Discussion: Getting back up to speed after injury

This summer I was doing alot of training and events (ultraruns, 24 hr ar ect) I slacked off my training for a few weeks then made the mistake of starting up again too fast. I had sharp pain in my knees. after research and an ortho doc visit i found i had an old acl tear in my right knee so when i fatigued it wouldnt track right causing pain. I hae not run more than 30 min/3-4 miles since and its been about 3 months. Has anyone else experienced this or similar? If so what type of training got them back up to snuff?

It's worth going to see a physiotherapist who is also a runner, who could guide you with your tracking problem. I had a similar painful patella tracking problem (although I don't think it was caused by an acl tear), and have managed it with regular specific strengthening exercise of muscles that help pull the patella tendon in the right direction. Since getting onto these little exercises, knee pain hasn't been a problem, except when I run a lot on hard roads.

I have been seeing my physio since April for my knee, which is a combo ACL, MCL issue. He has me doing some run specific excercises, to strenthen proper muscles and get muscle groups stimulated that aren't properly flexing etc. He works with the Montreal Alouettes, the pro football team here, as well as many McGill varsity athletes, so he knows his stuff and understands my training and competition needs. I find having an athletic physio is very helpful because he knows how to compensate around training and events. I have weekly treatments to keep my knee moving. I saw him the day before the NAOC's started and he knew my race schedule and did not have me do any excercises etc, he just stimulated my knee, did some massage and other muscle/joint therapy so that my muscles and knee would all be tip top for the weekend, and it felt the best it had for months for my 3 races. He also had a brace modified to his specifications to help the tracking of my knee, my lower leg turned out and I was correcting at the hip so I have a cross strap o pull that in on the brace.
I am also having him monitor my training as not to overdue it and cause more injury to it, his experience with professional and university athletes means he knows better than to just tell me to not do anything and he just makes his reasnoable recommendations, which don't normally interfere with races. But I started back with just some muscle strengthening activity first, and low impact excercise, I am a swimmer so that was easy, and some cycling was good, easier on the knee.
I slowly worked in some short runs 1 or 2 a week at low intensity and then when those felt absolutely fine stepped it up a bit, distance, or intensity, or frequency, but not all at once.
Make sure you don't overdue it though, I had a stupid weekend a couple weeks ago and it relapsed months, I am back to constant pain and no running because of my stupidity. I pushed it too hard for 1 day and am not suffering as is my training.