Coming back from short time off from injury - how best to ease back in? (Read 417 times)

Last week I self diagnosed myself with a mild case of 'piriformis syndrome' (i.e., a sore butt!). I wisely (I think) have taken 7 days off (so far). I used the 'tennis ball massage' method and stretching and some advil to 'treat' the injury, and I've been pain free for at least 3 days now. I'm itching to get back out there, but I'll probably wait until next Tuesday to run again, just to be extra sure I'm recovered. The bummer is that this past week, which I've taken completely off from running, was supposed to be the first week of an 18 week training schedule designed to prepare me for my first marathon, which is in early Nov 2007. Great way to start my marathon training - not running at all! Before this, I had established a 30-35 mile per week base for about 2 months. But when the pain began, I eased off a little, so that in the past 3 weeks, I've run about 25, 20, and 0 miles per week, respectively. So, my question is, how do I 're-enter' my training schedule? Should I pick up directly in week 2 of the training schedule, assuming that I haven't really lost any fitness in such a short period of time? Or should I redesign it so that I slowly build up so that in about 4 weeks, say, I'm back on my original training plan? Or should I ditch my original training schedule, and just not build up to as quite as high a mileage as I had originally planned for, before I had this injury? Thanks for your advice in advance!