After four months of non-running on account of a stress fracture, I've spent 3 months slowly building back to 10k and am now starting a HM taining plan. I beat my 10k PB by almost 3 minutes at the weekend and today went for a tempo run which was faster and with lower heart rate and less perceived effort than I was running pre-injury! As the song goes, 🎶 I wasn't expecting that ... 🎶
How has this happened? It can only be down to the alternative training I did from the IC, and have continued to do, albeit to a lesser degree, since restarting my runs.
I discovered a love for cycling and yoga, and a tolerance for low impact cardio/strength routines while unable to run. Prior to being injured I really struggled to do any cross training - nothing was as good as running 🙄
The point of this post - cross training clearly made a big positive difference to my running. Don't wait until you're injured and have no choice, experiment, find something you like, something you will actually do and also enjoy doing! I am truly amazed at the difference it has made despite 4 months non-running, imagine the possibilities when both are combined 😍
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linda9389
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That's wonderful news Linda. What exactly are you doing cross training wise? I'm clambering off the IC today after 2 weeks and I will take a few weeks to build back up to 10km. I must say that I'm nervous about having a re-occurence of knee problems. Were you cautious at first ?
I was terrified at first! I redid C25K, adapting how many of the runs I did depending on how the last run felt. I did less than the 27. I then did 6 of the 8 weeks in Ju-Ju's magic 10k plan. Are you on strava? If so, join the HM group on there and you can see exactly what runs and cross training I did. There's no point in rushing the comeback. I had a 10k race booked, so that determined the time I had available 🙄. I cycled - a lot in the end as it was a wonderful alternative to running in the decent weather. Not sure how that would be for your knee though. I also did youtube videos - mostly Caroline Jordan's ones as there are lots that are non weight bearing. I discovered I much preferred 'follow along' videos to a list of exercises and reps! There are lots of cardio, upper body and core routines out there to pick from so long as you remain mindful of your knee! Caroline Jordan is a good place to start. Most recently I have been following Adriene's yoga challenges on you tube. Again, she has some upper body and core routines that may be OK with your knee.
All the very, very best - being out thru injury really sucks 😥
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Anyone else fancy jumping on board the Yoga with Adriene train? 🧘♀️ 🙏🏻 
why do I have no energy some days?