Woman down

Hello again,

I am writing this in pain as I have crashed my bike once more, nothing serious, but enough to put me off the bike for a few days, again. First I want to rewind to last Saturday and a brilliant sunny ride at Mabie with Gael, the first short sleeve ride of the year and my first time riding the red trail there.

I have visited before but the conditions closed in and 2ft visibility and 1ft of snow meant that I cut the ride short after the first, short loop, and had never been back to complete the bigger loop - Mabie is a figure of 8 layout with the first loop being about 20% of the total. What a blast! The trail here is a lot more natural feeling than the likes of Glentress, with more roots and naturally occurring slabs making a lot of the features, and some massive man-made berms to add some contrast. There were quite a few cars parked but once on the trail we were practically alone for the whole day, meeting a lady at our first breather spot, we met her a few times, overtaking and being overtaken as we each rested and drank water, until we eventually lost her too and had the trails to ourselves. This probably explains the natural feel of the place, the lower traffic means less damage and repair work is needed so the trails don't get so 'sanitised'. I really enjoyed the flow of the trails and with all my riding and skills practice recently I definitely noticed an improvement in my speed and riding ability, I was riding the trail faster blind than I used to ride trails I know well.

I look forward to returning to Mabie now that I have a better idea of it and see how much faster I can go. One of the features is a stream crossing, which leads onto a climb (called Scorpion so I am told), after sessioning the stream to get photos we carried on and there was the scorpion, looming above me, I dropped down a few gears and attacked it, overtaking Gael (she is a downhill demon but hates the climbs!) and was giving it my all to get to the plateau in the trail, Gael was cheering me on, so I dug deep, dropped to granny ring and span my way up the last steep bit to the fire road, gasping for breath but proud of myself, that was a sharp climb and I did it, now I have to do it every time I visit! After finishing the red route we popped along to the freeride park and had some fun on the jumps, Gael was trying to teach me some of her skills, I have a long way to go but can now get both wheels off the ground and land in a controlled manner, progress!

On Sunday I marshalled the POC enduro at Ae forest, stationed at the start of the 4th stage I once again got to unleash my awful banter on each and every rider. My job there is to make sure they all set off the timer as they start the stage, it's great fun seeing the different lines and styles of all the riders from the pro's to the first timers. I might even go and try riding some of this stuff soon and maybe even enter a race next year, but for now I am enjoying the social aspect of marshalling, living the van life and helping the races happen whilst enjoying views like this!

Back to last night, BMX Wednesday, I moved it to an outdoor track for a change as the weather is great and it won't last in Glasgow so we have to make the most of it. I was a bit late in arriving and there was a fairly large squad riding when I got there, brilliant! Most of the folks were my mates but there were some local kids too, which always makes for good banter. I had decided to take it easy, having hurt my shoulder at BMX last week, I had been nursing it all week and this was my first ride since Mabie where I noticed it was not quite right. Shorts, tee, knee pads, helmet, all present and correct, I did a few laps and felt great, I was faster, smoother and better than my last visit to the track at the end of last summer, all this riding really is paying off! I started applying my teachings from Gael to the tabletop jumps and was noticing an improvement, I was getting about halfway over them, yay! Setting off from the start ramp on one lap I think my foot slipped off the pedal, I don't really know, but next thing I knew was a pain in my lower abdomen, I am sliding face down along the floor and the thunk as my helmet connected with the gravel floor. Ouch. Luckily I walked away fairly unscathed, some bruising to my internal bits n bobs, a couple of grazes and a bruised ego. After checking in the van that all was ok I donned my elbow pads and swapped my helmet for a full facer and returned to ride again, so that my last memory was not of a face plant! I managed about 3 laps before conceding that my leg was actually pretty painful and calling it quits for the night. Thanks to good friends I made it home and onto the couch with a cup of tea and bag of frozen peas. My leg hurts to extend it fully, I am walking with a limp, and feeling sorry for myself, but as I was wearing knee pads and a helmet I walked away just fine. From now on full pads and full face helmet at the track at all times for me, especially as I am wanting to go faster and jump now. Lesson learned. Here's my pathetic grazes that do not in any way represent the pain caused by landing on the pointy end of a handlebar! - "That's a Booboo" - Neil Macmillan

This week I have mostly been wearing Threadless Tees and continuing to rock the double denim. I may need to rest and not bike this weekend, I shall play it by ear, but I have plenty of plans including leaving parties, Roller Derby to go and see and dear friends to visit, so even without bikes this will be a great weekend. Until next time keep it rubber side down folks! 

Tough Chick Thursday Three

Back to the weekly entry on fitness and all that jazz. In the first one I covered diet and last week I spoke in depth about bikes and where my passion comes from, today I will go into what else I do for fitness and my goals. 

Until my crash in which I dislocated my shoulder I just cycled, no other exercise. I enjoy being outside, I hate gyms and I am rubbish at team sports, I was happy riding my bikes up and down mountains, to work, at the skatepark, it was all about the bikes. Whilst forced off the bike for 6 weeks I had some exercises from the doctor to ensure I healed properly and to minimise the damage, once I was back on the bike I continued the exercises but still felt like my upper body strength was not where I wanted it, and I got frequent pain in the affected shoulder. I bought some home gym equipment and now work on my core and upper body a few times a week, fitting a workout in most evenings I am home which is usually only two or three nights tops. As I said I am not a fan of gyms so this works best for me, it also means I can fit it in whenever suits me and it can be a quick blast whilst dinner cooks or a longer session depending on how I feel and how big the ironing pile is. 

I am a believer in using what you have so I do a lot of body weight exercises such as push ups, sit ups, pull ups and planks, well, I say I do a lot, I attempt them a lot, but am still working on achieving many! I use small dumbells to help build the strength in my arms and shoulders, lots of light reps (5kg) as I don't need to build massive arms, just keep my shoulders and arms strong enough to fend off crashes better. 

At work and for some of my weights exercises at home I sit on a gym ball, this has drastically improved my balance and posture in just a few weeks, and it is something I will continue to do. After a day on the gym ball I stand and sit taller, walk straighter, my shoulder blades sit in the right place and I don't slouch. I also suffer less from back pain, which I often get as a result of compressed lower vertebrae caused in an accident 18 years ago. 

On top of these exercises and as a warm down after most sessions I have started to incorporate a yoga routine into my evenings, it is a routine I found on the pinkbike website and it is specially designed for bikers and targeting lower back pain specifically. What I have learned from this is my balance is truly awful and I am not as flexible as I would like, but am working on it and improving with each session, hopefully by the summer the improvements will show on the bike too. 

I am still working on cultivating abs by my birthday, crunches and weighted sits ups are my best friend and worst enemy right now, there is no reason to do this apart from mild vanity and stubbornness, but I will persevere! 

I plan on continuing this regime for a while and hopefully building up some upper body strength through this and maybe working on some calisthenics workouts, or maybe I will just admire videos of the people who can do that stuff and never manage it myself! Bmx Wednesday is being brought out of the park and I will start mixing it with alternate weeks at the bmx race track to work on sprints, manuals and jumping whilst enjoying the few warm nights we might get in Glasgow. I need to start cycling to work again, I have been lazy recently and keep walking instead, and I need to get some evening mtb rides in, the nights are lighter so no more excuses. Let us ride! 

This week I have been rocking some double denim for fun, a bowtie and waistcoat combo and riding my awesome chrome and pink bmx.. until next week, bikes, bikes bikes!!

Tough Chick Thursday

I had issues thinking of a name for this, I am not tough! I have been asked about my training plan, nutrition and generally how I lost weight and got myself fit again, so I will try and use this as a regular weekly slot to talk about all that stuff.

First up I lost weight accidentally really, I didn't realise I had put on much weight nor was I particularly unhappy with my weight. I started the much documented Paleo diet in order to see if it could help me resolve some health issues, I was on 4 inhalers for my asthma, I was lethargic and unhappy. You can read all about paleo on many sites online so I won't go into it in detail here, just the basis is of "Paleolithic" diet, so eating what cavemen ate, mostly lots of veg, meat and a little fruit, cutting out dairy, grains, legumes and refined sugars. I am not 100% paleo, so I try not to use that word too much but it is a good basis. I have porridge for breakfast quite often as it is cheap, easy and filling, I have sweetcorn sometimes because I like it and chocolate because I am a breathing human. Life is too short to be too strict with these things in my opinion.

Oh dear... this is me, before on the left, now on the right.

The main reason I am happy with the after picture is my posture, I am more confident, I am standing taller and I am proud of myself. 

When I started eating this way I was able to bin my inhalers within 3 days, incredible, I assumed until recently that this was due to cutting dairy, but now I have found that gluten may be playing a bigger part than I realised. For this reason I still avoid dairy and gluten as much as possible and as I was a massive sugar addict I limit my intake of this too. I cheat on Fridays as this gives me a chance to meet my sister for lunch and generally have whatever I want to eat all day, this said I rarely go crazy and I am still wary of too much of the stuff that makes me feel rubbish, for obvious reasons. I also cheat if I am out for a meal, I tend to go for the 'friendliest' option but I do not want to ruin a dining experience by being strict. For sweet things I buy nice chocolates and have one or two when I really fancy it, I now never want things like chocolate bars from shops, they seem too sickly.

There are a lot of sites promoting Paleo-fied treats such as brownies, pancakes, etc, I don't really go for these as they usually don't fill the void of what you're actually craving, if you want a donut with your coffee then have one, it will be far more satisfying. The exceptions to this are banana pancakes made with almond flour, which I prefer to normal pancakes now, and my sisters sweet potato brownies, these are amazing and do not feel like you're missing out on the 'real thing' at all! The ladies who got some after the RedBull Foxhunt race last year loved them too, so not just for those on a gluten free diet!

More detail about what I eat for those who want to know:

Breakfast:

Either porridge made with coconut cream and water with a small drizzle of honey or maple syrup

OR Bacon, eggs and black pudding

OR Breakfast salad: Spinach, apple, bacon, 2 poached eggs, dressing made from olive oil and Cider vinegar, salt and pepper

Lunch:

Either a salad - as colourful as possible - today I had spinach, red pepper, avocado, carrot, beetroot, apple, mackerel. Oh, and it's massive, takes me most of my lunch hour to finish it!

OR Homemade soup, usually something like butternut squash, onion, garlic and ham.

Dinner:

If I am being lazy, forgotten to defrost something, or in a hurry I will have sweet potato wedges (cooked in lard in the oven - use natural fats, they're not actually bad for you!), with sweetcorn, tuna and a bit of mayo (homemade from olive oil - no grain-filled veg oil here!)

OR steak and sweet potato

OR Roast chicken with Bacon Veg (Roasted veg - ie butternut squash, sweet potato, onions, Brussels sprouts, carrots and whatever else takes your fancy - all roasted up with some chopped up bacon)

Snacks:

Raw almonds live on my desk for work snacks
Nice chocolates (Hotel Chocolat - yum) for occasional treats
Grapes, bananas, other fruit, but not too much (sugar)

Summary:

Eat colourful - no beige food - the more colourful your food the more nutrients it contains.
Eat natural - no processed junk
Eat homemade - then you know the contents
Eat real - if you can't pronounce it then it is not food
Eat happy - when you fancy something have it - moderation is key - the longer I have been doing this the less I crave sugar, but in the start I had to be super strict to get past the cravings - headaches, excessive sleep... it was pretty bad!

This is not for everyone but I have been asked, so there you have it, I am happy, I feel healthy, and I am in the best shape I have been in since I was 16. My goal is to have abs by my next birthday (end of May since you asked) when I will be 35, and aim to be in better shape than when I was 16.

Current abs status:

What I wore today:

Awesome Ames Bros tee, no shirt today as I was moving to a new office, humphing stuff is easier in a t-shirt! 

No bike today, taking a rest day as I am working on furniture building tonight so need to be fresh! 

Hello world.

Lets get started shall we?

This is me.



I am a graphic designer living in Glasgow who rides mountain bikes most weekends, I also ride BMX badly when I can. For me life is all about fun, friends, adventures and the outdoors. 

I recently changed my diet to resolve some health issues (asthma and lethargy) and as a result lost 3 stone and gained a stack of confidence, why not share?


I collect t-shirts, over 120 at the last count, and I have a fondness for mens formalwear, I do like to look smart when not on a bike!


Hopefully this blog will be a fun way to connect with people and share my adventures in Scotland, bikes and clothes. Who knows?





Todays clothing: Lego Pirate tee, Jeans, Inner tube belt, canvas trainers, penguin shirt at work. 





Todays bike: Haro 24" bmx for the commute, practicing more circular pedal technique (think scraping poop off your shoe on the back stroke).