And so are cyclists.
There you go. Two sweeping statements for the price of one. But they're both true. Kind of.
The evidence for these bold comments? Well it's fairly anecdotal, but go to Google and type in any combination of the following words:... "Sore", "Cracked", "Bruised", "Ribs" and "Training" and you'll soon find out.
The interweb is full of running and cycling "discussion forums", "chat rooms" or "dens of drivel" - call them what you will. Many of these forums appear to have a common theme that usually starts along the lines of "Hi. I had an accident while training the other day and I think I've bruised/cracked/broken a rib or two. Anyone else had this and how soon can I get back to training?"
Now. That in itself isn't idiotic. If the person asking the question was happy with the answer "I'd give it at least a few weeks then gently take it from there" or some such. But you just know that the person asking will keep on asking and asking until they find someone as deranged as they are who will give them the answer that they want to hear. And that answer is usually along the lines of "What are you a wuss? As long as you're not coughing up blood get out there and train! And if you are coughing up blood then just do some light cross training!!" The one answer that I did find that I really liked was along the lines of "Why are you on here asking complete strangers? Go and ask your Mum the same question. What sort of answer do you think you'll get from her?"
I suspect that most runners and cyclists will follow a sort of pattern of people they ask... Ask a health expert (doctor etc). If you don't get the answer you want...ask a fellow runner. Still not happy with what you hear? Ask a work colleague... and so it goes on and on until you find yourself taking advice from the poor sod behind the till in Lidl's when you go in to buy your yogurt for lunch.
And that's where these chat rooms fill the gap. You can just sit there and plough through page after page after page until you find the answer you want! Fantastic.
And so it was this weekend that saw me dig old [T]rusty out of the shed again and head off along the quiet country roads of East Lothian for a couple of hours. Nothing too strenuous to start with. In fact I started of quite gently until I got the feel of it, then found myself pushing the cranks that wee bit harder and getting the old heart rate up a bit, until a few hours into it I was sailing along with all the grace and elegance of a young Lance Armstrong. Understand though that what I mean is; a really young Lance. Lance as a toddler. On his first bike. With stabilizers.
But at least I was out and was able to exercise for a bit with the heart rate up into my "green" zone for a bit. Better than sitting about the house.
In all seriousness it was actually fairly comfortable (the elbow was the sore part - when I went over bumps). This gives me a bit of hope. One; that at least I can something and limit the damage from not running for a while and two; if I can cycle fairly strenuously then perhaps the overall prognoses for the rib isn't as bad as I first feared and the lay off from running may not be as long as I thought.
Cycling. Not bad. But still not as good as running.
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