The Green-Yellow-Red Flare Plan

This is a short placeholder story generated for the design demo. Replace it with a real interview.

Use it when

You have a chronic condition that flares, like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis or Crohn's. Your training swings between all or nothing. A rigid plan breaks the first time you flare, and pushing through usually makes the flare longer.

Step 1: Score the morning

Amara was diagnosed with lupus at 30. Her first year of running after that was a cycle of hard weeks and crashes. Her rheumatologist suggested a simple log. Each morning she scored fatigue and joint pain from 1 to 10. Together they set the lines: both under 4 was green, either between 4 and 6 was yellow, and anything 7 or above, or a new symptom, was red. Set your own thresholds with your doctor. They are personal.

Step 2: Write three versions of every run

Her plan had three columns. A green Tuesday was 6 x 3 minutes at threshold pace. Yellow was 25 minutes easy. Red was rest. She didn't decide on the morning. She just read the column. "On a bad day I don't trust my judgment. The column doesn't care how I feel."

Step 3: Come back at half

After a red week she used to jump straight back into her plan. Then she'd flare again. Now her first week back is half her usual weekly running time, all easy. Then she adds 10 to 20 percent a week. Lupus also makes her sensitive to sun, so she runs before 8 a.m. or after 6 p.m. and wears long sleeves and SPF 50.

Step 4: Build slack into the block

She trains in 4-week blocks with three planned harder weeks and one easy week. If a flare lands, it replaces the easy week instead of erasing the block. Last year she lost 7 weeks to flares and still ran the Houston Half.

Try it this week

Start the morning log today: two scores, 1 to 10. Write green, yellow and red versions of each run this week. Take the log to your next doctor's appointment and set your thresholds together.