This week of training started out great, but unfortunately ended on a crappy note with a really bad long run last Friday. I know not every run is going to be perfect, but Friday's run was definitely one of the worst I've had in a while. More on that later.

Training So Far:
Week One
Week Two

Week Three:

Monday: 8 x 2 minute repeats

Another solid day of speed work. I think with a short warm up and cool down, this was somewhere around 3 miles total.

Tuesday: 3 miles easy

Wednesday: 40 minute tempo run



I took a lot of the advice you all gave me and applied it to my tempo run last week. I worked on starting out slower, and focused on picking up my speed during the middle portion of the workout. It still wasn't perfect, but it was a better run overall.

Thursday: 3 miles easy

Friday: 50 minute long run

This was the long run from hell. It was originally supposed to be 90 minutes, but I could tell as soon as I started this run would be a struggle. My legs just felt so tired and heavy as soon as I started. I figured after a mile in they would loosen up, but it never happened. They actually just kept getting tighter and tighter. My calves were so knotted that around mile 2.5 I finally stopped to stretch, and decided it was time to cut this run short before I hurt myself. And then I got a stone or something in my shoe that repeatedly stabbed me in the toe until I finally stopped, took off my sock, and shook it out. Really everything that could have gone wrong, did. I made the long, slow plod back home and had to walk a lot. It was an absolutely miserable run from beginning to end.

Saturday: Rest and Tailgate Football



Sunday: Football



My training plan calls for an optional three mile run on Sundays to accompany my football games, but as sore as my legs were after Friday's run from hell, I decided to skip them this week and just focus on the football.

Total mileage: 18.5.

Goals for Week 4:

• Give myself some more rest
• Have fun in the half marathon