Qmk Combo
Hedgeworth Hennigan
Combos the snack are best used to fuel exploring existential pits of despair. Combos the workout can help get you out of any running-related existential pits, while also adding multi-faceted adaptation stresses that can improve performance.
If you look at elite athlete training logs, combination workouts are often a staple. They use different terminology and there is no set definition, but for athletes I coach, combo workouts involve pace and/or time variation across multiple sets that introduce different stresses into a single day.
When designing those workouts, the world is your slimy oyster. While there is a temptation to think there is a perfect workout for each athlete in each moment, hence justifying my coaching existence, the body adapts in a more complex way than that. And with that thought, I just had a sudden craving for combos.
Instead, workouts elicit a range of expected aerobic, musculoskeletal, neuromuscular and biomechanical adaptations based on speed/power output, duration and recovery. That acute workout stress further interacts with chronic training and life stress, genetics, environment and a thousand other variables.
We know the biological processes at play and have lots of data to make educated guesses. But we can never know a couple of the variables, particularly related to the chaotic nature of how stress and environment interact in individual athletes. With that in mind, the optimal training approach is getting those variables to be the highest non-zero number possible, and not trying to predict the outcome with illusory certainty.
The main way to do that is to avoid doing nothing (zero) or doing too much (which can send an athlete back to zero). In between those extremes, distributing the stress along multiple vectors could encourage adaptation along a broader aerobic/musculoskeletal spectrum without taxing any one system too much. Combo workouts may provide an avenue to lots of use without overuse.
Most training systems revolve around periodic bouts of concentrated stress to spur adaptation. The prime example has always been the Nike Oregon Project post-race workouts, where athletes would go all-out on the track or roads, then follow that up with a hard workout. For example, after setting the American Record in the 2-mile in 2014, Galen Rupp signed autographs for a few minutes, then did 5 x 1 mile. The final mile interval was 4:01. That workout may have been designed with the help of a pharmacist, but the same principles are used by many training groups.
These types of combos have a general focus on aerobic development followed by speed development. The longer intervals are necessarily slower to avoid going too hard to adapt long-term. Following that with short intervals or strides can layer biomechanical/neuromuscular efficiency and musculoskeletal power on top of the longer aerobic stimulus.
When to do them: Early in training cycles as a bridge to longer intervals, before trail races, and consistently if hill workouts are the best balance of risk and reward given your background.
This combo calls on similar principles as the post-race workouts, but with a gentler tempo stimulus to make it sustainable. Having work to do after the tempo has the added benefit of helping some athletes run more controlled, knowing they are just getting started.
Usually, these tempos will be a bit shorter to avoid practicing inefficient movement patterns, but for advanced athletes they can be longer, particularly to simulate the demands of races that stress glycogen stores like marathons and ultras.
When it comes to workouts, the general idea is to practice more efficient output over time, rather than learning to go harder for longer. While going hard is great in moderation, you can only ring that bell so many times before your body gets sick and tired of hearing the same tone over and over (or the bell breaks).
Running economy can improve over many years through balanced training that mixes intensity levels on top of a background of aerobic development and health. Combo workouts can stimulate different ends of the aerobic/speed spectrum on a single day, which could enhance adaptations. Or not. And that uncertainty of athletic development is part of the fun.
Fly Nutrition is where tons of athletes I coach go for nutrition analysis and plans. Kylee Van Horn, RDN has an amazing, balanced view of how nutrition fits into a busy athletic life. I trust her advice 100 percent for pro athletes doing high mileage and people just starting out with running, and everyone in between. Kylee does remote consultations and can be contacted at her website here and email here.
What could be better than a Chicken Quesadilla? How about a Chicken Quesadilla served with a Crunchy Taco and a fountain drink? At Taco Bell you can find a delicious array of combos to satisfy your Mexican inspired food craving at any time throughout the day.
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Update : I made an Android version, with special touch controls, on my Itch.io page
Update 2 : I improved collisions and fixed the "keep perfectly vertical" way of cheating.
Update 4: You can now use the mouse to point and shoot! Also accessibility option to display numbers on the balls, so you can better identify them
Here is Combo Pool, my entry to p8jam2. It's a game where you throw colored marbles against each other. If two marbles of the same color make contact, they merge and upgrade to the next color. Your lifebar diminish with the number of balls on the field. If you lifebar is empty, you enter in a sudden death mode, and your last ball must save you by removing some balls.
What I do for scoring in my physics puzzle game is once getting points, start a combo timer (say 3 seconds) and any points you get during that period will restart the timer and increase the multiplier.
@impbox: I would much rather have score dependent on the color of the balls combined. Timers are cool, but I feel this game would play better if you take your time to aim.
But I agree about the bustamove controls. Would make it more fun.
I started with a "left+right" control ala bust a move, but I found it a bit slugish, it's hard to make it precise and at the same time alow fast direction change. With the cursor, I though you could aim at a precise point. But maybe I will try "left+right" again or leave it to the player's choice.
For the combo system, I think I will have a score multiplyer that goes up each time you touch a ball, but you only make score when you merge balls of same color. So the ideal move is to make several rebound against other balls and finaly merging.
@Level27Geek : I didn't even think about a two player mode, but now I absolutly need to make it hapen, thanks for the idea.
@johnesco : yes, that is an issue right now. I will add a gauge to make you cautious with the rate of balls you throw, and maybe add a free mode with no restriction.
You where right impbox, rotating control are better, especialy with a laser to see where you throw. I also added a precise mode when you hold the button, the ball leaving only when you release.
Now I need to make sounds, improve graphics and add a two player mode.
Only a few things that I felt were a little weird or not obvious. First, the targeting felt way to fast. Just one press of the key and the sight goes really far, wish it was slower - or maybe if you hold X+Direction and that is slow and other is fast?
The other thing is I'm not quite sure how you lose...? I felt for a while I was just knocking balls around trying to match colors. I mean, that in itself was fun but I never felt like I had to be careful or anything...just let em fly! And maybe that's the idea...just kind of expected some challenge outside of just angling balls off each other.
The trick to make precise shoot is that when you hold the button, the rotation is slower and without acceleration. I wanted to keep a fast rotation to make fast direction change possible, but maybe I should reduce it.
Regarding losing, it all depend on the difficulty chosen. In endless you cannot win or die, in easy it's prety difficult to die (you have to spam for a while). In hard (I should rename it "normal" maybe) it become difficult to live as the game advance, you need to avoid having too much balls. In extreme, I never made it to the end, but I know it's possible.
I need to make a tutorial or something in game to explain all the subtle mechanics.
Ah ha...I just played Difficult and died a few times, so I now see the challenge...you don't want too many dark balls! And this time I noticed holding down Z while using the arrows to target does move slower, so that's nice.
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