CX and COVID-19 Part 2: Miranda Robinson
This week CX Down Under will be telling the stories of members of the Australian and New Zealand cyclocross communities who are also medical professionals. In part 1 we spoke with New Zealand general practitioner Dr. Kim Hurst, and in this second instalment we chat to Melbourne obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr. Miranda Robinson.
Tell us a bit about your cross experience. How did you get into the sport?
I got into cross in a few ways, mostly because I was doing spin classes at The Spin Room with members of the Melburn Durt crew. I wanted to get into it because they were a solid crew of friendly people and that was a very encouraging environment. They were from all backgrounds and ages, so it didn’t matter as much that I was older.
At the end of the 2017 season I’d seen a couple of races as a spectator and it looked like fun - scary, but fun.
I bought myself a bike and started racing in early 2018 - those who know me know that I’m not necessarily very good! [laughs]
I have a reputation for coming last, but that’s okay - I’m always there, having a crack with a smile on my face.
Tell us a bit about your work. What do you do for a living, and how has it been impacted by COVID-19?
I’m an obstetrician/gynaecologist, so from an obstetrics point of view not much has changed - obviously the babies keep coming! With the numbers we’ve had in Victoria so far we’ve been lucky in that community spread has been extremely low - in my hospital we’ve been lucky in that we haven’t had any cases come through the door. We were expecting a disaster, and we still have some of our delivery suites set up as COVID rooms.
At the moment we’re delivering patients [and babies] in full PPE, which is nightmarish, claustrophobic and horrible - it’s really hard to work in the gear.
Aside from that, we’re still working as per usual, seeing patients face to face.
One change is that most patients are coming to see us without their partners or children, which most patients understand. Most of our gynaecological consults are now happening via Zoom, unless it’s urgent or there’s something that needs a physical examination. I think it could be the way forward for us - most of our patients prefer Zoom because it’s less stressful, and to be honest a lot of the time we prefer it too.
Our gynaecology practice is no longer doing any kind of elective surgery, and because I work solely in private practice my income has taken a massive dive. That’s meant I’ve had to get the bank to defer my mortgage payments for six months and activate my income protection insurance. I’ve had to apply for JobKeeper for myself and others in my practice - we’re running two teams of reception staff so that they’re not all coming in at the same time.
We’re a small business and although most people think doctors are rich, at the end of the day our business still has massive overheads, meaning that we’ve had to defer people’s work.
We’re still very aware of what the flipside of this all could be. Very early this year when most people were still fairly oblivious we were hearing through overseas contacts in the UK and Germany about how serious it was, about a month before it hit Australia.
My au pair’s from Germany and she had a physiotherapist friend go into work on a Friday morning and wasn’t able to leave the hospital that night because they were in lockdown.
That forced me to have a pretty serious conversation with my ex-husband, where we came up with a contingency plan for him to look after our two kids in case that sort of thing happened here.
In a way we’re very lucky as healthcare workers that our concerns at this point are mainly monetary, and that the state government here seems to be more concerned with protecting people rather than the economy.
What’s life like for you right now off the bike? Has COVID-19 impacted your life in ways aside from work and cycling? If so, how?
Apart from the homeschooling aspect of it, I actually kind of enjoy it! [laughs]
I’m quite an introverted person, and I really enjoy the fact that at the moment there’s no pressure and no timelines. That means I’ve been able to do things in my own time without feeling as though there’s a time limit on me, artificial or otherwise.
The lack of traffic on the roads mean my commutes are less stressful, I can generally get up when I like, and it generally feels like a more relaxed pace of life, which is really quite nice.
The social isolation aspect of it doesn’t feel all that different from life as a single working mum, because I don’t get to socialise a lot anyway - the only thing is that I can’t date!
Actually having said that, I have been on a couple of isolation dates - meeting someone at the park and going for a coffee and a stroll at a 1.5m distance!
The home life can be quite stressful - my kids are now getting quite bored. Having to maintain a little bit of structure with them for their schooling is tough, and they obviously aren’t seeing their friends on a daily basis, which is hard for them. Having said that though, it’s great that we as a family now have more time together. They now have a better appreciation of how much time I spend at work, because they now see me coming and going, whereas normally they only see me drop them off at school and come home about when they do.
I know that it’ll end at some stage, so I don’t really feel trapped by it in any way. I feel more stressed by other people’s stress, rather than my own.
What’s life like for you right now on the bike?
I’ve been consistently training - I’ve had Paul Cullen [of Attuned Performance] as a coach for almost a year now. I was doing some triathlons over summer - well one triathlon to be honest, because the last two got cancelled! [laughs]
I’ve been steadily getting my FTP up, which is one of the advantages of not racing - not needing to recover from the exhaustion you bring upon yourself with regular competition.
It also means I can be bit more diverse with my exercise: I’ve been on the bike, going for long walks, doing some strength training and mobility work.
I’ve been eating way too much food and drinking way too much wine, but I guess it’s important not to be too hard on yourself.
Tell us about your involvement with the cyclocross community. How has it been impacted by COVID-19?
I feel like I’ve been keeping in touch with everybody via remote, but I feel like I’m more in touch with people in the cycling community now than when we’re all able to meet normally, and that’s down to family and work commitments.
I think because a lot of other people are feeling this isolation more acutely, they’re reaching out much more in the virtual world - riding on Zwift and buying smart trainers and so on - and that actually makes me feel like a bigger part of the cycling community than I have in a very long time.
It’s also given people a better idea of what it’s like to be a mum, where leaving the house isn’t always an option. Even when it might be possible, you have a choice between massive FOMO and massive guilt - it’s definitely possible that your kids will be crying at the door as you leave. It makes it important to pick and choose the ride each week that will gives the most benefit, to help make that guilt worth it.
What’s helped you get through the crisis? Zoom calls with friends, Netflix binges, bike rides etc.?
At the moment I don’t really feel panic in the way that would suggest we’re in the middle of a crisis - certainly not compared to a couple of weeks in the pre-lockdown period. As a medical community we were all asking the government ‘For f*ck’s sake, just lock us down’, but it’s been better since the Victorian government took decisive action.
For me, what’s helped the most is the structure of getting up and going to work every day, to talk to other people outside the house, and just physically getting myself out of the house.
That and plenty of ice cream!
The sense of community in cyclocross is one of its biggest draws. What advice would you give to all the cross community out there who aren’t in the medical field?
Hold firm to social distancing rules and don’t be lax. It’s easy to think that we’re through the crisis because the numbers are low, and we need to remember that it’s only going to be for a short time longer before we’re out of the woods.
Listen carefully to what health authorities are telling us to do and we’ll soon be able to see each other again!