How to restart after a break, perhaps enforced by injury or illness or maybe after a season of amazing achievements? Both can be very challenging in their different ways. This post has some ideas and practices that I believe can help us - drawing on experiences of those I coach and my own new start.
Banish the “back to…”
Before anything else, let’s set a rule for ourselves: no use of the phrase “getting back to…”.
We are not “getting back” to anywhere - we are starting anew.
In my case, because of health issues, I’ve had a very quiet, frustratingly inactive year. Only one swim event in mid June to speak of; another cancelled; a few moderate swims from home where in the past each Summer was packed with long adventurous joyful escapades, going further and further in the sea and river. And no runs or rides. None.
Just last week, however, I tentatively started light running after over a year’s break. But does it help to describe myself as “getting back to…” something that belongs to the past?
That was then… try to accept this is now
Hard though it is for me to accept, I have to recognise that I’m not going to break my 5km PB, set some 45 years ago. Or be at the front of big races. Nor even be in the same shape as I was a few years ago before putting the running on an uneasy, long hold.
And when I find myself being overtaken or unable to keep up with other runners whose style or shape I might all too quickly dismissively judge, I try to go to a generosity toward them - “how brilliant to see others out” - and a self-compassion to myself - “how brilliant I’m out too!”
It’s not easy, believe me. But here’s the thing: we can locate ourselves in the newness and novelty of what we’re doing. What I did before - in younger days with some speed and success, and until the last few years, still passably credible - was a thing called running. Now I’m starting to do something that also happens to be called running, though with a purpose and presence that is quite different.
And I tell myself there’s still a great runner to be found in me - one not measured by times and distances but by the joy of movement, seeking out and cherishing a fluency and connection to myself and the places I run in.
I’ll outline at the end a few other things that seem to be helping. For now, let’s turn to starting over from two very different places, yet which have common lessons for us.
restarting after an amazing season
So, imagine you’ve finished an amazing season of racing, peaking at just the right time for each race and surprising yourself with how well you went - how you pushed all the way or maybe overcame unexpected problems and came through strongly. Or maybe your whole focus for the year was on one monumental challenge that is now done, mission accomplished. I’m very happy to say that several ZigZag clients have experienced such highs this past year, some soon to be recorded in their own words on the Stories page.
But what now? How to restart after such highs?
It can be difficult to pick ourselves up again and start the long, patient build up to next year’s events - especially as the weather turns gloomy and hours of darkness close in. Or for many there can be a reluctance to let go of the high level or intensity of training and feeling of being as fit as we have ever been.
Here’s my checklist for such restarts:
let’s take time to soak in and enjoy what we have done. It’s too easy to feel we must rush on to the next challenge, get it booked up, paid for and in the diary as a solid commitment. Yet there is something very important and nourishing in simply sitting with what we have done, to take in its depth and richness
a period of proper rest and recovery. Very typically those I coach will baulk at the very suggestion of maybe two or three weeks, perhaps even a month of nothing that looks, feels or smells like training. We are all active people so it won’t mean weeks of vegging on a couch - instead anything and everything done with a lightness and no pressure feel about it, such as short dips in the sea, rides to research new cafe stops or explore hidden lanes, runs without a watch, walks… all as if enjoying a well earned lap of honour
in thinking about what comes next, we can make space to seek out new challenges. Even if we are aiming to return to a previous event, think about what novel angle will give it an extra edge. And above all, I want to look for the things that will excite and energise me
and when you’re ready to resume training, I suggest a few weeks that are simply focused on finding a routine that will work for the regular, consistent training needed - at this stage keeping everything short and light.
restarts after injury or illness
Not every season goes to plan though, does it? Two of the athletes I’ve been coaching for a few years now had their seasons this year cut short by significant injuries - one now recovering from surgery to repair a meniscus and the other awaiting surgery for a herniated disc.
It goes without saying, in such cases all we can do is wait for the required treatment to happen. Particularly with the kinds of full-on events and training that lie ahead, we have to get ourselves treated and fully recovered before building up the training. And the same patient resolve applies to relatively minor setbacks that can occur such as colds and flu or a muscle strain that the physio says needs a period of rest.
To avoid the temptation to rush back too soon from minor injuries and illnesses, I suggest a Plus One rule - the day an athlete feels they really are over whatever illness or muscle strain has temporarily sidelined them, to add on an extra rest day.
Then, as they restart, I suggest some light sessions that focus entirely on reconnecting to the feeling of a relaxed fluency and rhythm. There are also connections to make to the places we exercise in - approaching each with an easy openness and readiness to take in the ever changing environment and our place in it.
Most athletes also find that, even though it doesn’t feel like it at the outset, it really doesn’t take long to re-find their fitness levels. We can feel like we’re in a cruel game of snake and ladders where one misstep sends us all the way back to the very start. Yet it’s not like that - a temporary set back is just that, frustrating though it might be.
so what am i doing?
Back to my slow, faltering steps to restart running and find that relaxed, fluent, non-judgemental runner in me, here are three things that are helping:
I splashed out on expensive new shoes: as in the banner photo, there they sit looking at me as if to say “so come on, I cost a lot so you better take me out!”
I’m recording each run, swim or other activity in an elegant journal. In the past I would have done this in terms of distances, times and some measure of effort. Now it’s the things that strike me as I run or swim - imprints left from a deeper, calmer viewing of moments, connections or random thoughts - that I’ll scribble down. Bit more meaningful than comparing myself to a faster universe on Strava or a set of impersonal numbers
and finally, I’ve written this post as a way of committing myself to my restart. No going back now.