Do you run?

[MariaLurdes]

Hi Cathe! I'm just curious - are you also a runner? If so, how often do you run, and what's your pace? And one more question: If you focus on other types of workouts for a while and stop running, say, for more than a couple of months, do you find it hard to get back in, or is your fitness level enough to allow you to jump in whenever you choose to? I'm a runner myself, but sometimes I run only once or twice a week due to weather or scheduling issues, and I find that the older I get, the harder it is to get back to it!

Thanks,
Lurdes

 

[maddiesmum]

Hi Cathe! I'm just curious - are you also a runner? If so, how often do you run, and what's your pace? And one more question: If you focus on other types of workouts for a while and stop running, say, for more than a couple of months, do you find it hard to get back in, or is your fitness level enough to allow you to jump in whenever you choose to? I'm a runner myself, but sometimes I run only once or twice a week due to weather or scheduling issues, and I find that the older I get, the harder it is to get back to it!

Thanks,
Lurdes

Lurdes:

no matter what your activity, if you take a break or a while from it, it gets harder to get back into it as you get older. Fact. Our bodies get less flexible, we don't bounce back from tough workouts as quickly or as easily, we need more time to recover. So, a come-back plan that would have taken me 2 weeks in my 30's and early 40's, now takes longer and needs a slower, easier build up.

No matter how much running you have done before your break from it, and no matter what other fitness activities you may have done during the rest from running, when you start back it is ill-advised to leap back in at the exact same mileage and pace as you ere enjoying when last you ran. You need to take it down a notch or two initially, then build it back up.

If you have been ding other fitness activities, you won't be severely de-conditioned cardiovascularly, but running works the body differently than how step cardio or boxing do, so you would need to build up that conditioning of the tendons, ligaments and muscles again as they are used in running. I know this because I have been there! After long periods of running and powerwalking, if I then do a step workout, my calf muscles will be screaming 2 days later. Once it was so bad, I could not walk for several days.

So, if you were running 5 milers before the break, start back with no more than 3 and take the pace down a notch initially. You'll soon be building back up to 5 mile runs and beyond.

Clare