Mews Tavern "Gear and Beer" 6.9k 2014

Official time: 26:10.  13th overall.  2nd in Age Group.  Results here.

This is a favorite local race of mine - my recreational runner friends attend, there's a crazy amount of beer included with your registration and it has a great atmosphere.  In years past it's been a standard 5k but this year apparently they had issues with the town and had to change the course.  Unlike last year's frigid conditions, the temp was in the 50s and conditions couldn't have been better.  But I was nervous going into this race - I had been battling my janky knee and had done nothing speedwise in months.  I knew I wouldn't be in top form but was hopeful that I could still keep the pace under 6 minutes/mile.

Pre-race photo with Crutchley - Photo by Easter Seals

There were fewer runners this year - the effects of last year's cold day and the longer distance perhaps.  There wasn't a huge group towing the line and when the gun went off Pelletier and the Colonel sped off ahead, leaving everyone in their wake.  The race starts up a hill which sucks and by the time it leveled off I found myself around 16th place.  A quick glance at the watch confirmed what I felt - my pace was around 6:15.  Slow compared to what I know I'd be capable at full health, but I was surprised how far up in the field I was.  Last year I finished 25th - it was looking like a lot of fast people sat this one out.

Photo by Easter Seals

Instead of heading down towards the Peacedale rotary, the new course heads up towards South Road, veering onto neighborhood streets along the way.  I traded places with a couple folks on these roads - I thought I was moving well on the slight hills but I was bummed that I couldn't muster anymore speed.  Luckily the janky knee didn't ache or give me any grief.

The long stretch on South Road was a bit of a slog and I was beginning to fatigue.  A couple guys I were hanging with began to put distance on me and I could hear the patter of someone else gaining on me.  I was passed as we moved onto side streets and back towards the Mews.  Some guy up ahead began slowing down.  He looked to be having bad cramps before he stopped and hurled on the side of the road.  Well at least I picked up one place, I thought.  But he caught back up to me within a quarter mile and sped off.

They put a clock at the 5k point and I was dismayed to see it read 19:03 as I passed.  Ugh.  Unlike the monster hill from the old course, the last half mile of this route is downhill.  I was able to push it briefly on the steepest section but there wasn't anyone threatening behind me and while I slowly gained on some guy I knew I wasn't going to catch him.  I crossed the finished not exactly thrilled with my race but happy to be done.

Crossing the finish - Photo by Easter Seals

News Team Assemble!

Post-race libations

My mood improved once the beer began flowing and the camaraderie began.  Amanda ran as well, intent on just enjoying herself as she hasn't been running much lately.  A couple other buddies rounded out the Channel 4 New Team and we finished a respectable 14 out of 50 in the Family/Friends team category.  I was surprised to see that I finished 2nd in my age group!  Psyched to get an award - it turned out to be a $10 Denali gift card though I was hoping for a Mews gift cert.

I knew going into this race that I wasn't 100% and that I had to temper my expectations.  I'm bummed that I seemed to have lost a step in terms of speed but I'm glad the knee wasn't an issue during the race.  I still had a great time as it's the Mews race and the food/beer/friends afterwards is always enjoyable.  Hopefully I'll continue to improve so that I'm in good shape for the 4th Season.

Keezer Build - Part 2

Time to conclude the keezer project I started in Part 1.  Last time I had built the dolly, the temperature controller and cut the wood for the collar.  Now it was time to put it all together.

I went to a welding supply shop in Cranston with my empty CO2 tank.  As I figured, the hydro stamp was out of date (basically ever five years the tank has to be tested to verify it's still safe.)  They charged me for the hydro test but swapped out the tank which saved me having to wait about three weeks.  Great guys and they have good deals on filling your propane tank, FYI.

Anyway, with my new full CO2 tank I quickly discovered that it was heavy as hell.  I decided to double the 2x4 base on the dolly to make sure it could hold it.  Then I fashioned some ramshackle chains to hold it in place and it was good to go.  It won't be winning any beauty awards but it'll do the trick.  The tank could have easily just gone on the floor next to the keezer but this will make it easier if I want to move it.

Time for the collar.  First I drilled a couple holes in the front for the faucets and one in the back for the gas line.  After that I sanded it and put on two coats of polyurethane.  You're supposed to add a base later of some other stuff first and then sand between coats and blah blah blah.  I'm not building an mahogany cabinet here.  I slapped a couple coats on it and called it a day.

Time to drill!

Once dry I attached the collar to the freezer using silicone sealant.  I waited most of the day for it to dry.  I probably should have waited longer but I was impatient.  After six hours excitement got the better of me and I attached the freezer lid to the collar.  It worked great.  The faucets were attached and I screwed the air splitter to the back wall.  The red gas line goes into the splitter and then on to the separate kegs.   It was a bitch trying to get the gas line through the hole I made and I had to run my drill bit around the edges which is probably definitely not recommended to get it through.

The keezer was now ready to hold beer!  I had an ESB that was ready and waiting.  Normally I'd have to transfer the beer to a bottling bucket along with priming sugar and then sanitize, fill and cap many a bottle.  Instead I ran some StarSan through the keg and then racked the beer into it.  So easy!

With the keg half full of beer (it was a 2.5 gallon batch) it was time to learn how difficult it was to move it into the keezer.  It wasn't too bad but then I filled the other keg with water - this was a real bear to lift and I had to use a stepstool to help lift it over the collar.  It was not easy but luckily I won't be doing it that often.

In case you're wondering I filled the other keg with water to improve the thermal mass in the keezer.  Liquid holds a temperature much better than air so the more liquid in you have, the better the keezer will hold the temp.  After I added the kegs, I plugged it into the temperature controller and over the next couple days monitored it.  It would take about 30-40 minutes to climb to 44 degrees before turning the keezer on and cooling it down to 42 degrees.

That's not a great amount of downtime and having the keezer's compressor turn on every 40 minutes or so will wear it out sooner rather than later.  Some more online research on the great homebrewtalk.com really helped me out.  First, I added some pink foam insulation around the inside of the collar.  This stuff was easy to cut and proved to be the perfect size.  I cut a couple holes for the faucets and cut a couple smaller pieces to fit around the red gasline.  Then I screwed the air splitter through the foam and into the wood.  The stuff fit so snugly that I didn't even have to glue it.

The other change I made was to cover the thermometer with bubblewrap insulation and tape it to the side of a gallon glass jug filled with water.  Since liquid temp changes slowly, it is much more efficient to gauge the temp of the water rather than the air temp which can fluctuate wildly, especially if I open the lid.  After I made these improvements, it now takes about 2-2.5 hours for the temp controller to rise from 42 to 44 degrees.

Pink insulation and better thermometer placement helped a lot

A few more small projects rounded out the build.  I attached the temp controller to a board behind the keezer so it was out of the way.  It's held in place but some nuts but can easily be unscrewed in order to move the keezer.  Then I attached another board and did some half-assed woodwork in order to hang some of my favorite glasses within arms reach.

At a craft store I found a couple magnetic photo holders which worked great to identify the taps. The labels slide right in and can easily be switched out.  Hopefully it'll encourage me to get creative with each new batch.

 

Finished!

There you have it!  Come on over and have a pint!

Keezer Build - Part 1

For the past few months I have begun assembling the components necessary for a kegging setup for my homebrew.  The biggest question was what type of refrigeration unit.  Kegerators aren't that cheap (even on Craigslist) and an used full-size fridge would not work in my house.  That left a chest freezer, which when converted by homebrewers, is known as a keezer.

First I picked up two kegs, a giant CO2 tank and a CO2 regulator on Craigslist.  The common size for a CO2 tank is 5 lbs and this one is 20.  Still a quick look on the forum assured me that folks with 20 pounders were quite happy with them - less trips to get the tank filled.  However, it is quite large and heavy.

About a month later, I picked up a 5 cubic foot chest freezer on Craigslist.  Amazingly it fit in Amanda's Honda Fit.  The two kegs fit inside no problem but it would haven't a lot of clearance to fit the CO2 tank.

Once I had the chest freezer, I was able to put together measurements and begin the build in earnest.   In order to have taps you either need to go through the lid (via an expensive tower) or attach a wooden collar and drill through that.  You can't go through the walls of the freezer 'cause you'll hit the coils.  I went to Home Depot and got some cheap 2x6 which I had them cut for me.

I knew I wanted this thing on wheels so that I could wheel it into the finished section of the basement if we have a party.  I kept this really basic.  I bought some wheels at Harbor Freight and just used some old 2x4s we had in our creepy trailer.  I added a little ledge on the side of the dolly where I can attach the tank so that it can get wheeled around as well.

One thing I didn't really consider is the height increase from both the dolly and the collar.  It adds another foot to the keezer.  It looks good but I hadn't considered how I'd lift a full 5 gallon keg over the collar.  I filled a keg with water and tried it out.  It was not easy.  A stepstool helped but it's still tricky.  For this reason many people opt to attach the collar to the lid so that when you raise the lid the collar, taps and lines all move out of the way.  That sounds great but it's also more DIY than I want to deal with.  So I'm going to glue the collar down and just deal with the clearance issue.

Another hurdle was temperature control.  Since this is a freezer, I can't just run it or it'll freeze the beer.  So some kind of device is necessary to regulate the temp.  You can buy plug 'n play versions but they veered into the $60-70 range.  This project was up there already and that was way more than I wanted to spend.

The homebrew forums provided a cheaper alternative.  A DIY version could be made using an aquarium temp controller ($13 on Ebay) along with an old computer cord and a wall outlet.  Once I bought the controller I was able to scrounge together all the components from around the house.  I was nervous about the DIY wiring but it proved to be very easy and within an hour I had built a functioning temp controller (I used an old tupperware to contain it all.)

The temperature controller worked!  I set it up so that it would switch on when the temp in the freezer reached 46 degrees and turn the freezer off at 41 degrees.  But my ghetto tupperware case wasn't cutting the mustard - the outlet hung pretty loose in there and I wasn't satisfied.  Another stop at Home Depot and I picked up a hard plastic outlet box.  This one fit the temp controller and the outlet snug as a bug.

I was off to a good start but there was much more to do!  Click here for Part II where it all comes together!

VACATION AWESOMESAUCE: 6.30.14 - 7.6.14

Vacation Week is Here!  Looking forward to a relaxing week in New Hampshire with my family, while finding time to ingest indigenous beer and get in some tough run/hikes.

Monday - Bartlett, NH - 4.3 miles

I got out of the house at 5:15 AM and drove about 10 minutes to the Mount Stanton trailhead.  It was 1.4 miles to the summit of Mt Stanton and another 0.7 to Mt Pickering.  There were some runnable sections near the base but also some steep climbs which wore me out.  Nice views from various ledges of the Bartlett valley and Attitash.  Once on the other side of Stanton, there were great views of Stairs Mountain, Iron Mountain and the hills where we're staying.  The trail descended before climbing again to the top of Mt Pickering.  A great early morning trail run but a stark reminder that I'm a flatlander.  I need to taper my expectations when I go out on a longer adventure later in the week.

Sunrise from the ledges of Mt Stanton

The hills where we're staying

It got hot quickly during the day and the choice to swim at Echo Lake was a good one.  Then a trip to the outlets.  The girls bought a crapload of clothes while I went straight to the New Balance store.  Picked up another pair of 890 v3 and decided to try the 610 v2 as my next pair of heavy duty trail shoes. We'll see if I prefer them to the Brooks Cascadias.

I dig this spot

A New Balance fan could get in real trouble in that store

Beer:
1x Baxter Stowaway IPA (20 oz)
1x Tuckerman Pale Ale (20 oz)

Tuesday - Bartlett, NH - 2.8 miles

Amanda went rappelling down a waterfall this morning.  She was very excited.  I jogged with Oliver in the morning while she was making preparations.  The roads around the cabin are wide open with awesome views and killer houses.  Oh to live up here!  Good run and the hills kept both Oliver and myself honest.

While Amanda and Em were doing the rappelling thing (Em took pictures) Ezri and I went to North Conway to check out a few stores (I used to love going to Dondero's Rock Shop as a kid and I was happy to see that it remains unchanged.)  Then we returned to Echo Lake for a bit more swimming.

I was going to run in the afternoon but it's almost 90 degrees out.  I wasn't that psyched to begin with and then we decided to move my solo adventure up a day.  We have a date with Santa's Village.  The next two days both have sporadic thunderstorms on the menu.  But tomorrow is forecast to be 90 while Thursday drops to 82.  So we'll try for SV on Thursday.  So I'm taking it easy the rest of today in preparation for tomorrow's effort (whatever that may be.  At this point it's very much dependent on the weather.)

Beer:
1x Moat Mountain Iron Mike Pale Ale
2x  Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA

Wednesday  - Twin Mountains, NH - 18 miles

Peak bagging that started at North Twin trail.  Took me over North and South Twin.  Went on to Galehead and Guyot.  Separate write-up to follow.

Beautiful day up in the mountains

In the afternoon we took a brief trip to Jackson Falls just before the thunderstorms began.  It came down awfully hard for a while.  Amanda made a terrific steak dinner.

Beer:
2x Moat Mountain Violet B's Blueberry Ale
1x Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA

Thursday - 0 miles

Oh my sweet calves!  It feels like someone filled them with cement!   The result of yesterday's effort was brutal and immediate when I woke up this morning.  After a bit of shambling around the cabin they began to loosen up some.  We drove almost an hour north today to hit Santa's Village for the first time.  We've always just gone to Storyland since it's five minutes away.  SV was really nice though.  Ezri loved it.  There were no crowds, the park was extremely clean and the forecast thunderstorms didn't materialize until we got back home in the late afternoon.  At that point a restaurant excursion would have been a shitshow so we opted for some tasty takeout from the nearby Red Fox Restaurant.  Good choice.  And I fulfilled my contractual obligations of being cheerful and mobile at Santa's Village despite 18 miles of trails on Wednesday.

Beer:
1x Hop Nosh IPA
1x Stone Ruination IPA

Friday - 0 miles

360 push-ups (standard/military/wide/decline) 40/30/50/30/50/50/30/50/30

4th of July today but the forecast is miserable with rain/thunderstorms all day.  We went to breakfast in North Conway and then spent a couple hours doing the tourist thing, shopping downtown.  A return visit to Dondero's where Ezri bought a cool stone fish.  And then back across the street to revisit the climbing shop (they have a great consignment basement - I picked up a windbreaker and soft shell jacket this week.)  Then we grabbed some pizza at the famous Elvio's to bring home for lunch.

We spent the rest of the day puttering, packing and cleaning up the cabin.  Figure we'll try to leave bright and early tomorrow so that we can enjoy the better weather back home in Rhode Island.  I shall miss you New Hampshire.  Hopefully another hiking adventure is in the cards later this year.

Beer:
1x Moat Mountain Iron Mike Pale Ale
1x Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Al
1x Allagash Saiso
1x Moat Mountain Violet B's Blueberry Ale

Saturday - Bartlett, NH - 4 miles

Parting is such sweet sorrow.  Before finishing the packing and cleaning the cabin I went out and did four very easy miles with the dog.  My calves are still pretty sore from Wednesday and I didn't have much pep on those neighborhood hills.  Still, it was nice getting some last looks at the nearby hills (one road had a great view of Mt. Stanton and Mt. Pickering that I hiked on Monday.)  I didn't get over to nearby Iron Mountain as I hoped and I also didn't get around to trying to take back the nearby segment I had created.  Oh well, there's always next time!

Sunday - Charlestown, RI - 7.1 miles

Nice cool morning back in Rhode Island.  No real desire but I dragged myself down Old Coach Road for a penance run.  Legs still don't have much life and my body is lacking for energy after a week of beer and junk food.  Back to the grind tomorrow.

Weekly Mileage: 36.4 miles

Year to Date: 1,051.6 miles

Another great vacation week in the books!  I miss the White Mountains already.  We had a lot of fun up there and hopefully next time we venture north Ezri will be able to go hiking with me.  Oh and my elevation gain for the week?  9,048 feet.  No wonder my legs are beat!