Saturday, October 11, 2008

It's Time

Time for a new post that is.

Well, things have kind of come along OK since that last post way back in July. Life has had its ups and downs. The kind of things like the shifting sands of work and family and friendships that don't stand up to the cold hard scrutiny of blog readers.

But the Achilles!! The Achilles, yes, that's what I know you all tune in to read about. Well, it has improved a lot. So much so that I have progressed from walking for 5 km to walking with occasional jogging periods, to walking some jogging some, to walking a bit and jogging for most of 5 km, and finally (well, not finally, but where I am now) to easy running for 7 km or so. One Sunday a couple of weeks ago I got caught up in the excitement of Joachim's 50 km training run for the 100 km race that he ran TODAY in an unbelievable time. The man is a legend.

But I digress. Yes, so I ran 14 km, and you know, it was hard. By 12, 13 km I could not keep up with Joachim (and others) who was chugging along at 5:00/km at about the 40 km mark of his run. So I have been concentrating on trying to get more consistent at more modest distances of 7 km or so. Really I am not training. Just keeping the weight stable. Actually my Polar watch is stuffed and I am running sans time piece and I am logging approximate times. Still, the weather is very pleasant now and I think I am running comfortably between 5:00 and 5:20/km type pace, and I am enjoying it. This week I have run most days, twice on Wednesday and am up to 45 km which has felt easy yet is the longest I've done in ages.

But the other thing that I ams sure will fascinate you all is that I have been putting some time and effort and more than a little money into outfitting my brewery. I bought a refractometer and new dial thermometer and weldless kettle fittings and have equipped the mash tun and hot water tank with thermometers and the boil kettle with a weldless ball valve. Also stocked up on malt and hops and yeast. Brewed a hoppy IPA two weeks ago and will do an even hoppier American red ale tomorrow. Yum. There are still a few mods to the brew pots needed, but I am getting close to what I want. Here are some fascinating photos. Catch you around.