I’m rehabbing a knee right now. It looks like, when all’s said and done, will be a 2 month period off the bike and run. I’ve read that a typical rule of thumb is a 2:1 ratio to regain fitness. So 2 months off would take 4 months to get back in shape. The 2:1 ratio applies to time spent on the couch and I’m still swimming about 3 hrs per week with quite a bit of that at high intensity. So would that make the ratio closer to 1:1?
To anyone that’s spent some considerable time without training: what was your experience?
Ps- Ive decided to focus entirely on cycling so slowly building back run mileage won’t be an issue.
I’d say 2:1 is pretty good. The swimming will make it slightly easier in a sense, as you won’t have as steep of a curve to build overall cardio and energy systems… but for muscle specific development, there’s no short cuts. You either have the training load or you don’t. You;ll find for example that because your well rested, you’ll be able ot hit similar power numbers without much more effort on the bike BUT… you won’t be able to sustain them… and you won’t recover as fast. Slow you just have to be patient and ramp up you training load slowly. This is a good example where something like a Performance Management Chart is helpful in making sure you ramp up at a sustainable rate and don’t dig a hole.
I’m rehabbing a knee right now. It looks like, when all’s said and done, will be a 2 month period off the bike and run. I’ve read that a typical rule of thumb is a 2:1 ratio to regain fitness. So 2 months off would take 4 months to get back in shape. The 2:1 ratio applies to time spent on the couch and I’m still swimming about 3 hrs per week with quite a bit of that at high intensity. So would that make the ratio closer to 1:1?
To anyone that’s spent some considerable time without training: what was your experience?
Ps- Ive decided to focus entirely on cycling so slowly building back run mileage won’t be an issue.
A lot of this is individual but the longer you were fit the less time it takes to get fit again. Almost is if there is some sort of muscle remembered capacity, always easier to regain fitness than build it from scratch.
As previous poster said, no short cut to regain specific muscle fitness, but if you were fit for a long time before the lay off it comes back quicker.
I’m rehabbing a knee right now. It looks like, when all’s said and done, will be a 2 month period off the bike and run. I’ve read that a typical rule of thumb is a 2:1 ratio to regain fitness. So 2 months off would take 4 months to get back in shape. The 2:1 ratio applies to time spent on the couch and I’m still swimming about 3 hrs per week with quite a bit of that at high intensity. So would that make the ratio closer to 1:1?
To anyone that’s spent some considerable time without training: what was your experience?
Ps- Ive decided to focus entirely on cycling so slowly building back run mileage won’t be an issue.
I think it depends a lot on your background and physiology.
I had a solid six years of cycling and then I took 7 years off the bike. It took me 3 months to regain 90%+ of prior fitness and then another 5-6 months to match it (and even surpass it at my peak).
Running, however, I only did for two years. After two weeks off it seems to take a month to get back into it. After two months off it felt like I was starting over. Running takes me way, way longer to regain fitness than cycling.
I had a solid six years of cycling and then I took 7 years off the bike. It took me 3 months to regain 90%+ of prior fitness and then another 5-6 months to match it (and even surpass it at my peak).
I’ve had a very similar experience. My time off was more like 3 years after starting a family with some periodic casual rides, but it surprised me how quickly it came back, compared to how long it took to acquire in the first place. I think it could be related to prior base because I had around 5 years of solid riding prior to the time off and I’ve heard on several occasions that it takes about five years of solid riding to develop one’s potential.
I’m rehabbing a knee right now. It looks like, when all’s said and done, will be a 2 month period off the bike and run. I’ve read that a typical rule of thumb is a 2:1 ratio to regain fitness. So 2 months off would take 4 months to get back in shape. The 2:1 ratio applies to time spent on the couch and I’m still swimming about 3 hrs per week with quite a bit of that at high intensity. So would that make the ratio closer to 1:1?
To anyone that’s spent some considerable time without training: what was your experience?
Ps- Ive decided to focus entirely on cycling so slowly building back run mileage won’t be an issue.
I think it depends a lot on your background and physiology.
I had a solid six years of cycling and then I took 7 years off the bike. It took me 3 months to regain 90%+ of prior fitness and then another 5-6 months to match it (and even surpass it at my peak).
Running, however, I only did for two years. After two weeks off it seems to take a month to get back into it. After two months off it felt like I was starting over. Running takes me way, way longer to regain fitness than cycling.
More physical adaptation is required to run well. Once you lose it you need to get that + the fitness back.
I lost 2 months of run/bike due to a back injury and it took about 3 months to get back into the shape/volume of training I was in beforehand. Just remember to ease into training slowly so you don’t re-injure yourself.
I’ve been in endurance sport for about two years the first six months of that was only running. I started triathlon about 1 1/2 years ago. My first season I spent about 5 to 6 hours training per week and made some decent gains. In December I started to become a little more serious with my cycling. Bumped my overall training volume up to 9-12 hours a week. Kept the swim and run volume about the same. From late December - early August, my bike speed went up from 21ish in sprint triathlons up to 23-24ish (my lAst race was 23.8 mph).
So I really don’t have a big base, but I was able to ride reasonably well after 8 months of consistent 6-7 hours per week on the bike. I hope that if I cut out the swim and run, I’ll be able to get back to where I was pre-injury after maybe 3 months and hopefully surpass it by the first part of the season. I plan on building to 10-12 hrs per week on the bike which is about the same as my total volume this past season but I won’t be spreading it over 3 sports.
I got hurt at the start of February and couldn’t train until mid-May this year, then this past weekend I PR’d my open 5k run time in a sprint tri. I took the same sort of approach you are thinking of and built to an overall higher volume on the bike and run and by late August or early September I felt like I was back in form if not a touch more fit. 3.5 months off, and back to form 4.5 months on. The recovery is something I would really paid attention to because of the pent up drive to train, and like Motoguy said you aren’t going to recover as well. I started feeling like crap so I upgraded to TP premium, plugged in all the data, and found out I had been running between -36 and -48 TSB for a month and a half. Took a week off and felt like a champ. Moral of the story is don’t be afraid to get in some good recovery just because you’ve been resting for so long.
i think age plays a part also. I lost a few months due to a lacerated kidney and never really got my form back, I was hurt in my late 40’s. I think my mistake was not allowing enough time for base building, I tried to race myself back into shape to save time.
With your knee there is a whole sequence you need to go through to be able to fully run, but it also offers the opportunity to mend old injuries and imbalances and build some strength in the rest of your body. If you are used to training every day, going to the gym or PT for rehab will help fill in that time slot and keep you from getting depressed.
i think age plays a part also. I lost a few months due to a lacerated kidney and never really got my form back, I was hurt in my late 40’s. I think my mistake was not allowing enough time for base building, I tried to race myself back into shape to save time.
I’ve been wondering how age affects this as well. I had 3 months of close to zero physical activity last year after a shoulder injury, aged 42. Before that I had trained pretty consistently for around 8 years, with the last 3 years of that almost exclusively cycling training. Like you, I haven’t got back to my previous power, even after 11 months of training. Getting to 10W below my previous best was fairly easy, but those last 10W have been coming back incredibly slowly, I’ve been gaining around 1W a month for quite a few months now. It has made me wonder if age related decline is kept at bay by continuous training, but maybe if you are forced to stop for some reason, you get a significant decline in that period that is hard to reverse.