Hey guys. As I'm gearing up to run again, I was checking in to see what opinions are out there. I've heard that for every two weeks lost it must be doubled to get back to previous running levels. I'm going to start back up after taking eight weeks off. I want to run a 10K in March for St. Patricks day. I will not race it, just run for fun with friends. I was running 30-35 mpw prior to my injury. Do you think I'm being realistic??

You'll be fine and a March 10K sounds very doable.   I'm glad to hear that you are running again!

When I took 5 weeks off this summer, I was back to running 50 mile weeks after a month.  I don't recommend this approach.  My fitness came back very, very quickly, but I probably had a bigger base than you.

Thanks guys. I've been a runner a long time and have come back after taking a much longer time. Very optimistic replies. 

What scrape said, but also... the formula "for every x, it'll take y"... this is yet another one of those formula things that some folks love to have around that really probably isn't true at the individual level.

 

The key is to not get discouraged on the first few runs.  It'll come back... and it'll come back quicker than perhaps you expect.

 

Also, watch for phantom pain (or, well, real pain) when you start again.  You may feel some stuff; don't freak out.

 Thanks. 

It's going to suck that first week or so.  Stay with it, you'll be feeling great again pretty quickly.  A fun 10K by March sounds very doable.

In 2005, I missed almost 3 months with a stress fracture, was cleared to run in June, followed Pfitzinger's return to running plan (and yes, I felt like I was starting over and it was really hard at first) and was able to run an annual home town 6 mile race at the end of July - not fast but I did run the whole way. And I wasn't nearly as fit pre-injury as you were. So I think your plan is totally doable. Good luck!

I took September and the first half of October off.  (I did get a couple of runs in mid-Sept.  But otherwise.)  So about 6 weeks.  My first week back, I ran 18 miles (6 days x 3 miles).  It was fine.  I increased each week until I was back where I started from- took me about a month.  In fact, since it's so handy dandy to check out my log, feel free to take a look.  If you check out Oct. and Nov., you can see how my "comeback" went.  I felt tired out that first month back- not as tired out as I was when I first started running, but more tired than usual- but the runs themselves were fine.  Obviously, that's just me and your experience may be very different.  But that's how it went for me.  Hope things go great for you, too!  : )