How to handle missed training days

So I was sick all flippin' weekend. Other than going to work and then home (early) on Friday, I didn't even think of riding a bike since last week. Well... ok, I thought about it. But not seriously enough to pull any down off the hooks.

What this means is that I missed 3 "big" training days. The initial plan was to finish last week with a TrImp score of at least 425. It was gonna be accomplished by doing a workout both at lunch and after work on Friday, then a longer ride on Saturday. Then I was going to start this week off with a nice steady, longer ride on Sunday, to insure that I hit at least 500 for a TrImp score this week.

So I mised about 3 days of training. What should I do? There's a couple of ways I can handle this. One way is to put in extra time and/or effort to make up the TrImp scores lost, to be back on track. I figure I lost about 400-500 points, and it's still early in the season, so I could easily make it up. In fact if it was just a single day that I missed, this would be the route I would take, and just adjust the weeks schedule so that I wouldn't lose any recovery time.

Another way I could handle this is to just re-do last week during this week and extend my training schedule out by one week. The problem with that solution is that if I planned so that I "peak" for a specific race (like le' Tour de France or the Giro), it places my peak out one week later than initially planned. Maybe for a grand tour that would be ok as you only really have to survive the first week. But imagine you scheduled to peak for the World Championship. Or Nationals, or States. I doubt whatever event the peak is planned around, they're not gonna change the date so that you can be on form for it.

I think the way that most coaches will say to solve the missed workout problem, is to just count them as lost, and go into the next day or week as scheduled. So for me, I was hoping to continue my noon indoor workouts, try to get a couple of evening solo and maybe an easy group ride in before the weekend and do another weekend of longer rides.

Coming out of a cold, I need to take it a little easier, and expect that when I increase the work load it will feel worse that if I had done those days of training.

I also have to remember that 3 days is only 1-5% of my planned training schedule (depends if you consider transition or preperation phases as part of the plan or not).

So what should you do? I guess that depends on your plan and goals. Are you planning to peak on or near a specific date? How flexable or inflexable are you with your schedule and workout time? I think most of the time it's best to follow what most coaches say, and that's to just carry on with the plan. It's not that they just don't want to have to re-shuffle you plan around. It just makes the most sense. Now get out and ride.

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