Tri again after long break.

tritriagain

I have previously done 2 Sprint Tris, and had actually started into one month of half iron man training when there was a death in the family and everything went south on me. Fast forward 2 years later I'm 2 stone heavier (wasn't light to begin with) and have run twice in the 2 years, on the bike half a dozen times. The only thing I have kept up is my first love sea swimming. Swam 4k yesterday without any bother. I am disgusted I have spent 2 years idle and used the death as an excuse. It was a genuine excuse for about 2 months as it was unexpected and there was things to be sorted but my own laziness was to blame for the rest. That's the background. Now I want to get fit again and do a couple of sprints next year and if that goes well maybe olympic the following year. Now how do I get back into running. I was looking at 3 profs. C25k, Paula radcliffes 5k and Hal higdons 5 k. Should I start c25kas if I have never run before. Or can I jump ahead or even do the more advanced Hal higdon one. I know I have to put in the time but I'm not sure where to start. Boards was a great help last time as I'm sure it will be again.

68 lost souls

Firstly, welcome back to triathlon. No matter the gap you can now look forward to getting back into it.

I came back to running in February after 6 months off and I started with 1km run 3 times a week and added 1/2 km each week until I get back to 5k. (There happen to have been nice sections around where I live that lent themselves naturally to this.) I reckon the C25K program would be a good use after 2 years off. Especially having an extra 2 stone it will be harder on your legs than previously.

I was discussing taking time off different aspects with my physio last week and she was reminding me that for every week off it takes twice as long again to get the fitness back so 1 week off running takes two weeks after to get back (3 weeks from peak to peak). Dont be surprised if it takes some time to get back to where you were at but dont be afraid of it either.

Stick with it and you'll be back on your feet in no time

tritriagain

Thanks for that. Nice to hear from someone who had to more or less start again. Might start a training log as motivation.

myate

I took 3 years off from tri's...done no running, no biking & very little swimming. I did do plyometrics & I surf so didn't let myself go, but no structured training.
I came back last year to do Escape from Alcatraz tri, and put in a solid 6 months training for that race. I can swim, and popped in a sub 6 min 400 TT but had zero endurance at the start of that 6 months!
I got to arguably my best fitness ever just before Alcatraz & blew away my predicted time for the race 3 hr goal, done 2hr 44mins.
Training log is key & have a goal, whether it's a sprint or olympic race. I'm 'retired' again but have a 70.3 race in mind I'd like to do, but I work weekends unfortunately so cant do it in 2017. I would try another comeback in 2018 if I can do it!
Best of luck...stick with it!