When it come to injury, the best advice has to be ‘just don’t do it,’ and I don’t mean don’t ride your bike, I mean don’t get hurt! I know it’s easier said than done, but there ARE actually things you can do to at least try and avoid getting injured and one of those things is simple; ride within your ability.
I’ve had many, many crashes that I’ve walked away from unscathed, so I’m accustomed to hitting the deck and it doesn’t come as such as shock as it would to say, an office worker who does no sport. I take tumbles as a part of pushing myself, but I can push myself too hard and that’s when the impacts get serious. My worst injuries have always come from trying too hard and riding stupidly or badly, so I’m really trying to work on staying relaxed on my mountain bike even though I want to do well, and trying to find speed from flowing well down the track rather than riding erratically or peddling then braking when I shouldn’t.
But sometimes, injury strikes almost randomly and a bit of bad luck can mean time away from cycling. Like most sportspeople I find time away from cycling/sport/exercise/training pretty hard to deal with so I asked pro mountain bikes including Manon Carpenter and Joe Barnes how they cope.
Head to the Wideopen Magazine website to see what they told me.
