How long to redevelop a base

[jeff]

Due to injury, I took much of 3 months off from running with about 30 exercise days in that period with about 6-8 of them runs.  For the last three weeks I have done 37, 45 and will end up this week with 50 run/elliptical conversion miles with actual running miles being 24, 33, and this week 48 and the elliptic miles at 12, 12 and this week 2.  I feel good and only a little sore at this point.  I have a half marathon in six weeks.  The question is should I add a tempo/speed day yet? Or another week or two of base building?  I realize there will be no PR's with this short a training period but I don't want to jog the race either.  I am well aware of trying to go to far too fast but I was doing 50-60 miles a week before the time off.

[Sasha Pachev]

When injury is an issue, I would almost always choose base over speed. Most injuries are speed-sensitive. The faster you run the harder the impact, the greater the muscle/tendon tension, the greater potential for re-injury.

In fact, if you feel the probability of an injury is high, I would just do base + occasional races. You will feel you are being limited by the lack of speed to a certain extent. However, consider the alternative. You will lose a whole lot more if you are side-lined by an injury.