How now fast cow?

Elise4270

Sat out on an injury for 3+ weeks and now gauging how to get back in the groove without setting myself up for unnecessary strife or injury risk. I don't know what I did and I have no indication how to prevent it.

I'll also be out later this year after surgery. So please share your thoughts and experiences on returning to running (or life). I notice I'm sore from my first run. Wth?? I'm never sore. What kind of conditioning did you lose?

I'm in a funk. Maybe I lost my grove? Maybe I need another round of hormone replacement Hahaha! I can see how easy it is, after injury, to walk away from running. What obstacles did you face? How did you manage them? It's like starting over again. Like that first mile all over again. I've lost my payoff? Maybe the surgery has me spooked...


I anticipate I'll take a month or so to slowly rebuild to near where I was. Maybe think about cross training any. Keep on track with my food, and try to listen to my body and lose myself in the victories of others .

Happy running peeps.

MNLittleFinn

When I had nasty bursitis in my achilles, it came at a bad time, right before winter, so I ended up with a several month lay off. It took me a long time to get back into things (more than a year)

The biggest thing for me was the psychological, even after my cardio was good enough to run, I was still doing intervals, or walking, part of me as afraid of not being able to do it. Then one day, it just clicked, and I ran the whole 5k I was doing intervals on. But then it was winder again, and I had to work very hard, doing HIIT to keep in shape.

This spring was when I really got back into running again, or rather got into running seriously for the first time. One thing I'll say is that I made gains faster than I thought I would.

One thing that helped was the MRC group here, they (you included) really help me keep my head on straight, not get discouraged, and, just as importantly, help me make realistic goals and expectations.

Sorry for the word salad, I hope it makes sense.

Elise4270

@MNLittleFinn It makes sense. Thanks for sharing that. Hearing that you made it back after an extensive time off makes me feel better.

lporter229

I have been running for nearly 20 years, so naturally I have had some (ok, many) breaks in there due to injury, illness (I have a chronic one) and surgeries. Coming back from a break is always hard, but the longer the break, the harder it is, so the best thing you can do is get back at it as soon as you are physically able so that the psychological lapse doesn't take over. Not gonna lie, it's tough. Feeling like you have lost everything you have worked up to. But the good news is, you haven't. It just feels that way. You definitely need to start out slow, but you will notice that you will progress much faster than the last time around. In fact, sometimes those breaks actually help you in the long run. Your body has had time to repair and your muscles will still remember how they once worked every day. Try not to focus on where you once were, but where you are now and where you are going. I can honestly say that at 44 years old, I am now the strongest runner I have ever been. Those breaks are just part of the journey. Good luck to you!!! You got this!!

Elise4270

@lporter229 Thanks. I got this... all part of training....

MobyCarp

I've come back from injury a couple of times already. The worst was a stress fracture. My podiatrist told me that when I started to run, I could run for a quarter of a mile. Are you kidding? That isn't even a warm up!

Well, when the podiatrist finally told me to stop being afraid and go test it, I went and ran my quarter mile. Then I did run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes intervals for a week. Then run 3, walk 1 for a week. Then run 4, walk 1 for a week. Then a week with just running an easy 3 miles. And those were all weeks with only 3 running days. After that, I started running a minimum of 4 miles, and it felt more normal. But coming back was very, very slow.

The thing is, to come back that gradually I had to have a plan. Think out the plan, write down the plan, follow the plan, and don't let the voice of Mr. Testosterone in my head push me into re-injuring myself.

With lesser injuries and shorter time off, the road back will be quicker; but it will start with less distance and less speed than you were accustomed to before the injury. That's the nature of coming back. The soreness is simply a reminder that you aren't in the shape you were in before, and that it will take some time and patience to get back there.

Elise4270

Thanks for the great advice @mobycarp. I'll write out a plan. Not sure how far back I should cut. I may just do more walking than running for a few weeks. This is good experience for being out after surgery. I'll learn to be patient.

_nikkiwolf_

Starting again after a break can be hard, but I think it gets easier with time; because you already know you can do it, and how much you missed it when you had to stop.

I started over again a few times over the years. Since you asked for experiences on returning to running, you get the whole boring collection ;-)

I think I first started running 2005 or 2006, got to the point where I could run 60 minutes without walking, but I was never really in love with running - I just ran three times per week because I was trying to lose weight. In summer 2009, the weather was really hot for weeks, I had lots of exams to study for, so I decided to take a break from running, and somehow "forgot" to start again in autumn.
I tried to start with a run-walk routine again summer 2011, but gave up after two weeks. Don't remember why anymore...

In Spring 2013 I gave it another try, and weirdly enough, that time I was beginning to enjoy it. I was happily running until August, when I pulled a muscle in my left thigh (not running; got injured in an improvised soccer match..) By that point I had really gotten to like running, so in October/November I did that stupid thing where I would try to do a "leg test run" every two or three weeks to see if it had gotten better (no, the pain still brought tears to my eyes when I tried, and trying to push past the pain did not make any muscles "loosen up" and magically stop hurting, so after <10minutes I was limping back home...); until I admitted defeat in December and took two month off completely. Of course, that meant that February 2014, when the leg was finally okay, I hadn't been running for four month, and had to start over from scratch again. But that time it was a little easier than the year before; I followed an 8-week 5k program, but skipped ahead a day every now and then, because I felt ready to do more.

Last year, I had a few stressful month with new job and moving and stuff, and only did 5 really short runs in September and 2 equally short runs in October. Surprisingly, that was enough to keep some fitness up - when I restarted running regularly in November, I found I could do 5km if I walked for ~1min after each full kilometre, and even with taking another 10 days off after dumping some furniture on my toe, I was back to 10km of running after two month.

--

That being said, I don't think you loose too much if you can't run for a few weeks.
If you can do some sort of crosstraining, that will surely help to keep your cardio fitness level up. And maybe you can use the time off running to do some more core exercises or other things from which you will benefit once you can run again.

And this site has some guidelines on how to decide when you can start running again, and how to figure out how much you can do, which sound reasonable (at least to me):
http://www.running-physio.com/returnafterinjury/

Elise4270

@_nikkiwolf_ thanks for your recount and the link! I'll check it out! I'm slowly getting back in the grove. I think the break has been good. I want to do more cross training, my nutrition is a bit more focused. I think I'll be a better runner for it.

Orphia

I only started running in September, did C25K and now my longest run has been 16 km (hope to beat that tomorrow).

I had problems with my hip tendon in January, and had to take a couple of weeks off and ease back into it.

I satiated my addiction to running by volunteering at parkrun a couple of extra times as well as walking at parkrun and on other days a lot.

Are there any local running events or clubs you could help at?

Elise4270

@orphia No I don't think there is . But I'm introverted anyhow, and the people game kind of stresses me out.

I'm slowly getting back at a running routine.

Orphia

Elise4270 wrote: »

@orphia No I don't think there is . But I'm introverted anyhow, and the people game kind of stresses me out.

I'm slowly getting back at a running routine.

Slowly is way better than nothing! Good to hear it!

niblue

I completed C25K in 2014 and by the end of the year was regularly running sub 30 minute 5K's as well as fairly frequent 10K's. In early 2015 I pretty much stopped running regularly through a combination of illness, injury and work pressure and only really got into it again in April this year. During that period I'd put on over 5kg in weight and at first was struggling to run a full 5K without having to do some walking. After about 6 weeks of regular (3 or 4 times a week) runs I've lost some of that weight and can do 5K's no problem now - although I'm not likely to be breaking 30 minutes for a while yet. I'm still over 3 minutes down on my best 5K time and the only 10K I've run so far was over 7 minutes slower than my best time - still a big improvement though.