Product Review: Geigerrig 'The Rig'

This is a review of 'The Rig' by Geigerrig, which I purchased at Costco.

Introduction

My prior experience with personal hydration products has revolved around various iterations of the Nathan hydration belts (I have the Speed 2R Auto-cant, Speed 4R, and the two bottle Elite 2V Plus).  I frequently use these when going on either a longer training run or when I just want additional hydration during a race.  Generally, I use the Speed 2R Auto-cant to carry additional fluid during a trail race, the Speed 4R for training half-marathons, and the Elite 2V Plus for training trail runs.  My comparisons will be relative to those.

Pros

Because their capacity is similar, I was expecting The Rig to be roughly comparable to the Nathan Elite 2V Plus.  As this review will show, I think that they occupy similar places in the trail runner's gear set.

There are a few noticeable benefits of The Rig relative to the Elite 2V Plus.  Most importantly, I do not experience the same lower-back chafing that I do with the Elite 2V Plus.  Alone, this is enough for me to switch for trail running.  The other major improvement is that it does a much better job of keeping your phone and snacks dry (read not-sweaty) than any of the fuel belts.

Cons

Again relative to the Elite 2V plus, the rig has only one major drawback.  It takes more time to get water from a tube than from a plastic squeeze bottle.  This may not seem like a major limitation, but when you're trying to stay hydrated and breathing hard it gets old fast.  Because of this problem, would suggest considering The Rig mainly for events where you are more concerned with completion than speed.

Comparison with the 'Speed' series

Speaking of speed, I do not feel that The Rig is appropriate for faster events.  Mainly because, like the Elite 2V Plus, it slows me down significantly relative to not wearing a personal hydration device or either of the belts in Nathan's Speed series.  Additionally, it takes some time (about a mile) to get The Rig to fit correctly and not bounce at a faster pace.

Punchline

Overall, I suggest that The Rig is superior to the Nathan Elite 2V, because they hold similar amounts of fluid, The Rig doesn't chafe, and The Rig keeps your snacks and phone from getting sweaty.  However, both are still mainly appropriate for a longer trail run or hike where the increased fluid capacity is important for completion rather than speed.  For race conditions, or when training in an area with many water sources, the Nathan Speed series is both more convenient and will not slow you down as much.

Why are all the running clothes black?

or

Fat people are trying to kill off people that exercise.

 We are now steadily heading into Autumn.  Depending on where you live (and if you exercise outdoors), this probably means you're starting to consider longer sleeves, tights, and other ways to stay comfortable.  It also means you're much more likely to go for your run, walk, or bike ride after dark.  So...why the heck is all the cooler weather outdoor gear that I can buy locally black or possibly dark blue or grey?

The main problem is that dark colors, when worn after dark, simply make it very difficult for other people to see you.  Unless the clothing designers think that we're all in cross-training to be ninjas, this makes no sense, or at least it makes no sense for the only options to be black, or dark grey.

It is even a problem if you're on a walking path.  If you're wearing a dark colored jacket with dark colored pants, you have to worry about being run over by someone faster who can't see you in stealth mode.

Personally, I like the conspiracy theory that chubby people, possibly in cahoots with health clubs, design exercise gear, and are trying to kill off people that exercise outdoors in the winter.  However, I cannot prove this, so let's just look at possible solutions.

Buy other clothes

Perhaps the simplest of solutions, buy clothes from a manufacturer (probably online) that understands that we're not all going for 'slimming' black.  My personal favorite is Brooks.  I particularly like their line of high visibility clothes.

Use a high-visiblity vest or jacket

 Another simple solution.  High visibility vests should be available at pretty much any sports store.  There are also high visibility jackets and wind breakers from clothing lines that cater towards runners and bicyclists.

The main drawback of the high-visibility vest or jacket is that when it is reasonably warm, but still dark when you run, they can easily become uncomfortable.

Carry a flashlight

Perhaps the cheapest solution.  A water resistant LED flashlight should cost $3-5 and can be used both to illuminate your path and to indicate your presence to other humans.  

An important point of etiquette though: don't shine it in other people's faces.

A combination of the above

The best option is probably a mix of the above.  I tend to wear a high visibility windbreaker to make myself visible to cars, but also carry a flashlight to indicate my presence to the other walkers and runners in the park.

Ideas of what to do with a pumpkin

Baked Pumpkin, Roast Seeds, Steamed Innards

 'Tis the time of year that pumpkins are everywhere and every restaurant seems to have a few pumpkin specials.  Pumpkin Latte, shakes, pies, etc.

So, what can you do with a pumpkin that's actually good for you?  For starters, consider that pretty much the whole pumpkin is edible, but contains at least three substantially different textures and consistency.  Therefore, I propose:

Baked Pumpkin

1 Medium Pumpkin

1 pinch of salt

1 Tbs Cinnamon

0.5 Cup Currants

2 Tbs Olive Oil

1) Preheat oven to 400F, and line a large baking sheet with baking parchment

2) Quarter the Pumpkin.

3) Use a large spoon to scrape out the seeds and innards (save these, we'll get to them in a minute)

4) Peel the pumpkin.

5) Cube the pumpkin

6) In a large bowl, mix the pumpkin, salt, oil, cinnamon and currants.

 

7) Spread on the baking sheet and roast for 40 minutes.

Roast Pumpkin Seeds

1 Pumpkin's worth of seeds.

2 pinches salt (to taste)

Cooking spray

Coriander (to taste)

1) preheat oven to 200F, and line a small pan with tin foil

2) Separate seeds from pumpkin innards

3) Mix seeds with salt and coriander.

4) Spray foil with cooking spray, distribute seeds, spray seeds.

5) Roast for 1-2 hours stirring every 20 minutes or so (cook to taste).

Steamed Innards

1 Pumpkin's worth of innards.

Agave Syrup to taste.

1) Microwave innards for about 2 minutes.

2) Mix with Agave Syrup.

Surface Area and Volume

Side note: Kinda thinking I should have just gone with 'Bake,' for the blog post, first three posts are about baking.

On Surface Area and Volume

The ration of surface area to volume (crystal size) has a large effect on the flavor of food.  This is especially true of foods which are of the same general form, but with different physical characteristics.  Generally speaking, the most common ingredients with such variations are sugar and salt.  For example, most of us are familiar with both confectioner's sugar and the standard granulated sugar.  Despite the huge difference in flavor and cooking properties, the primary difference between the two types of sugar is crystal size.  If you have a good blender, you can even convert granulated sugar into confectioner's sugar.

We will first examine the time when this effect matters, and then discuss how to take advantage of it in your own cooking.

When it matters

The main reason that they physical structure of our food has an effect on the flavor is because it strongly influences the reaction rate either between ingredients (during cooking) or between the food and our taste buds (during eating).

To examine the effects of surface area and volume during cooking let us consider the case of crushed vs. whole red peppers.  While both add flavor and heat to a dish, the flavor from whole peppers is much more controllable than that from crushed peppers.  The main reason for this is that the whole peppers disperse their flavor much more slowly than the crushed pepper which is mixed into the dish.  If cooked for a short period a dish using whole peppers will still be subtly spicy, but the peppers themselves will still be quite intense (and the diner can choose to eat them, or not).  However, if the cooking period is longer, the difference between whole and crushed peppers will be much less, and the whole peppers will retain much less of their original flavor.

A good way to examine the effect of reaction rate during consumption is to think about the difference between eating confectioner's sugar and rock candy.  Both are more or less pure sugar, but confectioner's sugar is many tiny crystals while rock candy is effectively a single large crystal.  Because of this difference confectioner's sugar is so sweet it almost can't be eaten (at least in quantity), however man people will bite into rock candy rather than sucking on it until it is dissolved.

How to take advantage of it

As indicated in the examples, you can use crystal size to modify the flavor of your food either during cooking or during eating.  To take advantage of it during cooking, you can either influence the amount of flavor in the dish by using short cooking times and large ingredients which can later be removed (whole cloves, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, whole peppers etc), or change the distribution of flavors in the dish for a later effect during eating (whole fruit, flavor crusts etc).  To influence flavor during eating you can either increase the intensity or separate a flavor for a multi-stage flavor experience by moving flavors out of the body of the food to the surface, or focusing the flavors into subsections of the food (what I like to call flavor bursts).

In future posts I will both provide recipes which explore many of these effects, and discuss additional differences between different types of flours, sugars, and salts.

Pound Cake

Technically this is a 3/4 of a pound cake...

First it's worth noting that this is taken pretty much directly from the back of a box of Swan's Down Cake Flour.  It's great cake flour and you should try it if you haven't experimented with different types of cake flour in the past.

Technique notes:
*) Room temperature eggs, butter, and cream make this much easier to get right.
*) Sift flour before measuring it.
*) Put the Tube pan on another pan when you bake.

Cake:

3 Sticks Salted Butter
3 Cups Sugar
6 Eggs
3 Cups Sifted Swan's Down Cake Flour
1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1 tbs Vanilla Extract (they recommend 1/2 tsp, "MORE POWER!")

1) Preheat oven to 325F

2) Butter and lightly flour a 10" tube pan.

3) Cream together sugar and butter

 
4) Beat in Eggs one at a time.
5) Alternately beat in add cream and flour.

6) Stir in Vanilla
7) Pour into Tube Pan

8) Bake for 75 minutes-90 minutes.  Use a cake tester or knife to check.
9) Allow to cool completely.
10) Remove from Tube pan.

Glaze:

2 Cups Sifted Confectioner's sugar
1/2 Stick (1/4 cup) melted butter
2 tbsps heavy cream
Extract/flavoring (going with Macadamia nut liquor today)

1) Combine sugar and butter.
2) Add heavy cream and beat until smooth.
3) Add extract/flavoring.
4) You may add either additional cream or liquor until desired consistency is achieved.

5) Drizzle over cake.

Will add a picture of the actual cake tomorrow.  Planning to transport it in the tube pan.

Pizza Recipe 1

My wife and I like to have Pizza at least once a week.  We typically make the dough and sauce from as close to scratch as can be assumed for modern city dwellers.  She likes a variety of cheeses, I tend to also add a few veggies.

Dough:
2 cups flour (bread flour if you have it)
1/4 cup Semolina flour
1 tbs Oregeno
1 tbs Basil
1 tbs Dry Active Yeast
1/4 tsp Diastatic Malt Powder
1 tsp Salt
2 tbs Olive Oil
1 cup Warm water

1) Mix everything and kneed until consistent.
2) Cover with oiled plastic wrap or a damp cloth.
3) Wait 30 minutes.
4) Punch down.
5) Separate into 2 dough balls.
6) Role each dough ball until thin in two large pans.  (I recommend using baking paper)

7) Preheat oven to 400F

Sauce:
6 oz. Tomato paste
3-4 cloves garlic
1 tbs Oregeno
1 tbs Basil
1 tbs Olive Oil
1 tbs Basalmic Vinegar

1) Mix everything

2) Divide in two

3) Spread on pizzas

 

...

4) Put down a light layer of cheese (mozzarella)
5) Put on toppings.

6) Put down a second layer of cheese (mozzarella)

7) Bake at 400F for 10-12 minutes.  Baking time varies on thickness.

 

Hello and Welcome

Hello and welcome to this blog.  As the title may imply it is going to focus on three topics: running, baking, and coding.  This is because these are the things I like to do, and fortunately people will pay me for coding.  The other two are amateur pursuits.

I will attempt to provide posts which are generally useful.  For example, a baking entry will discuss a recipe, a general approach to a type of bread or cake, or the merits of different types of flour.  Similarly, running may discuss my experience with a particular piece of gear, impressions of a particular course, or results of a training regime.  Coding will focus on particularly interesting problems or perhaps a code kata or two.