No. 52: A Few Updates

13 March, 2012 2:47 AM / Leave a Comment /

Hey everyone,

It’s been a year since I’ve moved into my new place after starting my current job. I first started working in November of 2010 after getting a call from one of the recruiters at my old job, who offered me an internship, and I remember feeling really excited about starting my career. I had a lot of misconceptions about what work would be like, from the difficulty of the tasks to the amount of free time I would have left over to pursue my hobbies. Each day I would have to wake up at 5:00 AM and commute for about an hour or more and arrive at work at 7:00. Afterward, I would feel exhausted and that gave me little motivation to train or study for my exams. Even though I didn’t have to worry about rent and had my parents helping out with the cooking and laundry and things like that, I felt I didn’t have enough time to get anything done.

I managed to acquire full-time work in March at another company, and at the time of the offer I decided to move out and find my own place closer to the office. I’d say I have about the same amount of free time now as I did at the time of my old job, but over the months I’ve learned how to manage it better. At first, all of the household responsibilities piled up at once and I had a difficult time prioritizing my tasks and ended up skipping exam MLC along with the spring races. However, little by little, I stopped doing the things that were eating up time – for example, I stopped playing video games and have almost stopped watching television all together – and this has allowed me to focus more on cycling and studying. I still have a lot of things to improve on – for instance, I still have trouble getting enough sleep. I think I averaged only 6.5 hours a night last week. Anyway I’m still setting monthly resolutions. Last month I tried to record my personal data every day. I was successful about 65% of the time. Incidentally, today I read an article that Stephen Wolfram had been doing an extreme version of the same thing since the 1980s – keeping track of all his footsteps, keystrokes, emails, files, and phone calls. Like the author, I’d really like to know how he did that so meticulously. Anyhow, this month I decided that I hadn’t been eating enough fruit (I’ve only averaged .65 servings/day in the last year), so I’m trying to eat at least 1 serving a day, hopefully reaching 2-3 servings. I have to be realistic though, so I think 1 serving a day is something attainable – at least for this month. I’m only counting actual fruit – not juice or processed food with fruit in it. I’ve averaged 1 serving/per day so far.

I didn’t race last weekend, but I’ll be racing next weekend. In lieu of a race report, here are some updates

I started reading a Sociology book

This book reminds me a lot about the Anthropology course I took my senior year, especially when it comes to thinking about cultural taboos and how a lot of the things we see as normal in our society can be strange or unacceptable to others, and vice-versa. In my Anthropology course, the professor focused more on case studies involving inner-city youth, different dialects amongst Americans, and the role of cell phones in developing nations. This book, on the other hand, deals more with broader concepts like how we think of morality based on our idea of appropriate gender roles, how we divide people into “winners” and “losers” and how we value people based on their occupations or social status, and how these criteria for judgment arise in the first place. I think it’s all very interesting. This subject isn’t my forte both in theory and in real life, but by reading this introduction I aim to gain a better understanding as well as build a framework for the possible study of mathematical networks, should I ever reach that point.

I started reading Using R for Introductory Statistics

I first set up RStudio on a Linux server a few months ago, and I haven’t really touched it since. I started learning R in the Fall of last year and I got the basic syntax down. Recently, a project came up at work and I’ll need to use R to crunch some of the numbers so I picked up this book to help me refresh my Statistics knowledge and that of R itself. I would have liked to keep studying Algebra instead, but sometimes these things pop up and you have to take care of them first. I’m looking forward to the challenge though, because I finally have some real-world data to work with instead of textbook exercises.

I’ll be racing at Fayetteville next weekend – stay tuned next week for the report.

Posted in: Cycling

No. 51: La Primavera Lago Vista 2012 – Race Report

6 March, 2012 2:46 AM / 4 Comments /

Hey everyone,

Lago Vista didn’t go well. The race took place over the course of two days. On the first day we went clockwise around a 5.5 mile loop, 75% of which consists of a gradual climb and 25% of which consists of a steep descent. On the next day we went in the other direction so we’d have a really steep climb but a long, gradual descent. In short, I dropped quickly on both days, though I stayed in contact for a longer amount of time on the second day. I don’t want to go into too much detail since not too much happened, so let’s just take a look at what little data I gathered to see what went wrong during the race.

Preparation

Every Tuesday and Thursday, I wake up at 5:30 AM to do intervals on the Picnic Loop at Memorial Park. I start out doing 8 intervals of 1 lap each on the first day, then 4 intervals of 2 laps each on the next day. As the days go by, my schedule goes as follows:

8 intervals 1 laps each
4 intervals 2 laps each
3 intervals – 1 interval of 2 laps + 2 intervals of 3 laps each
2 intervals 4 laps each
2 intervals – 1 interval of 3 laps + 1 interval of 5 laps
2 intervals – 1 interval of 2 laps + 1 interval of 6 laps
2 intervals – 1 interval of 1 lap + 1 interval of 7 laps
1 interval of 8 laps

After I complete the cycle, I start over again. On Saturdays, I usually do a 3 hour group ride. I haven’t planned out what to do on Sundays. So far, I started doing 2×20 min. intervals, aiming to reach 2×30 min. Here’s some data from the training session I did the Thursday before the race, along with the splits below:

Here’s an 8x interval training session from the previous month:

Isolating the intervals gives the following comparison:

Which shows that after 1 month, the average power increased about 9% for each lap.

Now, I felt pretty good about that because it shows that I’ve improved over the month. Unfortunately, after putting in an easy effort at Walburg, I underestimated the difficulty of Lago Vista…

Lago Vista – Day 1

As soon as the race started, I felt like I was trying really hard the whole time at the limit. The data above confirms it – the black line marks the point at which I dropped from the main pack. For the brief time I stayed in contact, my heart rate was fluctuating between 166 and 172 bpm, and I took several efforts at 400-600 watts.

Lago Vista – Day 2

On the second day, you see a similar pattern, with my heart rate barely going over 172 bpm before I dropped. Now I think I know why I didn’t do very well during this race with respect to my preparation – I don’t train like I race. Shama racer Ken Day took a look at my interval data (from the first picture) and told me that I took too much rest between my intervals, and advised me that it would be better to not let myself rest completely before starting another. I agree – during a race, after you or someone else attacks, you never really get the chance to fully recuperate. Your heart rate will fall a little but it will still stay at a level where you’re still trying hard. I took a look at Said’s data, and he managed to average 166 bpm for about 2 hours. I can hold 166 bpm for extended periods of time, but during training, I’ll hold it at 166 bpm without going over 170 bpm – ever. However, during the race, I will certainly have points where I have to go over 170 bpm, as demonstrated above, so I need to somehow incorporate those efforts as I haven’t intentionally gone over 170 bpm during a training ride. In terms of wattage – I mainly try to hold it steady at 250 watts but I don’t have any training sessions where I try to hold a higher wattage, say 300-600 watts. In short – I haven’t done any high-intensity (as in not just higher than normal, but really high) or max efforts so I need to do them since that’s what I’ll be doing during a race.

So, for this Thursday, I plan on doing 8×1 minute efforts. I don’t know how many watts I can hold during that time so I’ll just go as hard as I can and use the data from this session as a benchmark against which I can compare future sessions. After that, I plan on reducing the amount of rest between intervals, and maybe during my 30-minute intervals I’ll intentionally go up to 800 w and then back down to 250w to simulate racing situations. Anyway I’ll be joining a group ride tomorrow to give myself a mental break before I start doing intervals again.

Even though I didn’t do well last weekend, I don’t regret going at all. I had a lot of fun and made some new friends, and learned a lot. Special thanks goes to our teammate Jennifer Wagner for setting up the condo at Lake Travis.

Notes:

I’ve finished my European History book last week, and I just finished reading Kingpin yesterday. I’ve since started reading a Sociology textbook, which should keep me occupied for the next two months. After that, I’ll read The Cyclist’s Training Bible and Training and Racing with a Power Meter, which should eliminate a lot of the guesswork in setting up a proper training schedule.

Posted in: Cycling, Logs / Tagged: , , ,

No. 50: Walburg Classic 2012 – Race Report

28 February, 2012 3:06 AM / 2 Comments /

Hey everyone,

Last weekend, Said and I traveled to Round Rock to stay with Mark, Bill, and Ken the night before the Walburg Classic. Last year’s race didn’t go so well since I finished dead last, so I had high hopes after getting a pack finish at Mineral Wells. The next day, we woke up at 6:00 AM and headed out to the course to do the usual sign-in, get dressed, warm-up routine before the start. The weather felt a little chilly in the mid-40’s but was otherwise fantastic as there was no rain and barely any wind at all. When I reached the staging area I met up with some of my old teammates from Texas, Marc Granberry and Taylor Richie, with whom I hadn’t ridden in almost 2 years, and I felt really excited since I’d have to race against them this time around. We expressed some concern that the large size of the peloton (92 riders), along with the narrow width of the course, would make it very difficult for any rider to gain position or move up in the pack during the race. In addition, we thought that the presence of the newly-minted Cat 4s who were eager to make an early-season result would make it particularly dangerous when chasing down breakaways.

The race started out at a moderate pace on rolling terrain. I felt a little stale, but I didn’t find it hard to keep up with the pack except for one instance when the rider I was following lost focus during the descent and I had to pick up the pace past 40mph to catch back on, which cost me a little bit of precious energy. The peloton started getting really nervous after that descent – I don’t think any of the riders would find it particularly hard to descend at 40mph but doing it in a pack of 92 riders where you can’t see anything in front of you can be quite daunting, especially when the wind nudges you a little bit from the side as you go down. After that, people started overreacting to the speed fluctuations and any time someone tapped their brakes, the next 10 riders would do the same thing and cause a ripple effect through the back.

When we hit the middle of the first lap, the course became mostly straight and flat and everyone calmed down a little bit. I took the chance to eat a gel and take a breather. At this point of the race I was in the back of the pack and mostly minding my own business. We then took a right turn and the peloton decided to speed it up to 36 mph in an effort to drop the weaker riders in the back. This was definitely one of those moments where I realized one of the hazards of staying in the back – a few of the riders couldn’t hold tempo so I had to leapfrog them in order to regain contact with the pack. One of the masters riders from Violet Crown simply couldn’t accelerate and would lose contact after each corner, but he somehow managed to get back in front of me for the next three turns and I got really annoyed since I didn’t want to be following him during the race. We soon hit the uphill climb at the end of the first lap and we didn’t take it all  that hard – I sustained about 165 bpm for a couple of minutes and my power output didn’t go over 600 watts. In comparison, I reached 171 bpm and output 900 watts of power during that right-hand turn I described earlier.

The second lap felt a lot less stressful than the first lap – I think everyone who survived the first lap had a better feel for the course so they weren’t as anxious the next time around. I caught up to Marc and we chatted a bit on what we thought of the race so far. We agreed that we wouldn’t be able to contest the sprint unless we moved up to the front of the peloton. Unfortunately the field was packed with riders and there wasn’t any room to move up. Whenever somebody lost focus or opened up a gap while eating or drinking, we had to take that opportunity to gain position, but it didn’t happen very often. During the flat section of the course a rider bumped into Said and caused a 7-rider crash as he went down. The last person to fall happened to be right in front of me and I narrowly avoided him and I had to stop and unclip. The riders in the front took advantage of this and immediately picked up the pace to 35 mph. I managed to generate 1016 watts of power trying to catch up to the field – this would be the highest amount of power generated during the race. When the pace settled down, Marc and I found ourselves mid-pack while Said maintained his top-20 position.

The following video shows the crash that happened in the 35+ 4/5 race, which was worse than the crash in our race, but it gives you a glimpse on what it feels like to be riding behind one:

Towards the end of the race Marc and I mostly gave up trying to move up the field. Everyone was trying to move up but no one was willing to give up their place. When the 800 meter uphill sprint started, I was about 50th position and I managed to pass around 15 riders on the way up. A lot of them were blocking the way and I had to work my way around them and that cost me a lot of time. I ended up 33rd, Marc got 66th, Taylor 76th, and Said 10th – a very good result for him.

Ryan Godfrey leads the Cat 4 bunch sprint. You can see Said on the right, I'm on the left.

In terms of physical effort, I thought the race was really easy – there were only a few moments where I had to exert myself but I never felt exhausted or at the limit. When I browsed the TXBRA forums the day afterward, the other riders expressed the same opinion and the hard part about this race was not really about going fast but mostly about gaining and maintaining position within the field. In that sense I think this was an excellent opportunity to learn what that meant and I’m glad I was able to finish the pack again. I started in the back at 92nd and managed to finish the race 33rd, and I think if I started midfield and paid more attention to positioning I could have gotten a better result. Nevertheless, I feel really happy about the way I’m progressing this season and I’m exactly where I want to be. Going back to last season, I dropped 5 minutes into the race but this time I managed to stay with the pack again.

Looking at the data, you can see by raw numbers a big improvement over Mineral Wells:

Heart Rate v.s. Power

Walburg Stats:
Average Speed: 23.1 mph
Average Power: 197 watts
Average Heart Rate: 155 bpm

Mineral Wells Stats:
Average Speed: 22.7 mph
Average Power 178 watts
Average Heart Rate: 145 bpm

The numbers from Mineral Wells are all lower but I felt like I was trying a lot harder during that race. I think part of the reason is because of the altitude – at Mineral Wells, I reached a max elevation of 1100 ft whereas at Walburg I reached a max elevation of 525 ft. The difference in oxygen concentration could have made it better, or perhaps I gained that much fitness over the week, but it was probably a combination of the two. Anyway I’m satisfied with the improvement. You can see the rest of the race data here. I’ve signed up next week for Lago Vista and I think it’ll be really fun since I’m staying in a condo with the rest of my teammates. I’ll be racing the 3/4 race on Saturday which could be a great deal harder. Said convinced me to give it a shot. I plan to just sit in and see if I can finish with the Cat 3 riders. I’ll be racing the 4/5 race on Sunday for the sake of balance.

As a bonus, here’s Brian’s data from the Cat 3 race:

Heart Rate v.s. Speed

Walburg Stats (Brian):
Average Speed: 24.0 mph
Average Heart Rate: 160 bpm
Max Heart Rate: 187 bpm

Brian and 6 other riders went for a late breakaway and he ended up 3rd. That’s very impressive considering that the chances for a successful breakaway were greatly diminished by the lack of wind, along with his race being 50% longer and 1 mph faster than mine. Brian took a chance and he got a great result. He had a frustrating season up until now, but I think this result shows that hard work pays off.

Posted in: Cycling, Logs / Tagged: , ,

No. 49: Mineral Wells Stage Race – Race Report

21 February, 2012 2:09 AM / 2 Comments /

Hey everyone,

My season opener began last Saturday at 5:45 A.M. My teammate, Brian O’Donnell, woke up Erique – one of our friends racing for Bicycle World – and me to go eat breakfast before our races. The forecast was 100% chance of rain all day with a high of 46° F. With that information, I could only think of one thing: no way.

Stage One – Criterium

After breakfast, I spent an hour or so warming up on the trainer inside my hotel room. Erique and Brian came back from their race and gave me a brief reconnaissance of the course: six 90° turns, puddles at every corner, and potholes everywhere within a .6 mile loop. Erique, who had forgotten to bring his shoes to the race, managed to stay in contact with the group on his tennis shoes and, as a mountain biker hilariously went over obstacles on purpose to make things exciting for the people behind him. By the time I left the hotel the rain started pouring down heavily and I arrived at the staging area soaked. I met up with my teammate Said before the start to discuss our strategy and he told me that he would try to ride it out as long as he could. I rode a couple laps before the start and I decided that the course, especially the downhill left-hand turn, posed a safety hazard to both me and my expensive bicycle. If you don’t believe me, here’s what happened at the 2010 MSU Collegiate Criterium.

The four of us brought 6 bikes.

As soon as we started the race, the riders in front jumped the gun and the peloton immediately shattered into chase groups. I tried a couple of laps and I ended up in a chase group of five riders. We collectively decided that it wasn’t worth the effort to keep going, so we sat up and waited until the official pulled us out of the race. I stood around and watched Said, who ended up in a mid-field chase group, complete a handful of laps until he himself got pulled from the race. We met up with Doug Baysinger afterward and he told us that he had a really hard time with the course, even when it was dry last year. He told me that he would just pedal slowly until the official pulled him out (you have to start each stage to continue with the stage race). It felt nice that I wasn’t the only person with that opinion. Now I don’t feel like such a wimp.

Noah Williams races the Cat 2 crit – photo by Lee McDaniel Photography

Stage Two – Time Trial

The second stage consisted of a 7-mile route along highway 337 with three climbs and about 200 ft of elevation gain. I normally don’t feel enthusiastic about time trials but this was the first time I would have detailed statistics such as heart rate and power which I could use as a reference tool. I rode the time trial like I did with my long intervals, trying to maintain 165-170 bpm and around 220-250 watts of power.

Power v.s. HR v.s. Elevation

You can see from the data that I tried way too hard at the beginning – I put in 400 watts for the first minute or so, and this is a very common mistake for young cyclists to make and now the data has confirmed that I’ve also made this mistake – you can see that as the time went on, I struggled to maintain my heart rate and had a started easier I would’ve had more energy for the finish. Anyway – the TT was disappointing as usual – I beat a couple of riders but I really felt disappointed because there was no indication of any improvement over the off-season whatsoever. After Said and I finished the TT, we rode back to the start in the heavy downpour – and by the time we got back we were both shivering like crazy. It felt so much better after we got back to the hotel. Later on we were informed that after the Cat 4 riders finished, the officials cancelled the rest of the day’s races due to hazardous weather conditions.

We used the heater to dry our clothes after each stage

Stage Three – Road Race

I didn’t have any lofty ambitions for the Road Race on Sunday – I just didn’t want to get dropped like I did at all the other races last year so my goal as usual was to not get dropped. Brian encouraged me to aim higher so I said if I managed to stay in contact I would go for the sprint. We all woke up at 5, and headed out to the start. Brian and Erique would start at 7:15 AM and I would start at 8:00 AM. I looked at my thermometer and while the dry weather looked encouraging – the temperature did not – 39° F. After signing in, I sat in Said’s truck in order to stay warm and I didn’t even warm up. I waited until 10 minutes before the start to get ready so I wouldn’t have to stand around outside.

A few miles into the race, I noticed two things – the zipper on one of my shoe covers had become undone so the cover would be flapping around the whole time, and part of my left cleat broke off so I would definitely not be competing for the sprint if I made it to the finish. The pace was easy – we cruised at around 20 mph below 200 watts. Once we reached the first KOM (King of the Mountains), the pace picked up dramatically as there was a prize for the person who made it over the hill first. I struggled to keep up but I didn’t have trouble staying in contact with the pack. After we crested the summit, the peloton accelerated quickly as we wanted to solidify our lead over any dropped riders.

After the KOM and a false flat, the race went downhill for the rest of the lap – no one tried breaking away and we were hitting speeds over 40mph. I became really nervous and it was hard for me to keep my cool while going that fast. I kept a distance of a couple meters from the back and easily regained contact at the end of the first lap.

A couple of riders broke away at the beginning of the second lap. At first, we tried to chase them down, but after some futile attempts to reel them back in, we decided to let them go until we caught them shortly before the second KOM. This time it was especially tough – I was breathing really hard and I nearly blew it! I kept telling myself to keep going. I barely managed to hold on to the wheel of the last rider of the pack and it took so much effort to crank out those last few pedal strokes before the top of the climb. After we crested the summit, rider after rider attacked immediately and I didn’t even get a chance to catch my breath. The section in between the KOM and the downhill portion was a false flat and that dealt a blow to me psychologically as I wanted to take a break so badly. As the attacks continued the peloton would surge and I would lose 5 m or so to the last wheel, but I kept clawing back and I kept telling myself not to give up and to stay in contact at all costs. Even on the downhill portion riders kept trying to break away. As I matched the accelerations I didn’t even pay attention to how I should be handling the bike and I had no problem going down the hill – it’s weird how you sometimes do things better when you don’t think about it.

Anyway it became clear that it was going to be a sprint finish. The pack was so dense that I couldn’t even see the 1 km sign and the only cue I got was when the pack surged toward the finish. I couldn’t contest the sprint because I had broken my left cleat earlier, so I just latched onto the wheel in front of me and hung on to the finish. To my surprise, during the sprint riders dropped like flies and I finished in 20th place out of 55 without sprinting, in the front half of the pack. Said finished somewhere near me, as I had barely passed him before the line.

This was my first indication this year that I’ve been improving. At 2011’s season opener at Walburg, I dropped after 5 minutes, and subsequently dropped during every single race except for Gonzales. This time I stayed in contact and my legs still feel fresh after the off-season. I’m hoping that there’s still plenty of room to expand and I’m really excited for the rest of the season.

I learned a lot of things in this race, in particular:

1. “The difference between getting dropped completely and staying in contact easily might be as little as holding 20 watts for 10 more seconds.” – Someone told me this after I had dropped during Ronde von Manda my rookie season. It wasn’t until now that I realized he was telling the truth. Take a look at the diagram below of the road race. I’ve divided the chart into two rectangles that contain the interval between the KOM and the finish of each lap. You can see from the relative maxima that I tried much harder on the second lap than on the first:

Data from the Road Race

However, you can see that the peaks don’t last very long in terms of duration. I really had to just maintain 600-800 watts in really short bursts – and this is one reason why interval training is so important.

2. When you’re hurting, others are too. Before the finish, I had no idea that the others were hurting. They gave no indication of pain during the KOM and it looked so easy to them that it was intimidating. It wasn’t until the finish when those riders were dropping like crazy that I realized they were even more tired than I was. I think this stresses the importance that you need to keep going, even when you think you’re at the limit.

3. If you don’t stay in the front, you can’t contest the sprint. What I mean is that you have to be in a top 10 position before the 1 km mark. When I was a Cat 5, I was able to sprint from the back of a 50-man pack and finish 3rd at Chappell Hill. I did the same thing at Fort Hood when I sprinted from the back and wound up 7th. You can’t do this in Cat 4 anymore. Everyone there has decent sprinting ability and the jockeying for position on the run-in to the finish is a lot more aggressive. People aren’t as willing to give up their position because they know how important it is, so you have to fight for it.

Teammate Data

My teammates sent me some data today and it’s very interesting. Here’s Brian’s profile from the TT:

Brian's TT Data

You can see that his heart rate was higher all around – this might be due to him being able to maintain a higher heart rate for a longer period of time or biological differences. Anyhow, he took it relatively conservatively at the beginning and on the downhill sections and that allowed him to put in the effort he needed on the final climb. You can see the rest of his data here.

Here’s his data from the Road Race:

Brian's RR Data

From here you can see how much harder the Cat 3 race was compared to Cat 4. He averaged 23.1 mph as opposed to 22.7 for me, and his HR stayed in the higher bands for longer periods of time. You can see the rest of his data here.

Here’s Said’s Road Race data. He’s one of my teammates in Cat 4:

Said's RR Data

Now this is interesting because Said and I raced together. I should probably find a way to get the axes to line up but it looks like we have similar data in terms of averages. My heart rate looks a lot more erratic because I kept falling off the back.

I had a lot of fun this weekend! I think the trip was totally worth it. I’ve got Walburg tentatively lined up for next weekend, so we’ll see how that goes.

PS: – I failed at my reading goals from last week. I made it most of the way with the Actuarial material but none of the way with Algebra. More on that later.

Posted in: Cycling, Logs / Tagged: , , ,

No. 48: Setting up a Self-Study Course in Mathematics

14 February, 2012 3:52 AM / Leave a Comment /

Hey everyone,

I’ve got my first race coming up next weekend at Mineral Wells and I’m really looking forward to driving and spending the weekend there with my teammates. I originally planned to race in support of my teammate Said, who got a top-6 result in an early race, but due to some registration issues he couldn’t make it, so it looks like I’ll have to race alone in my category (EDIT: Said was finally able to register, so I plan to ride in support.). While I feel stronger than I did at the beginning of last year, I didn’t prepare as well as I should have so I don’t have any intention of winning, but I have to get myself racing in order to test the waters and gauge my level of fitness. I just weighed myself yesterday and, to my surprise, I gained 13 pounds over the off-season! I currently weigh 141 pounds compared to 128 pounds in November. Some of that gain came from muscle mass as I’ve consistently weight trained since then and set some new personal records:

Squat: 210 lb. 5×5
Bench: 135 lb. 5×5
Deadlift: 190 lb. 1×5
Overhead: 95 lb. 5×5
Barbell Row: 115 lb. 5×5
Power Clean: 115 lb. 3×5

Unfortunately, a lot of that weight gain came from an improper diet, as during exam time I would get so busy and order fast food to give myself more time to study. I didn’t kick the habit over the winter months and it looks like I’ve paid the price. I’d like to lose around 6 pounds and 135 would be an ideal weight. I want to go on a diet, but on the other hand I have a lot of races coming up so I need enough fuel to perform well. First – I need to stop eating fast food. Second – the races will help me shed some weight but if that doesn’t happen I’ll start counting calories. So far I’ve only reached 7 hours of weekly riding and I plan to push it to 9 or 10 hours/week, and I’m currently going for 8 this week. Hopefully this will do the trick. We’ll see.

Last week I said I wanted to set up an organized schedule for the study of mathematics. I want to learn so many things but I’ve come to realize that I definitely won’t live long enough to learn everything I want to learn. I contemplated following this guide which I think sets out a solid course of study for the foundations of mathematics and seems like something I can finish before I die. Back in the 1920’s you could actually learn all of mathematics in about 80 books – something certainly doable back in the day. However, the field of mathematics has exploded and branched out in all sorts of different directions and you really have to just pick a specialty and stick with it. So far I’ve decided to master these books:

1. College Algebra
2. Geometry
3. Trigonometry
4. Calculus
5. Linear Algebra
6. Discrete Mathematics
7. Calculus

before heading into the guide full-steam. However, I also have to continue my actuarial studies, and I’ve found it hard to balance these two goals simultaneously. Last fall, I wound up falling behind in both these areas because I didn’t have a structured course of study. In a panic, I ditched all the algebra and put all my efforts into MLC, and thankfully passed. Since then, I’ve only intermittently studied algebra and each time I go back to it, I get the same feeling I get when I’d take a week off from viola – extreme rustiness. Over the 10 years I spent playing viola and the 2 years I’ve spent cycling, I’ve realized that the most important thing you need to get good is to have a clear goal in mind and to stay consistent. With consistency, you can overcome some of the flaws in your preparation – as no method is perfect for everyone – if we knew of one, it’d be so easy, right? For example, if you watch videos of your favorite musicians or athletes, you’ll see that many of them perform phenomenally well despite their lack of “proper” technique (for example, Soler’s riding form, Heifetz’s bow hold, Reggie Miller’s shot). It’s evident that no one way works for everyone, and that there are many ways to reach a goal. You have to stay persistent, try several avenues, learn from failure, and see what works.

This year really marks the first year that I’m taking math as seriously as I did viola. I think if I can finally put in some consistency I’ll learn some really neat things. Although I said there’s more than one way to reach a goal, there are a lot of wrong ways you can take while trying to get there and that’s why I’ve contemplated hiring a mentor to help guide my studies. Teachers can’t tell you everything but experienced ones are quick to identify your mistakes, and that can expedite the learning process. In my experience, the best ones won’t tell you exactly what’s wrong, but they’ll give you hints or ask you questions as to why you took the approach you did (for example, when trying to solve a problem), and when you try to answer you realize you did something wrong and that you should have done it some other way, and that other way often turns out to be right way. In this way, they teach you to think independently.

When I learned math in school, I really just did enough to get good grades and not much more. I enjoyed it in elementary school but in intermediate school something really killed my interest. I don’t want to blame my teachers but I didn’t get one that actually majored in math until my junior year of high school. She was pretty good, but I think she sensed the general apathy in her students, and may have been worn out after years and years of dealing with both that and the administration. Most of the teachers seem to have only learned enough math to pass their certification exams which doesn’t say much at all about their ability. I feel like it would be extremely advantageous to have someone who took abstract algebra, or maybe even just discrete math to teach teenagers their first course dealing with symbolic mathematics. It wasn’t until college when I took a very challenging first-year calculus course that I became interested again, and not until my third year when I started to learn what mathematicians actually did, and how they made conjectures and proofs. I think if kids these days (or most primary and secondary math teachers, for that matter) actually knew what mathematicians did for a living they’d be a lot more interested in learning mathematics.

My goal for now is to read 10 pages a day for actuarial work, and then do one section a week for algebra. I plan to go faster later on, but I haven’t even reached this level of consistency so I have to at least get that down before I get more ambitious. For this week, it’s simple. Read 70 pages of actuarial work and do 1 section of algebra, and then report back here next week to see if I’m successful.

I’d like to close my post with a simple spreadsheet I created to keep track of my tasks. When I devote a lot of time to study, I tend to slack off on my “maintenance” tasks and things get so messy around here it’s hard to walk around without bumping into something. This spreadsheet lists various chores I need to do, and after I complete each task, I write down the date and it automatically calculates when I need to do it again. It also automatically changes color to green, yellow, or red to indicate if something has been recently done, needs to be done soon, or has been overdue.

A Simple Planner Spreadsheet.

You can see that there’s a lot of red – not good.

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