Back to running after an enforced break

[RF25]

Hi all, I got to W6R1 - quite an achievement for me as a complete novice (and fairly mature) runner! However I then sprained my ankle and haven’t been able to run for just over a month now. I am keen to get going again but I am not sure where to start? Should I go back to the beginning again? Any advice would be appreciated please.

[cheekychipmunks Graduate]

Good that you’re ready to start up again! I think the general advice is to try resuming where you left off, as the body maintains fitness for quite some while. If you find that a struggle, you could always return to an earlier run if necessary.

W6R2 is a pleasant 2 x 10 minutes running with a 3 minute walk in between. I’d give it a try!

Good luck! 😀🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️

[Irishprincess Graduate]

A sprained ankle can be tricky and take a long time to heal. I know this because I've had two 😩☹️

I assume you have no pain now and your ankle is strong enough to run? Test it out with a walk/run for your first run back and see how it feels after 5/10/15 minutes. Then I'd gradually build up slowly from there. You might want to wear an ankle support for a while too as I found that helps a lot.

Each sprain is different but I sprained mine in February and still have niggles on it. You need to do strengthening exercises too because a sprain means it's more likely to sprain again.

Ice it immediately after every run.