What Should You Do When Your Training Plan and Real Life Collide?

Missed workouts happen.

Work gets busy. You get sick. The weather changes. Sometimes you simply do not have the time or energy you expected to have when the training plan was created.

The important question is not whether your training week went perfectly.

It is what you do next.

In Episode 10 of Coach Erin Says, I revisit an analogy from Episode 2 and ask you to think about your training plan like an investment portfolio.

Every workout is an investment in the fitness you are building for race day.

But if you miss one contribution, you do not panic and double your investment the next day just to catch up.

You look at the whole portfolio.

Watch or Listen

Watch Episode 10 on YouTube

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Apple Podcasts

In This Episode

I talk about:

• The first question to ask when you miss a workout
• How to decide whether to move, modify, or skip a session
• Why illness usually means letting the workout go
• Why trying to make up every missed workout can hurt the rest of your training
• Which workouts are worth protecting most
• How your current training phase changes which sessions matter
• What it means when you keep missing the same workout every week
• Why easy and recovery training still provides an important return
• How to tell the difference between a smart adjustment and simply avoiding a workout
• Why consistency matters more than any one individual training session

The Big Takeaway

One missed workout usually is not the problem.

The decision you make after that missed workout can be.

You only have so much time and energy to invest in training. If you start stacking workouts together just to keep the calendar looking complete, you may create more stress than your body can recover from.

And the only effective workouts are the ones you can recover from.

Sometimes the smartest training decision is to move a workout.

Sometimes it is to modify it.

And very often, it is simply to let it go.

Your job is not to protect every square on the training calendar.

Your job is to protect the overall investment you are making toward race-day success.

Need Help Making Those Decisions?

A coach or adaptive training plan can help you look at the big picture instead of judging one missed workout in isolation.

That is also part of what athletes will learn during 3G TriDot Kickstart, beginning September 14.

Kickstart is designed to help athletes get started with TriDot or RunDot with guided support, smarter training, and less overwhelm.

Learn more about 3G TriDot Kickstart.

Have a Question for Coach Erin Says?

Have a triathlon training, racing, coaching, or endurance-sport question you would like me to answer on a future episode?

Leave a comment on the episode or send me a DM on Instagram at @3gcoaching.

Until next time, train with purpose, race with confidence, and make yourself proud.