Grinding Gears

As I noted in my previous installment, the schedule I have been using in circle two (and also for circle 3) was not working for me. Here's a comparison of the two schedules for circle 3:

     MDLM Plan    My Plan
     ---------   ---------
     Per         Per
Day  Day Total   Day Total
---  --- -----   --- -----
1    136  136    200  200
2    128  264    150  350
3    116  380    110  460
4    108  488     80  540
5    100  588     70  610
6     88  676     66  676
7     84  760     65  741
8     68  828     65  806
9     66  894     56  862
10    60  954     56  918
11    56 1010     53  971
12    52 1062     50 1021
13    43 1105     50 1071
14    40 1145     48 1119
15    32 1177     46 1165
16    32 1209     44 1209

Notice that my original schedule started out with me getting ahead of the MDLM schedule, but my # of problems per day decreased too quickly. By day 6 the total # of problems completed on each schedule was equal, but after that I quickly fell behind. At day 13, when the problems are getting really difficult, my schedule doesn't decrease fast enough so I don't have time to do the level 70+ problems.

So in order to have some hope of completing all the problems in circle three, I opted to switch back onto the MDLM recommended schedule on day 6. I was already a day behind and switching put me even further behind. Switching schedules felt like I'd gone from low gear to high gear without pushing in the clutch. Yep, that horrible grinding sound was my brain struggling to adjust to the new rate of problems. To maintain hope of getting back on schedule I took Wednesday off from work and did chess problems all day. Last night I actually did all the problems prescribed in the schedule. Currently I am still one day behind, but I plan to make up this weekend and hopefully be caught up again since day 1.

For you adventurous souls pondering whether or not to do the MDLM plan, here are two key pieces of advice:
- Do as many problems as you can up front when they are easy. If you finish the number prescribed by the schedule and are up to doing a few more, do some more. Then you can lighten up he remaining schedule to have some hope for a life during later days.
- Don't get behind. It is extremely painful to get caught up. I can't wait for a weekend where I can do something other than do chess problems and take brief breaks before doing...you guessed it...more chess problems.

Status Report
Here's my current numbers:

 Circle 1 %  Circle 2 %  Circle 3%
 ----------  ----------  ---------
Level 10     96%         99%       100%
Level 20     91%         93%        95%
Level 30     74%         80%        87%
Level 40     69%         74%        82%
Level 50     67%         72%        --  (in progress)
Level 60     55%         64%
Level 70     60%         58%
Level 80     57%         --
Level 90     55%         --

Finished 894 of 1209 - 60 problems behind schedule

I'm pretty happy about my improvement in level 40. I've deliberately stopped looking at my current percentages as I'm progressing through a level- I get too hung up on watching the score fall as I progress that I get too wound up about it. So from here forward I'm just going to note the percentages at the end of each level. This has already done wonders for my blood pressure as I sit and do problems all evening. I already have a tendency to be a slave to the numbers, so I'm trying to break this bad habit.

I'm still going far too slowly on the problems. Last night my solve time averaged 4 minutes per problem on level 50. Even though that was total clock time, which included a quick dinner and a few short breaks, I still spent almost 4.5 hours doing problems. I'm trying to speed up my solving rate, but I hate to rush through them, especially when I feel like I see enough in the position to figure it out.

One thing to mention: I got 50/50 on #842 which rocked since that is one of those bizarre Tal problems. The scary thing- the whole problem pretty much made sense, whereas before I saw some general ideas in the position, but could never figure out the moves. Funny how little things like that are surprisingly motivating...