My doctor....mumble grumble mumble

[Catrin]

I think that many rather than being narrow minded, most doctors just want to follow the evidence. There is some things where chiropractic can be helpful. There many other things that have no evidence that supports effectiveness and with neck stuff, there is some risk as well.

I am going to take my time and consider my next steps. It IS true that all of the crazy stuff I do at the gym appears to be helping. Thankfully my trainer is highly skilled/educated/experienced and he is very careful with my cervical spine. He certainly pays attention to my cervical spine and pushes me, but safely. I can tell the difference now from when we started.

I don't know how helpful this is, but here we have a lot of state parks that you can mountain bike in and a lot of them are very tame. Mostly dirt or gravel trails that don't involve anything technical. I think if I could no longer run single track I would still enjoy these trails as I really like being out in the woods/nature.

Good luck in whatever you decide. Another option might be a cross-bike

This is what I need to find, for now. I don't know how much of this exists in our state, or in my area. All of the focus has been on building single-track. That doesn't, however, mean that there aren't other choices. I just need to start asking around and see what I can find.

Gosh, Catrin. I'm really sorry that it might come to this. Again, I'd pursue further conversations with your doctor as to other treatment options. Ultimately, though, it sounds like you're just going to have to weight the risks with the rewards--and that's admittedly hard to do because it's hard to really quantify the risks. Are there ways you can increase your skill level? I know it costs $$, but perhaps in time, you could save for a bit more private instruction.

Remember that even without mountain biking, you can still spend time in the woods. I know hiking isn't nearly the adrenal rush, but it's still nice to be among the trees and, obviously, it's a lot less risky. And maybe trail running is in your future.....

Good thoughts Indy. It is very hard to quantify the risk. My doctor was quite blunt over the odds of permanent damage if I snap my neck again - but of course there isn't anything to say that it will ever happen again. The problem is that in order to increase my skills I need to ride more/harder and that is when I start crashing hard because I am riding faster (though not beyond myself). It is part of the process and that is the problem. There is always geo-caching I suppose, and if I can get this knee worked out perhaps trail running. I am not giving up on mountain bike yet, time enough to decide that next season. For now I will just consider it a "break" from single-track and I will start looking for less technical places to ride

Thanks to everyone for your support and comments, it is very much appreciated. I think it is easier to hear at the end of October than it would have been in June. He may have actually said something similar in late spring but I probably wasn't willing to listen