Feeling deflated after 6 months off!

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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 shocked at how hard I found it!

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?

It'll come back! I'd add in strength training from the start - I didn't initially and was plagued with ankle and knee issues but I've been pretty much fine since. I do:
10 x single leg Romanian deadlifts (each leg)
10 x Bulgarian split squats (each leg)
10 x straight leg heel raises on a step (each leg)
10 x bent leg heel raises on a step (each leg)

I aim to repeat three times but normally only do it twice. I started off with just body weight and then added in dumbbells. I've just added in hip thrusts today.

For the actual running, I'd just work on getting out and enjoying it. If you need to walk up hills initially then fine. Aim to work at a comfortable effort level rather than pace. Once you're happily running 5km again then you can add in some speed days or hill days etc.

I find weekly parkruns are the best way to quickly build cardio fitness after a break but I need to do them as an all-out effort and that seems to remind my body what it’s supposed to be doing. I had almost a year off because I had a herniated disc. First parkrun back was 28mins- 6 park runs later I’m back to 23:30 so if you’ve got a base you can get it back quickly with regular running. I haven’t done a lot of mileage- mainly just park run, one long run ( build up from what you can manage) and then 1/2 other runs between 6-10k each week- these have got longer as I’ve got fitter. Some people swear by a RED month ( run every day) but I find these can get a bit tick box and you can end up doing a lot of junk runs that don’t really improve anything.

Fitness isn't linear, it'll come back relatively quickly.

But you damaged your knee last time so be sensible: see a physiotherapist and do the exercises s/he prescribes, and take it slowly. Otherwise you'll injure yourself again, and stop again, and be deflated again.