During my midweek Zone 2 run this week, I realized something: this week I wasn’t going to get any real Zone 5 or high-intensity stimulus because I'll be on vacation during the second half of the week. And I don’t love the idea of going a full week without touching that gear at all, especially when I’m trying to keep momentum.
So after my planned Zone 2 duration, I kept going and added about four minutes of max effort to the end of my run spiking my heart rate up into Zone 5. The fact that this type of Zone 5 training was "suboptimal" didn't matter because I felt like I checked the “high-intensity” box, even if it was just for a few minutes.
This led me to an epiphany: when I’m away for a few days or my schedule gets compressed, I still want to get some kind of training stimulus in. Even a small dose seems better than letting an entire week go by without it.
My minimum viable training week is actually pretty simple:
- One medium to long-ish Zone 2 session
- One Zone 5 (or at least high-intensity) stimulus
- At least two strength training sessions focused on the big anchors—compound movements that give me the most return for my time
What’s clicking for me is how manageable that is even when life gets busy. If a normal seven-day week turns into four available days, I can still fit it in: two days for strength, one day for a Zone 2 run with a short hard segment added on, and even one full rest day. That’s three days to hit everything I care about.
That also reframes travel weeks in a helpful way. If I’m traveling on the weekends, those weeks become mini deloads instead of “failed weeks.” And maybe once or twice a year, when I’m gone longer, I’ll take a full week off. That might be all I need to maintain fitness year-round without burning out.
The epiphany is simple: as long as I don’t completely miss the key stimuli each week, I should be able to keep progressing—strength, endurance, and everything else I’m chasing. My midweek run was a small example of that: finish the steady work, then add a quick hard push so the week doesn’t lose its edge.