COVER UP!
When it's cool out, for goodness sake cover
your knees! Sure it feels good on a warm, sunny day to glide
along on one's personal freedom machine with the air flowing
over bare skin. When warm, your parts are most elastic. The muscles
around the knee relax more between contractions, contributing
to a limber feel. Warm synovial fluid, your knee's lubricant,
is also less viscous. Lubricants work best when warm (and chocolate
flavoured, but that's another story).
Why on cool, sometimes foggy, sometimes
rainy mornings is it common to see riders pedaling stoically
along with helmet cover, Gortex jacket and shorts!? When you
cycle in adverse weather your knees are right out in the worst
of it. Western theory recognizes that working connective tissues
cold can cause micro-tears. Cartilage in particular has very
little blood flow and heals slowly. Once roughened, cartilage
tends to get worse rather than better and surgery to cut away
the roughened portion may only provide temporary relief. Traditional
Chinese medicine describes the effect of cold, damp and wind
as "pernicious chi", a description that to my experience
feels right. The insidious harm that may result can lead to chronic
conditions of the sort we generalize as tendonitis and arthritis.
How cold is too cold? The only person brash
enough to put a figure on it has been Noel O'hagan who told me
years ago never to cycle with bare knees below 20 celcius. This
is pretty warm, but keep in mind that on even a small descent
your knees may be subject to a 50 kmh wind. I think it better
to err on the side of caution and wear at least light tights
when it's below 20 out. If I'm going to out ride the Four Horsemen
I'll need my knees.
