Re-building your endurance after an injury Part 3: Adding the extras into your week

In the last 3 parts, you built up your frequency and added a long run.

Now it’s time to add some running workouts.

Here’s your plan: one workout a week and watch your speed return.

The final stage in your complete return to run plan is to add faster running:

• Speed / tempo work
• Hills
• Strides and sprints

These are your running workouts.

When you’re coming back from an injury there is 1 critical principle I want you to stick to.

Only change 1 variable at a time.

If you go from a complete week of running easy to adding:

• Strides at the end of a run
• A hill workout
• A tempo set

AND you get flared up again, then how are you going to know what was the culprit of your flare up.

For most runners, you only need 1 workout a week to make progress.

(Strides or sprints are not a full session because I usually add them to the end of your sessions.)

So with that in mind let’s talk about a progression for you to follow.

A run workout progression post-rehab:

• Strides
• Hill sprints
• 30/30 Intervals
• 2 min Intervals
• 10 min Tempo

This follows the principle of starting at the extremes and moving to race effort.

From a rehab perspective, it allows you to introduce longer intervals of hard running. And still watch your injury site.

A brief breakdown of each session (I could have an entire essay for each workout):

• Strides: The goal with strides is to accelerate from an easy run pace up to your 5k pace. I like these as a starting point because you can test out faster running in a controlled setting. Start with 3-4 x 30s at the end of one of your endurance runs.
• Hill sprints: Hills are one of the safest spots to add fast running. For the first hill session we are not trying to destry your legs we are introducing some faster running. Faster than your strides. A good starting point is 4-6 x 20s at the end of an endurance run.
• 30/30 Intervals: 30/30 intervals are a great way to introduce repeated running intervals. Keeping them short allows you to watch for signs of discomfort. The pace can change here depending on your goals. For us we are gradually increasing the speed you can tolerate. Aim for 10-12 x 30s run, 30s rest. Add an endurance run before and after the main set.
• 2 min Intervals: The next interval progression you can try is 2 mins run, 2 mins walk. These will usually be a little slower than the 30s intervals. But we are getting closer to a sustained harder run session. Try 6-8 x 2 mins run, 2 min walk. Add an endurance run before the main set.
• 10 min Tempo/Mod Run: The last progression you can try is a true “tempo” run. Without getting into the weeds we are aiming for a moderate-hard effort here. For many of my runners we are trying to get into the goal race pace for their distance. This allows us to set expectations and test out the injury at race effort. I will start with 1 x 10 mins as the first session. Progressing to 2-4 with a 5 min easy run between depending on the goal race (more for a longer race).

This entire progression is going to be very individualized.

Your plan can change depending on your race and training goals.

This is my general progression to guide a runner back to race efforts. Introducing harder running over a period of weeks. To see how the injury responds.

I will repeat a workout for 2-4 weeks before adding the next progression.

These are your performance-style workouts.

Remember that you are better to build consistent volume before adding intensity. You will gain a ton of fitness from progressing and sustaining your easy training.

Build according to your goals.

That’s all for today!

Chandler