Weekly Wednesday Update #16

Goal Update

Allergies aren’t too bad; but that’s no excuse for the lack of miles (over 1000 Zach powered miles for the year). After Marathon Monday (Boston Marathon #121 was run on 4/17), I have the fever again. Sweeping declaration, BQ 2018 for me! Swimming is lacking, brain is getting a hell of a workout, and I am using running and biking to refresh myself. This week is a much needed week of R&R, but I will probably hit it hard Friday night/Saturday after taking the PE exam for 8 hours on Friday to keep my sanity. In other more exciting news, I hit 300 tacos this week!

Weekly update

Miles Swam: 0 [2.89]

Miles Run: 21.41 [362.2]

Tacos Ate: 21 [319]

Miles Biked: 68.59 [790.24]

Things I worked on

Mechanical engineering problems. More engineering problems. Preparing exam references, purchasing a backup calculator (nerd alert!) and some exam snacks.

Professional Engineering Box of Knowledge

When I wasn’t preparing for the exam or outside on my bike or feet, I did manage to finish screwing down the T-track and cutting the MDF skins. Next step is to fasten the MDF skins down and build my stand-up desk version 2 (over the weekend). Looking forward to running the Z-carve with my newfound free time that I will somehow obtain by removing studying, increasing mileage, recovery and reading the stack of books I want to… Some may say  I need to re-evaluate.

T-Track with 0.75in MDF Skins

T-Track with screws every 3 in

Favorite Podcast of the Week

The Tim Ferriss Show - The Lion of Olympic Weightlifting, 62-year-old Jerzy Gregorek

This may be my favorite podcast episode I have listened to. And with over listening to over 39 days of podcasts, that is saying a lot. Seriously, listen to this; it will change your life. Jerzy’s book “The Happy Body” is the first book I am reading after the exam. Any questions?

Favorite Quote(s) of the Week

“Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.” – Jerzy Gregorek

"Upgrade your belief to match your vision" – Lewis Howes

Random of the Week

This is going to be short and sweet as I need to get my act together for the 8-hour professional engineering exam I am taking Friday. My sleep has been lacking for the past week, but that stops tonight; sorry guys - I’ll make up for it next week. Some things that I have found interesting this week:

• h2o PS - hop sparkling water
• CNC flat pack furniture
• Boston Marathon - Officially a goal of mine. Sub 3-hour marathon is as well. From marathon #1 to #2, I cut off over 30 minutes, so another 15ish is nothing. Also, sub3 is only 5 minutes faster than the BQ time for my age group (3:05:43 - 7:05/mile), which I need to run ~1.75 minutes faster (3:03:32 - 7:00/mile) than to have a good chance of getting into the race. So 3.5 minutes over 26 miles means a 6:50/mile will be my goal marathon pace for a 2:59:10 marathon; probably should make it an even 6:45/mile for some wiggle room and a 2:57 marathon. #iwasonlyhalfcrazy

Have a great week everyone! Do something crazy!

Time to write post: 23 minutes

Weekly Wednesday Update #15

Goal Update

For some reason when the snow all melts and it becomes warm enough for me to run outside, I feel nothing but joy. And then the allergies hit me smack in the face and cause me to be dysfunctional at best for a week or two. So yay for warm weather and allergies! Luckily, I will be over the allergies soon and I can blindly struggle through biking (on my trainer) and running trails without my contacts in to make it more of an adventure race for the next week.

Weekly update

Miles Swam: 0 [2.89]

Miles Run: 18.32 [340.79]

Tacos Ate: 17 [298]

Miles Biked: 53.24 [721.65]

Things I worked on

The CNC control box was mounted, then removed in order to install the T-track and skins. Not sure what I did this past weekend, but I didn’t quite get it ready to go. While calibrating the machine, I did end up breaking one of my custom acrylic GT3 belt clips (bummer) so I had to engineer a solution (duct tape) to hold until I can cut out a new one out of a little more ductile material.

Z-Carve with T-Track [halfway] installed

I also began designing new structural plates for my disassembled original X-carve. From all the upgrades I did, I can basically make a second CNC machine using the remaining parts and buying a new control board. Call it poor planning on version 1? I call it blind luck as I will soon have two machines for the price of one! (don’t quote me or do the math). I plan on purchasing a Smoothieboard and then making a sick control box where I can swap between a CNC/laser engraver/cutter and a 3D printer. Eventually when I make enough money with the machines to pay for themselves I will buy yet another control board to have 3+ independent systems. Don’t judge.

A lot of my time was spent studying for the PE exam I will be taking a week from Friday. Next week will be slow as well, but then I should be free to make some awesome stuff! Stay tuned.

Favorite Podcast of the Week

The Strength Running Podcast #20 - Author Matt Fitzgerald on “The Endurance Diet”

If you have been following my blog for the past 15 weeks (wow this is going quick!), you have probably read a few rants about diet. I am always trying to adjust my diet to help me get to that next level of performance mentally and physically. Everyone that knows I train a lot believes I can pretty much eat anything I want to replace the nearly 1,000 calories I burnt running, biking and/or swimming that day. While this is true (my weight has fluctuated only +/- 10lbs from my Junior year of high school - today I am 5 lbs lighter than I graduated), I have found that a ‘bad run’ correlates directly with a ‘bad diet’ day. This podcast (and book that I will read after the PE exam) confirms my findings - diet can derail anybody’s running. Take a listen, let me know what you think in the comments below.

Favorite Quote(s) of the Week

"You should take the approach that you're wrong. Your goal is to be less wrong" - Elon Musk

“Don't create new products, solve problems.” - Numerous

Random of the Week

For some reason I have been in a big running mood this week. Maybe it has been because I have had several runs outside, maybe its because I am crazy/have a problem/[insert your excuse why you don’t run]. While relaxing or getting ready to call it a night I have found myself reading numerous articles on running training plans, running nutrition plans, running shoes, running gadgets, races to run, etc. At the end of last year when I made those sweeping goals to run 1000 miles, eat 1000 tacos and bike 2017 miles (swimming is still a battle - I’ll get there), I also thought, wouldn’t it be fun to qualify for Boston. Training on the treadmill has me in possibly the best shape I have ever been in April - I feel great and ready to push myself to that next level.

For those who have heard of the race predictor on Garmin products, there are varying reviews, but I believe there is no reason I can’t hit those goals. Honestly, the only reason I can think of why I haven’t run much faster than 7 minute miles for any extended period of time is fear. For some reason I set 7 minute miles as an arbitrary maximum pace for nearly anything from a 5k to a marathon. While I do need to run 7:05/mile to qualify for Boston (and effectively enter the 90th percentile of marathon runners), there is no reason I shouldn’t be running a 5k way faster than that. My immediate goal is to push myself and run a 5k at a 6:00/mile average (which my race predictor says should be my half marathon pace). Next will be a 10k in under 40 mins, then a half marathon in under 1:25, and finally a sub 3 hour marathon. Enough rant; time to run!

Predicted pace for each distance: 5K - 5:35, 10K - 5:47, 13.1 - 6:04, 26.2 - 6:21

What are you going to push yourself to do tomorrow? in the next week? the next month?

Time to write post: 45 minutes

Weekly Wednesday Update #14

Goal Update

Another week of grinding it out. Need to get to the pool more often, but I am getting much more efficient swimming. My sets are getting longer, breaks shorter and most importantly I don’t feel like I am going to die. Got outside to run on Saturday, followed by a nice 12 miles on the dreadmill Monday... (insert Been steadily biking; may take the bike out for the maiden voyage on the road Sunday (highs near 70!) after it snows tomorrow… Classic Michigan…

Weekly update

Miles Swam: 1.25 [2.89]

Miles Run: 26.01 [322.47]

Tacos Ate: 22 [281]

Miles Biked: 48.36 [668.41]

Things I worked on

This week I did a little finishing work on the CNC control box; switching the motor halt switch from a normally opened button to a normally closed button so it would actually work (all other end stops are normally closed - TinyG requires them to all be the same), then I designed, painted and installed some hangers for the control box to attach to the table (to do this weekend). I plan to install the t-track and waste board over the weekend so that I can start making things again!

In the meantime, I installed a smart thermostat that I can control with my home automation platform (Smartthings - I should write up a review on that sometime), did some spring cleaning around the house, cleaned out my garage for future projects and spent a lot of time studying/doing problems for the PE exam coming up in just over 2 weeks. This section should get a bit busier once I get that exam off my plate.

Oh yea, almost forgot. I have been meaning to set up retropie on one of my raspberry pis and I finally did it! Pretty much followed this guide step by step and then added some ROMs, and then played Super Mario Brothers for a few hours… Oops.

Favorite Podcast of the Week

The Art of Charm # 599 - The Myth of Meritocracy - Robert H. Frank

This podcast spoke to me; a lot of people chalk up their success to hard work, or those who feel cheated say others were lucky. This podcast gave me a refreshed outlook on luck and how if we work hard, more luck will seem to find us. Have a listen, let me know what you think in the comments below.

Favorite Quote(s) of the Week

"Preparation + skill + perseverance equals luck." - Jason Flom

“I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.” - Coleman Cox

Random of the Week

For those of you who have heard of SpaceX, did you see what they did last week? If you haven’t heard of SpaceX, stop reading and watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qo78R_yYFA

Okay now that we are on the same page, last week (3/30/2017) SpaceX launched and landed the first ever re-used rocket.

Why you may ask?

The answer is to make space flight economical.

Why would we want that?

For the same reason you backup your computer hard drive (if you don’t seriously, spend $20 to get an external hard drive and copy your important files to it monthly so you aren’t dead in the water when your hard drive decides to die).

But Zach, seriously how does making space travel economical equate to backing up your hard drive?

Simply put, by making space travel economical, we can make sure the human race does not suffer the fate of numerous life forms that have lived on earth and been wiped out through a massive extinction event.

Copied from http://waitbutwhy.com/2016/09/spacexs-big-fking-rocket-the-full-story.html

Where did I get this idea?

Well there is an amazing blog called “waitbutwhy.com” (seriously awesome domain name), created by Tim Urban, that explores various questions from a 4 part series on Elon Musk aka the real life Iron Man (Telsa, SpaceX, and everything else - a long, nerdy read, but AWESOME), to Why Cryonics Makes Sense, to Why you secretly hate cool bars. His blog posts are full of entertaining thoughts and details, which I tend to resonate with. If you have some free time and want to better yourself or be able to have weird nerdy conversations with me, please take a look at Tim’s blog.

Time to write post: 28 minutes

Weekly Wednesday Update #13

Goal Update

Took another weekend off because I was just too focused on studying and building things. No excuses, so I stepped it up during the week. Also, every time I think about planning for something, a curve ball comes in and well, I haven’t quite finalized my race plan for the year. There will be some triathlons (sprint, olympic and half ironman), 5ks, 10ks, the Chicago marathon, and at least one Ragnar relay. Good news is my [terrible] swimming form is coming back; didn't’ feel like I was going to drown for the entire mile I swam yesterday. Only way to get better is to get in the water! I have also been trying to bike for 20-30 minutes in the morning; really loving how productive my days have been after this simple change.

Weekly update

Miles Swam: 1.02 [1.64]

Miles Run: 22.93 [296.46]

Tacos Ate: 21 [259]

Miles Biked: 42.4 [620.05]

Things I worked on

As promised, I got the Z-Carve up and running this weekend! Woo!!! First, I lowered the table to give some more clearance (after modeling it in Fusion 360 of course). Unfortunately, I did not get the t-track nor the waste board installed, but that is on the list for this weekend. The enclosure is still a work in progress, but I hacked together a simple quick and cheap enclosure to keep the dust contained using some cheap plastic sheets. Simple, effective and yet somewhat elegant… I’ll call that a win!

The Z-Carve with cheap plastic sheet enclosure

The control box has been installed, still have to work out some of the programming to get it to where I want, but all of the buttons and switches work! The next step will be just wonderful. After fighting some wiring issues (motor wasn’t running perfectly), I got the machine tuned and was able to cut out a fidget spinner for the Inventables monthly Challenge (link to my project files). Nice little four leaf clover for St. Patrick's Day

Four Leaf Clover Fidget Toy

Favorite Podcast of the Week

The Art of Charm # 597 - Somebody’s Gotta Do It - Mike Rowe

As a kid, I watched a lot of the discovery channel (okay, a young adult... alright I still watch it, but have you seen mythbusters?!?!). Many of you may know Mike Rowe from the Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs. What most of you probably don’t know is Mike started his show business in the opera… to get women! What a guy. But seriously, this is a great conversation to listen to with plenty of gems throughout.

Favorite Quote(s) of the Week

"Don't follow your passion, but always bring it with you." Mike Rowe

"Copy genius" - Dr Bill Dorfman

Random of the Week

Oh boy it's late (11pm)! I need to work on getting to bed at a reasonable time when I wake up and have biked 10 miles by 6:30am…

After logging over 150 miles on my new bike and the STAC Zero trainer, I think it's time to give it a short initial review. NOTE: I have not ridden any other trainers for a significant amount of time, so take this review with a grain of salt.

Before purchasing my bike, I knew I was going to want some way to ride it indoors and avoid the silly stationary bikes at the gym with the saddles that are extremely uncomfortable. In order to ride indoors with your bike, you need what is called a trainer. After some research I found there are typically two types of trainers: (using my termonlogy) tire on and tire off. The tire on trainers provide resistance through your tires in numerous ways; the major set back being it wears through tires. The tire off trainers basically replace your back wheel and gear set with a set of gears that provide resistance as you spin indoors. These trainers do not wear your tires, but require you to remove your tire anytime you want to spin indoors; and they are typically expensive.

Enter the STAC Zero trainer, and a new category. This trainer utilizes physics (eddy currents) to provide resistance without a physical connection to your bike. Watch these videos for more info, and this video to explain the physics. Freaking awesome right??? It takes me less than 5 minutes from the time I roll out of bed, to get dressed, set up my bike on the STAC Zero and start spinning, all without wearing out my tires! Not to mention this trainer costs only $300 for the base unit or $375 for the version with a power meter. Again, I can not comment on the accuracy of the power meter as I do not have another one, but others say it is relatively accurate.

At this point, I highly recommend this trainer. Utilizing the weights on the wheel to provide additional inertia give a very smooth ride, very road like. If you are new rider (or experienced) and in the market for a new trainer, I can’t say anything bad about the STAC Zero.

Time to write post: 31 minutes

Weekly Wednesday Update #12

Goal Update

Guess what?!?!? I GOT IN THE POOL! Had water in my ear for half the day (just bought some ear plugs to try out), but I swam just over a half mile. Wow; I forgot how to swim efficiently. Time to get back on that horse! Little bit of reading and viewing the Total Immersion series before too long, but I made the dive. Other than that, it has been a recovery week, and I took the weekend off while in Chicago celebrating St. Patty’s day with friends. The bitter cold, among other things, kept me from any outdoor activities unfortunately. To make up for my slacking, I have almost finalized my racing plan for the year. Stay tuned!

Weekly mileage update

Miles Swam: 0.63 [0.63]

Miles Run: 20.46 [273.53]

Tacos Ate: 19 [238]

Miles Biked: 28.17 [577.65] - Almost ran as much as I biked…

Things I worked on

Last week was a busy one, and with my weekend travels among other excuses, I did not accomplish much. Monday’s after the 6 hour drive back from Chicago always unfortunately end up as a waste. This upcoming weekend I have several projects planned and ready to cut. I should be getting some run-time on the Z-carve in all its glory (pending table lowering, waste board installation, and enclosure installation). I will also update the raspi code so that all my fantastic buttons and lights all work.

Favorite Podcast of the Week

During my 7 hours alone in the car this weekend, I listened to approximately 20 hours of podcast content… It is difficult to pick just one favorite of the week, so I will give you my top 3.

The School of Greatness #448 - Hack Your Brain & New Technology to Reach Peak Performance with Steven Kotler -

Simple one liner to catch you interest… in this episode you will learn about ‘the largest revolution most people have never heard of (happening right now).’

Noah Kagen Presents #10 - Deep Dive on Jim Rohn’s 7 Strategies for Wealth & Happiness -

This one really resonated with me; these are all things I have been trying to bring into my everyday life as they are common among many of the lessons learned through my diet of 31 days of podcast content in the past year. ‘Here are the 7 nuggets of wisdom: Use focused goals, seek knowledge, learn how to change, control your money, master time, surround yourself with winners, learn how to live well.

The Year of Purpose Podcast: Lost Tapes Cait Flanders - Minimalism, Shopping Ban & Debt Repayment

I have been very intrigued with minimalism, having just successfully completing 17 days of the minimalist challenge with my little sister (kind of lost when I wasn’t here). Basis of minimalism is “the thing that gets us past things so we can make room for life’s most important things, which actually aren’t things at all.”

Favorite Quote(s) of the Week

“Creativity is probably the most important skill in the 21st century.” - Steven Kolter

“The people that matter don't mind and the people that mind don't matter.” - Jerrod Camichael

Random of the Week

As I am running out of time (seems to be a common theme… I’ll look into it), I would like to quickly share something simple that has recently brought me a lot of joy with a very little cost. Anyone who works (or has worked) in an [corporate] office building knows how terrible the coffee is. If you don’t you either have a full time barista, a coffee snob in your area, or most likely you have no idea. As a former barista for Caribou Coffee for 1.5 years through high school, I can tell you there is a better way, which may be a fad; cold brewed coffee. While working at Caribou, I never realized how good the cold brew was because 1) I didn’t care for coffee and 2) the hot brew and mixed drinks like lattes and mochas were just awesome.

Today after going through stages of ‘caffeine is bad’ to ‘the things in coffee are healthy’ I have been been brewing my own cold brew coffee for about 4 months now and think the little caffeine in my mornings (always after 9am when my cortisol levels begin to level out) seems to keep me energize throughout the day. Cold brew not only tastes amazing, but it is easy. There are hundreds if not thousands of recipes and contraptions to make it (just google ‘cold brew coffee’), but here is my system.

Things required

1. 1 cup of coffee beans - grind coarsely (french press)
2. 4 cups of water
3. Storage Container (I use mason jars)
4. Paper coffee filter
5. Funnel
6. (optional but nice) french press

Process

1. Add water to storage container (french press)
2. Grind 1 cup of coffee beans coarsely
3. Add coffee beans to water.
4. Let sit for 10-12 hours
5. Pour cold brew coffee out through a coffee filter paper lined funnel into storage container (mason jar). The filter paper is not required, but I do not like any coffee remnants in my cold brew.
6. Leaving a small amount of water in the french press (do not press the plunger down), add 4 more cups of water to grounds. Stir to suspend grounds.
7. Let sit 12-36 hours (stirring even 8-12 hours).
8. Repeat step 5 and 6; however, you press as much water out of the french press as you can. Discard the spent coffee grounds.

This process yields 8 cups of cold brew coffee, which is concentrated. I usually dilute it at 1:1 - 2:1 water to cold brew ratio as I rather sip on it vs. sipping on a espresso shot. Great, simple process that takes me about 10 minutes a week to make coffee that tastes fantastic. Trust me, you will be surprised. Alright time to sleep, have a great week everyone! Leave questions or comments below!

Time to write post: 38 minutes

Weekly Wednesday Update #11

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.

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!

Things I worked on

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!

Front Panel of CNC Controller

Internals of CNC Controller

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

The Art of Charm #592 w/ James Clear - Mental Models

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.

Favorite Quote(s) of the Week

“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).

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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