If you are like me and had some time off your running for holidays or are returning after an injury, it can be a super exciting time to get back into the swing of things but it is also important to understand the challenges that lay ahead of you and how to best navigate these.

There are two major factors when planning a return journey to running, volume and intensity. These are critical to get right and being patient and having a well structured program is a great way to make sure you are doing everything in your power to get back.

Volume

Volume refers to the distance or time of your sessions you are completing. It is extremely important to start this relatively low and gradually build it up to allow your body time to adapt to the stress and strain you are putting your body under. The great news is it is quite easy to track with watches and apps these days or even just keeping a simple diary of how far and how long you are running for.

Some tips for managing your volume include:

1. Start slow and low - you can always increase this if you are feeling good after seeing how well your body adapts but you can’t reverse a flare up or a new injury

2. Use run/walks - I’m a big fan of starting off with run/walk splits and give it to most of my patients returning to running. I like to compare this to a gym program where you aren’t doing 30 reps consecutively but are breaking it into 3 sets of 10, which allows you some rest time to recover and then perform again with better form and strength rather then just running until you blow up. A favourite is to start with a walk to warm up and then jog for 2 minutes and then walk for 1 minute and repeat this 5-10x depending on how you are feeling.

3. Listen to your body - I stress this to every patient with every injury but you MUST listen to how things are feeling, before, during and after a session. Remember we all have different pressures and commitments in life and these will affect your performance as well so please take this into consideration when preparing a plan.

4. Gradual increases - the surer safe option for this is always 10%. Whilst most plans may have increases larger then this a lot of the time if you want to be really safe then it is best to stick to this rule of thumb to start to avoid over reaching.

5. Rest and recover - doing back to back days and continually increasing the volume day after day never lets your body actually adapt to the stress you are putting your body through. It allows the tissue and to recover and is a good preventative measure against injury and allows you to perform better in sessions

6. Get it checked - if you have had an injury recently or have a past history it is always a great idea to see a healthcare professional that can assess you and help identify any areas that need work and help put together a plan that works for you.

Intensity

Intensity of your runs is all about the effort level or pace at which you run. This is actually one of the main areas where I see people go wrong, especially on a return post injury. Intensity can also be measured on your watch and apps but you can also use simple measures such as rate of perceived extortion to measure how hard you are working during a run.

Some tips on intensity are:

1. Start easy - You’re much better off to go slow and increase you’re volume, keeping intensity low to start as you allow adaptation.

2. Avoid super high intensity sessions to begin - aim for paces and sessions that feel within your reach and not above and beyond. These should be used later on in your plan as you get your body back up to scratch.

3. Gradually increase speed - similar to increasing your volume also slowly increase pace on runs and use breaks through the session to help not overdo it early on.

4. Use breaks - interval sessions are a great way to maintain form during these efforts to help you get stronger and also allow your body some time to recover before completing another effort.

Bonus Tips

1. DO NOT INCREASE BOTH AT ONCE!! A large mistake people make is increasing both these at the same time during a session. This almost always leads to an injury or if you are lucky enough to get away with it it will mean a much longer recovery time and can lead to issues later down the track.

2. Strength training - I highly recommend some form of strength training whether it be Pilates, the gym or even at home.It has been shown by multiple studies that it can also helps prevent injury and allows you to focus on areas that may need some TLC and is also a great way to help even improve performance.

3. Maintenance - Having regular visits to a healthcare professional can help to prevent niggles turning into injuries and also help keeping biomechanics in check to keep running strong.

4. Cross-training - this can be a great way to supplement running and use lower load exercise to maintain or increase cardiovascular fitness as you let tissue adaptation occur.

A return to running under any circumstances really requires some thought and a solid plan to really not only try and avoid any mishaps but also to get the most out of the time you will be spending in your sessions. It’s important to trust the process and be patient with it and yourself but most of all enjoy the journey and the wins!!

Matt Barker