Two weeks out due to illness

Hi all, I know no one has a crystal ball but after some advice please, as im peed right off!! Two weeks ago after running 16.5 miles I had what I thought was a bit of a head cold, so rested the day after, the next day I felt Ok (ish) so did a steady 6 miles - big mistake I then went downhill rapidly and got diagnosed with a chest infection which turned into pneumonia, was in bed for 9 days solid. Have now been told im ok, when i asked doc about running she shrugged her shoulders and said ill leave that one up to you! (Very helpful -not) I feel great compared to how I did, so my question is how do I resume my training? (Am running vlm) I was on week 6 of my marathon training running 40+ miles a week have done several long ones of 16+ do I go back a couple of weeks or am I really just going to see how I go? This is the longest time I've ever had off in 3 years! Normally run 5 days a week 30-40miles when not training so am praying I've not lost too much fitness? i guess I'm after help from anyone who's been in this situation or similar? Thanks for help, Katy

Comments

  • Really hard to read your post. Is it just me?
  • your fitness won't have taken too much of a hit, but it's important not to try to jump back into your training plan where you would have been without the break. You'll need to pick up from where you left off (or even slightly less mileage/intensity) then gradually increase the volume over the course of a couple of weeks to be back on plan.

    So, one way to do this might be to give yourself, say 2 or 3 weeks to get back on target, and draw a straight line between where you are now (i.e. slightly lower mileage than your last full week of training, and where you'll be in 3 weeks if you continue to ramp up the training.Without knowing your exact plan it's difficult to offer any specific advice, but judge for yourself if you need 2, 3 or 4 weeks to bring your training back on track.

    Since you had an illness and not an injury you don't have the complication of having to watch out for specific pains in legs, feet etc, but perhaps it'd be wise to take it easy especially for the first week, i.e. lower intensity than you're used to (don't batter yourself with intervals) to avoid relapsing. You're possibly not in 100% health, even if you feel better than you've been feeling for the past couple of weeks, so bear that in mind when you're heading out.

  • stutyrstutyr ✭✭✭

    If you go back a couple of weeks in your plan, you'll still be training rather than tapering in the run-up to VLM.  

    Just pick up your plan where you should be now (i.e. about 8 weeks to go) but be sensible for the first week or two, maybe reduce each run by 10 to 20% and avoid any interval or high intensity runs.

    Two weeks out isn't going to have a big effect - but Pneumonia probably does, so just ease yourself back into running.  Its better to miss a few miles in the next couple of weeks rather than risk missing the event.

  • PG3PG3 ✭✭✭

    As others have said, you shouldn't have lost that much fitness especially as you ran regularly and did a decent mileage before (more than me btw and I am doing VLM).  Try not to panic and push yourself right back in there as it will make you feel worse.  

    Good luck and hopefully you've had your bad luck story for this year and your race will go well.  Life gets in the way of training/races sometimes.  Last year I trained to do Edinburgh and I got a stomach bug the Wednesday before and had to pull out.  (I entered a random one a few weeks later instead.)

  • Cheers guys really good advice! Would def prefer to miss a few miles than the event! So will take it steady and review in a few weeks.



    PipG - thanks for encouragement, how awful to get ill like that last year after all that training! Best of luck for London, fingers crossed we both stay injury and illness free!



    Katy
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