worriedparanoidrunner wrote:
I was sick and had to take three days off from running. The week before I was doing pretty well, except for the normal leg tiredness and stuff. So I had a sucky race saturday but couldnt run sunday, monday, or tuesday. I tried to run like 3 miles on monday but they were so slow I dont even count that. I have a meet in 10 days. Im gonna start running again tomorrow. Will I be back to hitting my normal times by my next race? Ive been working so hard and Im scared that my hard work will be erased because I had to take these days off. Someone make me feel better. Im a high school girl and just recently broke 17 for 3 miles.
You didn't lose any fitness. Just run easy until you feel a little zippier. Your legs should be back in a few days.
Your first "workout" should be something fast but not hard -- say, 12 x 200m with 200m jog starting at 40-41 (roughly 3k pace); the 200s should get faster during the workout as your mojo returns, but don't force the pace (until the last 3-4, if it's there). The point of this workout is to get your legs turning over again and to improve your attitude.
I'd suggest aiming to do this maybe 4 days before your next race. You didn't say what kind of sick, so I'm erring on the side of a few more days of easy running to get the time spent running back up.
Take the next day easy, then a run that starts easy and ends moderately fast; maybe start dropping the pace the last 10 minutes, aiming to finish at 5k pace the last 2-3 minutes; ideally, you'll feel good at the end. Easy the day before, then do your next meet and report back on how it went.