The Overweight Mountain Biker

New video up on YouTube from yesterdays quickie Glenlivet Mountain Bike Trail Centre:

The Overweight Mountain Biker Glenlivet Quickie

Smoked salmon broken up omelette with purple sage, flat leaf parsley and garlic garnished with that sweet chilli sauce.

This evenings “I’ll just pop out for an hour on the bike” turned into a bit of an epic that involved high speed descents through low cloud, dodging low flying bats and tackling the moray coastal path in the semi-darkness, with the Portknockie to Findochty section particularly not being for the faint hearted even in daylight. Was a great way to do some endurance training for enduro though.

The struggle was real today at the Scottish Enduro Pitfichie race. Having had prime conditions yesterday for practice the overnight heavy rain that carried on throughout the majority of the race turned the course into a treacherous muddy rock festival. The new Aberdeenshire Trail Association Tombsteen trail, stage 5, held up well as did the CRC refurbished and extended Phoenix downhill track. The third picture shows my times from yesterday and today on those trails and the drop in speed is somewhat disheartening. I’m struggling with positives to take away having given my all physically and mentally, however, after a truly horrendous start that saw me walk down parts of two trails I’d normally fly down, I did manage to pull myself together and have a reasonable run dish Machiatto, which I had not been looking forward to, before tackling Tombsteen and Phoenix down hill once more. So whilst the last three stages weren’t clean, they were better even if somewhat conservative in order to ensure I got down and got s time on the board. Also I made the right call putting in my Endura Singletrack One Piece waterproof suit, affectionately known as my onesie, which kept me dry at the top of stages 2 & 3 when others bailed and DNFed. Finished 17th out if 17th finishers in Veterans SES100, however, there were four DNFs

Not bad considering I started the day in Aberdeen at 05-50, then drove to Elgin for morning service and fellowship lunch, then drive to Buckie, before heading out on bike in order to pick up my Landrover Discovery from Elgin and drive it back to Buckie. Time for some rest now before hopefully adding another 50+km tomorrow. Want to try and get over 150km this week. I’m loving getting this base miles in on the road bike, was meant to be heading out on the mountain bike today but hadn’t taken into account tiredness or lunch, so rapidly switched plans. For me flexibility is the key to effective training, particularly when I never quite know how my body will be feeling on any given day of the week. I always try my best to push through whatever my body throws at me particularly if I have a session scheduled with either or but every once in a while I do have to admit defeat and cancel but that’s a dare occasion. I’d rather back off on sessions than cancel that way if I’m not feeling great during a race I know how to cope with it as I’ve probably already been there in training.

For personal reasons this page has been quiet as of late, but with things resolving themselves and a new chapter of my life about to begin then there will be more regular updates soon. More regular content is available on my Instagram page, just scan the QR code or search for my handle on Instagram. Thanks

Although I am normally known for riding a Mountain Bike, I am taking part in the Loch Ness Etape this month on the road in order to raise money for MacMillan Cancer Support.

Did you know that presently in the UK there are around 3 million people living with Cancer, which putting that in some context is the same as the entire population of Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham and Glasgow added together!!!

On average 44 people per hour, day and night, across the UK are diagnosed with cancer each day, and that number has been steadily rising over the past two decades by nearly 50%!!!

MacMillan Cancer Support are there for patients and their families through each patient's cancer journey and beyond. So please, if you can spare a little, then please consider making a donation. If you are a UK tax payer then please select gift aid so that MacMillan Cancer Support can claim an extra 25p on every pound from the government. Thanks!!!!!!

My JustGiving page can be accessed here:

The Overweight Mountain Biker does Etape Help Andrew Comley raise money to support Macmillan Cancer Support

Finally made it to Glenlivet to put down my benchmark for the season.

Cracking afternoon for some gnarl having done a deep bike clean, service and changed back to the stealth dropper after its service BaseCamp Suspension. Wasn’t on top form today, just wasn’t feeling quite right and the dry conditions combined with the steep and technically gnarl of Monaughty Woods made for a challenging and somewhat bruising afternoon. Just could not find rear ended grip, and it seemed to get worse when I dropped the rear tyre pressure from 12 psi to 10 psi. The magic Mary on the front at 10 psi was gripping fine, but the Maxii high roller 2 seemed to once again be more interested in sliding than gripping. Even found myself with opposite steering speedway style at one point whilst sliding downhill. Going to have to rethink my rear tyre choice. Seriously tempted to stick s magic Mary on the rear despite the rolling resistance penalty