What happens to your removed miles when you take a day off or schedule a vacation.
When you take a day off or schedule a vacation, miles are removed from your plan. Without redistribution, those miles simply disappear — your total plan volume drops, which can leave you under-prepared for race day. Research on 300,000+ marathon runners shows that even small training disruptions measurably affect race performance.
After marking a day off or applying a vacation, you're offered a choice: redistribute the removed miles across your remaining training, or skip it and accept the reduced volume. This is always optional — you decide what's right for your situation.
For vacations with "Rest of plan" or "Next N weeks" scope, miles are split 40% before and 60% after the vacation. Front-loading less avoids fatigue going into your break, while back-loading more gives you a gradual ramp-up when you return. This follows coaching guidelines from Jason Koop (CTS) on managing training around planned disruptions.
You choose how far the redistributed miles spread:
| Scope | What It Does |
|---|---|
| This week | Spreads miles across remaining easy runs in the same week |
| Next N weeks | Spreads across a specific number of upcoming weeks (with 40/60 pre/post split) |
| Until a date | Spreads across all weeks up to a chosen date |
| Rest of plan | Spreads across all remaining weeks, excluding taper (with 40/60 pre/post split) |
Redistribution follows four rules designed to keep your training safe:
Taper weeks are always skipped during redistribution. The taper phase intentionally reduces volume to prepare your body for race day — a meta-analysis by Bosquet et al. found that 41-60% volume reduction over 2 weeks produces optimal race performance. Adding redistributed miles there would undermine this. If your selected scope extends into the taper, those weeks are automatically excluded.
Within 3 weeks of race day, redistribution is discouraged. Your fitness is built — the research shows that consistency in the preceding months matters far more than any single week's volume. You'll see a reminder to trust the training you've already done.
When you take time off, the preview suggests cross-training alternatives (swimming, cycling, hotel gym) to maintain cardiovascular fitness during your break. Even light cross-training preserves aerobic adaptations better than complete rest.
Before you confirm, the preview will flag potential issues:
In the plan overview, weeks with redistributed miles show a teal +X.X indicator next to the weekly total. Pre-vacation weeks are labeled with a "pre" badge so you can see the 40/60 split at a glance.
Redistribution settings are saved alongside the vacation or day off that triggered them. If you remove a vacation that has linked redistribution, the redistributed miles are also removed — your plan returns to its original state.
Redistribution is the final layer applied to your plan, after vacations, injuries, and manual edits. This means it sees the true state of your workouts — including any reductions — before deciding where to add miles.
Redistribution keeps your total plan volume intact when life gets in the way. It splits miles 40/60 around your break, only adds to easy runs, caps weekly increases at 15%, guards against single-session spikes, and never touches your taper. It's always optional — you're in control.
Science behind this feature from pheidi.training.