Walking for Inspiration
When ‘M’ my trainer at physical therapy announced a few weeks ago that Terrio Therapy Fitness was sponsoring another 5k walk and that I would be participating, I didn’t argue. There’s no point in arguing with ‘M’. He always wins. Instead, I recruited chingpea to walk with me.

This time participating in the 5k walk wasn’t about finding out if I could walk three miles and actually finish, I conquered that battle last time. I knew I could finish. No, this time it was about commitment. I enjoyed saying, “Yes, I’m walking in the 5k walk” and actually meaning it. And when the day of the race rolled around, I even crawled out of bed at 6am on a Saturday morning without complaint, which anyone who knows me, knows 6am doesn’t exist on weekends.

As chingpea and I walked the 5k course chalked out across the CSUB campus enjoying the early Saturday morning sunshine we encountered members of my physical therapy group who were also walking or running. I found their words of encouragement inspiring. They cheered me on to finish the race. That was their goal, to finish. But for me, finishing wasn’t the goal. This 5k walk was only the beginning. For me, the sunshine, the friendship, the words of encouragement and the act of pushing my body and my knees to perform was inspiring. Performance, normalcy, walking without pain that was my goal.

I was inspired to whip my knees into shape. No easy task let me tell you. My knees have been giving me a lot of problems lately. And quite frankly, I’m tired of it. I don’t know if more walking will help or hurt. But I’m going to keep walking (just keep swimming) and hopefully find more inspiration along the way.

Labels: 'M', 5K Walk, bad knees, CSUB, encouragement, exercise, fitness, inspiration, pain, Physical Therapy, race, Terrio Therapy Fitness, walking

  posted by Matildakay at 11:14 PM 0 comments

The 5K Walk and the Mysterious Lady in Red
One bright and early Saturday morning not too long ago, I met up with ‘M’ my trainer from physical therapy and NL of Noveltownand ABC23 for the Fall Festival 5K/10K run/walk at River Walk Park. Through bribery of Supreme Bean coffee, I convinced NL to do the 5K walk with me. A leisurely stroll in the park for NL, I soon learned that 5K is a lot farther than it sounds.

At check in we were given real race numbers and at 9:00 AM everyone lined up at the starting point as if it was the New York Marathon. Like Katie Holmes, I registered under an alias (my real name) instead of Matildakay.

‘M’ of coarse was doing the 10K run while pushing his son in a stroller. Show off!

There were other members from my physical therapy group participating in the race including a lady in red who kicks my butt regularly.

NL was a good friend and sport keeping pace with me when he could have left me in the dust. Even though we were among the last to finish, he had fun with his video camera and put together this little video of our 5K-walk experience.



“Go Matildakay!” ‘M’ yelled as he ran by pushing his stroller during the last half of the 5K walk.

“So annoying!”

“Why?” NL asked.

“Because he’s running 10K while pushing a stroller!”

“He’s a good trainer, he’s encouraging you.”

“I know. I just wish I could do that.”

We never did catch the mysterious lady in red from my physical therapy group, but she was at the finish line cheering me on. I managed to finish the 5K walk (just over 3 miles) in around 50 minutes, which is not too bad. And even though I was sore the rest of the day, I’m really glad that I challenged myself and accomplished the 5K walk.

“I read all about you.” NL told ‘M’ after the 5K walk.

“You read about me?” ‘M’ asked, “Oh right, I don’t want to know.”

“A lot of people read about you on Matildakay’s blog.”

“You’re famous.” I grinned. ‘M’ shook his head and walked away.

I’ll probably get double exercises for making ‘M’ famous. I thought.

But the following Monday…

“You get ‘extra points’ for doing the 5K walk.” ‘M’ said when I walked into physical therapy.

“Now you have to do the next run/walk we have scheduled.”

Oh no! What did I get myself into?

Labels: 'M', 10K Walk, 5K Walk, Bakersfield, Blogging, exercising, Katie Holmes, N.L. Belardes, New York Marathon, Physical Therapy, River Walk Park, Terrio Therapy Fitness, walking

  posted by Matildakay at 11:12 PM 1 comments

New torture devices, jealousy, and the 5K challenge
It’s a new month, which means ‘M’ has found new ways to torture me at physical therapy. More specifically, he introduced my knees to the dreaded Stairmaster machine!

In the five years I’ve been in physical therapy I’ve managed to avoid contact with the Stairmaster, until now. Stairs are challenging enough for my slip-sliding knee caps, adding weight, resistance and hills makes the Stairmaster the most challenging torture device ‘M’ has come up with yet for my knees.

“I can’t do the Stairmaster.” I argued.

“Yes, you can,” ‘M’ said. “I want to add more cardio to your program and still work your knees.”

“Oh, you’re working my knees alright!” Working them right out of their tracks. I thought.

“Climb up.” ‘M’ punched the program settings into the Stairmaster as I climbed aboard the torture device.

“Five minutes.”

Five minutes is a really long time! When I stepped off the Stairmaster at the end of five minutes I had climbed 10 flights of stairs and could barely walk.

“How was that?” ‘M’ asked.

“It was hard!”

“But you did it.” ‘M’ grinned as if I had walked on the moon.

Whatever. I limped over to a table to rest.

A few minutes later, ‘M’ handed me a flyer.

“You’re doing this.” He explained.

“What’s this?”

This turned out to be a 5K Run/Walk sponsored by Terrio Therapy Fitness on October 27, 2007.

“You don’t have to run, you can walk and set your own pace. But you’re doing it.”

“How far is 5K?” I asked.

“A little over three miles.”

“Three miles? Are you kidding me?”

“No.” ‘M’ said. “You can do this and you’re going to.”

“OK.” Did I have a choice? I wondered.

“You can get some of your friends to do it with you, its not just for Terrio patients and clients.” ‘M’ explained.

“Ok.”

So, how many of my friends out there are willing to do this 5K run/walk challenge with me? Email me or leave a comment for sign up details. Don’t make me walk alone! You get a T-shirt for walking.

“I won’t be here Wednesday.” ‘M’ informed me at the end of my workout.

“Why. Where are you going?”

“I have to help out with the Condors physicals. It’s almost Condors time, are you excited.”

“I can’t wait!”

Did he just say he was giving the Condors players physicals? I wondered.

“You’re giving the Condors physicals?”

Um. ‘M’ do you need help with those physicals?

“Yeah.”

“Tell Fukufuji it's great to have him back. I can’t wait to see him play again!”

“Should be a good season.”

Are you sure you don’t need help with those physicals ‘M’?

Labels: bad knees, Bakersfield Condors, Fukufuji, Physical Therapy, Stairmaster, Terrio Therapy Fitness, torture devices, walk, walking

  posted by Matildakay at 11:14 PM 0 comments

The Secret to Marriage According to ‘M’
My trainer ‘M’ works with post-rehab patients like myself, as well as with athletes and fitness clients. He takes care of us or rather he ‘tortures’ us. He has fun putting us all through contortionist-style exercises and introducing us to muscles we didn’t know existed. He’s a little bit warped that way. ‘M’s my age, in perfect shape, nice looking, funny, eats APPLES for snacks and runs everyday at 5am while listening to audio books on his ipod. Obviously there’s something wrong with him! I wish I were half as motivated as ‘M’ to take care of my body.

The other day at physical therapy a young couple in their 20’s who train with ‘M’ in a fitness program were discussing living together with our group.

“I come home from work and she’s already giving me grief about stuff!”

“You think that’s bad, just wait until you get married.” A post-rehab patient informed him.

“I told him that living together is practice for when we get married.” She explained.

“Do you know what the secret to marriage is?” ‘M’ stepped in to help the young guy.

“What?” He asked.

I stopped to listen to the wisdom ‘M’ was about to dispense… The secret to marriage! Maybe I'd learn something. I thought.

“The secret to marriage is: pretending to listen and pretending to care.”

PRETENDING TO LISTEN AND PRETENDING TO CARE! I was flabbergasted! I knew there was something wrong with ‘M’.

“Does that work for you?” I asked ‘M’.

“Sometimes,” he grinned, “but sometimes my wife calls me on it and then I’m in BIG trouble.”

“You deserve to be in trouble for that!” I laughed.

Labels: athletic trainer, exercising, Physical Therapy, post-rehab, secret to marriage, Terrio Therapy Fitness

  posted by Matildakay at 12:30 PM 1 comments

Bones
Yesterday evening, bones hurting, I walked into physical therapy a little slower in step than usual. It had been a long day of dealing with drama and I was tired.

“How’s Matildakay today?” ‘M’ asked.

“I’m here.” My mind was heavy, “My knee is hurting today.”

“What have you been doing?”

“Nothing.”

“Maybe that’s it, not enough activity.”

“I don’t know, its just hurting.” I said.

“Well warm up on the bike and we’ll see how you do.” ‘M’ said.

I climbed on the bike turned on my ipod and began scrolling through the music library. I was looking for something… I wasn’t sure what, but I wanted to be inspired. I ran my thumb over the ipod selection wheel in a circular motion as artists names flashed on the screen. I don’t know why, but I love that circular motion of the pad of my thumb lightly touching the ipod selection wheel, of skin touching technology. I love having hundreds of artists in the palm of my hand. I love being able to carry around my entire cd collection in my purse. Its quite freeing to whip out my ipod and pick a particular music to fit my mood at any moment, anywhere.

I scrolled through artist’s names waiting for one of them to jump out at me. And then one did. Rich Ferguson, spoken word poet and writer. It was fitting; Rich Ferguson had been on my mind most of the day. I love his work! I clicked on his name, started the timer on the bike and began pedaling.

My right knee was puffy. Navigating stairs had been hard that day and now it was screaming pain at me with every crank of the bike pedal.

“These bones are my worst nightmare come true” Rich Ferguson passionately spoke about bones loudly in the headphones pushed in my ears as my right patella slipped in and out over my leg bones grinding, screaming his words in unisom.

“I can feel them knocking against the doors of my flesh” How did Rich know my knee bones were knocking, knocking threatening to jump track at any moment?

“Can’t you hear ‘em moan bones?” I could.

“Torture bones” He spoke. I agreed and pedaled faster.

“Bones…” Are others as aware of their bones as I am?

My deformed knee bones have become second nature with their limitations, discomfort and pain. These are my bones. I know my bones better than most for they speak to me constantly.

“You get a new ipod?” ‘M’ asked.

“No. I’ve had it, I just brought it with me today.” I said. I had wanted to escape the usual classic rock or country radio stations Terrio plays and the other patients and fitness clients mindless social banter.

Physical therapy to spoken word poetry is quite a different experience. Each step, squat, extension, and weight had a word, a beat and a meaning. I kept pace with Rich’s passion. And so did my bones.

“Can I have ice and stem?” I asked ‘M’ at the end of my program.

“Your knees are really puffy, we’ll ice them both.” ‘M’ said.

He hooked my right knee up to the stem machine and piled ice bags on both my knees. Soon electric currents crawled up and down the muscles on either side of my right knee. My bones eased, relaxed.

I sighed.

“I wish I could take this machine with me.” Hooked up to the stem machine was the only time my bones slept instead of screamed.

“We have portable ones you could rent.” I watched ‘M’s finger on the increase current button pushing, pushing, pushing it up… he looked at me as if asking “when?”

It felt so good… I closed my eyes ‘M’ kept pushing the increase current button.

“Ok.” I finally said opening my eyes as my bones sighed.

Labels: Bakrsfield, Bones, ipod, Physical Therapy, Poetry, Rich Ferguson, Spoken Word, Terrio Therapy Fitness

  posted by Matildakay at 11:34 PM 5 comments

Crime and Punishment
“I’m a little bit sore today.” ‘M’ told Tom, a post-rehab patient on the hamstring machine next to me at physical therapy.

“You’re sore? I’ve barely been able to walk or move the last couple of weeks thanks to you!” I told ‘M’.

“That’s why they call it W-O-R-K-ing-out. It’s not relaxing-out.”

“Oh really.” I said.

“Yep.”

“I’ve been going home and threatening to have you beat up.”

“Oh, you’ve been talking about me again have you?”

“Yep.”

“Wait, you’re writing about me on the Internet again aren’t you?” ‘M’ asked.

“Yep. Last time I wrote about your groupies.”

“My groupies?”

“Yeah all your women clients.”

“Oh brother.”

“My readers think you’re HOT.”

“I’m hot?” ‘M’ asked.

“What did you do, post a picture of him on the Internet?” Tom asked while counting repetitions on the hamstring machine.

“No, I just linked up to his staff page on Terrio’s website.” I explained.

“Oh God!” ‘M’ slapped his forehead, “Your work-out just got really hard!”

“Ugh.”

“The worst thing you can do is piss ‘M’ off.” Tom said.

“Squat and Row!” ‘M’ ordered.

“What’s this?” I asked.

‘M’ had placed a balance board where I was supposed to squat.

“Do your squats on the balance board.” ‘M’ instructed.

“You’ve got to be kidding.” I looked at ‘M’ as if he was nuts.

I can barely squat on stable ground much less on a balance board that moves like a skateboard with the wheels in the middle of the board instead of on the ends.

“You can do it! Squat!”

I tried to squat wobbling back and forth like a Weeble Wobble hanging onto the rope for dear life.

“Now row.” ‘M’ instructed.

I held the squat, tried to balance on the moving board and pulled the rope with 35 pounds of weight attached to it as if I was rowing a boat. I nearly wobbled right off the board onto my head.

“Two sets of 15!” ‘M’ left me to my wobbling.

This is my punishment for telling ‘M’ my readers think he’s hot... I tried to squat and balance again.

Labels: Bakersfield, exercising, Physical Therapy, Terrio Therapy Fitness, Weeble Wobble

  posted by Matildakay at 10:33 PM 6 comments