I'm a couple of days behind on a training plan, what do I do?

[ktaylor217]

I am following a training plan (Runners World, run 10k in under 55 mins) and am running a 10k race (my third) on July 14th. It is a 12 week training plan with specific runs on specific days rather than just fitting in 3 runs a week like I am used to.

The problem is that I have got a couple of days behind. I had a cold last weekend and was meant to run Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I did Saturdays run as prescribed, shifted Sunday's run to Monday and did Monday's last night so I'd had a rest days in between - I'm still not fully better so I thought I'd better not over do it. So my question is this:

As I have a specific race date planned and the training programme leads up to that day I'm now going to always be a couple of day's behind so what do I do? Do I skip one of the runs to get back on track or do I skip a couple of rest days to try and get all the runs in?

Any thoughts/advice appreciated. Just can't decide what is best...

[gdeann Graduate]

We completed a 10K program a while back. This is my opinion, but I think you would be OK skipping a few days and moving on. As long as its not a huge increase? Remember the 10% guideline and listen to your body. Good luck to you! Gayle

[greenlegs Graduate]

I may be wrong here, but I think some of the bridge to 10k plans are 6 weeks long? So you should be fine in missing out a step or two? Probably better than missing rest days, I'd have thought. Maybe worth hunting around other plans to see what they look like.

Mind you, I went from 7k to 10k (unplanned 10k - just kept doing a bit more, though it was at very slow, rather than race pace) and was fine. Not recommended though!