The wheels have fallen off the wagon. Help me put them back on.
So I haven't been around here at all the last several months, and that's because I haven't been training at all the last several months. The Outseason started off fine with RD1/2/3, and then just as I was about to roll into the OS a recurring lower back injury flared up bigly. That put me out of commission for ~4 months. Then, to add insult to injury I've just gotten over a kidney stone. Sigh.
So, here I am. Overweight, out of shape, no races on the calendar, and looking to start over pretty much from square one. So is there a 'preparing to train again' training plan? How do I go about getting back to the point where I'm ready to jump back into one of the EN plans, and how do I know when I'm ready? Any and all advice welcome.
Thanks,
John
Comments
John - I've been there. We've all probably been there. The biggest thing is starting with building consistency. Fitness starts to come back fast, but I am not going to lie, the first few runs & bikes will feel like shizz... here's what I would do and I would expect much smarter people than me to chime in.
Run - this is the easiest. Start building a run streak, alternate days. On day is 3-4 miles, off day is 1-2. Seems like nothing, but that's going to get you 15Miles per week quickly. The consistency is more important than anything. just adding a 1/2 mile/day will quickly get you to 20MPW.
Bike - I'd hold off jumping into a plan until you build some baseline fitness. are you on Zwift or trainer road? assuming you have a trainer which will make it easier timewise, pick one of their plans and get going every day. you will see most plans swap easy/hard days. Dovetail that with your run and you will be in a good place. Start getting an outdoor social ride of a couple of hours or more, or do the EN Cruise n crush zwift rides WITH discord
Swim - probably not on your radar if not even is out there, but this is a good place to burn some more calories while the legs are recovering from above. Start easy (1000 yds/M) this will come back quickly and get you up to a 45-60min session.
Body Comp - join the current Hoff weight loss challenge here in the forums. We'll have you looking shapely by memorial day!
To piggy-back on @scott dinhofer one of the key tricks which helped me get back on the wagon after 3 months injury downtime...I got a white board. Across the top, Mon-Sun. Along the left side, Swim, Bike, Run, PT, Weights, etc, all the things I wanted to make sure I did. Then, I filled in the squares each week, and could easily adjust by erasing and rewriting as I learned what I could and couldnt handle. It was in my face every day, I couldnt shut the cover or put it in my pocket like online plans.
Also, having a specific goal activity 8 months away (IM CDA in my case) helped keep me going. I did relatively poorly, but I did finish, and that gave me confidence to go on to the next level.
A big risk is doing too much (volume, intensity) too soon. Practice humility, and pay close attentions to your body's signs of fatigue, soreness, need for rest, etc. and when in doubt, slow down, do less, or take a day off. Rule of thumb is a minimum of the same amount of slow build-up for the amount of total down time you've had off.
@John Katsoudas -- so sorry to hear about the bad luck health wise. I'm convinced that injuries do their greatest damage in how they mess with your mind.
+1 on what @scott dinhofer says: we've all been there and the biggest thing is building consistency.
I think it starts with making sure the back is fully healed and that you are drinking 3+ liters of mostly water each day.
I would start with making strength and stretching a priority. I know there are strength resources in the Wiki.
Given the history of back issues, I'm thinking I would want to make strength, core and stretching as much as a priority as swim/bike/run. I hate doing that stuff and it isn't sexy, but strength and core and stretching have huge ROI for being able to keep you training and in the game.
Then, I'd move to more low impact workouts in order to make sure the back isn't giving you a problem before jumping into a plan. Based on my injury history, if you can run 30 minutes without pain, I'd advise you would be ready to start on a training plan.
Also, keep in mind that your goals may need to be adjusted. For example, I broke a metatarsal in April one year and was signed up for IMWI in September. It didn't heal until mid July. I basically had 7 weeks to train for an IM. I had a decision to make: scrap it or enjoy the experience as much as possible. So I went into the IM knowing I wasn't going to kick a$$ and tried to soak up the experience. I had a wonderful experience overall and ran 10 minutes /walked 5 minutes. I finished in 13:40, certainly not tip of the spear, but it served as a great conduit for building upon a fitness mentality and life style for the next season.
As @Shaughn Simmons says -- Keep Moving Forward!
Everyone here is dead on. And having come from where you are, with a two year hiatus from training and re-starting back in July here are a few things I did that worked well.
For the run, use time if distance is too daunting. I started with this until I hit a baseline of mileage, since pace/distance were way off from what I was used to. I worked out 2x15 min, 2x20, 1x30 days/mins per week to start and then built from there by adding either another workout or adding 5 minutes to a day (I even had to walk/run a little of it). From there you can start to adjust to something to mileage with something like 2x2 mile, 2x4 mile, and 1x6 with the goal of moving to a 6-7 day a week schedule and upping mileage as necessary. Durability and consistency here is key, but as Al said if you feel injured, really tired, etc. then either go easier or take a day off.
Stretching & strength - don't forget about this as you will need to re-build some of those muscles and stretching and flexibility is key to preventing injuries as you start to build back up, as muscle imbalances can quickly sideline you again. I would suggest at least 2x a week on this focusing on core and any other muscle groups you may have had issues with (calf, quad, hamstrings, etc.)
Weight loss - With the workouts will come some natural weight loss, but your going to want to be thoughtful on what you eat or start tracking depending on what works best for you. As the weight starts to come off you will feel better on your workouts.
Have a goal(s), even if this is a local 10k, sprint tri, weight target, mileage target, etc. Most people need something to be working towards and it will help you see progress. Make these achievable and don't expect to see new PRs. What you want to see is that you are consistent across the board and if your are your pace, power, etc will improve, while the level of effort / hr for those efforts decrease.
@John Katsoudas, these guys are way more experienced than me, but I have had to deal with back pain. In fact, I'm currently coming back from a short break due to lower-back spasms.
The one thing I would add is that easy swimming really seems loosen up my back. The back-and-forth rotations of freestyle in an unweighted environment has been helpful. Just be careful with the flip turns. I've actually been doing slow/easy open turns.
Thank you everyone! I really appreciate all the input and insights. Day 1 of the long road back is in the books: 20 min. run followed by 20 min. of stretching and foam rolling. I'm still feeling a little sluggish from all the meds I've been on over the past several days, but it was very nice to get a workout in, nonetheless. Thankfully, my back feels fine right now but the true test will be how it feels in the morning. I'll let that dictate what I do tomorrow.
@John Katsoudas John- Aw man, that stinks but you are in good company as we've probably all been there in one way or another. I took a spectacular wipeout trail running last fall and ended up in a knee high walking boot for 6 weeks followed by physical therapy. I gained some weight, got cranky, and felt like a total sloth once I was allowed to return to activity. I can tell you what I did, with guidance from Coach P, and it might sound like an echo to what others have already chimed in on.
Because my injury was my ankle/foot, getting back in the groove on the bike was easier for me than the run. I rode every day on Zwift, starting out with only 15 minutes at a time, but building to 30 min, 45min, and then an hour within a couple weeks. I turned the erg mode off and did the free ride workouts so I could control the resistance by shifting in case my ankle wasn't up for climbing or harder efforts. I went hard enough to get my heart rate up and for my legs to feel it, but I would say I was still overly cautious in the build back up to fitness. After a month of that, I started the Jan OS and did fine. It got hard in a hurry, but the OS is no joke.
For running, coach P suggested I do some run durability, but did caution me to keep the pace and miles low since I was bouncing back from injury. Like Scott said, consistency is key and just logging miles did wonders for my mental state. It was hard for me to be plugging along so slowly, but at that point, I was just grateful for being able to run again. I followed the Run program as part of the Jan OS but made sure to keep it at Level 1. If I felt like my ankle was acting up in any way, I kept the ‘optional runs optional’ without feeling too discouraged about it.
I thought about doing some swimming as a low impact option, but honestly, getting to the pool is just such a giant pain for me. (i'm not exaggerating when i say it is nearly an hour from the time i leave my house until I am able to actually get in the water. Rural America problems. Lol.) So I held off on swimming until it was more necessary for my upcoming events. But if you like to swim and the pool is handy, it is a great way to burn calories and feel like you are doing ‘something’.
I’m not sure if this applies to you, but sometimes, I need an event on the calendar to help keep me focused. Maybe it is something simple like a 5k with friends? For me, I had decided last fall that if my foot healed properly with no lingering effects, I wanted to complete my first 70.3 this summer. I had done sprints and olys in the past and felt like it was reasonable to make the jump to the longer distance. Also, the injury put into perspective that you never know what might happen and that there was no time like the present to start working towards a goal.
There are tons of folks on EN that are putting out some crazy mileage and pace numbers and I went through a brief period of time thinking that I was trying to hang with the wrong crowd. But everyone here has been really encouraging and wants to see each person succeed WHEREVER they are in their fitness and endurance journey. I hope you are able to put some miles in with no lingering effects from your injury! Thanks for sharing with the group-
@John Katsoudas Are you on the GroupMe Run Chat? Join that and EN Live. They can be great resources! (you too @Nikki Pembrook )
@Janyne Kizer I am on the GroupMe run chat, but I muted it when I took my little "break" from training. I need to unmute it, but for me personally it's a bit of a double-edged sword. I love hearing all the conversation but as @Nikki Pembrook pointed out it's easy to read about everyone's shenanigans and feel like I have to try to keep up. This got me into big trouble a while back, when I tried to put together a consecutive run streak to keep up with the big dogs and really aggravated the tendinitis in my foot and sidelined myself from running for a good long while.
I understand, @John Katsoudas. I get an "I'm not worthy" feeling sometimes as well.
Well, on a positive note... now that I've finally shed all the excess water weight from having a million bags of saline pumped into me over the past week to flush out that kidney stone and gotten back down to a normal hydration level, it appears that I've lost ~4 lbs over the last week from not eating a whole lot. That right there is the very definition of losing weight the hard way, but I'll take it. Only 5 more pounds to go now.