Adapting your training schedule after missing workouts, by Joe Friel

Miss More than Two Weeks.
Again, revise your Annual Training Plan only this time you should return to the Base period as one or more of the basic abilities—endurance, force, or speed skills—has probably been compromised. If you were already in the Base period when the training time was lost, step back one mesocycle. So let’s say you were in Base 3 and had to miss three weeks of training for some reason. Return to Base 2. If you were in Build 2 when it happened, go back to Base 3 and then continue on from this new starting point. You will need to make major revisions to your Annual Training Plan to accommodate this change by omitting some portion of Build 2 and by possibly shortening the Peak period from two weeks to one.

No matter which of these unfortunate situations occurs you will have less fitness by the time race day rolls around. There’s just no getting around it. The body has a limit to how much stress it can adapt to. You can’t force it to become just as fit on less training. This is why it is so important to minimize high risks in training in order to avoid injury and time off.


Adapting your training schedule after missing workouts, by Joe Friel