FAQ Training for a Race After Injury
Returning to the world of running after an injury is an exciting and empowering endeavor. As you set your sights on conquering your first race post-injury, there's an abundance of questions to address. Which training plan should you choose? Will it help you shed unwanted weight? What is race pace, and how do you determine it? What are tempo runs and progression runs, and how do they fit into your training? Should you incorporate hill workouts? And what about long runs and shorter runs? In this blog post, we'll delve into these frequently asked questions (FAQs) to help you select a training plan that aligns with your goals, maximizes your potential, and ensures a safe and effective return to running.
In this article:
Will this running plan help me lose weight?
Did you doctor tell you to lose weight and that will decrease your chances of getting injured again? Or maybe that if you lose weight it’ll take pressure off your knees?
That may or may not be true… I’m not here to tell you to lose weight or not to lose weight, that’s your call. But, consider this: skinny runners get injured, too; and skinny runners have knee pain, too.
So if you don’t lose weight, don’t want to lose weight or can’t lose weight don’t get too down thinking you will always have the pain you have, or be more prone to injuries.
Having said that: as a runner coming off an injury I recommend not trying to lose weight and train for a race at the same time.
If you’ve signed up for a race I encourage you to make training in good health the priority, if you haven’t signed up for a race yet you can use running to lose weight.
Runners who have success running with good energy, fewer injuries and feel overall good continue to eat a balanced diet of protein, fats and carbs. I do not recommend low carb diets for runners. Runners need carbs.
Can I change up the days on the plan?
Changing run/strength/cross training days:
If you are running a single race this plan can be flexible for you. If you like to run MWF but the plan has you running T, Th, Sunday go ahead and change your running days.
If you’re running multiple races or the challenges, I don’t recommend changing your running days too much.
You could shift by 1 day, but because you will run multiple days in a row for the challenges this plan accommodates for that.
Don’t put a rest day in the middle of multiple days in a row of training for a challenge. If you like to do strength training on the same day as your running you can do that: just make sure you strength train AFTER your run: this will give you the most energy for your run. If you have questions about strength training before/after a run click here.
What if I’m running a challenge?
Some of the most popular types of races Disney puts on are the Challenges where you run multiple days in a row.
I do recommend running the longest distance in a challenge before running the challenge.
For example, if you’re running Dopey or Goofy, run a Marathon before you complete the challenge. If you’re running the Wine and Dine Challenges, run a half marathon before running the challenge.
And I don’t mean run this longest distance during your training plan, I mean race it or run it during training outside of the 24-week training window I laid out.
Can I add extra to this plan?
Follow this plan to a T.
Don’t add extra runs, walks, strength workout, etc.
Runners training for a race after injury need to ease into their training. Unfortunately many runners follow a plan, slightly… they follow the plan and then add in their own extras thinking that more is better.
More is not always better, especially when you’ve had an overuse (overtraining) injury… an injury that is literally caused by doing too much. Instead, follow this guide as it’s laid out.
Are there long runs?
The long run each week is listed on Sunday.
This is a slow and easy run.
The pace of this run should be 30% slower than your race pace.
Many runners make the mistake of running too far on their longest long run of a training plan, thinking they need to practice running all those miles. Because the long run should be 30% slower than race pace you only need to run 70% of the race distance to be able to run that race.
For example: if your goal is a half marathon, you only need to run 10 miles as your longest run to train for a half marathon. You will be doing your body a favor by running slower and not as far on your long runs. If you want an example of this click here to see the time comparison for half marathon training.
Long runs are
Slow
Easy
Conversational
30% slower than race pace
Longest run in a training plan should be 70-80% of the total race distance (in other words: that’s 20-30% shorter than race distance)
Are there shorter runs?
Shorter runs are incorporated earlier in the week on Tuesday and Thursdays for most training plans. These runs should be a mixture of
progression,
tempo,
hills and
race pace runs.
What is a progression run?
This type of run is a shorter run where you progressively run faster at a designated interval,
ie: every 1/10th mile you run 1/10th faster.
Progression runs help improve speed.
What is a tempo run?
This type of run is a shorter run where you run at a designated pace that is slower than race pace (typically by about 30 seconds), faster than long run pace, and you keep the same pace the entire run.
Tempo runs help improve speed.
Should I add hills?
This type of run is a shorter run where you incorporate running uphill during the run. These are typically done in intervals where you run uphill for a designated amount of time, then run back down the hill or on even ground, and repeat this 3-5x.
Hill runs help improve pace, endurance and strength.
What is race pace?
This type of run is a shorter run ran at the pace you want to run your race at. This pace is held for the entirety of the training run.
Race pace runs help you train to run at race pace.
Race pace should be done every few weeks or so. It may be good to practice them on a week that is tapered back from the weekly increases. So on plans that I develop this could be every 5th week. Or it could be done every few weeks during one of the shorter races in the week. There is flexibility in how often you practice race pace runs… but one thing is for sure do not attempt race pace every run. You won’t see any progress and you could hurt yourself more.
Where to go from here?
If you’re at the timeline when your race training starts: follow the plan as outlined and train
If you’re a little early on the timeline work on building your base (this is the distance in the first long run on the training plan)
If you’re a little early on the timeline and need some extra support sign up for the free training with Dr. Ali: Jumpstart Your Race Training to jumpstart training for a race after injury
If you want to find the right training plan for you to train after an injury check out the training plan page here.
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