Amnesia wrote:
feel like I have both a physical and a mental barrier to making a start. The physical one being dealing with the aches and pains of my current post-surgical state, the mental ones being focused around how far I have fallen from my usual baseline because of everything that has happened and wondering how I will ever get back to where I used to be (baseline that is, not talking race fit).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.