Bent Hair!

Did the Cy-Yo class at the gym this morning. This is the normal Saturday morning gig for me. Kathy L. was teaching and we did her "interval" bit. Nothing close to true intervals, but I can deal with it. Didn't go too hard and the HRM data backs that up (118bpm average for the 90 minutes). The yoga segment helped stretch me out a little bit. Then it was off to the Cafe for some coffee with my wife. *smiles*

Got home, relaxed a bit, and then it was off to the Shala for the V3 class. This didn't seem as hard as past ones, perhaps I'm just getting numb. This was the 24th day in a row for my practice. There were a few things that came back from the V2 class on Wednesday and the V1 class, aka private lesson, on Thursday. But, I was still working and sweating. I'm going to have to start working on Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand) given that we are practicing it in every V3 class and I'm getting tired of skipping that. I'm going to give it a whirl against the wall before I give it a go in V3 class with a spot in the middle of the room.

I'd thought about stopping for a coffee on the way home, but elected not to. Had some lunch and when I went back to hang my stuff up from class, there was a box sitting in the desk chair. From Stumptown! The Hairbender had arrived! So... I decided to fire up the Silva and grind up a double. It's way good stuff. Now I just have to keep myself from having two or three more. I'd really like to sleep tonight.

More Coffee!

Well... With no end in sight to this weather phenomena called "winter", I'm coming close to running out of home roasted coffee. Normally, I roast on the deck since coffee roasting produces a fair amount of smoke. The roaster that I am currently using, a first generation iRoast, (link & picture is for the iRoast2) doesn't care for ambient air temperatures under about 65F. This "winter" thing sort of puts the home roasting on hiatus. So... I've ordered some coffee up from Stumptown in Portland, OR. I have two bags of Hairbender coming my way. They roast tomorrow and then ship via USPS Priority mail. This is one espresso that is reputed to be "tricky". We'll see... I've had it before when I was at the Division Street store in Portland. If you are in Portland, it's worth a stop.

I'm also almost out of green coffee. To solve that problem, I've also ordered up some more green coffee from the best source of green coffee on the planet, Sweet Maria's. The UPS man will not be happy when he gets to heft a 31 pound box of green coffee on to the front porch. I have the following heading my way:

• 20 lbs of Espresso Monkey (my current favorite)
• 10 lbs of Espresso Workshop #1 - The Ophiolite Blend
• 1 lb of Espresso Workshop #2 - Auriferous Espresso

The Ophiolite blend has been getting very good reviews on the Home Roast list that I read. All of this should keep my stash from going to zero. That would be bad. The Auriferous is very new and I haven't read much about it, but I figured it would be good to have some to try.

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Did the V2 class at the Shala after I got home from work.

Note to self: Legs tired after bike ride home featuring "bonus" miles. Makes yoga class harder.

If this was step down from the V3 class, this edition was a baby step down. I'm thinking that my arms and sholders will be going "Ouch!" in the morning. We'll see. One thing is certain, when my head hits the pillow tonight it's going to be "Bam! I'm sleeping!".

Why'd It Have To Rain?

Well... I managed to get in 14 miles this morning to the bagel shop and back. Got home in time to change clothes and hit the Primary Series class at the Shala. It's always a treat. I had my Santa hat on for the first three Surya Namaskara A's and could not deal with it any longer. Kelly and Brian were laughing when I yanked it off and tossed it, with feeling, into the corner. I did get it back on for all five rounds of boat. Alas... I don't believe anyone other than Evan saw it.

There was one humorous moment in class,isn't there always? Kelly had this little water sprayer bottle to make her arms a bit more slippery so she could get them through her legs for Garbha Pindasana. She just kind of slide the bottle toward the front of the room. It made a bit of noise. Evan picked it up and casually spritzed the plants. A number of folks were laughing at that. We had a couple of guest yogis with us today. They were from Iowa City. It seems that they teach at and own JRMiller's Freestyle Acadamy. It's always nice when new folks show up.

Got home, made some lunch and then got the coffee roaster out. It was about 50F and I didn't think I'd be getting another opportunity like this in awhile. So... I roasted up two batches of Liquid Amber and one of Classic Italian. It started raining with about a minute left to go with CI. I was standing under the umbrella while it finished.

I just couldn't bring myself to get kitted up and ride in the rain to get the last 8 miles in. So... it's looking like I'll be doing that tomorrow. That is, assuming that the forecast of freezing rain, snow, single digit temperature, and general icky winterness doesn't stop me in the morning. I'm not sure why I can get myself out in that when today would have been rain and 50F.

I'm going to shoot for the Santa hat in Mark's Tuesday night class.

Note - Now it's doing the freezing rain, sleet, and thunder and lighting thing. Grrr!

Today's Ride & Practice

Well... I did wimp out a little and not go for the normal post practice ride. The energy level just wasn't there. That said, I did get out for a pre-practice ride. I headed over to the bagel shop for a bagel and a coffee, where I met the family. It was interesting when I got there. There was this table of guys in the corner that were looking at me. Turns out, they all ride and were in a bit of disbelief that someone was out riding (It was about 10F). I had a brief discussion with them about the tires and the generator setup that I'm running. It turns out that one of them is someone that I see on the bike path during the warmer months (the guy in the orange gloves). I got a refill for my coffee and rode home with it in my water bottle cage. When I got home, I had a delightful coffee slushy.

The practice today was interesting. I tweaked my left knee Friday or Saturday, it's not been being "happy". As a result, I was going pretty slow in the transitions to the vinyasa's. I managed two breathes in Setu Bandhasana then had to flop the hands down to keep me up. That was a first to do it correctly. I normally have my inner thighs lighting up into near cramp when my hands are where they should be. I'm think it's because the mileage on the bike has been in a reduced mode given the weather. I did have one good laugh in the class, in the fourth round of Navasna, Kelly goes, "Jeff is smiling" and I was. Kathy told me to stop and I just had to laugh at that.

Now for the interesting part of the practice. Given that I was going kind of half speed because of the knee, I found that I was being much more "mindful" of what I was doing. As a result, my breathing was nice and slow and I didn't really feel completely spent at the end. Which was good since we had a little student conference afterward. We had a good time talking yoga with Evan and Kelly. There were a few interesting insights to things in Mysore.

Mileage Update - With today's minuscule 12 miles and yesterday's daylight limited 14 miles, I'm now sitting at 147 to go. I need 5 good days and I'll be there. It's looking like I might get two good ones at the end of the week.

Semi Monthly Post?

It seems that I'm slipping into that mode. All is going well. Still putting the miles in, although not at the same rate as last month. Let see...

1. All of the tri folks that I was training with did well at IronMan Cheeseland. Jen kicked butt and qualified for Kona next year. I think that is a good thing... I'm suspect that I'm going to be getting hammered more than this year.
2. The weekly Ashtanga practice continues. I believe that this is the third week for the Sunday class and myself now. I still am muddling through. I had the sweat going big time today. It was also the debut of the cloth rug for the seated poses. It worked really well, much better than the bath towel that I'd been using. Although, I think a wet-vac might have been in order at the end.
3. Did the Heartland Century yesterday with Laurel, the person that does body work on me. That was fun. It was raining big time the whole way. She was time constrained so we did the half. I believe we were two of the maybe twenty people that rode. I suspect that I was the only nutter that actually signed up day of the ride. I rode the 1x1 with the fenders and lights. Did ok for a single speed (40x17), something like 3:30.
4. I came close to having a zero day today. It was nasty cold and rainy this morning. Fortunately, it stopped raining and I was able to slip out for an hour and a half. I'm going to have to manage 33/day to hit 1000 for the month. It's do-able, but I have to keep this fun and not obsess on the numbers.
5. Cleaned the espresso machine and the grinder today. It was past time. The shots were starting to be a bit off. I'm also going to need a dry day to roast. I'm getting down there to the point the coffee won't have as much rest as I like. Stupid rain...
   

Information Overload

Wow... My head is spinning. Yesterday the UPS guy dropped off 15 pounds of green coffee (French Roast Blend, Espresso Monkey, and my current favorite, Classic Italian Espresso Blend. Sweet Maria's also roasts once a week and they happened to be having the Classic Italian as their espresso offering, so I had a pound of that too. That gives me an example of exactly how they think this coffee should be roasted. It looks like I've been getting it pretty close to right.

The information overload in the title of this post is coming from a book that I had them include in the box. The book is The Professional Barista's Handbook by Scott Rao. I'm barely through the first chapter and I am very impressed. This seems to be the most concise source of espresso information that I've come across. I've found bits and pieces of the information in this book here and there on "The InterTubes", but nothing that pulls it all together.

Another Sunday With The Tri Folks

Well... I managed to have a much better ride this Sunday than last. We rolled from the Iowa side today from the house of some folks I never met before. I did get to drive through the round-about to get there and back, plus twice on the bike. It was Ms. Jen, Ms. Nancy, Ms. Ally, Ms. Laura, and Mr. Eric. I knew it was going to be a hard day when I could barely hang onto Jen's and Ally's wheels in the first 10 miles (Jen is a sponsored racer and I believe Ms. Ally rode junior nats). It started to get a bit better for me, but I was a hurting unit all day. I haven't been riding that hard all year. Eric bonked serious hard about 35 miles in and that basically split the ride in two. Jen and Ally, and then the rest of us. I did a bunch of work and was feeling better from the 45 mile mark to about 78. The little climb up from under I-80 put the hurts to me, but I suppose I could have ridden it smarter (read easier). We got back to Laura and Eric's with 82 miles in 4:40. That was a pretty respectable 17.5 mph. Jen was hanging out working on her tan.

Got home... and then did the shower, food, and rest bit, sort of. I needed to roast coffee and this was the first good day to do that. I was roasting some Espresso Monkey blend. I get that from Sweet Maria's. It is the best green coffee you can get. Period. I've been using the Espresso Monkey for the last three weeks. I think I might have gotten it close to how Tom roasts it, but I think it was a bit to the dark side. I did three batches, stopping it at different times. Now to let it rest a few days and see.

Now to stretch a bit and think about a nap.

More Snow... But At Least There Is Coffee

We are getting the freezing rain thing again with a lovely topping of around 4 inches of snow over night. At least I can over caffeinate myself without wandering out into the mess.

It's looking like no bike Monday into the office. I was thinking that I could break the now seven days in a row of driving. I have a semi-ok excuse since I need to take the daughter to the airport at o'dark thirty so she can fly to Florida. Maybe sometime this next week, I'll be able to ride.

Another Giant Leaves Us

Ernesto Illy has pulled his final shot. I was using Illy's pre-ground espresso when I first got the espresso machine. Illycafe has been described as the Bell Labs of coffee. I feel the need for a double ristretto.