Forums >General Running>Interrrupted workouts
What do you do when a planned workout falls short? Do you add the missed miles to another day? Make them up later in the day? Try to do the entire workout later in the day? What's the best strategy? I'm trying to stick to my training plan for a marathon in May and I don't want to hinder my progress.
If it falls short because I'm tired, then I don't try to make it up. If I'm too tired to do a prescribed hard/key workout, I clearly needed the rest or easy running.
This rarely happens, but if I need to because of time constraints I might turn an 8 or 9 mile run into two runs.
Regular ass person
For me personally, it would depend on how much I missed.
If you completely skip a run, I would try to tack a couple more miles onto the next day's run. If you finished, say, 75% of it and had to bail, I would just continue on your schedule as planned.
levitation specialist
I don't schedule in cut weeks because life gives them to me sometimes. A month ago, about this time(right before Christmas), we had a blizzard. I missed my planned morning 3 miler because frankly, it was too dangerous! But I was able to still run my evening 9 miler, so that week I was short 3 miles.
This week, I will be short 2 miles because my running buddy has IT Band issues and we had to cut our 5 miler short to 3 last night. I don't stress adding back in the miles because they are rare occurances and usually a very small amount(but could easily be worked back in if I wanted, but I don't)
If it is once in a blue moon, then no, I don't add them on or try to make them up. Now if later this week, I missed another run or more miles than just a couple(so not cutback, but like big miss), I would make them up on Sunday(which is my normal off day) to mitigate the damage.
My oldest son has the flu(eeekkkkkk!) and am really retrying hard not to get it. I haven't had to face what happens if I miss multiple runs or a week possibly. You can't make up 50 miles, poof, they are just gone forever. That scares me.
Proboscis Colossus
Depends on the type of run. If it's an easy run, I'll usually try to spread the missed mileage out over the course of the week. Speedwork or other such workouts, I might skip and pick it up next week.
Weeks like this one, though, where I'm basically missing the whole thing due to illness, I don't know yet. Never happened before. I'll think about it more when thinking about running doesn't cause me physical pain.
"God guides us on our journey, but careful with those feet." - David Lee Roth, of all people
Are we there, yet?
Generally I don't try to make up missed miles, but if the run was a quality workout like intervals, I'll rearrange and juggle my schedule to get it in. Sometimes that also requires modifying the workout.
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I had this last week! I ran 3 miles instead of my scheduled 6 last Tuesday, because I could feel I was starting to get a blister on my foot. I added an extra mile to each of my runs on Wed, Thurs, and Sun to get the same weekly mileage by the end of the week. I think I would have let it go if I was feeling tired, or sick, but otherwise I try to make the miles up.
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Most people could lose an entire week and have little or no effect on race day performance.
If it was an easy workout missed, then, meh, it doesn't matter in the grand scheme. Intervals are another one to not worry too much about missing. If a tempo workout gets interrupted, it depends on the interruption. If you only got 20 minutes at tempo, then that's good enough. If you had less than that, then consider trying to redo a shorter version the next day, if it won't interfere with being fresh for the long run. The long run is the one workout to make sure doesn't get interrupted or sabotaged by poor planning. All of the stimulus comes in the latter part of the long run, and that stimulus is very important. A 2 hour long run cannot be made up with 2 x 1 hour runs, even if in the same day.
Making up a missed run is like making up missed sleep. It's more important that you get enough regularly than anything else, but an extra hour or two here or there never really hurt anyway.
I don't have set days for workouts--just try to get some good tempo work once a week, long run once a week, medium long once a week, and go from there. When the weather is nicer, I'll probably include intervals, but I don't enjoy doing them when it's below 20F.
For me, having key workouts for the week (or 10 days, or whatever) is better than prescribed days of the week for them for the very reason of fewer missed workouts. If I'm too tired on Tuesday, I might do my tempo on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Not Saturday, though--because Sunday is almost always a long run with my group. I normally really, really enjoy running alone, but turning the long run into spending a few hours with friends makes me much more consistent about it.
"When a person trains once, nothing happens. When a person forces himself to do a thing a hundred or a thousand times, then he certainly has developed in more ways than physical. Is it raining? That doesn't matter. Am I tired? That doesn't matter, either. Then willpower will be no problem." Emil Zatopek
some call me Tim
This.
If I can't do a quality day I might move it to another time, but in my mind what's done is done. The runners I know don't take rest seriously enough, anyway, and half the time they're injured - so I try to learn from their poor example. If I cut a run short, if anything I'll do something else: core work, yoga, strength training... whatever makes sense at the time.
ME WEBLARG
This. If I can't do a quality day I might move it to another time, but in my mind what's done is done. The runners I know don't take rest seriously enough, anyway, and half the time they're injured - so I try to learn from their poor example. If I cut a run short, if anything I'll do something else: core work, yoga, strength training... whatever makes sense at the time.
Yeah, what people with a clue will tell you is that consistency over time is WAY more important than any one workout. My own personal experience in the last year has convinced me that they are right. I started running post-partum about a year ago and all I did was just plod along with a baby jogger several times a week for months, often missing runs because of baby scheduling issues or because one of us was sick. I would feel dreadfully sorry for myself when I missed a run, convinced I was doomed to plod along at 11 minute pace for the rest of my life, mourning the loss of my fast-twitch fibers, but I plugged away regardless. And by September I was running 10k's just a few seconds slower than my PR. All I did was run as consistently as I could, given life's limitations, and voila.
tl:dr Not worrying about missed workouts! I'm a believer!
Modified to add: I guess if you are training for a specific race, and you're in the phase where you have a lot of quality runs, I still wouldn't stress about cutting a workout short or missing it (because what are you gonna do...what's done is done). But as someone else mentioned above, I would consider what place that workout had in the hierarchy. If it was a long run cut very short, I'd probably try to get it in somewhere else. Intervals and tempos, I'd shrug and tell myself to do better next week.
As others have touched on, I think it depends on why you're falling short. Is the problem that the workouts are too tough, or are you cutting them off because you're crunched for time?
If it's too tough - like, it has you doing tempo run and you can't run them as long as it calls for - my advice this early in the game would be to find another plan. (Have you started the marathon plan? I'm looking at your log and am not seeing very many miles but maybe you're just not logging them). There are so many out there that I have to think there's one that would fit your current fitness level. Generally, +1 to all those saying cutting workouts short not being a big deal but I would just add that I think that it could start becoming a problem if you're doing a low mileage plan and you're cutting them off consistently. And mentally, it's a big boost heading into your marathon knowing you followed your plan... If scheduling if causing you to cut them short, then I'd try to find some creative ways to make time for myself and/or realistically assess how much time I can really devote to marathon training. There are lot of old threads on here about waking up early to run, running late at night, running to work (which is what I do to fit medium runs in during the week) and other tricks to finding extra time in your schedule.
Good luck! Keep us posted on your progress.
My blog is JT Running DC. It's awesome. Guide to Washington DC Area Running Routes. Guide to the New York City Marathon. Guide to the Boston Marathon. Guide to Running Gear. Guide to Running Clothes.
I do what someone else up there mentioned - if it's an easy run, I will sometimes try to add the miles back in here and there throughout the week to other easy runs. If I miss a quality run, I will sometimes juggle my schedule around if it's feasible, but if not, I will just miss it. I don't want to risk hurting myself by piling all the hard stuff together in the same part of the week.
This training cycle I have missed three runs, and I just skipped them. Once I had a plane diverted and spent an extra half day traveling, and just ran out of time. I also missed two workouts two weeks ago when I had a chest cold.
As long as it's not a regular thing, missing a workout here and there is probably not a huge deal.
Also, since someone else mentioned your marathon plan, I checked it out - and unless that is a Galloway plan or something that deliberately has you going this far, PLEASE do not run 22, 24, and 26 mile LRs before your race. Particularly at your pace (if that 5k PR is pretty accurate of your fitness level) you are going to be out there excessively long, to the point where it will start to be detrimental. There is a reason that even the fastest people don't run 26 mile long runs before marathons. It's especially risky too, given that those runs will be well over half of your mileage for those weeks - you're just asking to get injured.
My wildly inconsistent PRs:
5k: 24:36 (10/20/12)
10k: 52:01 (4/28/12)
HM: 1:50:09 (10/27/12)
Marathon: 4:19:11 (10/2/2011)
I just started logging miles, but I've followed my plan since I started with the exception of one day this week. My 3 mile run was interrupted and I only was able to do 2. I browsed plans and most of them only have you running to about 18 miles before the race. That was a little scary to me, since the diff from 18 to 26 seems like a huge gap. I picked this one because it does have the longer runs. I'm willing to take suggestions on specific plans. I still have 17 more weeks until the big day.