Walk this way

My feet are now stronger than ever (thanks to hundreds of daily reps on the Elgin Archxerciser), and better-supported than ever (doctors digitally scanned the bottoms of my feet to create insoles that'd support my high arches). So with the obvious problems addressed, the difficulties that pop up as my feet re-acclimate to carrying my body around tend to be weird, random things.

The latest? I have hyperflexible toes and I walk funny! Over the years plenty of people have told me I have a "distinctive" walk... I blame the grade-school classmates who teased a friend of mine because his butt wiggled when he walked. It's because of them that I decided to walk smoothly, in a way that made my butt feel as un-wiggly as possible.

So my latest task is to re-train the way I walk. I need to straighten my knees more at the end of each step so that walking puts less strain on my forefoot. I hardly ever straighten my knees as much as I'm teaching myself to now... I fainted in the middle of a school ceremony, once, which taught me never to lock my knees while standing. Now with each step I take I'm trying to remember to straighten my knee all the way, which makes me feel like a total robot. I've been at it a couple days and still feel a little stiff and jerky. I console myself that this new way of walking can either make me look like a robot or increase the amount the my butt wiggles, but probably not both. =P

Lights and tunnels

Yesterday I asked my physical therapist how soon I'll be able to get on a slack rope again...

It's a little ironic that I gave my Ignite talk about slacklining at a time when I wasn't able to set foot on a slackline myself. During the summer I seriously stressed a bone in my left foot with too much walking and balance training, and by August I was keeping off my feet as much as possible and wearing a stabilization boot. (I was wearing that boot when I gave my talk.) Even after I started seeing a doctor my foot kept getting worse instead of better. This put a lot of strain on my opposite knee, which is already prone to pain from a previous dance injury, and so I spent most of October and November in a wheelchair.

In December, with no indication that things were going to get better, I finally switched to a new physical therapist, the fantastic Laura Bannister of Avant Physical Therapy. My foot began improving shortly after. It's a wonderful feeling -- it's much easier to look past current difficulties knowing that my foot is worlds better than it was before and continuing to improve. I'm out of the stabilization boot and starting to take short daily walks around town, and so naturally my fancy lightly turns to thoughts of slack rope walking.

So I asked how long it would be before I can walk a slack rope again, and this was the answer: when I'm able to walk three miles and think nothing of it -- no pain or trouble, no need to rest up my feet beforehand or take time for them to recover afterwards -- that's when we'll know I'm in good shape to get back up on the line.

It'll be a while, I'm sure, but I'm really, really looking forward to it.

WIN @ Ignite Seattle

Here's the video of my talk at Ignite Seattle 21: