This edition is focused on the ladies, and Sarah Walker asked a few of her female mountain biking patients if they agreed with her thoughts… They absolutely do, so here goes!
Would you like cheese with your whine? I heard this a few weeks ago coming from the tennis court full of 8 year old girls and boys, and wondered if it was aimed at my daughter who was having a particularly bad day, poor thing! I had to giggle though, quite a cool phrase. And so perfect for this discussion…
Ladies, we don’t whine enough! It’s really ok to whine about pain, in fact, it’s the sensible thing to do, a bit like having cheese with wine. Daaaah. Men come in day one, ok maybe day two, after their pain started. So clever, get it sorted and ready to ride again. All too often I see women weeks, months, a year after their pain started. By this stage all kinds of compensations have crept in and often it’s a mission to get cured and back riding like before. I am not sure why we wait to have things seen to; our excuse is often that there’s not enough time. But we really should take better care.
The photo doesn’t quite do justice to a mountain biking crazy woman’s leg after a crash during a mountain bike race. She landed hard on her right side, got up and checked all bits were intact, got back on her bike and rode the last hour of the race. She then went to work the following week, and ten days later limped into my office. So hardcore, but we both agreed: hmmmm should she have had it looked at straight away? The diagnosis after ultrasounds and MRI was a severe crush muscle injury and no biking for four weeks.
One more thing worth mentioning: Women are so serious out there on the bike. There is this silent competitive “thing” going on. What’s up with that? We have such crazy busy stressful weeks, and then have to be all serious on our bikes too. How about we say a friendly “Hi” and a smile will make each other feel the sisterhood. (Ed: How about a friendly “Hi” and a smile regardless of your or the other rider’s gender, we’re not roadies after all.) And then power pass her up the next hill…
And lastly: it’s really not cool to wear takkies on a bike!
