Did my Dad's favorite 3 mile tempo run down the canyon. The first mile was 5:07, as planned. I was breathing hard, but not too fatigued. I doubted my ability to run the tempo in our target of 15:30. I felt that I needed to push harder to keep the pace, and figured that I'd better hammer the pace while I still had downhill. I wanted to push hard in the second mile because I doubted my ability to push hard in the third. In any case, my next quarter was 72. That was when things started getting miserable.
I got 10:13 at two miles, a PR of 1 second. My second mile was in 5:06. The second mile with its nasty bump is the slowest mile of the tempo run. I really hammered it. That cost me later on. My third mile was 5:12, with the last quarter in only 76. I got 15:25 for the entire tempo, a PR of 17 seconds. My Dad thinks that If I'd waited to start hammering untill a mile to go, my time would have been at least several seconds faster. He's probably right.
Today I got my ACT score back - 35 composite, 36 on English, 35 on Math, 36 on Reading, and 34 on Science. I'm very happy with my result. I was expecting another 33, based on how I felt and on how hard the Reading test was. I believe that many more students could score 34-36 on the ACt, than currently do. I'm not in the top 0.3 percent in terms of aptitude. I am where I am because of how I was taught. My parents were not afraid to challenge the norm. People can do what I did if they try. Also, my Dad would give me problems that would frustrate me so much that I would learn the concept on my own. That's how I learned calculus, and chemistry, and physics, and algebra. I was forced to gain a deep-rooted conceptual understanding. I didn't have to spend eight hours a day. My schoolwork usually takes no longer than 3 or 4 hours, but my time is spent efficiently. You can spend dozens or even hundreds of hours memorizing algebraic or even calculus formulas, or you can gain a deep, intuitive understanding of the concepts first, and then all the formulas you really need can be mastered in minutes or a few hours. Memorizing a formula does you no good if you do not understand why it works, or what it means.
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