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?
I’ll chime in as I’m in the same boat! I tore my rotator cuff back in early December and it stopped me dead in my tracks during the crazy holiday season. Even sleeping was painful. No yoga, no running, no nothing. Finally I started getting trigger massage which hurt like hell but saved me. THEN in the midst of it all I sliced the tip off my index finger working one day :( OUCH. No yoga for another 2 months. I just started back to yoga, running and showering with two hands this week :)
My overall point is, just keep at it! One of my friends is a professional triathelete and he tells me all the time that your body and muscles have so much memory and it WILL all come back. Just keep consistent (as someone else mentioned) and be patient (that’s the toughest part for me). I went from head stands in yoga to barely being able to touch my toes… but I have faith!
Keep doing what you’re doing! You totally inspired me to switch from my protein powder to Amazing Grass and Green Monsters! ;) Thanks for the inspiration!
For me, I completely related to this post when it comes to swimming. My form and technique become the pitts if I don’t go for a week or two. This is because I am not a strong swimmer so it takes a lot for me to get into a good groove. I really need to stay focused on my swimming, eventhough my try-a-tri isn’t until Aug 22nd.
This hasn’t happened as a result of an injury rather, being busy with work, trying to keep up with the house work and then other workouts. That is one thing I am loving about running and biking, the road is always open, whereas lane swim isn’t.
Oh goodness…I just started running and this is a great pace for me :sad: But, I know what you mean. It’s not about the pace…it’s about how you feel. You will be amazed at how quickly it comes back though. You simply have to keep at it and I know you’ll kick butt :grin:
I am actually in the recovery process myself. Back in early MArch I had excruciating pain in my upper left shoulder. It basically kept me from doing most activity (other than walking). I’m now slowly building back up but I’ve noticed a huge difference in my endurance and strength. I’ts frustrating but my plan is just to start slowly and not push it too hard (to risk MORE injury) and give my body time and really listen to it. I think that listening to your body is the best medicine!
I have definitely gone through this before. I ran my first half marathon last year and since then have been running pretty sporadically. This year I decided to do another half marathon to beat my last time so I began the training. I recently came down with a flu bug and took a break from running for a couple weeks. I just started back into my runs again and I had the same thing happen. I was struggling to run 3-4 miles when before it would have been a piece of cake! It’s a frustrating process, but like you, I am now working to rebuild to where I once was in my running. Good luck Angela, you are in amazing shape and I know you will do awesome in your upcoming races! By the way, has Eric gone running with you anymore since that first run you guys had? I recently had the same thing happen. My boyfriend, who hates running, came home yesterday and said he wanted to run with me! I’m hoping he catches the running bug :)
Our weather has been super cold since that run so we haven’t been out together yet (he gets home late in the evening too). This weekend I am hoping for one!
Sometimes when this happens to me because I’ve taken a week off or so, I just have to remember my accomplishments and realize that I’ll get back to where I want to be i just need to keep plugging.
You’re amazing angela I have no doubt that you’ll rock that half marathon in a few weeks!
What an encouraging post! I’m a huge fan who is officially delurking. :) I just dove back into running after falling off the wagon for about 3 months — and that was after struggling to build up from being a non-running to running my first 5k. I’m eager to build my strength and endurance up to a half-marathon in October. It was so tempting yesterday to get so discouraged when I struggled to run 1.5 miles in 21 minutes. I’m encouraged by the fact that its perfectly natural to ebb and flow in terms of endurance, especially when you’ve been focusing your energy elsewhere.
yay for delurking! ;)
Don’t get discouraged!
I am very discouraged cuz, I am having a hard time just building up just 2 go run, my endurance is not there, please any feed back would be great.
I had surgery back in January…. when I was suppose to be ramping up marathon training for Boston in April. Fortunately my surgeon was great and was able to schedule me fairly quickly for the procedure, laparoscopy to drain & remove a grapefruit sized ovarian cyst! Prior to my surgery I had already scaled back as I was worried about rupturing the cyst, but also it was the holidays and I had just run the NYC marathon in November.
It was incredibly frustrating not to be able to workout for basically a couple weeks. I wasn’t suppose to start running for 2 weeks and I didn’t feel like doing much anything for a week anyways. I started just walking or biking at the gym….. for maybe 20 minutes max. I was really worried about rebuilding my endurance. But two weeks after my surgery I went for an easy 3 mile run with my mom. Near the end things didn’t feel fabulous so I did some walking. A couple days later I did a 5 mile run and felt a little better but still at a snails pace and some walking breaks. At just over 3 weeks post surgery though I decided to attempt a long run, I did a very slow 12 mile run with my mom….. on a very flat course. I survived but felt so slow. I kept at it though and started slowly building my mileage back up and despite surgery & my late training start, I completed the Boston Marathon! Was it my fastest marathon? No. Was it pretty darn good considering everything? YES!
Sticking with it is the only way to get it back… I always call the first week ‘back’, hell week… b/c well, it feels like hell. ;)
It’s been my experience that nothing increases running economy…except running. It’s the sad truth.
This happens with me for any kind of exercise, really… I guess the thing is just to keep working at it! I hate to see my progress lost :( Maybe I should really start a serious running program… I know I’ve been saying that for months now but I’m still a little scared. Meh… :/
Don’t push yourself too hard – don’t injure yourself! Take care and have a great day :)
Wei-Wei
i’ve lost SO much endurance due to a whole bunch of things… IBS, stress, headaches… it’s been more than a year since I ran an hour daily. now when i run (which i picked up very recently), i run in the morning before breakfast for even 10-15 minutes, followed by yoga, to try to get my endurance going as much as possible. i say keep going at it while thinking of all your supportive readers! something tells me that you’ll get your endurance back in no time. mine always comes back, though it depends heavily on what kind of diet i’m following (i am currently on a mostly raw vegan diet).
I am in the same boat as you right now. I had my wisdom teeth taken out a few weeks back and had developed complications which prevented me from doing virtually any physical activity for 2 1/2-3 weeks. This all happened right before a 10K race, which was this past Sunday.
I was feeling extremely discouraged, as I had wanted to get a good time but the lack of training really messed me up. I ended up finishing the 10K in 58 minutes, which was very disappointing for me.
I am using this poor finish time as my motivation to get my endurance back! I am doing a half marathon in November (cold, I know) and I keep thinking about how awesome my time will be for that. That really keeps me going. Good luck!
I had to take off 2 months for shin splints (though I’m pretty sure it was a stress fracture)…and let me tell you I went through MAJOR runner’s depression. I did a lot of biking and swimming but it just didn’t compare to the feeling I would get when/after running. When I was able to start running again…I started off slooooow and gradually increased my weekly mileage by 10%. It was hard because I felt good at times and could go longer but made myself stop. Here’s a bit of running advice that has really helped me increase my speed and endurance. Do your long runs SLOW and EASY (around 1.5 min slower per pace…so if you want to run your race at an 8:30 min/mi…you should be doing your long runs at a 10 min/mi). The whole point of them is to just get your body used to being on its feet for a long period of time. When you run your long runs fast, you risk getting injured and trust me…been there done that. You build your speed with your speedwork outs (tempos and fartleks)…and it works!
I had the opposite experience with swimming. Swimming was my “first sport” and I firmly believe that the endurance and stamina I gained from swimming helped me to transition to running easily.
I hate when I loose endurance. But considering the circumstance, you did really well. I’m sure you will build back up your endurance for the race.
I’m on a super long break right now, after fighting chronic IT band issues for the last couple of years. I’m slowly, slowly, slowly building up the endurance again. I think that’s pretty much the only way to do it.
For you, though, I’d recommend slowing down. You’ll be able to go longer if you just give up the speed aspirations for a while. Make it a goal to do 10 min/mile and see how you feel. It’s a short term thing. You won’t lose speed endurance by slowing down your long runs. You’ll just recover faster and be able to go longer.
(For what it’s worth, I did all my long runs for my last half mary in the 10+ minute mile range and averaged 8:41 in the race without too much extra effort. Short runs I pushed the pace more, but the long runs were always slow.)
Way to get back into it! I think just finishing a half marathon is a huge accomplishment no matter what! Don’t push yourself to re-injury! You can do this!
I was a swimmer my whole life and i have to disagree with those people who say that swimming doesn’t help your endurance… I suppose I could be wrong but i feel like that was the only reason i was able to run! I think running/swimming/individual sports are more mental than anything. You really need to push yourself through a few mid distance runs and honestly it will come back faster than you think.
i was out of running for a couple months last summer, and the first fews runs after taking time off were frustrating! but you will get your endurance back pretty quickly. just keep doing 3 mile runs every other day until you feel like you can do 4 miles. gradually increasing mileage is the key to not getting re-injured. if i were you, i probably would rethink that half marathon! you know your own body, but when i was coming back from my injury, i didn’t attempt that kind of distance for at least 3 months. but i did do a sprint triathlon after just a few weeks b/c i had been crossing training like you with swimming and biking. good luck!!
Yea I am definitely going to play it by ear. If I am not ready I will not be running it.