Returning to Running After Injury
I began marathon training today after once again going through physical therapy for a running injury. I had to take time off for four different running injuries in the past two years. Two of those got so bad that I had to do eight weeks of physical therapy…twice. This last running injury really impacted my mental health. For months, I was in pain or barely running. Once I decided enough was enough, I took much needed time off and dragged myself to physical therapy. It was extremely tough mentally and physically, but I’m back to it and eager to stay injury free.
As I continue to run and build up my fitness again, there are some lessons I learned last time around that I keep thinking about.
how to return to running after an injury
Stay Positive Probably the most important thing when starting your comeback to running, is staying positive. The miles are going to be tough, your paces probably won’t be what you want them to be right off the bat, and it’s going to feel like you’re stuck. Be patient with your body as it builds up fitness again.
Don’t Compare After taking time off, your fitness will drop and those first few runs will be difficult. As you begin training again, it will be easy to compare your pace to what it was before injury. I’m running a whole minute per mile slower than I was before my injury. But that’s okay. And I know that I will be running faster as time goes on.
Stick to Physical Therapy My biggest regret the first time around was not continuing to do the physical therapy exercises that I had been given. Those exercises would have kept this pain from coming back and I would not have needed to do another round of physical therapy. Your physical therapist isn’t giving you homework and exercises for the heck of it. Listen to them and do those exercises for months and months after you’re healed up.
Do More Strength Listen to your physical therapist when they tell you what your weaknesses are. Take notes after each session– write down any random tips they throw at you and any exercises you really liked that day. My physical therapist had an online portal with all of the exercises I ever did, but I still took notes on things they said— don’t roll the IT band and keeping the lower core strong will help prevent glute issues. Absorb as much information as you can, not just about this injury, but anything that could help you improve after you graduate from physical therapy.
Stick to the Plan Don’t increase your mileage too quickly. The 10% rule is a good one for beginner runners, but if you are a more experienced runner like myself, increasing your mileage by 10% each week after a running injury is like watching paint dry. On Christmas Day, I started a basic 10k training plan from Hal Higdon that would increase my weekly miles by just the right amount. I went from 9 miles per week to 16 this week. Just the right increase in miles to improve my fitness but keep me from doing too much too fast.
By keeping these key factors to a successful comeback in mind, you’ll be back to feeling like yourself in no time! Good luck, runner, you got this comeback.