Day 3 is the first leg session, and it sets the pattern for every Wednesday to come: 14 calf raises, a 10-count hold and 14 squats, run as a circuit with 2 minutes of rest between rounds, for 3, 4 or 5 sets depending on your level. The hold is drawn as the top of the calf raise - heels off the floor, hands behind the back, standing as tall as you can on the balls of your feet - so the sequence is rise and lower 14 times, then rise once more and stay there for the count.
Calf raises open every leg day in this program for a reason. Every stride you will take over the next 12 weeks ends with the calf pushing you off the ground, and a half marathon is somewhere around 20,000 of those strides. The hold turns the same muscle into a stabiliser: balancing on the balls of the feet while keeping the ankles still is the kind of control that stops a tired foot rolling late in a long run. The squats then load the big muscles - quads, glutes, hamstrings - through a full range, building the strength that keeps your stride length honest when the miles pile up.
Rise all the way up on the calf raises and lower under control rather than letting gravity do it. During the hold, keep the weight over the balls of the feet, not the toes, and pick a spot on the wall to steady your balance. In the squats, feet about shoulder-width, chest up, arms out in front, hips back and down until the thighs are roughly parallel to the floor, then stand tall through the heels.
Twenty thousand push-offs are coming - the calves start their apprenticeship here.
Make it Harder: Pause for a 2-count at the bottom of every squat before standing up.
Make it Easier: Rest your fingertips on a wall for the calf raises and the hold, and squat to a chair height.
