Author: lpaulriddle

Saturday Run

lpaulriddle

I set another distance PR this morning, running 10.77 miles at a pace of 10:34/mile. This is the same distance as a lap around the BWI Trail, so I’m hoping to head over there soon to cross that off my bucket list. First, though, I want to get one more run of at least 10.5 miles under my belt. This was a really good run overall — I started and finished strong, and it seemed like I maintained pretty good form throughout. My watch reported my average cadence at 185 steps/minute. The temperature started out in the low 40s, and ended up in the low 50s. I drank about 16oz of water over the entire run, and ate a fruit and nut granola bar at mile 6. Troy Park, which I run through frequently, and is usually busy with youth sports on weekends, was empty this morning. I am guessing that the fall soccer season must have ended. I wonder if any other sports will come in to pick up the slack in November and December.

I guess I need to come up with a new running goal. 13.1 miles is starting to look like it might eventually be doable. Practically speaking, that’s about as far as I can see myself running on a regular (e.g. weekly) basis.

Zeke’s Harvest Moon Pourover

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: “Harvest Moon” (Indonesia/South Asia)
    • Medium roast (5/8)
    • Roaster: Zeke’s Coffee (Baltimore, MD)
    • Roast date: 10/30/2023
  • 18g coffee / 250g water (1:13.8)
  • JX: 2 rotations (20 on the grind chart / 60 total clicks)
  • Water at 95°C
  • Recipe: A Better 1 Cup V60 Technique (see below)
  1. Preheat V60, pre-moisten filter, add coffee, and tare scale
  2. Make small indentation in center of coffee grounds
  3. 0:00: Pour 50g of water to bloom, then return kettle to base
  4. 0:10 – 0:15: Gently Swirl
  5. 0:45 – 1:00: Pour up to 100g total (40% total weight)
    • Hold kettle for the remainder of the brewing process
  6. 1:10 – 1:20: Pour up to 150g total (60% total weight)
  7. 1:30 – 1:40: Pour up to 200g total (80% total weight)
  8. 1:50 – 2:00: Pour up to 250g total (100% total weight)
  9. 2:00 – 2:05: Gently swirl
  10. Drawdown finished around 2:55

I bought this bag yesterday at the grocery store, after using up the last of my bag of Zeke’s Market Blend. While both are labeled as medium roasts, visually, these beans are not as dark as the Market Blend beans. I decided to start off with the recipe I’ve been using for light roasts, with slightly cooler water. This is the exact same recipe I used initially with the Market Blend, which was good for the first cup or two, but required tweaking thereafter. We’ll see how it goes with Harvest Moon, but this afternoon’s cup tasted perfectly fine. I think this might be the first time I have brewed with beans from Asia, and they definitely have a uniquely different flavor compared to Central/South America and Africa.

11/6: Yesterday’s cup had a very, very small tinge of bitterness, which is one of those things where it really didn’t detract from the flavor, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to see if I could eliminate it. Tried today with a slightly coarser grind (63 clicks) and while it did eliminate the slight bitter taste, it made the cup a little bit weaker. I’m going to go back to the original grind setting. If the bitterness becomes problematic, I can either try the coarser grind with a little bit more coffee (say 1:13) or bump the water temperature down 5 degrees or so.

11/7: Brewed 500g this morning using the 2-cup recipe with 36g of coffee at grind setting 20 and 65-70g initial bloom water. Turned out pretty good. Once again, I think that brewing with the larger volume of water leads to slightly better-extracted coffee. (11/9) Second batch brewed like this was good as well, but seemed on the strong side.

11/10: Brewed using my starting recipe (pre-11/6) with one modification: I used 99°C water to bloom and 90°C water to brew. Yes, I’m sick (again) and my senses of taste/smell are accordingly blunted, and yes, I also burned my tongue, but from what I could tell in spite of all that, this turned out pretty good. It had no discernible bitterness, and seemed pretty smooth and balanced. I’ll try another cup like this soon.

UMBC 10K

lpaulriddle

I ran at UMBC this afternoon, which I had not done in a while. I rode to work this morning, and I don’t keep running clothes at the office, so I had to plan ahead and bring everything I needed with me on the bike. I wanted to run 10K without running multiple laps around the campus loop, so I planned a route that took me through parts of Arbutus. It was a nice route, although the last couple of miles were uphill. Given that my office is near the highest point of campus, I don’t see a way around that. In spite of it, I ran well, and finished strong. If I can sort out the clothing logistics, I could see myself doing this every now and then during the cooler months, as it would give me some additional flexibility in planning my activities for the week. I don’t see it as a regular option during the summer, as the afternoons are usually too hot for running, at least for me.

November Rain

lpaulriddle

With colder weather and shorter daylight hours looming, I’m starting to fall into my wintertime routine of only going in to the office once a week. I rode my mountain bike the past two times, and as a result, today was my first commute on roads in over two weeks. It almost certainly was also my last bike commute before we set the clocks back this weekend. That, of course, means much earlier sunsets, which was a big deal back in the day, when I commuted multiple days per week and left the office later. Nowadays, I try to roll by 4:00pm in November and December, which gets me home before dark. I only ride in the dark on rare occasions when I’m delayed leaving the office, or in the mornings in early November and early March (the beginning and end of daylight time).

November is probably my favorite month of the year, but as with any other time of year in Maryland, the weather can be fickle, and this morning was exhibit A. The forecast was for a brisk, chilly day, and they got that part right. When I left the house, it was about 40ºF with a gusty breeze. Then, as I was riding through Patapsco Valley State Park, it started drizzling. I thought it might be just a few stray sprinkles, but it kept drizzling off-and-on for my entire ride. Fortunately, the rain was light enough that it didn’t soak into my clothes. Had I known it was going to rain, though, I likely would have traded my trusty REI cycling windbreaker for a rain jacket and hood. All’s well that ends well, but it does go to show that you always have to be prepared for inclement weather (and darkness) this time of year, in spite of what the weather forecast says (or doesn’t say, in this case).

Two-cup pourover

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: “Organic Breakfast Coffee” light roast (Ethiopia)
    • Roaster: Rise Up Coffee Roasters (Easton, MD)
    • Roast date: 10/12/2023
  • 32g coffee / 500g water (1:15.6)
  • JX: 2 rotations (20 on the grind chart / 60 total clicks)
  • Water at 99°C
  • Recipe: The Ultimate V60 Technique (steps below)

I picked up a size 2 plastic V60 dripper last week, and tried it out this morning. Until today, I had only used my (ceramic) size 1 dripper to brew a single cup at a time. I don’t have a fancy insulated carafe, so I brewed into a 16oz Hydro-Flask tumbler with a closable press-in lid. This worked well — the lid can be closed to keep the coffee hot, and when open, the coffee pours easily and without dripping. Also, the plastic V60 doesn’t need a lot of preheating, so there was no need for the Fernco hack that I use to preheat my ceramic V60. I just put the filter into the dripper and ran some water from the insta-hot tap through both.

My hand grinder only has capacity for about 20g of beans, so I had to grind twice. I did this by putting the grinder on the scale, zeroing the scale, grinding 20 grams, zeroing again, and grinding 12 more grams. I poured the beans directly into the grinder, but I think going forward, it will work better to pre-weigh the 30g all at once into a separate container. If I end up brewing this amount regularly, it might make sense to invest in a higher-capacity (electric?) grinder.

Here are the steps I used:

  1. Heat water; grind coffee; pre-rinse filter and pre-heat dripper
  2. Add coffee grounds to V60 and create a well or indentation in the middle
  3. Start timer and add 60g water (the recipe specifies to add 2x the coffee weight, but this seemed close enough)
  4. Swirl until evenly mixed and bloom for 45 seconds
  5. At 0:45, add water up to 300g total (60% total weight), finishing at 1:15
  6. At 1:15, pour the remaining 200g slightly more slowly, finishing at 1:45
  7. Stir 1x clockwise and 1x anticlockwise with a spoon (to knock grounds off the sides)
  8. Allow V60 to drain a little bit
  9. Swirl gently
  10. Wait for drawdown, which should hopefully finish by 3:30

The first thing I noticed was that, compared with my one-cup method, this method mantained a much higher water level in the V60 throughout the brew. With these beans at this grind setting, the drawdown finished at around 3:10. I then put the cap on the Hydro-Flask, preheated my ceramic mug, and poured myself a cup. If I were to compare, I think it turned out a little bit better than with the 1-cup method. It was definitely on the strong side, which makes me wonder if the extra water in the V60 is leading to better extraction of the beans. I think I’ll cut it back to 30 grams of beans next time. I’m also curious whether my experiences with this method will eventually lead to any modifications to my 1-cup method. I’ll see how things go after I’ve done this a few more times.

Crab Creek Paddle

lpaulriddle

This morning, I headed back to Homeport Farm Park (near Edgewater) to paddle, for the second time this year. The launch is along Church Creek, a small tributary of the South River. It also provides easy access to Crab Creek, another tributary just to the east. Being 30-35 minutes’ drive from home, this ordinarily wouldn’t be a frequent paddling location for me. However, back in 2020, I adopted a couple of geocaches along Church Creek, and have since placed several more here as well, so I typically come here once or twice a year to check on them. Today was another very mild day, with highs in the 70s. However, based on the forecast, this may be the last time this season that I paddle without a wet suit. I hit the water at 8:30am, and hardly anyone else was out. No other cars were parked at HFP when I arrived, or when I left 2 hours later. I saw one boat speed by on the South River, way off in the distance. There were a few sailboats still anchored from overnight. All in all, a pretty quiet morning on the water. It definitely pays to get out early, especially on weekends.

When I come here, I often start by heading upstream on Church Creek, but today, with a receding tide, I opted to head out to the river and paddle up Crab Creek instead. While I had paddled out to the mouth of Crab Creek before, I had never gone all the way upstream. The round trip was about 5 miles. It’s typical Anne Arundel County coastline, with lots of development, and a few natural areas mixed in, particularly around the shallow headwaters. The fall foliage is nearing its peak, and there were a lot of leaves floating in the water. It’s a great time of year to paddle. I hope to get out one or two more times this year, but we’ll see if the weather and my schedule will cooperate.

Saturday’s Run, etc.

lpaulriddle

I got back into the swing of things today with my first 10-mile run in just over 3 weeks. Actual total distance was 10.26 miles, which beats my prior distance record by a whopping 0.04 mile. I still hope to achieve my short-term goal of running the entire BWI trail loop (10.7 miles) by the end of the year. I could probably do it now, but would like to hit 10.5 miles once or twice before I commit to going over there and trying it. Barring illness and/or injury, I’m thinking second half of November might be a reasonable target.

On the coffee front, I disassembled and cleaned my hand grinder for the first time today. I bought it at the beginning of May, so I’ve had it around 6 months. I brush it off after each use, but it’s recommended to take it apart for a more thorough cleaning every few months. It’s fairly straightforward to disassemble and reassemble, and does not require any tools. The entire process took me about 20 minutes, and going forward, I suspect it’ll take 10 minutes or less, now that I know what I’m doing. I used the grinder about once a day when it was new, and twice a day more recently. The insides had a little bit of coffee residue on them, but it really was not all that dirty. I’m thinking I shouldn’t need to do this more often than every 4-6 months.

Today’s Run

lpaulriddle

I took a “long and slow” run today, covering 8.7 miles over an hour and 34 minutes. It was my first 8-miler in about 3 weeks. It’s nice to be completely over the cold that hobbled me for the better part of October, but my right hamstring is still stiff, and I’ve kind of resigned myself that it’s going to take a long time before it gets back to 100%. One thing I have learned is that it seems to help my hamstrings if I flex/engage my glutes while running, particularly uphill. Also, stepping up (e.g. onto a curb or sidewalk) is more comfortable if I use the glutes to kind of assist the hamstrings, so the latter aren’t doing everything. All of this seems to tell me that I need to be using more of my core muscles when running, to help prevent these overextension injuries. Granted, this specific hamstring injury resulted from tripping, and a strong core probably wouldn’t have prevented injury, although it’s possible that it might have helped prevent me from tripping in the first place. Of course, it also would have helped if I had been watching where I was going, instead of staring at my watch. Several lessons to be learned here for sure!!

Biking Report

lpaulriddle

I had originally planned to go kayaking this morning, but it was a little too cold for me to feel like venturing out, even with a wet suit. The forecast is showing a warming trend for the second half of the week into the weekend, so I may try to make something happen later in the week, although my schedule is a little tight. We’ll see. In lieu of kayaking, I decided to take a mid-morning bike ride around the airport loop. A geocache puzzle I solved this morning provided extra motivation, as the final cache location wasn’t far off the BWI Trail. This ride is a 23-24 mile round trip from home, which is about the same length as my round-trip commute to and from work. It was my first road ride in 8 days, and my first time riding my single speed bike in at least a couple of months. I used to commute with this bike regularly, but it does not have an easy way to mount a rack and panniers. Back in the day, I used a rack that clamped to my seat post, which I think I still have, but I was never a big fan of it. I suppose I’ll have to break down and use a backpack if I want to re-introduce this bike to my commuting rotation. But, I’m going off on a tangent.

The timing for today’s ride worked out well. I left after all of the area schools had started, and returned home before they let out. Traffic was manageable. Going forward, I’d like to try to work these kinds of rides into my schedule more often on weekdays, especially during times of the year when I’m only going to the office once a week. In particular, I think it’ll allow me to get out on my mountain bike more often during the winter months. On days when trail conditions are bad, I can do something similar to what I did today, either looping the airport, or maybe riding out to Columbia and logging a few miles on the CA paths.

Rise Up Migration Pourover

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: “Organic Migration” light roast (Nicaragua)
    • Roaster: Rise Up Coffee Roasters (Easton, MD)
    • Roast date: 10/5/2023
  • 20g coffee / 300g water (1:15)
  • JX: 2 rotations (20 on the grind chart / 60 total clicks)
  • Water at 99°C
  • Recipe: A Better 1 Cup V60 Technique (see below)
  1. Preheat V60, pre-moisten filter, add coffee, and tare scale
  2. Make small indentation in center of coffee grounds
  3. 0:00: Pour 60g of water to bloom, then return kettle to base
  4. 0:10 – 0:15: Gently Swirl
  5. 0:45 – 1:00: Pour up to 120g total (40% total weight)
    • Hold kettle for the remainder of the brewing process
  6. 1:10 – 1:20: Pour up to 180g total (60% total weight)
  7. 1:30 – 1:40: Pour up to 240g total (80% total weight)
  8. 1:50 – 2:00: Pour up to 300g total (100% total weight)
  9. 2:00 – 2:05: Gently swirl
  10. Drawdown finished around 2:45

This was the other bag I picked up in Ocean City, along with yesterday’s. The same recipe as yesterday’s produced a pleasant cup. These are rather large beans, and I ended up with about the same amount of “fines” in the grinder as I did yesterday. I brewed another 300g cup, mainly for comparison with yesterday’s. I think 300g is about the most coffee I can brew with either of these beans at 1:15 without overflowing my size 1 V60. Regardless, I’ll likely drop back to 250g going forward, as 300g is a little bit more than I want to drink most mornings.

11/12: The past few cups I’ve brewed have had kind of an off flavor to them. Can’t really pin it down as bitter or acidic, but whatever it was, I didn’t like it. These are large beans that leave a prodigious amount of “fines” stuck to the grinder, and for some reason, I had gotten into the habit of shaking/tapping the grinder to try to get as many of the fines as possible into the dripper. I suspect it was in the interest of not “wasting” anything, but I’m not sure why it didn’t immediately occur to me that this was going to negatively impact the flavor. Today, I brewed the above recipe with 250g of water (50g pulses) and 16g coffee (1:15.6) and did not shake the grinder at all, and the cup was much better. I think I will keep doing this going forward.

11/18: I brewed my remaining 27g of beans today with 400g of water. I used my 1-cup pourover method with size 2 plastic V60 and pulses of 80g water. Turned out quite good. After grinding, I’ve been gently shaking the grinder once or twice to make sure all the beans made it through, and then lightly tapping the bottom of the grinder 3 or 4 times without going overboard. This seems to get most of the properly-ground beans “unstuck” while leaving most of the “fines” behind. I’ve also been “swirling” pretty regularly lately, both pre-bloom and after finishing the pour.