Returning to running after injury

charlotteturnip

I was training for the Manchester full when on my 16 miler my right ankle rolled on some uneven pavement and I fell hard on my left knee onto some jagged pavement causing a nasty 4 inch wide bone exposing laceration just below my knee. I was extremely lucky in the sense it was just about as severe as a wound can be without damaging structures or bones. I was stitched up and couldn't bend my knee for 2 weeks, but its now 6 weeks post injury, the skin is healed and I have mild boney tenderness.

I was told full recovery will be 3 months, but I would like to start running again in possible 2 weeks, so a 2 month resting period as I have a fitness test sometime in may I want to prepare for.

Questions are - 1. How much fitness would I have lost? I can feel I have lost a fair amount of muscle already

2. How easy should I take it when I do start out? Should I literally do a slow mile and see how it is?

I have full range of painless movement and really want to run again, even if it's short and slow.

SHADES

You won't have lost as much fitness as you think and you'll recover to the same level of fitness fairly quickly.   But start gently, walking with a little running and gradually increasing the distance of the overall session and the amount of running.