Skip to main content

The Gosh Darn Tuesday Morning 15-Miler






What can you say about a 15-mile Tuesday morning run? I can say a lot. I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I can say about a 15-mile Tuesday morning run on more 15-mile Tuesday Morning runs than I can count. You see, they are a main stay of the marathon training plan that I use. That plan being Pete Pfitzinger’s Advanced Marathoning 18 week 70-85 miles per week plan.

The first thing I can say about the Tuesday morning 15-mile run is that it’s not a long run. Pete clearly defines long runs as starting at 16 miles. So, the 15-miler that begins so many Tuesdays of my life is not a long run. I mean, who ever heard of doing a “long run” on a Tuesday morning. That would just be insane.

Being that it’s not a long run I can’t do all of the things that I do around a long run. I can’t obsess over the weather for the 15-miler, I can’t eat extra carbs in preparation for the 15-miler, I can’t expect my family to give me deference and make accommodations for me in the hours leading up to the 15-miler.

I mean, sure if it was 16 miles I could do and expect all of these things but it’s not, it’s only 15 miles. And the plan clearly indicates that this is not a long run; it’s a medium long run. See the difference there? 1 mile more, about 7 minutes, and it would be a long run but clearly, this 15-miler is no long run.

The second thing I can say about the Tuesday morning 15-miler is that it is about one hour and fifty minutes of running. That’s long enough that I can’t just ignore it. I have to get up at about 4:15 AM to get all 15 miles run in time to shower and get to work by 7:00 AM. The 15-mile Tuesday morning run is going to make me tired and hungry the rest of the day. So, I have to eat a good breakfast. Even with a good breakfast, I’m going to be really hungry by lunch.  

The third and final thing I’ll say here, about The Tuesday morning 15-miler is that it is a key ingredient for me when I’m training to run solid marathon. Racing a marathon is all about strength and the 15-mile run stimulates massive amounts of strength. If you do enough of them your base gets really strong. A stronger base allows you to do better, higher quality weekly long runs. On “Race Day” after an 18-week marathon training cycle that on most weeks includes a 15-mile run in addition to your actual long runs your legs aren’t nearly as worn out from that first 15 miles of the marathon. This strength allows you to maintain comfort and freshness longer into the race.

I’ve done a lot of marathon training cycles now and The Gosh Darn Tuesday Morning 15-miler has gone from something I dread because of the sacrifice it requires to being something that I appreciate fully as a solid piece of training that will move me toward my goal unlike any other run does.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Man Full of Leprosy

In the Gospel reading for Mass today, LK 5:12-16 we read Now there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where he was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” LK 5:12 The weather this morning forced me into the gym and onto the treadmill. So as I was runningandpraying on the treadmill I kept coming back to this first verse of today's Gospel. This verse I think addresses 2 profound yet prevalent misconceptions about Christianity. On one hand, there is a notion that Christians believe they are perfect and don't sin and don't need to be made clean. But that is just not true. We are all like this leper, full of sin that is eating away our life. That doesn't mean we cannot approach our Lord. Rather, it means that we must approach Him because He is the one who can make us clean. On the other hand, a lot of people have the idea that Christians think they merely need to say "Jesus i...
1 comment
Read more

2013 BeeBumble 10k: Race Report

This has quickly become one of my favorite races of the year and I am not alone because there was a record 575 participants across the different events this year. I like the small town atmosphere, I like the course that is an out and back on a country road, and the timing makes it a perfect tune up race for the fall season. After my performance here the last two years I am also really beginning to appreciate it for the confidence booster it is and it's ability to add a breath of fresh air to the end of the training cycle for the 2013 Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. For this race I added an early morning shake out run to get my body primed for running. This was just a short and easy 20 minute run very first thing out of bed. Nearly all of my running is first thing in the morning but  I've never done it as a shakeout for a race. I liked it and think I'll keep it. The last 5k I ran I didn't do a warm up and I learned my lesson because it cost me a very slow fi...
2 comments
Read more

Running Goals or Running Goal; What is it That I Want?

The other day I got all caught up in setting running goals for myself for the rest of the year. After the goals were set, I found myself starting to worry about how I was going to reach them. Wondering if there would be time to sufficiently prepare for them all. My goals were to run a 5k in under 20 minutes, to run a half marathon in 1:25 minutes and qualify for and run in the Boston marathon in 2014. At first, I thought that setting and meeting these goals would make me a more serious runner. In fact, I thought that to be the "serious" runner I want to be that I needed these goals. However, while I was running the other morning I realized that first of all, I was thinking about how to shift my training to meet my 5k goal. Then I began thinking about the right approach to a 1:25 half while training to qualify for Boston in a full marathon a month later. That is when I realized that the ancillary goals were starting to consume my focus and quite possibly i...
4 comments
Read more