My coffee this morning is Byron’s Natural, Organic Light Roast.  I’m sipping on my second cup of it right now.  The Byron’s Natural bean comes from Nicaragua, and is roasted by the Thanksgiving Coffee Company, out of Fort Bragg, CA.  I just found this company a week ago, and I like their huge variety of different beans and roasts.  Also, they provide pretty detailed descriptions of each of them; where they’re from and what kind of flavor to expect.  This is very helpful when trying to decide what to order.  Check them out at http://www.thanksgivingcoffee.com/ .

I need to clarify that my coffee pallet isn’t super fine-tuned.  I generally won’t be writing about “hints” or “notes,”  or delving into connoisseur-level detail on the coffees.  But I do enjoy a good cup, and I’m starting to be able to differentiate different coffees even within a roast level.   And unless otherwise stated, you can assume that I’m drinking it black, no cream or sugar.

Byron’s Natural is a full-flavored light roast.   The beans are big.  I don’t know if there’s any flavor difference between big and small beans, but I can make the astute observation that some beans are bigger than others.  After grinding and the initial pour-over (the bloom), the grind gives off a very nice and strong aroma.  I’m almost tempted to say it almost smells like Thanksgiving dinner.

With some of the other roasts I drink, the flavor comes slowly as you kinda let it sit in your mouth before you swallow.  And with some the flavor is most noticeable on the tail end of the sip-swish-swallow cycle (I’m sure there’s a better term for this…I don’t know what it is.  Pls let me know).   With Byron’s the flavor hits you pretty immediately as you sip it.   I will describe it as bold and pleasant.   The package says “blueberries, strawberries, lush.”   I don’t get blueberries or strawberries, but definitely get the “lush.”   Compared to the Caveman Coffee I talked about last week, Byron’s definitely doesn’t have the same “green-sweet” flavor, but it is more well balanced and coffee-like.   Try it out.

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As I write this morning, I am clicking back and forth onto the Tahoe 200 live updates website.  There is an insane race going on right now for the win of this ridiculous-long event.  The two leaders have less than ten miles to go and are essentially together at this point.   Third place is over thirty miles back.

There is a lot of buzz around one of these leaders, Courtney Dauwalter, who over the last 1-2 years has been a force of nature not just in women’s ultrarunning, but ultrarunnning in general.   Last year, in the inaugural Moab 240 (yes, 240 miles), she won overall (men and women) by over 10 hours.  This year she was the women’s Western States champion, and ran the second fastest time ever for a woman there.  When I went to bed last night she was in the lead of the Tahoe 200 by ~4 miles at about mile 150.   In second place was a runner named Kyle Curtain….not a recognized name, but I checked his results and he has some solid finishes in various 100’s over the last few years.

Well this morning, as of 0610 PST, Kyle is at mile 191.1, and Courtney is at mile 190.3.   Less than a mile separates them.  From the split trends it look like Kyle is holding pace, and Courtney is slowing.   Third place is at 158.8.    Wish I was out at Tahoe to see this unfold in person.  The 200’s are still relatively fringe in the ultra community, but their coverage and participation is growing, as 100’s become more popular and are filling up.  I’ve heard some people say “200 is the new 100.”     I can only imagine the mental and physical state that one is in after going for that long.

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My dogs got skunk sprayed yesterday – the third time in about six months.  We were on a walk at Fort Ord in the late afternoon, and they went into the bush and came out all watery-eyed, drooling, and stinky.   Funny observation:  one of them (Grizz) was flipping out and flopping around in the dirt trying to get the stuff off of him.  If I didn’t know that it was a skunk I’d have thought he was having a seizure.  The other (Pig) had an eye swollen shut and was drooling all over the place, but didn’t seem to care.  He was smiling and panting and just went on with his walk, tail wagging.

This being the third time it’s happened, its starting to become not that big a deal.  The skunk smell is pungent, but there are worse smells out there.   When we got home I gave em a tomato-juice scrub and then soaped them up with Dawn, and it took most of the edge off the skunk smell.  They still smell skunky, but it’s a little more subtle.   Almost smells like garlic.

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I had a big training run yesterday, almost six hours of running.  Lots of climbing too, and it was hot.   I am less then three weeks out from the Bear 100 miler.  I have the normal training-fatigue right now from putting in a good amount of miles and hours, but I’ve been feeling strong in the later parts of long runs.   Some minor aches and pains in the body, including the hip, but nothing concerning.   The timing of this block is somewhat inconvenient, as it coincides with the main phase of my thesis writing, but I’ve been managing to juggle both.   Gonna head into school today to try to get a solid 6-8 hrs of writing in, and hopefully finish up another chapter.  I’d rather run for 6-8 hrs than spend it on thesis work, but so it goes.

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Final note for this week, but probably the most significant.  Actually… it’s definitely the most significant.  The word is out to the families, so I’m fine putting out in this forum.   Allie is pregnant with our #2; we’ve known that for about 5 or 6 weeks now.   And last week she got the results of her first blood test back, and it looks like it’s going to be a boy.  So Finley will have a little brother come Mar.   She had an ultrasound this past thursday and we got the first images.  Right now he’s only about the size of a small pickle, or large egg (cage-free of course), or oblong tomato, or medium sized pinecone….take your pick.   A little hard to make out much from this initial ultrasound  image, but I can see a little head and body.   We’re both very excited and looking forward to this process and welcoming this little guy to the family.