Fruddled Gruntbugglies

Author: lpaulriddle

  • Shore Leave 2025

    Shore Leave 2025

    Just a few quick notes about biking, paddling, and running at Bethany this summer, and some potential plans for next year. We brought the 12′ touring kayak and the ISUP to the beach this year, as well as the usual road bikes. The first part of the week was extremely hot, followed by a day or two of normal summer beach weather, and then an overcast and breezy day on Friday.

    On Monday morning, I kicked the week off with a 7-mile run along what has become my “usual” Bethany running route: south on Kent Ave, west on Muddy Neck Rd, north on West Ave or Woodland Ave to Central Ave (via Daisey Ave), east on Fred Hudson Rd to Coastal Highway, and then back south to Bethany. It’s not perfect, as it lacks shade in spots, has a few busy road crossings, and also has a couple of “choke points” with narrow shoulders and heavy traffic. There’s also nowhere to refill a water bottle along the way. However, it’s a nice loop that gets me 7+ miles with no doubling back needed (rare in coastal areas), and tends not to be too crowded with walkers and casual bikers, which is also a plus in a resort town in the summer.

    On Tuesday morning, I rode my bike south to the Ocean City, MD inlet. I’ve ridden from Bethany to O.C. and back several times, but this was the first time I had ever ridden all the way to the inlet. The final mile or two of Coastal Highway prior to the inlet lacks bike lanes, but riding on the boardwalk is allowed until noon, though it can get crowded. There are various alleyways that run parallel to the highway on the ocean side, and some back roads with bike lanes on the bay side, but nothing contiguous on either side. This part of the ride was slow going, as I hopped around trying to find the best route. I also stopped to find several geocaches. North of the boardwalk, things went faster, as there’s a wide shoulder for bikes and buses only, with only the traffic lights occasionally slowing me down. In the heat and humidity, the best strategy for dealing with lights is to slow down far in advance of a red light, and try to avoid coming to a complete stop before the light turns green. If stopping is unavoidable, try to stop in the shade. Due to the heat and the slow progress through O.C., this ride felt longer than its actual distance of 32 miles. I was definitely dragging a bit for the final 5 miles or so.

    Wednesday morning, I got on the bike for a second consecutive day for an unplanned ride to Selbyville/Fenwick, and briefly crossed into Maryland for a geocaching first-to-find. On my way south, I took an inland route, which I enjoy, because it gets me out of beach traffic and into Delaware farm country (although there are a few busy stretches here and there). I then retraced my steps back north on Coastal Highway to Bethany. Compared to Tuesday, this ride was a breeze. The temperature was several degrees cooler, the ride was 8 miles shorter, and I didn’t have to stop as often.

    Thursday was my first time in the kayak. I put in at the Kent Ave launch at the early hour of 6:45am and paddled south on the canal, into Assawoman Bay, and southwest to Sassafras Landing, where I briefly took out and made a slightly ill-advised trek into the bug-laden woods to find an old geocache that was hidden in 2007. I had come prepared, with permethrin-treated clothing and plenty of DEET on my skin, and as a result, the ticks and skeeters left me alone. The horseflies, on the other hand, were merciless. Fortunately, it didn’t take me too long to find the cache. It had been on my to-do list for several years, so I was happy to find it. I had the sun in my eyes for the paddle back to the launch, and it was starting to warm up, but there was enough of a breeze to keep things tolerable. It is always fun navigating around the marsh grasses that grow in these tidal bays. It’s easy to make a wrong turn and end up at a dead end. This was mainly an issue on the way back to the launch, where I had to be careful not to turn back toward the canal too early. In this area, there are a number of man-made objects (duck blinds, crab pot floats, the pavilion at Strawberry Landing, etc) which I was able to use as navigational aids.

    Initially, we had been planning to paddle at Millsboro Pond on Friday morning, but gusty winds forced us to postpone that until Saturday. Instead, I took advantage of the overcast skies and low-70s temperatures to go running. I think it was probably the most favorable running weather I’ve ever had in Bethany, although I was still rather sweaty at the end. The only absolute certainty at the shore in the summertime is that it will be humid, whether it’s cool or warm, cloudy or sunny.

    Saturday morning, my son and I made it to Millsboro Pond for the paddle that had been planned for Friday. It was much less windy than Friday, but still mostly cloudy to overcast, which made for really nice paddling conditions. This was my third time paddling here, and my first in two years. The traffic getting to and from Millsboro from Bethany can be annoying, but this is a great place to paddle, and worth the drive, as I wrote back in 2023. As we found out today, it’s also a great place for stand-up paddleboarding. Today’s featured wildlife sighting was a bald eagle, which a smaller bird appeared to be chasing. There was also the usual bevy of turtles, herons, geese, damselflies, and various other birds and insects. I typically find it boring to paddle on large flatwater lakes and ponds, but Millsboro Pond is an exception to that rule. I’ll definitely be back.

    That about wraps up 2025’s beach trip. Here are a few ideas for things to do in 2026.

    • I’d like to paddle the entire length of the Assawoman Canal at some point. Depending on what you consider to be the beginning and end, this can range from 6 to 8 miles round-trip.
    • I’m kicking around the idea of paddling somewhere around Burton Island. There’s a cache at the south end of the island, but I’m not sure if it’s easily accessible from the water. All the same, there are a couple of nice water trails there around Delaware Seashore State Park. If I ever buy a sea kayak, there’s fairly easy access to the ocean from that area via the Indian River Inlet.
    • A return to Millsboro Pond may be in the cards.
    • As far as biking goes, I’ve found most of the bikeable caches further inland, so I’ll probably end up heading north to Rehoboth again, as I didn’t get there this year. I’d love to have some new caches to find around Roxana, Frankford, and/or Selbyville, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed that someone decides to hide a few.
  • LCRC Locals Blend

    LCRC Locals Blend

    • Beans: Locals Blend (8oz)
      • Roaster: Local Coffee Roasting Company (Roxana, DE)
      • Origin: Colombia, Guatemala, and Ethiopia
      • Roast level: Medium
      • Roast date: 5/19/2025
      • Purchase date: 6/23/2025 at 3 Blonde Bakers in Bethany Beach, DE
        First cup: 6/24/2025; Last cup: TBD
      • Process: n/a (blend)
      • Tasting notes (from web site): milk chocolate, stone fruit
    • AeroPress with JX grinder:
      • AeroPress with Prismo, scoop, metal filter, and paper filter
      • 1 heaping scoop of beans (roughly 16g to 17g)
      • Around 250g of “pretty hot” but not boiling water (ratio 1:15 to 1:16)
      • JX grind setting: 16
      • Pour enough water to cover grounds; agitate; bloom until 0:45 or so; fill cylinder up to around 1/4″-3/8″ from top; stir 7x front-to-back with AeroPress paddle; steep until 02:45; stir 7x again; press slowly
    • V60 with Ode grinder:
      • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
      • Ode: 4
      • Water at 95°C
      • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with size 2 cone, 50g bloom water and 60g pulses – finishes 03:00-03:05

    I can’t let a trip to the Delaware shore go by without getting some beans from LCRC. These are a little farther past roast date than I would typically buy, but retail availability is limited, so you take what you can get (within reason), and to be honest, unless it’s a dark roast, a month old is still reasonably fresh. This was my first time trying this particular blend. I’ll be grinding most of the beans with the JX and brewing them in the AeroPress. I started at grind 16, which is the fine end of the “AeroPress” range on the JX grind chart. The first cup was very robust and nicely balanced. I’ll be happy if all of them taste like this. Stay tuned!

    6/29: I arrived home with enough beans to make a few pour-overs. V60 at 1:15, grind setting 4, and 95°C water was comparable to the AeroPress cups I’ve been brewing. It was maybe a tiny bit stronger than I like (at least in the summertime), so I may try it at closer to 1:16 next time.

    It’s been a year since I’ve had the Delaware and Beach blends, so it’s difficult to make a fair comparison, but I think this could be my favorite LCRC blend that I’ve tried to date. Next up is a bag of Breakfast Blend, which I haven’t had in 2 years. Next time we go to Bethany, I want to stop at Parsons Farm Produce outside Dagsboro, to see if they have fresher bags and/or a wider selection of LCRC beans than 3 Blonde Bakers. T. S. Smith Market in Bridgeville used to carry them as well, but hasn’t had them the past two years.

  • Zeke’s Beans of Summer (bag #2)

    Zeke’s Beans of Summer (bag #2)

    • Beans: Beans of Summer (blend)
      • Roaster: Zeke’s Coffee (Baltimore, MD)
      • Origin: Indonesia, South and Central America
      • Roast level: Medium/Light (3/8)
      • Roast date: unknown
      • Purchase date: 6/15/2025 from Zeke’s at Baltimore Farmer’s Market
        Freeze date: 6/20/2025; Thaw date: TBD
        First cup: 6/17/2025; Last cup: TBD
      • Process: n/a (blend)
      • Tasting notes: none noted on bag
    • V60 with Ode grinder:
      • 19g coffee / 300g water (1:15.8)
      • Ode: 4
      • Water at 100°C
      • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with size 2 cone, 40g bloom water and 50g pulses – finishes 02:40-02:45
    • AeroPress with JX grinder:
      • 16g to 17g coffee (I weighed out 50g of beans and split them into roughly equal proportions to yield 3 cups of coffee)
      • Around 250g of “pretty hot” but not boiling water (ratio 1:15 to 1:16)
      • AeroPress with Prismo, metal filter, and paper filter
      • JX grind setting: 16
      • Pour enough water to cover grounds; agitate; bloom until 0:45 or so; fill cylinder up to around 1/4″-3/8″ from top; stir 7x front-to-back with AeroPress paddle; steep until 02:45; stir 7x again; press slowly
    • Previous bag: late July 2024

    Well, I guess it’s summer again. On one hand, it doesn’t seem like that long ago that I had my first bag of these. On the other hand, it was before I had my Ode grinder, and it seems like I’ve had that for a long time. I bought the Ode last September, and a lot has happened in life (both good and bad) since then.

    We bought these beans (as well as a bag of Zeke’s Tell-Tale Decaf) at the Baltimore Farmer’s Market, directly from the roaster. Strangely, while the bags of Zeke’s I get at the grocery store have roast dates printed on them, these bags didn’t. Typically, though, when buying directly from the roaster, I just kind of assume the bags are fresh. Of course, the $50,000 question is, would I be able to tell the difference between freshly-roasted beans and 6-month-old beans? I’d like to think I would, but you never know. 😀

    According to my notes from last year, I had a hard time getting a good cup with the V60. Different story this time around, as my first two cups have been excellent. Granted, I have only brewed two cups so far, and I noted last year that the first two cups were also good, after which I started having issues. We will see how it goes with the rest of the bag. The differences so far have been: different grinder, much lower ratio (1:16 vs 1:14), and 50g pulses instead of 60g. The 50g pulse technique tends to keep water in the cone longer, which I suspect helps with extraction. My technique is probably a little better and more consistent now, as well, but who knows.

    I likely will not use this entire bag up before heading to Delaware next week, so I think I may take some with me to brew in the AeroPress, and freeze the rest to brew after I get back. It will be interesting to see if there is any difference in taste between the frozen/thawed beans and the non-frozen beans. Stay tuned!

    6/23: My more recent pour-over cups have been serviceable (other than one that was on the bitter side) but overall, not as consistent as, say, a typical single-origin roast like Zeke’s Colombia-Huila (which is fresh in my memory, as I just finished a bag). With blends, it’s impossible to get the exact same proportion of each type of bean in every cup, and I have occasionally wondered if that’s why I sometimes get inconsistent results brewing blends. However, I’ve learned over the past couple of years that brewing good filter coffee is not as subtle an art as I had originally thought, so my gut tells me that that theory is probably wrong. To that point, as of this writing, I have brewed two cups with the AeroPress and 1Zpresso JX hand grinder (see above), with no scale and no water temperature control. The first cup at grind setting 20 was OK (maybe slightly weak), and the second cup at setting 16 was very good.

    I froze about half of this 1-pound bag on or around June 20, and the current plan is to thaw and brew those in early July, although that could change depending on how much coffee I buy (or don’t buy) in the meantime.

  • Super humid run

    Super humid run

    Nice soupy morning today with overcast skies, temperatures in the mid 70s, and dewpoint around 70. I wasn’t sure I felt like running all that far, but I ended up going 11 miles at a very relaxed pace of around 11:30/mile. Any faster, and I likely would not have made it that far. The overcast skies and a slight breeze out of the north both helped quite a bit. Ordinarily, I would bring my hydration vest on a run like this, but the reservoir has sprung a slow leak with which I have yet to deal. Instead, I brought my hand-carry soft water bottle. It has a stated capacity of 16oz, but when it’s in its carrier, I think it’s more realistically about 14oz. I went through 3 bottles of water, refilling once at the library at mile 5, and again at the local park at around mile 8. Both locations have convenient water bottle filling stations, although the library’s is indoors, and only available when the library is open (which isn’t until 10 on weekends). I’ve been running past these locations for years, yet for whatever reason, it didn’t occur to me until this year to stop and refill. It’s nice not to have to carry as much water to support longer runs, and I also find myself drinking more during my shorter weekday morning runs, which helps me maintain my energy. With that said, I am going to need to figure out some way to replenish carbs and electrolytes for longer runs in hot/humid conditions, as water by itself is not quite enough. My struggles with getting “over the hump” during long runs in the summertime are well-documented. I often eat a granola bar about halfway through my runs, which works great in cooler weather, but doesn’t help all that much in heat and humidity. Today, I made it farther than I have in the past under similar conditions, but as I was coming down the home stretch, I was definitely starting to run low on energy. I may stop by the local REI next week and pick up a few carb/electrolyte gels to try out. I suspect they’ll help, but I still wonder what people did back in the old days when gels weren’t an option.

  • 2025 Pool Season

    2025 Pool Season

    It was a late start to pool season this year, thanks to a very cool and wet month of May (not that I’m complaining by any means). In most years, we try to have the pool open by Memorial Day weekend, but this year, we held off for another week, uncovering it on June 1. My first swim was yesterday (June 6), and the water temperature was still only 76°F. I used the tether, and picked up right where I left off last year, swimming 3 sets of 60 breaststroke, 60 front crawl, 60 butterfly, and 60 backstroke, for a total of 720 strokes. I’m going to try to swim more days than not this season, and we’ll see how that goes. I missed today because I was too busy vacuuming and cleaning the pool. The good news is, I think there is light at the end of the tunnel with regards to the massive chore that is spring pool opening.

    This is our second year with a variable speed pump. Even running it 24/7, it uses less than half the electricity than our old 1hp single speed pump used running 12-14 hours/day. Most of last year, I ran the pump at 2600rpm in the morning, 1750rpm in the afternoon/evening, and 750rpm overnight. This year, at least for now, I’m running it at 1750rpm for 13 hours and 750rpm for 11 hours, with occasional “boosts” to 2600rpm to run the pool cleaner. With electricity getting more and more expensive, the VS pump has been a big win, but the trade-off is that the skimmers don’t work as well at the lower pump speeds. Last year, I found myself manually skimming the pool surface much more often. I’ve ordered a Betta SE Plus solar-powered skimmer robot, and am hoping it will help. Also, anecdotally, it seems to take more work to get the pool fully clean and clear during opening. The past two seasons, I’ve been vacuuming to waste, then running the Polaris to pick up the larger debris, and then vacuuming again to the filter to get the rest of the fine particulate crap up off the bottom. In prior years, the final vacuuming step was not needed. This may be more an issue with the Polaris not working as well as it should, though (long story that probably warrants a separate post).

    My Autopilot salt chlorinator is acting as flaky as ever this season — a lot of the time it works fine, but often, I see intermittent “check/clean cell” and “low amps/cell” errors flashing on the display, with volt/amp readings all over the map when it is happening. At one point, I got the error condition to clear up by going into the maintenance menu and selecting “force reverse”. Last year, I had the same issue at one point, but it cleared up and the system ran flawlessly for most of the season. I am wondering if it is finally time to replace my salt cell, which is way past its prime. It has outlived the original DIG-220 control unit as well as the original tri-sensor. The cell has been in service since 2009! Its stated lifetime, per Autopilot, is 60,000 amp-hours, and it has about 43,000 amp-hours with the current controller, which I put in service in 2019. That’s about 7200 amp-hours per season over 6 seasons. Before 2019, it ran with the old controller for 10 seasons (2009-2018). If we assume similar usage over those 10 seasons (I never checked the amp-hour reading on the old controller), then the cell has seen about 7200*16 or 115,200 amp-hours of usage. That’s almost twice the expected lifetime!! I’ve had a new cell on hand for 5 or 6 years, and every year, I debate whether to put it in service, but the old one just seems to keep on going. Maybe the time has finally come to retire it.

    In any case, I’m hoping that within a week or so, I’ll be spending more time swimming than I am maintaining the pool.

  • Zeke’s Colombia Huila (bag #2)

    Zeke’s Colombia Huila (bag #2)

    • Beans: Colombia (Huila) – single origin
      • Roaster: Zeke’s Coffee (Baltimore, MD)
      • Origin: Colombia (Huila)
      • Roast level: Medium/Light (2/8)
      • Roast date: 4/1/2025
      • Purchase date: 4/7/2025 at Green Valley Marketplace in Elkridge, MD
        Freeze date: 4/8/2025 or 4/9/2025
        Thaw date: 6/2/2025
        First cup: 6/5/2025
        Last cup: 6/16/2025
      • Process: Washed; Varietals: Caturra, Castillo
      • Tasting notes: Orange, caramel, milk chocolate
    • V60:
      • 19g coffee / 300g water (1:15.8)
      • Ode: 4
      • Water at 100°C
      • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with size 2 cone, 40g bloom water and 50g pulses – finishes around 02:50
    • AeroPress with Prismo:
      • 17g coffee / around 250g water (roughly 1:15)
      • JX: 20 (2 rotations)
      • Metal + paper filter
      • Pour enough water to wet grounds / stir / bloom until 0:45
      • Fill cylinder to about 1/4″ from top / stir 6-7x front to back
      • Steep until 03:00 / stir again / press slowly
    • Previous bag: May 2024

    I bought and froze this bag in early April, so I would have some coffee in the house when we got home from our trips in April/May. I put all of the beans into a gallon freezer bag, got as much air out of it as I could, and put the bag in the basement freezer. It stayed there a little bit longer than planned, as I ended up buying a bunch of coffee in the meantime.

    My first two cups were somewhat roasty and low in acidity. I brewed cup #1 at grind setting 3, and it tasted a little bit over-extracted. Setting 4 was better balanced. 1:15 was on the strong side, so I will try 1:15.8-1:16 tomorrow. Interestingly, I see that last year, I was brewing these beans at 1:14. I can’t imagine why I would want it that strong, but it could be that I’m getting better extraction using 6 pours of 50g water (vs 5 pours of 60g water), which keeps water in the cone a little longer. I was also using a different grinder then (JX), so it’s hard to compare grind sizes. My tastes have probably evolved over the past year, as well.

    Final note: As of today, I am using a new scale. For the past year or so, I have had a cheap coffee scale from Greater Goods, which I liked just fine, until the tray started wobbling and giving inconsistent readings. You get what you pay for, I guess. After doing a bunch of research and comparison, I narrowed my choices down to the Timemore Basic Mini and the Mx. Cool Katze. I ended up going with the Katze. It was about twice the price of the Timemore (though still a good bit cheaper than Fellow Tally or Acaia Pearl) but the deciding factors for me were (1) it’s made in Taiwan vs China; and (2) it has a unique retracting control panel which protects the scale during storage. It seems solidly built, has some weight to it, and has a metal tray. Feature-wise, the only thing it has over the Greater Goods scale is an automatic timer for pour-over, which I have yet to try out. One of the Timemore’s selling points was a flow rate indicator, which the Katze lacks, but I’ve somehow managed to get by without one up to now, so it wasn’t a show stopper (and, surprisingly, the $190 Fellow doesn’t have one, either). The Taiwan-made Acaia would have been a strong competitor, but it had extra features I didn’t need (Bluetooth/app) which added $30 to the price tag. Overall, the Katze seemed like the best combination of price, features, and build quality. It has worked well for one cup of coffee thus far, hopefully with many more to come.

    6/6: As I had suspected I would, I liked this better at around 1:16, so I’ve updated the recipe to 19g/300g.

    6/11: I brewed some of this in the AeroPress at the office (see above), and it turned out pretty good, in spite of my not using a scale and not having the grind dialed in on the hand grinder.

    6/16: Finished the bag up today, and once I got it dialed in, it was very consistent from cup to cup. Except for today, I brewed a little over 38g of beans per day, and used the 1lb bag up in 11 days. This morning, I had a little over 42g left, so I made the cups a little larger so I could use all of the beans up.

  • SUP Report

    SUP Report

    Today was my second time out on the SUP, and I have to say I’m really enjoying it. I’m getting more comfortable paddling around, mounting and dismounting, transitioning back and forth between standing and kneeling, etc. Next, I’ll be looking to read up on technique, so that I can paddle more efficiently and go longer distances. Compared to the kayak, I love how quick and easy it is to load the board up onto the car roof for transport. When Cathy and I go paddling, I always dread loading the kayaks back up onto the van roof after we are finished. It takes at least 10 minutes of moving the step stool around, climbing up and down, fiddling around with the straps, making sure everything is tight, etc. With the SUPDawg, the board is up and secured in about 30 seconds, and I suspect 2 boards will only take a few seconds longer. I also think the SUP will be a very nice paddling option for the hotter months, and can see it becoming my go-to watercraft from June through August.

    One change I made this time around was to swap the 8″ fin that came with the board out with an aftermarket 5.5″ fin. The shorter fin did a better job clearing submerged obstacles in the shallow tidal estuary headwaters that I frequent. I suspect that the 8″ fin will track better in deeper water, but my paddling technique hasn’t yet improved to the point where I could notice a difference. I’m sure it’ll get there, and I’m sure I’ll be experimenting with both fins as time goes by.

    Today’s paddling destination was Tanyard Cove, which is the same place I paddled two weeks ago on my rainy maiden voyage of 2024. Next up, I may head to Pasadena at Green Haven Wharf, or possibly the headwaters of the Severn River near Millersville. The latter will require a rather long carry, so I’ll have to think about the logistics and decide if it’s doable.

  • Brewing Good Sumatra Arisarina

    Brewing Good Sumatra Arisarina

    • Beans: Sumatra (Arisarina Cooperative) – single origin
      • Roaster: Brewing Good Coffee Company (Savage, MD)
      • Origin: Sumatra, Indonesia (Aceh Tengah)
      • Roast level: Medium
      • Roast date: 5/21/2025
      • Purchase date: 5/25/2025 at BGCC in Savage Mill
        First cup: 5/27/2025
        Last cup: 6/4/2025
      • Process: Wet hulled; Varietals: Catimor, Typica, Timtim; Elevation: 1400-1700 MASL
      • Tasting notes: Chocolate, dried cherries, above average body and low acidity
    • V60:
      • 19g coffee / 300g water (1:15.8)
      • Ode: 5
      • Water at 95°C
      • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with size 2 cone, 36-40g bloom water and 50g pulses – finishes around 02:50

    This was my second time buying coffee from Brewing Good. To avoid the hassle of parking at Savage Mill, I stopped by during my Sunday morning bike ride, which was very convenient. I suspect it won’t be the last time I do that.

    I started at 1:15 and grind setting 4. After exclusively drinking fruity light roasts for the past month, this was quite the departure. It is really bold and roasty, with no noticeable acidity at all. The bag mentions that the roast is “a little darker than medium”, but I didn’t notice any of the burnt flavor that often turns me off to dark roasts. It has more than enough body at 1:15, and good flavor, but it starts to get a little bit overpowering around halfway through the cup. I suspect 1:16 will tone it down a bit, so I’m going to try that tomorrow.

    6/1: I have brewed several cups with 19g/300g (1:15.8) and grind setting 5, and they have been pretty nicely balanced compared to my first few cups, which tasted a bit over-extracted. The draw-down is super, super fast — it’s mostly finished brewing at 2:40 to 2:45, even with the size 2 cone and a slower pour (5 pulses finishing at 2:10). The fast draw-down time, (relatively) coarse grind, and quick extraction are all very much in line with other Indonesian coffees I have brewed.

    6/4: Finished these up, and the grind settings I noted on 6/1 definitely produced the best cups. Recipe updated.

  • Spring Running Notes

    Spring Running Notes

    I am settling back into my regular running routine after a very travel-intensive April and early May. Last month, I ran a few times aboard our cruise ship, which had a 1/7 mile jogging track. One day, we were sailing into a strong wind, and with each lap, I would alternate between struggling against the wind and then being pushed along almost effortlessly. It was more interesting than my other option (running on a treadmill) but wouldn’t be my first choice when it comes to outdoor running. I think that if I ever became a long-term cruiser, I’d be looking to do my running on solid ground while the ship was in port.

    This past Thursday, I ran 7 miles in a misty drizzle. Conditions were similar to another run I took about a year ago, and I dressed very similarly to that day — in particular, I wore Vibram V-Runs with Tuli heel cups and no socks. It was a reasonably pleasant run, but unlike a year ago, I ended up with a blister on my right big toe. I didn’t even notice the blister until a day later after climbing, when I was walking around barefoot, and something felt a little “off”. So, it hasn’t really been an issue with my everyday activities. Even so, in spite of the relative comfort of running “commando” vs wearing toe socks and having them get waterlogged, I’m going to need to do something differently the next time I run in the rain. I’m just not sure exactly what yet.

    Ordinarily, this time of year is when my mileage starts to drop as the heat and humidity increase, but we have had an abnormally cool week leading up to Memorial Day. Today, it was in the low 50s when I embarked on my Saturday morning run, so I took advantage of it and ran 15 miles, which is a PR for me for distance. I had initially planned to stop at 13.1, and later at 14, but I kept going because I felt pretty good. I think I did a decent job pacing the run, averaging 11:11 per mile. I made sure to hydrate the night before, and I ate 3 pieces of egg bake before the run, and a Protein Plus bar at mile 6 or 7. I stopped once at mile 7 for a pebble in my shoe, and once at mile 11 to refill my water bottle. I covered some new (to me) ground, running out past Timbers at Troy golf course to Lyndwood, and back past Rockburn Park to Belmont. I wouldn’t want to do that on a weekday (or a very hot day), but it was a nice loop that facilitated a 15-mile run without the need to repeat any sections.

  • Paddle Notes

    Paddle Notes

    Today was my second time on the water this year. My goal every season is to get out once a week, but I have yet to achieve it, mainly because I don’t like going out when it’s extremely hot. As a result, most of my paddling tends to be in May-June and September-October. We’ll see how the rest of this year goes.

    Today, I went to Homeport Farm Park in Edgewood and paddled on Church Creek. I typically try to get there once or twice a season. Noteworthy is that instead of my kayak, I used the inflatable stand-up paddleboard that I bought for Cathy in December 2023. It is an AquaGlide Cascade 11′ which I bought on closeout at REI. It was our first time using it anywhere except the pool. 2024 was a bust, because I left the board out in the sun by the pool while it was fully inflated, and it sprung a leak in the seam. I was able to repair it with HH-66 vinyl adhesive (link to helpful video), but didn’t get around to that until late fall, so this year was my first opportunity to take the board out on the water.

    Inflating the SUP with a hand pump can be tiring. As the pressure increases, it gets harder and harder to operate the pump, due to the increased resistance. The optimum pressure for the board is around 14-16 PSI, but by 10 PSI, I’m ready for a break. If we end up using the board frequently, it may make sense to invest in an electric pump. For local trips, I bought a Yakima SUPDawg roof rack mount, and I tried that out for the first time today. It was easy to use, and did a nice job keeping the board secure up on the roof. To avoid bursting seams, I transported the board at around 10 PSI, and finished inflating it when I arrived at the launch. Then, I let some air out of it before driving home. I don’t think I’d want to transport it on the roof for long distances (e.g. to the shore) but the SUPDawg does seem to work really nicely for shorter trips, and it saves time on days when I’m on the clock (which, TBH, is most days). Plus, if we ever buy a non-inflatable board, we have a way to transport it.

    It took a little while to get comfortable on the board. At first, I was really shaky and a little panicky. It also took some time to figure out how to paddle straight. It’s nothing like paddling a kayak. I did fall off once, when I made the rookie mistake of paddling into shallow water. The skeg hit a submerged log, the board stopped suddenly, and I lost my balance. Lesson learned: in shallow water, kneel on the board. I will say that it’s much easier to get back on the board than it is to get back into a kayak. No paddle float or bilge pump needed!

    All in all, I paddled around 2 miles. By the time I was finished, I was able to paddle straight and steer the board where I wanted, and I could smoothly transition between kneeling and standing. I really enjoyed myself, and I’ll probably try to do this more often this year. The board is a crap-ton lighter than my roto-mold kayak, which my back appreciates, especially this time of year.