Posts Tagged achilles
Progress?
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on March 8, 2008
Out of all the problems I’ve had with running injuries, the IT band seems the weirdest. With all my other soft tissue stuff – achilles, quad/calf strains, anterior tibialis, plantar facscia, and patella problems, any pain at all means I can’t run on it. Even a few steps would be enough to make it worse. However, it seems that the IT band can tolerate some discomfort while still making slow day to day progress.
At this point it seems that I can run on it for two or three days and then the irritation builds to a point where I have to take another day or two off. Then, when I come back, I can more or less go around as far as I did when I ran last. When I do run, everything starts off fine and then the area around my knee starts to get tight. It gets progressively tighter and then I’ve got to stop and stretch it. I can do about two rounds of this before it gets so tight that I can’t run on it anymore without the tightness becoming more of a pain. Each round is usually shorter than the previous, to the degree that the second round is about half the time of the first and the third half of the second.
Yesterday was great and I made it about 28 minutes total. I did the same today but I definitely let the pain take over a little which probably wasn’t a good idea, so I’ll probably be off at least tomorrow and maybe Monday. Then I’ll try again. It seems that now most of the problem is around where the IT band attaches to the tibia, which is where everything first started. At one point today I could feel the whole thing yanking at my hip, however.
It does seem like this is taking forever and I’m willing to bet it will be at least another month of this, maybe more. As long as the weather stays warm like it’s been, I’ll probably get better more quickly. It’s just been awhile since I’ve had an injury that lasts months and even longer since I’ve had one that kept me off the bike. The elliptical really sucks, but I probably will never get used to it.
Third Semester = Done
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on December 14, 2007
As of yesterday, I’ve finished my third semester in graduate school. At this point, however, the contrast between work in one semester and the next is starting to blur. Things are seemingly no more semester to semester but now are more blended together.
Since the due dates for my Masters project are so early, I’ve made an effort to get everything rolling on that. For what I am doing, there appears to be a lot of licensing issues that have to be worked out and it’s taking some time to get all the paperwork. Good thing I tried to start early, because the CS office admin told me that 50% of students don’t finish their project in time and have to get their degrees in the summer. Yuck.
But it might not matter. Here I was a month ago, really getting tired of the day to day school stuff, just waiting to get my degree and leave. And then, an opportunity struck that I will probably never get again. I was approached by one of my professors about a possible RA position if I wanted to stay for my PhD. I hadn’t even considered this before, since I never really considered myself to be “PhD material”. I do know that if I leave school, I won’t be going back. I met with the prof who would provide the RA position, who specializes in Wireless Sensor Networks. It’s a new, up and coming area of research for computer science and there are so many applications for it. I took a class that dealt with it last semester and I’ll be taking another in the spring. I think it would be a good research area for me and being a PhD student would allow me to focus on fleshing out some of the ideas I’ve had in class projects. It seems that there are a lot of things that would be good to work on more in depth, but classes and the end of the semester always get in the way. Having no classes and just doing research would allow me to do that.
Anyways, this would mean I could potentially be here for another three to four years. That’s ten years here in Williamsburg. Already, my freshman year of college seems so long ago and everything seems so much different now. I can’t imagine what I will think of it if I leave in another three or four years.
I was thinking that next semester would be really easy since I would only have to take one other class on top of my project to graduate, the wireless sensor networks class. Now, for the PhD, I need another class. Between three required classes and four electives 600 level or above, I have to get a 3.7 average. That is going to make things tough. Two classes I just finished will also count towards those seven classes and I’m hoping I did well in both of them. The two classes in the spring would also count towards those four electives and I will have to bust my butt to do well. Otherwise, I’ll have to take something in the fall and push back my PhD candidacy until I finish. Hopefully I can pull it off, because the only two other classes available next spring that I haven’t taken and also fulfill the PhD requirements seem pretty hard. One is a really programming heavy advanced compilers class which everyone I knew that took last year said took a lot of time and work. The other is a theory class that seems to mostly deal with NP-completeness with weekly written assignments. My math background isn’t that strong, but I’ve gotten through two similar algorithms classes. I’ll have to decide which will be better.
In the spring, I also want to try my hand at a marathon, so that should also make things interesting. At this point, though, my priorities are really going to shift. If the going gets tough, something is going to have to give, which probably means my training. Depending on my class schedule, I might not be able to make it to practice most days anyways, so running on my own will free up some time. I know most of my professors seemed concerned last year when I was still on the travel roster because they thought it would really screw with my performance. I managed to prove them wrong, but it seems that the PhD track is yet another level of intensity that I haven’t experienced yet.
This fall I didn’t really do any hard core training for anything. I did a road race at home over Thanksgiving that was more of a workout and I planned to do an indoor 3k last weekend, but I was worried about my achilles so I didn’t go. That’s one good thing about not being on the team — I can decide when I’m at the breaking point and back off. I would rather not race and still be able to run than vice versa. In terms of training this fall, I did some workouts on my own and attempted to do a couple with the team but got completely owned. I’m not in the shape I used to be in, but maybe with a plan I can make some progress. For the marathon, I’ve got to gain weight so I can have more energy to expend over long distances. Apparently the big thing with the marathon is getting your body used to drinking and eating stuff midway through the race so you don’t crash. The dining hall food has really sucked which is part of the problem for me right now. It’s been affecting my every day runs since I can tell I don’t have the same energy. Standing in line for 10 minutes for 3 strands of watery spaghetti just doesn’t cut it. If I don’t deal with this now, I’ll just get injured like I did in the summer.
This whole thing is going to be a big adventure for me. I have nothing to lose, except if something weird happens and I don’t finish my project, decide not to stay for the PhD, and wind up graduating in the summer. I guess in the long run that doesn’t matter too much.
Over break, I’ll have to get going on my M.S. project as well as continue work for NASA Ames. Ames has a list of stuff for my visualization plug in that they want finished. It seems every time I fire it up there are more bugs. Hopefully I can clean it up and get done what they want while still having time for my school project. I don’t want to burn out before the spring semester starts, either. The best thing is that I can do all of this from home on my own time. I don’t have to go to an office from 9 to 5 when I worked during the winter before. It sucked running in the dark, driving home in the dark, and not seeing daylight except when I drove to work in the morning.
For the most part, the weather has been great this fall. I remember freezing my butt off walking back from class at this point in the year. It makes things more enjoyable when the climate is more temperate. Also, my winter coat has a broken zipper.
Hopefully I’ll be out of here within an hour or two so the traffic won’t be too bad on the way home. I’ve got another meeting to attend two and then I’ll really be finished.
September
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on September 26, 2007
Since I started school I practiced with the team for a week and a half or so, did two fairly easy workouts and then the left achilles gave out. I guess I really screwed myself up over the summer.
I started biking last week and the last time I biked was right when I got home from California. I noticed I felt a lot stronger this time. Before I would go up a small hill and feel exhausted after I got to the top. Now, I get tired, but then recover quickly.
I noticed recently that I am becoming more motivated again. For awhile I didn’t feel like doing anything but now I’m getting back into doing schoolwork, games are becoming more entertaining and can hold my attention, and little itch-scratching project ideas are returning. For example, I wish RSS feeds/sites would display the full text of their articles. That way I don’t have to look at a page jammed with irritating ads flashing crap all over the place. In addition, links and other text and images that I don’t want to see would also be gone. I could create a condensed report from all my favorite sites, print it out, and read it when I am somewhere with no computer. So, the challenge would be to recognize news/post article text while discarding everything else. The RSS partial feed would help identify the start of the full text, but some web pages cram in ads and other formatting inside the article text. An HTML parser would help some, but some kind of language recognition would be needed to detect something that doesn’t fit with the rest of the text.
So, I’ve been on my own most of the time since school really seems to have picked up. Biking takes a lot more time than running and it’s nice to be able to do things when I want to (in the morning if I can) and not screw around. At the same time I really miss going to the meetings and talking to everyone. It’s a lot easier and more enjoyable to run and bike if there are other people to go with.
I got a bunch of stuff to do for class projects which has been taking up a big portion of my time, but it’s better to get started early than to cram everything in at the end. I also spoke with one of my professors about a Master’s project which I can get started on anytime. I’ll probably wait until winter break when I don’t have all the other classes bearing down on me. Everything is about set up to work with the people at Ames from school and I’ll get some kind of plan as to what to do this week. Unfortunately, everything got set up just as all the school work started.
So, I am starting to get things done. It’s hard to get started on stuff, but once you get going it isn’t too bad.
Over the past month, I’ve played and beat Bioshock. It was the first game I’ve played through in a long time. It was a solid game, but was missing much of the RPG element I expected. System Shock 2 had much more of that in it. I liked the game mostly because the atmosphere and gameplay were different than the average FPS. The plasmids and weapons were unusual and made things interesting. The ability to hack stuff and change your abilities with different plasmids made things fun too. Some of it was dumbed down from System Shock though. The plot, however, was almost exactly like System Shock. The same exact plot twist happened at the same exact point in the game. I knew it was coming from the start.
I also started on Tiberium Wars this weekend and so far it’s another sequel that keeps the spirit of the original. The cut scenes really help with the whole C&C vibe and I recognize a ton of the actors from other TV shows/movies, which usually isn’t the case in a video game. I’ve played a few missions as GDI and so far it feels very similar to the first C&C as well as Red Alert. Tiberium Wars seems to be a bit faster paced, if not chaotic. I tend to build a bunch of units and then wind up hurling them at the enemy base or protecting my own if I’m under attack. Many times I find it hard to build a reasonable strategy since it seems things happen so fast. Air support is underrated, though. I’ve used it several times to sneak past enemy lines and take out objectives and win without a direct assault on the enemy base.
Apparently my dad got an Xbox along with Halo 3 so that might be the impetus to go home again this weekend, given my achilles holds up. Home cooked food is another enticement. I’ll also be able to see Sarah again. I just have to make sure I am on top of my work. I get most of my computer games from him when he finishes them, but I’m surprised he got a console. The xbox is probably the best choice out of all the consoles in terms of hardware and games that interest me, especially since most cross platform games seem to run and look better on the console from what I hear. Then they do a crappy port to the PC.
That brings back another memory. I remember we were the first household I knew of to set up a LAN, I think it was in late 1995 or 1996. It used that coaxial cable like the TV cable uses and was decentralized in such a way that you didn’t need a hub or router, 10 Base-T I think. The first thing we did with it was play games. I remember Mechwarrior, Quake, and Red Alert took on a whole new level of excitement with multiplayer, especially since dial-up was so slow for stuff like that. It’s probably why I liked the original C&C games so much. I would play long battles with my dad and middle school friends and it was a huge change from playing against dumb AI opponents. Plus you could hear the screams of someone in the next room when you pummeled them with a rocket launcher or steamed a fleet of cruisers alongside their base. But now, multiplayer is the norm, and so some of that excitement has worn away. I just wish some of the people I knew played computer games. Plenty of them play console games, so maybe I should convert.
Here I go again
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on August 29, 2007
I’ve said this before, but each year at school is about 90% the same with the other 10% being completely different. For example, my room and roommate are different, the computer science office has been changed to have tile floors and we all got new computers with two 20-inch widescreen monitors. Everyone looks younger. There is a lot of construction going on that wasn’t before. This time I think a lot more has changed now that I am off the team. Everything just feels different. I don’t feel the pressure of having to perform at a certain level every day. If I don’t feel good one day, it doesn’t matter.
My achilles has been feeling better and I’ve been running some, but I still don’t have my strength completely back. I don’t feel “normal”. I have every intention of working out and running with the team again, but I don’t think I would fare very well in my current condition. Maybe by next week or the week after I can show up for maintenance runs and then for workouts later on. Currently, my class schedule doesn’t conflict with practice times except for the colloquium, but I’m not too sure if I want to keep it.
The apartment I’m in this year is definitely better than the one last year. There is a lot more space, both in the common areas and in my room. I also like being on the second floor a lot better and the window gets a lot more sunlight in too.
I usually wind up doing almost all my school work in my room. For the past few years, I’ve really come to dislike the institutional and cumbersome furniture that the school provides. The chairs are unbelievably uncomfortable and the desks are way too small. They seem to have been designed before computers were commonplace. Yesterday, I finally put an end to my misery and drove the two hours to the IKEA in Northern Virginia to get a cheap desk and swivel chair with arms. None of the office supply stores had a simple desk with a large surface area or a decent swivel armchair. The stuff they did have was way out of my price range. I finally now have enough space on the desk to have my desktop and laptop as well as space to do written work. I won’t have to shuffle everything around. The only problem will be dismantling everything and getting it home. I don’t know if the desk is durable enough to survive the move.
Right now for school, I’m in an intro compiler course, advanced operating systems, and the advanced algorithms class. I was thinking that the compiler course may not be the best choice and I would stand to gain more by taking another class, but I have a feeling I’ll have my hands full with the other two classes. This may especially be true since I haven’t had the regular operating system class. I also don’t know much about compilers at all, so it might turn out okay. Also, my schedule is great — nothing before 11 AM and nothing after 3 PM.
I guess the next few days will tell how my classes will work out.
Back East
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on August 24, 2007
It’s all over now. This summer is, at least.
Last week my presentation went pretty well, but I lost my place twice and forgot what I was going to say. I stood there like an idiot for a few seconds until I could remember. That’s how it goes, I guess. You just have to practice until you get it right.
Before I left, I met with my supervisor who said I could work part time during school if I wanted. That sounds great since it would be really flexible, unlike becoming a TA/grader with the Computer Science department. I could only work a few hours a week if school got tough. He also said I could go full time during winter break and I could work completely from home just like a few of the other guys in our team. Hopefully I can get everything set up for that within a few weeks because the beginning of school always has the least amount of work.
My mom came in Thursday afternoon and took Caltrain from the airport to Mountain View. I came by around noon and picked her up. That was pretty easy.
On Friday I met with everyone for the last time and went over my source code. I was very surprised nobody really complained about it. In fact, nobody really made any suggestions about changing my code, which was really surprising. Everyone said if I was able to fix the few bugs that still remain it could be released in the next version.
Friday afternoon I was able to leave early and my mom and I drove into San Francisco and walked along the Embarcadero. We went into Pier 39 and saw sea lions duking it out on the dock. We bought some sourdough bread which we took with us on the trip back and was really good.
For dinner we met our old neighbors again at the Fog City Diner. I got this dish with crab, scallops, clams, and scallops in a broth. I had never ordered anything before where you had to break apart the crab to get at the meat. It was kind of messy for only a little meat, but still good.
On the way back I realized that this was my last trip to San Francisco and down the 101 towards Moffett. I really didn’t want to leave.
Day 1 (Saturday): Mountain View, CA to Williams, AZ:
The following morning I got up early and biked on the usual route, but there wasn’t nearly as much traffic so I wasn’t caught at all the lights. It was weird realizing that this was also my last few hours in California and I would be heading home.
We got the car packed up and left around 9:30 from Moffett and headed down 101, crossed over to I-5 around Gilroy, and then took CA 58 through Bakersfield and Barstow before getting on I-40. We stopped outside of Bakersfield at a Subway for lunch. They served avocados on their subs That part of California isn’t that nice. It’s hot, dry, and smoggy. I definitely wouldn’t want to live there. There were also tons of trucks carrying tomatoes and melons. After getting on I-40, we passed into the Sierra Nevada — this far south it wasn’t nearly as spectacular as on I-80, more like a handful of desert hills. There were a lot of ghost towns out there.
There was an aircraft graveyard and a ton of windmills in Mojave. The whole area was hot, dusty, and dry. I can’t believe that Dan and his friend hiked through that for the first month or so of their trip on the Pacific Crest Trail. That whole area is inhospitable and I couldn’t imagine walking for days in the desert.
We got to Needles, CA, along the Colorado, at around 6 PM Pacific and stopped at a Denny’s. It was the only place around. Needles was a ghost town, even on a Saturday evening. Gas there was insane — like $3.57 or something, while even in Mountain View it was under $3.00. Afterwards, my mom and I continued across the Colorado into Arizona with anothe two and a half hours to go until Williams. I drove the windy, hilly, and desolate roads through the sunset and into the dark. Signs every mile warned of deer and elk and everyone around us had their high beams on to look out for them. We passed a place called Black Mesa. It wasn’t much different looking than the Black Mesa from Half Life. There were plenty of striated sandstone mesas that faded into the darkness along the way. We finally got to Williams around 9:30 Pacific and we were both exhausted. It was over 10 and a half hours of driving that day.
Day 2 (Sunday): Williams, AZ to Amarillo, TX:
The second day sucked because of the time change. We lost two hours that day because Arizona is on Pacific time for the summer and Mountain time in the winter. Finishing the day in Texas meant we would be on Central time, so we only went 9 hours that day. My mom had thought about driving up to the Grand Canyon, but a couple hours out of the way would have slowed things down a lot. Instead, we headed out of Williams on I-40 instead of going north to the Grand Canyon.
This day had a lot of scenery changes. Near Flagstaff there were mountains and forests of pine trees, but crossing into the eastern part of the state there were more deserts. We went by the Painted Desert, Meteor Crater, and the Petrified Forest. I had been to all of these places when I was little and only remembered bits and pieces. It was possible to see chunks of petrified logs as well as some of the Painted Desert from the interstate.
New Mexico was more arid and dry and was like Mojave, but with more scrubby vegetation. There were also bigger mountains. We drove through a few canyons which were pretty cool. When we got to Albuquerque, we went into the downtown area and drove around the Old Town and stopped at the University of New Mexico. Their classes were starting the next day. It was also incredibly hot there but fortunately no humidity.
The rest of New Mexico was pretty desolate and flat. There was some grass and cattle, and that was about it. We stopped at a steakhouse for dinner in some forgotten town. The beef was good, though. Not long after, we passed into Texas, which was more of the same endless flat terrain.
Day 3 (Monday): Amarillo, TX to Forrest City, AR:
We got in over ten hours this day and had time to do some sightseeing since we were on Central time the whole day. Texas on I-40 was just flat and grass as it had been the day before. There was almost nothing there. Oklahoma had some of that, but more trees cropped up as we headed east towards Oklahoma City.
We stopped in Oklahoma City at a deli for lunch and walked to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. I remember seeing the memorial on the news when it was finished. It was pretty interesting to see. There is a big reflecting pool and a metal chair for each person who died. I remember hearing somewhere that no references to the bombers themselves are made either in the memorial or the museum next door. I didn’t see any.
I nearly fell asleep on the drive from Oklahoma until we stopped in Little Rock for dinner. It was just rolling hills and trees and wasn’t much different than I-64 from Williamsburg to Richmond. We went to a Cracker Barrel and got a huge pile of food. My mom and I shared everything we got and I wound up eating most of her pecan pancakes. They were really good. There was also this hash brown casserole which I liked that I got as part of my dish.
From Little Rock it was only about another 45 minutes or so to Forrest City.
Day 4 (Tuesday): Forrest City, AR to Christiansburg, VA:
This was the last full day of driving and was another ten hours. We started the day just switching to Eastern time so it would be easier later on. There wasn’t much traffic going into Memphis, but there were a few nasty car accidents on the other side of the highway that made things a mess for everyone going the other way. Looking at the map, I noticed Mississippi was only about 10 miles from where we were so my mom drove 20 minutes out of the way just so I could say I had been there. Now I’ve been to all the southern states. I doubt I would have reason to return to Mississippi, so I’m glad we stopped.
There was well over 500 miles of driving in Tennessee, about as much as Sarah and I did in Nebraska on the way out, but this was a lot better since there were several big cities (Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville), more traffic, and hills and mountains. Still, I made sure to get a Mountain Dew at lunch so that I could stay awake for my portion of the drive. I don’t drink stuff with caffeine much so I can really feel it when I get some. It’s like chemically induced awakeness — I can tell I’m not supposed to be as alert as I am. When it wears off I can really tell too, but by that time we had almost made it to Virginia after getting off I-40 and on to I-81.
I had never been to that little corner of Virginia before, so even that was a first for me. There was a Bob Evans in Wyethville that we stopped at for dinner, and again, it wasn’t much farther to Christiansburg.
Day 5 (Wednesday): Christiansburg, VA to Virginia Beach, VA:
Finally, the last day of driving. The car was a mess on the outside and I was anxious since I hadn’t run or biked since we left California. It was a little over 5 hours on US 460 from Christiansburg back to Virginia Beach. There was almost no traffic until we got to Petersburg, so it was probably a good way to go.
It was weird coming back home after all this time and especially after driving from the west coast. It was great to get out of the car and bike. I went down to the oceanfront and back and it was a welcome release. Of course, it was overcast with jungle-esque humidity with some rain.
My achilles was really sore the day after I tried running on it before I left California. I tried again yesterday but it was pretty tight during the run so I cut it short after about 20 minutes. Fortunately, it wasn’t sore today, only pretty tight. I may try going in the afternoons instead of the morning so it will be looser. Hopefully it will improve soon.
Basically I only have a day or two before I go back to school with school starting next Wednesday. I feel really rushed, but that’s how it goes. Going back to school always sucks, but after a week or so I get into a routine and it’s fine.
Well, my trip this summer has come full circle and now it’s back to the same old stuff. I’m glad I had this experience, though, because it was like nothing else I’ve ever done.
Mountain Stage
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on August 14, 2007
Saturday morning I did the same ride I had done before on Friday — out and back along the Foothill Expressway. I went farther this time and went past the Stanford campus. There were more cyclists out there than cars, it seemed. A few groups of people blew by me — something that would never happen at home. Still, it was cool to be out there with a whole ton of other cyclists instead of being alone as I usually am when at home or in Williamsburg.
Saturday I went to a bike shop in Palo Alto to look at tires. I wasn’t sure that I would buy any, but when I got there I noticed they had the same tires I already have. Just by comparing those to the ones on my bike, I could definitely tell I needed new ones. I forked over the cash and put them on that night.
Sunday was a mistake. I decided to try a loop I picked out from looking at the map. I went south into Sunnyvale and then turned west. I only wanted to go a little over an hour since I had gone farther the day before. The roads in Sunnyvale and Cupertino sucked for cycling. There were way too many lights and I hit nearly every one of them. There were a ton of cars. Once I got past Highway 85, traffic thinned out and I found the road that I intended to take back towards Los Altos and Mountain View. This road was narrow and windy and it started to get hilly. Mountains loomed closer as I went and the hills got worse. A few other cyclists whipped by me going the other way.
The mistake came when I came to an intersection and went the wrong way. I remember seeing signs, but none of the places were of anywhere I knew, so I stayed on the road I was on. I should have turned. Instead, I went straight, up some more hills, and then had a big downhill past some wineries into a canyon. I should have known I was going the wrong way when the vegetation changed from arid chaparral to large fir trees that I’ve seen in the mountains.
When I got to the bottom of the downhill, there was another intersection and I incorrectly assumed that this was the road I was supposed to take back to Mountain View.
It was the road to hell.
Actually, the road itself was hell. It was the start of an endless climb that took me at least 45 minutes to get to the top. The road headed up into the mountains and met with Skyline Boulevard. I didn’t know this when I started and figured I was going the right way. But it became obvious as I kept going up and up and up and up. I was in the smallest gear and it hurt. I knew for sure I was going the wrong way when I got out of the canyon and started to gain altitude and see everything laid out below. Plenty of cyclists flew down the mountain the other way but I only passed one other guy on my way up.
I thought about turning around but I didn’t give up hope that there would be a shortcut to take me back. There wasn’t one. I got to the top and saw signs for Santa Cruz and San Francisco and it was then that I knew I was in for a long ride. I was already over an hour and a half in. I had gained around 2700 feet in altitude since leaving Moffett, which is at sea level, and probably climbed more than that to get out of that canyon. I took the right towards San Francisco and headed along Skyline, which was fortunately not too hilly.
Somehow there were packs of other cyclists up there along the ridge. I can’t see why anyone would endure all that suffering just to get up there. I would say that running up the mountains is just as hard as cycling — meaning maximum effort. Eventually I got to Page Mill and started a long, windy descent. It took as long to get down the mountain as it did to get up and I was flying. Finally, I made it into Palo Alto and headed back through the neighborhoods to Mountain View and Moffett. I didn’t get back until nearly 1 PM. I stretched, took a long shower, and collapsed in a chair for the rest of the afternoon.
I wanted to go into San Francisco on Sunday, but I was wiped. I watched Taxi Driver on my computer and read some the rest of the afternoon. That was a weird movie. I’m not sure what the writer’s intent was with that film. It’s hard to tell if the main character is good or bad, especially at the end. The personality of De Niro’s character seems to be not unlike that of a school shooter. He is lonely and desperate at the beginning and then something snaps at the end and he goes off the deep end on a rampage.
The past two days I’ve just stuck to the same out and back route. It’s cold in the mornings on the bike. I’ve been getting up earlier, though. When I get back it’s a lot warmer, so it’s hard to figure out what to wear. This morning I rode for awhile with a guy who was going about my pace. He had a Bianchi as well, along with the same tires as me. His bike was a lot more expensive than mine. This guy also sprinted to beat a traffic light and just flew away from me like I was standing still. I really don’t have the legs to do that. Heck, I can’t even run like that. Then, after I get back into Moffett, a base cop stops me and says I have to stop at every stop sign. It’s a major pain to do that with clips. Yesterday when I stopped at a light I lost my balance and fell flat on the pavement. Now my right leg is all bruised and sore. Regardless, the cops around here are insane. I understand there are laws, but give me some slack.
My achilles appears better, but I’m not sure when I want to try running again. I would like to go tomorrow but I am not in any rush. I don’t want it to come back, so I am considering waiting until Thursday.
Today we went out to a sushi bar for lunch since I am leaving at the end of the week. I usually don’t eat lunch since I eat a decent amount at breakfast and don’t get hungry again until dinner. I don’t like the whole social pressure associated with food and eating. There was a big thing in the news about how if your friends are fat, you probably will be too. I can see why that is when there is a huge influence from your peers to make you eat what they want when they want to. When you refuse it’s like you are some kind of whack job.
Anyways, I had never been to a sushi place like that before and have only had it once or twice. It was really good, though.
I give my presentation tomorrow on my work and I am more or less set for that. My mom comes in on Thursday and then we leave on Saturday. It’s going to be weird leaving here and then going right back to school. Transitions are always hard for me, especially fast ones. I won’t be at home barely at all, so I am considering going home more during the semester since I don’t have any more meets or mandatory practices. Sarah will be at home, too, so I can see her too.
August
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on August 7, 2007
School is creeping up on me fast. Three weeks from tomorrow will be my first day of my last year of school. At least it will be if I don’t go beyond a master’s degree. Work is coming to an end and I am working on a couple feature requests that would be good to finish before I leave. I’ve also got a presentation to give next week on what I’ve done this summer.
Over the weekend I saw the new Bourne movie. Despite going to the 11 AM showing, the place was packed. I would say it was the best movie I’ve seen this summer. The action sequences were intense and much more involved than in Die Hard. Bourne seems to take a lesson from the earlier Bond movies and beats the crap out of his assailants using objects that are lying around in plain sight (books, towels). This started in the first movie and continued through to this one. I would say that the first movie was the best, followed by this one, and then the second. The car chase in this movie wasn’t as good as the first and my only other complaint was the overuse of really shaky cameras zoomed in too close to everything. Sometimes it was hard to tell what was going on. Of course, by this point the movie was nothing at all like the book of the same name, but I guess that was to be expected considering what happened in the second movie. I liked the tie-ins to the earlier movies and also that some kind of closure was reached in the end, which was very similar to what happened in the first book.
Following Bourne, I drove to Rancho San Antonio Park to do my run. I had planned to do my long run there, but wound up cutting it short. I just didn’t feel right and my achilles started to bother me. I can tell when something is going to be a problem, and the achilles was definitely giving me its warning signs. Of course, the part of the park I had gone into last weekend was the only flat part and everything else was straight up into the mountains again. This did not help the achilles, and was probably the main reason it really started bothering me. It was also really hot despite being 10 minutes away from the much cooler Moffett. Still, as I climbed up the mountains, the views of the bay were awesome. The trail eventually got too steep to run at a reasonable pace, so I turned around and went back down.
I went by Trader Joe’s and the grocery store on the way back but didn’t get that much since I’ve got a bunch of stuff lying around and in the freezer that I should probably use before I leave.
I decided not to run on Sunday because of the achilles. I thought about biking, but decided not to. In the afternoon I headed to San Jose and the Winchester Mystery House. I had been there when I was little, but don’t remember too much about it. There were a ton of people there and it took awhile before my tour started so I walked around the gardens surrounding the house. The house in its current environment is weird enough to begin with. It’s right in the middle of Downtown San Jose. There is a parking garage and skyscraper across the street, a movie theater next door, and a freeway on the other side. Then, right in the middle, is this giant victorian-era mansion with an elaborate garden surrounding it. It’s way out of place.
The tour was pretty good, but didn’t cover too much that I hadn’t already read on Wikipedia before I went. The guide seemed to be younger than I was — it was probably his summer job, but he seemed pretty enthusiastic about everything.
Most of the house was unfurnished save for a few of the more important rooms, and many of the rooms weren’t even coated in plaster, still damaged from the 1906 earthquake. The house looked exactly like you would think a house would look when rooms and floors were spontaneously and continuously added for 38 years. There were windows in the floor, windows that looked into other rooms, doors that led to a three story drop, and a staircase that went right into the ceiling. There were all kinds of tiny passageways and secret doors. Since Sarah Winchester had an obsession with the number 13, there were often 13 windows in various rooms, 13 colors in the stained glass of the windows, 13 steps between floors, 13 gas candles in the chandeliers, and even 13 overflow drain holes in one of the sinks. Many of the rooms were nearly pitch black while others were completely covered in glass windows and were very bright. Since Sarah Winchester wasn’t very tall and had arthritis, many of the staircases were replaced with small one-inch steps that snaked their way up to the next floor. This wound up being good for me because of the achilles.
On the way back I stopped at an REI and got some OTC orthotics/shoe inserts for my shoes since the custom ones I have now are shot. I had never been to an REI before since there aren’t any near home, but it turned out to be nothing more than I could find at a Dick’s. They had some good stuff on sale but of course it was way too big.
On Monday I decided to take another day off since I still felt my achilles some during the night. The day seemed much shorter going straight in to work. I also felt really weird, just not myself. I also made the good decision of wearing my trail shoes instead of the loafers that I normally wear to work. It’s a lot more comfortable to walk in those and as I have noticed, wearing jeans is about as dressy as it gets around here. I see people in shorts occasionally.
Through the night and morning my achilles felt pretty good, so I got up early and ran about six miles. There was definitely some tightness, but not the feeling I had on Saturday. I’ll have to see how it goes the next few days. I may actually have to get on the bike depending on what happens.
I decided to cancel my web hosting since I hadn’t been keeping up with maintenance and nobody really used the site anyways. Everything seems like it’s winding to an end. I like the weather out here a lot as well as the general atmosphere of everything that is going on, but it is kind of lonely being out here by myself. I’ve met a few people, but it’s always hard for me to be proactive in forming relationships. Sometimes on the team it would take me a month and a half to match the names and faces of the new freshmen despite spending several hours a day with them. In some ways I want to go back home and to school just to be in familiar surroundings again and to see people I know, but a lot of those that I know have graduated and moved on. At the same time I enjoy having cool weather to run in since it’s oppressive at home and interesting places to visit every weekend. I also like the feeling that I’m right in the middle of what’s up and coming in terms of the computer science field instead of in Williamsburg, where everything big seems so far away.
kaboom
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on March 15, 2007
After three months of training, I gave out again and now I’ve got the same knee injury I had in the fall. This time was different, however. I saw it coming. Naturally, I didn’t do enough to prevent it.
I find that when I get to about two or three months into the training cycle I am at the greatest risk of getting hurt. This time was no exception. I can see the signs, which are mostly just being beat up, but especially small irritating things like sore achilles or hamstring. Stuff like that really sets off the alarm bells that something bad could happen. When I feel exhausted even after a non workout day, I know that something is amiss.
I was about this close to asking if I could adjust my training and throw in a down week last week. This close. But I didn’t do it, figuring that everything would be okay. And then, after last Wednesday’s workout, I find myself limping around the apartment.
Of course, it takes me four more days of running with increasing pain to convince myself that I’ve got a serious injury and can’t run until it’s better.
So, in the meantime, I’ve been sentenced to the bike. It could be weeks until this goes away. It took three last time. On the plus side, it might give me much needed rest so that I will be able to finish my last season feeling good. In the past, I’ve been able to blast a couple good races even with injuries a few weeks prior. Last spring, when I didn’t get hurt, I ran out of gas at the end, most likely because I wasn’t used to running for six months straight.
Spring break has been pretty uneventful. I went home last weekend but am back here at school since I’ve been asked to for practice. Not that I’ll be able to do what everyone else is doing. Personally, I would rather stay home since I wouldn’t have to pay for food. The dining halls don’t open again until Sunday. The weather’s been great at home for biking, but that will change tonight and it will be back to cold again. At least being at school will allow me to get more work done before class starts next week.
At this point in the fall, the halfway point was the marker between no schoolwork and onslaught. This seems to be the case this spring as well. Suddenly, all this stuff I have to do has popped up. It’s going to be a tough finish again, compounded in the short term by my injury (Biking takes more time than running) and in the long term by racing. But, I’ve had tough semesters before and have still been able to work in training and racing. I’ve got to do the best I can in everything because I don’t have much school or running left.
All the internship stuff for this summer is set. I’ve got a reservation at the NASA Ames Exchange Lodge where most other interns stay and I’ve done all the paperwork (that I know of) for the internship itself. It should be an interesting experience and I can’t wait to go, but there is a lot to do between now and then. One thing that will be weird is that I’ll have to cook my own food on a regular basis for the first time.
It’s kind of hard for me to believe that the semester is nearly halfway over in terms of time. It definitely isn’t in terms of work and I have a feeling that it will slow down as it progresses. It will be a challenge to hold everything together, that’s for sure.
It’s happening
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on February 24, 2007
On Wednesday I got an email from my boss from last summer that the NASA guys were checking my references. At that point I realized they were seriously considering me for the internship. Then, on Thursday I had a follow-up phone interview with someone who was in the same research group as the person in the first interview. This one wasn’t as long, but covered much of the same things as the first one, focusing on my experience with Java. Again, I talked about the Software Engineering class I took with its massive class project as well as a networking class I took that used Java. I also talked about the Java GUI experience I had and general software development practices that I followed at work and learned at school.
I was getting worried because I had to let Lockheed Martin know what I was going to do by this Sunday. It was really coming down to the wire. Last night when I got back to my room, I got an email that I had been pretty much accepted at NASA Ames and only some details needed to be worked out. Today, I sent my response to everyone involved that I would be going to NASA.
This is something I have wanted to do for quite a long time. I really want to see what it’s like to live somewhere far from home, especially with the notoriously awesome summer weather of Northern California. The internship work itself sounds great too and will probably be something that will keep my hands full all summer.
At this point, I’ll probably drive out there so I can have a car. Someone will probably have to go with me since there is no way I can drive 10-12 hours straight for four days. This will combine three things I’ve really wanted to do into one package: road trip, living on the west coast, and an interesting job. For me, it’s about the excitement equivalent of breaking 14 minutes in the 5k. Maybe I can do that in the next few months too, who knows?
It seems there are a few things to be worked out, mainly the starting date and housing. If I run at regionals, I’ll only have a little more than a week to leave school, pack my stuff at home, and get to California. If finals are as tough as they were last semester, things could be rough, but I’ll be finished with those a little earlier in May. With housing, it sounds like there is a hotel/lodge kind of deal on the NASA Ames campus from what I have read on the internet, so maybe I’ll be able to stay there. That would really help with commuting, too.
On the flip side, the internship is at about step 1500 on my to-do-list, and I’m currently on step 5. There is a whole lot of stuff that will happen between now and then. With school, I’ve got some homework assignments and then some projects coming up. With running, assuming I don’t get hurt or sick, I’ve got a lot of training to do and quite a few races. IC4As is in Boston next weekend, which is a pretty big deal. I ran the qualifying time for IC4As at Virginia Tech last weekend that should put me in fast heat of the 5k, but I’ve been worried about my sore calves turning into an achilles injury.
Regardless, there is a lot going on. It was also this time last year that I found out I got into grad school. This year, it’s the internship. A lot of the seniors on the team who have applied to graduate school are hearing back. It should be interesting to see where they end up.
Despite having the promise of an exciting future, I’ve got to take things one day at a time. I’ve only got a few months left of being on the team and I really want to take advantage of that. I don’t have that much more school left, either, so I have to live in the present and enjoy what I’ve got.
A mad dash to the end of the semester
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on April 16, 2005
Well, it turns out that I got accepted to the internship I interviewed for during the previous week, but I am having doubts about taking it. The main issue being that I will most likely do a bit of post season racing since I haven’t had much of a season to begin with. This means that I’ll be out of town a lot, and won’t be able to work 40 hour weeks. I don’t think everyone will take too kindly to that, at least at the place where I applied. Right now my priority is running, as opposed to work, and it’s hard for people who have been in the workforce for awhile to understand that. Also, it will be a real pain to find a place to live considering that the company I applied to has never had an intern before nor do they have anyone to help me relocate to central VA. So on top of rent, food, gas, and all other incidental expenses, I’ll be out at least as much money as I make. If it were an internship in a more interesting location, I might make some sacrifices, but as it is, I think I have more to gain by working at home.
We also had the whole housing assignment lottery today, and I wound up with Schoener and four other guys on the team in a suite/apartment right by the Caf and Hall. That was pretty much as good as it could get considering that Schoener had one of the first lottery numbers. There were only two or three groups ahead of us. So at least that is settled for next year.
Of course, as soon as I’ve started training for a couple weeks, my achilles decides to start acting up. I’m hoping it won’t get any worse.
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