Week 11:Trials, Tunes, and Track: Kicking Off the Outdoor Season
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
By: Hong Bing Tang April 6th, 2025
03/31/2025 to 04/06/2025
Introduction:
What up everyone! I wish that you all had a wonderful week. This week was filled with some challenges with running and school. With the semester starting to close, things are starting to ramp up and causing a little bit more stress. In addition, the week was the start of the outdoor track season, so we had a meet on Friday which was a little bit nerve wrecking. Let’s get into what happened this week!
School:
This week in our microelectronic lab, we started to do our project which I was excited for. My group, which included Joey and Abby, decided to create an audio amplifier where we would be able to control the signal (music) almost like an equalizer and project the sound through a speaker. We wired the project up and when the sound was played through the speaker, there was a lot of noise. So, we had to troubleshoot and look online and see what the issue could be. After creating multiple different filters to try to limit the noise from the surrounding room, we found out that the output signal noise was not coming from the surrounding environment anymore after creating all the filters but rather the noise was coming from the source powering the amplifier, so after putting some capacitors to filter out the noise, the speaker was working great! Our next step this coming week is to create an equalizer circuit that would be able to vary the bass and treble of the music. In addition to this class, in my data algorithm’s class we were learning some hard algorithms, and we have an exam next week which I am a little worried about since I must know these algorithms well for the exam. Hopefully I’ll gain a little bit more insight this week, so I feel better prepared.
Running:
Unfortunately, last Friday after the workout my knee started to hurt so I took the weekend off of running and cross trained instead. On Monday I got back to running and my knee did not hurt but I could feel it while I ran. I worked out on it on Tuesday, and it went well without much pain. After this, I was okay to race on Friday. Throughout the rest of the running week my knee stagnated, not hurting during the runs but being discomfortable through the run. Even with racing it did not get any worse but has not gotten much better either. Considering being pretty injury ridden the past couple of years, this is a minor issue that I can manage, and I am happy with how I am handling it since it is causing a little bit more stress to run.
MSU:
Friday came super-fast and soon enough it was racing time! With the race being at MSU I reached out to a couple of friends and see if I could come watch and catch up with them. One of my friends, Jack Logsdon, was able to come and watch my race, which was exciting! I was running the 1500 along with an 800 an hour after the 1500. Going into the race, I was hoping to be able to stay engaged during the whole race and not worry about time but just focus on being truly racing. The race went out pretty well and I was about 5 meters back from the front pack for the first 700 meters. Once I crossed the line a second time, I was not feeling too bad and knew that I only had 800 to go so I decided that it was time to start to press and surge forward. I was able to catch up to the front pack with 600 to go and swung out wide on the curve to put myself into 2nd place by the last lap. The leader of the race came, and I tried to match the move however they were closed very hard. However, I was able to hold off the people behind me and secure 2nd which was really awesome! I was excited with how my race went since I raced it smart, was engaged and did not give up. After the race, I had roughly an hour before the 800 was going to start. So, I had a little time to catch up with Jack and see how his classes were going along with how the exciting basketball season went!
Soon enough it was time to start warming up again and do an 800. The race went out pretty well and I was feeling it from off the gun. With around 300 too go a couple of people passed me and I tried to hang on but was unsuccessful. Even with that though, I still was able to run a good 800 which was relieving that it was good along with that I was done! I did a cooldown with Steve where we explored campus before heading back to the track and cheering on people. After my race, Jack went to class but came back to watch Clay, and Carson as well so I sat with him and talked to her for the whole time just about life, school, friends, and our high school XC and track memories. It was a really good time, and it was so nice to just be able to be with him since I really missed that. Soon enough though the meet was over and so we made the journey back to Mount Pleasant. Overall, a good outdoor opener and I am looking forward to these next upcoming races.
Game Night:
After coming back from the meet, Steve decided to host a Jack-Box game night. So, most of the guys came to our apartment and we played 2 games. The first game we played was a game where we would have to fill in a prompt and try to get “Split the vote” and get half the people to vote for one prompt and another to vote for a different option. It was an okay game; however, it was quite hard. So, with that, we switched over to Murder Mystery Trivia 2 where we would have to answer a series of trivia questions and if we got it incorrectly, we would have to play a game in order to not die. Once only 1 person was not dead, we would go through a series of trivia questions and those with the most money/were alive would get a head start towards the end. It was really fun and super competitive but what I learned was that I was not good at Trivia since I would almost always finish near the bottom half of the group. Overall, it was a super fun hangout and glad to have everyone over to our place.
Conclusion:
With the semester winding down and the track season heating up, this week reminded me that progress doesn’t always feel smooth—but it’s still progress. Whether it’s solving noise issues in a circuit, managing minor injuries, or reconnecting with friends, I’m grateful for the little wins, the good vibes, and everything that keeps me moving forward. On to the next one!
Goals Update!
Journaling: I journaled three times this week and hope to continue this trend
Nail biting: I was super stress and bit all my nails ☹
Reading: I have not gotten another book yet.
Phone usage: An average of 1 hour and 26 minutes. A little bit of extra time due to the meet and Jackbox on Friday
Get in Touch
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