What to do when your training goes off the rails

As runners, we hold ourselves to some pretty high standards, y’all. When it comes to reaching our goals that can be a great thing but we also need to give ourselves a little bit of grace. We expect a lot from our bodies and it’s thrilling when they give back, but can be oh so disappointing when they don’t.

I’ve written a couple of times about a pain in my foot nagging at me, and that it cleared up earlier this summer. Well, it came back and because #2020, I developed a new, different pain in the other foot. I’ll spare you any drama here, I’m pretty much ok. Peroneal tendonitis and a neuroma are the culprits, no bone problems or anything that shouldn’t be easily fixed.

I write about this because I put off going to the doctor for weeks, all for basically one reason. I thought he would tell me I had to cut back or take time off from running. I’m just getting into a really good pattern with this training, I thought, and it really doesn’t hurt that bad. Then I started to realize how crazy that was. So what if I have to take a little bit of time off (turns out I don’t, YAY) but isn’t that better than being in pain or worse, risking permanent injury?

This led me to think about why it’s so hard to take a break and, mental health aside, I think it’s largely because we fear losing our fitness or not being prepared for a race. So what exactly can you do about it if you miss a few days, weeks, or your training just goes off the rails?

How much does a missed run really matter?

Y’all know me by now right? The answer is “it depends”. 🙂 Really, missing a day once in awhile won’t do any harm and may even be beneficial in recovery even though we runners have a love hate relationship with rest. In terms of losing “fitness”, you’ll likely need to have missed several weeks before you see any real loss and even then our bodies remember faster than you think, provided you’re not seriously injured.

If I miss a day of training, I generally don’t sweat it too much. If it’s an average, weekday run for me versus a long run I REALLY don’t sweat it. A few weeks ago, we had a nasty storm blowing through Charleston and I was really worried I wouldn’t make my long run on Saturday. Normally I would fall back to the treadmill but…#2020 and COVID, and yeah that ain’t happening for me. I checked in with my coach and we agreed I’d just forego the Sunday run and do my long run a day late. Easy.

Missing a long run

We know long runs are really crucial to success in training for a distance event, so missing them gives us aaaalll the anxiety. Where you are in your training determines how much this really matters.

Early on, say the first half of training, missing a long run isn’t terrible. You can probably just write it off and get back to your regularly scheduled runs. Missing a long run in the second half of training, when the miles are getting up there is different. Consider making time during the week and replacing one of your shorter runs with the long run. You may have to go at a different time than normal.

In the event you just can’t do your long run for the week, don’t panic. However, depending on the distance of your next long run, you should consider lowering the mileage a bit so you aren’t jumping up too much too fast.

The 10% rule

Speaking of too much too fast…most of us have heard the golden 10% rule. Basically the idea is you shouldn’t increase your weekly mileage by more than 10% week over week. I guess this is generally a good guide, but I don’t like making it so strict. I also don’t want to do all that math. 🙂 Overall though, I don’t think it’s smart to suddenly jump up in miles, possibly resulting in injury. So, if your last run long was 5 miles and you missed a 7 miler, jumping back in and going for 8 or 9 miles might not be the best idea. Lower the mileage to a more comfortable level.

Another thing. Your training should be incorporating lower mileage weeks, I like to call them “down weeks”. After a few weeks of lotsa miles, it’s important to take a nice easy week with shorter runs. Depending on where this falls in your schedule it might make sense to rearrange a bit to make up for the missed run.

Missing more than a week

If you’ve missed a couple of weeks, you may still be able to adapt. As with missing a crucial long run, you’ll want to adjust mileage and not just jump back in with a huge increase in miles. Consider if you are able to remove a few weeks (they don’t have to be consecutive) in the middle or shave off a week or so at the end of the plan. I’d caution against shaving off taper time, that time is key to recovering before a race.

In my experience, it’s better to be slightly underprepared than to overtrain or do too much too soon after injury. Of course, as with any plan sometimes things are beyond repair. If you really feel your training has gone off the rails and your body will be unprepared, consider deferring the race if that’s an option, or moving down to a shorter distance.