Where to pick back up?
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ferocityturbine
Posts: 110 Member
Hi there,
I finished C25K at the end of September and continued running 5K 3x a week (in around 35 mins) for a few weeks. Then I had placement. During placement I have a mega-commute and am physically and mentally exhausted and cannot fit exercise into my life. As such I haven't ran in 3 months and really want to get back into it. Yesterday I foolishly thought 'maybe I can pick back up where I left off' and had a go at my route and managed a gruelling 27 minutes which was way above my level. I felt utterly spent and muscles I didn't know were used for running are aching today.
I don't want to start back at the beginning as surely I'm too fit for that if I can run continously for a reasonable amount of time before I fatigue? I know that we run-walk and build up in C25K because it isn't just our cardiovascular fitness but adaptation of our muscles, bones and ligaments to the activity but I'm not sure how rapidly we might decondition those tissues and need to build adaption to running back up?
Any advice on how/where to jump back in after a break? Choose a week in C25K to sidle back in at? Or just listen to my body and run for a number of minutes that feels challenging but without undue fatigue and increase minutes as my fitness returns?
I need to formulate a plan as I have these placements which put everything on hold every few months and will need to figure out how to work my fitness around them, otherwise I'm just going to end up repeating C25K 3x a year and getting nowhere with my running goals
I finished C25K at the end of September and continued running 5K 3x a week (in around 35 mins) for a few weeks. Then I had placement. During placement I have a mega-commute and am physically and mentally exhausted and cannot fit exercise into my life. As such I haven't ran in 3 months and really want to get back into it. Yesterday I foolishly thought 'maybe I can pick back up where I left off' and had a go at my route and managed a gruelling 27 minutes which was way above my level. I felt utterly spent and muscles I didn't know were used for running are aching today.
I don't want to start back at the beginning as surely I'm too fit for that if I can run continously for a reasonable amount of time before I fatigue? I know that we run-walk and build up in C25K because it isn't just our cardiovascular fitness but adaptation of our muscles, bones and ligaments to the activity but I'm not sure how rapidly we might decondition those tissues and need to build adaption to running back up?
Any advice on how/where to jump back in after a break? Choose a week in C25K to sidle back in at? Or just listen to my body and run for a number of minutes that feels challenging but without undue fatigue and increase minutes as my fitness returns?
I need to formulate a plan as I have these placements which put everything on hold every few months and will need to figure out how to work my fitness around them, otherwise I'm just going to end up repeating C25K 3x a year and getting nowhere with my running goals
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Replies
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Really either way you do it, you're going to be listening to your body. I'd say run as long as you can comfortably, take a walk and then run some more.0
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You could do a trial run like you said by running as long as you can before you think it is too much. See how many minutes you were able to run. Then find out where that is on the C25K plan (as closely as possible) and then do the end of C25K starting at the point where you are. That way you start where you are but also have a plan for moving forward. Good luck!0
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I think I would jump back into C25K, but where is the question. You have had quite a long break during which you say your cardiovascular fitness has suffered and also that muscles were hurting after your optimistic run.
This makes me think winging it may not be the best idea, but starting from week 1 might be too newbie. Perhaps one of the weeks with five or eight minutes running would be a good place to test waters? No matter what you choose, keep us posted!0 -
Thanks for the input guys
I reckon I'll jump back in at week 6 as I probably did 20 mins ok before I felt like I was pushing too hard. One week to work my way up to 25 mins and then the gradual 3 week increase to the 30 min mark. Sounds like a plan 0 -
I'm so glad you posted this!! I've had a similar issue where I've not ran in about 3 months either and wondered where I should start back at.
I thought I would start completely over, and I ran the first day and thought, "man this is too easy..." So, I think I'm going to move up to a week with the "longer running times" and see how it goes and go from there. Hopefully it'll work out fine!0
