I ran 25 minutes today. The moon was shining very bright for this evening run. Lots of cats on the trail. Fairly uneventful.

I plugged in 2.6575 miles according to my trusty pedometer and when compared to Day 1 and Day 2 of this week, it was a great achievement. Another great achievement is finding out that my units were incorrect. Any time my units are wrong, it's a sad day. Obviously my time is measured in minutes/mile, not miles/minute. I'm not a rocket. Yet.

I'm currently at a pace of 9.41 minutes per mile. That's actually 9 minutes and 25 seconds. That's a dramatic improvement. What's weird is that all I've eaten the last 18 hours is pizza. I've had about 5 slices in total (the great pizza dinner/breakfast combination). I had a little going away party in Downtown Mesa at Queen's Pizzeria and it was delicious. The cheese was so thick that the pizza stayed warm and heavy until the morning. This doesn't sound very healthy. I think that there is still grease between the valleys of my fingerprints.

So a 9:25 mile. That's bonkers! Compared to an 11:09 mile time last time? I gained an entire minute on my average mile time for my 25 minutes. Of course I last alluded to the uncertainty quantification, but we'll smugly ignore any uncertainty this time around.

The whole run was great. I got pumped up beforehand pretty naturally and did some quick jumps and strides to get a feel for my body's preparation. This is a great indicator of whether or not my body feels loose and in the mood to run. I usually have some quirks to do before I feel confident about attacking a task.

It was only two days ago that I was bed-ridden with a flu. Now this is bizarre. I got hit with the flu Thursday night and it brought me way, way down. All of my joints were aching terribly and my arm felt like it wanted to fall off when I was driving. I had a headache, a fever, and I wanted to sleep. I felt miserable. But since I've been exercising, my immune system beat the shit out of my virus. I slept for 12 hours that night and woke up feeling much better. I still had residual dizziness but it wasn't too bad. Some of the symptoms stayed with me the rest of the day. I was about 85%. It was an improvement from feeling about 60% the day before. I suppose 0% would be dead, 20% would be AIDS, 40% would be uncontrollable vomiting, and 100% of my audience would be offended by my scales.

And today I feel awesome. Usually you can tell that your body just recovered from a sickness because of this weird weak feeling that you might get from standing up too fast or something similar. I got it at the 25th minute of running, during my cool down walk. That was a great sign. My immune system is definitely picking up, and the rest of my body is following suit because of my increase in exercise.

So this feels like an interesting transition stage. I can either keep eating like I'm not trying to lose weight, or I can really bear down like I did at the beginning of my routine. And it's going to be very difficult because so many things are happening right now. Lots of temptation and lots of different foods to try!

I'm going to try my best to eat better. It's going to contribute to a healthier lifestyle and eventually ensure stable weight loss. I've lost a lot of weight but there's still a lot to go. And it seems like just the time to turn this routine up a notch.

Couch to 5k W7D2 We are not alone

I ran yesterday and was too tired to post anything. I finished my W7D2 run of 25 minutes with someone following me for the last 8 minutes!

Usually I look around when I run. Even more so when it's 10:30 pm at night and I'm running with headphones on. I won't hear a lot of stuff. But it's a really good habit looking over my shoulder every minute or so, sometimes more or less frequent. I saw a cyclist earlier in my run without lights on his bike, but he didn't really seem like a threat. But at about the 14 minute mark, I saw a red vehicle up ahead that slowed down as I approached the corner...it kind of went quarter-speed as it made its turn and I could tell I was being watched through those darkly tinted windows. It was terribly obvious, but I was watching back. We were about 50 yards apart and closing. But this car continued on its merry way, then decided to go down a back alley which I knew was weird. So I turned the opposite way, going down the other end of the street.

There is a police station on the corner near where I live. This is near my running route. Correction, it's the city police headquarters. There are patrol cars coming out of this thing like soft serve at Sizzler. So it's typically safe. This is the weirdest sketchy action I've noticed so close to my route.

I chalk up the weird, slow car maneuver to someone's curiosity of a jiggling, blue electron cloud of a running man, then hook a left on my running route. I'm about 22 minutes in at that point. I get to the opposite corner of the police station, and I'm running right at it. I see the car again. He's gone down the alley, hooked a right (at least...there was a lot more driving I could have done in the time it took him to drive there), and met me at the intersection. He's sitting at the stop sign. I'm about 20 yards from the intersection. He's not going. I'm watching him the whole time as I stomp along. I'm about to hit the intersection, so I give it my best "boy my legs kind of hurt at 24 minutes" sprint and as I begin to cross his car speeds up past me. I didn't want to get hit by this really weirdly acting vehicle. All of this weird interaction has my mind racing. My heart was already racing because of the running. I decide to stop and stand in front of the police station. If you were to take a picture of me at that time, you would see through the dimly lit atmosphere, a slightly overweight mexican gentleman doubled over with a hand on a lamppost and a sign behind him that read POLICE STATION, YOUR MOVE. I wasn't making much of one. I needed my cool down walk, but I also wanted to wait out this stranger. He made a U-turn at this point. I didn't see him do it, but he came back down the street within seconds. This was the most obvious indicator that he was following me. I'm not sure of the sex of the driver, but I'm going to assume male because I've never had a female stalk me in a crappy red car made to look like a sports car.

The car then hooks a right on my street and I make eye contact (I interpolated, the windows are so dark that I'm staring directly at where the driver would be sitting) the entire time the car passes in front of me. It's going about 20 mph the whole time. I'm sure they saw the police station sign and I'm sure they were somewhat oblivious of this fact before. I stand there until the car gets to the light, about 30 yards down the street. I just stare at the vehicle sitting at the red light. When the light goes green, the driver makes a right turn. This is curious because there is absolutely no traffic out, and no reason to make a right on a green light because the driver had the right of way to make the right at any time. Instead of sitting there for 15 seconds with no blinker. I am a scientist. Too much evidence.

At this point, I run to my place. I call the cops. The conversation goes something like this:

"Hi police department"
"Yeah hi I was running outside RIGHT outside the headquarters and I noticed someone following me in a red car that was outfitted to look like a racing vehicle, maybe like a honda with a spoiler and red dragon tattoos, I suppose they're more like decals, is that the right-"
"Sir do you mean the hq on x and y street?"
"That's correct, and I just want an officer to be aware"

Because this dude (or maybe several dudes) was looking for trouble.

Be safe out there folks. Some people are always looking to ruin your day.

I ran 2.3747 miles in 25 min. Thanks for the data pedometer. This translates to a mile every 10.53 min. Whoa! Marked improvement.

Running sucks. It's going to suck, and be difficult, and you're going to hate it. But the more you do it, you'll get better at it. And your stamina will sharply increase. And you might hate every step, but you will shock yourself at the ability to make another step, and then another. And the next thing you know, you're being chased by a car.

The first minute was not bad. The next ten were terrible. My calf hurt but it just needed to get started. The rest of my leg muscles felt okay. My breathing was fine, but I labored a bit because I was still digesting. Keep in mind that I ate over 6 hours before. It's difficult to run during the day when you haven't eaten within 4 hours, and are not hungry. I usually take down a big meal if I want to run later, then drink water all day until my run. The water helps me digest. This approach has a window of about 1 hour where it's optimal to run. I hit just outside of the window, but the run was fine.

I guess my pace is picking up. That's pretty neat. I hope that I can show a lot of improvement next week as well, and I can't wait to do a 5K in January. This is ridiculous that I've come this far in such a short time. I've noticed a significant different in my body composition (I have HIPS? What is this balderdash?).

Well that was exciting. I hope I don't get stalked next time. I guess the lesson is to hold your ground in those types of situations, and don't be afraid. But don't be stupid either. Don't run at 10 pm at night (I may continue to do this but I'm going to make an effort not to). Run a safe route. However, even if you run a safe route, sometimes the environment can be unpredictable. That's the trufus, Rufus.

Couch to 5k W7D1 Are you kidding me? 7?

Bam! Did Week 7 Day 1. Getting hardcore.

I exploded during the first 8 minutes. Last time I ran 11.16 miles/minute. This time 11.36 miles/minute. Probably a poor idea to explode. Of course, this is within my experimental accuracy (aleatoric uncertainty) and the aforementioned pedometer (epistemic uncertainty).

I finished the 25 minute run with a lot of pain. I set out at the end of Week 6 to find out my best possible mile time (within reason). I never got around to such an activity. I've been nursing a tiny toe that has developed either a blister or athlete's foot. It itches like hell, and if John Madden ever taught me anything-BOOM TOUGH ACTIN' TINACTIN. It even glows red, becomes tesselated in a TRON-like environment, and catches fire, JUST like in the commercials. It hurts but it itches/is extremely satisfying when it is scratched to hell. So I put a band-aid on it. Problem solved, still hurts when I walk (because it's between/under my toe!). So I ran with this impediment (LITERALLY).

Then I experienced a worse pain. I don't know how this was possible considering my toe hurt every other step (because I consistently take steps with the other foot). My shins were shot. They hurt so much tonight it was amazing that I didn't quit after 5 minutes. They even hurt during my cool down walk.

There is a lesson here. The closer you get to the end of the program, the less you should change the parameters. Running five minutes extra for W6D3 was cute but it was also foolish. This program doesn't recommend that time until 2 weeks later. I'm not even going to 30 minutes in week 8, I'm going to 28 minutes. There's a reason. I picked up athlete's foot (likely because of wearing socks to sleep after a run where I was exhausted [ROOT CAUSE]). I had massive shin pains. Don't deviate from the plan unless you really feel like you're being held back, not because you feel like you can do more. You will do more next run (speed not distance).

Also, eat well. I've noticed that my performance would be improved if I ate better. I'm eating garbage off and on. Not sodas, not cakes or cookies (well...some cookies), but snacks, buttery foods, etc. I'm trying to drink plenty of water. I'm eating pizza, which is terrible. I have a lot of food in my fridge so it's the worst time! The great thing is that I'm not a runaway train. I've caught myself numerous times and I'm always watching my calories, especially when I go over. So it's a game of constant observation and corrective action (with sensible allocation for occasional tea & cookies).

Next run should be Tuesday. Hopefully my toe will heal because I've isolated the little bastard from spreading to the rest of my toes and I am washing my feet every time I remove my socks. Washing feet (even my own) is a really weird feeling but oddly satisfying.

Speaking of extremities with high keratin content, I'm going to get a manicure this week. I'm very excited about this opportunity to make my hands look fabulous.

Till' next day I decide to run regardless of the pain...

Couch to 5k W6D3 A patched pothole in the road

Tonight I was supposed to finish off Week 6 Day 3 with a 25 minute run. I did a 30 minute run! It was awesome.

The 30 minute run is supposed to be the longest run of the program. So I'm done! Not really. This program is designed to get me to run for 30 minutes consistently. And I'm going to have to push harder as I go along.

Thanks to this really handy pedo tracker (or pedometer I suppose), I'm able to calculate exactly how slow I'm running. But for 30 minutes!

I pumped myself up for this run. I had no caffeine. Just a lot of water. It felt great. All I drink is water and tea.

Today I ate two slices of pizza, a bag of Peanut M&Ms, a bag of peanut butter crackers, a bag of Fig Newtons (single serving), and a vanilla wafer snack. That's ~$4 into the same vending machine because I worked until 9 pm this evening. But it was filling enough! I ended up having enough processed, crappy energy to support my run.

I was so excited as I was driving home. I was literally cussing myself out in anticipation. Apparently I can get really fired up by doing this. Then I get depressed and there's a wave of self-loathing. Then I don't run and go straight for the ice cream. I think only the first sentence of this paragraph is true.

I ran very well. 30:02 was my final time. 2.688 miles total. I think we can safely assume that 2.6 is a fine number within our experimental accuracy.

That translates to a mile time of almost 12 minutes considering I almost ran 3 miles. Which is interesting because by the end of the program I should be at about 3.1 miles. This is 5k. This is the point. So I'm not done! I don't usually go for distance, put in more effort, etc. I just want to finish running at a more or less constant speed. I know I ran my first mile in about 10 minutes. This is both encouraging and discouraging. I've run more than ever in my whole life. But I've had mile times that were in the 8 minute range. What I really want to do now is my mile time!

I'm going to take a break from C25K and do a 1 mile run for 1 day this week. It'll keep me energized and also help me gather some extra momentum into C25K W7. The big week 7. Three straight days of 25 minute runs! Exciting.

Couch to 5K W6D3 A bump in the road

I wasn't able to finish my run tonight. Stupid stupid stupid.

So I decided to run 3 hours after I'd eaten. And I've been drinking a lot of tea. Tea has caffeine in appreciable amounts. I've also found that I'm growing quite fond (see: addicted) of tea and it is making me dehydrated very easily. I'll find a nearby cafe just to get my fix. And it's a delicious fix.

I only ran 9 minutes 30 seconds today, or a mile. Still, when I think about it, running a mile is great. I mean, if I ran a mile every other day, that would be awesome. But I was supposed to run 25 minutes today. Pretty disappointing. My legs felt great, my head felt great, but my stomach felt awful. I really tried to go as long as I could without throwing up or similar. Similar?

So I'll give it another shot on Monday. I'll rest tomorrow. I won't provide my stomach with a tactical chemical warhead before the run either. I've also noticed that running on 2 days rest can be an OK idea, but 3 days rest is a bad idea. It's like my body is now in a more advanced state, but it has kind of forgotten to tolerate the pain. On 1 day rest I feel my best, but after the long, long runs I know I need an extra day rest. So I'm going to avoid 3 days rest from now on.

In other news, I started using LaTeX, a document preparation system. That's really what it is. It's so remarkably easy to use and so remarkably powerful. Remarkable. Remarkable doesn't even seem like a real word - it just seems like a bunch of jumbled letters - remarkable. I sure am tired. Need caffeine...

But LaTeX also has a default layout for AIAA articles. This is especially neat. I've been using it for work and put together a 30 page document in under 5 hours with complete formatting and equations, WITHOUT internet access. This is a testament to its greatness. I will certainly be using LaTeX for my PhD thesis write-up and any other professional documents.

Till next time, I hope to nail down that 25 minute run. So aggravating, but it was foolish to eat such a big meal. I've learned my lesson, and I'm moving forward.

Couch to 5k W6D2 Ten in 2010

Couch to 5k W6D2 done! It was really nice.

I ran in some nice 45 degree weather at night (feels like 39! can't feel my hands!). The W6D2 run included 10 minutes running, 3 min break, 10 minutes running. It's really great interval training that is preparing me for my next run - a 25 minute behemoth, again, setting a record for the most minutes I've ever run consecutively. I'm really excited.

I finished off my final ten minute run with an extra minute just because I felt great. I can tell that my body is not only making progress but allowing me to push it even harder. It's a really great thing to observe considering I'm not eating as well as I should be!

I've been running (no pun intended ha ha ha) all over the place lately, and it's really straining my schedule. Last night I went to bed at 5 am. Not a good decision! Tonight I wanted to go to bed at 10. I ran at 11. So we see the problem.

The running is not independent of sleep or eating habits, but it's close. I feel awesome when I go running and it's because I can breathe without issue and my body is more than happy to cooperate. It's a different type of endurance that I've never felt that I had (or even thought I could have). It's also very funny to think about the implications. If you see runners or athletes, you look at their bodies, what they've done physically, and you think "yeah that's not bad, I could do that". Well, maybe you don't think that. BUT I HAVE THAT AUDACITY. And I couldn't do what they do. Even if I dropped everything for 10 years and just hit the gym for 4 hours a day, I would still be an aging 32 year old with sub-par talent. The point I'm trying (and so far failing) to make is that people work like hell for the body that they want. It's way more than I ever realized, but it's also way more attainable now than I ever realized. I've discovered an ability I never had before. I can run.

Bring it on, 25 minute asshole. I'm not sure how it's going to go, but I'm confident that I'll just take it in stride (yet another awful pun...).