What to do if you miss your long run
Are you short on sleep and long on stress? Has life just got in the way of your training plan? I know over the years it has for me and in the past, I’ve been hard on myself and beaten myself up if I’d had to miss a couple of training runs; that little voice in my head just seemed to get louder and louder telling me that I wasn’t really a runner, that I couldn’t do it and that I wasn’t as good as everyone else. Luckily, before I put it all into perspective there wasn’t Strava to add to the misery of comparing myself to others. I don’t beat myself up anymore, in fact as I write this, I just returned from a long run that I’ve had to bin off, running 3 miles instead of 13. I had nothing in the tank, zero, empty, exhuasted, I couldn’t run another step. I turned round, went home and looked over last months stats. Wow, there it is in black and white, smacking me in the face; I haven’t had a day off running for 11 days! My fault, I’m usually very good at resting, but life just got busy, and I didn’t notice, my body certainly let me know this morning though.
Disruptions in training do happen, many unforeseeable variables will be thrown your way and learning to handle setbacks, take them in your stride is all part of the journey. Remind yourself at the start of any training plan that you will miss a few training runs along the way, expecting the training plan to literally, go to plan, is unrealistic, however, understanding that it is okay to adjust a training plan is easier said than done. Often these glitches impact our mental state more than our physical fitness level.
Missing a few training runs won’t throw your training completely off course. I believe missing a few runs in a row isn’t enough to lose any fitness or strength but when your body is asking for a break, whether it is being expressed through illness, lack of motivation or injury, it’s best to give in a little or you could risk losing the lot.
It really is debatable how long it takes of no training to start losing fitness and endurance, some research suggests 10 days, others 2 weeks, I personally don’t like to put a number on it, it really does depend on where you are in your running journey, whether you are a beginner or an experienced runner, if you are training for 10k/10 miles or a marathon.
If you miss a few runs, ask yourself why? Do what I did and have a look at the stats, sometimes when we see things written down, we can see that we are overtraining or doing too much
Do you have time for long runs right now? Is life too busy for you to be training for a big race right now, what other stress is in your life?
Are you excited about your goal? Motivation doesn’t just happen, when runs are hard, we need to dig deep, is your goal something that you’ve always wanted to tick off your bucket list?
Are you constantly in pain/discomfort/frustrated when running long runs? Does your plan need adjusting?
When you address the why, you can take a step back and re-evaluate where you are now, you might need to adjust your goals or expectations.
If you are still motivated, keen, and enthusiastic about your goal and it’s just that life got in the way, here’s some advice on how to readjust your plan
Try not to chase the miles - bin them, trying to make up missed runs will put added stress on your body and often do more harm than good.
Splitting - Research has shown that splitting a long run into two runs within a 12-hour period can potentially deliver the same results as one continuous long run. Whilst not ideal, it’s worth considering, for example if your plan called for 12 miles and you only manage to get in five in the morning, consider heading back out later in the day (after you have re-fuelled and hydrated) to add on the seven.
Another alternative - run 7 miles the next morning, giving you a total of 12 miles in a 24-hour period.
Doing something - is better than not running at all, shorten your runs and stay consistent, do what you can when you can’t run long, even a three-mile run will help you maintain your fitness level until life returns to normal, try to make running your new “normal” when facing life’s obstacles. Doing these shorter runs will help you mentally and relieve at least some of the stress of missing the intended run.
Adapt - if you had a long run planned on Saturday but missed it, you could complete the long run on Monday or Tuesday in place of your short, weekday run, sit down with your diary, and look at what you can do. Try not to catastrophise and see what can work.