You missed one run
Skip it and move on. Fitness is built over months; a single session is a rounding error. The mistake is not missing the run — it's trying to squeeze it in tomorrow, on top of tomorrow's run.
The one exception: if the run you missed was the week's long run and you have a free day within the next two, move it. Then drop or shorten the easy run that was there, so the week's total doesn't grow.
You missed a whole week
Repeat the week before the one you missed, at slightly lower volume, then continue. You will have lost almost no fitness: it takes roughly two weeks of no running before aerobic fitness meaningfully drops.
Do not jump back in at the week the calendar says you should be on. That is a bigger week than the last one you completed, after a week of nothing — exactly the load spike that causes injuries.
You missed two weeks or more
Step back and rebuild. Start at around 50-60% of your previous weekly volume with easy running only, and add roughly 10-15% a week until you're back. Reintroduce hard sessions only once the volume feels normal again.
Then look honestly at the race date. With 8 or more weeks left, you can usually still run well with an adjusted goal. With less, consider changing the target from a time to a strong finish — or moving to a later race.
You're travelling
Plan for less and you'll do more. Treat a travel week as a recovery week: short easy runs, no long run, no pressure. Thirty minutes around a new city counts.
- Run in the morning before the day takes over.
- Swap intensity for consistency — three short easy runs beat one heroic session.
- Crossing time zones? Keep everything easy for the first two or three days.
- Schedule the big week before or after the trip, never during it.
You've been ill
Use the neck rule. Symptoms above the neck only — a blocked nose, a mild sore throat — and easy running is generally fine if you feel up to it. Anything below the neck — chest congestion, fever, body aches, stomach trouble — means no running until it has cleared.
Return with a few days of short, easy runs before anything hard. After a fever or a chest infection, take it slower still, and see a doctor if you're unsure. This is general guidance, not medical advice.
What not to do
Almost every comeback injury traces to one of these.
- Doubling up: two runs' worth of distance in one day to catch up.
- Stacking hard days back to back because the quality sessions slipped.
- Resuming at the calendar week instead of the last week you actually completed.
- Skipping the taper to fit in missed long runs.
- Quitting the plan because it's no longer perfect. No one's ever is.
How Rutz handles missed training
Rutz does all of the above automatically. It never asks where you should be on the calendar; it looks at what you actually ran and writes the next week from there. Your race date and training phases stay fixed, and a load guard caps how far any week can jump — so missed kilometres are absorbed, never crammed back in.