Getting back into running and racing!

How to recover your lost fitness

No matter what your level of fitness was, if you stopped running for more than three weeks because of the winter weather, holidays, or other reasons, you probably lost somewhere between 20%-40% of your fitness level. And, I am not talking about physical fitness, only. Your mental edge, motivation and psychological skills are affected. How to recover your lost fitness and get into the racing form as quickly as possible?

This is what you need to do, and it works with runners that I coach. To ensure a healthy progress, you need to proceed with caution. Go out the door, warm up and stretch (not too much stretching before your workout, more stretching and cool-down is necessary after your workout, to prevent injury) and start your run at a pace that feels comfortable, (your running pace should be 2 minutes slower than your best mile pace).

Find out the shape you're in, presently, by running 3-5 miles at a slow pace a few times per week. For example, first week, run two days back to back, take one day off, run two more days and take 3 days off. The second week, run five days. This week include into your workouts, (lets say Tuesday and Thursday), 4-6 fast pickups, (fast runs for about 20 steps or 20 seconds each, get back to your running pace for one minute, and run fast again). Next week, do 6-8 pickups two times per week and in the next three weeks, do 8-10 two times per week. As your training progresses and you feel stronger, you could go more than 20 sec, but no more than two min. And, you need to be able to keep your speed equal throughout all of your fast segments.

You need 4-6 weeks to buildup your mileage (with two times per week pickups) to get back into running and racing frame of mind. Your mileage buildup should be 5%-10% from week to week only, and you should be able to buildup in four weeks to about 40% of your past total weekly miles. Throughout this period, as your fitness level improves (which could be within the first 2-3 weeks for some runners) you could achieve satisfying rewards, energize your mind and body, identify your fitness level, get motivated, and this is the time to set appropriate (realistic) goals.

Next, if any goals are set, knowing your present fitness level and your goals, you must shift attention towards achieving your goals. Make your goals a priority, (within the limits of your career and family responsibilities), commit and focus on your training, assign and execute workloads that match your needs and abilities to ensure a healthy progress. For your best effort (if a race is your goal) you need to set your goals no less than 12 weeks and no more than 16-18 weeks away, anything before 12 weeks should be run as training or time trials runs towards your main goal.

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