The downward path. Magnesium?

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	Classic Sprint	Pull ups	Start time
9 Mar	Park	33	1:03.71	5,5,5, 5,5	7:43

         The results of the classic sprint were not under 60 seconds. Nevertheless, I felt good while running. My legs were not giving me sustained pain all throughout.  This leads me to believe, in my position of eternal optimism, that I may have turned a corner. I may be on the downward path toward free sprinting. 

         What?!? The downward path?  How does that work? “Downward” seems to imply that something is going badly, but the goal of this downward path is “free sprinting” something good, right?  What I mean by the downward path is the easy road.  So, it’s a positive. 

          I woke today and performed some yoga exercises to loosen up a bit. 

Last week, I called a physical therapist. This was after I asked my clinic about a physical therapist.  The clinic came back with the answer, “No. We don’t know of any physical therapist in Tirana.”  I kept asking with the idea that they were acting as my primary care physician here, and it seems that they should be able to give me some direction. I was doubtful that the secretary on the other end of the phone understood my question.  She assured me that she had asked all the doctors and they uniformly responded that they could not give me any recommendation.   

          With my “doctor” not able to help me, I sent a message to the frisbee group asking if anyone knew of a PT doctor. Pretty soon, I got a phone number.  I turns out that this was the daughter of the massage therapist, Kyltim, that I had been seeing for a month. Kyltim was a upstanding dude who did good work, but I was not getting any better. My legs were still just as painful as they had been all winter. 

          His daughter, before she even examined me, was sure that she knew what my problem was.  I mistakenly told her that before last year, I had a problem with my shoulder—I couldn’t raise it without pain. I had done some exercises and after a few months, all was back to normal. When I told her that I hurt the shoulder falling while skiing, she discounted this event.  She said I had this problem all the time and that the fall skiing was just the opening of the flood gates, so to speak.

          I said to her, “So even though 15 seconds before the fall, my shoulder was fine, and 15 seconds after the fall, I was injured, you are saying that the fall is not the cause of my current pain?” She indicated that I was right.  She said that the change in the weather is some of the reason for my difficulty.  I did not and I do not agree. She also said that I should take Magnesium. I’ve read some about it, and it seems like it might be a good idea. That and ibuprofen for swelling.  She gave me a decent massage of my shoulder, but I am still looking for a PT doctor.