3 years out and musculoskeletal breakdown....

I'm 52 and an endurance athlete and your doctor is an ass.

You need to see a sports medicine doctor, someone who understands how to treat athletes. Most PCPs don't get it and their advice is always to just take it easy and not do so much. A sports medicine doc is focused on how to get you back onto the playing field as soon as possible.

Make sure your PT specializes on athletes too. Mine is a triathlete. He's been there and he understands that I want to keep training through my treatment and gives me advice on what I can and can't do and still heal.

Now, age will make it take longer to heal from things. But plenty of people continue to be athletic into their 50s, 60, 70 and even 80s. I've done triathlons where two guys in their 80s competed. My personal hero Harriet Anderson fell off the bike at Kona this year (someone biked too close to her) and broke her clavicle and still finished the race. She's "only" 74.

OH and I forgot to say that when you get one injury, if it's not treated properly, it leads to others. I bet you have shin splints because your shoulder injury has impacted your running form.

I tore my left calf muscle but I ended up with some damange on the right calf too because of continuing to train before I figured out what is going on.

Speaking of form, the older you get, the more important it is. During my time in rehab, I figured out (with the help of my PT and my tri coach) that poor bike form and pointing my toes too much when swimming where all causing my calf to be stressed when they shouldn't have been. This slowed down my recovery.

The other thing is that it's not quantity that matters, but quality. Fewer workouts that are higher in intensity and more structured will lead to less injuries but you'll still make performance gains. So many people have bought into the idea that you have to pile on the miles to make good progress and be prepared for your events, but science is starting to be done that shows the errors in that thinking.