So I find myself injured and wondering how to stay fast for the week or two that I'll be down. I can cross train on a stationary bike or elliptical and run for short periods of time - less than 30 seconds or so.
So what do you guys think of doing about 2 hours a day of cross training but doing as many strides as possible at the end? Will doing this keep me from losing too much speed?
It'd be interesting to see if anyone had a story about staying fast during a long layoff, too.
bump bump bump
I didn't stay "fast" but I didn't lose as much fitness as I thought I would. I got injured last summer and didn't run a step for 4 weeks. I xtrained on an eliptical. I then ran a half marathon and felt pretty good for 10 miles. I bonked the last 3 but still only ran about 20-25 seconds/mile slower than I would have. I then started racing every weekend without running any the rest of the week and was running 5k less than a minute slower than before I was injured. In 12 weeks I only ran 10 times and lost less than 20 seconds/mile. One to two weeks off will not hurt your fitness at all.