Our first meeting was last night at the office of Dr. Jamey Gordon in Ft. Wayne. He's the physical therapist that is coordinating and directing our training. I think I've mentioned that our younger daughter is an athletic trainer, and it turns out that Jenna had Dr. Gordon as an instructor at Manchester College. And even more in the small world department, one of my fellow trainees is a friend and co-worker of Jenna's.The training rationale and schedule was explained to us tonight, following a motivational talk by the lovely Mary Collins, news anchor from WPTA Channel 21. Getting a group like this together was her brainchild and it was Mary whom we had to e-mail when we applied to the training program. Mary runs and has had to overcome some difficulties in order to reach the goals she has set for herself, and being in the company of her enthusiasm along with Jamey's competent training makes me believe that I really can do this.
Training begins next Monday, when we will meet at the ASH Centre for an hour. We'll be meeting twice a week, with the other day being Thursday. Jamey also will be videoing us while we run to analyze our form so he can correct any problems with the mechanics of our running to help us avoid injury. Blood tests will be taken at Parkview Hospital to check our blood glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides. We'll also find out our body composition and have a cardiovascular exam.
By the time we left the meeting, things had been explained very thoroughly and I felt like we would be in such good hands during this whole thing that there's no way any of us won't be able to run 13.1 miles on September 27th.
During conversation with some of my fellow runners, I learned that one man has had triple bypass surgery, one had an appendectomy a short time ago, and another has a chronic illness that will make this a challenge. I'm sure there are other stories I haven't heard yet. We all have something that we feel may be a stumbling block, but that's part of life, isn't it? Obviously, those of us that are there don't want any of that to stand in our way of achieving something that at this point may appear to be nearly impossible.
Jamey's professional services at Fort Wayne Physical Therapy will be available to us throughout this entire experience, which is an amazing and invaluable advantage. The cost for this kind of care and training would be hundreds of dollars, yet we are fortunate enough to have it provided on our behalf.
Oh, we got a cool WPTA coffee mug, too.
Thanks, Mary! :-)
4 comments:
Hi Kylee,
This sounds absolutely wonderful. I think this will be an amazing experience for you and for those of us following your progress.
One blog that I follow is http://13point1miles.com ... it is a running blog. Until last April, I was running 2 miles most days and this blog was fun to read.
Your day at the garden show sounded wonderful. It was great that you got to talk with Felder Rushing.
Take advantage of the free physical therapy! If anything, use it to learn some good basic things for keeping muscles groups in alignment with each other. Those folks know all sots of tricks, so I would be all over that even if I didn't really need it!
Kate ~ I agree! I'm actually looking forward to beginning it all in earnest.
You know, someone told me about that blog! I'm thinking it was one of my dental patients this past week, who is also a runner. Thanks for reminding me!
Yes, the whole Felder Rushing thing was great. Who knew we would have had such a personal experience with him? For anyone who's curious about what that's all about, you can read about it on my other blog, Our Little Acre in this post.
Carleen ~ Oh, this is absolutely why I feel so confident that I can actually do this! It couldn't get any better than we will have it. I look at this as such a great opportunity and I feel so fortunate to be a part of it!
Kylee I'm so proud of you! I'll be cheering you on, each and every mile of that 13.1 miles you'll run.
I know it's difficult for you because of the fibro and your dislike of exercise. I dislike exercise too, a lot. But I do walk for an hour every week day, cycle on my home trainer for 20 to 30 minutes every day and during the weekend I walk 2 hours a day. I do this to keep fit and to keep away the back pain. Pain is a great motivator! :-(
I hope all that exercising will built up your left hip muscles and take away a lot, perhaps even all of the pain there.
And please eat more veggies and fruit! I don't care how, the lazy way is fine with me as long as you get those nutrients inside you. You need them, now more so than ever because you are demanding more of your body. So give your body a good feed, just as you would feed your plants with the right nutrients to perform well. I want to see you blossoming! :-)
A big hug from your Dutch fan! :-)
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