U Perform Ambassador Spotlight – Vanessa aka @thegirlonabike

I am super honoured to say U Peform have featured me in their Ambassador Spotlight. Here’s waht they had to say:

For our first Ambassador Spotlight, we would like introduce to you Vanessa, aka @thegirlonabike, a hard enduro rider who’s battled through from a life changing accident.

Here’s Vanessa to tell her story:

Vanessa: 6 years ago, in a single moment, life as I knew it was taken away by the momentary lapse in judgement of a red-light-jumping car while I was cycling. As an incredibly fit athlete prior to this, the world as I knew it changed.

U Perform: What you experienced was a serious incident. Recovery must have been an equally challenging experience for you? 

Vanessa: My recovery to fitness took a little over 5 years with 6 major surgeries and I’m now partly bionic with a reconstructed shoulder and hip. There is not a day that goes by where I’m not aware of the physical implications. From simple things like getting stuck in a tight jumper because my shoulder doesn’t function like it used to, to pushing on through pain picking up a 100kg motorcycle in the mud. 

In many cases, pain is the body’s way of telling you to stop and rest, however once you’ve had significant injuries it’s possible that the pain just never really goes away. If I always listened to the pain and rested, I certainly wouldn’t be where I am now.

U Perform: Can you sum up what you have you learnt from this experience? And what have you done to support your recovery and your body?

Vanessa: The body is a really darn complex thing but with the right love and attention it can do wonderful things. As part of my recovery, I decided to start taking U Perform Active Collagen. Most will think of gorgeous smooth skin and wonderful hair but that’s not why I’m on it…although I don’t complain for those benefits.

I’m on it because collagen contributes to the maintenance of ligaments and tendons, soft tissue repair, and protein synthesis, so recovery, healing and a smooth working body! My hip, something I battle with every day is ready feeling the benefits. I honestly, don’t think I will ever stop taking it and wished I had discovered it ten years ago!

U Perform: We know our products are fantastic. But what you made choose U Perform?

Vanessa: U Perform was the obvious choice for me! You get what you pay for and with U Perform Active Collagen I know I’m getting an athlete level dosage to give me the largest possible gains collagen can give.

U Perform: What are your goals for this year?

Vanessa: With my 5^th hip surgery on June 6^th my 2020 goals are to get back on the bike and then I’m going to be pushing by body hard to hit @redbullromaniacs and @hellasrally on my Husqvarna TE 250i motorcycle.

My body, my one home for life, is getting all the love I can give it and U Perform Active Collagen is fundamental to that journey.

To follow Vanessa on her journey and to find out more about how U Perform is supporting her, check out her social media and website.

As seen on www.u-perform.co.uk

BBC Radio Pause for thought – the power of a simple hello

As heard on BBC Radio Oxford

My pause for thought stems from a simple hello. I remember as a child growing up, we lived on a cul de sac, we knew all the neighbours, parents chatted, kids roamed from garden to garden. All happily bonding as a community. You’d walk to the local shop and say hello to people simply because you both lived there, not necessarily because you knew them. Fast forward 25 years, yes, I’m giving my age away, but the world feels  really different. People busy going about their own business, no time to stop or even pause to smile. Head down, often with headphones or eyes glued to screens. An aerial video would probably look like the organised chaos of ants, all going about their own business, seamlessly passing and ignoring each other. But then something happened…

Lock-down hit and the world was turned to four walls at home. Human contact was removed from our every day lives. Yes, video calling boomed but that animal instinct need for physical interactions was not taken away. I noticed something magical though, at least in Oxfordshire, when social distancing for walks in the park and essential trips started to pick up, interactions seemed to change. A once almost awkward hello from an over friendly stranger has now become something of the norm. I go out for a walk now and everyone seems to smile, people even use their voices and say hello. Hello to total strangers. It’s almost the total opposite, before the odd person who said hi was strange, now it’s the odd person who doesn’t say hi that comes across as strange! We’re all waving, nodding, smiling and actually acknowledging each other. It’s almost like the lack of connection has awoken a whole new appreciation for human interactions, even if it is with a stranger. It is lovely.

I like to think of it as the smile ripple. Just like a drop in the pod rippling across the surface of the water, so too can our smiles spread. My mum would tell me a smile costs nothing but can bring so much joy, so much so it can totally uplift a person’s day. And, smiling at one person, will most likely lead to them feeling a little warm glow, which leads to another smile, and another. And before you know it one smile has brightened up the lives of a whole handful of people, just from a friendly hello.

As life returns to a new form of normal, I hope this new energy for politeness and positive human interaction will continue. Let us all smile at the next person we see.

Thank you for reading my pause for thought as heard on BBC Radio Oxford

Pause for thought – do we really need so much stuff?

As heard on BBC Radio Oxford

My pause for thought is reflecting on all the things around me. Since life changed with the nation going into lock-down we have been living in a different world. Previously at the click of a button or quick pop to the shops we could get pretty much anything we could wish for. Whether that be toilet paper or something more exotic. However, with many business closing in quarantine, times changed. There is no longer this instant gratification and convenience to get your hands on ‘things’ and this has led me to a realisation on many occasions…a thought process where I went from ok I ‘need’ new thing, to…can I get it?, to…do I really need it, all the way to actually, I really can live without it and actually I already have that which would do just as well…or even a full realisation that I just didn’t need it. That is time not used, money not spent and energy saved just from having to really think about the need.

I’m appreciating the value in things around me to a new level. The things I already have. Last month I trimmed a small tree down in the front garden and without thinking threw it in the wheelie bin for the refuge team to take away. But then I realised. That wood, is valuable to me. If I take the time to cut it and store it, in a few weeks I’ll have wood to fuel our little chimenea in the garden. Unable to go out and buy wood we’ve since had cherished fire side evenings burning what I once saw as waste. In modern life it is sometimes too easy to just go out and buy ready to use things, disregarding the waste or whether we really need it.

Maybe I’ve been running life at such a pace I’ve lost my grounding, but with lock-down I’m feeling a new energy from opening my eyes to what I really need. I’ve got by with less stuff but has my quality of life been impacted? If anything, it’s rather uplifting to see I don’t need so much.

It seems this can also relate to the ‘admin’ of life. Many are returning to reduced capacity working environments where the focus is on the essentials, and what is incredible is that in many places, this is not showing huge gaping holes opening up, but instead highlighting that in countless ways the world can go round with less energy. The efficiencies of a reduced team or the forced requirement to re-think how things are done, streamline processes, are leading to less admin and more productivity. The pointless emails or amount spent traveling for a meeting that could easily be done on a video call.

There’s so much inefficiency in the world. So much stuff. So much waste. Chasing things, where actually, lock-down as proven to me that things don’t bring happiness. Experiences and time, connections and friendships, they bring happiness.

A precious commodity in manic modern life.

Thank you for reading my pause for thought as heard on BBC Radio Oxford

“While other people have been feeding a raccoon belly over the Corona period, The Girl On A Bike can proudly show off her body” Thanks so much Motorradreporter das Österreich Internet Motorradmagazin.at for the shout out. My body is my one and only home for life so I’m doing all I can to keep it in shape, and get prepared for my next hip surgery so I go in as strong as I can!

Shots using the PRAEP Sports ProPilot – use “VR15” for 15% off www.praep.com #praeperationiseverything #motofitness#fitnessmotivation#thegirlonabike

https://www.motorradreporter.com/artikel/girl-bike-fit-fur-die-saison?fbclid=IwAR1EYbUO9Ym67JjvElUZb9Kiobc5ZGURr2OK4pwhEZOisKE_0gz7tj5RiuY

Check out my full Praep ProPilot trainer review here.

Pause for thought – do we really want life as we knew it back?

As heard on BBC Radio Oxford

If you prefer to read, here is my pause for thought:

Hi, my name is Vanessa Ruck also known as The Girl On A Bike and my pause for thought began in 2014 when I was involved in a life changing accident while cycling. Over the following 6 years I was on a mental and physical roller coaster to get my life back. A life of extreme sports, peak fitness, and most importantly pain free living. I battled through a time when I didn’t even see myself as me, this broken body unable to participate in the activities I loved was not me. Many of my friends would ask me “when is Vanessa” going to be back?

And then it happened. I realised, not over night, but in an awakening journey about what recovery really means.

When people say ‘recovery’, you typically think of returning to how you were before. But there is no going back. You do not merely recover, you reinvent yourself. You learn so much as you fight through, you see things in new ways and discover new truths; it’s an irreversible journey.

As I record this sat at home in lock-down I see so many similarities to the world’s battle with covid-19. None of this was planned but it is unfortunately the reality of the world we live in right now. The effects are life changing, life as we knew it torn apart, and impacts likely to last well into the future.

I hear so many talking about wanting life back, going back to how things were before. But I can’t help but wonder if that is really what we should want. Lock-down has taught me a lot about myself and somehow made me look at the world in a new way. Always busy, rushing, doing, being, fighting to cram more in, have more, do more, be more. But what does it all mean if we cannot share it with our friends and families? I wonder if I am not the only one seeing what’s more important in life than things. Time is precious.

How many of us have had more phone calls with loved ones and friends more than ever before? How about grandparents, where before it might be months between visits, and now we are embracing video calling and connecting as much as we wish. I’ve had Friday night socials, coffees in the garden sunshine. Reconnecting with people where ‘time’ seemed to have drifted us apart simply because life was ‘too’ busy. I’ve even spent time encouraging more birds into the garden and enjoying their songs. Done jobs I never had the hours in the day to do. I’ve explored the countryside around home. Places on my doorstep so beautiful yet I didn’t realise they were there, instead, jumping on planes and traveling. And most importantly. I’ve stopped to listen and be grateful for everything I do have around me right now. Yes I would love to jump on my off road motorcycle and tear off into the wilderness, but life, even in lock-down is a blessing to be alive.

I think that after lock-down I will take learnings from this time, realising that life does not have to be quite so fast paced and hectic. Keeping a little stillness and deep breaths of appreciation, keeping stronger connections with those I love. Sometimes it is the simple things in life that can bring the most joy.

BBC Oxford Radio LIVE

I was honoured to be invited to join Kat Orman on her mid morning programme, Stories to make you smile and Make A Difference. We talked about life in lock-down and how even now in this strange chapter we all have so much to be grateful for.

#bbcradio #lockdown #thegirlonabike

Listen to the interview here: