 This picture was at the finish line of 2019 Ironman Canada in Whistler, Canada. |
If you only knew me from the last 4-5 years, you may think that I am a resilient athlete who never gets injured. This is far from the truth. From 2007-2020, I was injured every year. For 1-3 months at a time (every single year), I couldn’t run. While the reasons for setbacks vary, many athletes fall into a similar pattern when trying to return to training. They take some time off, modify their training, seek treatment, or attempt to recover. Eventually, they start feeling better. Motivated to get back on track, they resume training and begin increasing volume, intensity, or frequency because there is a race on the schedule. Perhaps things go well initially, and excitement for the race builds. But it’s only a matter of time until another setback develops. Suddenly, they are back where they started - or worse off. I was there. I understand. This can become an incredibly frustrating cycle, especially for athletes who have years of training experience and a history of consistent performance. The desire to get back to normal is understandable. However, one of the biggest mistakes athletes can make is assuming that because they once had the fitness and physical capacity to handle a certain training load, they can immediately return to it after a disruption. Athletes are often very good at training hard, setting goals, and working toward something. They know how to follow a plan, push through challenging workouts, and stay committed to a training schedule. But returning from a setback requires a different skill set. When training is interrupted due to a setback, this is a sign that your body may not be prepared to handle the workload you were asking of it, even if your cardiovascular fitness is still relatively strong. You may remember what it felt like to run 10 miles, ride for four hours, or complete a challenging interval session, but your current ability to tolerate that workload is different. This is especially important after surgery, injury, prolonged illness, periods of inadequate fueling, or extended training interruptions. Your movement patterns, muscular strength, connective tissue capacity, coordination, and ability to recover do not necessarily return at the same rate. You might feel aerobically ready to complete a long workout, but your muscles, tendons, bones, ligaments or joints may need considerably more time to tolerate that demand. Similarly, you may feel motivated to resume high-intensity training after an illness, but your body may still be recovering. The same applies to athletes experiencing low energy availability or burnout. Simply returning to a training schedule does not mean the underlying issue has been resolved. The mistake is using your previous training history as the starting point for your current training. Instead of asking, "How quickly can I get back to where I was?" consider asking, "What does my body need right now to consistently tolerate training?" One of the most important lessons in breaking the setback cycle is not simply using symptoms (or lack thereof) as signs that you are ready to train hard again. When an athlete starts feeling better, there is often an immediate desire to progress. A few pain-free runs turn into longer or more intense runs. A week with good energy turns into increasing volume. After an illness, a missed training block creates pressure to make up for lost fitness. But feeling better or being without pain is not necessarily the same as being fully recovered or ready to layer training stress. A single successful workout is just one data point. What matters more is whether your body can tolerate that workout, recover from it, and repeat it consistently. For example, being able to complete a 90-minute run after several weeks of inconsistent running does not necessarily mean your body is ready for another long run a week later. Similarly, completing a hard bike session after recovering from an illness does not mean you are ready to resume your previous training intensity. Progress should be measured by consistency and repeatability, not by the biggest workout you can complete without pain or issues. Sometimes the smartest training decision is to repeat the same manageable workout rather than increase the workload. You don't need to keep proving that you can do more. You need to develop the capacity to do enough, consistently. One of my greatest lessons was that you cannot compress recovery into a shorter timeline simply because a race is approaching. You cannot force your body to adapt faster because you have an Ironman in 8 weeks. Training adaptations require time. Recovery requires time. Rebuilding physical capacity requires time. If you have been sick for two weeks, you don't necessarily need to double your training the following week. If you have been unable to run for three months because of an injury, you don't need to to start running intervals in week two of your recovery. If I can offer advice to anyone who has been or is stuck in this cycle, if you experience a setback, don’t focus on getting back to the more advanced parts of training: longer workouts, harder intervals, higher mileage, bigger training weeks, and race-specific sessions. Go back to the basics and work on your foundation. A foundation is not just something you develop at the beginning of an athletic career. It is something you continually build, maintain, and revisit throughout your athletic journey. After a setback, rebuilding your foundation may include: 1. Restore consistency before increasing volume. 2. Prioritize frequency and repeatability over big workouts. 3. Reintroduce intensity gradually. 4. Develop strength and physical capacity. 5. Support training with adequate fueling and recovery. 6. Account for total training stress across all areas of life. I don’t feel that I am now immune to getting injured. However, I feel I’ve done a really good job of making smart decisions when I sense a yellow flag (so that it doesn’t turn into a red flag). One of the most effective ways to prevent repeated setbacks is to recognize when something is changing before it becomes a bigger problem. Not every difficult workout or tired day means you need to stop training. But persistent or recurring symptoms deserve attention. Some signs that your current training demands may be exceeding your ability to recover include:
These signs are not a diagnosis, and they can have many causes. Most importantly, don't wait until you are completely sidelined to acknowledge that something needs to change. Athletes often compare their current training to what they could do before an injury, illness, or period of burnout. They remember their previous mileage, power numbers, race performances, and training consistency. That comparison can make rebuilding feel frustrating, slow and discouraging. But your training should reflect the athlete you are today, not the athlete you were before the setback. You are never fully starting from zero. You still have experience, knowledge, skills, and years of athletic development behind you. However, you may need to rebuild certain physical capacities, and that process deserves time, patience and respect. There is no shame in returning to shorter workouts, using run/walk intervals, reducing intensity, taking additional recovery days, or spending time developing basic strength and movement patterns. These are not signs of regression. They are tools for moving forward. When there is no race on the calendar, it can be tempting to feel like training has no direction. But time away from racing can be one of the most valuable opportunities to work on the things that are often overlooked during peak training. This might be the time to rebuild aerobic consistency, improve strength, address movement limitations, establish better fueling habits, prioritize sleep, or simply reconnect with the enjoyment of exercise without the pressure of performance. Not every training phase needs to lead directly to a race. In fact, having no immediate event deadline can allow you to make better long-term decisions because you aren't constantly trying to fit recovery into a competition schedule. If you have been caught in a cycle of injury, illness, fatigue, or burnout, consider stepping back and asking what needs to change. Perhaps you need a more gradual training progression. Maybe your fueling needs attention. Perhaps your training schedule doesn't allow enough recovery, or your current goals no longer align with what your body and life can support. Whatever the reason, repeating the same approach and expecting a different outcome is unlikely to create lasting change. Sometimes you need to change the process, not just the workout. There will be seasons when you are building, seasons when you are competing, and seasons when you need to step back and prioritize your health. All of them have value. The athlete who can recognize when to push, when to maintain, and when to rebuild is developing a skill that supports a much longer and healthier relationship with sport. You don't have to get back to where you were to move forward. But you do need to build a foundation that supports where you want to go next. |
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