Good morning!
Check out some of the new Smiley faces that Eric hooked me up with…
:alien: :angel: :blush: :cwy: :biggrin: :kissing: :sleeping: :w00t: :wub:
Good times.
For breakfast, I craved one thing and one thing only.
In the Green Monster: 1 frozen banana, 3 cup spinach, 1 cup almond milk, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 tbsp peanut butter, 1/2 scoop Amazing Grass Wheatgrass powder, ice.
Engines are revved.
Losing Endurance and How To Get It Back
Last night, I headed out for a run. Since I had my groin pull back in April, I have not been on a long run since the end of March and I have only been on 2-3 runs during all of April. This does not bode well for half marathon training- My race is on May 30th!
However, I knew that I wasn’t going to run as long as I felt pain in my groin area. It just isn’t worth it to risk injury (groins are notorious for taking a long time to heal).
Now that my groin is finally feeling better, I need to get right back in the game for my half training. My last long run was at the end of March in Florida when I ran 12 miles. That was 5 weeks ago. :blush:
Yesterday, I headed out and decided to see where my body took me. Maybe it would be a long run or a short run, I really wasn’t sure. I went out and the first mile, while tough, felt good. I settled into my normal 8:30 min/mile pace and was enjoying being able to run pain free. I finished my first mile, including a large hill, in 8:34 min/mile. I felt good!
However, the next couple miles were a complete struggle. My pace started to drop and I knew immediately that I had lost endurance since being off running for those few weeks.
The symptoms of lost endurance:
- More difficulty breathing
- Cannot maintain normal pace
- Cannot go long distances
- Did not feel as automatic or as relaxing
- Doesn’t feel as fun as usual
My first thought was, OK now I believe the readers who said that swimming doesn’t really help with running endurance! :lol: The thing that gets me is that I feel like I am in amazing shape, but all that work I have done on the bike and in the pool doesn’t seem to translate into running endurance!
The splits:
Mile 1: 8:34 mile/min (ascent- 164 ft)
Mile 2: 9:10 mile/min (ascent- 95 ft)
Mile 3: 9:20 mile/min (ascent- 61 ft)
Mile 3-3.55: 5:06 mile/min (ascent- 57 ft)
As you can see each mile got slower, even though the ascent decreased.
My overall time was 32:11 mins. with an average pace of 9:11 min/mile, which is not a bad pace by any means, however what matters to me is how I felt while running it. It was a complete struggle and prior to April, I could have done that run in my sleep.
I am 19 days away from my half marathon on May 30th and I am going to try to re-build some of my lost endurance without over-doing it. I previously set a goal for myself to beat my last half marathon time (1:56:33), but in all honesty this race may not be the race to do that! And I am ok with that. Not every race that we sign up for will turn out like we hope. Things get in the way of training and there isn’t much we can do about it sometimes. I have also been juggling my try-a-tri training (the race is June 6th) and in all honesty, training for two different events at the same time is not easy.
My goal for this week is to get in another shorter run and then attempt a long run this weekend. I am hoping with some consistency over the next couple weeks, I can get back some of that lost endurance. I may end up running the half with no goal time at all, it really just depends how the next two weeks go!
Today’s question- Have you ever taken time off training (for an injury, travel, or to focus on another sport) and lost endurance? How did you get it back?
when i took two and a half months off last april from running, i lost so much endurance, it was ridiculous. before the break, i was running a max of 15 miles and i could do short runs at 8:30 or less. after the break, i came back at a 11:00 pace and struggled to run 1.5 miles. i think its just a matter of getting out there, minimizing breaks, and sticking to it. it will come back fast for you, though!
I just snapped my tibia and fibula in half on Friday, so I’ll be sure to tell you in three months when I heal :(
i have because of my knee injury, but it’s one of those things i just have to work at getting back. i will say that it’s better to take a day off in between longer workouts to recover because no one can run when they’re just totally exhausted. you’ll get it back and be amazing in the half!
Lost endurance is a killer, isn’t it! So self defeating!
I have gone through many ups and downs with training/exercise. What works for me is to focus on the understanding that your body will gain back that endurance quicker than it took to first get it! Then…you start working physically.
– I typically try to incorporate some HIIT runs or workouts in there to jolt the body a bit without over doing distance or time
– change up the distances from long and slower to short and faster- this tends to keep the body working in different ways with one ultimate goal
– surprisingly when I stretch more my muscles recover in a MUCH FASTER time frame! then the next day they hurt less and feel lighter!
Juggling two events is tough girl! But the beauty of it is you can do anything and you have an incredible mindset which will carry you forward!
Due to old and chronic injuries I am only mildly into running (let’s say I won’t be training for a half anytime) so I have to frequently take time off from running at all. Every time I go for that first run it feels like torture so I can totally relate.
I would say, don’t push yourself too hard over the next couple weeks. Maybe you shouldn’t set a time goal on this half, that might take the pressure off.
I hate that feeling. It’s why I always try to keep active somehow, but luckily I’ve never had an injury. It just takes time!
I’ve had to take time off in the past for my knee problems and even now I have to take it easy. It wasn’t easy getting back into the swing of things but I find that I am in a better place overall when I do run now because I have been giving myself a break. Hope that makes sense??
Yes! It’s been five years with these injured knees and I’m sure I couldn’t even walk a mile without tiring! I can’t imagine the lack of endurance I’ll have if (when?) I recover.
I’ve only attempted to train for a race once. I got runner’s knee and had to stop. 4 miles was my max “long run” and a few months later I went at it again and some how made it 4 miles. It honestly amazed me that I was able to just run again, but then again I wasn’t up to 12 miles.
I used to be a runner…havent run or did much exercise for various reasons over the last year ++ . whatever i had is completely gone.
I hope one day to be healthy and strong enough again to do things i enjoyed…at that time it will have to be baby steps.
its like they say : ” you start from here”…don’t look back or ahead…u can only start from where you are and what u have in the moment.
Hey Angela!
I am not sure if you have tried this before but it has worked for me in the past when training for big runs. I have this nagging pain in my right hip that pops up from the pavement pounding. It usually subsides after a couple days but gets me down since I can’t get out runnin’! So, to get up my endurance I started trying every other little thing that will challenge the ticker.
Shaun T’s Insanity workouts are fantastic for that as well as spin class and the elliptical. I am from NB so I don’t know if you guys have Goodlife or Nubody’s up in ONT, but they have Spin classes specifically designed to challenge your endurance.
It gives your running injuries a chance to heal up and (atleast for me) has made any 10-15k run a breeze. Good Luck and I Love Yer Blog!!
I love your new blog design! Also, I agree with the HIIT method. That has always worked for me!
I messed my knee up running a 10K (The Nike Human Race) at the end of August 2008. I had taken too much time off of running and then decided to “get back in shape” the week of the race, running 13 miles in a 24 hour period, totally jacking up my knee and then running the race anyway (IDIOT). I had to stop running for several months–I had knee pain just when walking–and when I came back it was TOUGH! But I learned from my mistake–consistent runs with just a tiny increase of pace or mileage each time. It took me a long time to get back into great running shape but I also wasn´t pushing it at all, for fear of messing up the knee again.
This post could not have come at a better time for me. Although I don’t start training for my next race until July, I still try to run a few times a week to maintain my endurance and I realize that I’ve definitely lost a lot of stamina lately. I am taking it easy & building it up day by day.
But, I was in a similar situation for the NY Half Marathon in March. I thought I had fractured my hip and only got the ok to run from my Dr. 3 weeks before the race. So, I just went for it. I made sure I didn’t over train,I ran 3 short runs during the week and 1 long on the weekend. When my muscles hurt and my legs were tired, I rested, iced & stretched.
The day of the race, I made my goal just to finish. The last 3 miles were totally mind over matter- I told myself not to give up. So I finished 4 minutes slower than my previous half. But I was just happy to finish.
Good luck! Look forward to hearing how you get your endurance back :)
After I ran my first half, I kind of wore myself out on running for a while, so I took a break and concentrated on other things. When I returned to running, I was so sad to see how much endurance I’d lost!! It’s definitely disappointing…but it felt good to work to get it back, too!
I am literally in the same boat, except my half marathon is on May 22! I ran a half on March 21, and have pretty much stopped running since, due to ITB syndrome. I did a 4.5 mile run on Friday and one yesterday as well; I’m thinking that getting two workouts in (one run, one cardio machine later) might be the way to do it. I don’t know if trying to do a long run this weekend would completely discourage me, but I’m really hoping I can do this race!
I took two months off from running this winter and I found it a little tough to get back into it. But I made sure to listen to my body though and only push myself as far as I could handle. By easing back into it, I eventually built back up my endurance without any problems.
Good luck! Even if you don’t beat your time, running a half marathon is still a huge accomplishment to be proud of! :)
I was running/walking a lot over the past few months, then my husband decided to do the P90X workouts, so I’ve been supplementing a lot of those in my workouts and just sticking to walking my dog and hiking occassionally. My body change is phenomenal, and my arms and core are so much stronger, I also see a lot of muscles in my legs…but I tried to run on Sunday and decided to do a walk/run routine because a long run didn’t feel as comfortable as it did before. I felt so strong (and fast!) running, but I would run out of steam after a while, so I switched to walking. I decided I’m okay with the lack of endurance with running because now I can complete all the jump squat routines in the P90X DVDs, and that’s something I couldn’t do a couple of weeks ago!
I guess all my rambling leads me to this: don’t beat yourself up over it, and don’t let it define you. Enjoy your new strengths and gains with swimming and biking, and just go with it! I know you’re not one to get down on yourself (you have such a positive outlook!), but just know that you are strong in more ways than one! And just completing the half marathon in a few weeks (whether by walking, running or walk/run) is a great feat in itself, regardless of whether you’ve run the whole thing in the past!!
I had to take practically all of Jan. and Feb. off from running because I managed to catch 3 chest colds in 2 months! (My fiance is in med school and, depending on the rotation, tends to bring home colds.) Normally, I wouldn’t be that affected (I usually just get head colds), but it was a cold, wet winter and I had a bad cough that wouldn’t go away. Plus, I the first cold made me wheeze- which was really scary. I worked out when I could (I have to, pretty much, to stay happy and upbeat), but it was pretty limited to me walking on an inclined treadmill and hoping people weren’t too frightened by my coughing.
When I was finally better, I think I started running about a week too early b/c I had a really horrible couple of runs. The next week though was pretty reasonable, and I got my endurance back in a pretty orderly manner. I just committed myself to two short runs (3 or 4 miles) and 1 long run (starting with 4 miles and working up to 7- I was training for a 10K) a week. One thing I do is allow myself to go slower than normal while I’m getting my mileage back up. Then, once I know I can do the miles, I start pushing myself to regain my speed. I still don’t feel that I’m as fast as I was before I got sick though (in all fairness, I trained and completed a half marathon last year and I haven’t tackled that distance yet, so doing that training for the 1/2’s I want to run in the fall will probably help with my speed- and I’m faster than I was at this time last year.)
I am sidelined with a knee injury now and I’m miserable. I’m still at the beginning stages and not doing anything involving bending my knee so almost all cardio is out for a few more days. I will have to take a long’ish break from running for sure. I’m glad to read in your comments that the endurance can be reclaimed after a break. I’m sort of freaking out about it. It took me a long time to get where I am, I’m bummed to sit back and lose it. :)