How to pick back up in training after injury?

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Sorry about your injury,but hey man 2 weeks off is nothing! You've lost little to no fitness at this point. The most important thing to do is not aggravate your injury further causing you to require more time off. I would take the coming week as a transition week. Do what feels right to your body and keep the mileage low. If you feel good after 7 days of easy runs of a few miles at a time, It will be safe for you to then jump back into your normal mileage. Especially if you are on the younger side, your body won't need weeks and weeks to shake the rust off from this short layoff. Good luck and no worries mate!

Thanks for the input. I will be sure to take the first week back easy. I suppose ill stick around 50 miles longer than planned to be safe.

Any thoughts on where I should pick back up in my 24 week plan though? I was scheduled to start workouts. Should I rebuild a base for several weeks or just go into the workouts anyways?

I know 2 weeks isn't much fitness loss but it is some and personally I tend to lose endurance somewhat quickly when I'm not being active so it's discouraging but not much I can do at this point. Just looking to plan for the next week back and how I should proceed.

start phase 4 hehehehehehe

good luck with that

Hey man, sorry to hear your were injured, but glad to hear it was a relatively short setback and at a time that it shouldn't mess up your race plans.

As for how to work back into things, I would suggest since you are following Daniels, then follow Daniels' suggestions for working back after an injury.

Not sure if you have version 1 or 2 of the book. I'm working from version 1, and in the "Taking Time Off" chapter, pages 173 & 174 (tables 9.1 & 9.2) will answer your question.

He suggests for time off from running 6-28 days, then you take the same amount of time (6-28 days) at an adjusted load/intensity. In your case, 14 days off = 14 days at an adjusted load.

Now, what is the "adjusted load"? For the 6-28 day category, the first half (days 1-7) is all "E" pace, at 50% of previous volume. The second half (days 8-14) is all "E" pace, at 75% of previous volume.

Now you have volume... the other part of your adjusted load is intensity. Table 9.1 covers that. He has one column if you cross trained, and another if you didn't. Since you only cross trained 2 days, go with "didn't" (for only 2 weeks off, it really isn't much of a difference). So, for 2 weeks off, he suggests adjusting your pre-injury VDOT down by .973. So, 16:40 shape is around 61.5 VDOT, then .973 * 61.5 = 59.8 VDOT. SO, round up to 60 VDOT "E" pace for the 2 weeks ramp up.

After those two weeks, I'd ease my way into Phase II if everything feels good.

If you can learn from my mistakes, just be patient these first 2 weeks back. If you are back to 100% in 2 weeks, you've lost nothing big for your spring season. If you get just a little too aggressive in get re-injured, you lose another month.... by the time you take a few weeks off and then ramp back up. Of course, then you'll be tempted to rush things even more (since spring is closer), and you can dig yourself a big hole if you get greedy.

Stay true to Daniels this cycle, and see where it takes you. You'll probably be pleased. Oh, and don't bail after phase II or III if you don't feel like you're seeing the progress you want. I've heard many people getting a nice performance bump only after finishing phase IV.

Oh, and read the whole book (I'm guessing you haven't or you wouldn't have needed to ask here). Don't just follow the plan. Knowing the "whys" behind the program will help you in the short & long term.

Best of luck!

Fantastic advice, thanks a bunch. I have version 2 but I forgot about the injury section in taking time off. I will certainly re-read that.

Be sure to post back on your approach and progress. Good luck!

No go on back to training. Really disappointing. I tried running a few days ago and felt knee pain after half a mile. Went back to cross training, which I've been doing for the past four days. Overall it feels better than it initially did when I got injured, but after cross training it hurts from being active, and then occasionally going up stairs and bending a certain way makes it hurt. On my third week out now. Considering just letting the month go by and starting from scratch again. I just hate losing fitness...