Karen writes: A post for women only

I was cycling on Saturday morning, and my mind tends to take its own pathways independent of what my body is doing after a while on the road.   That can be very handy for working out a problem, or having an imaginary argument with someone, or sometimes that is where a poem or story comes from.

That morning it was something much more prosaic though.   I was thinking about how much pleasure I was getting out of booting along out the back of Clevedon, which led on to considering the reactions I get from people when I talk about that sort of thing.   There are a range of reactions these days, those who look blank, it's outside the territory they even want to think about, those whose first reaction is disbelief (YOU…run a marathon…you are kidding??), and then there are others who are curious, enthusiastic, or profess envy.  

Of the last group, the comments are often prefaced with “oh I would love to do something like that…” and I wait for a slight pause at this point, sure enough there usually follows a small and significant “but”.   “But…i have (insert injury here)…”, “but of course I work”, “but…I have children/pets/a husband”, “but I am not built for running”.  I tend to not challenge the person who chooses anything from that list, they are unassailable excuses and there is little chance of them changing their minds until they really want to.

However there is an excuse which is worth more attention, the “but…I have HAD children”.   This reason needs some teasing out and in the subtle difference in wording is the hint that it isn’t the demands of a busy child-full life that is the problem, but that woman only thing, the common and un-acknowledged faulty pelvic floor.   Depending on what you read, on average one in five women over 40 can have problems with this, more common in those who have had babies.    It is a discussion I have had with women on long events on more than one occasion, people can be scarily open with strangers in that weirdly encapsulated time and space you share when you run together, never expecting to see each other again.  These are the brave women who have found their own solutions, or if not a solution, have found a way to hide their problem (like one memorable woman who tipped water all over herself at drink stations, her theory was “who will notice a bit more water”).   My suggestion would be to women who really want to get out but think exercise is impossible because of  a problematic pelvic floor, google the topic, google variations around endurance, running, incontinence, etc, ask an expert even... it seems that there are plenty of running women in the world with practical hints about how they do what they really want to do, run.

If you still cant bounce along the road because you feel like your insides are going to fall out with every step, then consider starting off with riding a bike, a bike seat is great for holding everything in, bike shorts hide a multitude of sins, and you never know your luck, the core strengthening which occurs automatically while pedalling your heart out and doing all that balancing may even help tone necessary internal muscles as a fabulous side effect of getting fit.    My message here I guess is, a dodgy pelvic floor may be a good reason for not exercising, but it may not be a good excuse.