Big Day, plus news, etc. (long post)

Here I am, back in the blog-o-sphere, and taking a time out to update the world on everything going on out here. Today was all-in-all a decent day. Still have next week with 4 final exams, 2 presentations / demonstrations, but today was big progress.

This summer I'm taking a 'Fuel Cells' course. It basically consists of learning how fuel cells work, what they are good for and why we may need to put effort into learning and advancing this technology. Part of the course is a lab, and in that lab, my group's assignment is to build a real fuel cell. I'm talking hydrogen fuel cell here. Sounds pretty far out, and dare I say-futuristic or amazingly complicated? You may think it is complicated, but it's actually quite simple, and finally today, on week 7 out of 8, we connected our fuel cell to the H₂ gas line.

Keith & Jeff and I were pretty much worried sick about the whole thing and even though we still probably would have done a good job in the eyes of Bob, the professor, if it didn't work, it would be a bit de-moralizing. The cell was pretty much finished on Monday, and we planned to do final assembly it and connect it to the gas today. The first step was assembling it. Keith and Jeff were basically chomping at the bit to get this thing together, and I was like, cool it boys, we don't have to rush this process here (because they were almost shaking they were so focused on getting this thing together). It got together, and we did a pressure test (w/ about 7 PSI) and it was not successful. One of our electrodes needed to be sealed up. We sealed it and re-connected the electrode. No problem, sealed ready to go. Then Keith got a little excited and as he was tightening one of the gas valves, broke the electrode off. Luckily, the screwed in part was still threaded in the plexi glass (only way to fix this, is to re-build this half of the cell (photos are coming soon, I promise). Luckily we could still measure the voltage using a needle tip multi-meter. So we were still OK to continue.

Next step: Connect gas. We are connecting pure oxygen to one end, and hydrated hydrogen in the other end. We were putting the hydrogen through a erlymeyer flask with warm/hot water, because the middle layer of the fuel cell requires hydration to work optimally. So we finally got everything connected, I put my goggles on (because we've had explosions in the lab before during this process), and turned on the gas. There was no explosion, but instead of injecting hydrated gas go into the fuel cell, the hydrator that we connected sent water at about 5psi into our fuel cell. We (I) hooked up the hydrator wrong. So that wasn't the best case, and we could have very well been ruined right there. In hindsight, this may have acutaly helped us, because it ensured that our nafion was really hydrated. (Nafion: the expensive part of the fuel cell)

When we finally got the hydrogen running through our fuel cell we measured a no load voltage of 997 mV (the perfect ideal voltage for a hydrogen fuel cell is 1.229 volts). We were pretty stoked and it pretty much made the term, so far. Alot went in to building this thing and even though the design is pretty simple, it is a pretty cool project. I will get photos up.

- The other summer school project is a pretty cool system we're building for Motors class. Someone (me) had the idea to attach some kind of contraption to a bike wheel to generate useful power. We attached magnets the rim, and those magnets pass by a couple of coils, which create a voltage that lights low voltage super high intesity LEDs. It works pretty well, and we are finalizing our design, and once I have the pics downloaded you'll see them here (or on my flickr site).

- Friday I'm bike racing. Finally. Unbelievably it's the first bike race of 2008 for me and it's none other than the Portland twilight criterium, cat 3, 6:30 pm. I might be off the back, but not without a fight. There's $3000 purse, so it might just be the Pacific northwest Cat 3 world championships. Should be fun...

- We've been stocking up on blueberry's every weekend, and our freezer is about full of them. If anyone has any suggestions on long term berry storage let me know, because I think they tend to ice up in the freezer. We already made about 8 cans of JAM, and a pretty awesome pie.

- The garden is doing really well. The highlight so far have been lots of green beens, and in a few weeks we are going to have WAY more tomatoes than we will know what to do with. We have 3 corn stalks, and the some of the sunflowers are about 9 feet tall.

- Going to MN over laborday weekend, but leaving out of seattle. We got tickets to the Mariners at Safeco field, and they play none-other-than, the Twins, so I'm super stoked about that, especailly since the twins continue to kick ass, even though they trade all their good players, like Johan Santana an Torii Hunter. I'll be the one w/ the Joe Mauer T-shirt on in section 139.

- Tonight the Statics teacher bought pizza for the class. Pretty nice dude, thanks Joey.

- Tonight, to celebrate the last statics lecture, went to the witchita pub w some classmates. I biked there, and the other 5 renewable energy students each drove seperately. (We are renewable energy students, not energy conservation students I guess).

- Bike commuting is in full effect: Get this: in July, Laurie and I didn't get gas in the car. We did in June, (and we did a huge road trip to Montana in June, so we got alot of gas in June), but during July, we didn't need to get gas once in either the subaru, or the rally car. Take that OPEC. I don't know when the last time that happened in this household but I think it was a long, long time ago, and maybe never.

- That's it. Now the schedule is: work then school on Thursday, work then bike race on Friday, homework / study on sat-sun, one final on Monday, two finals on Wed, one on Thur, then the two presentations / demos on Friday. Then no school till sept 29th. woo hoo!

Breaking News...

This must be a record for new blog posts for me... What is this like 3 in a week? The news today was just too important not to pass on. I just saw on Velonews that old friend and current pro bike racer (in Europe) Kori Seehafer (was Kori Kelly) won a world cup event in Sweden. Click here for the link! I think she's trying to get selected for the olympics which would be totally awesome. Go KORI!

I went to college with Kori at NDSU and we were even house-mates for a summer. She started bike racing with the club at NDSU right around the time I did... now she's pro and kicking ass, and I'm back in college. go figure...

Electrolysis

School is about it these days. Still have a job, and that tends to get in the way of academics, which seems to be the priority these days. Still running, but the race schedule is a bit up in the air right now. Some good experiments going on in electro-chemistry. If you've noticed the photos in the flickr side bar, we built a Cu-Zn daniels cell, that measured 1.05 volts. So it worked, but it really wasn't that exciting. Yesterday, things got a bit more exciting. We built an electrolyzer, to capture hydrogen, and see how much we could get out of some KOH (potassium hydroxide). Well, it was working really good with while pumping about 2.5 volts in there. We were getting way more bubbles than I thought we would, so I guess you could say the experiment was a success. Next week we'll take more precise measurements. Here's a rough diagram of our design:So there you have it. But that's not the end of the story.

We asked Bob (professor) if there was a safe way we could 'light' the hydrogen. (Heck, it was already mixed with oxygen right there for us) He said "well, not really", in a sort of confused tone. Problem was, my lab partners were focused on this endeavor, to light the gas. (even though it was not part of our thesis for this experiment.) Somehow I think they must have thought it would burn like natural gas on the stove, you know gently. I thought more along the lines of the hindenburg. So, with goggles on, (lab partner 1), [aside: lab partner 1 has a few tatoos, and he has 1 behind each ear, on the left, is a whispering devil, and on the right is a whispering angel] borrows (lab partner 2) lighter, and proceeds to "burp" the hydrogen up (think like your farting in the bathtub). I was already back about 5 feet with my arms shielding my head, when all of a sudden this Super loud POP, and lab partner 1 drops the beaker (didn't break), but it did give us a good scare, and I think my life flashed before my eyes for a second. We apologized to Bob for being wildly inappropriate, and I think he might give future classes a brief lecture on safety (or maybe just common sense). No one got hurt, so we got a little bit of a laugh out of it.

Today we had the midterm in Circuits. It wasn't too bad. The final will be much harder according to Mateo (Mateo=professor, see link on right). A couple of weeks ago he showed us a computer program he wrote to predict the price of stocks. Today while we were taking our midterm, he filed a patent application for something that was related to platforms for collecting and analyzing biomedical research. He's also 27 years old, so I guess you could say he's pretty smart. Great guy to learn from here at OIT. He also assigned to us what he told us is about 15 hours worth of homework for next week (class meets once/week). Hmm. I have tomorrow and Friday set to work at my job, Saturday afternoon is Diff. Eq (yea saturday class what the hell is that?), Sunday i guess I know what I'll be doing. (NOT BLOGGING that's for sure.)

Next week is the MT HOOD CYCLING classic. Last year it was an awesome experience, racing with the cat 3s, and this year, well, the only riding I'm doing is bike commuting, so no racing next week for me. Laurie however is going to be volunteering with doping controls, to see if she can catch some of those doped up cyclists. And the first 2 stages are here in Portland this year!!!! Tuesday the prologue is going to be downtown, and it should be spectacular. I however, will be in class.

hosta la veesta.

Next weekend: Cascade

Last year I completed the Cascade Classic (Cat 3), and managed to finish, but it wasn't very good. I'm hoping to be a little closer to the front, maybe top 20? Last year I was giving blood every week, so I was just a little bit off, as would be expected. We'll see how the Time trial goes on Friday. I ran a 1/2 marathon on the 4th, up at Sauvie Island. It was pretty big (over 1500 finishers), and it was a pretty hot day (at least a couple people required medical assistance.) I ran a steady race, finishing in just under 1:23. Not my PR, but pretty close.

And the Tour started today, on 7/7/07!

Mt Hood stage race - cat 3

I've been slacking in the blogging department lately, but I had a stage race last weekend, and we've been moving to Portland and it's been busy.

Last weekend was the Mt Hood stage race. I did it last year, in the cat 4 division, and this year I was in the Cat 3s. The field was strong, and about 80+ strong to start the race. On Thursday there was a 66 mile circuit race that consisted of 3.5 laps around a course that was about 18 miles. 9 uphill and 9 down. We went up the hill 4 times, and each time the main pack got smaller. There weren't any real break aways, just some tempo riding at the front. I did not ride at the front that much, until the last lap, when I sprinted ahead of the field for about 30 seconds. It wasn't really an attempt at breaking away, Just a surge or whatever. Then I went back in the pack, and stayed in until about 1 kilometer to go, when the pack slowly pulled away and shattered. I ended up 28th and about 1.5 minutes back from the winner. It was Therapeutic Associates teammate Scott Gray who won the stage, so that meant he was in the leaders jersey, and he would be the last to start in the next days individual time trial. Sweet!

Back when I did triathlons I think I was a pretty good time trialer, because I rode alone, alot. Now I do alot of group rides, and few solo rides out in the wind. So my time trail skills are not on par with where they maybe should be. I got passed by 4 people (we started 30 seconds apart, so do the math) and finished the TT over 6 minutes behind the winner of the TT, but I only moved down one spot in the GC (overall standings) so that wasn't all bad I guess. oh yes it was I was 52nd in the ITT.

The big day was Saturday, 89 miles in 90 degree heat through the mountains east of Mount Hood. It was super tough and my teammate spencer and I almost were dropped on one of the climbs in the middle of the race. The pace was hard, on the uphills and people were getting dropped on most of the climbs. The downhills were easy, and I was surprised that nobody pulled through, to increase the pace. Most of the downhills were straight open roads and we were going fast, but there was constant breaking, which got a little annoying. By the time there was 20 miles to go, there were probably 30 people left, and one guy off the front by minutes (he would win the stage). I was not cramping, so I guess I drank enough, but I knew I was feeling it, but I think everyone else was tired too. Scott (teammate) dropped his chain with about 15k to go, so I waited for him and pulled him back to the pack. It was nice of me to do, but I think he would have made it back anyway. He was still in the top 10 overall, and stood to move up in the GC because he's a great climber. I held on to the pack until about 5k to go when the race got really hard and turned onto the road that goes up to the Mt Hood meadows parking lot. I limited my losses, and finished in 26th just over 7.5 minutes back from the leader, and I beat pro mountain biker Evan Plews. If you're pro, and you don't want to have some no-name cat 3 say that they beat you on their blog, then you should be racing with the big boys, and the other pro mountain bikers like Carl Decker. I moved into the top 25 after Saturday's road race.

On sunday was the criterium, and our team (Therapeutic Associates) won all of the primes. The crit course was super fun, but there were crashes, all which seemed pretty minor. I suffered in the back of the pack, when I should have been in the front, because I think it's easier riding in the front, with less braking into the corners, and less chasing out of them.

So the race was a success, but I need to time trail faster. I used my old bike w/ areo bars and a disc wheel and still lost more than 6 minutes (in the end of the 4 days I was less than 12 minutes behind). Laurie got some pictures of my back in the criterium, and I'll post those if I can find the camera cord after we are finished moving to Portland (we move for good on Monday June 11th). I'm planning to do the cat 3 Cascade classic in July in Bend.

Later Skaters.

Par II. Eric Freaking Martin.

Raced in the mbsef par for the course II today, and it went all right. Last year, former XC oregon skier and world cup skier Dave Stewart had the fastest time in 26 and change. This year Eric Martin went 25 flat!! on the same course as far as I could tell. He started before me, so he did not pass me on the course, otherwise I might have been able to tackle or trip him up, but he still probably would have skied under 26. He rides bike fast too. He could be pro skier or biker I think. He is a very nice guy to top it all off. As for my results, I went less than a minute slower than last year (but just under 5 minutes slower than Mr. Martin), so I guess that's not too bad after 35 phlebotomies in the last 39 weeks. I felt better than expected and, based on what I learned last week, I don't have to give blood this week, so I'll find out 4 sure on Tuesday at 4:00pm pst.

We went on a road ride this afternoon, it's like 55 or so degrees. Pretty sweet when you can get up in the morning go skiing where there's 11+ feet of snow, and come back down and road ride in the warm sun. Bend is a pretty excellent place to be outside during this time of year. But. There still a high percentage of idiot pickup truck and SUV drivers here. Today they were out in force, along w/ loud motorcycle riders. In fact, some of the pickup encounters today, reminded of a time in college when we went south for spring break for the purpose of riding our bikes, to get out of the wintery North Dakota flat lands to none other than Arkansas. We were actually yelled at by some hillbillies in a pickup. They saw us riding our bikes on the road, and didn't like it, and yelled: "That's illegal as shit", in reference to our riding on the road. To this day I still can't believe it; it was pretty scary, because down there, they have shotguns. We didn't get yelled at today but were honked at, and they didn't give us too much extra room.

Newsflash: Season is over

Well, it was a long season, but it's over! That's right, The 2006 season is in the books. Ness said, "It was a tough desicion to forgo the final race in the Thrilla in the Milla cyclocross series, but it's been a long season. It started out really good, and I had good results at Mt Hood, but after the weekly phlebotomies started, it was tough to keep the intesity up." Ness continued to race through weekly phlebotomies racing in some of the weekly bendcycling.org weekly criteriums and as a Cat 3 in the Cascade classic stage race in his current place of residence, Bend, Oregon.

Ness plans a full comeback next year in his first full season as a Cat 3 racer in Oregon. Since June 5th, Ness has been undergoing treatment for Hemochromatosis, a genetic condition that causes the body to store extra iron. As of today he's undergone 18 phlebotomies, and it looks like treatment could last into 2007. Ness plans to do some ski racing this winter, with possible plans for the Birkie in Feb. and the National Masters in March.

In other local news, Ness's wife Laurie recently returned from Paraguay on a trip for operation smile. Click here for a flickr slideshow.

(*** uh, yea, this was about my racing season for 2006 - There might be other events -mac forest 15k trail run-, but for the most part, it's over, just like the Twins) the blog will continue though. There are some rumors of a site re-design and a new URL (nessski.com??) wait and see!

Back from Minnesota

For the past week I was back in Minnesota for some work, and also visiting friends and family. It was a fabulous weekend. I really miss going 'up to the lake' in Minnesota, so when I do get the chance to go up there now, it's pretty nice.

It was a real good trip. I even did a mountain bike race. Highlight is below (yea that's me on a borrowed schwinn homegrown singlespeed, and no, I wasn't hurt.) I went to the Laddies Loppet mountain bike race at Maplelag up in northern minnesota. It was super fun, and pretty hard too. There was alot of singletrack on trails that didn't produce any dust! Imagine that! This photo ended up on skinny ski dot com.

skinnyski.com photo

I took a ton of photos, but I have some major computer problems before I can get them organized and uploaded. So you'll just have to hold on!

also, I drained pint #13 today. And I only have 2 more to go to have put 1 gallon into the blood bank at the red cross. They're happy, and hopefully some people who need it are getting my O neg blood.

bye

Cascade Classic Day 2-3

On to the Time trial. Since my weekly trips to the blood bank, one of the things I've noticed is my recovery times seemed a bit longer. Well after going all out the day before, it was time for a morning time trial (only 6.5+ miles) with a start time at 9:04:30am. It went OK, well except for the fact that like 3 people passed me. That was kindof a drag, and it didn't really seem like I was able to get all of my power on the pedals. One of the top objectives for next season is to improve the time trialing. I didn't finish last, but i was bottom 10.

On to the Criterium. Lining up for the start:

So if we had to follow that guy all day, it might have been a bit stinkier. The GTO lead out the first lap, and it smelled like a combination of burning rubber, and super hot exhaust that didn't really smell like normal car exaust. Maybe more like race car exhaust, I'm not sure. Anyway, the GTO lasted for 1 lap, and we had to go for 50 minutes around a downtown course of about .7 miles. This kind of racing has it all, it's fast, fun, scary, intense, hard, and fun for everybody to watch. I had alot of people cheering for me, so it seemed, and all I heard was "Go Ryan!, Start moving up!" on almost every lap. So when I heard that I didn't want to look back, because i might have been the last in line. The fact was, I was constantly trying to move up, but I just couldn't get more than about 1/3 of the way to the front. There were prime laps (where you sprint for a prize) like every 3rd lap it seemed, so the pace was pretty relentless. I wish I knew our average speed, because we were flying. I finished in the pack, again making it a step closer for the goal for the weekend. Finish (No DNF), and don't be DFL.

Sunday would bring a circut race with 4 laps around a common training loop west of Bend. I've ridden these roads many times, and that should have played to my advantage. Well, it was pretty cool to know the course real well, as the majority of the field was from out of town. Next year I'm going to use that to my advantage more. I made it one lap and then I got dropped. I did too much work at the front of the pack early, and then on a steep climb (Archie Briggs road), I just couldn't hang on. I rode the last 3 laps solo, to make it in 3rd from last on the stage. (oh well, bottom podium) I made it through my 3rd and hardest (by far) stage race, and my 1st Cat 3 races and I didn't finish last. But I finished. The 5 units of blood I lost in the last 6 weeks was definatly a factor. 6 weeks ago I was approaching top shape, and during the last 6 weeks I couldn't train with the intensity I had in April and May. I'm really determined to come back full blood and de-ironed next year, and plan to come out swinging. Watch out.

Until then I think I'll do some yard work.

Cascade Classic: Day1

The first (of 4) stage of the Cascade classic took us through some pretty good scenery. Photo of the CAT 3 pack going down the first descent after a 4 mile climb to start the race. The 1st stage was a 74 mile road race that started out with a tough 4 mile climb to the base of Mt. Bachelor. That went OK, and was followed by a long descent (later to be climbed) and about 50 miles of rolling hills through pine tree lined roads. The course was like a lolly pop with an out and back, with a loop in the middle. It was in the 80s or 90s, a really hot day, and it was made worse by a tail wind on the return, so there was not as much wind blowing through the 'peleton'.

I started this race with 2 water bottles, one with HEED and one with water. My lack of training in the mid-day heat was evident in the choice to only bring 2 bottles. I would later pay for that in the last 10 kilometers of this race.

I was dropped on the last climb, and at 2 points had to stop because my hamstrings were cramping up. I did make it to the finish line with a smile. There were many casualties on the last climb and I was only one of them. My first CAT3 race went OK, and with more water, I could have placed a bit better, and who knows what the 5 pints of blood that I've lost in the last 6 weeks have done.

Day 2 includes a 7 mile TT and a 50 minute downtown Crit.