Niner

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I ran 9 miles this morning, for the first time since June 15. I was surprised that it had been that long, especially given the cool weather we had during the second half of June. Today, the temperature at 8:00am was around 70, and the weather was overcast and muggy. I got 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep last night, and had a smoothie, cup of coffee, and some water before heading out. I ran at a relaxed pace of 11 minutes/mile on average, and my form felt really good throughout. All things considered, it was a great run. I expect that my pace will pick up a bit as we get into cooler weather, and I am looking forward to taking some longer runs this fall.

I used up the last of my “private house blend” coffee beans from German St Coffee and Candlery this morning. I bought these beans back in May. I used a bunch of them for cold brew, and also tried them in the French press, with pretty good results both times. After some initial failures, I eventually found an AeroPress recipe that produced a really nice cup with them, and I’ve been brewing this recipe exclusively for the past week or so, just in an effort to use up my older beans (plus, it was cool to be brewing consistently good cups of coffee with the AeroPress — maybe I’m getting better at this). Next on the list are the two bags of Lost Dog beans that I also bought in Shepherdstown in May.

Running etc

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Pool update: after yesterday morning’s weird SWG behavior, I returned from work in the late afternoon to find everything ostensibly working normally. The temperature readout had corrected itself, and cell volts/amps looked good as well. The Free Chlorine this morning was identical to yesterday’s reading at ~4.5ppm. Not sure what the issue was. This morning, I pulled the cell out and inspected it, which is something I try to do every year around the end of July. There was very little scale, which indicates that the controller’s self-cleaning function is working correctly. The manifold inlet screen was clean, and the check valve looked good. Some of the cell plates (particularly the ones in the center) have worn down a little bit more, which tells me that the cell might finally be nearing the end of its life, but it seems to be good for now. Since I had it out, I went ahead and acid-washed it for good measure. Next spring, I’ll have to decide if I want to retire the cell and put my new one in service. I bought it in 2019, thinking I’d need it a lot sooner.

It was another pleasant morning, and I got up with my 5:30 alarm, so I left at 6:40 and ran for 6.8 miles. It was a great run, and I would have gone farther, but I had to be home at 8:00 to take delivery of a new winter pool cover. Weather permitting, I am going to try to take an 8 or 9-miler on Saturday morning.

Miscellany

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We took the “kids” (age 20 and 17) for an overnight trip out to far western Maryland Monday into Tuesday. We visited Swallow Falls State Park, the Maryland Rock Maze, Sideling Hill Creek State Park, Cumberland Narrows, and Washington Monument State Park. We got some hiking in and found several geocaches. Even though we were away less than 36 hours, it was nice to get out of the house for a while, and brought back memories of trips like this we used to take back when the kids were smaller. Who knows if we’ll ever be able to drag both of them out for something like this again!

I rode my mountain bike to work today, for the first time since June 7. Although I’m no fan of mountain biking in the heat and humidity, the main thing stopping me this summer has been the wet and stormy weather we’ve had since the second half of June. My schedule is most conducive to mountain biking on Wednesdays, and most weeks, the trails have been too muddy. Currently, we are in the midst of a several-day dry spell, so conditions were pretty good. I stuck to familiar trails, and they were in mostly good shape, but there were lots of muddy patches in areas that aren’t usually muddy. I passed around 8 hikers on the Howard County side between Belmont and Rockburn Branch, which is 8 more than I usually see in that area weekday mornings. I guess the beautiful early August weather brought everyone out of the woodwork. Temperatures were in the upper 60s, with low humidity.

On the swimming pool front, something seems to be wonky with our SWG today. This morning, I went out and noticed that the temperature sensor was reading 5-8 degrees higher than the actual water temperature. I calibrated it to match, but I’ve never had to do that before. I ran a test, which showed normal cell amps, but then after I exited the menu, the display started flashing a low amps warning. Not sure if the two issues are related. The temperature thing is usually related to the tri-sensor, but the low amps thing usually points to the cell, so I’m not sure what to make of this. I power-cycled the controller and also backwashed the filter, but neither helped with the temperature anomaly. The low amps display went away after a minute or so, but the Chlorine has been running a little lower than expected this week, so I wonder if this has been happening for a few days. This evening, I’ll pull the cell out and inspect it, and I’ll also look at the check valve and see if there’s anything impeding flow through the tri-sensor. The cell is 14 years old, and has outlasted the original controller and tri-sensor, so it could be that it’s finally time for a new cell. However, it doesn’t seem like a bad cell would cause the issue with the temperature reading. I’m sure I’ll get to the bottom of it, and I’m sure it’ll end up costing me more money. That’s just life with a pool.

Weekend Ride

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I rode through parts of Columbia, Savage, Laurel, and Jessup this morning, for a round trip of almost 40 miles. I usually plot my routes on gmap-pedometer.com ahead of time to get a rough estimate of distance, but I did not do that for this ride. I had guesstimated it at roughly 30-35 miles, which I guess was too low. Nice to get out for a longer ride, though. It was a fairly flat route, so I took my single speed bike. I was out for right around 3 hours, and found 4 geocaches along the way. The weather was nice: it started out in the upper 60s with a dewpoint in the low 60s, which felt great compared to the past 3 days. A line of strong storms passed through the area yesterday evening just ahead of the cold front. Most of the action must have been to our south, as there was a lot of storm debris in the roads, particularly around Savage.

Based on the weather forecast, it looks like I might be able to ride my mountain bike to work on Wednesday, for the first time in forever. Looking forward to that if it happens.

Smoothie Recipe #2

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I decided to try a different smoothie recipe yesterday:

  • Around 10 ounces almond milk (a little more than the recipe calls for, but I wanted to use up the carton)
  • 2 red apples of some sort (probably Fuji or Gala), cored and quartered
  • A bunch of spinach (recipe calls for 3 cups, but I didn’t measure)
  • 1 avocado, peeled and pitted
  • Some honey (recipe calls for 2 tsp; again, I didn’t measure)
  • 1-inch knob of ginger, peeled and chopped
  • Juice of one lemon
  • Several ice cubes

This recipe makes 2 smoothies, and I had to use the full-size Ninja blender to fit all of the ingredients. Prep time was longer than my usual go-to recipe, because the apples needed to be cored, avocado peeled/pitted, ginger peeled/chopped, and lemon squeezed.

I did not like this at all initially. It was way too lemony, and lacked any hint of sweetness. However, I liked it a lot better when I drank the second half the next day, I think partially because I wasn’t expecting it to taste sweet, and the lemony sourness had mellowed out somewhat. If I make this again, I’ll cut back on the lemon, and maybe add some cayenne pepper to give it a little kick. The recipe does lack a good source of protein, so I may try substituting Greek yogurt for some of the Almond milk, and/or adding protein powder.

I found another recipe that is very similar to this one, but adds a banana and omits the lemon juice. It might be worth trying that as well.

Hot Day Hybrid

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Day 3 of the heat wave: after skipping Thursday’s run in favor of the pool, I wanted to run today, even if it was only a short one. I hit the road at 8:15am, when it was still below 80°, and although it was plenty humid, it did feel slightly less oppressive out than it did yesterday or Thursday. It might just be that I’m getting acclimated to it. Whatever the case, I ran 4 miles at 10:00/mile, and felt pretty good. When I was finished, I put on my swim gear and ran for 30 more minutes in the pool. It was the first time I have done regular running and pool running in the same session, and I think it worked out well. Four miles is long enough that I felt like I got a decent run in, but short enough that I didn’t overheat and lose a ton of fluids, and the pool was a great way to cool off afterwards. Ideally, I’d like to get out about an hour earlier, but I didn’t wake up until close to 7 today. I must have needed the sleep.

My experiences with running in the heat and humidity this summer have convinced me that I’d like to pick up a running-specific hydration vest, but there is a mind-numbing variety of them to choose from, so I’m going to have to do a little bit of research. I’ll probably hold off on buying anything until REI has their next sale and 20% off coupon (maybe around Labor Day).

Here’s something that has never happened to me in 22 years of pool ownership: I walked outside earlier and saw that the Polaris tail sweep hose had come disconnected from the main unit. I retrieved both of them, and nothing looked broken. I was able to easily push the tail back onto the ferrule, but it was kind of obvious that whatever secured it there was missing. I found a parts diagram and saw that there’s a plastic clamp that’s supposed to go there, but it was nowhere to be found. I’m guessing it just broke. A new one costs about $3.50, but I jury-rigged it with a zip tie for now, which seems to be working. I don’t expect it to last too long, but who knows.. maybe it will surprise me.

Update (9/13/23): The zip tie fix lasted until today, or just over 6 weeks. I just put a new one on, and will add the $3.50 clamp to my list of items to buy for next season (it might be cheaper over time to just keep sacrificing zip ties, but it would be much more annoying 😀).

Climb/Brew

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Today is day two of our predicted 3-day heat wave. In lieu of pool running, I headed to Movement for my usual Friday morning climbing. I climbed 7 routes, all on TR, with grades ranging from 5.10b to 5.11a. It was a reasonably good climbing session with some challenging routes, particularly the 5.11a, which was very crimpy at the top. I’ll probably swim in the late afternoon again.

I had a $20 bonus card from REI that was only good for a week, so I ordered another pair of REI Swiftland running short tights. I bought my first pair back in May. I like the fit as well as the pockets, and they also seem to be pretty resistant to odors, at least in typical late-spring and early-summer running conditions. I’m thinking about also trying them for climbing, as I’ve had some chafing issues recently with looser athletic shorts.

I’ve gotten fairly predictable with my morning brews lately, as I’m working on using up some of the beans I’ve had for a couple of months. I brewed this recipe again this morning, with the only change being that I ground the beans ever so slightly finer (2.5 turns – 3 clicks). To be totally honest, I didn’t notice much difference. It was a good cup — not the best I’ve ever had — but I do like that this recipe seems to produce fairly predictable results. Yesterday’s (exact same beans and recipe) was maybe a tiny bit more acidic than I have been used to, but not overly so. Next week I’m hoping to try pour-over for the first time, as I have a Hario V60 dripper on order. The first one arrived broken, so I’m just waiting on the replacement.

Pool Running

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With our first real heat wave of the summer upon us (fortunately only forecast to last 3 days), I took my first pool run of the season this morning. I was considering trying to get out early for a “regular” run, but quickly decided against it when I stepped outside. I find pool running to be excruciatingly boring, so I usually only do it on extremely hot days when I don’t feel like doing anything else outdoors. Last summer, I only recall running in the pool once or twice.

In contrast to swimming, which I typically do in the late afternoon, I like to get my pool running in by 9:00am, when the water is coolest, and before the sun starts hitting the water surface. I don’t go underwater, so instead of goggles and earplugs, I wear a flotation belt, hat, SweatHawg headband, and (occasionally) sunglasses. I also usually put my airpods in to have something to listen to, which helps with the boredom.

Today, I hit the water at right around 8:00, and ran for 30 minutes. The pool water was a comfortable 83°F, but I still worked up a good sweat. It was my first time running in the pool with my Apple Watch (which I bought late last summer) so I was able to get a sense of how much I was exerting. It was about what I expected: my heart rate mainly ranged between 100 and 110 beats per minute, which is faster than I average during a brisk walk or a swim, but slower than a conventional run. The biomechanics of pool running are similar to regular running in many ways, but different in others. The water adds a lot of resistance to leg movement, which works different muscle groups; and there’s no impact to the lower body, which is why it’s a popular activity for people recovering from injuries. It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to do it once a week or so during the summer as a cross-training activity, but I’d need to invest in a better flotation belt, as the one I have is not the most comfortable.

Anyhow, based on the weather forecast, I suspect I may be doing this again on Saturday.

Run/Brew Notes

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I got out this morning and ran into Patapsco Valley State Park via River Rd., out to the swinging bridge, and back via the Grist Mill Trail. Although I bike through PVSP all the time, I had not run there in probably 15 years. It’s a route I had been wanting to try for a while, but it is 8.5 miles round trip, requires cutting through a school, and starts and ends along a road which is both hilly (downhill outbound and uphill inbound) and not pedestrian-friendly. On the plus side, 95% of the route is shaded, and over half of it is in the park. It’s not a bad route for summer, when school is out and there’s less traffic on the roads. Today, I cut it short at 8 miles, and walked the remaining 0.5 mile home. The uphill finish was not all that fun, but other than that, it was a pretty nice run. Once school starts, there’s always the option of taking the car, parking along Levering Ave., and just running the park portion, but that would only be 4 to 5 miles (unless I do it twice, which is an option).

I brewed the same coffee beans and recipe this morning as I did four days ago, and as I was hoping, the cup tasted about the same. I’m looking for a recipe that gives me consistent results with a wide variety of beans, and this bodes well. I am wondering if I can scale the recipe for a slightly larger cup (say, 200 to 210 grams) without having to resort to using a bypass. A 210-gram cup would call for roughly 15 grams of coffee for a 1:14 ratio, and 35 grams of water for the bloom. I guess I can try it and see if there’s enough room for all of that in the inverted AeroPress.

Brew Notes

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  • Beans: Local Coffee Roasting Co. Breakfast Blend (light roast)
  • Grind: Medium-coarse – 2.5 turns on the JX
  • 100°C water (full boil)
  • 13 grams coffee / 180 grams water (about 1:14)
  • One new paper filter (dry)
  • Recipe: 13g that makes you happy (inverted: add 30g water, stir 5x, top up to 180g at 0:35, stir 10x, flip at 1:35 and press very slowly, finishing at 2:35)

Another in my continuing efforts to see if I can use this recipe as my “daily driver”. Two modifications for these beans: boiling water (vs 90°C), and 5 seconds longer initial “bloom”. This produced a pleasant, nicely-balanced cup which I would definitely brew again. It was slightly cleaner and milder than the cup I brewed with the French press a few days ago, with more flavor than my earlier attempts with the AeroPress. While it’s just fine as-is, I might try a finer grind some time just to see how, if at all, it affects the flavor.