You’ll often hear run coaches suggesting extra rest days in your race buildup to avoid overtraining and to better recover between hard workouts . But with only seven days in a given training week, there’s not a lot of room for rest while still checking off all your crucial workouts and mileage .

But what if there was a way to carve out more time in your training routine? Cat Fitzgerald , DPT, RRCA-certified run coach and director of clinical excellence at Custom Performance NYC, found that when she switched her runners from a typical seven-day weekly training cycle to a nine-day cycle, they could do more with their training—without taking up more time in their days.

Whether you’re trying to dodge injury and burnout or boost your performance, the nine-day cycle can help you defy the laws of time (or at least give you more flexibility in your training).…