return to running after injury - run/walk questions

Unlike you, I don't have a really long history of running, but have been off running for the last six weeks. I found a conservative walk/run plan to get me back (hopefully) to where I want to be (I too was training for a HIM and have run stand alone half marathons in the past). The plan I followed was a 7 week plan - the first day was 5 min run, 5 min walk, 5 min run, 5 min walk, two days of rest, 7 min run, 2 min walk, 7 min run, 2 min walk, two days rest, gradually increasing until week four was 25 - 40 minutes run 5 out of 7 days. After week 4, I can start to add speed work back in. So far - it's worked for me.

Best of luck - one thing I would strongly recommend is that if it starts hurting, stop running immediately, walk back to the start and ice - otherwise you might go back to the beginning :-(.

I missed the second half of last year with an Achilles injury.  When I was able to start training again early this year I started out walking a couple miles at a time.  I then progressed to doing a conservative Galloway run/walk, running for one minute and then walking for a minute for 30-45 minutes total.  I had some aches and pains from the long layoff, but was being careful to make sure that my Achilles was feeling OK.  Once I was confident my Achilles was going to hold up, I started to increase my run/walk ratio and increase my distance.  I usually end every run with a 1/2 mile walk to cool down and stretch.

Good luck,
Mark

This year coming back from injuries plural.  I started with walking 2 miles... then walking 4 miles, walking 5 days a week (week 1).

Week 2 was walk 1 mile jog 1 minute, walk 4 minutes jog 1 minute jog 4 mintes... 4 miles. (Week 3) walk 1 mile, jog 2 minutes walk 3 minutes.  Week 4, walk 1/2 mile jog 4 minutes walk 2 minutes and end of week 4 minutes jog 1 minute walk.  Week 5 easy continues jog 4 miles 5x per week and then built from there. 

Some of this is based on feel, but starting with all walk. moving to warmup with more walk than jog and then more jog then walk and then eventually easier jog and then later building back the speed, hills last.     

Yes, return with run walk.  I had close to 10 months off for a torn gastrocs....started with track  work 1/4 mile walk then jog: walk by 1/4 lap.  Seemed to take forever to rebuild the run butworth it.  Finally up to 4 miles slowly.

If your lay off was shorter you may be able to do by minutes  like the Galloway plans.  Key is listening to your feet and not pushing yourself when you want to do more.

Depends on how long of a layoff...

That being said, I usually start with 1 min. run/4 minutes walk, for a total of 25-30 minutes. Each week or two, I add a minute of run and lose a minute of walk.

I don't even care about building mileage for now. In the 20 years I've been running my body has NEVER accepted training for longer distances. I always wind up with an injury. Is your tendonitis on the inside of your foot or outside? Mine was directly above my arch in that tendon that catches all the collapse and flex of your foot. Just curious .

Ok - so I ran this evening. I tried really hard, don't think I did too much. I felt really good and nothing hurt so fingers crossed.

I did a 6 min walk to warm up. Then 6 min running, 3 or 4 walk, 6 min run, etc for a total of 31 min. Then went to my MIL's pool and did some aqua jogging while my daughter swam to keep the tendon from tightening up.

So far so good. I iced and have it in a compression wrap just because I'm paranoid. I won't know until I start walking around in the morning.

I was so very happy to be running again. I felt like I was floating. One thing about being injured, you realize how much you love this stuff.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply everyone!