I am pretty fortunate that running comes fairly easily to me, physically speaking. I don’t have any physical impairments that hinder my ability to run, nor do I have any recurring injuries (knock wood). I’m slow, yes, and my mental game is kind of weak, but these are relatively mild issues.

I have some minor aches and pains from time to time, usually in my hips, and of course at FANS I had that weird foot issue that I self-diagnosed as peroneal tendonitis. But the one persistent issue I have that never seems to go away is extremely tight calf muscles. Absurdly tight. Like at massages sometimes I have been concerned about having a charlie horse. And I often do get charlie horses in my calves (specifically the gastrocnemius, according to Dr. Google) from simply stretching. They feel as taut as the E string on a violin, like I could play pizzicato on them they’re also one quarter turn of a fine tuner away from rupturing. I do feel like it hinders my running sometimes when they’re extra tight, and like I’m putting myself at risk for injury.

A year or so ago, a massage therapist recommended that I use magnesium oil applied directly to my legs. I had never heard of that before and was intrigued, but then never followed up, because I am lazy about things. I guess I could also take epsom salt baths to get the same effect, and while epsom salts would have required even less effort to acquire, I am not a giant fan of baths and also the faucet valve in my bathroom is broken so I can’t take a bath. (I have another shower, and while it is sort of scary and has spiders on occasion, it works and I am not walking around filthy.) Apparently there are magnesium supplements as well, but they can have a laxative effect and I am not interested in having blowouts on runs.

I finally went out today and bought some magnesium oil to give this a try. I sprayed it on my calves after a treadmill tempo workout, and now I’m going to see if it works some magic. I’m very hopeful! It certainly beats buying a foam roller, which I understand is actually a medieval torture device!