So you registered to train with Chicago Endurance Sports, and now you are thinking “What have I gotten myself into”. It is understandable to feel a little anxious when taking on a new challenge, but relax we have got you covered.
On this episode of the Chicago Endurance Sports podcast we will try to answer many of the questions you may have as you begin your CES journey. We’ll discuss how CES does things and what to expect from your CES training program so you feel comfortable as you get started training with us.
We’ll go over how CES intends to support you through communications and staff, how your training is assigned and structured, what to expect from group workouts, and answers to some commonly asked questions participants have.
This is a must listen for those new to Chicago Endurance Sports, and a great refresher for those returning alumni.
So you registered to train with Chicago Endurance Sports, and now you are thinking “What have I gotten myself into”. It is understandable to feel a little anxious when taking on a new challenge, but relax we have got you covered.
On this episode of the Chicago Endurance Sports podcast we will try to answer many of the questions you may have as you begin your CES journey. We’ll discuss how CES does things and what to expect from your CES training program so you feel comfortable as you get started training with us.
We’ll go over how CES intends to support you through communications and staff, how your training is assigned and structured, what to expect from group workouts, and answers to some commonly asked questions participants have.
This is a must listen for those new to Chicago Endurance Sports, and a great refresher for those returning alumni.
Welcome to the Chicago Endurance Sports podcast. My name is Coach Lori McGee Koch and I am the lead coach of the Old Town location. I am here with Coach Michael and I'm lead coach at the South Loop location. We are thrilled that you're listening to this today. This is a, informational session where we talk about the way that CES produces training throughout a season. We're here to talk about the common questions that participants might have talk about the training schedules, how we assist participants in getting into the right training program that will lead them to success and meet the goals that they have for the particular training season that they're about to start. We're going to talk about the structure and support, and then all the details and, frequently asked questions that you might have about your training schedules, your support systems, such as coaches and Pacers, our administration staff, and all other little goodies that we provide to support group training.
Michael:Sounds great. So where should we get started?
Lori:Well, let's talk about the support system, the actual people that will be out there supporting the group training, and if you're a virtual participant supporting that virtual training. And so we, have a lot of players that are part of our village. Well, let me first start talking about our coaches. So we have a large network of coaches. They all come from different backgrounds so they're not just people that can just run really fast and do a lot of races. They all have a very unique and different background that sort of embellishing the whole picture of all the training needs that you have. So some might have degrees in nutrition, some of them are personal trainers. Some of them have just ran a lot of races and, have picked up the skill set to help people along, just understanding that the quirks that will happen during training, help you understand what you might be doing on race day and then help you also make a lot of schedule adjustments, throughout the season, again, based on your goals and what you want to do.
Michael:I really love that CES is able to offer such a variety of coaches with various backgrounds? I always encourage participants to talk to all the coaches and get to know all of them because they all have a unique perspective and bring their own experience with them. Also, I know as a coach myself is when confronted with a question from a participant that I'm unable to answer, I know I have a pool of knowledgeable experienced coaches that I can go to and amongst us guaranteed to get an answer that's going to be able to help out.
Lori:Yeah. And I agree, Michael, if you think about it, you and I have been two, the coaches have been around actually the longest and we've met so many different coaches and have been able to collaborate with so many different coaches with unique experiences and expertise. What's kind of your expertise, Michael.
Michael:I started late in life. I'm not a lifelong athlete. I didn't start when I was really young, I wasn't involved with school athletics or anything like that, So I come from a perspective of, I guess, politely they call it a master runner, which I guess means old runner. But I just got hooked on it and I've learned a whole lot. And I educated myself a whole lot since. I have, never been a speed demon, but I've been dabbling quite a bit with the ultra distances, so I have a lot of familiarity with running on trails and all sorts of terrain and be able to log a lot of mileage while trying to stay healthy, which I've been pretty successful at. I think that kind of is my unique niche amongst the other coaches that CES currently has. What about yourself?
Lori:Yeah, so I feel like I've gone through the ups and downs and can relate to a wide variety of athletes. Growing up, I was pretty overweight and didn't really run a lot. And then I kind of a longer story for another podcast is I landed myself on my college cross country team and so then I kind of, I wasn't speed demon for a number of years and an accomplished a lot of races and had those types of goals. But throughout time I started coaching and putting my efforts more towards that. And then I've had a couple of babies, so my goals have kind of changed. And now I'm kinda more on the run-walk side as I'm in this little piece of my life right now, but it's great. I feel like I can relate to a lot of the paces. I'm doing a lot of different distances running while pregnant. So I can bring a lot of those kinds of things to the table and, you know, we'll talk more, as the season goes on, we encourage you to talk to as many coaches as possible to get a feel for just what their experiences are and what tips they can give you. And sometimes too, you know, you might connect with a certain personality that you can kind of cling on to and get the coaching advice from them, but the coaches are there to support you, and we're pretty proud of the team that we've put together. The next piece of support that we have is what is called our Pacers, sometimes they're called mentors, it depends on what kind of training you're doing. If you're doing a 10 K training 5k training program or the half or full program. These individuals are quite experienced runners and athletes, they're out there helping you with the safety on the path, help you collaborate with other fellow runners, leading the groups through, the mileage. Sometimes they're the ones that you might connect with very closely.
Michael:Pacers are basically participants who are taking a leadership role and have been running with CES for a period of time. They'll know what the route is, they'll know where to the turnaround points are and they'll help you maintain a steady pace. They'll have a lot of knowledge to share through their experiences, but the coaches are going to be your main contact to answer a lot of serious questions. The coaches, there there to help you out while the Pacers are there to guide, but they're there for their training as well. So in addition to our coaches and Pacers, we have another arm that is very important to the team and the expectations that you can have with see CES and your support, and it's our administration team and our administration team deal with our registration, they'll be often answering some questions that you might've emailed through info at Chicago, endurance sports, and making sure that you get your appropriate questions answered and they deal with a lot of the communications. So the communications that you can expect, our weekly newsletters, we have a Twitter account that does our weather updates, there's a Facebook page, and then there's these podcasts. So when you first register, and as we're starting to get information out to you, you can expect to get newsletters. If you are not getting newsletters after you registered, you do need to email the info at Chicago endurance sports to ensure you're getting that information. That newsletter is going to come out on a weekly basis and it's going to have valuable tips, info on training, stuff about any races that we might be present at, and that we're supporting and just kind of other fun stuff as well. It will give you the most rich information for the week. We have a Twitter account to. Mainly the Twitter account is for our weather updates. So from season to season, there are a lot of different weather conditions that we do encounter. And so every once in a while we might delay the training start a little bit, or we might cancel, we try as hard as we can not to but that information is definitely going to be up there as soon as we know the best information that we can give you. There's always a Facebook page too, for each season. So make sure that you are getting on that Facebook page, that Facebook page drives up really fun communication between the participants, the coaches and pacers also will give you fun tips and conversation as well. Then also on that Facebook page is a really great way to share your workouts, share your successes, even talk about things that might not have gone as well, and get support, through that arm of our communications.
Lori:And then finally, in these podcasts. So we have already produced a few podcasts that you can go back and look at, and then you can look forward to more podcasts that talk about our, our training and other types of support. Like what else can we expect for those podcasts, Michael?
Michael:Yeah, our podcasts give us the opportunity to take deep dives into subjects and topics related to your training and running in general. It's an opportunity to kind of go in depth in a more long form format to discuss things relevant to your training and your goals. We have the opportunity to bring in experts and talk to them in a more extended format where we can really get more thorough and deep into the information to educate you. Also, we know a lot of people enjoy listening to podcasts during the workout, so by supplying these, hopefully you could consume some information from your coaches during your workout as well.
Lori:So at the beginning of the season, one of the most important communication pieces that you're also going to get is called the participants fact sheet and this link will lead you to a form that is going to ask you a number of questions about your current level of fitness, how much you've been running, if you've had any recent injuries, any sort of training goals that you have preferences for the training schedules that we might assign to you, what else does it ask?
Michael:Well, I think you've covered, a lot of the standard things that covers, I think it's important to know that this one of the very first steps you need to take at the beginning of every season. It's really giving your coaches, a snapshot of where you currently are in your fitness and your running. So we can make assessments. And for that reason, it's important for you to be honest with yourself and honest with your coaches when you're completing that form, you're not trying to impress us, but it's important that we understand exactly where you are at this time, so we can put you in the best program so you'll be able to get the most out of that program.
Lori:That is correct and that just brings up that it's not just one blanket program that we hand out to our participants, but we have, five different training schedules that we put together and they're based on a couple of factors. How much you've actually been running, what your pace is, what your goals are going to be, and whether or not, you might be more appropriate to be in a plan that's called a continuous running or a plan that's called run walking. Within those training schedules, when you receive them, you're going to notice that they have a name that is a color. So we have Purple Green, Yellow, Red, and Blue. So our Purple and Green programs are run-walk specific programs. And the difference between Purple and Green are two factors. Purple is a different run-walk interval. It is a three minute run two minute walk that builds to a four minute run two minute walk program is also a program that has a little bit more conservative type of mileage. Our Green program is a five minute run, one minute walk type of program, and it has a little bit more mileage built in there than the Purple program does. With our continuous run program, they are based on a couple of different things. They're called Yellow, Red, and Blue. The Yellow program is our most advanced program, it has the most mileage built into it, and within our paces we support that program anywhere from a 7: 30 to 9: 30 minute mile, that is based kind of on their location. We have a Red program, which is just intermediate mileage, that supports those middle paces that are in there, which, which might be anywhere from like a 9 to a 10: 30 mile. And then our Blue program, it's just a more conservative type of mileage, so there's the least amount of mileage built in there as a continuous run. And typically a person in that program might be between a 10 minute to 11:30 minute miler. So, there's a point to be made too, like the difference between Red and Blue on the long runs in the weekend might only look like one mile, but there's a lot of other rich information and different information that happens throughout the week that is built into those programs that are very different. So people have to kind of keep in mind what you're doing across the entire week and as coaches, when we assign those programs, have a good understanding when you fill out those forms and what you should be doing throughout the week as a whole package, as opposed to just that one long run. Now the Yellow program has a lot more mileage built in there, than the Red and the Blue. And I think sometimes when people get their training programs, they automatically look what that long mileage is, but, you know, pay attention to what is suggested and built throughout the week for you as well. And then sometimes too, it's a little bit based on what your actual training pace is too, but that's kind of, we look very specifically at each individual participant fact sheet to ensure that we're giving you the best training recommendation that we possibly can. So sometimes people feel disappointed that we might suggest a run program instead of a continuous run program for them. But there's a number of reasons why we could be suggesting that. One might be, you might have a recent injury that might be concerning that you're sort of coming back from, and it's an excellent way to come safely back from an injury and still be able to get the same amount of mileage in. For some people they're actually faster in a run walk program. I find throughout time, depending what, where I'm at in my training sometimes I find them a little bit faster in a run-walk than I am in a continuous run, but it just depends on where I'm at in my training cycle. And I think that's the point of these entire training schedules. We reassign them every season because everybody's, body's a little bit different in their fitness throughout each training cycle. And that's just kind of the reality of especially doing distance training. What can happen and just having setting realistic expectations and with these training schedules, we're just trying to help you set realistic expectations.
Michael:Yeah. There's a couple of things I think I could add to that. First of all, is I know I speak for myself and not to be braggadocious or anything, but after years of doing this, I think I'm pretty good at assigning things based on the information given on the participant fact sheet, however, sometimes not everything comes across as it needs to be, or look, get all the details. So if you're assigned to a group or a schedule that you don't think is appropriate for you, you're certainly welcome to come and talk to one of the coaches and bring that up and you could talk through it more to make sure you are in fact in the right spot. But the other part I would mention is don't feel like you're being judged, don't think that because you're not a certain color, you're any less of an athlete or you have a less potential, it's just putting you where you are now, so you are in a spot where you'll excel.
Lori:Yeah, I think that's the reason why we have such a large coaching staff to there should be always somebody that you can come to where you are, like, I just didn't, I don't think I fall on this Blue program and I'm not sure what to do, and this is my pace. That's why we're here, please talk to us, email us because we can make other tweaks to your training schedule because what's wonderful about endurance running is everybody's very unique and it has a skill set that we can build off of. And just because there's these five programs, and we're glad that we have these five programs because we can fit a lot of the athletes. There's going to be certain tweaks. It's going to be individualized for you, that we're going to be able to help you with. And that's why we have coaching.
Michael:Great points. Absolutely.
Lori:So then what to expect during a typical week. So we'll assign each one of these training programs first of all, let's talk about that. And then what you're going to get is you're going to get an email from your coach, it's going to have a PDF kind of outlook for the season, but more importantly, it's going to have a thing called Training Peaks on there. And this is an online training tool where your training schedule is loaded in there. And I highly advise that you use the Training Peaks and be interactive with it because what's going to be different by that PDF that you're going to get that's not on that PDF, but in Training Peaks is it's going to give you more details about what that workout should look like. So you're going to get this training plan, it's going to give you a suggestion of what you're doing every day, but you're not going to know the details of that and how exactly to perform the workout the best, unless you go into Training Peaks and open that up and see what the workout details look like. And with the Training Peaks as well, depending on what kind of devices that you use to track your workouts, you could upload those workouts in your training peaks, and then you can keep really good track of what you've been doing throughout the training season and you could always reflect back on that to see which workouts were working out for you, which ones that maybe didn't go so well for you. What else can it do for you?
Michael:Yeah Training Peaks is a really valuable tool. When we send out your email with your schedule assignment it really doesn't take very long to set up. And once you get that Training Peaks schedule set up online, you have the opportunity to view it in your browser, there's free mobile apps for your phone that you basically call up your workout at any point. As Lori pointed out each workout in Training Peaks has a really detailed description as opposed to a PDF where we only have like a quarter inch by quarter inch area to describe what the workout is. Also, you could go into Training Peaks and log your workout and how you felt and what you wore and keep a daily log of what you did. And likewise, your coaches could get in and look at your Training Peaks to see your log and see how you've been doing maybe look for some trends to help you with your training. And they even have the option to go in and customize and switch your around workouts as well in case maybe you're going on a trip or you get sick or have an injury and you need to adjust your schedule a little bit.
Lori:So Training Peaks the number one recommended thing that your coaches are going to constantly be asking, if you signed up for your Training Peaks, if you, you have certain questions, we might be able to go back and reflect on that. But again, I go back to that you could also reflect on what you've been doing and it gives you a really good visual, giving you the information that you need to know to have those moments of realizing how you're progressing or maybe where some of your roadblocks are throughout your training.
Michael:Right, and Training Peaks could automatically send you an email every single day to tell you what your upcoming workout is so you didn't even have to think about it. It just kind of be fed to you every single day.
Lori:That's an excellent point as well. I think that's one of the number one features most people like actually about it. Even if you don't log your workouts in there, just having that information, that one, that alert, and then two, sometimes we might prescribe a workout that's outside the group training and you may be a little bit like, well, wait, I don't know exactly what this means the first thing we're going to tell you is open up your Training Peaks and look at that description and it'll kind of give you a guide you through what you need to do for that workout. And then if you still have additional questions, that's why the coaching staff again, is there, you can email them and have a conversation with them about which pieces of that either you want to modify that you might be confused about, just so you can make sure that you're getting the workout that's prescribed in.
Michael:You're really not going to get the full benefits of training unless you take the time to use training Peaks the PDF is just sort of there because maybe a throwback to 1989 or something like that, I don't know. So the other thing you're going to notice once you get your training program too, is you are going to see that there's kind of a prescribed thing that happens every day on that training plan. But let's talk about the group training and how that is laid out on your training plan.
Lori:Unless you are virtual, there's group training workouts, so there's the group training happens twice a week. So there's a weekday workout and there's a weekend workout. And, you know, depending on where you're at on at home base is going to change that. So for example, I train out of Old Town so our weekday workouts on Wednesday nights and our long run is on Saturdays. And Michael, your group is we meet on Tuesday evenings and on Saturdays as well. Yep, and so then, yeah, we have a suburb location in Elmhurst on Tuesdays and Saturdays as well. And then we have another great option, which is Lincoln Square, which is on Thursday nights and then Sunday mornings. So there is an opportunity for people in the group training to go any of those days. So again, you'll have a home base. So if you're training on an Old Town Wednesdays and Saturdays, however, if you find that your schedule needs to be tweaked a little bit, because you're traveling or, you know, any other life events that come up, you can go to any of those locations.
Michael:All the workouts are the same. So the weeknight workouts are going to be the same at all the locations or just different nights of the week. So you get the same experience and the same thing for distances on Saturday workouts.
Lori:That's correct. So then, but you know, what brings up a good point though, is when you do still have a home base, those training schedules that we send out to you are going to be on those specific nights in a weekend mornings on your training schedule. But if you decided to go to another location and that's fine, you're always welcome to do that it's part of your training package. And then if you need to understand any sort of modifications, you might need to do that because you trained on a different night with a different type of workout, just reach out to your coaches and they can help you make that tweak.
Michael:Yeah, the big message here is there's no excuse to miss your workout. Do you want to explain the differences or what to expect on the weekend and the weekday workouts?
Lori:Yes, that was the next thing I was going to talk about, I just wanted to make sure people understood that, the way their training plan might read, but one of the number one questions we definitely get is can I go to a different location? And you just made the point of that is correct. And we have so many opportunities for you there's no excuse to miss. So the difference between a weekday and a weekend workout, the weekday workouts are a very different type of workout than the weekend. So the weekday workouts are built to be a strengths, speed type of workout. So this is the one workout where we're going to be asking you to push it and to maybe be a little bit faster. They're going to be different types of workouts that we're going to do with the all sort of encompass the same type of strength and speed type of training. So you're to expect that we might be doing, half mile, quarter mile repeats, or we do some workouts are called ladder workouts, which are basically kind of the same concept, but we change it up a little bit where they're, the intervals are based on minutes as opposed to the distance that you're running fast. We're going to do some circuit workouts, which will incorporate some strength training with some running in between. We will do a couple of clinics in the beginning called good form running. So we can teach you some concepts about, again, this kind of the good form of running and how to be conscious of that and how to build that into improve your running form. What are the pieces of I missing there for the weekday workouts? Yeah, I think a common thing is some runners, especially newer runners will be like, well, I'm just trying to figure out how to run, I'm not fast, I never going to be fast or I'm not at that point yet, why by show up to the weekday workouts. So can you maybe respond to that? Exactly. So I think some people too are also, to that point, even if somebody feels like, okay, I want to increase my heart rate and run a little bit faster, a lot of people feel shy, especially if you're on a more conservative side of pacing that, oh, everyone's going to be faster than me and I don't want to be left behind, but we have such a wide variety of runners in this program that's not the case at all. And it's, it's one of those things you do show up and you, you can do what you need to do, and nobody's paying attention to that, and we try to partner you up with somebody else to ensure that you do feel supported. But all I can say about those workouts is that is going to be one of the best workouts that is going to make you a little bit faster, it is actually going to make you feel a little bit stronger, and what happens in those weekday workouts too, is consistently showing up for them is actually going to make your long run on Saturdays or Sundays, feel a lot easier because the combination of building that strength and speed with your long run and building your endurance is the two things that you put together on race day. And so now talking about the weekend workouts, this is not about the speed and the strength, it's about building the endurance. So you'll notice as your training program that you will build mileage over two or three weeks, then we'll kind of cut back and then we'll build mileage over two or three weeks. But those runs are all about, again, building endurance. They're supposed to be at a nice, easy, conversational pace and that's how you build that weekday and weekend work out together. But those are what encompasses our group workouts. We've talked about what you can expect if you were part of the group training in the group workouts. So we have this one weekday workout that you can come to and then the weekend workout, but there's other workouts that are prescribed throughout the training plan, which we've kind of mentioned before, but let me kind of walk you through what you can expect. So there's going to be a rest and stretch day. So we want these recovery days, but there's going to be other days, too, that you might see on your training plan. Some of them might look like just an easy run, where we want you to go out there at an easy pace. And that pace will be basically what your long run pace is or even something even more conservative. You might also see what's called a Hill workout and this is a good example of like, when you look at your PDF and it will say Hill workout 45 minutes, and you're like, what is that? That's where you open up your Training Peaks, look at that and understand what the description of that is there might be other runs that are on there it says Cross Training, and a lot of people have a lot of questions about what can cross training be. We can discuss that with you. And sometimes it's very individualized, we like the cross training to be something that you enjoy. We could talk about that a little bit more later, but there is a very formula related thing of why we do certain workouts in certain timing frames. So for example, if you've done your long you will see that the day after we typically ask you to rest or stretch, and that's typically because we want you to be able to recover from that mileage that you're doing. And another important point to make is you might see the the weekday run, which is like a little bit more of a speed or strength type of run that next day, you might see it's going to be cross training or an easy run, and that's specifically set up that way so you can recover from these runs that put a little bit more stress on your body, so then you're ready to go and your system and physiologically, fully available to do the workout, even after that and the most efficient way that you possibly can. Michael I thought that you have a lot to add to that as well. Yeah, I think that it's important to understand when you look at the schedule and you should look at the schedule. A lot of people only look at the long run on the weekend, which is not really training, it's just going for a run. Is that the schedule as a whole, was to put together with a lot of thought, and there's a method to that madness, how the pieces fit together. In the same way, we talked about how the weekend long run serves one purpose and the weekday run serves another purpose, each of these workouts that you've been assigned hold a special significance in training. For instance, Hill training is on your schedule, and some people go, well, I run Chicago there's not a lot of hills, or my race is not someplace hilly, but there's plenty of studies that will support how significant running hills can contribute to making you a better, faster, stronger runner overall. So, pay attention to it, all, respect to all of it, and getting back to your coaches and Training Peaks, if for some reason you need to move around the schedule where you need to do your Cross Training days on a different day of the week and you don't know how to fit it in, you could talk to a coach and they could help you readjust your schedule so it fits into your life. That brings up another good point too, is we brought up before that you can go to any training location, and that's a benefit of your training package, however I was bringing up earlier about, doing certain workouts before, after, certain key workouts, ensuring if you are doing that a lot and you are looking at a specific location. So for example, let's say you're a signed up for Old Town and your, your schedule says Wednesdays and Saturdays, but you decide that you're actually going to Lincoln Square a lot you might just want to talk to a coach a little bit about, just enhancing anything that we can help you with and tweaking a workout to make sure that you maximize your recovery efforts, so you're always ready for those types of workouts. One other workout I did want to bring up that I get a lot of questions about is why we do a run the day before the long. A lot of people would think that, well, don't, you want to be fully recovered the day before and fully recovered the day after when you do a long run, but when it comes to the distance training programs, like the half and full marathon, there's a lot of literature out there that really does say that what you're basically doing is trying to run on tired legs. So when you do a bit of a run the day before your long run, you're actually maximizing the efforts of building endurance and over a season, your body becomes more efficient recovering from mileage. Yeah, I remember when I first started training, I used to think if I did any work during the week that I would not have any strength to do the long run at the end of the week. So at first I used to skip all that stuff. Over time, I learned that if you do the work during the week, the easier those long runs actually become at the end of the week. Also people that are maybe newer to understanding the different types of workouts, have to be cautious too. It doesn't mean that now I have to run as fast as I can, and as hard as I can throughout the week now to enhance running on tired legs, these workouts are very specific and have a lot of backing again in the research and literature on what you should be doing. So we say do an easy run and it needs to be easy. It needs to be easy. It's been shown over and over again, balancing the speed and strength with the endurance and some easy runs in between, and then when you strategically place your, your rest days people do very, very well. Sometimes it takes a couple of training cycles to kind of believe it, but again, these training programs are built on a lot of knowledge that has been produced over the years.
Michael:Right, we always say trust the process that a couple of things I always come across as there tends to be like sometimes two extremes, one where people are struggling at the beginning of the season and I usually encourage them to try to follow the schedule the best they can for the first three weeks. And if they're consistent, things usually fall into place and they become routine and become easier. And the struggle disappears after you get into the flow of things. If not, if you're still struggling after three weeks, come talk to a coach, they maybe need to modify things or put you into a different schedule. On the other extreme. We have people who come to the program going, this is not as much work as I've been doing every season know I've been running a lot more mileage and, and doing a lot more, it's not testing me. And I give the same advice, give the three weeks and if you're not being tested after three weeks, if you still feel that way, talk to a coach. Most of the time though, given that those, those weeks, that period of time, they realize they are in the right place, they just need to give that a chance.
Lori:Oh, I completely agree. And again, people respond to the training and the training stresses very differently. And so that's again, why we have the coaching staff. So the other amenities beyond just having the coaching staff and the training schedules and, these group training opportunities are the amenities that we have being able to train out of the Fleet Feet stores.
Michael:Yes, we are very fortunate to have access to the Fleet Feet stores for those who train with us in person, probably the first benefit would be access to bathrooms. So you have the opportunity to use the restrooms at the Fleet Feet stores prior to, and after your run, which I know for a lot of people is pretty imperative. Also we have a gear check, so if you need to bring a change of clothes or something warmer, with you we'll have a safe, secure place for you to store your stuff. We do ask you don't bring a trunk full of gear, but if it's a regular bag, you're welcome to store it there. And the to go along with that is all the locations have a changing room, so for example, after your run if you're all sweaty you want to get into some dry clothing, you can use the changing rooms. If you're coming from work in the evening and you want to change out of your work year and get into your running gear, you use the changing rooms as well, but these are great opportunities to do that and we're very fortunate to offer them.
Lori:The other part of this amenities it's just having Fleet Feet is a part of our co-ownership. And so being able to be in those stores you have at your fingertips, the nutrition that you might need to supply yourself with. Also those stores typically provide water and Gatorade at the start and the end of the workout. Just being at the Fleet Feet stores too, you have experts that are available to help you with any sort of shoes that you might I need to be fitted into being able to understand the, the gear inside and out. The message really is the Fleet Feet staff are experts at what they do. They know all about the latest technology, they know how gear fits and how it feels, and it can help you find what you need. Take advantage the expertise to make sure you're fitted in gear that was going to work best for you. As coaches, one of the first things that we're going to guide you on and what you need to bring to training and what your homework is for the first week to make sure that you have the best experience is you want to make sure your fit is a proper shoe, and that your shoes are updated, meaning, if you have not updated your shoes in a long time. And don't realize that you need to replace your shoes every three to six months, depending on how much mileage you're putting on them. The next thing you need to have is some sort of watch some sort of a tool that will help you either guide, if let's say you're doing run, walk, run, walk intervals, or just kind of give you some timing, but the GPS watches are great, it'll help you keep track of the amount of mileage that you're doing. And there are newer technologies that will help you keep track of your heart rate and give you a lot of metrics that will guide your training and make it a better experience. And then the third thing, which is probably almost the number one thing is the hydration system and making sure that you're carrying your own system that so you can hydrate as early and as often, it is needed to again, have a good experience for the day and make you feel better, throughout your run and after your run. Yeah. So to just to follow up on that, you mentioned the shoes are sort of the base and that's where the expertise of Fleet Feet can really help you out. As far as timing devices go, once again, they can help you out there, but that's also something that probably your coaches and your pacers could give some advice on as well. You don't need anything expensive or fancy necessarily, some people like the high-tech stuff, some people like simplicity, but there's lots of options at all price ranges for everyone. And I had hydration system, I would speak to your coaches and especially your pacers, because some people prefer the handhelds, some people prefer waist belts, and they could give you all sorts of feedback on their personal experiences on what worked for them. So, I would definitely take advantage of speaking to your pacers, your fellow runners and your coaches on that.
Michael:So next thing we want to talk about is training in the weather and yes, we're outside so get to enjoy being outside, but obviously the weather changes quite a bit and we need to adapt to it. So it's really important that you've trained in all kinds of weather. I remember seeing a meme somewhere with a calendar, marking the perfect days for running. And it marked like one day out of the entire month because conditions aren't always going to be perfect. And we need to learn how to run in various types of conditions because on race day, you don't know what the conditions are. So that means if it's a windy day or what's a rainy day or a humid day or really cold day, you want to get out there and have some experience running. However, there's going to be times where it's just not safe to get out there and train, those days we might have to cancel training. Those are going to be when the temperatures are extreme will be really, really, unsafe as far as, being cold or if it's extremely hot and humid and it's just not safe to get your workout in. Sometimes we will have to work out, then we'll adapt to workout, but a lot of times we'll need to cancel it. The other part is lightning. We definitely will run in the rain, if you haven't done it before, sometimes it could be a deterrent, but a lot of people find that some of the most fun times to run is in the rain. However, when there's lightning present, we need to cancel, it's just not safe. So whenever lightning is in the area, we're going to either cancel the run. Or if we're out on the run and we experience lightning, we're going to cut the run short and get everyone into a safe place. Lori you want to add to that?
Lori:Just with the weather, we have to be adaptable and we do the best we can. We always want to make sure that we're able to get the workout in, but we always want to make sure that the conditions are safe enough for that. So sometimes we adapt to start a little bit later or cut the run short, like you said, but just know that we are constantly monitoring terrain conditions all the time to make sure that we can give you that information. It goes back to that Twitter account, if there is going to be modifications or we're going to cancel the workout, we will post cancellations or, adaptations there and the same thing with the Facebook page too. So those are two going back to the communication, two important pieces to be connected with. So you can kind of understand and follow what we're trying to do and thinking to make sure that the weather is going to be conducive with the actual training that we're doing.
Michael:And just remember that our goal is really always is if at all, possible try to get the workout in. But once again, it comes down to safety. People's health and safety are far more important than a single workout. And if you're consistent in doing the majority of your workouts, having to cancel a workout here, there is not going to destroy your entire training program.
Lori:And that is correct too. So consistency right? Going into that is that's where people get a little bit nervous about any sort of cancellations or adaptions that we have to make in the workout. But being consistent is one of the most important things you can do in this training program. And to Michael's point, if we miss one or two of those due to cancellations, that's fine, but being consistent week to week to week with making sure that you're getting at least four of your workouts, and I dunno, it's hard to put like a number to them necessarily, but one of my first things I like to do, like starting the training and talking about the training from day one is that consistency is going to be your best friend and ensuring that you have a good plan, have a good goal are committed and are able to in the capacity that's available in your life, get workouts and consistently, and if you're not able to do that, then you're not going to have a good training experience.
Michael:It's such an important component to endurance sports and distance running really to keep your body healthy and to achieve your goals the more consistent you could be the better, and oftentimes they tell people, cause I know they have busy lives. They have family, they have work and school and everything else going on in their life is that if for some reason you, say you have a 45 minute workout scheduled, but you only have 30 minutes. It's better to do the 30 minutes then to say, well, I can't do the whole thing so I'm not going to do it at all. Basically getting to your bigger goal is based on all the little pieces that you build up over time. It's not just one or two pieces that make you successful. It's all the little bits and pieces in between that you add together over the course of the season that builds a total athlete and builds your success at the end of the training session.
Lori:I completely agree with you. I think sometimes too, some people might get overwhelmed by looking at their training schedule that we have sent to them, and exactly a good point was if it says 45 minutes and you only get in 30 minutes, get in the 30 minutes sometimes I think people think that if the can't get that exact workout in, then forget it and then they start to shut down and then it adds up over the weeks. And then again, I'm always talking about the experience we are talking about these things, trying to arm you guys with these tools to ensure that you have the best experience as possible. Is it going to be picture perfect and what the actual training schedule says? No, everybody's, life's completely different, but this is part of the, the group training or even if you're virtual training, you have some online tools to help get some of that support. Use the advantage of this community to ensure that you can make sure that you get your workouts and then never forget to have fun with it too. So I think the more fun you start to have with it, and the more you kind of engage, then the more likely you're actually going to be able to get your workouts in. So it all kind of perpetuates itself so you can be consistent and have a good time. Another frequently asked question and we get about the training schedules is we have the weekends written in mileage, and then we have the weekdays written in minutes. It's all about different strategies and the difference between doing timed workouts and doing workouts that have mileage a lot of times it has to do with how you focus on your pace and how you focus in on the actual effort that you're putting forth. So sometimes with the time workouts, we don't really want you to necessarily focus so much in, on your pace but more about time on your feet and just the amount of effort you're putting in for that run. And sometimes we just don't want you to have too much time on your feet throughout the whole training program as well. They both have different benefits and people argue about doing actual mileage and timed, but having a balance of both has over and over again, shown to be more effective for training.
Michael:Yeah, I think you've kind of hit spot. We talked about effort and as athletes, we need to think more about our workout from an effort standpoint, our bodies don't have a speedometer or odometer, it doesn't know how fast we're running, it doesn't know how far we're running. It just knows the effort you're putting into it. There's a lot of talk in the training community about load which is kind of equivalent to effort, how much you're putting in, and as humans, we like to quantify things with things like our our watches as far as a pace per minute and our distance. But really when you break things down, you're kind of regulating the load and able to maximize the effort you're putting in.
Lori:So a couple of other frequently asked questions about the training plan and when you receive it is if you know, you might've reported that you're running a different race, which is very common, there's lots of race opportunities out there. It's really great that we have, the ability to choose events that peak our interest in our training goals, but it might not match up exactly what the CES training program that you receive. So with that, we handle it a couple of different ways and we want to kind of set up expectations for the participants and understanding how, how we do that. So for example, you might be doing a race it's a week earlier than the CES planned event, and how can you handle that? Come to a coach? Let us know about that. And what we do is tweak your long runs on the weekends. We don't do a lot of stuff tweaking during the week. We can make suggestions, but we will tweak your long runs. Or same thing if it's a week or two after the CES planned event, that's kind of how we handle that. Now, if you want very specific, tweaks, even if it's not a different race, that is like every single day, then we'll have a conversation with you. If you're appropriate more for like a one-on-one coaching situation, which we do have available. But just start off with coming to a CES coach, we can start tweaking those long run weekends, and then we can kind of go from there and make the recommendations.
Michael:That's right. Basically we want to try and do what we can within the scope of the training program to make sure that you feel ready for your specific race.
Lori:And it's very common, there are so many events out there, and lots of times there's new events that come up and So it's fun. It's fun that we have all these opportunities. One last thing I wanna touch on when it comes to the run-walk programs sometimes people are not a hundred percent certain and how we deal with the overall pace for those programs. And as this is a frequently asked question, we'll kind of go into what to expect for the first week of training, but this is one of them that I think is important. And it's how fast is the run pace for the run-walk programs. So, for example, we talked about our Green program is a five one run-walk pace, meaning you're running five minutes and walking one minute and you're repeating that cycle throughout your long run. So what does that mean with your pace? So if you are in our 11:30 group and it's a run-walk group. How fast is that run pace? It's not the run pace of 11:30. It's the pace overall with the run and the run walk for the mile. So at an 11:30 pace for the run walk, you're probably running more like an 11 minute mile. And with that one minute walk, the overall interval and overall miles, 11:30. So to wrap this up, I think what we should do is talk about what to expect on the first couple of days, so nothing's really a big surprise, right?
Michael:So probably the first thing you want to make sure you do is make sure you completed your participant fact sheet before the season begins so we can get you your schedule. So when you show up on day one to group training, you know, what schedule you've been assigned and what color to associate with.
Lori:And then once you know that, the first day is going to be a weekend long run. When you show up, you're going to notice that there are going to be individuals standing around with signs that have a color and a number on them. And what you're looking for is the color of the training schedule you were assigned. So if you're assigned Blue, you look for a blue sign. However, you're going to also notice there might be three different blue signs. One might say 10, what might say 11? Won't you say 1130, and within those, you're looking for the actual pace that you will be running with that. So if you're a 10 30 person, you were assigning a Blue schedule, you look for the 10 30 blue sign and that'll go across the other colors too. If you're not sure, look for a coach or let's look for somebody. There's a lot of time. We have a lot of, we're very lucky to have a lot of alumni that are around too, that can kind of guide you where you need to be. So you'll have that expectation that again, we've talked about before, there'll be a gear check. There's some restroom opportunities when we suggest to you that you show up earlier rather than later, so you can get kind of the lay of the land. You'll match up with those groups. And then a coach will do some announcements, giving you a lot of information on what to expect for the day and the routes and all that good stuff. That's what you can expect for like the first weekend. And then what will happen is your second workout will be, during the week on a weekday. And that is not as much pacer led as it is more coach led. And so then there's usually a good two to four coaches that are available on those runs, and those are a little bit more independent. We don't actually have specific pacers that are leading you out as formalized as we do on the weekends. That's because speed and strength ability is very different than people's long run abilities. And so we embrace that and the coaches kind of run back and forth between people. In one way, you're running that workout a little bit more independently because we want you to focus in on your ability for that type of workout, but also we do support you and we have the group around and the coaches around to support what you need to do for that day to become a better runner and take advantage of our training package that sort of encompasses all the workouts together. So you can become the best athlete as possible and reach the goals that you have for this specific training season for yourself.
Michael:Yeah, and to just emphasize that all group training, there'll be coaches on hand, they're there specifically for you to help you. It's not their training, they're there to be on hand to help you out. And they'll always be a coach at every workout who will sweep the back of the pack to make sure no one's left out there alone. They'll stick it out and wait until everyone has completed the workout and made sure everyone gets back safely.
Lori:So we really hope that this answered a lot of questions that you might be thinking about as you're coming into a new training season, whether or not you're alumni or a new, training member, or like, we like to say a new member of our CES family. If you are new member of our CES family we welcome you and we're so excited and we hope you make a lot of friendships. We hope you learn a lot, about training. We hope that you are able to reach your goals. If there's any other questions know that it goes beyond this podcast and we haven't emphasized enough already that there is a large coaching staff, you will be connected with pacers and mentors that will be able to answer a lot of your questions as well, and we're just here to do this journey together and support the community as best as we can, and we couldn't be more excited that we're able to provide that assistance.
Michael:I think that sums it all up. We want everyone to have the best possible experience they can. So thank you all for listening to the Chicago Endurance Sports podcast. If you're new to the podcast be sure to check out our earlier episodes and subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes.