First attempt at running since surgery

cewilk · Sep 19, 2012

SO I had my Ross Procedure on July 30, 2012, almost 8 weeks ago. This previous weekend I did some very slow treadmill runs, at about 20 mins duration to see how it felt. I felt pretty good, good controlled breathing, but some slight chest tightness.

Tonight, I wanted to run 1 mile on the road. I finished in 9:54. I was expecting to do better. Breathing was more labored and still had some chest discomfort. Sternum felt fine, just that uncomfortable chest tightness feeling.

I'm used to running 21-22 minute 5ks. I was just wondering if this seems about normal for only being 8 weeks out. I just want to get back to the best possible shape as quickly as possible, just like we all do after surgery. And I just found out I may be going to Afghanistan in April so I need to be back in great shape.

If any runners have a good run program they used from personal experience for building back up to 5k completion please message me.

About 6 months before my surgery I began feeling pretty severe chest tightness during cardio exercise and the feeling of not being able to take good, deep breaths. How long after surgery has it taken some of you for that to go away?....that is if you even experienced those symptoms in the first place.

cewilk · Sep 19, 2012

as far as weights go...

I tried a couple "girl" pushups. They didn't feel too good. Gonna hold off on pressing exercises for a bit longer.

I was able to complete 3x10 of bicep curls and overhead press with 25lb dumbells with no problem.

TheGymGuy · Sep 20, 2012

start doing leg work, cable squats, box bodyweight squats, stairs, interval speed walking. super fast speed walking. get your leg strength and conditioning up first, the rest will come.
try 1 hour speed-walking intervals. start at 20 minutes and take it up by 5 minutes each day till you get to 1 hour. when leg strength gets up there, and conditioning gets up there, so will your speed and old self

tprice54 · Sep 20, 2012

I'd say you are doing better than normal for recovery runs. This is not like taking a month off of running; it's like starting fresh having NEVER run. Start back slow. One day of overdoing it, and it sets you back several days. I found my improvement was not linear....I would level off for weeks, then one day see a big improvement, then be level for weeks.

Bean Counter · Sep 20, 2012

Like Tom said, it sounds like you are doing pretty well. Just to put it in perspective, prior to surgery, I ran several sub-3 marathons and was running 5ks in the low 18s. My normal general aerobic pace was around 7:30 min miles. Anyway, I did my first run 8 weeks post op and it was a shock. My plan was to run 2x 1/2 mile segments. I went to the gym armed with my HR monitor and I had to run a 20 min mile to keep my HR is the zone (same zone I was running 7:30 min miles just a few months ago). Over time I improved and it was not liner like Tom mentioned. I never did get back to my pre-surgery levels, but I think that was because of several factors. The first is that I ended up getting some foot injuries after about 9 months of getting back into it, so I never gave myself enough time to get back up to speed. The second is that I was in peak condition prior to surgery as a results of several years of heavily mileage and consistentcy. Even if I did not have the heart issue, I don't think my body is capable of hitting that level again (or aging to put it another way).

As far as a program, my suggestion is spend the next 6 months just slowly building up. Rather than targeting some numbers, assess yourself each week and see if you should do more, less or the same as the week prior. There will be some good weeks and there will be some not so good weeks. Good luck!

RunMartin · Sep 20, 2012

I think you have been given some good advice by people who have been where you are now. As has been mentioned, recovering from AVR is not the same as recovering from a running injury. I did not know where my limits were and I often increased my training too quickly. My body soon told me it did not like the extra load and had to ease back. The last thing to heal seemed to be my lungs for some reason. The best thing I did was to train with a beginners group and start all my running records all over again. This meant I could see improvements and have little goals to aim at as opposed to my big pre surgery records.
I hope your recovery to fitness goes well.

Martin

Scott · Sep 20, 2012

I like to run a 5k almost every day. I am still very slow compared to you, but I can tell you what worked for me. Try to do the whole 5k now. Dont run the whole thing. Just set a pace that you can finish. If you need to walk than walk. Soon you will be getting faster with the same heart rate and breathing. Some of the problem is decreased lung capacity. Try to take really deep breaths on your run. Have fun!

spartangator · Sep 21, 2012

You're doing excellent, performance-wise. As everyone's mentioned, keep working but be a bit easy with yourself in this stretch, and you'll see progress. My program was similar to what GymGuy suggested in mixing those exercises with walking, and that seemed most manageable for my body in terms of producing progress and allowing recovery (which is really the key thing, recovery from surgery and workouts).