Free coaching tool
The 30-Day Ceiling Calculator
One rule, applied to one athlete at a time. No single run goes more than 10 percent past the longest run that athlete has actually completed in the last 30 days. Enter the number they ran, not the number you wish they ran.
Ask for it on an index card, with amnesty. A dishonest number produces a mis-prescribed session.
Today’s ceiling for this athlete
2.2mi
Longest recent run x 1.10
Large spike
This session is 150 percent past their longest recent run.
Send them with a different group.
Getting them to the team long run
Add 10 percent to the longest run each week.
| Week | Longest run allowed |
|---|
First 5K check
A 5K is a distance spike and an intensity spike in the same afternoon. Race pace loads tissue harder than the same distance run easy, so treat a race entry as the single biggest session of the week.
The 10 percent single-session ceiling comes from the Garmin-RunSafe Running Health Study, which followed 5,205 runners over 588,071 sessions and found that overuse injury rates rose once a single run exceeded 110 percent of the longest run in the previous 30 days. Week-to-week mileage change did not predict injury in that data. The cohort was adult recreational runners, so use this as a decision rule for high school athletes, not a law. Pain that changes an athlete’s form overrides every number on this page.
For your practice notes
Email me this summary
Send this athlete’s ceiling, the weekly build, and the 5K check to your inbox. Paste it into your practice notes so you are not rebuilding it from memory on Thursday. You will also get the Saturday coaching email. Unsubscribe any time.