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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.

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