I have heard the guideline of two weeks for every week you are off and that was fairly accurate for me.
I hurt my right Achilles tendon in July, 2011 and didn't run a lick for six weeks. When I could run again, I noticed that I had lost very little speed. My easy run pace was essentially what it was before I got hurt. What I lacked was endurance. I did 4 miles the first day and 6 miles the second. Then, I had to take a day off to recover. I'm used to putting in 10+ miles per day so having to take a day off to recover from 10 miles over two days was a reality check. In the end, it was about three months before I felt fully recovered from the time off. By "fully recovered", I'm talking about the ability to put in my intended level of mileage and my intended quality sessions without having to take unintended recovery.
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
I'm sure it's different for everyone and mine wasn't a running injury. But my story is 8 week off for major surgery that
i had on Feb 6th.
Was able to start walking after week two, back to short running sections at 6 weeks. Back to full running, but very
slowly on week 8. I did my first post surgery race 12 weeks after surgery on April 28th, an 8k and it was 3 minutes
slower than the same race one year prior.
4 week later and 16 weeks after surgery on May 13th I ran my 2nd fastest half marathon time (2:01) only 2
minutes off my PR of 1:59 on a base of three weeks at 20 mpw.
I felt fully able to do more mileage but I was being cautious so as to not cause any internal damage as I was
still in the healing process.
I'm sure that 10 years of consistent 30-35 mpw year round mileage certainly helped in my quick recovery.
You have been running for a while. I think you may find like me that although it will take a few weeks to feel
back to normal that your body remembers what it's supposed to do much more quickly than you think.
Shakedown Street
I don't have anything to add but I am happy your back on your feet!!!
Started-5/12, RWOL refugee,5k-24:23 (1/12/13),10K-55:37(9/15/12),HM-1:52:59(3/24/13)