My Where's George Week in Review: 03/24/13 - 03/30/13

Hover over this explanation for more detailsThe nerd that I am, I chose to post once a week a summary of my previous week's Where's George activity in comparision to my goals for the year.

In order to make the charts fit, I had to abreviate the column headers. Each header is hoverable for an explanation.

In the past week, I got 36 hits in 5 States [CA³², CT, MN, NY, WA]. Of those hits, 1 was the 4^th hit on the bill, 1 was the 3^rd hit on the bill, 7 were the 2^nd hit on the bill, and the rest (27) were the initial hit on the bill. Below is a calendar view of the hits throughout the week:

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
6	4	6	2	7	5	6

I came into the week with a 44 day hit streak. I got a hit on every day of this week which extended the streak to 51 days: good for my 7^th longest streak all-time. Here's a look at my all-time ten longest hit streaks:

Rank	Start Date	End Date	Days		Rank	Start Date	End Date	Days
1.	10/07/2012	01/02/2013	88		6.	06/24/2012	08/16/2012	54
2.	12/28/2011	03/17/2012	81		7.	02/08/2013	03/30/2013	51
3.	04/13/2011	06/30/2011	79		8.	04/04/2012	05/21/2012	48
4.	07/28/2011	09/23/2011	58		9.	01/04/2013	02/06/2013	34
5.	09/26/2011	11/18/2011	54		10.	07/21/2010	08/21/2010	32

Of the 5 States in which I received hits this past week, 1 were the first hit for that State in 2013: MN. Overall I've received hits in 30 States in 2013. Here's how that stands towards my goal of 46 States hit:

0         51

Previous New Still Needed for Goal Beyond Goal

The hit in Minnesota was my first since May of 2012.

I didn't get any hits in previously unhit counties in the past week leaving my total of counties hit at 502. I set a goal of 98 new counties hit in 2013, and here's a look at my progress towards that goal:

483     581

Previous Still Needed for Goal

Of the bills hit in the past week, the longest active bill from the bunch was re-entered 4 Years 9 Days 5 Hours 28 Minutes after I originally entered it. That bill is now 8^th on my all-time longest active list. My top ten longest active bills list is now:

Rank	Bill Info			Time Active	Last Update	Hits
1.	$10	2003	DL947---91A	4 Years 238 Days 13 Hours 41 Minutes	03/08/2013	2
2.	$1	2003A	L4532---3K	4 Years 200 Days 22 Minutes	10/12/2012	1
3.	$1	2003A	L3475---2C	4 Years 165 Days 9 Hours 56 Minutes	02/04/2013	2
4.	$10	2006	IB188---86B	4 Years 103 Days 18 Hours 40 Minutes	03/20/2013	1
5.	$5	2003	DL906---99C	4 Years 56 Days 48 Minutes	09/11/2012	1
6.	$1	2006	H9275---2A	4 Years 17 Days 1 Minute	09/14/2012	2
7.	$1	2006	I8453---4A	4 Years 12 Days 21 Hours 41 Minutes	02/15/2013	1
8.	$1	2006	I8180---6A	4 Years 9 Days 5 Hours 28 Minutes	03/30/2013	3
9.	$10	2006	IB639---42A	4 Years 3 Days 22 Hours 55 Minutes	06/13/2012	1
10.	$20	2004A	GL471---77A	4 Years 1 Day 8 Hours 16 Minutes	11/15/2012	1

This bill is my first 3 hit bill to make my top ten longest active. Additionally, as I mentioned last week, since this bill was active for more than 4 years, all of the bills in my top ten have been active for at least 4 years.

I made predictions regarding bill entries and hits and new bills with hits for 2013. Here's a look at how I'm doing towards those predictions:

	SoYStart of Year	SoWStart of Week	EoWEnd of Week	WΔWeek Change: Number Added this Week	YΔYear Change: Number Added this Year	PPrediction (for Year)	P/WPrediction for Week: A Week's Share of the Total	PtDPrediction to Date: The Portion of the Prediction that should be Completed so Far	WvPWeek versus Prediction: How the Week's Numbers Stack Up Against the P/W	DvPDate versus Prediction: How the Year's Numbers So Far Stack Up Against the PtD
Bills Entered	22920	24292	24440	148	1520	28920	115.1	24383	+33	+57
Bills with Hits	3704	3978	4005	27	301	5074	26.3	4038	+1	-33
Total Hits	4330	4661	4697	36	367	6030	32.6	4745	+3	-48

Another good week for all three stats. If I can continue to have slightly positive weeks for total hits and bills with hits for the rest of the year, I'll be able to make up my current deficit.

At the current rate I'm entering bills in 2013, I'll end up with 6234 bills entered. To hit my goal of 6000 entries, I'll need to just average 113.6 bills per week for the rest of the year.

Looking at my goal of increasing the percentage that $1s make up of my entries by 1% (started the year at 87.64% so the goal is 88.64%), my percentage is now 87.98% [+0.35%].

	SoYStart of Year	SoWStart of Week	EoWEnd of Week	WΔWeek Change: Number Added this Week	YΔYear Change: Number Added this Year	GGoal: Number of Total Ones Needed by the End of the Year Based on the Prediction of 6000 Bill Entries This Year	GfWGoal for Week: This Week's Portion of the Goal Based on the Number of Bills Entered in the Week	GtDGoal to Date: The Numbers of One Needed to be Entered so Far this Year to be on Track to Met the Overall Goal	WvGWeek versus Goal: How the Week's Numbers Stack Up Against the GfW	DvGDate versus Goal: How the Year's Numbers So Far Stack Up Against the GtD
$1s Entered	20086	21364	21503	139	1417	25634	136.9	21492	+2	+11
Dynamic GoalProgress towards the goal based on my actual rate of entering bills per day which would result in 6233.70786516854 entries this year rather than 6000						25841	136.6	21490	+2	+13

Regarding my goal of increasing my non-San Francisco FRB entries, here's a table of my current progress:

	SoYStart of Year	SoY%Percentage of Overall at Start of Year	SoWStart of Week	SoW%Percentage of Overall at Start of Week	EoWEnd of Week	EoW%Percentage of Overall at End of Week	G%Goal Percentage	GtDGoal to Date: The Numbers Needed to be Entered so Far this Year to be on Track to Meet the Overall Goal	DvGDate versus Goal: How the Year's Numbers So Far Stack Up Against the GtD	#IBNumber of Inserted Bills
Boston "A"	781	3.41%	832	3.42%	841	3.44%	3.51%	841	0	29
New York "B"	1691	7.38%	1806	7.43%	1830	7.49%	7.58%	1818	+12	26
Philadelphia "C"	656	2.86%	701	2.89%	712	2.91%	2.96%	707	+5	21
Cleveland "D"	819	3.57%	889	3.66%	893	3.65%	3.67%	881	+12	0
Richmond "E"	1569	6.85%	1680	6.92%	1687	6.90%	7.05%	1688	-1	1
Atlanta "F"	2096	9.14%	2258	9.30%	2277	9.32%	9.64%	2271	+6	11
Chicago "G"	1502	6.55%	1612	6.64%	1624	6.64%	6.75%	1616	+8	4
St. Louis "H"	740	3.23%	791	3.26%	796	3.26%	3.33%	797	-1	16
Minneapolis "I"	602	2.63%	644	2.65%	649	2.66%	2.73%	650	-1	37
Kansas City "J"	558	2.43%	596	2.45%	600	2.45%	2.53%	603	-3	31
Dallas "K"	953	4.16%	1003	4.13%	1033	4.23%	4.36%	1031	+2	34

After being slightly behind for most of the year, New York ("B") bills are now tied for being farthest ahead of goal. The most recent set of bills I picked up from the bank had unusually large numbers of "B", "F", and "G" bills, so I expect those will continue to gain in the next week.

This week I got my 4^th three hit/four State bill which traveled from California -> Massachusetts -> Vermont -> Connecticut. Additionally I got my 48^th two hit/three State bill which traveled from California -> Hawaii -> Minnesota. [When a bill gets it's third hit (such as my new three hit/four State bill), I no longer count it towards my total of two hit/three States bills. That's why this bill is the 48^th as was the last one I got.]

My wife found a new wild for me this past week. It traveled 49 Days 7 Hours 54 Minutes to us from Hanford, CA. Both side had the same two line blue stamp:

It was a great week for me in regards to Georging. I received a lot of hits including my 7^th 4 hit bill, my hit streak continued, gained another top ten active bill, and adding another wild to my list. Hard to think that a week could be much more exciting than this one.

The "Magic" Mile

One of the things I've yet to figure out about running is knowing how fast I could possibly get and what speed I should target in an upcoming race. I always desire to target a personal record (PR), but often times, the question comes down to by how much. What I really need is a why to translate my training speed to race speed.

A co-worker of mine has pointed me to a website that attempts to answer that question. A professional running trainer, Jeff Galloway has devised a formula for predicting 5K, 10K, and half marathon performance based on the speed at which one can run "a magic mile". The rules and explanation for the magic mile can be found here. The short explanation is that Jeff devised this formula from working with a large number of runners over many years.

Intrigued by the concept and aided by the fact that Jeff lists the formula for translating the magic mile to a 5K, 10K, and half marathon time, I decided to reverse the formula to attempt to predict my magic mile time based on my time for the Shamrock'n Half Marathon, the Super Bowl Sunday Run IV (10K), and my 5K PR from October of last year.

Starting off with the half marathon, my 1:53:04 time translates to a 8:37.9/mile pace during the run. Reversing the formula for the magic mile results in a one mile time of 7:11.6. That seems pretty fast for me (of course, so did the half marathon time).

My Super Bowl Sunday Run 10K time was 51:58 for 8:22.9/mile. Reversing the magic mile formula gives a one mile time of 7:17.3. Pretty close to the other time, and that shows I improved between the 10K in February to the half marathon this month.

As for my 5K PR from October of last year (this course was no where near flat), I finished it in 25:33 for 8:14.5/mile. That translates to a 7:41.5 magic mile. Hard to believe that I would have taken 30 seconds off in roughly half a year.

The theoretical is nice, but I thought I'd put it to the test. Rather than my regular 5 mile run tonight, I decided to do the one mile warm up, followed by the magical mile, then the five minutes recovery walk, before finishing with three more miles of running.

I had to keep telling myself to slow down on the warm up mile and averaged a 10:38/mile pace. I was pretty amped up when I finally got through the warm up and started way too fast (faster than 6:30/mile) before trying to hold a ~7:00/mile pace. It quickly became apparent that was too fast as I kept slowing down until I was at 7:30 and then finally 7:40. As I approached the end of the mile, I was able to pick it up a little bit (~7:30). I finished the mile in 7:36.6.

I was a bit disappointed with the time after calculating the theoreticals. Based on that 7:36.6 time, the magic mile formula predicts that I could run a 25:18 5K (15 seconds better than my PR), a 54:16 10K (2:16 slower than my Super Bowl Sunday time), and a 1:59:38 half marathon (6:34 slower than my Shamrock'n time). Granted, the half marathon time is around what I had expected to do, but my actual time was much better.

So my first attempt didn't really follow the formula (and maybe I don't), but I think it may take an attempt or two to figure out how a fast one mile should feel, and from there maybe I'll get a time in range with his numbers. If not, maybe I'll find a co-efficient to apply that matches my output.

Thankfully I really don't need an answer yet. While I am running the Sac Town Ten Miler next weekend, I already have a plan for the run: keep my miles between 8:25 and 8:35. I'd like to keep my opening miles around 8:25, and if I feel good drop down to 8:20. But my overall goal is every mile under 8:35.

Rankings & What's Next: UFC Bantanweights

At the start of February, the UFC starting publishing media voted fighter rankings. At that time, I wrote a post comparing the UFC's rankings with those of Fight Matrix which uses a computer program to rank fighters. At the time I used a set of rules for determining who got the next title fight and who would take part in the next #1 contender match. Those rules were:

• The next title contender would be the highest ranked fighter that:
  • Won two fights in a row.
  • Won three fights since his last loss in a title fight or against the current champion unless he's a former champion that successfully defended the belt.
  • Won five fights in a row if his number of losses against the current champion is two greater than his number of wins.
• The next #1 contender match would be between the next two highest ranked fighters that:
  • Won his last fight.
  • Won two fights since his last loss in a title fight or against the current champion unless he's a former champion that successfully defended the belt.
  • Won four fights in a row if his number of losses against the current champion is two greater than his number of wins.

At the time, I broke down the rankings division-by-division to identify the next title contender and #1 contenders match participants for each division based on both of the rankings. Fighters don't fight enough to require reviewing that frequently, but I thought breaking down each division might be. As such, I've decided to do a division-by-division look at what I think should happen next. Along with the UFC and Fight Matrix rankings mentioned above, I'll also be using the rankings from Sherdog and MMA Weekly: two sites I also frequently visit for MMA news. I'll be combining the rankings from the four to get a "unified" ranking.

A few caveats must be noted before I proceed. The UFC rankings essentially have the champion at position 0. I'll be considering the champion rank 1 and move down the other fighters in the rankings respectively. The other rankings include non-UFC fighters. For Fight Matrx, the rankings are deep enough to grab a UFC top 10. Sherdog includes an "other contenders" section. In the event the top 10 includes non-UFC fighters, the "other contenders" from the UFC will be considered as tied for the bottom spot(s) and will split points accordingly. For Fight Matrix, Sherdog, and MMA Weekly, the actual ranking position will be noted when it doesn't match the used position.

---

With Dominick Cruz being on the shelf for nearly 18 months now, the non-UFC ranking systems don't include him. And while he's still the champion, and as such, should be considered the UFC's #1, I've left him off so that the focus is on the active fighters.

Combined Rankings

		UFC			Fight Matrix			Sherdog			MMA Weekly
Last Update:		03/18/2013			03/24/2013			03/18/2013			03/26/2013
1.	Renan Barao		1			1			1			1
2.	Urijah Faber		2			2	(4)		2			3
3.	Michael McDonald		3			6	(10)		3			2
4.	Eddie Wineland		4			3	(6)		4			4
5.	Brad Pickett		5			8	(13)		5			5	(6)
6.	Raphael Assuncao		6			4	(7)		7			6	(7)
7.	Scott Jorgensen		7						6
8.	Mike Easton		9						T8	(OC)		7	(8)
9.	Iuri Alcantara					5	(8)
10.	Takeya Mizugaki					7	(11)		T8	(OC)
	Brian Bowles		8
	Erik Perez											8	(9)
	Ivan Menjivar		10						T8	(OC)
	Bryan Caraway					9	(20)
	T.J. Dillashaw								T8	(OC)
	George Roop					10	(23)

---

Matches I'd Make

TBD

Eddie Wineland, at #3, is the highest ranked fighter that qualifies for the title shot, so he gets the next shot at Barao. Raphael Assuncao and Scott Jorgensen are both coming off of wins and would be matched up to fight for the next title shot, but Jorgensen has recently lost to the champion (Barao) and hasn't won enough fights since to qualify for a #1 contenders match. Jorgensen's loss is Takeya Mizugaki's gain and he gets the spot. Ironic, since Jorgensen holds a win over Mizugaki. To help Jorgensen get back into the picture, I'd match him up with Urijah Faber. The winner would get to be in the next #1 contenders match. The rest of the combined top ten is coming off of a loss. To help one of the two get back on track, I'd match up Michael McDonald with Brad Pickett. I'd do the same with Mike Easton and Iuri Alcantara, although that's a bit rough for Alcantara who got screwed with a No Contest in his last fight.

Matches the UFC has Made

The UFC agrees with me and has already set up Wineland to face off with Barao at UFC 161. Faber is getting Jorgensen in a few weeks to headline the Ultimate Fighter Finale. Pickett and Easton are facing off on the Fuel TV card next weekend. Alcantara's been matched up against Marcos Vinicius Borges Pancini.

Matches I'd Add to the UFC's

McDonald, Assuncao, and Mizugaki are the only fighters from the combined top ten not to have their next fight scheduled. I'll keep my Assuncao versus Mizugaki matchup intact. So the question becomes what to do with McDonald. The best route is probably to give him the loser of Faber/Jorgensen. If they want to match him up sooner, I'd go with Ivan Menjivar.

---

Assuming that Cruz doesn't return in time to face off with the winner of Barao/Wineland, it'll be interesting to see if the UFC gives Faber a second crack at Barao (assuming he wins) or not. Regardless, if there's another interim title fight after UFC 161, the UFC should strip Dominick of the title, and then give him a quick path back to a title shot when/if he returns. While I wouldn't consider Cruz a big-time star, the bantanweight division is certainly lacking in star power without him.

The Week That Was: Weight Management & Running

So much for being stuck: I got my "make up" week weight-wise to compensate for my results last week. It was a light week running-wise as I recovered from the Shamrock'n Half Marathon.

Starting off with Weight Management, I hit a new low for the week twice: Thursday (172.6) and Saturday (171.4). Will be interesting to see if this is a sign that I'm almost done or if I'll struggle to beat that weight for a month.

It was a light week for exercise as I was resting up from my run. I only burned 2581 calories but ate back 2369 calories to finish 212 calories below target. If you add that to my targeted ½ pound loss, and I mathematically should have lost 0.6 pounds. Here are my actual results:

	Avg	Min	Max	Last	Avg H20	Avg Fat
03/11-03/18	174.5	173.2	176.0	174.0	98.5	39.5
03/18-03/25	173.1	171.4	174.6	173.6	98.3	38.3
	-1.4	-1.8	-1.4	-0.4	-0.2	-1.2

As you can see, my numbers were quite a bit lower than last week's, but since last week's were up over the previous, I think this was just an evening out. I haven't had much of an additional deficit the past two weeks, so I'm not expecting much out of next week.

As for my Lose It challenge regarding minutes spent walking, jogging, and running in March (goal of 2000 minutes), I made better progress than expected in my recovery week (gained a number of extra minutes from walking). I finished the week at 1606 minutes (394 shy of the goal). In a typical week I walk and run 380 minutes, so if I just pick up an additional 14, I'll complete this challenge. There's a bit of rain in the forecast for the week, so to be safe, I'll probably try to get a few extra walking minutes in early. I'd be very surprised if I don't hit 2000 minutes.

Moving onto running, I took Monday and Tuesday off to rest after the half. I planned to do 2-3.5 miles on Wednesday and was happy to finish the 3.5 miles. I did another 3.5 on Thursday, and then did my normal 8 on Saturday. I had thoughts of doing another 3.5 on Sunday (I'd like to get to where I run both days on the weekend) to make up for the missed miles during the week, but I was a bit sore after Saturday and thought it better to rest. Here's my mileage for the week:

M	T	W	R	F	S	S
		3.67	3.86		8.38
Total Mileage: 15.91

I came up just a bit short of my goal of 16 miles:

Miles Ran 16 Mile Goal Miles to Max

Here's a look at my progress towards my goal of 800 miles ran this year:

Previous This Week 800 Miles 1000 Miles

I've completed 226.32 miles so far this year and am on track to complete 995 miles in 2013. I expect to return to doing my two 5 milers during the week, and I'm planning on doing 10 miles on Saturday. That'll be my last long run before the Sac Town 10 Miler on the following Sunday.

My Where's George Week in Review: 03/17/13 - 03/23/13

Hover over this explanation for more detailsThe nerd that I am, I chose to post once a week a summary of my previous week's Where's George activity in comparision to my goals for the year.

In order to make the charts fit, I had to abreviate the column headers. Each header is hoverable for an explanation.

In the past week, I got 34 hits in 11 States [AZ², CA²³, HI, MA, MO, NE, NV, NY, OH, OR, SC]. Of those hits, 1 was the 3^rd hit on the bill, 5 were the 2^nd hit on the bill, and the rest (28) were the initial hit on the bill. Below is a calendar view of the hits throughout the week:

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
3	6	5	5	5	5	5

I came into the week with a 37 day hit streak. I got a hit on every day of this week which extended the streak to 44 days: good for my 8^th longest streak all-time. Here's a look at my all-time ten longest hit streaks:

Rank	Start Date	End Date	Days		Rank	Start Date	End Date	Days
1.	10/07/2012	01/02/2013	88		6.	06/24/2012	08/16/2012	54
2.	12/28/2011	03/17/2012	81		7.	04/04/2012	05/21/2012	48
3.	04/13/2011	06/30/2011	79		8.	02/08/2013	03/23/2013	44
4.	07/28/2011	09/23/2011	58		9.	01/04/2013	02/06/2013	34
5.	09/26/2011	11/18/2011	54		10.	07/21/2010	08/21/2010	32

Of the 11 States in which I received hits this past week, 2 were the first hit for that State in 2013: NE and SC. Overall I've received hits in 29 States in 2013. Here's how that stands towards my goal of 46 States hit:

0         51

Previous New Still Needed for Goal Beyond Goal

The hit in Nebraska was my first since October of 2012. The hit in South Carolina was my first since August of 2012.

Additionally in the past week I received my first hit in 2 counties bringing my total of counties hit to 502. The newly hit counties were Erie NY and Colleton SC. I set a goal of 98 new counties hit in 2013, and here's a look at my progress towards that goal:

483       581

Previous New Still Needed for Goal

Of the bills hit in the past week, the longest active bill from the bunch was re-entered 4 Years 103 Days 18 Hours 40 Minutes after I originally entered it. That bill is now 4^th on my all-time longest active list. My top ten longest active bills list is now:

Rank	Bill Info			Time Active	Last Update	Hits
1.	$10	2003	DL947---91A	4 Years 238 Days 13 Hours 41 Minutes	03/08/2013	2
2.	$1	2003A	L4532---3K	4 Years 200 Days 22 Minutes	10/12/2012	1
3.	$1	2003A	L3475---2C	4 Years 165 Days 9 Hours 56 Minutes	02/04/2013	2
4.	$10	2006	IB188---86B	4 Years 103 Days 18 Hours 40 Minutes	03/20/2013	1
5.	$5	2003	DL906---99C	4 Years 56 Days 48 Minutes	09/11/2012	1
6.	$1	2006	H9275---2A	4 Years 17 Days 1 Minute	09/14/2012	2
7.	$1	2006	I8453---4A	4 Years 12 Days 21 Hours 41 Minutes	02/15/2013	1
8.	$10	2006	IB639---42A	4 Years 3 Days 22 Hours 55 Minutes	06/13/2012	1
9.	$20	2004A	GL471---77A	4 Years 1 Day 8 Hours 16 Minutes	11/15/2012	1
10.	$1	2006	L4800---7E	3 Years 357 Days 18 Hours 31 Minutes	09/15/2012	1

With just one more 4+ year active bill, and my entire top ten will all have been active over four years. Can't wait until I start to get five year active bills.

I made predictions regarding bill entries and hits and new bills with hits for 2013. Here's a look at how I'm doing towards those predictions:

	SoYStart of Year	SoWStart of Week	EoWEnd of Week	WΔWeek Change: Number Added this Week	YΔYear Change: Number Added this Year	PPrediction (for Year)	P/WPrediction for Week: A Week's Share of the Total	PtDPrediction to Date: The Portion of the Prediction that should be Completed so Far	WvPWeek versus Prediction: How the Week's Numbers Stack Up Against the P/W	DvPDate versus Prediction: How the Year's Numbers So Far Stack Up Against the PtD
Bills Entered	22920	24135	24292	157	1372	28920	115.1	24268	+42	+24
Bills with Hits	3704	3950	3978	28	274	5074	26.3	4012	+2	-34
Total Hits	4330	4627	4661	34	331	6030	32.6	4712	+1	-51

A good week for all three stats. Nice to have a week that makes some progress towards the hits goals.

At the current rate I'm entering bills in 2013, I'll end up with 6107 bills entered. To hit my goal of 6000 entries, I'll need to just average 114.5 bills per week for the rest of the year.

Looking at my goal of increasing the percentage that $1s make up of my entries by 1% (started the year at 87.64% so the goal is 88.64%), my percentage is now 87.95% [+0.31%].

	SoYStart of Year	SoWStart of Week	EoWEnd of Week	WΔWeek Change: Number Added this Week	YΔYear Change: Number Added this Year	GGoal: Number of Total Ones Needed by the End of the Year Based on the Prediction of 6000 Bill Entries This Year	GfWGoal for Week: This Week's Portion of the Goal Based on the Number of Bills Entered in the Week	GtDGoal to Date: The Numbers of One Needed to be Entered so Far this Year to be on Track to Met the Overall Goal	WvGWeek versus Goal: How the Week's Numbers Stack Up Against the GfW	DvGDate versus Goal: How the Year's Numbers So Far Stack Up Against the GtD
$1s Entered	20086	21216	21364	148	1278	25634	145.2	21355	+3	+9
Dynamic GoalProgress towards the goal based on my actual rate of entering bills per day which would result in 6107.07317073171 entries this year rather than 6000						25729	145.1	21354	+3	+10

Regarding my goal of increasing my non-San Francisco FRB entries, here's a table of my current progress:

	SoYStart of Year	SoY%Percentage of Overall at Start of Year	SoWStart of Week	SoW%Percentage of Overall at Start of Week	EoWEnd of Week	EoW%Percentage of Overall at End of Week	G%Goal Percentage	GtDGoal to Date: The Numbers Needed to be Entered so Far this Year to be on Track to Meet the Overall Goal	DvGDate versus Goal: How the Year's Numbers So Far Stack Up Against the GtD	#IBNumber of Inserted Bills
Boston "A"	781	3.41%	828	3.43%	832	3.42%	3.51%	835	-3	24
New York "B"	1691	7.38%	1797	7.45%	1806	7.43%	7.58%	1806	0	23
Philadelphia "C"	656	2.86%	696	2.88%	701	2.89%	2.96%	702	-1	18
Cleveland "D"	819	3.57%	884	3.66%	889	3.66%	3.67%	875	+14	0
Richmond "E"	1569	6.85%	1672	6.93%	1680	6.92%	7.05%	1677	+3	1
Atlanta "F"	2096	9.14%	2241	9.29%	2258	9.30%	9.64%	2255	+3	10
Chicago "G"	1502	6.55%	1600	6.63%	1612	6.64%	6.75%	1606	+6	4
St. Louis "H"	740	3.23%	786	3.26%	791	3.26%	3.33%	791	0	14
Minneapolis "I"	602	2.63%	640	2.65%	644	2.65%	2.73%	645	-1	34
Kansas City "J"	558	2.43%	594	2.46%	596	2.45%	2.53%	598	-2	27
Dallas "K"	953	4.16%	987	4.09%	1003	4.13%	4.36%	1024	-21	12

I finally acquired some Dallas bills and started inserting them late into the week. Should have Dallas close to on target by the end of this week. At this point in the year, if I've entered 22 bills for a particular FRB than I'm on pace to enter 100 bills for that FRB. With that said, roughly 5 of the FRBs are going to need more than 100 inserts this year.

I found 2 new wilds this past week. The first traveled 2 Years 5 Days 3 Hours 18 Minutes to me from Columbia, MD. The bill had just a sole stamp on it, but that stamp was still quite sharp for having traveled so long:

The second traveled 157 Days 21 Hours 54 Minutes to me from Clawson, MI. It had a stamp on both the front and back, but the front stamp was a bit faded. I almost missed seeing the back stamp:

I added a stamp to the front and back of both bills and sent them on their way. Happy travels!

This week had to have been my most enjoyable week of Georging so far this year. I got a good amount of hits spread among quite a few States which is always fun. Tuesday through Saturday I got 5 hits each day. I'll take 5 hits a day for the rest of the year. :)

Rankings & What's Next: UFC Flyweights

At the start of February, the UFC starting publishing media voted fighter rankings. At that time, I wrote a post comparing the UFC's rankings with those of Fight Matrix which uses a computer program to rank fighters. At the time I used a set of rules for determining who got the next title fight and who would take part in the next #1 contender match. Those rules were:

• The next title contender would be the highest ranked fighter that:
  • Won two fights in a row.
  • Won three fights since his last loss in a title fight or against the current champion unless he's a former champion that successfully defended the belt.
  • Won five fights in a row if his number of losses against the current champion is two greater than his number of wins.
• The next #1 contender match would be between the next two highest ranked fighters that:
  • Won his last fight.
  • Won two fights since his last loss in a title fight or against the current champion unless he's a former champion that successfully defended the belt.
  • Won four fights in a row if his number of losses against the current champion is two greater than his number of wins.

At the time, I broke down the rankings division-by-division to identify the next title contender and #1 contenders match participants for each division based on both of the rankings. Fighters don't fight enough to require reviewing that frequently, but I thought breaking down each division might be. As such, I've decided to do a division-by-division look at what I think should happen next. Along with the UFC and Fight Matrix rankings mentioned above, I'll also be using the rankings from Sherdog and MMA Weekly: two sites I also frequently visit for MMA news. I'll be combining the rankings from the four to get a "unified" ranking.

A few caveats must be noted before I proceed. The UFC rankings essentially have the champion at position 0. I'll be considering the champion rank 1 and move down the other fighters in the rankings respectively. The other rankings include non-UFC fighters. For Fight Matrx, the rankings are deep enough to grab a UFC top 10. Sherdog includes an "other contenders" section. In the event the top 10 includes non-UFC fighters, the "other contenders" from the UFC will be considered as tied for the bottom spot(s) and will split points accordingly. For Fight Matrix, Sherdog, and MMA Weekly, the actual ranking position will be noted when it doesn't match the used position.

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Combined Rankings

		UFC			Fight Matrix			Sherdog			MMA Weekly
Last Update:		03/18/2013			03/17/2013			03/18/2013			03/20/2013
1.	Demetrious Johnson		1	(0)		1			1			1
2.	Joseph Benavidez		2	(1)		2			2			2
3.	John Dodson		3	(2)		4	(5)		4			3
4.	Ian McCall		4	(3)		5	(6)		3			5
5.	John Moraga		5	(4)		3	(4)		8	(9)		4
6.	Jussier Da Silva		6	(5)		9	(16)		5			6
7.	Louis Gaudinot		7	(6)					6	(7)		7	(8)
8.	John Lineker		10	(9)		7	(11)		7	(8)		8	(9)
9.	Darren Uyenoyama		9	(8)		6	(7)
10.	Chris Cariaso		8	(7)		10	(17)		9	(OC)
	Tim Elliott					8	(13)					9	(10)

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Matches I'd Make

John Moraga is the highest ranked fighter who qualifies to challenge the champion, so he gets the next crack at Demetrious Johnson. Louis Gaudinot and John Lineker are the highest ranked fighters who qualify to fight for the #1 contender position, however, they've recently fought and Gaudinot won, so I'd match up Gaudinot with Darren Uyenoyama instead. Lineker instead will get Joseph Benavidez who's trying to work his way back to another title shot. The #3 and #4 fighters, John Dodson and Ian McCall, are coming off of losses to the top two and getting one of them back on the right track is key, so I'd have them face off. That leaves two other fighters coming off of losses, Jussier Da Silva and Chris Cariaso, so they also face off. Tim Elliott gets the final flyweight on the roster, Phil Harris. The shallow nature of the division makes match-making difficult, so hopefully the UFC will sign more flyweights soon.

Matches the UFC has Made

Moraga was set to get the title shot until Johnson had to pull out due to injury. Mighty Mouse wants to return in August and hopes the UFC holds Moraga for him. The UFC has matched up Benavidez with Uyenoyama for the FOX card in April in what I'm guessing will be the #1 contender's match. Da Silva is matched against Cariaso and Lineker welcomes bantonweight Azamat Gashimov to the division at the FX card in May.

Matches I'd Add to the UFC's

Neither Dodson nor McCall has an opponent, so I'll leave my match up between "The Magician" and "Uncle Creepy" intact. That just leaves Gaudinot, Elliott, and Harris. If the UFC signs a quality flyweight to the roster, I'd say match him up with Gaudinot otherwise have Gaudinot and Elliott face off.

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The newness of the flyweight divisions means there's a large number of combinations that haven't happened, but there's a distinct top tier to the division, and Johnson has beaten each of them. I think we're going to see title rematches earlier than desired while some new contenders develop unless the UFC gets active in adding to the roster.

The Week That Was: Weight Management & Running

I knew it would happen eventually, but it never makes sense when it does: even though I've stuck to my calorie budget the past two weeks, my average weight went up week over week. Emotionally, it was a good week for that to happen as my excitement and feeling of accomplishment from the Shamrock'n Half Marathon well overshadowed my disappointment of going up in weight.

Starting off with Weight Management, I had a rough start to the week as my weight expectantly jumped a couple pounds and that increase stuck around for a few days. I burned 3618 calories but ate back 2957 calories (purposely as I wanted to be at "full strength" for the half marathon). I ended with a 661 calorie deficit and if you add that to my targeted ½ pound loss, and I mathematically should have lost 0.7 pounds. Here are my actual results:

	Avg	Min	Max	Last	Avg H20	Avg Fat
03/04-03/11	174.1	173.0	176.4	176.4	98.6	38.9
03/11-03/18	174.5	173.2	176.0	174.0	98.5	39.5
	+0.4	+0.2	-0.4	-2.4	-0.1	+0.6

Looking for the sliver lining, my max and last weights were lower this week than last which does make me optimistic about next week.

As a side note, I did my health check at work this past week, and the fat percentage measuring device at work put my body fat percentage at 18.0% whereas my scale at home tends to have it around 22.5%. I'm not sure which is more accurate (if either), but it does suggest that I might not be as "fat" as the numbers above state.

My Lose It challenge regarding minutes spent walking, jogging, and running in March continues, and I continue to make progress towards the 2000 minutes goal. I have completed 1206 minutes so far which is 256 minutes ahead of my "expected" 950. My expected minutes would put me 290 below the goal, so I've nearly made up 90% of the difference. However, I expect this upcoming week to be on the light side. However, it can't be too light if I want to have the opportunity to nail this one next week.

Moving onto running, I had a bit of a situation on my second run of the week (planned to be five miles) and had to cut the run short. I wasn't too concerned, and as I did want to go light this week, it may have turned out for the best. Here's my mileage for the week:

M	T	W	R	F	S	S
5.43		2.09				13.17
Total Mileage: 20.69

Looking at my mileage compared to my weekly goal of 16 miles:

Miles Ran 16 Mile Goal Miles to Max

And here's a look at my progress towards my goal of 800 miles ran this year:

Previous This Week 800 Miles 1000 Miles

I've completed 210.41 miles so far this year (surpassing the 200 mile mark) and am on track to complete 1011 miles in 2013. I'm not sure how much running I'll be doing this week since I'll be recovering from the half marathon, but I can't recover for too long as I'm signed up to run a ten miler in 3 weeks. My hope is to do 2-3 miles before the weekend, 6 on the weekend, and then back to two 5s and an 8 next week. We will see.

Shamrock'n Half Marathon

After nearly three months of training and anticipation, today was finally the Shamrock'n Half Marathon. I set a goal of breaking 2 hours and was excited to see if I could complete that goal. Perhaps a bit too excited as I had trouble sleeping last night.

7500 participants were expected for the run, and the organizers recommended getting to Raley Field by 6:15 if you desired to park by the stadium. A bit early for my liking, but I got there just before the lines got really bad. I think they were still parking cars in the lot at 6:45, but I imagine those folks were sitting in traffic for quite a while.

The weather was a bit cool at 6:30 but when the sun rose around 7:00 it felt a lot better. I realized as took off my extra layers that I had made a poor decision in regards to shorts as the pair I chose had no pockets (I'm surprised that I bought such a pair). As such, I chose to leave my gel shots in the car, and secured my keys to the shorts drawstring. Fortunately, I don't think this caused me any issues although I could have used one of the gel shots.

I was assigned to the first wave which was set to start at 7:45. I lined up in the queue around 7:20 after finding the 2 hour pacer. The first wave consisted of anyone expecting to finish under 2 hours, and I was surprised so many runners were lined up behind us when there was quite a bit of room in front of the 2 hour group.

When the race started, I tried to keep an eye on the 2 hour pacer, but I got off to a quick start (as is my custom) and I quickly pulled away. The first few miles I frequently checked my watch and mentally told myself to slow down with limited success. Other than short bursts of music from the bands positioned around the course, I don't remember much from those miles. I averaged around 8:35 per mile for those first three miles, and once I realized that I was going to continue at that pace for a while, I calculated that if I ran the first 7 miles at 8:30-8:40 that if I did the final 6 at 9:30, I would hit my 2 hour target.

Once I made it through mile 7 keeping at my desired rate, I decided to try to keep under 8:40/mile but more reasonably only allowing each mile to be at most 10 seconds worst than the previous. The eighth mile was a bit rough towards that goal but I did finish it in 8:42. I bounced back for the ninth mile (my fastest of the run) with a 8:29. I slowed a bit for the tenth finishing in 8:35. I could feel myself faded after that and had to keep telling myself to speed up in the final three miles. I'm pleased to say that I finished those miles in only slightly slower times that my previous miles: 8:42, 8:43, and 8:43 respectively. I finished the race at a sprint (7:50/mile pace). As a nice touch, the race finished on the ball diamond of Raley Field.

I ran a total of 13.17 miles just slightly over the expected length. That was not as much as I did in the Four Bridges Half, so I was glad to see that I did a better job of not taking the corners too widely.

I ran a pretty consistent pace which was nice to see. My mile splits ranged from 8:29.1 (mile nine) to 8:43.9 (mile twelve). My first seven miles were within a narrower 8:33-8:36 range.

Here's the badge for my most recent personal record:

I enjoyed the Shamrock'n Half Marathon, and I think it's likely that I'll do this race again next year. This personal record will likely hold up for a bit as I'm not likely to run another half until October.

My Where's George Week in Review: 03/10/13 - 03/16/13

Hover over this explanation for more detailsThe nerd that I am, I chose to post once a week a summary of my previous week's Where's George activity in comparision to my goals for the year.

In order to make the charts fit, I had to abreviate the column headers. Each header is hoverable for an explanation.

In the past week, I got 23 hits in 7 States [AL, AZ, CA¹⁷, CO, CT, OR, WA]. Of those hits, 4 were the 2^nd hit on the bill and the rest (19) were the initial hit on the bill. Below is a calendar view of the hits throughout the week:

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
3	6	1	2	3	4	4

I came into the week with a 30 day hit streak. I got a hit on every day of this week which extended the streak to 37 days: good for my 8^th longest streak all-time. Here's a look at my all-time ten longest hit streaks:

Rank	Start Date	End Date	Days		Rank	Start Date	End Date	Days
1.	10/07/2012	01/02/2013	88		6.	06/24/2012	08/16/2012	54
2.	12/28/2011	03/17/2012	81		7.	04/04/2012	05/21/2012	48
3.	04/13/2011	06/30/2011	79		8.	02/08/2013	03/16/2013	37
4.	07/28/2011	09/23/2011	58		9.	01/04/2013	02/06/2013	34
5.	09/26/2011	11/18/2011	54		10.	07/21/2010	08/21/2010	32

Of the 7 States in which I received hits this past week, 2 were the first hit for that State in 2013: AL and CT. Overall I've received hits in 27 States in 2013. Here's how that stands towards my goal of 46 States hit:

0         51

Previous New Still Needed for Goal Beyond Goal

The hit in Alabama was my first since September of 2012. The hit in Connecticut was my first since July of 2012.

Additionally in the past week I received my first hit in 1 county bringing my total of counties hit to 500. The newly hit county was Morgan AL. I set a goal of 98 new counties hit in 2013, and here's a look at my progress towards that goal:

483       581

Previous New Still Needed for Goal

Of the bills hit in the past week, the longest active bill from the bunch was re-entered 3 Years 199 Days 23 Hours 48 Minutes after I originally entered it. That bill is now 19^th on my all-time longest active list.

I made predictions regarding bill entries and hits and new bills with hits for 2013. Here's a look at how I'm doing towards those predictions:

	SoYStart of Year	SoWStart of Week	EoWEnd of Week	WΔWeek Change: Number Added this Week	YΔYear Change: Number Added this Year	PPrediction (for Year)	P/WPrediction for Week: A Week's Share of the Total	PtDPrediction to Date: The Portion of the Prediction that should be Completed so Far	WvPWeek versus Prediction: How the Week's Numbers Stack Up Against the P/W	DvPDate versus Prediction: How the Year's Numbers So Far Stack Up Against the PtD
Bills Entered	22920	24051	24135	84	1215	28920	115.1	24153	-31	-18
Bills with Hits	3704	3931	3950	19	246	5074	26.3	3986	-7	-36
Total Hits	4330	4604	4627	23	297	6030	32.6	4679	-10	-52

Not a good week for any of these stats. Bills entered has once again fallen behind pace, but I quickly make up ground on that one when on vacation, so I'm not all that worried. The rate at which the other two stats fall behind isn't slowing down at the rate I was expecting at this time.

At the current rate I'm entering bills in 2013, I'll end up with 5913 bills entered. To hit my goal of 6000 entries, I'll need to increase my rate to 115.5 bills per week for the rest of the year.

Looking at my goal of increasing the percentage that $1s make up of my entries by 1% (started the year at 87.64% so the goal is 88.64%), my percentage is now 87.91% [+0.27%].

	SoYStart of Year	SoWStart of Week	EoWEnd of Week	WΔWeek Change: Number Added this Week	YΔYear Change: Number Added this Year	GGoal: Number of Total Ones Needed by the End of the Year Based on the Prediction of 6000 Bill Entries This Year	GfWGoal for Week: This Week's Portion of the Goal Based on the Number of Bills Entered in the Week	GtDGoal to Date: The Numbers of One Needed to be Entered so Far this Year to be on Track to Met the Overall Goal	WvGWeek versus Goal: How the Week's Numbers Stack Up Against the GfW	DvGDate versus Goal: How the Year's Numbers So Far Stack Up Against the GtD
$1s Entered	20086	21135	21216	81	1130	25634	77.7	21210	+3	+6
Dynamic GoalProgress towards the goal based on my actual rate of entering bills per day which would result in 5913 entries this year rather than 6000						25557	77.7	21211	+3	+5

Regarding my goal of increasing my non-San Francisco FRB entries, here's a table of my current progress:

	SoYStart of Year	SoY%Percentage of Overall at Start of Year	SoWStart of Week	SoW%Percentage of Overall at Start of Week	EoWEnd of Week	EoW%Percentage of Overall at End of Week	G%Goal Percentage	GtDGoal to Date: The Numbers Needed to be Entered so Far this Year to be on Track to Meet the Overall Goal	DvGDate versus Goal: How the Year's Numbers So Far Stack Up Against the GtD	#IBNumber of Inserted Bills
Boston "A"	781	3.41%	822	3.42%	828	3.43%	3.51%	829	-1	22
New York "B"	1691	7.38%	1790	7.44%	1797	7.45%	7.58%	1793	+4	23
Philadelphia "C"	656	2.86%	694	2.89%	696	2.88%	2.96%	697	-1	16
Cleveland "D"	819	3.57%	878	3.65%	884	3.66%	3.67%	869	+15	0
Richmond "E"	1569	6.85%	1666	6.93%	1672	6.93%	7.05%	1664	+8	1
Atlanta "F"	2096	9.14%	2235	9.29%	2241	9.29%	9.64%	2237	+4	10
Chicago "G"	1502	6.55%	1592	6.62%	1600	6.63%	6.75%	1594	+6	4
St. Louis "H"	740	3.23%	782	3.25%	786	3.26%	3.33%	786	0	13
Minneapolis "I"	602	2.63%	636	2.64%	640	2.65%	2.73%	640	0	32
Kansas City "J"	558	2.43%	589	2.45%	594	2.46%	2.53%	594	0	26
Dallas "K"	953	4.16%	985	4.10%	987	4.09%	4.36%	1016	-29	0

At this point in the year, if I've entered 21 bills for a particular FRB than I'm on pace to enter 100 bills for that FRB. I've picked up a strap of 100 bills for each of the FRBs (except Dallas since I'm still working on acquiring those). As such I'm in danger of needing to acquire extra bills for Boston and New York and will likely need more for Minneapolis and Kansas City. Since Dallas is so far behind right now, it's likely I'll need extra for that one too.

This week I got my 48^th two hit/three State bill which traveled from California -> Maine -> Connecticut. The second hit took quite a bit longer to get than the first (over two years longer).

On the bright side, my hit streak from last week is still going. Other than that, it was a bit of a slow week for hits.