AIBU to be concerned about how much fitness I’ve lost? (Running related)

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I got into a real good flow of running a few times a week last summer. By September I achieved a 26:30 5k, and somehow a 57m 10k without stopping.

My motivation dropped in the winter and I also did my knee in, so I barely did any running over the winter.

Now of course I’m not surprised that I’ve lost my fitness. But I did a parkrun today, had to stop around 3 times, and got 33 minutes. I was actually shell shocked at how hard I found it!!

The thing is, I hadn’t run before last summer and I started at 31 mins.

Can anyone reassure me that I’ll find my fitness again and that I can achieve what I did last year? And what sort of training will work best?

Many months of training couldn't have got me close to a 33 minute 5k.

Of course you can build back up again unless there has been a major health event in the meantime -- it would be very surprising if you had held onto the fitness you attained before without keeping up the activity.

Did you go out too fast? I find it so hard to get back on track if I go out too fast. I’m sure you haven’t lost the fitness, just need to build it up again over a few weeks.

You can definitely build back up! It's frustrating starting back after an extended break but I feel like it comes back to you more quickly than the first time. Don't try and push yourself too fast or too far to begin with though, ease back into it slowly.

I've been in and out of running for about 10 years but starting back again now after a hiatus since last Summer... it's somewhat demoralising knowing unfit I am now compared to how I was, but at the same time it is motivating me to keep going! You can do it OP 💪

Fairly obviously if you run regularly and then stop, over time you will lose most of the fitness you gained. You start to lose conditioning after about 2 weeks of doing nothing. You can of course build it back up though.

Are you peri by any chance, OP? Could be a symptom

I think that is totally normal and probably also depends on if you a naturally a runner or not. I have similar times to you but if I miss only a couple of weeks I already feel it. I had to miss 8 months of running a couple of years back due to health issue, but I’m back to the same kind of times now.

DH on the other hand can do no running for ages and somehow bash out a sub 50minute 10k just like that. Arsehole.

Perfectly normal I think. Some days I can run fast some days I can’t. What transformed running for me was steady state running so run 5k apbetween 6.30 and 7 which feels weird but made me so much fitter

You didn’t run for long enough to build a solid base