So, what did I do in 2009?
Warning: the following may come off as bragging. I'm OK with that. This is the first year of my life where I feel like I've earned it.
In January I taught myself to program in C, attempted to and failed to break up with my (now ex) girlfriend, and messed up my calf again. One of those was pretty good, the other two not so much. I set myself for another six months of insanity. I also did a bunch of applications for summer internships and funding for the 2009-2010 academic year.
In February I served as meet director for the Illinois Club Relays, the first college club indoor track meet ever held. Wisconsin and Michigan didn't show up, so we had to time trial almost everything. My men's 4x800 ran a faster time than any high school or college team I've ever been on. Four of my men went under 9:00 in the 3000.
In March my friends and I placed 18th in the Global Trajectory Optimization Contest. We didn't sleep much. I was accepted to Air Force Research Lab's Space Scholar program. My best friend here was not accepted, and I was pretty upset by that.
In April we defeated NIRCA #1 Wisconsin in a dual meet on the track by 8 points. I set a big personal best in the 10000 and came within 2 seconds of my college 1500 PR - a time I never thought I'd touch again when I ran it three years previous. I also nearly went nuts finishing up an independent study project for my astronomy class. That's the last time I try to do two independent research projects at the same time.
In May I went to the IEEE Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Trondheim, Norway with my adviser. I learned that I can stand living in the same room with him for a week, and I also learned that I don't handle jet lag well. At the end of the month I moved out to Albuqeurque to work for AFRL. That was the last time I saw the ex-girlfriend.
June sucked. In June I was in a lot of pain and life was a mess. I learned some valuable things about relationships and how to determine when one needs to end.
In July I finally broke up with the girl and started running a lot. I didn't take a day off from July 7th until I got injured in the middle of the cross country season.
In August I presented at the AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference in Pittsburgh. I also made a complete fool of myself in various personal ways. That week I hit 70 miles for the first time since junior year at Grinnell.
In September I found myself the coach of Illinois CCTC's first ever women's squad, and a men's team with an outside shot at the national title. I was awarded a NASA GSRP fellowship, which is a yearly renewable award of $26000 plus tuition. I ran a pretty good 8k early in the month and then messed up my hamstring a few weeks later, effectively ending my season. Oops.
In October I coached my men to a second place finish at the NIRCA Midwest region meet on the roughest cross country course I've ever seen. And that's saying something. The women were sixth. We had four men and one woman all-region. I made great progress on my research.
In November we placed second at the NIRCA national championship, despite having two men down sick and some other issues. We had four men and one woman all-American. Then I hid under a rock in Michigan for a week because my brain stopped working. But it was fun!
In December I started training again and, I believe, reconciled the conflict that nearly crippled the team at nationals. I did a rather interesting term project for my nonlinear controls class. At the end of the month, I took two very enjoyable road trips and studied for the PhD qualifying exam.
So, looking back, this year had a pretty miserable start but it ended as an almost complete success. In 2009 I:
1. Built the best college club track team in the country from scratch.
2. Began a new and exciting research project for my PhD work, for which I was awarded a highly competitive full scholarship by NASA.
3. Earned a 4.0 GPA in both semesters.
4. Coached the men to a second place finish at nationals and the women to their first ever team appearance at a championship meet.
5. Removed Kathleen from my life, which was long overdue and caused far more pain that it needed to.
6. Ran 37:10 for 10000 meters, a personal best by 52 seconds. Tied my best ever 4x400 split. Ran within 2 seconds of my 1500 personal best and 16 seconds of my 5000 personal best.
So what do I want to do in 2010?
1. Pass the PhD qualifying exam in two weeks.
2. Win a national title.
3. Earn another full year of funding from NASA, and produce good research work for them during the spring semester and the summer.
4. Complete a full year of consistent, well thought out training, and apply those lessons to help my athletes.
5. Run under 36:00 in the 10000.
In January I taught myself to program in C, attempted to and failed to break up with my (now ex) girlfriend, and messed up my calf again. One of those was pretty good, the other two not so much. I set myself for another six months of insanity. I also did a bunch of applications for summer internships and funding for the 2009-2010 academic year.
In February I served as meet director for the Illinois Club Relays, the first college club indoor track meet ever held. Wisconsin and Michigan didn't show up, so we had to time trial almost everything. My men's 4x800 ran a faster time than any high school or college team I've ever been on. Four of my men went under 9:00 in the 3000.
In March my friends and I placed 18th in the Global Trajectory Optimization Contest. We didn't sleep much. I was accepted to Air Force Research Lab's Space Scholar program. My best friend here was not accepted, and I was pretty upset by that.
In April we defeated NIRCA #1 Wisconsin in a dual meet on the track by 8 points. I set a big personal best in the 10000 and came within 2 seconds of my college 1500 PR - a time I never thought I'd touch again when I ran it three years previous. I also nearly went nuts finishing up an independent study project for my astronomy class. That's the last time I try to do two independent research projects at the same time.
In May I went to the IEEE Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Trondheim, Norway with my adviser. I learned that I can stand living in the same room with him for a week, and I also learned that I don't handle jet lag well. At the end of the month I moved out to Albuqeurque to work for AFRL. That was the last time I saw the ex-girlfriend.
June sucked. In June I was in a lot of pain and life was a mess. I learned some valuable things about relationships and how to determine when one needs to end.
In July I finally broke up with the girl and started running a lot. I didn't take a day off from July 7th until I got injured in the middle of the cross country season.
In August I presented at the AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference in Pittsburgh. I also made a complete fool of myself in various personal ways. That week I hit 70 miles for the first time since junior year at Grinnell.
In September I found myself the coach of Illinois CCTC's first ever women's squad, and a men's team with an outside shot at the national title. I was awarded a NASA GSRP fellowship, which is a yearly renewable award of $26000 plus tuition. I ran a pretty good 8k early in the month and then messed up my hamstring a few weeks later, effectively ending my season. Oops.
In October I coached my men to a second place finish at the NIRCA Midwest region meet on the roughest cross country course I've ever seen. And that's saying something. The women were sixth. We had four men and one woman all-region. I made great progress on my research.
In November we placed second at the NIRCA national championship, despite having two men down sick and some other issues. We had four men and one woman all-American. Then I hid under a rock in Michigan for a week because my brain stopped working. But it was fun!
In December I started training again and, I believe, reconciled the conflict that nearly crippled the team at nationals. I did a rather interesting term project for my nonlinear controls class. At the end of the month, I took two very enjoyable road trips and studied for the PhD qualifying exam.
So, looking back, this year had a pretty miserable start but it ended as an almost complete success. In 2009 I:
1. Built the best college club track team in the country from scratch.
2. Began a new and exciting research project for my PhD work, for which I was awarded a highly competitive full scholarship by NASA.
3. Earned a 4.0 GPA in both semesters.
4. Coached the men to a second place finish at nationals and the women to their first ever team appearance at a championship meet.
5. Removed Kathleen from my life, which was long overdue and caused far more pain that it needed to.
6. Ran 37:10 for 10000 meters, a personal best by 52 seconds. Tied my best ever 4x400 split. Ran within 2 seconds of my 1500 personal best and 16 seconds of my 5000 personal best.
So what do I want to do in 2010?
1. Pass the PhD qualifying exam in two weeks.
2. Win a national title.
3. Earn another full year of funding from NASA, and produce good research work for them during the spring semester and the summer.
4. Complete a full year of consistent, well thought out training, and apply those lessons to help my athletes.
5. Run under 36:00 in the 10000.