Sugoon's profileAnaKIN SkywalkerPhotosBlogListsMore  |  Tools Help |
AnaKIN Skywalker |
||||||
|
February 08 UCSD Race ReportVenue: University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Date: Feb7th, 2009 Category: Collegiate Road Race, Men’s D Distance: 21 miles Weather: Raining, freezing, miserable, and…it was the best day to be on the bike Rank: 10th (29 finishers, 6-7 DNFs) So this was my first official race under Stanford jersey (well, if not counting the one cyclocross earlier in the Fall which I was like 3rd place from last nor the early bird crit which nobody was actually trying to go hard). I had to get up at 4:15 am to get to the race venue, which was raining and freezing cold – of course, I couldn’t have picked any better sport than this. Skipping the much complaining that was going on an hour before the race among Stanford D’s riders, I started off towards the front of the pack with one single goal in mind: I’m gonna get to the finish line as fast as I can so that I can go warm up and chill by the fireplace. The course started off with a nice long 8 or 9 miles downhill and I was hiding behind others’ wheels most of the time, so that was nice. The road was slippery but nobody slipped and there was no crash (as far as I could tell). After about 10 miles we started going up a bit, followed by rolling hills. I was still towards the front of the pack, then Dan caught up with me and we rode together for the long time. Nothing particularly interesting, except that I started feeling the effect of sickness I’ve been having for the past week and realized that I probably didn’t have much reserved energy for the attack or sprint or anything. With that said, however, I still decided to try a break away with Dan with 4.5 miles to go (uphill). The only difference between us two was that Dan could keep the gap, but I couldn’t. A few other riders ended up passing me with about 3 miles to go and I just couldn’t take it back. I got 10th place, out of about 29 finishers and a few DNFs. Lesson learned; try not to get sick right before the race, and try to hold the urge to kill it too soon, especially when there was nothing left in the legs. I promise I’ll try to do better next time. December 19 Mt.Hamilton (almost) century rideI've been meaning to write this note a while ago, but final exams got in the way. Now that I have time...
Sunday Dec 7, 2008 - Evan and John, 2 experienced riders in the cycling team decided to lead a Mt.Hamilton Century ride, meaning we decided to head out for a 100-mile (century) ride. I joined.
We started off from Stanford at 9:15 am, on a nice day. The sun was shining, the weather around 60s ( a little chilly but that's okay), and everybody (about 12-13 of us) was happy and ready to ride. We headed off at an easy pace down to San Jose, going through the first 15 miles of the ride with nothing much. When we got to the main street of San Jose, however, we found that the road was blocked. We didn't stop though, we rode through the gate, only to find out that the road was blocked for the town's annual Christmas parade. The parade hadn't started yet, but the crowd already gathered along the side of the road, and we were the only ones on the road. Quite an appearance for Stanford Cycling! The crowd actually thought we were supposed to be in the parade and they cheered for us. The policemen helped us through nicely,with a bit of a chuckle. :)
After 25 miles (40 kms), we got to the base of Mt.Hamilton, which was where the action begin. Mt.Hamilton was an enormous mountain, with the Lick Observatory gleaming at the top. Our goal was to climb to the observatory, which was a solid 20-mile (32 kms) up-and-up climb to 4500 feet above sea level. Just hearing about it was enough to throw me off balance a bit but I moved on anyway. The group began to scatter according to the climbing speed. I was climbing with another teammate, at about 5-6 minutes off the back of 3-4 Cat A (fast) riders. Although hard as hell, that was one of the most beautiful climbs I've ever been up. All along the way you could see mountain range around you, and the beautiful lake (or ocean? I'm not sure) from high up. As we got closer to the top, after about an hour of climbing, I saw the gleaming white Observatory and thought I was almost done. No, I was not. I had another 5 miles (8 kms) to climb. Finally, though, I got there. 20 miles of climbing, using 1 hour 21 minutes. The feeling when I got up there was...indescribable.
We chilled at the top for a while, waiting for everyone to get up to the top (regrouping after climb is the team's tradition, we never leave anybody behind). Then we turned around and headed down the mountain. One would think going down would be easy, but no, it was equally hard as going up, maybe even harder mentally. Think about this, I had to be tucked in low, going down at 25-40 mph (48-64 kms) through corners and turns, on a pair 1-inch-wide (2.5 cms) wheels. 20 miles down meant 45 minutes of full concentration. I couldn't even blink. It was fun though, I was mentally drained at the bottom.
The rest of the way, 25 miles (40 kms) was a long flat ride. As we rode into Calaveras, a little town famous for its homemade donuts, most of us decided to stop for a quick donut-bite. However, 4 of us, including, felt like it was getting cold and didn't want to stop, so we kept going. The problem was, among the 4, I was the only rookie (new rider) and they were all much faster than me on the flat road. For some reason, they started pacelining (get in a single line and take turn breaking the wind up front) at a speed of 23-25 mph (35-40 kmph) while I was hanging off the back suffering like hell. Eventually we stopped to grab a quick energy-bar-bite and refilled the water bottles at a park, and they taught me how to properly draft on a bike. When we took off again, this time I've corrected my mistake, we sped through the last 15 miles like a bullet train (well, kind of). Same speed (25 mph) but I felt much better. It was then that I realized how much difference proper drafting can help, and made a vow to myself that I will keep practice my drafting technique until it becomes my second nature. Eventually we arrived back at Stanford. I was physically drained, every bit of my body was sored, I could barely stand up when I got off the bike...but my feeling was just...I just can't define it...too much pride and happiness and relief and a bunch other feelings mixed together. It was a great ride, and I'll do it again some day.
A bit of statistics: 90 miles (145 kms), 5 hours 45 minutes on the saddle spinning the pedals, total elevation gain 7100 feet, peak elevation on one climb 4440 feet, and possibly 5 pounds of lost weight at the end ;) October 22 Reality hit...I had 2 midterms last week - Math 51 (Linear Alg) and Physics 45 (Light and Heat). I got 66 out of 90 on Math (Avg 68, SD approx. 15) and 17 out of 25 on Physics (Avg 18, SD 4.3). It hit me hard...I scored lower than the class average...and that had never happened to me before when I was in Thailand.
It was hard to believe. I used to imagine my life at Stanford to be a glamorous one - a life of a happy undergraduate student at one of the world's top universities. Not that I'm not happy right now, I'm happy, but at the same time I didn't prepare to be in the place where more than half of my class are International Academic Olympiad veterans, 2/3 of which won medals. I didn't prepare to work my ass off and still score lower than the average on exams. I didn't prepare to endure with the feeling when hearing one of my 6 Thai Scholar friends complain about how he/she score "only" near-perfect in exams, instead of perfect, or when one of them say she/he could write this particular program in CS class in 5 minutes when I had to take 2 hours. It hurts....like hell, like fucking hell.
I thought I would feel a sense of belonging here at Stanford after a couple weeks but no, the longer I stay the more I feel like I don't belong here academically...I feel like I belong to somewhere else less prestigious. I feel like the admission officer has made a mistake...
Cycling is the only way out for me, so I joined the Stanford Cycling team, and train everyday. 2 hours after class every afternoon on weekdays and 4-6 hours on Sat/Sun when I'm on the saddle is the best time of my life; there's nothing like coming back completely exhausted from riding, with my legs on the verge of cramping up, my back and butt hurts, and my cycling jersey soaking wet. The sense of achievement when I could do 100k in under 4 hours or when I'm the only Thai Scholar on the team is a great tradeoff for my academic dilemma. If there's something that makes me feel like I belong here, that would be my Stanford Cycling jersey hanging and my bike sitting in my room.
I guess that's what I have to do - study hard, and bike hard, and hope that one day I will truly belong here, both academically and athletically. July 16 Internship at Aerothai, Part III : ICAO Meeting (PBN/TF/3)So since I did express my interest in the navigation portion of air traffic services, I had a chance to observe the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regional meeting held at the ICAO office in Bangkok. This was actually the third meeting of the Performance Based Navigation Task Force, a group created by ICAO to develop and carry out an implementation plan of Performance Based Navigation (PBN). To set a little background, PBN is a concept, or a guideline, for designing navigation systems in the future to comply with ICAO’s Future Air Navigation System (FANS). Basically we’re trying to make the best use of technologies to reduce the workload on human and to increase the safety in the sky. PBN’s target is to use available and upcoming technologies, together with a little creativity, to produce the best possible navigation services for every airspace in the world. Conventional ground-based navigation aids like VOR and DME will be used together for a more accurate result and better coverage, whereas space-based system like GNSS will slowly be implemented and developed as a primary means of navigation in the future. So that was the background; now the meeting atmosphere. The meeting started off with the director’s welcome note, then he made all the participants introduce themselves (yes, that included me). The official meeting then started off with reviews of materials from past meeting and presentations from states, airlines, and manufacturers on what they have done, capped off with the task list for the current meeting. The second the meeting was split into 2 groups; one talked about implementation plan while the other one talked about training materials for aviation personnel to use after the implementation. I was with the plan group, and it was real fun. The group consisted of representatives from various nations’ air traffic service providers, representatives from IATA, FAA, and a representative from aircraft manufacturer Boeing. I love how everyone never hesitated to voice out their ideas and the discussion was never quiet. I am really glad I had a chance to witness this wonderful meeting. I learned a lot and I can’t wait to come back and work in this area. It would be interesting to see the shape of air traffic systems 6 years from now, which is when I will begin working.
PS. VOR = VHF Omni-directional Radio Range, giving aircraft’s bearing DME = Distance Measuring Equipment GNSS = Global Navigation Satellite System IATA = International Air Transport Association FAA = Federal Aviation Association, USA July 08 Internship at Aerothai, Part II : Who says there’re no roads in the sky.I spent the first day of the second week at the Air Traffic Services Planning Department, learning how an engineer design an approach chart for a certain airport using a certain navigation aid. Each and every airport has multiple approach charts depending on the numbers of runways and types of navigation aids. For example, the chart for aircrafts approaching Bangkok/Suvarnabhumi International Airport using DVOR (Doppler VHF Omni-directional Radio range) to land on runway 01L would have a heading that looks something like: “VTBS, DVOR, RWY 01L” Now here’s the concept of “roads” in the sky; it’s a series of “Waypoints”, which are reference positions for pilots to report back to air traffic controllers once reached. These waypoints are named something like “LEVIN” (13 34 23.99 N, 100 42 28.70 E) or “RATLE” (13 54 26.87 N, 100 59 09.24 E). So if you look at a big chart that covers the whole airspace of one nation, Bangkok FIR (Thailand) for example, you’ll see a bunch of lines connecting a bunch of waypoints all over it. Those are for aircrafts to follow. The process of writing an approach chart begins with surveying the area around the airport thoroughly to locate pretty much everything that would affect (or may affect) the approach procedure. Then the engineer would start designing the best way to approach the runway from 7-10 nautical miles away. The chart will also have a location of navigation aid used, a procedure for missed approach (when the pilot flies all the way down to about 1 nautical mile away from the runway and still can’t see the runway), a specified minimum flight level at a certain area, obstacles, speeds, and radio frequencies involved in the process. Overall, it’s a pretty sweet chart.
|
|
||||
|
|
