Make that just like riding a bike, uphill, through treacherous mountain terrain, in a high gear.
After giving birth to her first son 11 weeks ago, Wilkins played her first game in more than 18 months when she took the court for the Southern Steel in their pre-season opener against the Swifts yesterday.
She was joined by former Silver Ferns captain Adine Wilson, who was playing in her first game since the final of the 2007 World Champs having also taken time out to have a baby.
The Steel did not have quite the success it would have been hoping for, suffering hefty losses to the Swifts and the Northern Mystics.
But this weekend was never going to be about the score for the two returning mums.
Having only taken part in two weeks of full training with the Steel, Wilkins was just thrilled to get through two full games.
"It was good to get out there. I didn't really expect to play the whole games - I might have to have a wee chat to Robyn about that," Wilkins said.
"But in all honesty I need as much court time as possible. I've been out of it for 18 months so to get more court time it'll be better for me in the long run but my body might feel it after the weekend."
It was Wilkins' first encounter with the Australian style of play since her international days, and the Swifts certainly provided her with a wake-up call.
With the Swifts having only had four full court sessions before yesterday, their comprehensive 68-49 win is an ominous sign for the other competition heavyweights.
Meanwhile, the Central Pulse has been shown just how grim things could become in 2009 by a team of young Australian netballers.
The troubled Pulse franchise suffered a major blow to its competitive credibility yesterday, when a development team from the Australian Institute of Sport beat it in its opening match.
The Wellington-based side failed to register a win in the inaugural season of the transtasman league, and, on the basis of yesterday's 51-44 defeat against the AIS side, which is made up of under-21 players, the Pulse looks unlikely to fare better this season.
The AIS side is clearly a talented one - it later pushed a Swifts reserve line-up all the way, losing 51-47.
But yesterday's Pulse defeat will add strength to the calls from across the Tasman to have another Australian side in the ANZ Championships at the expense of a New Zealand team.
The Australian netball community has long argued that its greater player depth should entitle it to six franchises in the transtasman league and four New Zealand teams. Pulse coach Yvette McCausland-Durie, who took over the side after the axing of Kate Carpenter, acknowledged the loss was likely to give critics more ammunition.
"I think people will be critical, and we will be, too. We know that we should have won but we're just fortunate it's only pre-season," she said.
Just three players remain from last year's disastrous campaign, with most of the Pulse's more experienced players, including star import Sonia Mkoloma, leaving in the off-season.
McCausland-Durie said her side had a lot to learn quickly.
"We're certainly still in development phase. We're realistic we've still got a lot of work to do, but we're quite clear about what we want to achieve," she said.
"I think we were really conscious coming in here that we wanted to win quarters, and we would assess the quarters which we didn't win, which of course was the fourth and have a close look at it."
She said the game highlighted a number of key areas to work on.
"Ball placement was a bit of a challenge for us today. We weren't reading where people are heading and putting it in the right spaces. It's a simple game and our execution just wasn't sharp enough."
Scores: NSW Swifts 68 Southern Steel 49, Australian Institute of Sport 51 Central Pulse 44, Swifts 51 AIS 47, Northern Mystics 57 Steel 47.
