A missed week is a normal week. Travel, sleep, a partner who is out, a body that wants the easy day: the calendar slips. The fault is making the miss up. Two hard sessions on one day, or skipping ahead so the plan still looks current, is how tissue gets irritable and control gets sloppy. Pain is a stop. A catch-up session that ignores pain is not dedication.
One missed session means you repeat that week. Cut the volume to about 40–60% and keep the effort easy. Same skill, shorter clock, same order. If the card asked for three rounds, do one or two. If it asked for twelve minutes, stop near six. Leave the RPE at a four you could talk through. That cut is the deload already written into the catalog. Periodization Lab week 4 asks you to practice it on purpose. Foundation week 8 is the same idea at the end of the first block: an easy breath, a short journal, the openers you already like. Use that shape early, on the week you actually missed, instead of saving it for a perfect schedule.
Two misses in a row still mean the easier dose. Do not open the next week to feel current. The next week starts when the easier dose is logged and ordinary, not when a date on a wall says you are behind. Three misses are the same rule. There is no bonus session that buys the week back. The line under the next session comes from your logs, not a coach. Optional cycle and meds notes can be skipped. They do not choose the dose, and they are not a diagnosis or a prescription.
Pain, an abort, or a log marked incomplete already means an easier dose next. A blank day points the same direction. Treat the miss as incomplete, then run the short version. You do not need a new program, a new drill, or a harder edge to prove the week still counts. The skill on the card is still the skill. You are practicing it where you can leave it clean.
On the easy day, keep the open and the close. Name the shorter clock, name the stop, take one baseline number, do one piece of the planned session, then the physiological sigh, water, and one log line. An easy aerobic add-on is optional and does not replace that log. Zone 2 in this library is a walk, a cycle, or an easy jog where you can speak in full sentences, ten to fifteen minutes when the short dose is the one you can finish. Stop for chest pain or dizziness. Prefer nasal breathing when it stays easy. Sleep still matters more than a perfect catch-up. The sleep article is the long note. This page is only the programming rule.
Elite tracks keep their own order. A missed Safety week does not unlock Peak. Until that week's Safety A is logged, the block line stays Log Safety 1A first, and the later weeks use Log Safety 2A first, Log Safety 3A first, and Log Safety 4A first. The easier repeat of the last week waits until the tracks, the off-season, and the return are logged. A missed week is not that repeat. It is the same week, quieter. Free and Intermediate accounts do not mount those tracks. They still use this rule on Session A and on any block they can open.
Log the easy session. A blank week teaches the next block nothing. Write finished or incomplete, the short duration, and the number you actually felt. Leave hold seconds and the flexibility score blank when pain showed up. Then stop. The next session is another easy one only if the log says so. This is adult training education. It is not medical advice.