If you have been injured or ill it’s important to start running again gradually. Colin shares the golden rules on how to come back from injury or illness.
It is very common for runners to come back from injury and illness too quickly. After some time off it is natural to be keen to get back to running and it is easy to get carried away. The easiest mistake to make is starting training from the point where you had to stop. It’s important to acknowledge that you have lost some fitness and start from where you are not where you used to be.
It is doubly frustrating if you have been training for a specific event and following a plan. The longer your time out the more likely it is that you will have to accept that you may not be where you want to be by race day.
How much fitness will you have lost?
If you have had five days off you won’t have lost any fitness. After two weeks you will have lost a little fitness. After three weeks you will have lost a lot more. Once your time off reaches six weeks you will have lost a big chunk of your fitness. The good news is that you will gain your fitness back quite quickly if you plan your comeback sensibly.
The first run back
Your first run back should be no more than 35 minutes at Chatty pace. This is to test how you feel. Start with a ten minute walk warm up. This will help reassure you that your injury has healed or that you feel well enough to run after illness. Twenty minutes into the run check in with your body to make sure all is well to carry on. Don’t be tempted to carry on after 35 minutes if you feel good.
The day after your first run back
You will need a little more recovery at first so have a day off the next day and tune into your body. Does everything feel aright?
The second run back
If you train four or five times a week then you can run again the day after your rest. If you run less often then you can have another day or twos rest. Your second run can be at least 35 minutes again and if all feels good then add up to ten minutes.
The third run back
From the third run back just tune into how you are feeling as you build back up gradually. If you have been resting for two weeks or more, look back to what you were doing three weeks before the illness or injury and start with this volume of running. Keep all your runs Chatty for three weeks as you rebuild your base training. Be wary of doing any Sparkles during this time as there is no point in risking injury again. Save these for a few week’s time.
How long should the long run be?
When you return to running, your long run should be no more than three quarters of what you had built it up to pre-injury or illness. You need to be confident that any run of around 90 minutes is not going to set you back. A long run of sixty minutes may well be enough.
Be feeling based on every run
Listen to what your body is telling you. After illness, if you feel drained when you start running again, then you are not quite ready to train again. Flu can take five or six weeks to properly recover from so don’t ignore fatigue. If your body says no it will tell you. A lack of motivation is also a sign that things are not well. You are fully recovered when you can’t remember what knee you injured or you realise that your energy levels have returned after illness.
What if you were training for an event before you got injured or ill?
The golden rule here is that if you are ill in the week before a race then don’t push your body to race at the weekend. Your body needs to fight the illness and doesn’t want to be recovering from a race as well. The same applies to being injured. Give your body time to heal and don’t race. If you have missed several weeks of training you will have to decide whether you are ready for the race you planned to do nearer the time.
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