Mmmm... a taste of the Pacific Northwest.

Hello from the GVRD, the Greater Vancouver Regional District

First Lookout, Cypress Mountain

Have you ever found yourself pre-occupied with thoughts of food, or is it just me? The other day I was down in Steveston

when the thought of an egg with ham and melted cheese on toast suddenly appeared from out of nowhere, persistent as fuck. I couldn't think of anything else for almost thirty kilometers until finally I got home and satisfied my craving. A few weeks ago I stepped on the scale, and the damned thing announced that I weighed 163 lbs. Holy crap. I am seriously dense. At that weight I should be six feet tall but instead of growing up, I'm already shrinking. I was surprised to see the number, but not really shocked. The clothes speak truth. If you've already guessed that I don't use the scale much, you're right. It's ancient, and it probably doesn't even tell the truth. Sometimes it gets stuck at zero and you have to jump on it a few times to get it to tell you anything at all. It babbles not. The only reason I stepped on it in the first place is that my clothes were feeling uncomfortably snug and I wanted to quantify how snug. It's bad. The last time I weighed anywhere north of 160 I'd not long ago born a babe.

But my shoulder is stabilized, and I've been riding again, blessed be. And suddenly I am not quite so fat. Yesterday that scale read 156 when I (literally!!) jumped on it. I don't feel much different yet, but it's encouraging, in any event.

#pinkgoesfaster

And everyone knows that getting rid of fat is to some extent a function of getting fit. For me the fitness is essential for all sorts of good reasons, and helping burn those pesky calories I so love to consume is just one of them. And I love to share my passion with other people. Road racing season is over. I miss riding with my fast friends. Many of them have switched to Cross Country, or CX. I would love to join in the fun, but it would probably take me about half an hour to dislocate or break something, so I'll have skip the whole cross thing. But damn. People are mad for the sport. Seriously. It does something to a person, something I would love to discover firsthand, but it isn't meant to be, not now, not ever. I intend to spend some time at the track this year, though it won't be a full training program, so you'll find me doing the #dawnpatrol,

and as often as not, looping Stanley Park first thing in the morning. Sometimes I even have company! There's a group of cyclists who meet weekday morningsfor a gentle SPloop or two before they stop at an interesting coffee shop or bakery. It's called IndieJavaFest, and if you're interested in joining, just shoot me an email and I will ask the administrator to add you to the mailing list. Ooooooor you can just come to Stanley Park at stoopid o'clock. Strava has a new feature that allows you to see where your friends are at the moment. I'll track my rides with my phone so you can find me. And please do, at least this month. Because company is good, and meeting other people who like to ride bikes always floats my boat.

Bikes and boats: an easy fit.

So food. Being fat sucks cause suddenly I start thinking about food at the strangest times. Does that ever happen to you? My little guy is always hungry, too, and sometimes it shocks me how much he can eat, but he's growing up leaps and bounds- he's a full six inches taller than he was a year ago!! He has an excuse, while I am just pre-occupied with food. I dunno about you, but I've noticed that when I eat too many carbs I put on weight. Sugar is especially bad, something to do with the insulin response. I need to eat more protein and fewer sugars and carbs in order to drop any weight. But sugar is an analgesic and I Love analgesics. Sugar makes babies feel better when given orally, and I can testify that it sure works a charm in prolotherapy injections. I love sugar, evil as it is to my waistline. But then I love all sorts of foods. The trick is to eat more of the good foods and fewer sugar infested treats. 'Cept when I'm riding hard. Then I do eat all of those yummy, sugary carbs and I enjoy them guilt free until my jeans get tight.

Steveston

I credit having lost a few pounds this month to my renewed morning rides, and to enjoying more of my favourite savoury foods, and fewer sweet ones. Oh, and I also avoided alcohol quite adamantly when I was unwell, but less so as my health improved. I tried to quit, but damned it, quitting is for quitters. Summer is all about salads, right? I have a quest in life which I truly indulge during the hottest months of the year. One day, I will discover the ultimate seafood salad. But the year is most definitely on the wane now. Summer is over.

Autumn heralds the beginning of soup season, and I have a definite favourite when it comes to making soup. We were at the Washington Avenue Grill the day after the memorial service for my uncle, and both my brother and I ordered the hot pots, he the vegetarian, and me the seafood version. After trying it, both my adult son and his girlfriend exclaimed that mine is much better. It probably speaks unsavoury things about my personality, but THAT bit was my favourite moment of the whole weekend. I keep meaning to record creating my favourite recipes for you, only damn!! It's complicated and time consuming creating those little YouTube movies, and time? Time is precious. Specially when I am riding enough to keep my serotonin levels where I need them.

But you really should try this. It's yummy.

Babble's Hot Pot

3-4 generous tbs butter or coconut oil
1 jumbo sweet onion diced
3 sticks of celery diced
4-6  med potatoes diced
3-4 large carrots, grated
2+ tbs cilantro (coriander) leaf paste - (Gormet Garden is great) or one bunch of fresh
2+ tbs lemon grass (Gormet Garden again) or a big handful of fresh, 1" pieces
juice of one lemon
1 can coconut milk
4 cubes organic chicken stock and water to taste
1-2 lbs protien of choice (I prefer a combination of prawns, scallops, and cod, but you can use any fish you like, or even chicken if you prefer)
* a few slices bacon (cut into small strips with kitchen scissors) is optional, especially if you are using chicken. If you choose this route, I recommend skipping the shredded carrots and adding sweetlet peas a few minutes before serving.
pinch of cayenne pepper

Sautee the onions, celery, potatoes and carrots, (and the bacon bits and chicken now if you are going that route) and add the herbs and spices, the lemon and finally, when it is hot hot hot, add the stock. Cook the soup till the potatoes are soft, and then add the fish and the coconut milk (and the peas if you are doing chicken) for the final few minutes, so that it is just gently cooked.

Sooooo good.  Mmmm. And good for you, too. Did you know that coconut oil is very good for your cardiovascular systems, despite its being a saturated fat? Very cool. And it tastes great, too.

Do you have a go-to recipe, a favourite food? I have a few. People tell me that they're yummy, so you should try them. I love love love an almond or cashew milk matcha latte in the morning, almost every morning. Again it's so good, and so good for you. McDonalds is damned, because the very best tasting foods are always full of tasty fresh ingredients. The fresher the better. Maybe one day soon I will turn my phone's camera on the proceedings so you can try it, too. Ha. Ok, so true confession time. The Sound Check video makes me cringe, so I am reluctant to capture anything else. Sigh. But then I used to be afraid to cross the Lions Gate Bridge, too, only I've done it so many times now that I don't even think about it, except to curse all of that damned fat as I crawl up the incline slow as molasses in a Moscow January. #Icandothis

It has been absolutely gorgeous here in Vancouver of late. Perfect riding weather, the best ever. Everything is quiet at the club for some reason. Used to be we had a Tuesday night ride and a Saturday ride, too. That, a stoopid o'clock or few and the Vets on Sunday and Bob's yer uncle. My #dailygrind sorted. I really should be at the track, working on my #legspeed. Oops. Sorry bout that. I get #carriedaway sometimes. I have a bad case of #hashtagitis.#Ihavespentwaytoomuchtimeonline  #OMG!!! #ohhelpIcan'tstop!!!

Oh thank God. I did it, #atleastfornow.We had a mini holiday on the Sunshine Coast last weekend, riding from Kits to Horseshoe Bay, and then ferrying to Langdale before finally stopping in Gibsons. We spent the night out on the water. The next morning we explored the town for a little while, too. We stopped at a few places, but my favourite was Gospel Rock.

There is nothing quite so deeply blue as the reflection of the sky in the waters of the mighty Pacific ocean. It was the perfect day to ride. So what do you think? Would you care to join me? I love that so many of you, my one hundred readers, are situated all over the planet. If ever you find yourself here in Vancouver, please do look me up, so that I can share with you the city I love so dearly.

Iona Beach

I can't wait to show you my favourite rides. I am going to push the lot of you to come here next August for sure, but really I would love to see you any time. Oh here we go. Oh Help... I can't ... stop... #cometovancouver! #joinme  #babblerides #friendsdontletfriendsgetfat #ridewithme #rideyourworriesaway #letsplay

The weight is over. This year, less is more - more or less.

OMG! Where did the time go? I can't believe it's almost 2015. Seems like just yesterday we were down on the beach, hanging out in the sunshine!

I should really stay away from New Year's resolutions at all costs, cause they are nothing more than a recipe for failure.  The last couple of years I tried to quit swearing, but I just can't fucking do it. This year is different. This year I am joining the masses, as it were.  In 2015 I am going to shed a few pounds. Sure, almost everybody wants to lose a little weight. Every New Year, millions upon millions of people resolve to eat healthier, and to exercise more, and that's why the diet industry is worth billions of dollars. And even though I am not carrying a whole lot of fat round the middle, I do want to lose some weight. Five pounds. I want to lighten the load by five pounds.

It's not going to be easy. Or cheap. Some people say it costs as much as a thousand dollars a pound when you're dealing with a hefty, big boned frame like mine. 

Where to begin? The frame isn't going anywhere. Not yet, anyway. And I took care of the seat post last week. What about the crank? There's a few ounces in that baby, for sure. But it's soooooo pretty. I love my Campy crank... it looks like a flower.  See?

But it's metal, and that means it weighs more than crabon.  And this year I resolve to lighten up, so at least for the moment, it's gotta go.  Luckily for me, one very kind and generous soul happened to have a crabon fiber crank laying around in his parts bin, and he very generously donated it toward the lighten up babble project. Blessed be.

Zipp Speed Weaponry - truly a weapon of MASS destruction

It even has ceramic bearings.  How cool is that?! Never mind that until a few days ago I didn't even know that there was such a thing as ceramic bearings for a crank.

These ceramic babies have a lot of bearing on my overall weight.

My friend very kindly offered up some deep dish carbon wheels, too, though only the front wheel is compatible with my bike and its eleven speed Campagnolo groupset.

She's helping, too, only she's shedding hair instead of weight.

I need all the help I can get. I'd have passed on the wheel, but on January 1st, 2015, Escape Velocity is holding a two-up Time Trial on River Road, and as you should always begin the year as you mean to continue, I intend to go out there and give it my very best, bum knee n'all. They're giving teams with girls on them a handicap, and I have always avoided thinking of myself as someone with a handicap, but today I am happy to claim one.

Me and my handy cap.

I have always loved pretty things, too, and yet my precious Ti Baby has become a frankenbike for the sake of a ride which means nothing at all in the grand scheme of things, but matters to me as the best way to begin a brand new year.  What's become of me?!

Cat 1? Naaah. One Cat.

Never would have guessed in a million years that I'd care about shaving weight off a bike. I don't even weigh myself! My bathroom scales have siezed up, so rarely do I use them, and when I bought Ti Baby I chose titanium because other than the odd Gran Fondo, I planned to use the bike to do some touring in the summer. I chose something light but sturdy. Now I dream of riding one of those fifteen pound Fred Chariots, and I hardly recognise the person I see looking back at me from the mirror.

I have become everything that my hero Snobi Wan despises.  I am a stravaddicted weight weenie who loves nothing more than the Saturday club ride, and the Tuesday night criteriums. Yet the one thing I know for certain is that happiness is never 'out there' somewhere. It always comes from acceptance, especially self acceptance, and from finding peace in the moment. So in the end, who cares what people think of me? Lol!! In fact, maybe they should all take a page out of my book and lighten up a little. :D

But who knows? Maybe I'm just being lb foolish.  I'll let you know how tomorrow's race goes.
Thanks for joining me on this beautiful journey, peeps. I hope you enjoy the happiest of new years!

The year of living dangerously.

What. A year. As always you'll have found me mugging it up for the camera throughout. It was a big one, 2014, and scary at times, too.

January started off with a bang when I went into sinus arrest and found myself in the Cardiac Unit at VGH after drinking some tea which disagreed with me.

In June, I crashed and burned on the Vets' Ride in Richmond, destroying both my scapula and my clavicle in one fell swoop.

The spectacle

It was way past time to bone up on my skillz, so I shouldered on and joined the guys at Escape Velocity, once I'd spent the summer healing up, that is.

My shoulder is much more stable now, but this body is nothing if not unpredictable, and for the last month I have been struggling with a very painful knee. The doctors even kept talking about trying to save the joint.  !!

They say cannabis makes for great pain relief, but this is NOT my idea of a swell joint!

It looks as if the doctors succeeded in their mission, fingers crossed, cause most of the tissue swelling is gone now, blessed be. But the bones themselves are still enlarged. Who knew bones could swell?! Er... never mind! That kind swelling is strictly on a a knee-d to know basis.

It's funny. Even though it hurts something fierce sometimes, and even though I was lucky just to have survived the 2014, I really do love my life.  Seriously. What a gift!! I've been blessed with two gorgeous, kind, sweet, bright sons; I have a remarkably tolerant family; beautiful, wonderful, paitent friends; and the coolest job. Ever. And even though this crazy old body is unbelievably mutarded, it has taught me how to live well, and the pain involved has even made me into a decent athlete. See?  I'm a very lucky woman.  Aaaaaaand, if you ask me what Santa brought for Christmas, I'll smile and tell you it is long and hard, with a knob on top, and  that you can sit on it. Mmmmmm.  That's happy making. :)

You might be a little bit surprised to learn that it's shorter and narrower than the one that it's replacing, and that I'm good with that.

I was surprised to discover that of all of the many the things that happened this year, and of all of the stuff I did, handling the shim was likely amongst the most dangerous of them all.  Really! What, you don't believe me? See for yourself:

You see?  It might look harmless enough, but it's practically a lethal weapon, the shim. 

Cycling can be dangerous, and failure to heed those strident warnings up there "may result in very serious injury or death!"  Even just handling said shim can cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm!  Good thing I've already had my kids.  Poor boys share my defective genes - the last thing they need is some life threatening shim messing things up. And wouldn't you know it? Whilst installing the bloody thing, I didn't wear my hazmat suit. It was at the cleaners.

What a risk taker!

Cycling can be dangerous they say. That's why I like to wear safety shoes as often as possible. When I used to teach kids how to ride horses - now there's a safe sport - we always insisted that they wear a heel so that their foot wouldn't slip through the stirrup, so I like to wear a proper heel to ensure my foot doesn't slip off the pedal.

Safety shoes - they're good for the sole.

Cycling can be dangerous... In this, the year of living dangerously, I couldn't help but notice just how many people driving vehicles were running red lights. Almost every day, I see at least one person in a car run a red, but the real hazard is Vancouver's bus drivers.  In the last month alone, I saw nine separate bus drivers honk their horn, speed up, and run a red - not a stale yellow!!- light.  I kept track of the bus numbers, the times and the routes of the vehicles involved, and after the first two, I wrote to Translink to let them know about what I've seen, and their response was to ask me to keep the details of thier private investigation private.  They asked me not to talk about it. I asked them to ensure that it doesn't happen again, and then I saw seven more drivers do the exact same thing - within a few weeks!  So I'm talking about it. Loudly. In this city living dangerously can mean something as simple as walking across the street with the walk signal. So please, the next time you see some crazy-assed, determined cyclist out there on the roads, trying to get to work and back, please just suspend your judgement for a minute, think about the big picture, and slow down a little.  Cycling can indeed be dangerous, but it doesn't have to be.  Just stop for the lights, and stick to the speed limits, please and thank you.  Cause, y'know what the sticker says... failure to heed these warnings may result in serious injury or death.

Plenty of people think that cycling is a dangerous pastime, even without riding a roadbike, or joining a race team, and sadly, maybe as things stand it actually is. I like the idea of riding safely off into the sunset to live a healthy life - happily ever after...

but humanity is a long, long way from a healthy happy anything. The small boy wanted a snowboard for Christmas, so Santa -mummy indulged him. Only he can't use it yet, because there isn't any snow on the hills. Nothing. None.  De Nada.

Ironic, isn't it?  Sandbags for rising sea levels, and no snow on the mountains. 

But we continue blithely on, consuming without any thought for tomorrow, with cities full of motorists commuting daily, and driving everywhere, all the time. Worse, much of the time it's one person per massive SUV, whilst the tides rise higher and higher around us. Last month the king tide caused damage throughout the lower mainland, and now sandbags seem to be a permanent feature down at Jericho beach. 

Forget bike racing. That's living dangerously. Sit back a minute, and contemplate the big picture. We really are all in this together, and your choices absolutely do make a difference - every single day.

Have hope. The times, they are a changing. This week, a judge awarded a cyclist $100,000 after a confrontation with an angry truck driver who used his vehicle to threaten the men on bikes caused a cyclist to crash. That might not give YOU hope, but it cheers me up immensely. But there's all sorts of evidence that humanity is slowly but surely changing course, if you look closely. Take Medicine Hat, for example. This is a city in Alberta with a history in the natural gas industry dating back over a century, and yet they are facing the future, and embracing renewables. They have installed wind turbines, and even Canada's first solar thermal capture plant in an effort to achieve their 2025 target of supplying 25% of electricity from renewable resources. And even better yet, Toyota has promised to mass produce a hydrogen fuel cell car by 2015.

Who knows? Maybe there's hope for us yet. With any luck... well, and with the courage to make a few unpopular decisions, we can turn this mess around, so that we won't be living quite so dangerously in a few years time.

On being well warned that there will be wear: gearing up for the new season.

The weekend before last looked a lot like this down in Richmond as I chased the guys on the Vet Ride:

Unbeknownst to me, they were actually all behind me at that very moment, but that sure didn't last. Once I did finally hook up with the group,  I only just managed to hang on for twenty minutes or so before I was back to riding lone-wolf-ish. And then once again my road ahead looked just like that. 

I'm not nearly as fast as I like to pretend. 

And evidently I have a very small brain. 

Worse yet, I am naive. 

Someone once said to me "Hey!  Did you know that the word naive isn't in the Oxford English Dictionary?" Believing him, I replied "Wow.  Really?"  Sigh.  I bought in to the slogan Campagnolo wears in, while Shimano wears out, too.  I believed that Campagnolo stands behind it's products no matter what, but don't worry. I learned the error of my ways on that count last year, when my derailleur exploded and took out a few very expensive spokes.

It was ugly.  I cried like a baby.  In public.

 

Why why why?!

You see? It was in the middle of the cluster when it just snapped!  Good thing I wasn't travelling woo hoo speed when it happened. Last year, that bike didn't have anywhere near the sort of mileage on it that it does now, and still. It was maintained, too, that derailleur. I had been in the shop with it only a few days before, having it adjusted, and even so it went boom. I was forced to swallow the cost.  It wasn't pretty.  Well, part of it was still pretty, at least for the moment. Look at how shiny the aluminum on those rims is! Nothing like they look now...  :S

Mmm Vittoria Corsa... forget the scored rims - those wheels will still go fast!

Fast forward a few months and several thousand kilometers, and there I was on the Vet ride last Sunday when the bottom bracket started making a racket the likes of which I've never ever heard before.  It was a crazy squeaking which bordered on a groan, accompanied by an intermittant tick, as if something was loose in there.  It got louder and worse the harder I pushed the bike, and it was consistent with the down stroke on my left pedal.  THAT's what told me that it was my bottom bracket, cause I have had to have it tightened and sealed with lock tight a few times already this winter.

I had just ordered a new drive train, minus the small ring, cause the big ring was looking pretty worn.

 I had taken the bike in for new cables and brake pads, and a general spring tune-up but they said I definitely needed a whole new drive chain.  And the sound of the bottom bracket really worried me, especially since I am never a stranger to catastrophic failure.  I am notoriously hard on things. My last name is Guerin, and it might come as no surprise to you that one wit who knows me well has determined that all things mechanical in my life ought to have a Guerin-tee.  

So it's not surprising, is it, that the inside of the crank looks like this. 

And again you'll find me wondering

WHY WHY WHY?

Or more precicely it leaves me wondering how how how it happened.  These teeth seem to interlock with the teeth from the opposing crank, and yet there is absolutely no corresponding damage on the other side.

The bearings are hardly worn at all, and they should be the first thing to go!  They're fine.  You'd think that if the cranks were loose enough to cause wear and damage that the rest of the teeth would show evidence of the wear, but de nada.  It's very strange.  A mystery.

Sure Snobberdood might mock me, but that's just what he does. The crank is sort of the heart of the bike, and this one leaves me completely baffled. Yep.  It's a mystery.

On the bright side, it gave me a chance to change things up a bit.  I was thinking of getting a  big ring with more teeth, but you know me. I am so dense that hills hurt. Rob at my favourite LBS warned that I really should stick with a compact groupset, so I ordered another 50/34 crank, and a new cluster, too.  Then I took the old gear out for one more spin...

...down south to White Rock to see some of my favourite people, and to make this year's first contact with one of my favourite decks.  Mikeweb called this ride a border skirmish, cause that's Blaine, WA you see over across the drink there.

It was a gorgeous ride. 

I thought I was filming with the GoPro the whole way there, and I was stoked because we saw so many things I wanted  to share with you. The camera was on, the battery draining, but it wasn't filming. I saw the red light when I turned it on, but I didn't bother to check what was happening till we hit water in White Rock. We rode south through Vancouver along the Cypress bike route, then across the Canada Line bridge (my favourite) before we headed east along River Rd (as pictured at the top of the post) to the Alex Fraser bridge.  (That bit was brutal for a girl whose body has its own opinion about heights, btw, but let's not talk about that today, mmmkay?

We took the new Perimeter Rd (hwy 17) from the bridge west-ish to just past where it crosses the 99. I was excited about riding next to Burns Bog dosn there in Delta. It's a good stretch for a hard ride, and I really gave it all I had.  Unfortunately, the segment didn't match, because the dimwit who laid it down meandered all over the place!

I tried to obey all of the posted signage, but damned.  There sure were a lot of them!

From the 99 we headed east on the Ladner Trunk Rd, which parallels the 99.  I wish I had a photo of what we saw along here.  We were riding through farmland and on our left saw a number of birds on the ground all around.  This is one of the best places anywhere around for birding if you're any kind of fan of raptors, because Vancouver's dump is nestled in burns bog up there, in that crook of land between the Perimiter Rd and Hwy 99.  You'll find all SORTS of birds round there, for all sorts of good reasons.  This field was a bit wetish and lots of birds were mulling about.  As they do.  And we stopped briefly to point the GoPro at these birds because at first a few of them looked like massive turkeys or something amongst the lot, but they were eagles, just hanging around in a field looking massive.  They were gorgeous.  I wish I could share them with you.

Anyhoo.

On the way back we took a shortcut across the delta and shaved a solid ten kilometers off our journey. Better yet, it wasn't a road.  It was a hardpack gravel trail, which means we didn't have to deal with any traffic whatsoever for that leg of the journey, and it was significant.  I loved it.  It looked like that photo up there much of the way through.  And it looked like this, too:

It was a great way to say goodbye to my drive train. I had originally ordered a more compact cluster, in the hopes that I'd have more high end on a descent, but I lost out on my best hill climbing ability with that cluster, so I went back to the original 12/25, only we switched out the smallest two bits so that they're 11 and 12 instead of 12 and 13.  This way I have a little more top end, and that makes me happy, but I can still make it up those hills behind Jericho beach.  Having the ability to customise my cluster definitely made me love those Campy parts all over again.  I am trying to work on my spinning, cause I'm a masher by nature, so with any luck I will wear this set of rings out more evenly.  If I am still using the big ring more than the small one as the season progresses, and if I still need more top end, I might just switch the 50 out for a 52.  We'll see.

Oh ho!  And it looks like my first race will be on the island in a week and a bit. Till then, here's to red nipples and pretty pussies!

Ride on! 

:D