Colds, don’t you hate them.

So you get a couple of days off work but then come the weekend you’re too knackered
to go more than a couple of miles before collapsing in a wobbly heap.

Hang on a minute, how often do you actually get one? Once, twice three times a year?
So stop moaning, you’re better off than the rest of the hypochondriacs at work.
Okay so I had a week off work with concussion in late January (* see credits at
end) but at least I knew what I’d done to cause it.

It seems that us mtb’ers are a generally healthy lot though. The same people turn
out week after week regardless of weather, perhaps worse for wear after a session
on the booze, but still managing to look like they’re enjoying themselves nonetheless.

What could be causing this strange bout of consistent good health?

Is there some mystic or astrological force protecting us?

Hmmm. Since the horoscopes in MMB went I’ve been missing astrological guidance in
my life. I’m not going to go any further into this possibility, suffice to say that
Uranus could quite probably reveal the answers.

Could this just be the benefits of an active lifestyle?

Do we only benefit from being active? Or does mountain biking help in ways not yet
discovered? Is there a potent and beneficial natural substance that mountain bikers
come into contact with?

If there’s straws to be clutched at it’ll be me doing the clutching, OK?

And on that note I reckon that mud could hold the key.

If you’ve got your germ free antibacterially cleansed kitchen, your sterile packed
food and your nanny government, then you need a good dose of mud to get a decent
level of exposure, and hence build your resistance to bugs and germs.

For the future growth of mountain biking I feel we can never have enough levers to
use as marketing tools on the gullible, and the more people buy bikes, the cheaper
said bikes (and accessories) will become.

I therefore put forward the idea that mud is a beneficial substance for the immune
system when taken with exercise, and that raised adrenalin levels can further increase
the effectiveness of the ‘treatment’.

This makes mountain biking the ideal method for applying the treatment and I’d like
to recommend that GP’s prescribe mountain biking to boost the immune system, and
suspension forks for carpel tunnel syndrome while I’m at it.

* Thanks to … The Peak District mountain rescue #1 Buxton, mountain rescue #2 Edale,
the helicopter pilots who were hovering about overhead, the ambulance drivers, the
nurses at Chesterfield Royal Hospital, and especially to NATS club members for helping
loads, not complaining and being great about missing most of a ride in freezing cold
weather. And thanks to my ex helmet.