Back to C25k after an injury break

[LFriend45]

Hi everyone!

I graduated the C25k programme in July this year and was loving my new running hobby, but then went on holiday and promptly fell over injuring my knee and twisting my ankle! Doh! Literally just after graduating!!

I thought I would give myself a decent break to heal up (about 3 months all be told with holidays and what not) but I've just started running again tonight.

Obviously my fitness levels seem to have taken a nosedive and I'm nervous about doing too much too soon so I've opted to start at the beginning and redo the whole of C25k from week 1.

Is this the right thing to do? In my head I still think I can run for 30 mins non stop but my body is telling me other things! Any advice from people who have taken a break and then picked things back up? Should I do all the runs to be on the safe side? 9 weeks seems like an eternity at the moment but I know it will soon pass. I've set myself a target of getting to the end by Christmas which is just about do-able!!

Cheers all!

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

Welcome back... hopefully you’re gonna be pain free.

We’re to start? Well... if you do a week one run, you’ll know how easy that was... I think I’d do one from each week until week 5 if i was comfortably completing and then W5R3, then assess if I needed to do the intervals or up to 25.

Another way would be to just time a run... slow and steady and find out what you can do, consolidate that and move on.

[LFriend45 Graduate in reply to UnfitNoMore]

Yes I might try that and if I'm struggling at any point I can always do more runs of that particular week before moving on. I remember getting to week 5 before and the 20 minute run was hard but a great feeling of accomplishment afterwards! Tonight was good, but felt like I had more in the tank (definitely not 20 minutes yet though! 😀)

[Teddly22 Graduate]

Hi. I've just come back to it too and I did week 5 run 3 this morning. Think I am going to redo the programme from here but I wasn't injured so you may need to take it easier?

[LFriend45 Graduate in reply to Teddly22]

Wow - great going getting the 20 min run under your belt again! Good luck for the rest of the programme! 👍

[Hidden]

Welcome back, where to restart is a difficult one . You will have retained some fitness etc but as your break was enforced by injury try a week 1 run and see how it feels, if feels ok try week 2 and so on until maybe week 5 ..

A gradual build is the way to go no matter where you start from.. good luck with your return 😁

[damienair Graduate]

I am back too after a back injury which happened in March. I was advised not to run until August. I started back by running and walking 5K. Run 1K, Walk 1K, and repeat. The next week I ran 1.5K and walked 1.5K and repeated, 3 times per week. Next week I ran 2K, walked 1K, ran 1K and walked 1K.

Now I’m up to running 3K, walking 0.5 K and running 1.5K. I’m almost back to running 5K. Just build it back up slowly, intervals or the plan.

[Boxcar]

I’m another one who had 3 months off after an ankle injury. It’s taken another 8 weeks from there. I didn’t re do C25K exactly. My fitness decreased but wasn’t too bad thanks to swimming & the gym. It’s been my ankle that limited me. I did 1 min intervals, then 2, then 3 and so on. A few times I had to rest & then go back a stage because the injury grumbled. It’s been a case of have a go. Increase when going well, back off if the ankle wasn’t happy. Did my first 5k in nearly 5 months last week. 👍

[FGB1]

Did the same having to return after 5 months lay off and for me started back at the very beginning as wanted to try to reduce chances of repeating injuries just recovered from. Very best wishes and hope you remain injury free.

[ELSW73 Graduate]

Take it steady - I agree that progressing through the early interval weeks will help you judge where you’re at and get you back on track vs heading straight out for continuous longer runs

Also it’ll help with the head - better to have a plan and be ticking the achievements off than having no plan and failing a long run that’s too much too soon

Enjoy - let’s hope the Indian summer lasts a bit longer for you