Lost a ton of fitness after a 2 week hiatus. Is this even possible?

Have you considered the effect from work stress? I also wonder if you were not sleeping well and eating like crap at the same time

fisky wrote:

The first run after taking several days off is going to be rough. Just run easy for a week and ease back into it.

As a rule of thumb, you can take about a week off without losing much fitness. Thereafter, it will take about twice the time you were off to get back to where you were before you took time off, i.e., two weeks off means about four weeks to get back to where you were.

For older runners over 60, if you take more than two weeks off, it will take months to get back to where you were. You might never get back. That's why avoiding injuries should be the #1 priority of older runners.

Good tips

The older one gets, the harder it is to come back from things like this. When the break is work related, it usually means you have also been mentally stressed, probably sitting a lot, maybe not eating as well, etc. The negative factors tend to compound, so the first few days feel relatively more depleted than your fitness actually is. You should know that you will get back to normal. Even if you feel bad, or are doing shorter, slower runs, trust your process and focus on consistently getting out there each day to stretch out those muscles.

The number one thing that helps me feel stronger and more "normal" after a layoff is to do some hill repeats. Hills are great to stimulate those power muscles that might have gone to sleep a bit during your down time. You can get your heart rate up relatively quickly. My stride always feels more extended and fluid the next day.

consider this wrote:

After two weeks off 6:50 isn't your MP any more.

Yes, this is the key point. Prior to the time off, 6:50 was marathon pace, which meant it was slightly slower than your lactate threshold (and thus a "comfortably hard" pace that you could maintain for a relatively long time).

After two weeks off, you didn't lose a ton of fitness, but you did lose a bit. So your lactate threshold moved down a bit, and now 6:50 is slightly FASTER than your threshold. That means it's now a relatively intense effort during which you're accumulating lactate, and thus you'll have to stop after a few miles or so.

So trying to run at your "fit" MP exaggerated the effects of your fitness loss. Slow that run down a bit, and you'll be able to maintain it for longer. And your ability to maintain other paces (either faster or slower than threshold, rather than right near it) probably won't be as affected. But what's the rush? Build back slowly.

OP: this happened to me. I couldn’t understand the huge loss of fitness. After a while and some statistical analysis, I realised I’d put on half a stone! Which accounted for most of the extra effort to even run easy. Obviously, that’s confounded with speedwork too!

So, for me, even after just 2 weeks, weight gain had a huge impact.

get wrecked loser I'm taking a 3 week hiatus. I'm not even gonna remember how to run

2 weeks off , and doing what?

Couch surfing.. boozing.. drug bender.. eating and gaining weight.. depending on what those two weeks looked like a person could deteriorate like crazy.

If you were hiking, surfing, swimming, boinking .. basically an active vacation in Hawaii.. i wouldn't expect a dramatic fitness loss..

I'm on my 9th day off and I've gained like 4-5 lbs total. I think it's good though because when I'm fit my BMI is under 18 so I need the weight gain haha. I'm 5'11 and my weight fluctuates between 125-128 when I'm fit. The most I've ever weighed was 140 last summer after a week in the beach eating whatever the hell I want.

You must have a terrible metabolism if you gain 5lbs in 9 days. Are you pregnant?

I have found the older I get the easier it is to come back. In fact I can run much faster and a bit farther than ever. I never though this would be possible. I was told in my teens that 18 was the peak. Definitely not true for me.

It is possible because you're in your own head.

While this is mostly true, in all seriousness, I have had experiences where I had done nothing but sit on my couch playing video games, eating candy and high fat foods for a week. It took a couple of days to get that toxic state out of my body and feel less sluggish again. So its possible, but not likely that you suddenly lost fitness. Your body just needs to get back in sync with your brain.

Sometimes it really happens, but you should not be upset, because it can be fixed with high-quality nutrition and knowledge of the topic of bodybuilding. It happens that your muscles get used to the load and no longer give in to training(I was in exactly the same situation and only thanks to nutrition and dietary supplements I managed to return to my former shape and even become even better). You should check out a few services that will help you understand exactly what I'm talking about. For example, https://skinnyyoked.com/ will be the perfect option for you. Everything you need is here.

Sounds normal. Enjoy the buildup. Now you have something to train for.

I was in a similar situation. After a couple of weeks of hiatus, my fitness was gone. I was not able to run even half of the distance that I was running before. However, I got back to my fitness in less than two weeks. I took it easy; I did not try to force my "comeback," and it was the right decision. You have to do the same thing, and it is my advice for anyone who hasn't run for a couple of weeks and they are out of their fitness. Right now, I am even in better shape than I was before. I mean, even my joggers do not fit me anymore as my legs are huge right now. I had to buy new clothes because my muscle mass increased a lot. Thankfully, after reading some reviews on lululookalike.com I found some fantastic joggers. They are perfect for running and for casual.

You can find those joggers here.

https://lululookalike.com/lululemon-joggers