For one reason or another we all need to take breaks in training every now and again. It doesn't matter if it's because of illness, injury , holiday, or other commitments. The big question is, how do you cope with this kind of break in training?

I think the first point to make is that it is always surprising how quickly you lose fitness, but it is equally surprising as to how quickly you can recover that fitness as well. It will seem hard at first, but provided you have not put any significant weight on while you were away, you will regain your previous level of fitness quickly if you are dedicated.

For any length of break, try to find an alternative form of exercise if you can. Swimming is always good, as is cycling, they are both similar to running in many ways. If you're suffering from any kind of illness that stops you from running though, then obviously don't try to do anything else, concentrate completely on getting well again.

For breaks of up to a month, it shouldn't take you long at all. The biggest problem I find is that your body simply forgets how to run. You forget how to run with good form, and keeping your breathing in sync with your stride. A general rule of thumb that I tend to use is, for every day off running you have, you will need to run a mile for your body to remember how to run to the point where it feels as good as it did before your break. You may not run quite as quickly, but it will feel as good.

A common question when following training schedules is, if you have to take a break for a week for example, what should you do when returning to training? Most training schedules involve weeks of gradually increasing training intensity/loads, it is gradually increasing for a good reason. If you're only off for a week, continue where you left off. If it's longer than that, take an easy week to recover, and depending how strong you feel, either pick up where you left off, or go back a week or two. You see far too many people miss a week in a training schedule, and immediately try to continue or even make up for the time they have missed, this is a quick route to injury.

It's important to give your body time to ease back in to it. While your body is remembering how to run, you are at an increased risk of injury, don't worry about the quality of your training. Just get out there and let your body remember how to run.

I've seen so many people recovering from minor injury while training for a marathon try to make up for missed time by pushing that little harder. All they achieve is to aggrevate the injury, usually it comes back, and worse as well. I've seen many runners drop out completely of marathons because of a lack of patience in that first week while recovering. When planning/following a schedule you should allow for the odd few days/week off, always assume it will take you 17 weeks to complete a 16 week schedule.

For breaks longer than a month, you essentially have to treat it as if you were a beginner again. Don't make assumptions on how far/fast you can run, and don't restart with any expectation.

You will recover and regain your previous fitness quickly, but give it time, and don't force it. A lot of the advice above for short breaks still applies for longer breaks; your body will have forgotten how to run, give it time. You could also consider cross-training, if your cardiovascular conditioning has slipped while you've been away then cross-training will be a good complement to your running.