I have now been living in Lakewood for just over two weeks, and I am slowly adjusting to life here. This week in the clinic was relatively uneventful. Kurt, who I am shadowing for the summer, was out of town on a family vacation, but that gave me the opportunity to shadow the other two PTs, Bridget and Brittney, and see how they operate. Interestingly, they both treat more athletes than Kurt does, but the athletes that they treat are recreational, not professional. I was again in the Boulder office on Tuesday with Bridget and the Niwot office on Wednesday with Brittney. This will continue to be the trend for the entire summer, just with Kurt. What made Tuesday unique is that Bridget did not do exercises with most of her patients. She explained to me that she trusts her patients to get their exercises done on their own, so their time together is better spent working on soft tissue massage and dry needling treatments. However, Wednesday was a very exciting day in the Niwot clinic.
Not only did the receptionist bring her dog into the clinic, but I got to see one of the sensors that the PTs use to gather data in use. This system is called runeasi, and as a nerd for all things running, I was fascinated by it. (insert treadmill picture) Runeasi consists of a wrap around the waist and a sensor that is placed on the low spine, right around the level where shorts or pants would sit. The patient is then placed on a treadmill to either walk or run and an app paired to the sensor gathers all of the necessary data. A few of the numbers that the sensor finds are symmetry in stride between legs, ground force for each leg, ground contact time for each leg, and vertical oscillation. There are many, many more different components of the running stride that are found, and I am very excited to test it on myself in the future.
Outside of the clinic, I am adjusting to life in the Denver/Boulder area very
well and am slowly getting into a good routine. I am working afternoons and evenings as a delivery driver for Domino’s, which is a very laid-back work environment, and I am making great money. I am living with four other runners at a team house for Colorado Christian University, and it is awesome to have a group with similar interests to live with. I am spending most of my free time either running or preparing for the next run. My goals stretch far beyond this summer: I am trying to win the NCAA Division III cross country championship in November. I have been eating lots of carbs, going to the gym to lift and use the sauna, and going to bed very early every night before waking up the next morning and doing it all over again. I hope to increase my duties in the clinic, the number of people that I meet on the trails, and my running mileage as the summer goes on!