Missing link 1

Since I did so much in my absent two months I am breaking it down into smaller stories, this is the first and covers May pretty much. WARNING… Picture Heavy!

I enjoy taking photos, I like to share adventures and have something to look back on, but I don't like that I only post these digitally and never have a physical photo unless it stands out for some reason then I may print it. I decided to print a load of my photos in polaroid style and create a wall of memories, a lot of them are bike related, some are from my childhood, all make me smile. The wall is in my living room so it's nice to see it every day, it is not yet complete, I need more pegs, and will continue to print images and when it is full I will swap images in and out to keep it fresh and interesting.

On May 9th I took my sister to Carron Valley for some mountain bike fun, we love it there though lots of people slate it. I like to think of it as a giant bmx track and enjoy the flow of the jumps and berms, it is not technical in the usual sense, there are no roots or big features, but ridden as fast as you can it is a good laugh. Being a surfaced trail it is rideable in all weathers and it features a lot in my winter riding, though it hurts to fall there when the ground is covered in 4 inches of solid ice. We had a lovely mellow day in the sunshine, enjoying short sleeve riding which is always a highlight! 

The view over the loch is lovely.

Rebecca loves me taking photos of her on the climbs! 

Me in my garish colours. 

My birthday is in May, and this year fell nicely on a bank holiday weekend so I took the Friday off work and had a nice long weekend planned. Drove from Glasgow to Perth on Thursday night to catch up with a friend, we drank too much and chatted until about 4am, I am too old for this! Waking at almost 1pm I was worried that I had wasted my first bike day so I ate some food quickly and headed north towards Laggan, a trail I love but only visit on the world cup weekend en route to Fort William each year. I made it to Laggan for just after 3, got my bike sorted and headed up the hill, an ominous cloud hanging overhead and a bit worried that I had left it too late. On the climb the clouds parted, the air warmed, greens became greener and everything just became brighter and better, I think this was in part the weather improving but mostly my hangover shifting. I have never ridden Laggan alone, only in groups, and it was great fun, riding at my own (slow) speed, stopping only when I wanted and repeating anything I wanted to. The rocky, slab based trail is brilliant in all weather but in the sunshine, on my own, on a Friday, it was perfection. 

Artsy bike and log photo. 

View part way up the climb.

Part way up the upper red climb. 

Top of the upper red loop. 

On returning to the van I would have loved to go round again, but being a weakling and having another bike day booked in for the next day, I opted to get cleaned up and find a spot for the night instead of pushing it too far. Driving through the Cairngorms is always nice, I drove towards Fochabers because Saturday plans involved meeting friends from Aberdeen to ride the Moray Monster Trails. I found a quiet set-back layby and set up camp, cooked my sausages, enjoyed a beer, and just sat. Bliss.

My layby. 

The sun descending. 

Breakfast time. 

After my bacon and eggs I trucked onwards to meet Bruce and Elle at the trail car park. The Moray Monster trails are pretty old school in nature, lots of climbing to start, berms and flow, a lots of roots to finish, but not major big features. The last section had recently been updated and has some massive berms, swoops and flowy features, it was fast, wild and fun trying to keep ahead of Bruce who was snapping at my heels! Brilliant day, but I was glad I had not overdone it at Laggan. 

What a view from the top of the Moray climb! 

Hey Bruce! 

Hey Elle! 

Another artsy bike photo. 

After our ride we drove back to Aberdeen and went to a pub for a nice catch up, I was on the water as then drove to Stonehaven with my SO where I was treated to a lovely dinner, we camped in the van on the cliff top, woke at sunrise to visit the castle ruins but were defeated by clouds. A few more hours sleep and we drove onward to a lovely beach and had breakfast high up on the cliff tops, before some rock climbing, walking barefoot in the sand and paddling in the freezing cold water, refreshing! Driving back to Glasgow for dinner at my sister's house then drinks with my friends, it was a perfect weekend, here's to another year! 

Although I do try to avoid gluten and sugar, 

there is no avoiding cake made by my sister for me. 

It would just be rude! 

Next time - EWS, Tweedlove and more vanlife. 

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!