When you're just starting out, whether it's your first steps up off the couch or you're re-starting after a period of injury or inactivity, never underestimate the power of incrementalism. Incrementalism is my term for a progression of small, steady steps that with patience and consistency can lead to big progress a lot faster than you think.
Below are screenshots of my Training Peaks results of my Sunday runs for 6 weeks from October 1 to today. Sunday is traditionally long run day for me but I hurt the quads tendon in my knee at the end of September so my coach Kelly Fillnow had to rebuild my running strength and endurance while I recovered from the injury. Jumping right into long runs would likely have just exacerbated the injury so she started slow with a 5-min warm-up and cool-down and then five 6-minute intervals of 1 minute walking / 1 minute jogging at increasing effort from 65%-85% effort (figure 1), building over 6 weeks to today's work-out of 80 mins of 8 min run/2 min walk x 8 (figure 6). Click on an image to enlarge, and then hover over an image for details on the workout structure.
As you can see, Kelly's plan of an incremental progression was effective and, with a little patience and consistency, got me back to a slow 10k endurance run/walk in 6 weeks. Next weekend's workout continues the progression:
Next Sunday, Kelly has me progressing incrementally towards longer runs with longer running intervals and shorter walking intervals.
The power of incrementalism is that it builds you back up without risking injury or exacerbating an existing injury. Try not to get frustrated with where you are compared to where you were. Just focus on working out smart, progressively, to safely increase your mileage and endurance. Happy running and run/walking!