Solenoids & Base Tape

Nearly every time I mention that I lift weights, I get a variation on the theme “oh, make sure you stretch for 30 minutes beforehand, you don’t want to get too muscle-bound and stiff”.

Bullshit. Compound free-weight movements that put your joints through a full, natural range of motion is going to result in far better flexibility than using machines or your pilates crap.

I distinctly remember feeling slower and weaker after stretching when I was in grade school, either in gym class or whatever sports practice I was at.

I don’t stretch regularly anymore, thought I still stretch when around people who do in some form of weird social deference.

Edit: The abstracts for the studies cited in the linked article state “that the usage of SS as the sole activity during warm-up routine should generally be avoided” and “the findings of this study suggest that intensive stretching such as lower-body PSS should be avoided before training the lower body or performing the 1RM in the squat exercise in favor of an AD dynamic warm-up using resistance training equipment in the lower-body musculature.” They are more specific than “don’t stretch”.

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(Notes: 3)

April 2, 2013

Fast is not fast.

Photo courtesy of this person.

This tumblr went racing. As you can see from the above, humans participating in beginner-level bike racing tend not to be elegant. None of us looked like some Swiss dude riding 50km/h into a strong headwind after six hours of riding. The bulky jackets made it worse.

The only thing I won was a raffle.

My heart rate never went below 170. It was frequently above 190.

I’ll do it again, probably.

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(Notes: 4)

Filed under: bike racing bicycles base tape

March 25, 2013

New tape.

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(Notes: 2)

Filed under: handlebar tape cloth tape gapers block crits

March 25, 2013

First race of the year today. New tape.

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Filed under: bike racing gapers block crits tape

March 14, 2013

"Higher doses – 18g came about somewhat by accident. They were a product of grinding to order and using a basket to measure a dose of ground coffee by volume. The increase in dose meant additional resistance. The basket resistance, plus the higher dose resistance meant we had to grind coarser. This coarser grind made the coffee a lot harder to extract. We found we liked the texture and strength of a higher dose of coffee, and this trend went further with people pulling shorter and shorter shots. This meant we had less and less water to use in our extraction. End result = underextraction. A byproduct of this was darker roasting to help balance out the sourness of the underextracted cup."

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A love/hate relationship with espresso « jimseven

I have twice written 2000+ word drafts about this very phenomenon, but this paragraph is better.

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March 14, 2013

Simplify?

Today I worked a trial shift on a two group Linea.

Things I did not use:

Scale
Volumetric shot glass

Things I did not know:

Roast date
Water temperature
Water debit
Water TDS & hardness

Things I did have:

Grinder with timer
VST baskets
Good coffee
Timer

The workflow I used to execute went like this: Portafilter out and clean, onto scale, tare scale, grind coffee, weigh coffee dose, correct if necessary, distribute, tamp, flush group, portafilter in, preinfuse/timer start/scale under cup and tare, full pressure, stop at desired shot mass.

The workflow I used today was: Portafilter out and clean, grind coffee, distribute, tamp, flush group, portafilter in, full pressure and timer start, stop at 25s.

Significantly easier, and the espresso coming out made me happy.

So is the current proliferation of measurement pernicious? I realize that it yields parameters that could theoretically be replicated elsewhere, but does that actually happen? Doesn’t everyone just “dial in” each morning and find that the previously given parameters are either not working, or not to personal preference? Does the silly dance that happens as a result of the desire to precisely repeat shots merit the resulting marginal (nonexistent?) increase in consistency?

A well-designed basket gives a rapidly decreasing extraction rate as the shot progresses - the end of the shot is mostly dilution. If the grind is correct, a couple seconds longer or shorter isn’t going to significantly over- or under- extract the coffee. The strength might vary, but the balance should not.