getting back



J

Jeff Zitelli

Guest
hi all, ive lurked here in the past from time to time. Anyways, after a 3 month period of eating
junk and no real exercise, today I found the resolve to try a run. I went about 1.5 miles before my
lungs and legs got to me. 4 months ago I was doing about 15-20 miles a week... I'm not extremely
surprised at the degradation in performance, and I hope to keep at it and stay positive, but I'm
wondering if anyone else has had a similar period of inactivity followed by trying to get back on
track... how much did your performance degrade, and how did you go about getting back to your
previous level?

thanks

J-Boogie
 
> 4 months ago I was doing about 15-20 miles a week...

For how long? That is, how long did you do those distances for? First you need to do 20 mins or more
to get any cardio benefit, and then you must do it for awhile before it has any lasting effects.
Also you really need to run one hour per day before you can really reap the benefits of long
distance running, and for many years before you'll gain any lasting benefit. So does your
performance surprise me? No. You really weren't in that great a shape to begin with, and to expect
you could just go out and do it again isn't reasonable. My longest lay-off from running was about 5
years, and upon returning I was doing my hour per day again in about a month. The longer you have
trained, the faster it "comes back" to you.

Bill R.

=============> - -- - (_!_)
OO
 
>The longer you have trained, the faster it "comes back" to you.

That is to say I had just done 7 years of non-stop of heavy training and racing, so before the
lay-off of five years I was in tremendous condition.

Bill R.

=============> - -- - (_!_)
OO
 
Jeff Zitelli wrote:
> hi all, ive lurked here in the past from time to time. Anyways, after a 3 month period of eating
> junk and no real exercise, today I found the resolve to try a run. I went about 1.5 miles before
> my lungs and legs got to me. 4 months ago I was doing about 15-20 miles a week... I'm not
> extremely surprised at the degradation in performance, and I hope to keep at it and stay positive,
> but I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar period of inactivity followed by trying to get
> back on track... how much did your performance degrade, and how did you go about getting back to
> your previous level?
>
> thanks
>
> J-Boogie
>
>
>
>

Start out as if you never ran before. It can be hard holding back, but it is the safest way. So go
back to timing your runs, mixing in walking if necessary to stay moving for the entire time. (remind
yourself by reading the FAQ)

You'l build up well, but keep the build up gradual so you don't injure yourself!

Enjoy the run.

--
Ed Prochak running http://www.faqs.org/faqs/running-faq/ netiquette http://www.psg.com/emily.html
--
"Two roads diverged in a wood and I I took the one less travelled by and that has made all the
difference." robert frost
 
i see. I can't really say that's the encouragement I was looking for, but I appreciate your
no-bull answer.

J-Boogie

On 14 Apr 2003, Bill-always hard-Rodgers wrote:

> >The longer you have trained, the faster it "comes back" to you.
>
> That is to say I had just done 7 years of non-stop of heavy training and racing, so before the
> lay-off of five years I was in tremendous condition.
>
> Bill R.
>
> =============> - -- - (_!_)
> OO
 
"Jeff Zitelli" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> after a 3 month period of eating junk and no real exercise, today I found the resolve to try a
> run. I went about 1.5 miles before my lungs and legs got to me. 4 months ago I was doing about
> 15-20 miles a week... I'm not extremely surprised at the degradation in performance, and I hope to
> keep at it and stay positive, but I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar period of
> inactivity followed by trying to get back on track... how much did your performance degrade, and
> how did you go about getting back to your previous level?

Yes, hello, here.

I hardly ran at all in the winter (almost 5 months!), ate junk, gained a lot of weight AND took up
smoking (just quit again). i've been running regularly again for a couple of weeks now and i'm
amazed, actually, how quickly my endurance is building up again. i've read that it tends to rebuild
in about the same amount of time as it took to lose it. the first few runs were hard but i'm getting
back in the groove rather quickly.

so, stay tuned! i wish you a speedy return. :)

cheers, nina
 
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