How long before I can race again?

For a minor soft-tissue issue, four to eight weeks of rebuilding before racing. For a bone stress injury, months, and on a plan from the professional who diagnosed it. Racing during a rebuild is how a comeback becomes a second injury.

How much fitness do I lose?

Less than it feels like. VO2max declines meaningfully after about two to three weeks off and drops perhaps 5 to 10 percent over a month. Most of what feels lost in the first two weeks back is running economy and confidence, and both come back quickly.

Is it OK to run through mild pain?

Mild discomfort that warms up and does not worsen during or after is usually tolerable. Anything that makes you limp or alter your stride is not, because the compensation is how the second injury starts.

Should I get new shoes?

Worth checking mileage on your current pair, but shoes are rarely the cause and rarely the cure. Volume, intensity and how fast you added them explain far more injuries than footwear.

Train for

Coming back from injury

The comeback is more dangerous than the original injury. Your cardiovascular fitness returns in weeks and your tendons take months, so for a while you will feel capable of running that will hurt you.

Why the comeback hurts people

Aerobic fitness declines slowly and returns quickly. Connective tissue, tendon and bone adapt on a much longer timescale, and they detrain faster than they retrain.

The result is a window, usually between weeks two and six of a return, where your heart and lungs are comfortable at a volume your tissues have not earned. You feel good. You add three miles. Two weeks later the same thing hurts again, and this time it takes longer.

Everything about a sane return is designed to keep you inside your tissue tolerance while your fitness is telling you to go faster.

The rebuild

1
Start below what you can do
Whatever you think you can run, run half. If you were at 40 miles a week before, come back at 10 to 15, and expect that to feel insultingly easy.
2
Add roughly 10 percent a week
Not a law, but a useful ceiling. Take a down week every third or fourth week where volume drops by about a quarter. The down weeks are when adaptation actually consolidates.
3
Keep everything easy for three to four weeks
No intervals, no tempo, no strides. All of the injury risk is in intensity and all of the early benefit is in frequency. Run more often, not harder.
4
Reintroduce intensity gradually
Strides first, then a short threshold session, then intervals, roughly a fortnight apart. Speed is the last thing back, always.
5
Run-walk if you need it
Five minutes running, one minute walking is not a failure. It is a way to accumulate time on your feet at a lower peak load, and it gets a lot of people back who would otherwise reinjure.

The rules that keep you honest

Pain above 3 out of 10 means stop. Mild discomfort that fades as you warm up and does not worsen is usually acceptable. Pain that increases during the run, or that makes you change your gait, ends the run.
The next morning is the real test. How the area feels 24 hours later tells you more than how it felt during. Worse the next day means the last run was too much, whatever it felt like at the time.
One variable at a time. Add distance or add intensity, never both in the same week. When something goes wrong you want to know which one did it.
Cross-train the fitness you are not running. Cycling, swimming and the elliptical hold aerobic fitness at a fraction of the impact. It also gives the restlessness somewhere to go.

Frequently asked

How long before I can race again?: For a minor soft-tissue issue, four to eight weeks of rebuilding before racing. For a bone stress injury, months, and on a plan from the professional who diagnosed it. Racing during a rebuild is how a comeback becomes a second injury.
How much fitness do I lose?: Less than it feels like. VO2max declines meaningfully after about two to three weeks off and drops perhaps 5 to 10 percent over a month. Most of what feels lost in the first two weeks back is running economy and confidence, and both come back quickly.
Is it OK to run through mild pain?: Mild discomfort that warms up and does not worsen during or after is usually tolerable. Anything that makes you limp or alter your stride is not, because the compensation is how the second injury starts.
Should I get new shoes?: Worth checking mileage on your current pair, but shoes are rarely the cause and rarely the cure. Volume, intensity and how fast you added them explain far more injuries than footwear.

Your block, written

Put a date on it and Shed builds the weeks.

Shed takes your goal, your race date, and the days you can actually run, then writes every session between here and the start line. It reads each run off your Apple Watch the same day and moves what needs moving. No spreadsheet, no guessing at paces.

Get your plan on iPhone