been there and back again, multiple times..

on the physical side, do what doesn't hurt, or what hurts least. During my L5/S1 episode over about six months, I couldn't run at all, bike only less than an hour, but could swim without any trouble. So, lots of swimming was done. Any exercise will help build back the habit and the physical endurance. The run will come back as soon as you are able to get some consistency in running.
Pilates as everyone says, was very good both for this and various swimming shoulder episodes.

on the mental side, start getting used to the idea that you may not get back even to baseline. As AutomaticJack mentioned, a near-death experience is good for this ;-) because you are so grateful to be able to do anything, it's all wonderful. I had cerebral malaria in 1989, two weeks in intensive care, lost 30lbs in those weeks - at 130lbs and 6'2", it looked pretty bad. Never did get anywhere near my pre-malaria PRs in running, but being able to run was honestly quite enough. Then took up tri in order to get some new PRs, ha.

Cheers and Happy New Year to You in the land of Down Under!
Sorry to hear about the setback and slow process but I am also happy to see so many people stepping in and responding to you.

Dealing with setbacks/illness/injury/time off etc is something every athlete has to deal with and it simply a challenge...

You've already gotten a ton of terrific advice, but I'll add what I believe is best and what I've tried to do when in similar situations in the past (including the very recent past).

Try to look at this as a nice place to begin your fitness and start with a huge base. Time to move, slowly at first, and find things that you enjoy. Swim/bike or walk>run but also include other things that you may have wanted to try but didn't because you were limiting yourself to triathlon. As able, increase the time doing the things that will be more important to your future fitness and if that involves triathlon, great and if not, that's fine too.

I've become a big Dr. Attia fan and doing things that will set you up to become a healthy, active, fit old man should not only include aerobic activities but also include strength, stretching, mindfulness, yoga/pilates and other activities which keep the mind sharp like conversation/cross word puzzles and the like. Cognitive, Spiritual and Physica/Structural. He believes in: strength, stability and intensity. So eventually brief high intensity vo2max stuff-not not initially, ever.

Love the comment by WannaB-'embrace the journey'. I would suggest embracing 'by feel' over the numbers, despite my own absolute obsession with knowing all of my own numbers at present, When I begin to find fitness after an absence, I never even look at the numbers until afterwards and then just to document the level I'm at as there is good information about fitness in those numbers.

When I was a runner, I wrote a big 'dissertation' about running.
Dale's Dissertations on Running, Racing and Training (beginnertriathlete.com)

This embraced the concept that you need to just do more and rest enough and that is how it should be across all activities. And then, after a really big base, add in some intensity.



So, do a lot of stuff-especially things that you have a real interest in. Do them all a lot and of course, rest enough. And most importantly, enoy the process.
And keep us all informed-

In 2018, I came off of a great race at Oceanside and a PR in a half marathon 2 weeks later, and then crashed my MTB super hard, dislocating it. I tore my labrum, severed my supraspinatus, and fractures my humeral head (the tendons that attached just splintered away). Had surgery with 4 anchor screws and a SIGNIFICANT down time and recovery period. For six weeks, I wasn't even allowed up move my arm. My only exercise was walking (in a sling). And then rehabbing my shoulder was a long, slow painful process. Riding my bike for 2 months was a no-go (just putting my arm on handlebars was painful) and swimming was about damn impossible.

At 2.5 months, I was allowed to do very easy running, riding, and swimming. (I literally started swimming at 100 m with fins and called it done). At 6 months, I was released to full activity (including skiing), but I still had lost a crazy amount of strength and endurance.

For my next tri season (summer 2019), I raced only sprints. In the Denver area, we have a race director who allows you to earn credits towards future races if you volunteer. So in 2018, I volunteered a ton (mostly to keep me connected to the tri community). I had earned enough volunteer credits that I could do a sprint / month for free. A ton of people were pressuring me to dive back into long distance, but I didn't want to be in pain and even questioning if I should be doing it. With sprints, the distances were all very manageable, and since they were "free", I had no pressure on me to race if my shoulder was angry. It was the BEST decision I could have made - I had a ton of fun.

For overall recovery, it took me about 18 months total to regain strength and to not be in pain. I think the key with this kind of recovery is to be gentle with yourself and to allow yourself the space and time to heal. If you rush/force things, it will only take you longer to fully recover.

2006 Non-diagnosed, idiopathic, bilateral, medial plantar, neuropathy (lasted 10 years)
2017 Osteititis Pubis (lasted 6 months with PT)
2020 5xCABG (lasted 3 months) you know that story
2022-2023 Disinterest (possibly depression) lasted a year

4-5 months isn't that long....you won't have lost as much as you think, and will have lost more than you'd like at the same time.

As everyone else has said, just let go of any expectations. Ease into it. Just do stuff regularly, anything (walk, row, bike, strength, calisthenics, etc). When I have had to come back, I can't do anything for very long (bike seat hurts, can't run long, etc). So, I just do a little of everything. I'll run/walk for 15 minutes, bike for 10, and row for 15. Don't worry about it---just do stuff, it all counts. Honestly, I think the more modalities the better. Do core/mobility/stability work...it will all be weak, and little bits of stuff doesn't help that much.

Enjoy working the process. Be gentle, patient, and consistent. In 3 months you will be at a baseline where you can do something you might call "training" daily. In 4-5 months you should "resemble" your former self.

My most recent experience after a year off (as a 55 yo): I restarted in August running for 30s, walking for 4:30...following a typical couch to 5km plan. By October I was running continuously. By Thanksgiving, I took 2nd in my AG at a 5,000 person 5km running race. I'm still a few minutes from my PB...but, I'm within striking distance. Ymmv.

I'm sorry to hear of your recent trajectory and questions about recovering fitness after a break. You have a ton of terrific advice already that I won't repeat. A couple of different items from my own recent setbacks (2021 stress fracture - 12 weeks off and another 4 weeks very soft; 2022 fractured fibula - 12 weeks off - and significant (non-fibula) surgery) - another 12 weeks off, follow. I'm a 63 y/o male.

I found that water running was better for me than swimming. I'm a duathlete, so I do no swimming as part of training. Water running felt more natural to me and I imagined that it would be more goal-specific than swimming. You might think about mixing that in if you have access to a pool - an advantage is that you can pace as slow or hard as you like, even taking a break in the middle of the pool as necessary.

I had a coach through all of this and he managed my ramp in training pretty effectively. We use TrainingPeaks and mostly communicated about progress through comments with Zoom when appropriate. I owe him - I could have easily done too little and got discouraged or - more likely - restarted too hard with negative consequences. Navigating between these boundaries is key, I think. The notions suggested previously of using HR as an initial guide for intensity were helpful for me.

In 2022 I qualified for 2023 Worlds (after the stress fracture but before the fibula and other surgery). In 2023 (after the fibula and other surgery) I qualified for 2024 Worlds and raced above my expectation at Worlds in Ibiza. You will get there!

Best wishes for an uncomplicated and satisfying return to fitness!

Welcome back, Amnesia

At the beginning of 2021 I had a major depression crisis that almost took my life. I basically had to put absolutely everything (other than work) on hold and address my problem. Focused all my effort into therapy, but this meant that training was not a priority, and I did it very sporadically. I just didn't have the energy to do things.

2022 was my comeback year, but on January 2nd I fell off the bike and broke my collar bone. COVID restrictions were still in place, and medical care in the US is shit, this meant that I had to wait almost a month to get my surgery done, and then another month to start therapy. I used THC edibles to deal with pain (I didn't fancy opioids), but this meant I was eating like a stoner, and got incredibly overweight over the next 4 months. So, at the end of all of this I was almost 20lbs overweight, zero fitness, and a messed up arm.

At the start of 2023 I was ready to start training for Oregon 70.3, and it took about a month to realize that someone was up with my shoulder/arm and I got injured. I couldn't swim. This meant that I had to change the way I was doing things.

The key for me was not to focus on "coming back to triathlon racing", but to get my body healthy again. I focused on the little things (that aren't actually that little): eat really well, get my body moving, I taught myself to love the gym so I could get my body strong, and above all: to have fun doing it. I rode my bike with friends for the heck of it, and I never felt like I was in "training mode" (other than the gym sessions), but I was very consistent with staying active.

In June I decided that I was going to do the bike of a relay at IMAZ 70.3 and I started some more structured training, but that was it. That's the only race I did.

So my advice would be: don't focus on racing, don't focus on coming back to training, rather focus on getting your body healthy, get it moving, and be patient. It'll take time, but before you know it, 2 years will have passed and you will be back to your old self.

Good luck.

I have not read the replies from others, apologies if there is overlap with their suggestions.

I'm 54, coming off 8-months of downtime due to big injury, loss of family member, and overall lapse of motivation. Prior to all that, I was in race shape, iron-fit, competitive.

The most challenging aspect of downtime at this age is the rate of muscle atrophy. You lose it quickly. I've had downtime in years past and have had to rebuild so I've been through it before.

I'm 2-months into my rebuild and it is slowly coming back. I had to work on getting my core hardened up to support running again. This was important, each time I ran my lower back felt strained. My back, arms and glutes were cranky on the bike anything after an hour in the saddle. Swimming, just 1k at the beginning to get used to it again. It all sucks at first, you think it's over, done. If you stay on it, patient, things begin to click and muscle memory kicks in.

Long run is up to 8m, steady. I've yet to intro any speed into my routine yet, just a good foundation pour. Bike is up to 3 hours. I'm swimming up to 4k at a time. Making a concerted effort to get some gym time in. Still far off from where I was. But grateful to be able to make the investments in me and beginning to see results again.

Be patient and just get started. Wishing you steady progress.