nuxx.net – Page 30 – Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

2013 Lumberjack 100: Complete

Published June 17, 2013

Bright and early on Saturday morning I set out for my second attempt at Lumberjack 100, a race which I tried last year and failed to complete. Just after 6pm, a little over 11 hours after starting, I rolled across the finish line having met my two goals for the race: completing it and enjoying the ride. After crossing the finish line I picked up my finishing patch from the pile sitting on a chair (the person handing them out was off taking a break), put my bike in the tent with my stuff, and went and purchased one of the nifty plaid Lumberjack 100 jerseys that I told myself I’d get if I managed to complete the whole event.

I finished with an official time of 11:03:10.42, but due to some Garmin Edge 500 issues I had a difficult time getting accurate moving time data. From what I can tell my moving time was about 10:15:06, which sounds right as I stopped a bit. This was mostly to use nature’s toilet, but there were a few other times to fix mechanical issues, help a couple of folks, wait for traffic on the climb at the start, and deal with an exciting (but thankfully not terrible) crash.

Had I done a few things differently (not crashed, stopped less, pushed a little more on the fire roads, sat on the toilet a little less between laps one and two) I would have have broken 11 hours, but I’m still quite happy with that time. There’s also the chance that all of those things helped make it a fun time. Beating this goal (sub-10 hour would be ideal) is something to aim for if I try the race again in the future. I really enjoy this race, the area around Big M, and most of the preparation / training rides, but dedicating much of another spring doing long, endurance-type rides gets in the way of other things and starts to get a bit stressful.

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Thoughts on Yankee Springs

Published June 9, 2013

Today I rode Yankee Springs for the first time. I did two laps, then a bonus third lap of the warm-up/beginning/first part of the trail which loops back to the parking lot. Random thoughts went through my head about the trail while riding, including…

This is rather like Western Michigan’s version of Pontiac Lake Recreation Area.
Bald Mountain could be similar to this, if it was developed with more single track.
Lots and lots and lots of blind corners with semi-surprising things: roots, drop-offs, things where I should have had more or less speed.
Devil’s Soup Bowl (a very deep, steep geological formation) is apparently not meant to be ridden into. Whoops. Good thing I stopped part-way down at the first plateau and hiked out.
After becoming a bit familiar with the trail, it’s a lot of fun. I’d like to go back.
Riding up plastic matting (photo) is weird and somewhat awkward. The same with rubbery water bars.
Southeast Michigan trails are mostly hard pack clay and gravel. Wester Michigan trails seem to be light sand over a firm bed. It’s different, but nice.
Trails through needle-covered ground in stands of Red Pine mixed with green foliage are beautiful.

I also identified the source of a rather irritating sound at the rear end of my bike: the Salsa skewer. If I didn’t stop and periodically tighten it a loud tick/knock would develop at the rear of the bike. I’ll try replacing it with an XT from my first proper MTB. Hopefully that fixes it, and then I can pursue a more permanent replacement.

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Petrol-Gel as Specialized WaterGate Valve Lubricant

Published June 8, 2013

The burst valve design of the Specialized WaterGate lids for their bottles are quite nice, and as one can twist the valve gently to remove it for cleaning they don’t suffer the buildup that plagues CamelBak bottles. However, after a few cycles of removing the valve and washing them the o-rings become dry and the valve is hard to reinsert and doesn’t move very slowly.

I have some Petrol-Gel lubricant for maintaining beer dispensing equipment, so I figured I’d give it a go on these seals. It worked great; a very light application to the o-rings and the inside of the valve seat in the lid restores the original smooth action of the valve. This makes the lid work like new.

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First Stan’s Booger

Published May 28, 2013

After cleaning the drivetrain on the El Mariachi Ti I was poking around with the bike, and when spinning the front wheel on the workstand I could hear something tumbling around inside of the front tire. It didn’t throw the wheel off balance, but as it was likely a Stan’s booger I figured I should remove it. After deflating and popping the tire off the bead, the ~4cm coagulated clump of latex was easily removed from the tire.

Once the tire was popped back on the rim I was able to reseat it using a hand pump, which made it very easy to get the wheel back together. With another ounce of Stan’s Sealant added into the front wheel to replenish what was lost, all is back to normal, and now there’s no rattly-tumbly sound when the wheel spins.

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Dirty Cogs

Published May 28, 2013

The El Mariachi Ti only has 586 miles (32) hours on it in the month since I got it, but I figured it should get a little bit of drivetrain cleaning so I pulled the cassette and disassembled it. I find the heavy ridges of gunk which build up along the edge of where the chain can sit amusing, particularly how it starts with super-fine oil laden rouge-like grit at the outer edge and leading to corser sand towards the center.

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Danielle’s First Ride at Addison Oaks

Published May 27, 2013

For Memorial Day afternoon Danielle had her first ride on the mountain bike trails at Addison Oaks. This went really well and I’m extremely proud of her for getting out there. She did a full lap, then afterward Nick, Marty, Katie, and I headed out for another. Afterward we all headed to The Lakeville Inn at the intersection of Rochester and Lakeville roads for a bit of post-ride food and beer.

This has been a really great weekend. Now, time to shower then get some custard at Erma’s with Danielle and Joy.

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Home-Made Protein Bars

Published May 26, 2013

Earlier this year I asked Danielle if she’d come up with some manner of food / energy / protein bar for me to eat while doing longer bike rides. She took this Protein Bar recipe from Good Eats and adapted it to use things we had around the house, and they came out quite nice. I’ve eaten some of this stuff on all of the long rides I’ve done recently, and it seems to help quite a bit by getting some solid food in my stomach.

Once baked these have a nice, slightly fruity and peanut butter-y taste, and by cutting them, putting them in individual sandwich bags and freezing, it’s easy to take one out and thaw it before (or on the first part of) a longer ride. I’ve found that a large pizza cutter (rolling style) works very well for cutting these into individual pieces.

Here’s what goes into them — the adapted recipe:

4 oz. Vanilla Protein Powder
2 1/2 oz. Oat Bran
3 1/4 oz. Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt
11 oz. Dried Cranberries (Substitute other dried fruit as desired.)
1 oz. Sweetened Coconut Flakes
12.3 oz. Soft Silken Tofu (Typically one package.)
1/2 cup Carrot Juice
4 oz. Light Brown Sugar
2 Large Eggs, Beaten
170g Peanut Butter (Natural as possible, peanuts and salt only.)

To prepare:

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Line a 13″ x 9″ baking pan/dish with parchment and coat with oil.
In a large bowl combine protein powder, oat bran, wheat flower, and salt. Whisk together.
Coarsely chop the dried fruit. Set aside in a small bowl.
In a third bowl, whisk the tofu until smooth, then add the carrot juice, brown sugar, eggs, and peanut butter and process until smooth. A stick blender can help with this.
Slowly add the the protein powder mixture into the wet ingredients and stir to combine.
Fold in the dried fruit and coconut flakes.
Pour into pan and spread into an even layer.
Bake for around 35 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 222°F.
Remove from oven, cool completely, then cut into the desired number of pieces.

Nutritional info for the entire batch, for the original recipe, which should be close to the modified version:

Calories: 4008 kcal
Total Fat: 120 g
Saturated Fat: 24 g
Protein: 192 g
Total Carbohydrates: 552 g
Sugar: 336 g
Fiber: 72 g
Cholesterol: 432 mg
Sodium: 1896 mg

I typically cut this batch into around 12 pieces, resulting in ~334 kcal and around 16 g of protein per bar. Most of them go into the freezer in individual plastic bags, and then I just take one two on each longer ride.

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Full Day at Poto

Published May 25, 2013

As Nick said, driving out to Potawatomi (the mountain bike trails at Pinckney State Recreation Area) for the 8-hour ride I was supposed to do on Memorial Day Weekend was probably the best drive time to ride time ratio ride I could have for that trail. Leaving the house at just after 7am put me on the trail at around 9am, and this weekend was some amazing riding. The trail conditions were perfect, I was able to make every climb cleanly on the first try, and I didn’t have any “oh crap!” almost-falls. It was all I could ask for.

I ended up getting in four laps of the full trail, which gave me 73.12 miles completed in a moving time of 07:42:04. My total time for the ride was 08:37:27, with the gap time eaten up by stopping to urinate, a visit to the toilet between laps two and three, filling water at the pumps, and eating a tasty Danielle-made protein bar while stopping to talk with some folks. This was a bit short of the 8-hour prescription, but I imagine it’s close enough. (Strava data for the ride can be found here.)

I had brought supplies for and somewhat considered a fifth lap, but I was feeling a bit tired and wanting to get home. This would have put me out on unfamiliar (and rapidly emptying) trails until ~8pm without emergency lighting, which would not have been a good idea. Especially not when creeping up 10 hours of challenging trail…

The photo above was taken on one of the boardwalks along the route. I believe this one to be near the end of the Gosling Lake Loop in the north end of the system, but I may be mistaken. This one stood out to me more than many of the others because of how the grass is grown up along side and through it, giving a feeling of riding on a plank sidewalk through an unmowed field.

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Missing Pavement and Vibrating Walls

Published May 23, 2013

The pavement in the parking area of the condo has been removed so that it can be replaced, and part of the work involves this Dresser Industries vibrating compacting roller. After the curbs have been removed and dirt moved this roller is used to compact the soil into a firm, dirt road-like surface. This process produces a tremendous amount of noise and vibration, so much so that while sitting at my desk this afternoon some pictures were falling over, my cell phone was bouncing slightly, and the walls were resonating loudly. It was loud enough that Roxie was becoming scared, but she did seem to enjoy looking out the window and watching the people working.

I’m looking forward to the pavement being done. We are temporarily parking next door in the church’s lot, which isn’t too bad as it is a shorter drive to 22 Mile, but carrying things across the lawn and relatively steep berm which separates the properties is a bit of a pain when when loading or unloading the car.

More photos of the torn up driveway can be seen in this album, including this one looking out the garage at the dirt and gravel, which was what originally caught my eye and made me think to get the camera out.

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Pontiac Lake and Stony Creek

Published May 20, 2013

I’ve really been enjoying the new Salsa El Mariachi Ti, doing some long-ish rides each of the past two weekends. This past weekend I headed out to Pontiac Lake twice, once on Saturday with a coworker who is new to mountain biking and again on Sunday to try and do a six-and-a-half hour ride as part of the training plan that I’ve been following. Both of these were a success, with my coworker doing well for his first trail ride (particularly on such a challenging trail), and I made my goal of six laps. The latter was a bit less than 6.5 hours, but I was still content with it. I considered doing a seventh lap, but I was beginning to feel a bit worn out

The weekend prior I participated in the Fun Promotions 12 Hour race at Stony Creek, quitting when the rain started, but only after racking up just over 100 miles. The weather that day started off quite cool, but was otherwise quite nice for riding I’d really been hoping the rain would hold off until I’d reached my goal and it did, so that made me quite happy. Following the race was lots of hanging out with friends time both at the park and at home, and it made for a great weekend.

The photo above was taken at Pontiac Lake after one of the longer climbs near the end of my ride, likely on lap 5. Despite clear skies and relatively high temperatures for most of the ride (low of 75.2 °F, high of 98.6 °F, average 84.0 °F) it was fairly pleasant and the trail was quite beautiful. One part that I particularly enjoyed was under some manner of tree which dropped fluffy seeds, as each pass through the trail near there showed more and more of the white fuzz building up in the woods. (Photo)

As the miles rack up the bike is now getting to the point where I need to adjust little things as they settle in and I notice small things, which is good. I’m finding myself quite happy with it and comfortable riding it, and I hope that continues. If things go as planned I’ll be riding a bit of Potowatomi this upcoming weekend, then in three more weeks I’m slated to have another go at Lumberjack 100.

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