After achieving two sub-minute personal bests last week, I feared that they perhaps were flukes. The off-camera aspect irked me, as well. So, donning the GoPro, I gave it another shot last night and logged three sub-minute solves:
At 52, 58, and 58 seconds, these were the best 3 of 5 — after tossing out a sixth lucky solve (with OLL solving the cube completely). I wound up with a 60.8 second 5-solve average. I actually was on pace for a sub-50 solve when my F-II popped. Bummer. All three recorded solves were on a sticklerless Dayan Zhanchi.
Soundtrack by the John Coltrane Quartet (“Afro Blue” from Live at Birdland) — with McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, and Jimmy Garrison, one of jazz’ all-time great lineups.
The advanced cross technique appears to have shaved about 5-6 seconds off my previous 15-second cross times. I suspect that brings me pretty darn close to the floor for Beginner’s Method. The first two layers (done independently here) took me about 25 seconds in each solve. That means that I need to get F2L down to 6 seconds per slot to see an improvement. For easier F2L pairs, that’s very doable. But if I have to hunt for a piece or split pairs, I need more than 6 seconds. Practice, practice….
adventures in cubing 
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