24 Hours in the Old Pueblo

THE BRAIN TRUSTLast weekend was the Kona bikes 24 hour mountain bike race. Myself and four other teammates participated in the co-ed five person relay race. Our team, The Brain Trust, was comprised of me, my brother Adam who drove in from San Diego (back holding up the bike), Jenne (second from the right), Dave (second from left), and Josh (left). The entire event was awesome. The course was 15 miles long and a lot of fun. It was not too technical, which I was extremely thankful for since we all had to ride at least one night lap and my moutian biking experience is limited to say the least. Overall, the experience was incredible and we are all planning to do it again next year. One of the things I liked about it the most was just how considerate all of the other bikers were. I was really nervous about the logistics of passing and being passed on single track mountain bike trails but most of the riders were really nice about this, even the elite athletes. This point brings me to the second thing that I loved about this race. It was pretty remarkable to share the trail with some of the best moutain bikers in the world. As I would be huffing and puffing to slowly make it to the top of the final climb on the high point single track on my second lap, these guys would fly by effortlessly probably on their 10th lap or more. Finally, the location of this race was beautiful and it was awesome to camp out with the team and our supporters and 2,000 other bike enthusiasts. We made quick friends with our camping neighbor Dwayne who shared with us his fire pit and fire wood. He was a solo rider but cramped up after his fourth lap and could not finish. We have plans to camp next to Dwayne again next year.


To quickly summarize the race for the Brain Trust, Jenne biked the first lap. This was very brave of her since the start was Lemans style meaning that all of the bikers had to run over 1/2 a mile in biking shoes to their bikes and begin riding. She did great and put up a really fast lap time. Josh went second, followed by my brother. Dave took the third lap and managed to have the fastest lap time for our team even though he wrecked really bad and went over his handle bars on the last stretch of downhill. I took the last lap, which meant that I got to ride with the sun setting for the first 15 minutes and then finished in the dark. The sky was beautfiul that night and was hot pink just as I was riding The Bitches, a series of seven hills that are very appropriately named. I completed the lap in an hour and 37 minutes, which I was thrilled with considering most of the lap was in the dark with no moon. Right before I finished my first lap I saw Drew and our friends Zaneta and Lan cheering me on with flashlights on the side of the trail. That made me really happy. Jenne rode her second lap after I finished, followed by Josh, my brother and then Dave again. At this point it was about 3 am and Josh did a very heroic thing. He took the next lap so I could ride in the morning and would not have to ride two night laps. After Josh finished, I waited until it started to get light and then began my second lap at 7am. This meant that I also got the sunrise lap. It started out awesome. My muscles felt great and I was keeping up a really good pace. Unfortunately, by the time I reached the corral trail the fatigue caught up with me and I was riding a bit over my head. I ended up crashing pretty bad. Everyone was really nice, however, and every biker that passed me stopped to make sure that I was ok. One of them must have told the aid station that I was down because when I rode past the station they all cheered and congratulated me for getting back on my bike. After my wreck I was mentally spent, however, and realized that I probably did not have a third lap in me. Additionally, my teammates were all spent as well. The Brain Trust ended up completing 11 laps and we placed 5th out of 6 teams. We have Josh to thank for propelling us out of last place with his three laps and he is our MVP.

The Brain trust again. I am showing off the scrape on my upper left thigh from wrecking. My scrapes do not compare to Dave's however, who wins the biggest crash award.

I also want to thank Drew, Zaneta, Lan, Uppie, Jon and Carrie for hanging out with us during the race and supporting the Brain Trust.

The New York Times No-Knead Bread Recipe

Here is the No-Knead Bread recipe for those of you interested. It was published in the New York Times last November and I cannot say enough good things of about this recipe!

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

A couple of things, I reccommend adding a bit more salt to the original recipe, and I have had success with as few as 10 hours for the initial rise time but 3 hours for the second rise time definately produced better bread. I have also extended the second rise time out to 12 hours with success. Finally, I use only a 3- to 4-quart pot for baking and this produced great results. I have not yet played around with adding additional ingredients (garlic cloves and cheese are on my immediate list) but I will let you know when I do and how it turns out.

Acknowledgements: Thank you Bob Sloviter for bringing this recipe to my attention!