This is my Indianapolis Monumental Marathon training week 3 recap covering every run from July 27 – August 3, 2026. Week 3 was a deload week — 21.6 miles across four runs, 1k repeats that actually felt good, a Thursday easy run in the heat that surprised me, a short time-based Saturday run on a cool morning, and an easy 8-mile Sunday long run. The lighter mileage was exactly what the body needed.
Week of July 27, 2026 · 4 runs · 21.6 miles, deload week, 1k repeats that actually felt good, cooler mornings, and gnocchi after a long run
Week 3 done. Deload weeks are a gift. 🏃♀️
Week 3 was a deload week, and I will not pretend I was anything other than relieved about it. After two weeks of heat, humidity, bathroom detours, and brutal Sunday long runs, pulling the mileage back to 21.6 miles felt like the right call. The body needed it. Next week we pick everything back up, but this week was about moving well, recovering, and remembering that running can actually feel good sometimes.
Spoiler: it did feel good this week. Multiple times, even. That has not always been the case this summer.
Indy Monumental Marathon Training Week 3: The Runs
| Day | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday, July 29 | 1K Repeats — 7 Miles | 15 min warm up, 6×1K at HM pace, 15 min cool down — felt genuinely good 💪 |
| Thursday, July 31 | 4 Miles Easy | High 80s but felt better than expected — heat acclimation is working 🌡️ |
| Saturday, August 2 | 30 Min Easy — 2.6 Miles | Time-based run on a cool morning — exactly what a Saturday should be ☀️ |
| Sunday, August 3 | 8 Miles Easy | Easy long run, no pace pressure — deload done ✅ |
Tuesday: 1K Repeats
I went into Tuesday’s workout with reasonable expectations. Repeat workouts have a way of humbling you when conditions are not cooperating, and the last few weeks have had plenty of that. But the temperature had dropped to the low 70s and it made an immediate difference.
The structure was a 15 minute easy warm up, six rounds of one kilometer at half marathon pace with two minutes of recovery between each, and then 15 minutes easy to cool down — seven miles total. It went well. Not just fine, actually well. The paces felt controlled, the recovery periods felt adequate, and I finished the workout feeling like I had worked hard without being completely depleted. That is all you can ask for from a repeat session. The cooler air had everything to do with it and I am holding onto that as evidence that fall is going to be a completely different experience out there.
Out on the trail. Week 3 feeling much better than Week 2. 🌿
Thursday: 4 Miles Easy
Thursday was back to the heat — high 80s, which a few weeks ago would have made for a rough run. But something has shifted. The run felt better than it had any right to in those conditions and I noticed it while I was out there. It did not feel like I was fighting the temperature the same way I had been earlier in the training block.
I checked my Garmin afterward and noticed it has a heat acclimation feature that tracks how adapted your body is to running in higher temperatures based on your recent training history. I am currently sitting at about 48% acclimated and it is trending up. That number made the Thursday run make a lot more sense. The work is actually doing something even when it does not feel like it.
Saturday: 30 Minutes Easy
Saturday was my favorite kind of run, time-based rather than distance-based. Something about running by time instead of miles makes the whole thing feel more manageable. You are not watching the mileage tick up, you are just running until the clock says stop. I covered just over 2.5 miles in 30 minutes on a cool morning and it was genuinely pleasant.
What we are running in — my R.A.D UFOs and the Superblast 3s. 👟
I have been running in my R.A.D UFOs consistently since picking them up a few weeks ago and they continue to be a good fit. The calf and Achilles situation is still something I am monitoring but the shoes are not making it worse, which at this point I will take as a win.
Sunday: 8 Miles Easy
The deload long run. Eight miles, easy effort, no pace pressure, no pickups buried in the middle. Just eight miles. After the Sunday we had last week — 10 miles with half marathon pace work starting at 8 AM in July humidity — this felt like a completely different activity. The body responded accordingly. It was a good run to end a good week on.
Honest Check-In
Deload weeks exist for a reason. The mileage pulls back, the intensity drops, and your body gets a chance to absorb everything you have been putting it through. Week 3 was the first week of this training block where I genuinely felt like myself out there for most of the runs, and I think that is a combination of the lower mileage, the cooler temperatures creeping in, and the heat acclimation that has been building quietly in the background.
The calf and Achilles are still on my radar. Strength training needs to be more consistent — that is something I keep saying and something I need to actually act on. But the trajectory this week felt positive and I am going into Week 4 with more confidence than I had going into Week 2.
Post-run recovery nutrition also got a proper moment this week. I made gnocchi after one of my runs and it was exactly what tired legs needed.
Post-run carbs. Highly recommend. 🍝
You can follow along with the full journey on my Training & Progress page.
- Plan is custom week to week — check back Sunday for the full recap
- Getting more consistent with strength training to address the calf and Achilles
- Hoping the cooler mornings keep showing up
