Cathkin Thursdays

For the past few weeks some of the guys from work and I initiated post work mountain biking at Cathkin Braes every Thursday for a few laps of the new Commonwealth Games Cross Country MTB track. Cathkin Thursdays - with catchy titles like that it proves we don't get paid for nothing!

Now for the past few months I've been enjoying cycling the 24 mile round trip primarily on the road bike, which turns out to be far more rewarding than the car and almost 40 mins faster than public transport! I've been getting pretty fast, and tracking it on the phone via Strava and seemingly doing quite well compared to others; though I'm only really slightly interested in my own times out of all of it! Therefore coming in on the MTB is a bit more of a chore, though I somehow have a few Strava personal bests on some sections on it?! Nevertheless it does make a solid excuse for not being able to keep up with Adam and Andy when they shoot off on the laps given their commutes are half mine. It has nothing to do with the fact I'm rubbish! haha.

The track itself is great fun and packed full of tricky technical sections with rocky flats, fast jumpy downhills and rocky steep uphills. Not bad for a 5km loop! The Commonwealth and proper races there must be great if you're any good! I've heard of 14 minute laps being done, beating my 18 min ones by a fair bit when we turn that into 3 laps!!!

One day I'll get the last steep uphill and not fall over the bars as often!

Not Cathkin (as I don't have a pic), but here's Cav leading the British Road Race Championship in Glasgow back in June!

Unfortunately next week will be the last foreseeable Cathkin Thursday as we move offices to Eurocentral :( Bad times.