Building mileage after long break

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I think this is a really tough spot to be in. It sounds like you've trained a lot in the past, but then you had surgery and a big layoff. On top of that, you've got some good muscular and cardiovascular fitness from cross training. I think that helps make returning to running easier. But I also think it makes it a lot easier to keep going when you maybe should cut back.

You might find that you can just add 5-10 miles per week and get right back to your desired mileage. But I think most people in this situation end up with lots and lots of setbacks. If I were in your shoes (and I've kind of been there, near year layoff, but no surgery), I'd take a good year to get my miles back up. Run more easy miles than you think you need. Run less overall mileage than you think. Constantly take down weeks and reassess how things are going. If you can, take those weeks right when you are feeling good and you think you're fitness is progressing nicely. It will keep you from doing something stupid and pushing too hard.

So yeah, I don't have a plan to get your mileage up. But if I had to pick one, I'd go with that old 10% buildup rule and make every 4th or 5th week lighter. So if you're at 15 now, your painfully slow but healthy progression would look like this:

16.5, 18, 20, 22, 24, 20, 22, 24, 26.5, 29, 32, 26.5, 29, 32, 35, 39, you get the idea.

I've been reading a lot of old threads on mileage and buildups and most people seem to be in the camp that the 10% rule is garbage.

Personally I want to be careful I guess I'm just not sure whats overly careful.

For a healthy individual, yeah, they can go much faster. For someone who had labrum surgery and already has a strong muscular/cardiovascular system, I'd take the 10% rule.

Honestly, though, I'd be curious to see some longterm studies on this. 6 months at the 10% rule v. doing your own thing for 6 months. I would guess the latter camp thinks they're doing better, but when it comes to staying healthy and actually running more mileage, I bet they are not as consistent.

Here is my personal experience. I took 10+ years off of any serious exercise. I gained a ton of weight. June of this year I decided I needed to get back in shape for a number of personal reasons. To give you a sense of my fitness, on day 1 I ran a mile all out in 6:47.

Here is what has worked for me:

1) I started out doing 4 days of cross training and 3 days of running. Every 2 weeks I carved off a day of cross training until I was all running.

2) I did zero workouts for 2 months. All of my runs were progression runs based entirely on feel. It was not until August that I actually really was serious about timing anything.

3) I gradually increased mileage from 15 miles a week to 65 miles a week. I did not follow the 10% rule as I don’t count cross training miles so the very act of running more days would have made me blow it out of the water.

4) Buy ice packs. 4 of them. Or take ice baths. Do this every night.

5) Other stuff: Foam rolling, proper sleep, no booze etc. have all helped.

I recognize that my issue was losing weight whereas yours is return from injury. Please note that I have had surgery on both my knees and started my journey between 240 and 250 pounds. I suspect I was managing a fairly delicate joint situation and it ended up working out well.

Happy to answer any questions.

itdepends wrote: For someone who had labrum surgery and already has a strong muscular/cardiovascular system, I'd take the 10% rule

I assume you say this for the sake of the making sure my lower leg strength has the time needed to build up?

bazap wrote:

itdepends wrote: For someone who had labrum surgery and already has a strong muscular/cardiovascular system, I'd take the 10% rule

I assume you say this for the sake of the making sure my lower leg strength has the time needed to build up?

Yes, I should have been more specific. I was thinking your quads and glutes and lungs would feel great pretty early on. Your feet, achilles, calves, knees, etc. might take a lot longer to re-adapt to the miles.

got it. well i see what your saying. i will probably play it cautiously as you describe at first, and go from there

If you want to be aggressive, you can do it.

https://s27691.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/weeklyvolumeincreases.png

If you are doing 15 mpw, I think you can add up to 25% a week. I think you can do 18 mpw, 22 mpw, then step back to 20 mpw the third week. Once you get to 20-30 mpw range, I would not increase more than 20%, 30-40 mpw no more than 15%. At 40 mpw then follow the 10% rule. Over 50 mpw don’t increase more than 7% per week. I would just make sure to know how your body is adapting, and take it easy or decrease you mileage if that schedule is too aggressive.

Here is a link to the article if you want to read the science behind it.

https://www.podiumrunner.com/myth-of-the-10-percent-rule_177872

I upped my weekly mpw aggressively early, because it was so low. I only run three days a week and cross train two days. So, I never increased any singular day by more than 10%, other than my long run which I have increased 15-25% at times due to circumstances. However, for my long runs I would increase and fall back every every 2-4 weeks, at least that was the plan. It went 8, 12 (walk only, unable to run was supposed to run 7), 9, 10.5, 11.9 (was supposed to run HM), 13.1 (planned on doing 10-11 miles but did HM distance), 12.6 (this was supposed to be 14 but cut short due to late start), 12, 16.5, and 12. I am planning on 19-20 this week depending on time.