Goal Update
Surprise for the week: my STAC Zero trainer arrived early on Saturday! Took me a whole 2 hours after it arrived before I started using it… 90 minutes and 31 miles later, I stopped to go out and have a few beers for a friends birthday. I’ll be giving a full review after I log some more miles, but first take is this thing is amazing! Not sure if its the trainer or my bike, but I LOVE THEM BOTH! Also, on a nerdy side note, the STAC trainer is the only one that uses eddy currents (video describing it) to provide resistance, or in the more common tongue, it uses magic magnets to provide resistance without physical contact (read wear and sound) to the bike.
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| My Cervelo P2 on the STAC Zero Trainer (orange) |
Weekly update
Miles Swam: 0 [0] - STARTING FRIDAY I WILL BE IN THE POOL!
Miles Run: 22.87 [253.07]
Tacos Ate: 21 [219]
Miles Biked: 86.23 [549.48] - Told you I love this trainer!
Well, I finished the Z-Carve electronics control box! Only thing left to do is update the code for the surprise I mentioned a few weeks or months ago. I promise, it’s worth the wait!
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| Front Panel of CNC Controller |
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| Internals of CNC Controller |
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| Side Panel for motor, end stops, spindle and vacuum |
I also re-wired the Z-carve with updated 3D printed clips to allow the zip ties to go through the extrusion connections and added the second drag chain. I also did some design work on a nice 3D printed GT3 belt clip that I could adjust yet held the belts tightly. Right now they seem to work, but only time will tell. Once I power up this beast, I plan to push the limits of the machine; I have read of several people running cuts the GT2 6mm belts at 70-100ipm (inch per minute)… my belts are 9mm GT3… the surface area in contact with the gear increase a ton, correlating the the ability to drive faster, harder cuts.
The last step to finish up the wiring is to drill a hole through the table to route the wires, add a grommet (to limit noise and dust) and mount the control box. So excited to start making a huge controlled mess with this beast. Probably need to get working on lowering the table (for more Z- clearance, see last week’s post) and finishing up that enclosure....
Favorite Podcast of the Week
Very interesting podcast on the decision making process and how to use multiple mental models to make better decisions and improve performance. From the Art of Charm page:
“All knowledge is interconnected,” says James Clear, “so it’s very hard for our brains to fully comprehend just how interrelated the world is and how those forces play on each other. So it makes predictions very difficult to be accurate in the long run.”
This lack of accuracy applies to all of us — even the experts. Because for all we think we know about any given problem set before us, there are missing pieces of information from the overall puzzle that we’re simply unable to consider. One study by psychologist Philip E. Tetlock found that experts in several high-level fields (e.g., nuclear physics) were only correct about future predictions around 33 percent of the time.
“Two-thirds of the time, even the very best, smartest people were wrong,” says James. “So you can imagine how wrong you and I are on a daily basis!”
I am really struggling to summarize this podcast; maybe the best way is with the message I sent this to my sister right after listening to it: “This shit is crazy!” Have a listen and let me know what you think.
“Innovative ideas often happen at the intersection of seemingly unrelated areas.” - James Clear
"Soon is not as good as now." - Seth Godin
Random of the Week
Well, I am running out of time, so this will be a quick one. Recently, I have been adjusting my diet (again) to try and find out what works out best for me in terms of my training and energy levels throughout the day. First, I will highlight some of the simple ‘rules’ I try to follow daily (and no I am not perfect, but with the 80/20 rule I have seen some major improvements).
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The ‘sun diet’ - the sun provides all the energy to the Earth (yes, even fossil fuels are actually sun power); therefore, we should eat sunlight… Since I have not developed chlorophyll to convert sunlight into ATP, we should try to eat things as close to sun energy or plants.
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The ‘natural diet’ - if I don’t know exactly what ingredients were used to make it, don’t put it in your mouth. For example, what was used to make an apple? Oh sunlight! Cool. What was used to make that kung pao chicken? Umm… a chef with about 50 things. Don’t eat.
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The ‘bulletproof diet’ - Have a look at the site, basically the premise is all the ‘low-fat’ things we taught were healthy for our entire childhoods is probably wrong and that we should eat a higher fat and protein based diet with limited GOOD (non-processed) carbs.
How do I know this works? During my training for my first marathon, I would physically run out of fuel after 14 miles. In multiple instances I would easily hold a 7:30 mile avg through 13 miles, then all of a sudden mile 14 would be a struggle and I would be at an 8:45 pace. After I was done, my day was spent on the couch napping and eating. Today, I can run 15 miles at 7:10 avg (yes I am in better shape… yea I said that, better than marathon shape?) without any crash for the last mile(s) and then go on with my day like nothing happened. Not enough data to write a paper about it, but I am convinced my body is responding much better to these rules.
My most recent addition has been having breakfast smoothies based on the ‘no meat athlete’ guide. Not only does this take very little time and brainpower to prepare, it surely helps get me going and prepared for my workouts in the afternoon. Take a look here.
Almost forgot, TACOS. Gotta taco bout it later!
Time to write post: 36 minutes
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