How a headset should not look...

Training Ride #3: Success!!

We headed out to one of my all-time favorite rides in the Vancouver area today. I call it the Happy Valley Ride, or the Lakes and Rivers Ride, or the Lakes, Valleys, and Waterfalls ride. But really, take your pick, because there's all of that and more. It was a bit of a late start (2PM), made later by essential stops at the Laughing Bean, Tim Hortons, and the finally the drive out to our favorite parking spot beside Whannock Elementary (park back in Maple Ridge to make this a +100km affair).

We got rolling without much ado, and freewheeled down to Stave Lake Dam. There we stripped down for the climb up to, well, the very well signed landfill site. Fortunately, there was a lone hiker at the bottom ready to cheer us on… and probably wonder at what the hell we were doing out there… and where our husbands could have disappeared to (at this point, I'm counting).

Miracle Valley, Mission, BC

Our three-member train then made its way to Miracle Valley, stopping at a bizarre minature house which Jenn felt compelled to climb. The descent into Miracle Valley always puts a smile on my face, it can get a little too fast, and a little too pretty. Everyone should ride around Miracle Valley. Wait. Don't. I want it for myself. Go to Cascade Falls instead, we'll see you there.

At Cascade Falls we ate our Tim's sandwiches, stretched a little, basked in the sun with cold rocks on the backside, and then continued on. The entire day was a little chilly and overcast, and faffing about was kept to a minimum. With what seemed to me a perpetual tail-wind and setting sun, we finished up the last 30km's zig-zagging down to Lougheed Hwy and back up into the hills of Mission to visit Silvermere Lake and Whannock Lake, getting back to the car at 6:45.

No ride is complete without a discussion on post-ride food. There is only one thing to say on this topic: I did not get my A&W onion rings! Oh, and a piece of sage advice. If you're making a post ride salad, and you are faced with the decision of adding chicken breast or Scottish kippers for protein. Please, please, please… don't add both. It really doesn't work.

VIDEO!

Short cranks: short-term solution for hip labral tear?

Given not biking is not an option, here is what I've come up with: Short cranks are my new best friend

Look here, I could get a whole 5 degrees of hip-angle-opening-joy by forfeiting a mere 5 mm in crank length! Imagine if I gave up 10 mm of crank length. My knees might also get to enjoy to 'friendlier' range of motion associated with the shorter cranks. 

I'm comforted that according to Sheldon Brown, there "doesn't seem to be any deleterious effect from shorter cranks" I assume he means physiologically, and not in terms of race performance. 

I've never given too much thought to crank length, but now that I am, I don't know why I didn't use shorter cranks when I was struggling to get into a proper aero/TT position in my triathlon days. My thighs would come uncomfortably close to my chest. Perhaps that tight hip angle contributed to my current predicament, a superior anterior labral tear and detachment.

Would you rather...

Like the fire channel... but better

2013 'World's Most Unfriendliest/Friendliest' Countries

Friendliest
1. Iceland 6.8
2. New Zealand 6.8
3. Morocco 6.7
4. Macedonia, FYR 6.7 (yay)
5. Austria 6.7
6. Senegal 6.7
7. Portugal 6.6
8. Bosnia and Herzegovina 6.6 (yay)
9. Ireland 6.6
10. Burkina Faso 6.6

Unfriendliest
1. Bolivia 4.1
2. Venezuela 4.5
3. Russian Federation 5.0
4. Kuwait 5.2
5. Latvia 5.2
6. Iran 5.2
7. Pakistan 5.3
8. Slovak Republic 5.5
9. Bulgaria 5.5
10. Mongolia 5.5

As seen here...