Returning from Injury - loss of fitness Q

RubyK

I'm just wondering about other posters experiences, on returning to running after a break from it. I picked up a slight injury late September, did very little running during October, ran DCM, but nothing really since. This week I've been allowed back on grass, and slowly building up my runs. But, yesterdays 20 mins, felt harder than it should have. I was shocked at how much fitness I seemed to have lost since DCM :eek: My legs felt like they belonged to someone else. Now I am grateful to be back moving, painfree, but I'm just wondering what other peoples experiences are. Is it going to take me months of hard work to get back to running 10-12 mile LSR's? I had the Dungarvan 10 on my 2011 to-do-list, at the end of January, but I'm now wondering if I should forget about that, and just concentrate on being better prepared for Ballycotton 10 in March?

I suppose everyone is different, but I'd love to hear other peoples opinions on this.

Thanks

smmoore79

I got injured during marathon training for DCM and stupidly tried to run it. I blew up on the day and limped away at the halfway point very dejected. Since then Ive done no running but a lot of core conditioning to strengthen any weak muscles. Im now back running a week (felt tough aswell, like i lost a lot of fitness-but that will come back after a few weeks) but am making a decision to not do anything long for a while. Gona focus on short sharp stuff and maybe some hills for strength. I think strength is the key for injury prevention on the long runs so until i feel strong i'll stay away. Maybe in a month or 2 i'll start going over 10 miles...

RubyK

Sorry to hear your marathon didn't work out smmoore79, it must have been so disheartening for you. Glad to hear you are back out there again. Thanks for posting your experience. It's scary how quickly the fitness goes, yet it takes so long to build up (for me anyway).

Here's to a successful, injury-free 2011

menoscemo

Build the miles up slowly again but you should be back to feeling much fitter within a week or two already. Every run you do will feel gradually better.

No reason why you can't do a 10 miler at the end of January and it will give you a target to aim for/ smash in ballycotton.

RubyK

Thanks meno, taking it a mile at a time. Hopefully, by the New Year I should be feeling a bit more like I was pre-DCM, rather than the newbie I felt like yesterday

meathcountysec

This week I’ve managed 3 runs for the first time since early October. As you have said it feels a lot harder than it should/did. Mental memory and muscle memory seem to be in conflict.

Stick at it, build up slowly, and in a few weeks all your memories should be in sync again!!

Good luck in 2011

menoscemo

RubyK wrote: »

Thanks meno, taking it a mile at a time. Hopefully, by the New Year I should be feeling a bit more like I was pre-DCM, rather than the newbie I felt like yesterday

I remember going back to running after a break last january. I did 4 or 5 miles on the treadmill at a ridiculously slow speed and nearly died. I thought i had gone back to prerunning fitness. By the end of the week I was going much better and by the end of the Month i took 2 minutes off my 5 mile PB in Raheny.
You'll be fine!!

RubyK

meathcountysec wrote: »

Mental memory and muscle memory seem to be in conflict.

This is so true! In my head I can replay DCM and feel great. But in reality, I struggled with two miles

menoscemo wrote: »

I remember going back to running after a break last january. I did 4 or 5 miles on the treadmill at a ridiculously slow speed and nearly died. I thought i had gone back to prerunning fitness. By the end of the week I was going much better and by the end of the Month i took 2 minutes off my 5 mile PB in Raheny.
You'll be fine!!

Nice one! Great to hear positive stories like this.

huskerdu

I was off for months with a knee injury, and I agree the first few runs can be really disheartening, but improvement came pretty quickly.

I put a lot of effort into core strengthening work when starting back and I feel that it helped a lot.

RubyK

huskerdu wrote: »

I was off for months with a knee injury, and I agree the first few runs can be really disheartening, but improvement came pretty quickly.

I put a lot of effort into core strengthening work when starting back and I feel that it helped a lot.

Glad to hear another positive story, thanks huskerdu!

I was very lazy in the past when it came to core/strengthening work, but it'll be something I will definitely concentrate more on in the future.

dna_leri

I was out from March to September with a knee injury so did very little in that time.

Started back doing 20min runs at a comfortable pace, 3/4 times a week and then increased by 10% per week from there. It's not as bad as starting from zero however it takes time to build back up but if you don't get reinjured, you will get there.

hunnymonster

I was also off recently (not directly an injury but an enforced rather than chosen rest) and yep, I agree with you all that the first couple of runs back were tough and took longer to recover from than when I would be training at full strength. Luckily though, I have found that I return to fitness much, amazingly so really, faster than if I was coming from scratch.

Blueskye

I was out of action for nearly 3 months earlier in the year, from about February to May and then went on holidays for 3+ weeks so when I got back to training I nearly died I felt so unfit!! It took me a good 4 weeks of steady running before I started to feel like myself again, but each week got easier. Best of luck with it, it'll feel great to be back running consistently again.

robinph

I was out of action for several months after having my leg immobilised for a while a few years back. Was totally locked off from any knee movement for about five weeks. It then took me a couple of months before I dared run on it again, and I could still notice a difference between the muscles for a while due to wastage. Once I did start running again though things did improve quite quickly.

Just be patient.

dtf

I have found it harder to come back from injury as I get older. This is the first year in a while that i've suffered any sort of injury. When i came back i was really shocked how tired i felt after basic short runs.
My advise is to keep at it and make sure you take you take enough time to get back to where you where. It took me 6 - 8 weeks to feel comfortable training again.