Rebuilding Mileage After Injury (Read 661 times)

I pulled my calf muscle during a race about 3 weeks ago. I was pretty laid up since then, but was able to get back to light running last week. Yesterday, I ran my typical hour run at a slow pace, and was able to complete it with no pain in my calf whatsoever, so I feel like I can resume my slow/base mileage at this point. I was consistently running 20 miles per week before the injury. I had two weeks of basically no running, and last week I was around 9 miles. My question is, how quickly should I return to my former level, assuming I do not have any pain in my calf? Do I need to follow the 10% rule, or can I assume that other than my calf, my body can handle it since I've been doing it, and get back up to my former mileage in a couple weeks? In other words, I'd like to do something like this: 0, 0, 9, 14, 18, 22 Is that too aggressive? Again, this all assumes that as I return, I have no pain in my calf, and I omit all forms of speed work for a few more weeks at least. I feel like I should be fine, but after a few weeks of chomping at the bit, my judgement may be off a bit. Outside perspective?

I would think you would probably be fine ramping up that fast if you avoid hills and speed. For muscle strain like that I usually return to mileage fast but may use a little extra caution and warm up more thoroughly as well before returning to normal pace. Good luck!