Eriol's training log

[Eriol]

I'm starting to feel I need some kind of structure in my cubing practice which is becoming more and more diverse and disorganised. So here it is the training log where I keep track of my progression:

Current status:

3x3: I have been practicing this for almost a year and at home I'm quite consistently sub-30 now. I have competed twice with terrible results (PR single: 27.93, average: 36.84). Hoping to improve on those in the future. I use CFOP with full PLL (tend to mess upp N-perms quite a lot though) and I'm in the process of learning full OLL, standing at about 40/57 right now. More efficient F2L and cross would probably give quicker improvements, but I prefer finishing OLL before working on other stuff.

2x2: I haven't really practice 2x2 that much until the last few days when I decided I wanted to learn Ortega, in the hope that it would immidiately make me a sub-10-solver. That didn't really happen though, and I realise I need to practice more and probably also learn some special algs for upside down and mirrored cases. I have competed twice with PR single 10.67 and average 15.34 (both of those were with LBL-method). Not really sure that I want to put much work into practicing 2x2 though. I'm old and too slow in both fingers and brain to ever become good at the event.

4x4: I started practicing 4x4 about a month ago but have already competed once. Except that the cube popped for me on the first solve, ruining the average, I was quite satisfied with a 2.10 single and another 2.13. This was using Redux and free slice. But since then I have started working on the switch to Yau and also ordered a better cube (The Moyu Aosu V7 Picube Edition). Struggling with Yau though, I can't really get the lookahead to work and I'm probably still faster with Redux. I like the event though and want to get better. First goal is to be consistently sub-2.

5x5: I have practiced 5x5 a bit longer than 4x4 and can't say I'm really good at it. Competed once when I was a complete beginner, resulting in a 6.51 single. I will probably stick to Redux för 5x5, my feeling is that it's an advantage for me personally that I can do centers in any order without any risk of messing up the color scheme. First goal is to be consistently sub-4.

3x3 blindfolded: This is more of a "maybe in the future". I have grasped the theory for Old Pochmann, but I'm still far from a complete solve. I don't think I will prioritze learning blindsolving right now, but it is a long term goal.

FMC: Same for this. I think I can successfully write down a semi-efficient CFOP solve in 60 minutes already, and it could be fun to practice it a bit more if a suitable competition with FMC on the program shows up near me.

The other official events I don't even own any cubes for, but some of them seem interesting, especially stuff that is a bit more advanced like Megaminx, FTO and Square-1.

 

[Eriol]

Notable progress in the last few days:

Have done a lot of 2x2 solves with Ortega and sometimes I actually manage to be sub-10 even with difficult cases. Often I do stressed solves and misrecognise cases. Had a lucky 2.95 once, which is weird considering that I've had very few sub-7 solves.

For 3x3 I managed 12 straight sub-30 solves today resulting in a 26.25 ao12, which is my best ever. Learning the last OLL:s is slow, I feel like I forget just as much as I retain and some of the ones I "know" are painstakingly slow when I try to recall them in solves. The ones I'm struggling the most with are OLL13 and 14 (knight move-shapes) and OLL34 (C-shape).

 

[CrossPetrus]

For oll 13, the alg (should be) the inverse of oll 9. Realizing that, and practicing the algs back-to-back really helped me with oll 13. For oll 14, I actually use a slightly different alg than the standard one, which I find to be very weird and slow. I use r U R’ U’ r F R2 U R’ U’ F’. It’s basically oll 9 but with wide r moves at the start. This alg should be easier to learn, and to me it’s actually a better alg than the standard one. I also use a different alg for bad C, but the standard one is fine here. Basically what you’re doing is B U B’, but it’s fingertricked as f R f’ because that’s better to execute. Here’s the hard part: the insertion. I got lucky learning this alg because I knew this insert alg from a cubehead video, but I don’t think many people know it. Basically you’re just inserting the back pair with r’ U’ r and then fixing the cross with M U M’, with cancels so it’s r’ U R U M’. I personally use F R U R’ U’ R’ F’ r U R U’ r’, which is a cancel between F R U R’ U’ F’ and the L ocll.
Hope this helps, and if you need any more clarification then I’d be happy to provide.

 

[Eriol]

For oll 13, the alg (should be) the inverse of oll 9. Realizing that, and practicing the algs back-to-back really helped me with oll 13. For oll 14, I actually use a slightly different alg than the standard one, which I find to be very weird and slow. I use r U R’ U’ r F R2 U R’ U’ F’. It’s basically oll 9 but with wide r moves at the start. This alg should be easier to learn, and to me it’s actually a better alg than the standard one. I also use a different alg for bad C, but the standard one is fine here. Basically what you’re doing is B U B’, but it’s fingertricked as f R f’ because that’s better to execute. Here’s the hard part: the insertion. I got lucky learning this alg because I knew this insert alg from a cubehead video, but I don’t think many people know it. Basically you’re just inserting the back pair with r’ U’ r and then fixing the cross with M U M’, with cancels so it’s r’ U R U M’. I personally use F R U R’ U’ R’ F’ r U R U’ r’, which is a cancel between F R U R’ U’ F’ and the L ocll.
Hope this helps, and if you need any more clarification then I’d be happy to provide.

Thanks for the help! I was wondering about those four F-moves in OLL 14 and if they were really necessary. The similarities with OLL 9 doesn't really help me much since I haven't learned OLL 9 yet...

Got my new 4x4 in the mail today so now I will be practicing Yau. Yau4-PB has already improved to 2.12.

 

[Eriol]

Update on progress:

3x3: My solving in 3x3 seems very inconsistent. Early in the day when I'm feeling alert I can average around 27, but then late at night when I've got the most time to practice I'm just very slow, especially in recognition, and I make lots of mistakes. Making a bit of progress with the OLL:s though. At the moment I'd say I know about 45/57, although some of them are quite shaky.

2x2: I have done quite a lot of solves with basic Ortega and had a PB a05 of 8.30, but mostly my averages are still in the 10-11 second range. I would probably benefit from learning som more algs, but that would have to wait for later.

4x4: I had some sub-2 solves with Yau, but then I tried to switch to 3-2-3-style edge-pairing and my times went up to being more like 2.30 again. It's a bit frustrating to always go one step forward and two steps back. But hopefully this will benefit me in the long run.

5x5: Have hardly practiced this event.

 

[K3n]

Don't give up on ortega! I average 3.5s with basic ortega algs from jperms vid (I can't put myself to learn 2x2 algs for some reason)

 

[Eriol]

Have practiced more 4x4 and got a 1:48.58 single PB today. I basically managed to put the whole solve together with reasonably efficient cross-edges and 3-2-3 edge-pairing. Of course a bit of luck with no parity too, but this is the sort of solves I need if I want to be sub-2 all the time. Just need to practice more.

 

[Eriol]

Continuing improvement on 4x4. Single PB is down to 1:43.20 and a05 down to 2:02.03. But there are so many stupid mistakes you can make on a 4x4 that are impossible on 3x3. Today I inserted one of the F2L-pairs on the backside with a flipped edge and didn't realize until I had already completed last layer and stopped the timer. Would have been one of my best times ever too.

 

[Eriol]

I have decided I need to stop doing the triple sexy-alg för OLL 21. That's a lot of completely unecessary moves that irritate me everytime I get it and me being slow means I probably lose at least half a second on it.

 

[Eriol]

I competed today. The organizers had conveniently scheduled the first round for all of "my" events in the afternoon today so I didn't need to spend the whole weekend at the venue. (I have a family that likes to see me sometimes too.)

First of all, I travelled to the competition by train and decided to do some solves on the way there. I then proceeded to do a 23.82 Ao5 for 3x3, which is the best I've ever had and I feared I had used up all my luck for the weekend. But still, the actual competition was easily my best so far. I PR:ed in almost everything.

2x2: My solves with Ortega was a bit worse than I hoped, but still I got PR:s for both single (10.43) and average (12.07). Messed up quite badly on the last solve, but the other ones were at least okay.

3x3: Began with a pretty bad 36 second solve and was fearing another terrible average. But then solve two was a new PR with 27.04 which gave me a bit of hope. That was destroyed on solve three, which was even worse than the first one resulting in 47 seconds flat. Fortunately, then came my best solve the whole day and a huge PR with a 22.64! On the last solve I knew I needed something really good to reach my goal of a sub-30 average, but it was kind of slow and messy and resulted in a 30.99, making the average 31.54. An enourmous improvement, but still quite far from where I want to be.

5x5: Despite not having practiced this event much I thought this should be an easy PR. I also knew that I would only be doing two solves since the cut-off was 2:15. I did a couple of warm-up solves and realised I absolutely suck at both building centers and edges on 5x5. Too much 4x4 practice has probably made me forgot how to do 5x5. Still managed to put together a 4:57.22 PR for the first solve. Second solve was crap, and just over the time-limit of 6.00.

4x4: Now it was getting late in the day and I was feeling tired. This event also had an impossible cut-off for me (1:15), so I only had two solves. Messed up both centers and edges on the first one, but the second one was at least okay. However, 2:11.92 was a second and a half above my PR, making this the only non-PR event today.

In total, really happy with these results. I'm getting a lot better at handling competions and hoping to do even better in the future.

 

[Eriol]

Update on training progress:

Got back to work after summer so I've had less time to cube in the last week. Also got some new hardware, which will have its own post.

2x2: Almost no practice in the last week. But one thing I did was to try the world record scramble just for fun. I got a 2.02 time with keyboard timer start/stop. Not sure that I would be able to find and one-look a four-move solution during inspection in a competition if I didn't already know it was there though.

3x3: I have had quite a lot of good results in training lately. Had a 16.22 single, which is my second best ever (PB is 15.90). I have also improved ao12 PB to 25.44 and ao100 PB to 28.75. Slow progress on the OLL:s. Have mostly been trying to consolidate those that I know. I would say I know about 48/57 right now, but will prioritise learning more now that I don't have any competitions in the near future.

4x4: PB single down to 1:32.69, but that is still the only sub-1:40 I've had. Also finally did a sub-2 ao5 with 1:59.76. Yau is now feeling quite solid, but I think I can improve a lot with just more practice.

5x5: No practice at all since the last competition.

 

[Eriol]

So, I bought a Megaminx, watched a tutorial and did some beginner practice. Yesterday I finally managed to complete a timed solve on an official WCA scramble without peeking at the algs mid-solve. Time was 11:56.75, which is a start I guess...

Anyway, it's possible that I will practice the event more seriously in the future as there are several good reasons for that:

1. It seems like a fun puzzle and 3x3-skills transfer much better than I expected to it.

2. Many competitions around here have a Bo2/Ao5-format for events such as 4x4, 5x5, Square-1 and Megaminx, meaning you have to make the cut to be allowed to do a complete a05. For 4x4 the cut-off is usually 1:15 and for 5x5 2:15. But Megaminx generally has 2:15, which in my opinion seems so much easier to reach.

3. I turn 50 later in the autumn, which means I move up an age cathegory on the senior rankings. And the over 50s have so few results on Megaminx, that it's tempting to try to break into the list.

 

[Eriol]

Today I felt very slow when I started solving, but then it got a lot better. Improved my best 4x4 ao5 to 1:53.01 and ao12 to 2:02.17. Ao100 stands at 2:12.88, so there is quite a way until I'm completely sub-2 though.

After 4x4 I had time to do a quick 3x3 ao5, which turned out to be the best I've ever done. Ao5 was 22.41, with three 21-second solves and the worst solve 25 seconds. To me, it seems like I need quite a lot of warm-up to perform my best, but I can't be too tired either.

Also improved Megaminx to just over 9 minutes. But I feel it's kind of pointless to time myself, I would probalby benefit more from just slow solves trying to learn efficient F2L first. Had a look at last layer algs, but I think I will stick to some kind of beginner method for the time being. Last layer is such a small percentage of the solve on Megaminx anyway.

 

[Eriol]

I have almost exclusively done OLL-practice in the last few days. Just started working on the four awkward shapes and after that it will be just three rare symmetrical cases (OLL 1, 55 and 56) left to learn. Still need more practice drills for many of the algs I already know though. But I'm getting near the end of this six month endeavor...

 

[abunickabhi]

Today I felt very slow when I started solving, but then it got a lot better. Improved my best 4x4 ao5 to 1:53.01 and ao12 to 2:02.17. Ao100 stands at 2:12.88, so there is quite a way until I'm completely sub-2 though.

After 4x4 I had time to do a quick 3x3 ao5, which turned out to be the best I've ever done. Ao5 was 22.41, with three 21-second solves and the worst solve 25 seconds. To me, it seems like I need quite a lot of warm-up to perform my best, but I can't be too tired either.

Also improved Megaminx to just over 9 minutes. But I feel it's kind of pointless to time myself, I would probalby benefit more from just slow solves trying to learn efficient F2L first. Had a look at last layer algs, but I think I will stick to some kind of beginner method for the time being. Last layer is such a small percentage of the solve on Megaminx anyway.

Good solid progress yo

Keep going!

 

[Eriol]

Learned my last OLL-alg (OLL 55) today! I won't say I KNOW all of them yet though, there are still some that are hard to retain for me. For instance, I learnt several of the ones that start with R U2' R2' in the last batch and now I tend to get them mixed up a lot. Very happy about this accomplishment though.

 

[Eriol]

Practiced 4x4 today and got my ao5 PB down to 1:45.58 and ao12 down to 1:54.40. No really good singles, just being kind of consistent between 1:40 and 2:00, with just a few mishaps.

For 4x4 I see possibilites for improvement in:

• Being faster on first two centers and cross-edges.
• Incorporating all new OLL:s I have learned on 3x3 and learn how to finger-trick them on 4x4 (which is sometimes hard and slow).
• Becoming better att recognising PLL-parity. I tend to not notice some of the cases, especially those that look like E-perm or H-perm are hard for me.
• Learning better ways to do special cases in 3-2-3 edge pairing. Planning to study this video more:

 

[Eriol]

This is just weird. I got my first ever last layer skip on 3x3.

Scramble: D2 R F2 U2 L F2 R B2 R2 F2 U2 L2 B R B R' D R' F' L

Solution:
L' F R B' R2 F2 L2 (Stupid yellow cross.)
y' R U R' y R U R' (Pair 1, also stupid with two rotations but it was the first one I saw.)
y2 U R U R' U' R U2' R' U R U' R' (Pair 2, way too many moves on this one too.)
y' U R U R' L U L' (Pair 3, actually good, inserted in the back.)
U2' R U' R' U R U R' (Pair 4. good enough solution for me, but paused for 1 second because I couldn't believe the cube was solved.)
U (AUF)

Time: 18.35

Tested some other solutions now and this cross start and first two pairs is the only one that results in a skip at the end.

 

[Eriol]

Did more 4x4 solves with the goal of getting ao100 under 2 minutes. Not quite there yet, but in the process I improved ao12 PB further down to 1:50.10. Ao100 is at 2:06.46 right now. It's so much more fun practicing events when there are noticable improvement.

 

[Eriol]

Getting all the OLL:s to stick is hard. Now I remember all the algorithms but I confuse the cases all the time.

On the other hand, I'm having continued improvement on 4x4. My PB single finally improved a bit to 1:32.17 and Ao100 down to 2:04.09, with the majority of my solves being sub-2.