One semester down

Let me start by saying that college is hard…..very very hard.

So pretty much I bombed my finals. Ds on two that I only needed decent Bs in & a C on one that I should’ve aced. My GPA is pretty awful this semester & I most likely lost my James Scholar. College rocked me pretty hard first semester. I really need to get my act together next semester. Yeah and screw graduating early…I’m taking a shitload of GPA boosting classes from now on. Despite getting rocked academically first semester I’m pretty excited for next semester. I need to go some studying this break (yeah I know -_-) & work my ass off next semester to try to salvage my GPA.

So running-wise I’m pretty out of shape. Since my XC season ended I’ve run six times in the last 49 days. Hopefully running with the team this break will get me back in decent shape. I doubt I’ll PR this winter season so hopefully I can put together a good spring season. That and I need to start lifting & working out again.

Hi there

Wow I haven’t updated this thing in ages. Well I’m in college now…U of I to be more exact. College is a whole ‘nother ball game than high school. I guess I’ll try to write down a brief summary of everything that has happened since the summer.

Running

My first season of college XC went relatively well. Heading into the season I don’t think I was even top 10 freshmen on the team. Pretty much everyone had faster PRs than me. I trained in the second lowest group most of the time but that helped me develop more. I only ran three races and didn’t get to run regionals and nationals because of class conflict & injury. First meet of the season I ran well, I ran 29:15 to PB by 43 seconds and finished like 20 something for the team. Second meet was also pretty good, it was at Loyola Lakefront. The conditions were horrible: freezing rain, 30mph winds, some of the worst I’ve ever run in. I ran 29:30 to finish 15th on the team. Third meet was at the D1 Pre-Nats/Nationals course. I ran 29:50 something to finish 13th on the team. Nobody really ran fast that day. It was super hot out and the course was slow because of uncut grass. Overall my season was pretty good. I felt like I was in at least 28:30 shape by the time regionals rolled around but I didn’t get to run it. Then, I got sick, my left ankle started bothering me, and my left heel started hurting a week out from nationals. I couldn’t train properly the week leading up to nationals and decided to just call it a season instead of risking aggravating my foot anymore. After XC, I took about three weeks off and started running a little. The past two weeks I haven’t run a lot so I’m pretty out of shape. I should be able to get back into good shape over winter break though so no worries.

Some early goals this season for track: 2:00, 4:30/4:15

School

College is tough. I started the semester thinking I could get a 4.0 this semester because my classes “didn’t seem that hard”. Well obviously that’s not happening. Pretty much I’m only going to get As in CHEM 103 (lab) & ABE 100. PHYS 211 was pretty tough but I feel like I’ve learned a lot and that getting a tutor definitely helped a lot. I screwed up in CHEM 102 by bombing the last two exams. It’s not that I don’t know the material, it’s just that they give us so little time and I can’t finish on time so I end up guessing for a large number of questions. They give you 70 min for 31 questions. In physics 90 min for 25 questions, a lot more fair. Such bullshit. I also was an idiot and didn’t take Math 221 seriously (didn’t go to a lot of lectures, didn’t prepare for quizzes, didn’t do homework of time), which cost me the A. Copying Sam Liu, I will do a prediction of my grades this semester:

ABE 100 – 1 credit hour: A

CHEM 103 – 1 credit hour: A

CHEM 102 – 3 credit hours: need 78% for B, 90% for B+, 98% for A-

Math 221 – 4 credit hours: need 88% for A-, 97% for A

PHYS 211 – 4 credit hours: need 89% for A-, 99% for A….this seems off lol

The highest GPA I could get is a 3.92…

….time to rock and roll

Winter Break

I never thought I would miss Holmdel so much. 13 weeks away from home is a long time, so seeing my family and friends over break was awesome. Thanksgiving was spend at home with the family, whom I appreciate a lot more now. Black Friday was fun too. I’ve actually spent quite a bit of money on clothes since I’ve gotten here hehe.

Overall

College is fun but it’s still a little disappointing because I haven’t made a solid group of friends yet. I mean I’ve made friends and met people in my classes and XC, but I haven’t really been hanging out with people or anything. I think it’s cause I live in FAR. I really hate my hall but me and my roommate get a long well. Well two more weeks and I’m home for winter break. I’m really looking forward to next semester because my schedule shouldn’t be that much harder than this semester. I’m taking two easy classes (ABE 141 & AAS 100) & I can’t take PHYS 212 until next semester so my only really serious classes are CHEM 104, MATH 231 & MATH 225. I’m also taking GE 101, which I heard is tough if you have no experience in CAD so I’ll probably have to learn that over winter break. MATH 225 isn’t supposed to be very hard though so I should be able to pull off a pretty solid GPA to balance out this semester mediocre grades.

Less than a month…

..till college.

Well anyway not much has happened since I last posted. I went to Red Bank with Jon, Cathay, Stefan for July 4th fireworks. Red Bank seems so much cooler than Holmdel cause it’s a lot more cityish and it seems like there’s a lot more stuff to do there. But I guess it would be pretty hard to run there cause there are like no parks. I saw Despicable Me with Dan Tu, Angela Tu, and Adam Chang LOL. Adam’s soO00oOoo qt. Then I saw Inception which was pretty insane. How does one think of such a complex story? I think it’s easily the best movie of the summer and is sheer genius.

Running has been ok for the most part. I’m a bit out of shape right now cause of some minor injuries and setbacks but I should be able to whip myself back in shape. I ran the Belmar 5 last week in 30:09. It wasn’t really an all out race but more of a really hard tempo run. I’m really excited for club XC now.

I need to start being productive soon. I’ve kind of fixed my sleeping pattern haha. I’ll try to start reading books and brushing up on my chem & physics soon.

Hm…not much else to write about. My life is pretty boring lulz.

Summer Update

So….I guess I’ll start with graduation….I”M FINALLY DONE WITH HIGH SCHOOL! Graduation was pretty lame and Project Grad was fun I guess. It still hasn’t really hit me that I’m most likely never going to see 90% of the people I’ve spent that last 14 years of my life with but eh…I frankly don’t care about those people anyway. I really only care about seeing the people who I’ve grown to like and become friends with the past few years. I’ll do a proper graduation post later on.

So what have I been up to the last week since school ended? Hmmm…waking up at 1-2 PM, going on the computer, running, going to the gym, and hanging out with peeps. hahaha living the life. I’ll start actually being a productive member of society next week. I’m still trying to find a job at like Taco Bell or McDonal’s or Holmdel Park or something like that but I really think that’s a lost cause now. Maybe I’ll find a place to volunteer or something.

I’ve recently been talking to and hanging out with an old friend who I sort of lost touch. It’s sort of obvious who this person is but eh…still not gonna say it lol. But…I will say that this person is awesome and friendly and easy to talk to and that I wish I had reconnected with them a loooooooooot earlier.

Hmmm…WHY IS EVERYONE LEAVING?!? So many people I want to chill with are leaving/have left for a month! UGH……that means I have about two weeks to see these people again before I have to leave for Illinois on August 13th. Yes, that’s right, my dad is forcing me to go that early.

Anyways, I can’t end a post without a running update. So after three weeks of low mileage (under 30 miles a week), I’ve finally started to get back into good shape. I’ve been running with the team this week. So far I’ve done four days of toploops run -_- but it’s gotten back in great shape. I’ve done toploops runs ending in 8:25 & 8:41 and can now run 9:00 toploops like it’s a jog again. I’ve got a race, the Belmar 5, coming up next week. Hoping for a sub-29 effort (5:48 pace) but I’m not putting any pressure on myself.

This blog is pretty pathetic due to my lack of updates haha. I’ll start updating on a regular basis soon once I actually start doing stuff.

Stuffity Stuff

Graduation tomorrow! So done with high school! Booyah!

Random Stuff

Went to Pier Village on Monday again with bunch of people. Got mah tan onnn. Why am I talking like a tool? haha

Today went to Mitsuwa in Edgewater. Ate some good food and almost died from Brian’s driving.

Running

Running is taking care of itself. Getting into great shape. Running with Bert is awesome. Did a very nice long run on Sunday and a surprisingly good toploop tempo today. Starting to think about some goals for the season. I’d like the make the NIRCA National B-Team and run at regionals & nationals. Also, a sub 28 8k would be cool. I’m planning on racing the Belmar 5 mile on July 10th to see what it’s like…aiming for sub-29 maybe? Then I’ll race the Asbury Park 5k in early August…hoping for sub-17 =D

Cathay Zhao

is a slut

Happy Birthday Steve!

Hiiiiiiiiiii Steve!

Ok so a lot of stuff has happened since track ended. But I’ll start with that.

Running

Ran 4:49 in the final Twilight meet. I actually ran a good race and finished pretty high in my heat (like 4th) but it was just a slow race. We went out in 74 -_- but I closed in like 68ish so that’s good I guess. I met the coaches of the Illinois XC & Track Club. They were really nice and chill. The MD coach said I have the potential the get close to 2:00 next year! So after track ended I took 10 days off and then ran easy for the first week. I also ran the Chocolate Milk Mile lulz. This week I started running with Bert and started doing hills again. I’m planning on running with the team this summer too to get into shape for XC. I might run a road race or two just to see what racing 5 miles is like. I’m so excited for running in Illinois!

College Stuff

So I went up to Illinois for summer registration. My class schedule is pretty brutal but I might make some changes. I’m taking Chem 102 & Lab (Basic Chem), Physics 211 & Lab (Physics 1: Mechanics) , Calc 231 (Calc II/BC), and an intro course  for my major called ABE 100.  Tuesday & Thursday are terrible, I have like 4 classes in a row with like 10 minutes in between each starting at 8 AM. Fridays I only have one class. Monday I only have two classes. Wednesday I have three. I might need to change up my schedule in August. I didn’t really get to meet that many people during registration except for this one Indian kid who has the same major and concentration as me. He was goofy but pretty cool.

Prom

Prom was eh….really overrated. Pretty much all you do is eat crappy food and dance for four hours. Dancing wasn’t even that much fun. 8th grade graduation was a lot better in my opinion lol. After prom was pretty fun though. I thought it would be boring but hanging out with everyone was great. Monday after prom I skipped school and went to Pier Village with the Asians.

Other Stuff

Finally starting to socialized with the Asian crows again this year. I’m happy I’m starting to hang out and and talk to people I haven’t talked to in a while. Hopefully this summer I’ll be able to hang out with everyone before we leave.

The 800m

I love the 800m. Definitely my favorite event. Wish I had ran it more sophomore and junior year (ran it three times total). I’m glad I ran it a lot this year (nine times total). The 800m give me so much confidence for the 1600m and just being able to finish fast in general.

My progression has been: 2:21 relay split, 2:15.6, 2:11.0, 2:13.3 indoor relay split, 2:13.7 indoor lead-off relay split, 2:10.9 indoors, 2:10.8 lead-off relay split, 2:15.9 relay split (doubling), 2:12.0, 2:09.1, 2:08.2, 2:06.4!

Although I came up a little short of my goal of 2:03-2:04 this season, I’m still pretty satisfied with 2:06.4. I ran a smart race and got out behind the lead pack of six or seven and hit the bell in 63. I’ve never gotten out faster than a 63 this season haha. Then I cruised the turn and made a HUGE move on the back stretch to get into third. The last 150m I just tried to hang on and got passed by a Del Val kid but also passed a Matawan kid and got third in 2:06.46. Pretty good stuff.

I’ve learned how to race smart and tacticly from running the 800m so much. I’ve learned that races aren’t about who has the fastest PB or who has the best kick. Races are about who runs the smartest, who runs their fastest on that particular day, and who digs the deepest when it comes down to the final stages of the race.

Hopefully I will be able the bring my race smarts and confidence to my last race of high school next wednesday.

Two weeks left of track

It seems like it was just yesterday when I went out for XC sophomore year. These past three years have been exciting, frustrating, challenging, and amazing. Sophomore year was sort of a freshman year for me because I didn’t run freshman year. I remember being excited to run 5:05 indoors and break 19 for a 5k in XC. Then in spring track I was a little disappointed with only running 5:01 but it was all good. Junior year was pretty bad. XC sucked, winter track was worse and spring track was pretty horrible too outside of running 2:11. Senior year XC was eh…winter was eh….spring has been RIDICULOUS. If I ended my season now I could legitimately call it a successful and the best season yet. But there are two weeks left. Two more weeks left to let all hell break lose, to endure pain I’ve never felt before, to let the shit hit the fan.

Anyways, I ran 4:48.6 the other day in the Night of 1600s Twilight Meet. I’d give the race a 7.5/10 because I ran very well for the first three laps but bitched out on the last one. I went 72-71-72-73. We had 12 guys under 5:00! Last year we had 11 at this meet and 18 total by the end of the season. Although I don’t think we’ll be able to get as many this year because of the lack of seniors, I believe that we’ll get at least 16 and be much faster than last year overall. We had 4 guys under 4:40 and 8 guys under 4:50!! Last year we only had one under 4:40 and four under 4:50 at this meet.

My revised goals for the next two weeks are sub 2:05 and 4:40 assuming that I get to run the 800m at sectionals. I’m going to start getting more sleep each night, watching my diet, work out more, etc. in order to get the 4+ & 9+ second I need.  THIS IS IT! 12 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE END OF HIGH SCHOOL TRACK! TIME TO FLY!

Almost there….

Running

ran 4:54 & 2:08 at counties. Not bad. Felt great in the 800 race and closed really well. Coach says I should try to get under 2:05 this season. Let’s do it.

Other Shit

Three more APs next week. Have to do major studying for APES & Psych….ugh…..

Going to Illinois Summer Registration on June 2nd by myself.