Understanding how Pheidi distributes distance across your training week.
Every training week has a shape — a set of multipliers that control how distance is distributed across your run days. The long run is the anchor at 100%, and every other run is a percentage of that distance.
For example, if your long run is 10 miles and a Tuesday easy run has a load of 45%, that run will be 4.5 miles.
| Day | Type | Load % | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Easy | 45% | 4.5 mi |
| Wednesday | Tempo | 50% | 5.0 mi |
| Thursday | Easy | 40% | 4.0 mi |
| Friday | MLR | 65% | 6.5 mi |
| Sunday | Long Run | 100% | 10.0 mi |
Using multipliers instead of fixed distances guarantees a critical coaching principle: easy runs are always shorter than your medium-long run, which is always shorter than your long run. This hierarchy holds by construction — no post-processing corrections needed.
As your long run distance increases over the course of your plan, every other run scales proportionally. This creates smooth, progressive overload without sudden jumps in any single workout.
Pheidi generates default multipliers based on your training phase, experience level, and race distance. Here's how the ranges break down:
| Beginner | Intermediate | Advanced | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base | 45–55% | 40–50% | 38–48% |
| Build | 40–52% | 38–48% | 35–45% |
| Peak | 38–50% | 35–45% | 32–42% |
| Taper | 35–45% | ||
Beginners get a flatter shape (higher easy multipliers) for more even volume distribution. Advanced runners are more polarized — the long run dominates.
| Type | Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Long Run | 100% | Always the anchor |
| Medium-Long Run | 60–70% | Based on race distance and experience |
| Quality (Tempo, Intervals) | 40–50% | Build: 50/45/40% · Peak: 50/50/45% (Beg/Int/Adv) |
If your medium-long run falls within 2 days of the long run, its multiplier is automatically reduced by 10% to allow adequate recovery between the two longest runs of the week.
In the Overview tab of your plan, each workout cell shows a small teal percentage. Click it to adjust that day's load multiplier. When you change it:
This is useful for fine-tuning individual weeks — for example, reducing mid-week load during a busy work week, or bumping up an easy day if you're feeling strong.
Injuries and vacations also work through the shape system — scaling multipliers up or down to adjust your volume. See the dedicated pages for details:
The load percentage is the single number that controls how far you run on any given day. distance = long run distance × load %. Everything else — weekly volume, the "hump" shape of mid-week intensity — emerges from these percentages.
Science behind this feature from pheidi.training.