Walk with a Doc Newsletter
Good morning!
Do you ever have coincidences in your life that are hard to explain?
That’s something that’s been occurring at WWAD World HQ for years. Whenever one of us travels to another city or state, we get a request from that location to start a chapter. Mysteriously, we have never actually seen the requester.
Last week was the most recent. Our family was visiting schools out east. It was 20 degrees with 15 mph winds. I don’t do those numbers, but it may have been my only chance to run on the Charles River. I felt the pull, put on my big boy pants and headed out. No Walk gear on. It was great – absolutely awesome.
Keep in mind, the last request we’ve had from MA was well over a year ago.
6 hours after the run, the Walk BatPhone rang from Charles River Apparel, just outside Boston. The owners were in Santa Barbara and had just met our way cool leader, endocrinologist Dr. Jennifer Hone, in that horrible SoCal monsoon.
Anything like that ever happen to you?
During that run, I came up with an incredible idea. Still need to run it by the board, but picture this: Walk with a Doc – Extreme…Frogger…Edition. Here are the bullet points I will be presenting to the Walk Board next Tuesday. If you don’t mind, I’d like to keep these confidential.
The Frogger Walks will personify our tagline (Educate, Exercise, and Empower).
We will also incorporate one more ‘E’ —> Fundraising, to ensure the future/financial stability of WWAD.
We will, however, be taking a slightly different angle.
Let me ask you, when you think of charity groups on the streets, where do you envision them? Exactly, at stoplights. Those spots are mostly taken by competing non-profits. What these non-profits are forgetting is they are leaving a much, much bigger area left wiiiiide open. Wide open for us, Walk with a Doc.
If you haven’t been to WWAD in the past, as a physician, I recommend you don’t choose this WWAD- Extreme Frogger Edition as your first. Why? I will be proposing to our board that our leaders select traffic areas with 45 mph or higher speed limits. This could potentially be a tough pill to swallow for some of the newbies. We do this because it will keep us most true to our tagline, Educate. Exercise. Empower. Let me explain.
Educate: On the plane back from Logan, I ran 1056 simulation WWAD-EFE events on my computer. Please trust me, we will all learn REAL fast dodging cars at the speed of 45-55 mph- especially when they are coming down all 3 lanes at the same time. Those were definitely the hardest to dodge. Wasn’t able to do much “fundraising” on any of those. The woman next to me on the plane inquired why there was so much simulated screaming, crying, and mass hysteria coming from my MacBook. After I explained my plans she offered up another great educational tidbit. Maybe some will learn that it may not always be the best thing to follow a doctor’s advice.
Exercise: You know walking is so great because you get all the benefits of running. We also know it’s the classic example of a LOW impact workout. WWAD – Extreme Frogger Edition will not only have our baseline heart rates up (average HR of simulated walkers was 204bpm during WWAD-EFE), but it will have us bobbing and weaving at a MUCH faster rate. In track and field they call this ‘interval’ or
H.I.I.T.
Now, one area of concern is this new WWAD workout has the potential to be very HIGH impact (walker meet truck). That is something we are NOT looking to achieve with our Frogger edition.
(“Janice, there must be some regulatory committee that has to look at these letters before they are sent out, no?”)
Empower: Once we all (or most of us) complete an hour of dodging cars, many of them honking, cursing and swerving at 55-60 mph, we will feel like we can accomplish anything we set our minds to.
With the change in venue from the park to roads, we will have a couple new rules:
*There will be no dogs or pets of any kind permitted at Walk with a Doc-EFE.
*The talk at the beginning will focus on maximizing our fast twitch muscles (white fibers) and how to quickly make a tourniquet. We will need EVERYONE to pay close attention.
*No one should wear any clothing material that identifies them with WWAD and WWAD tattoos should be fully covered. We’re not yet sure how the authorities will respond to this walk/fundraiser.
*Please enjoy any of the coffee, fruit, or granola offered – but we encourage all participants to please partake on the side of the road away from traffic. I haven’t shown this to our attorneys, but thinking ahead I’m guessing they may be concerned with our participants spilling hot coffee on themselves with all the sudden moves.
*We ask that you wear the most protective gear you own. To be clear, we will be asking the cars driving by for money. Doing some quick calculations, a nickel traveling at 60-65 mph has the potential to go a little more than an 1.25 inches deep into a lightly clothed portion of the body. A handful of change taken in the face would really not be something we want to see – at all.
That’s enough for now. Happy to listen to any input you have prior to the board meeting.
Boston stuff is crazy, isn’t it?
HAPPY 5TH ANNIVERSARY:
Pima County Medical Society in
Tucson, AZ under the steadfast leadership of Dennis Carey, founded by former PCMS Executive Director Steve Nash, endorsed by the PCMS Board of Directors, and supported by countless local physicians, Pima Council on Aging, the Arizona Daily Star, Pima County of Parks & Recreation Department, and the University of Arizona. If I remember right, it all started with a call from
Tyna Callahan.
“We believe in the concept of getting patients walking is a simple way of getting started in an exercise routine. It is a wonderful way to meet the community on an informal basis and not when they are sitting in an exam room or worse. It does also gives walkers an opportunity to get information on who and where they can go to address health concerns they might have.” – Dennis Carey, Associate Director
Pima County Medical Society.
Dr. Shana Semmens, a resident with the Banner University of Arizona Center, continues a conversation walkers about Arthritis during the April 9, 2016 Walk with a Doc event held at Rillito River Park.
