[Ryu0h] Chapter 0: Pawn

[Ryu0h]

First challenge! Woooo!

I'm going to be theming my challenges around the Japanese abstract strategy game, shogi. I've being playing a lot of shogi recently because I have too much time on my hands and I thought it'd be cool to centre my challenges around the attributes of the pieces.

Anybody interested in the rules of shogi can learn more about the game here. 

 

The pawn (歩)

The pawn in shogi appears to be the weakest piece. It can only move one space forward and it doesn't possess any of the special moves granted to pawns in western chess (rather, it has more limitations than the other pieces).

However, as captured shogi pieces can be dropped onto the board, the weak pawn becomes a mobile adversary at the head of a variety of devastating tactics. Additionally with the prospect of promotion in the enemy camp, the pawn can become formidable in a moments notice.

 

This challenge is going to be fairly straightforward. I'm not going to centre it around any of my activities; that'll be coming up in further challenges. Rather, this challenge is about building habits and small changes to my lifestyle.

Habits are just like shogi pawns; they may not have special jumping abilities or cover many of squares, but they're foundational to the success of any attack or defence.

Now, I'm heading to Crete in two weeks for a holiday. Given that I won't really have much time to spend at gyms and the like, I've designed my challenge with this in mind.

 

1. FOUNDATIONAL TRAINING (BODY)

There are two skills I want to get better at that'll help me a lot in rock-climbing, weightlifting and gymnastics. That is:

• Hand-balancing
• Grip strength

A long time ago, I was able to hold my handstand for around 30 seconds freestanding. At the moment, I can only muster around 5-10 seconds. When it comes to grip, I'm currently training to close the No.2 Captains of Crush gripper.

I'll be practising my handstand every day, at least ten attempts. Grip training is more demanding, so I'll be doing that three times a week.

 

My ultimate goal when it comes to hand-balancing and grip training is to hold a one-armed handstand and close the No.3 CoC gripper. This are incredibly difficult skills to achieve! I'll hopefully be able to tackle them when I reach Level 20 or something. Stay tuned!

 

One day!!!

2. FLEXIBILITY

I hate stretching. It's painful and it takes a lot of time to see the benefits. I'm fairly mobile as it is, but I want to be as limber as my cat!

This part of my challenge will build upon three main movements. I will be stretching every day.

1. Front splits 
2. Bridge
3. Shoulder splits

 

3. DIET

I have a confession. Food is my greatest weakness. This is my face whenever I contemplate giving up chocolate:

 

 

(Yes, that is an anime character in a shogi pawn outfit. I do not know where it is from.)

 

For the four weeks of the challenge, I will eat NO junk food. No crisps, no chocolate, no bonbons, nothing.

I'll be keeping a food log on this thread, where I'll track every piece of junk food I've eaten.

This is by far the hardest part of my challenge. Every fibre of my willpower will be tested here.

Wish me luck.

 

4. (bonus) ART OF (CHESS) PROBLEM SOLVING

I study mathematics and theoretical physics at university and spend a huge amount of time learning about these topics. I want to go onto graduate study, so I need to be the best I can be. I need to develop my general problem solving capabilities until they are absolutely razor sharp.

I'm already engaged in some pretty rigorous self-study in advanced topics in maths and physics, but I simultaneously want to develop my expertise in problem solving; that is, to become more imaginative and efficient when I solve problems. Therefore, I'm going to be digging through the internet in search of difficult mathematics/physics problems to solve. This'll be a great way to improve my foundational mathematics and intuition at the same time. 

I'll be solving three independent Olympiad-style problems daily. For example:

(...any tips?)

 

Change of plans: I want to play in a national chess league next year and I need to train for it. Instead of maths problems (which I do anyway), I'm going to be focusing on tactical study in chess: 20 tactics daily.

 

ADDITIONALLY: I'm going to make 05:30 - 06:30 the hour in which I attempt these problems. I'll need to wake up early! Therefore, I'll be waking up at 05:00 every day.

 

I'll be scoring myself daily for my challenge and adding up my score as I go along. My level-up criterion is 70% as an overall score.

 

And there you have it! A fairly easy to deal with challenge (apart from the chocolate  ) that'll ease me in. Looking forward to training with you all! 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following for your first challenge. Food is my weakness as well.

[jonfirestar]

Following your first challenge! Food too is my weakness!  

[raptron]

Handstands are the coolest.  

[Evicious]

I'm the kid on the left.

Spoiler

 

[Elastigirl]

I love the analogy of pawns and habits. Nice challenge!

[Ryu0h]

16 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Following for your first challenge. Food is my weakness as well.

 

16 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

Following your first challenge! Food too is my weakness!  

 

The worst weakness ever. Serious research is needed to figure out how I deal with the cravings.

Thanks for the follow, guys!

 

16 hours ago, raptron said:

Handstands are the coolest.  

 

This is a universal truth.  

 

16 hours ago, Evicious said:

I'm the kid on the left.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

An attempt was made! That used to be me as well, but I wasn't smart enough to use a wall for support at first; I just went for it, straight off the bat. This method is not recommended.

 

15 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

I love the analogy of pawns and habits. Nice challenge!

 

Chess-like games are so good for analogies. Thanks!

 

 

[Ryu0h]

WEEK 0: Ground work

 

Evicious's organisation ability and discipline has inspired me greatly. I woke up today at 05:00! This is a very, very big deal for me; I used to go to bed at 05:00!

I thought I'd be a walking zombie by now (it's 09:35), but honestly? I feel pretty good. Did my weightlifting and running earlier in the morning and I'm actually quite refreshed!

I think this is a very important habit to cultivate, so I'm going to add something onto my lifestyle quest to include waking up early. That is, to wake up early and spend an hour working on problems.

[jonfirestar]

35 minutes ago, Ryu0h said:

I thought I'd be a walking zombie by now (it's 09:35), but honestly? I feel pretty good. Did my weightlifting and running earlier in the morning and I'm actually quite refreshed!

It's great getting going so early but you do have to balance it out by going to bed early enough too

[Ryu0h]

9 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

It's great getting going so early but you do have to balance it out by going to bed early enough too

 

I figured! I went to bed a full seven hours earlier than average, so 10pm.

 

[jonfirestar]

1 minute ago, Ryu0h said:

I figured! I went to bed a full seven hours earlier than average, so 10pm.

10 and 5 are the hours I keep too although I've not yet figured out how to actually sleep between them!

[Isa_VE]

On 5/22/2017 at 10:37 AM, Ryu0h said:

And there you have it! A fairly easy to deal with challenge (apart from the chocolate  ) that'll ease me in. Looking forward to training with you all! 

 

On 5/22/2017 at 2:03 PM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Following for your first challenge. Food is my weakness as well.

 

On 5/22/2017 at 2:46 PM, jonfirestar said:

Following your first challenge! Food too is my weakness!  

 

Food is definitely the Achilles's heel for most. I mean, it's not uncommon to hear: "I love working out!" but how often do we hear "God, I hate eating"? It's a bit unfair, I think.

 

 

 

On 5/22/2017 at 10:37 AM, Ryu0h said:

(...any tips?)

 

Just... wow hahaha. I'd start by manipulating your second expression by factoring and moving things up and down a bit until you find a way to insert the first one (xy+yz+xz=5) into it. Then, you probably can use the definition of the variables that is given to you at the beggining; the fact that they are positive numbers means that x+y+z >= 0 and the fact that they're real means x^2+y^2+z^2 >=0, right? the former actually appears in the second expression so it might be useful, the latter probably is hidden in there too.

 

So, with that info you can probably reach an inequation from where you can find an interval where your variables fulfill the conditions. From there, taking the least value you can reach with the second expression you can move to the second part of the problem: the (a*b^(1/2))/c expression would be equal to the least value you just found... from there i've just hit a wall... the fact that gcd(a,c)=1 and b is square free means that what you have is the most "reduced" version of the expression (since a and c have no other common denominator other than 1, you cant simplify a/c and since b is square free, when you decompose it in its primes, you wont find any of them twice, so you can't simplify b^(1/2) either... I just don't know how this info can be usefull hahaha

 

Anyway, that's only based on my supossition that the first part (x,y,z) and the second part (a,b,c) are "independent", but I might be wrong and they could be linked.

 

In sum, I was probably of no help, but it was fun to think about the problem for a while. I might try it again later with pencil and paper!

 

Good luck with your problem solving. And the other parts of the challenge, of course.

[Ryu0h]

10 hours ago, Isa_VE said:

 

Food is definitely the Achilles's heel for most. I mean, it's not uncommon to hear: "I love working out!" but how often do we hear "God, I hate eating"? It's a bit unfair, I think.

 

Just... wow hahaha. I'd start by manipulating your second expression by factoring and moving things up and down a bit until you find a way to insert the first one (xy+yz+xz=5) into it. Then, you probably can use the definition of the variables that is given to you at the beggining; the fact that they are positive numbers means that x+y+z >= 0 and the fact that they're real means x^2+y^2+z^2 >=0, right? the former actually appears in the second expression so it might be useful, the latter probably is hidden in there too.

 

So, with that info you can probably reach an inequation from where you can find an interval where your variables fulfill the conditions. From there, taking the least value you can reach with the second expression you can move to the second part of the problem: the (a*b^(1/2))/c expression would be equal to the least value you just found... from there i've just hit a wall... the fact that gcd(a,c)=1 and b is square free means that what you have is the most "reduced" version of the expression (since a and c have no other common denominator other than 1, you cant simplify a/c and since b is square free, when you decompose it in its primes, you wont find any of them twice, so you can't simplify b^(1/2) either... I just don't know how this info can be usefull hahaha

 

Anyway, that's only based on my supossition that the first part (x,y,z) and the second part (a,b,c) are "independent", but I might be wrong and they could be linked.

 

In sum, I was probably of no help, but it was fun to think about the problem for a while. I might try it again later with pencil and paper!

 

Good luck with your problem solving. And the other parts of the challenge, of course.

 

On the right tracks! Inequalities are fundamental to solving the question, but they have to be carefully applied along with some pretty standard identities involving the arithmetic and geometric mean. Using a combination of your approach and the AM-GM inequality, we're able to find an inequality for the first component of the given equation (of the top of my head, it's a multiple of an unresolved root). The second component of the equation is dealt with by messing around with the expansion of (x+y+z)^2, which can then be used to form an inequality through deduction. I solved it a while ago and got something like 27 or 28, which ought to be right! My apologies for how messy I've made this; I literally just got back from London Comic Con and I'm so tired! (bagged some pretty sweet loot though).

 

[Isa_VE]

6 hours ago, Ryu0h said:

 

On the right tracks! Inequalities are fundamental to solving the question, but they have to be carefully applied along with some pretty standard identities involving the arithmetic and geometric mean. Using a combination of your approach and the AM-GM inequality, we're able to find an inequality for the first component of the given equation (of the top of my head, it's a multiple of an unresolved root). The second component of the equation is dealt with by messing around with the expansion of (x+y+z)^2, which can then be used to form an inequality through deduction. I solved it a while ago and got something like 27 or 28, which ought to be right! My apologies for how messy I've made this; I literally just got back from London Comic Con and I'm so tired! (bagged some pretty sweet loot though).

 

 

Never would've thought about AM-GM! Nice thinking. My math is way more than rusty (well, it was never really eh.. non-rusty either hahaha). Now that I see it again though, there could be a graphic way of solving it, don't you think? It would probably be a lot more messy... idk, as I said math and I have been on a break for a couple of years now.

 

Anyway, problem solving is an amazing goal to have, congrats. Maybe I'll try it too in the future, although I'm more into multidisciplinary riddles.

 

Also, congrats on your ComicCon raid! I'm a little bit jealous.

[Ryu0h]

BLEH. I was hoping to start this challenge on a good foot!

Woke up at 6:17AM instead of 5:00AM as I'd intended. I'd missed my problem solving practice hour. Oh well, always tomorrow. I didn't worry too much about it and headed off to the gym instead.

As I was cycling to the gym I ended up with a popped tyre (my fault entirely, didn't spot the glass). I didn't fancy walking to the gym whilst lugging along my bike, so I just headed home and did bodyweight exercises, including my handstands. As I was on my last attempt, I ended up falling onto my butt (this is really rare now, it hasn't happened in months. I had a lapse of focus, I'd guess) and scaring the shit out of my cat, who's now annoyed at me. 

 

Today has been a bad day. On the plus side, I haven't eaten any junk food and I did manage to get my handstands out of the way. I still have to train grip and work on my flexibility, which shouldn't be a problem. Not a good start to the challenge, hm?

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I think it's a great start to your challenge. Look at all that was in your way and you improvised, adapted, and overcame. You still got a workout in, you still have plans to get stuff done. Adaptation is very Rangerly.

Well done.

[Ryu0h]

3 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I think it's a great start to your challenge. Look at all that was in your way and you improvised, adapted, and overcame. You still got a workout in, you still have plans to get stuff done. Adaptation is very Rangerly.

Well done.

 

That genuinely made me feel better! I'm a bit hard on myself when it comes to any kind of failure, which often results in some really unhealthy mindsets when trying to accomplish challenges. I appreciate your input, Tanktimus! The Encourager is a very well deserved title.  

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

1 hour ago, Ryu0h said:

 

That genuinely made me feel better! I'm a bit hard on myself when it comes to any kind of failure, which often results in some really unhealthy mindsets when trying to accomplish challenges. I appreciate your input, Tanktimus! The Encourager is a very well deserved title.  

Thanks, I am a professional  Seriously though, you didn't fail. You adapted. Failure would have been to give up, it's not the lack of a desired outcome.

[Ryu0h]

DAY 1

DIET: No junk food consumed! The cravings were insane, though. I'm going completely cold turkey and I'm getting these odd urges for sweets. All the more reason why I should clear well away! My dad advised me make it more of a gradual change, but I'll be alright. This is like deadlifts for willpower!

FOUNDATIONAL TRAINING: Went okay, despite the accident this morning with handstands. My cat is still a bit peeved off, unfortunately. I completed grip training an hour ago too, but I think I might schedule grip on a different set of days.

FLEXIBILITY: Finished! It went well, actually. There's something sort of therapeutic about hard stretching.

PROBLEM SOLVING: Not as well as I'd hoped. I took a chunk of my main mathematics study to solve a single problem, which isn't enough.

 

Score: 3/4

 

[jonfirestar]

10 hours ago, Ryu0h said:

No junk food consumed! The cravings were insane, though. I'm going completely cold turkey and I'm getting these odd urges for sweets. All the more reason why I should clear well away! My dad advised me make it more of a gradual change, but I'll be alright. This is like deadlifts for willpower!

Just be careful you don't crack. Junk cravings can be a powerful thing and cracking can be horrid. I'd suggest you do your best to make sure you are not otherwise hungry.

[Ryu0h]

8 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

Just be careful you don't crack. Junk cravings can be a powerful thing and cracking can be horrid. I'd suggest you do your best to make sure you are not otherwise hungry.

 

Yeah, I get what you mean. This is actually the second time I've dealt with cravings due to a diet change; last year I switched from being an essential carnivore to vegetarianism cold turkey. I dealt with cravings for meat then by providing a healthy distraction; push-ups. As ridiculous at that sounds, it worked! Every time I experienced craving I'd drop and do fifty, which usually tired me out enough to forget that I had a craving in the first place (and my push-up count went through the roof).

 

I haven't really had any of those "I can't think about anything other than chocolate" cravings so far, but if I do I'll be busting out five reps on my trusty No.1 Captains of Crush grippers. I legit don't even care if it's a placebo effect; it works for me!

 

***

DAY 2

As though yesterday didn't happen. Today was great! It's only 6pm and I've finished everything I need to finish (not worried about the diet, because I'm staying home this evening and don't have any access to sweets).

 

DIET: No junk food consumed! I drank a lot of water instead.

FOUNDATIONAL TRAINING: Handstands complete! No falling on my ass this time. My cat appears to be slowly coming to terms with yesterday's accident.

FLEXIBILITY: Finished, just half an hour ago. It was still hell.

PROBLEM SOLVING: Finished! Worked on vector calculus today, which I'm quite fond of.

 

Score: 7/8

[raptron]

Nice work! And totally agree that getting things done despite setbacks being much harder than getting things done on an easy day. 

[cn3wton]

Never tried Shogi but I am intrigued...

 

Will be following along!

 

[Ryu0h]

8 hours ago, raptron said:

Nice work! And totally agree that getting things done despite setbacks being much harder than getting things done on an easy day. 

 

Oh, I'm used to it! I fuck up at least seven times before breakfast, so I've gotten into the habit of persevering. I wish that was a joke!

 

7 hours ago, cn3wton said:

Never tried Shogi but I am intrigued...

 

Will be following along!

 

 

Check this out! The actual game uses characters so it's a bit difficult to learn, but these should be okay. Let me know what you think! If you fancy a challenge in memorisation, head over to this version. Have fun!

 

DAY 3

 

 

DIET: No junk food consumed! It was warm so I really wanted a soda but no, I walked right past.

FOUNDATIONAL TRAINING: Handstands complete. I'm getting used to it again! They feel a bit more consistent. My cat has finally forgiven me for scaring him on Monday. I finished grip training too, which went okay. I don't foresee a close for CoC No.2 anytime soon, but I'll get there.

FLEXIBILITY: Finished, just now. As usual, it was hell! UPDATE: I'm taking shoulder splits off my list of stretches. Nothing personal, shoulder splits; I just prefer german hangs and I do those for my warm-up in the gym every morning. 

PROBLEM SOLVING: Finished! I was on a roll today, so I ended up going beyond the count.

 

Score: 11/12

[Ryu0h]

DAY 4

 

DIET: No junk food consumed! It's really odd how I haven't dealt with any big cravings yet. I have had the "shit I want something sweet" moment every now and then but I just ignore it and carry on with my way. Calm before the storm? Hope not!

FOUNDATIONAL TRAINING: Handstands complete!

FLEXIBILITY: Finished! It's starting to get to me how damned difficult this is.

PROBLEM SOLVING: Not complete. I was up late last night talking to a friend. We had a pretty interesting conversation so I'm not too fussed, but I do have to dock a point.

 

Score: 14/16