Marathon Race Week can be full of excitement and anticipation, but also can be a source of worry and stress. On this episode of the Chicago Endurance Sports Podcast Coach Cynthia, Coach Lori, and Coach Michael do their best to help navigate you safely through the final week leading up to your race. Their conversation covers the dos and don’ts of your activity and nutrition on the days leading up to race day, setting race goals, your visit to the race expo, race morning, and much much more. And of course, they have fun too.
This episode references a few previous episode you can listen to in the archives or by using these links:
Marathon Race Strategies
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1117280/9308750
Prepping Your Mind For Running Success
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1117280/4237271
Marathon Race Week can be full of excitement and anticipation, but also can be a source of worry and stress. On this episode of the Chicago Endurance Sports Podcast Coach Cynthia, Coach Lori, and Coach Michael do their best to help navigate you safely through the final week leading up to your race. Their conversation covers the dos and don’ts of your activity and nutrition on the days leading up to race day, setting race goals, your visit to the race expo, race morning, and much much more. And of course, they have fun too.
This episode references a few previous episode you can listen to in the archives or by using these links:
Marathon Race Strategies
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1117280/9308750
Prepping Your Mind For Running Success
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1117280/4237271
Welcome to the CES podcast. My name is Coach Cynthia. I'm the lead coach for CES Performance. And today I have with me
Coach Lori:Lori McGee Koch. I'm the lead coach of the Old Town location and the head coach of operations and coaching for the entire CES Marathon and half Marathon program.
Coach Michael:And I'm Coach Michael, lead coach at the South Loop, and I cannot match the energy that Coach Cynthia is putting forth this morning,
Coach Cynthia:And that's okay. We're gonna talk about Race week, dos and don'ts. Today, we're gonna hit a lot of different subjects that'll hopefully help you and guide you and relieve some of those nerves that you might have as our race day gets closer. So we're gonna start with race week, which is coming up folks, and we're gonna start with a do. We think you should continue to follow your training schedule. You've done it for the previous 14, 15 weeks. You know, just keep hanging on, keep doing what your training plan says to do. All right? What shouldn't you do, Lori?
Coach Lori:You should not, and I always talk about this with when I'm at the group training. Is panic and try to make up for distances and workouts that you felt like perhaps you were not successful with before. So for example, a lot of participants ask me after the 20 miler, maybe they didn't complete the entire distance. Maybe they didn't feel like it was as strong as they had hoped it would be, and whether or not they should just try to do another 20 miler or add some distance so they can build that confidence. The thing is, is that you should not be doing that. If you've been consistently training you are completely fine one workout out of the whole thing. Even if it's the 20 miler where you didn't feel so strong, you're actually gonna be completely fine. And so you should just be following the schedule, like you said, consistently. However, you do not need to make up the 20 mile or you don't need to make up another intense midweek workout should be tapering. You should be feeling confident that you have put the work in. And trust the training, trust the schedule. And what, I mean, what else can you say about that Coach Michael?
Coach Michael:You talk about missing a work out here or there, and if you go into the math and you look at your schedule and all the miles you put in over the weeks and weeks and weeks, even if you took the 20 miler out of the equation and figured what percentage that was, of all the running you've done this season, very, very minute, now's the time to let your body heal. The best that you could do is show up to race day is healthy as possible. Let your body heal up muscles, heal up, get strong from all the work you've done all these weeks and show up to race day healthy. You don't wanna show up worn out and fatigue. that's a don't
Coach Cynthia:That's right. And to add to that, that's for our folks who are Hypersensitive, they're like, I need to get these workouts in. You don't wanna cram for a test that this is not a test you can cram for. But on the opposite end of that, you also don't wanna be like, Alright, got the 20 miler down time to sit in my hot tub for two weeks and not run it all. And if you don't have a hot tub, maybe, you can replace that with couch and or bed and or other comfy place where running does not take place. So you don't wanna completely stop running because that will take away the fitness, all that work that you've done. It'll take away some of that fitness and you wanna maintain that fitness while decreasing your mileage and intensity. And that's what's gonna prepare you. You know, you've already done all that work. You don't wanna just be like, Goodbye.
Coach Lori:Well, we could sit in that hot tub and sit on the couch, but you do wanna maintain some of that fitness, keep moving and while you're sitting on a hot tub and on the couch you don't wanna also just like begin to eat whatever you want and not maintain some of the consistencies of the hydration and eating well too. So Coach Michael, what do you do wanna do when it comes to hydration and nutrition?
Coach Michael:Well, you should continue your hydration plan that you've been doing all season long, which basically keeping water with you all the time and sipping a little bit regularly throughout the day. Now the temperatures are dropping a little bit. You might not feel as thirsty or the need to hydrate as much, but you still wanna do that. You don't wanna go overboard and crazy. But you certainly want to keep up what you've been doing all season, nutrition wise, time to stock the body with healthy foods and you know, vitamin rich foods to get your body ready. But, you don't wanna over eat. We've been doing a lot of work all season long, and so our body demanding a lot of calories and now that we're tapering and our mileage is less, we don't need to maintain the amount of calories we're inputting because we're not burning them off throughout the week.
Coach Cynthia:That's right. You've been noticing, especially once you were, at this point in your training, you are hypersensitive and aware of your body, and you're like, Oh, is this an ache and a pain? Oh my gosh, should I just not run today? You're very aware of your body because you have been focusing on your body and your health for this long. So do the same thing for eating. Like Coach Michael said, you're not gonna be taking in the same amount of calories cuz you're not burning the same amount. So really don't, just eat because hey, this is how I've been eating for the last couple of weeks. Think about when you're actually hungry and rather than this is a ritual, I put this amount of food in my mouth. Take time while you're eating and notice when you're full. Because it does happen quite frequently where especially when we're tapering, we accidentally take too much food. And I know for me, my first couple of marathons I would put on between five and eight pounds while I was tapering. Yeah, it's not necessary.
Coach Lori:You also don't wanna introduce any sort of new foods either. So you wanna make sure that maybe decrease in the calories a little bit, stay consistent in things that you know, that has worked for your training. And again, try not to introduce any sort of new foods, any sort of routines at this point. There's nothing new on race day. There should be nothing new building up for the last week of, of training either.
Coach Cynthia:That's right, because, introducing those, like if you were like, Oh, this is this week, I'm gonna go on a marathon of different kinds of hot sauces, your body might not be prepared for that. Right. And that can affect you in a lot of different ways, not just your GI but also. With your sleep. So let's talk about that, Lori, what are the dos of rest and sleep?
Coach Lori:So this is a critical time to make it sound very dramatic, but it's very true. A very critical time to focus on your rest and recovery and your sleep. Think about it. You sleep one third of your life if you're sleeping properly. But in general, I mean, that's what our bodies are built to do and that part of the reason of focusing in on sleep is this is the time where it's helping your body rest and recover and making sure you get enough sleep building up to the race because sleep in general helps, regulate your cardiovascular system and it helps reset your body to make sure that you can maintain, proper physical activity and even enhances your physical activity. If you ever notice, if you haven't slept very well, your heart rate might be higher the next day and your workouts might feel a bit more difficult. So the sleep can do, It's kind of a twofold thing when it comes to looking at it with this training. One, the rest of recovery building up to it is gonna help you recover from that, those longer 20 mile runs and help your body, continue to repair from all those, stresses that you have. Put on from building up because it releases a thing called growth hormone during the middle of the night. It actually helps your muscle recovery. But during that process too, it's pretty fascinating. It's actually making your body become stronger from all that stress you put on your body. Those things kind of come together to make it so we continue to make advancements in our actual training. The other thing with sleep as well too, it's going to help calm your nerves because the less sleep you get and the more it, it's kind of a double edged sword or it's kind of bidirectional. The less sleep you get, the more you're gonna feel anxious about the race coming up for you. So you wanna do things that helps you relax and helps you sleep better because it's going to decrease your anxiety just naturally neurologically. Having more rest that way is not only gonna help with recovery, again, just helping you ease your anxiety. So focusing on those things are good. What we do know is that the night before, most people do have those nerves and anxiety, but it is managed better if you give yourself a lot of time to rest, and sleep, leading up to those days and then the night before doesn't matter so much, it goes back to cramming for the test. You can't cram in a bunch of sleep the night before and think that's the only night that you need a lot of sleep. It's throughout the entire taper process.
Coach Cynthia:Absolutely. And something that I often tell my athletes, you know, as soon as there's, taper or there's cutback, you have this extra time that you're not running and folks are like, Great, now I can reconnect with those friends. And now I can go out a little bit later because, hey, I don't need as much sleep because I have a shorter, run this week, or I have a shorter, longer run, on the weekend and. I would suggest to not do that. Give yourself that time and rest because you said, Lori, when there's the pressure, before race day to get all that rest, you already have anxiety going into it. So the nerves of right before the race is not gonna allow you to relax and, you'll just have constant nightmares of, did you put on that alarm and you'll wake up every 30 minutes and covered in sweat. Right. Everyone just me
Coach Lori:It sounds like you need some more meditation activities to help you sleep a little bit better. Yeah. Yeah. So yes, don't go out and partying with your friends all night, but maybe doing things that does help you relax to help decrease that anxiety or take your mind off a little bit of over obsessing over race day. So maybe call a friend early in the evening or relax with the good movie, there are some good fun marathon movies out there that people like to watch. I can't remember what, what are the two? There's once somebody reminded me of one. Is it called like Run?
Coach Michael:Run Fatboy Run?
Coach Cynthia:Yeah, that one's good. Wait, what was that called?
Coach Michael:Run Fatboy Run.
Coach Cynthia:Run Fat Boy Run.
Coach Lori:Yeah, you need to watch it. It's really good. It's a really fun one to watch. And then the other one that most people watch. What is the other? Remind me.
Coach Michael:Well, Spirit of the Marathon people watch.
Coach Lori:That would be the one, right? That would be the system. Yes. Yes.
Coach Cynthia:Yeah.
Coach Michael:But there's a lot of different running and motivating films. YouTube's chock full of them if you wanna do that as well. People listen to podcasts like this, there's a lot of motivational podcast. Everyone's motivated in different ways and by different tone.
Coach Lori:You listen to us and hopefully our voices are relaxing enough.
Coach Cynthia:we're so relaxing that you're about to fall asleep.
Coach Michael:We have to have an am our Sr. Uh.
Coach Cynthia:Asmr. Yeah. ASMR episode. That'll be post race. That'll be, That's right. Post race.
Coach Michael:I was gonna say Lori sort of alluded to, you wanna relax her body, wanna give her self a chance to rest. And because we are tapering and we talked about before, our mileages less, our workouts are less, we have a lot more free time, right? So one thing we wanna do is use that spare time productively. And we said you shouldn't be going out and partying and. I tell my athletes all time, my mantra is, keep her eye on the prize. You've dedicated 18 weeks of your life. With all the stress and all the workouts and all the efforts to get to race day. Push it one more week. Get yourself to race day as best condition you can be. And then once the race is done, then have at it. You know, at that, that point. It's your choice to do what you want, but keep our eye on the prize and stay focused through there. And I know it's a long season, but do that, but with this extra time, try and be productive. So, I'm real big fan of, planning and a big part of that is reviewing the website, The Chicago Marathon website has all the information you need for race day, and going through that is definitely worth your time. A big part of that is reviewing the, the course map, looking at the course map, seeing where the turnarounds are, seeing where the aid stations are, where the, bathrooms are, just so you're familiar in advance and comfortable with that. I don't know if either, you know, but I was talking to some people this weekend and they said there might have been some changes from last year on the route. Is that right?
Coach Cynthia:Well, last year there was already a change, as to where you went over the interstate, I think, right? Cause there was some construction being done.
Coach Michael:Right down near, south side past China Town.
Coach Cynthia:Mm-hmm.
Coach Michael:But all the more reason is maybe it's similar, but even if you've run it before, check it out, take some time just so it doesn't for a loop. Because if you're, especially in the late stages of the race and there are things unexpected, those little things can throw you off that don't need to throw you off. So use the time to take a look at the route.
Coach Lori:I think it also depends on people's personality too, on what, what's going to give you more anxiety and what is not. So some people, they really like to know those changes, which I think is really good. And for other people, they like to be a little bit surprised too. So always be flexible because you never know on race day if they're gonna make a last minute change that is, not even on that site. So I think it can kind of go a little bit both ways, don't you think?
Coach Cynthia:Yeah. I mean, for me, and especially when I first started, running marathons, I was like, I want to just follow the pacers. I wanna just enjoy myself. Everything I see, I want it to be new. And I was like, fly by the seat of my pants. And that was what was calming and relaxing to me. But for folks who maybe have a more of a type A personality and have very specific, like at this point of the race, I'm going to take this amount of fuel. And people who like to get really technical, yes, go ahead and you scroll through and memorize those routes. Know exactly where the water is, where all the porta johns are, where every turn is, so you can run that tangent, like get nerdy about it if that is going to relieve anxiety for you. So kind of figure out what kind of person you are and make those choices for your personality and what will help you be the most successful, during the race.
Coach Michael:Yeah, I was gonna say, if you are a type A person, like I'm a big list person. I've got tons of things going on in my mind. I've got things going on in my day. I don't wanna forget. Write things down, make lists, make lists of things you're gonna need for race day. Start gathering them, race week. Don't expect at the expo, they're gonna have the flavor of gel that you like because if you wait till last minute, you're at the expo and they don't have that, outta luck. Get it early. Take care of it. Check it off your list. Take care of that. Another thing about, the route is you might be mapping out where you're gonna see friends or family and deciding and working with your friends and family. This is the route. This is a place I'm expect to be here around this time. I'll be looking for you on this corner. You could use your time, race week planning, things like that. So keep your mind busy with details like that.
Coach Cynthia:That's right. And speaking of like, looking things up and what to keep your mind busy with, there are some things that you know, likely won't help you because they're things that are out of your control, like looking at the weather every five seconds. I mean, honestly, you guys, I took a weather class in college. All right. So I've got some insider info.
Coach Lori:Wow. Let's give it to us.
Coach Cynthia:Here's the insider info. Everyone, you cannot predict the weather more than two hours ahead of the weather if you want it to be more than 50% accurate, ha! That's right. You heard it from me. Who took a class in college? Over a decade ago. Alright.
Coach Lori:We should charge for this podcast to,
Coach Cynthia:I know. We really should. So yeah, looking at that weather, you know what, it's not gonna do help you out and it's gonna give you zero knowledge that is accurate. So, you know, relax rather than look at the weather and download an app about meditation, you know?
Coach Lori:Right. Or maybe look at pictures of kittens and puppies, if that's your jam.
Coach Michael:And also remind yourself, you've trained in all kinds of weather. You'll be started this in the spring and it was kind of chilly out. We went through some really hot days in the summer and, some cooler days. So, you have the experience running those different temps as well. It's just every week you've dealt with what the week brought you and you, learned to adapt based on that.
Coach Lori:And let's face it, I mean, we're marathon training. We've been ambitious enough to that. We like to live on the edge, so everybody that's right should remember that way. Like you're gonna be proud of the adventure no matter how it turns out. So don't check that weather every five minutes. Get an idea closer to race morning. Be prepared with some different clothing. If you have to adjust at the last minute reach out to the coaches if you need some advice on where can you have some versatility and, being prepared for that race morning too.
Coach Michael:Another thing that someone alluded to, I think briefly, I don't know if they wanna, elaborate on it, is during race week, when you have this extra time is succumb to the dreaded taper madness where your mind goes off the wagon and you start, Did we talk about this already? Second guessing?
Coach Cynthia:We haven't, we haven't talked about the, I mean, well I think all of the anxieties that we've discussed are part of that taper madness, right? Like the, oh, I can't, I can't get enough good sleep because I'm worried about getting good sleep. And, what do I do with all this time? And like you said, Coach Michael, maybe use that time wisely rather than like, go and party hearty. Give yourself that extra week or couple weeks until race day still focus. Cuz I think what taper madness is, is like you're used to running a lot and you're used to having your day filled with thinking about this goal and now you have some extra time because that mileage is being Cut back for your tapering and, how can you fill that time in a productive way? And I, I like to go on nice walks and listen to a podcast, and I know this is a podcast and it's like, I'll listen to this, but also yourself talk. Yes. I mean, that's, I do, I like to listen to myself talk while I'm on a walk and, you know, find things that keep you calm, like going for walks or doing other physical activities that aren't going to burn you out and potentially prevent you from having a great race day.
Coach Lori:Right. Well, yeah. Well, some people like to go shopping. You know, shopping relaxes a lot of people. I'll remind people though, you know, if you like to go shopping and do that, you might find yourself overwhelmed with all of the, you know, stuff that is out there that you could buy for the marathon or you think you need now. Cause you have that extra time. So it's just good. So maybe you're picking out a new outfit or something, but remind people on the, the don't of that is, don't wear something brand new that you're not sure, if you're going to chafe in brand new shoes, you're not sure it's gonna work for you. So if you are going to use shopping as a way to relieve anxiety and that shopping leads to something you think you're gonna be using for Marathon day, just remind yourself of whether or not you think it will work. So, for example, if you're buying a certain new tank, but you've never worn that kind of tank before, the seams in it can make you chafe on race day. Or if you're trying to match the outfit of somebody else and you're buying that in race week, just be extra prepared for, putting Body Glide on and what other parameters you need to do to ensure that outfit is going to not be the thing that makes your race day miserable.
Coach Cynthia:Right.
Coach Lori:That makes sense. Yeah. Do you have any other hot tips, Michael, on not to come into Taper Madness?
Coach Michael:On the run this weekend I was talking about, part of Taper Madness is we're so focused on getting to race day, everything becomes hyper exaggerated and always around race day, I'll, for example, maybe stub my toe and, you know, all of a sudden, oh, my toe was broke. We normally would just be a, you know, I'd scream out an obscenity and I would continue moving on. All of a sudden it's like, oh my gosh, it's a crippling injury. And why didn't, I wear shoes. And it happens every time. A big part of Taper Madness just recovery is you might start feeling some aches and pains and a lot of times this is your muscles just recovering and healing, but they feel exaggerated and worse because your mind has nothing else to focus on.
Coach Cynthia:Mm-hmm.
Coach Michael:is this gonna take me out of the race? Those aches and pains, usually you won't even remember them at the starting line. They're just kinda your mind messing with you.
Coach Lori:I think some people call them phantom pains. The phantom pains,
Coach Cynthia:That's right.
Coach Lori:The race.
Coach Cynthia:And I know some folks that are like, Oh, I feel so tight in this area, in that area. I better get a deep tissue massage. Maybe don't do that right now. Maybe you can get yourself a light massage, but don't do anything that's, you know, really that you wouldn't do before a long run anyway. Like, we've been saying, now's not the time to try something new. Know that there will be those aches and pains that you think are life threatening that normally you would, as Michael said, just shout out an expletive. Like, Oh, biscuits,
Coach Michael:That's exactly the expletive thing I used.
Coach Cynthia:If you don't do gluten, biscuits is an expletive. So yeah, try to calm and relax yourself. And now we can talk about, goal setting, which is something that you probably had in the back of your mind while you were training, this whole training cycle. Whether that goal is, Hey, I just wanna cross the finish line. If you have time goals for every different type of runner an athlete we have, there's a different type of goal. So your goals may have changed mid training plan and training block, and that is okay, but this is a great time to write it down or share that goal with somebody I know athletes are often afraid of saying their goals out loud because then they're like, Oh no, if I told somebody I wanted to run this race in five hours and I don't do it, the world is gonna end. And it turns out the world will not end. And that person you told that you wanted to finish in under five hours is probably not going to like blast you on social media and be like, Cynthia said they were going to run under five hours. They didn't. What a liar. What a fool. Take them to the chopping block where they will chop iceberg lettuce for a year. That's not gonna happen. All right part of saying and sharing your goals with people is having confidence, alright? And having that confidence. Just really feeling that confidence can help you get to that goal. You've already done the physical parts of it. You are continuing to follow your training plan, but sharing your goals, writing it down, is a great thing you can do with that free time that you have right now. And we can get into specifics for goal setting. So Michael or Lori, do you have any specific dos for setting those goals for race day.
Coach Lori:You gotta make them smart.
Coach Cynthia:Smart. Like s m a r t.
Coach Lori:Why? Yes. I'm glad you said that. What does that mean? Smart. It means specific, measurable, achievable. And time. Get it?
Coach Cynthia:I do.
Coach Lori:I'm gonna pause for a second if everyone to think about what I just said and how it's spelled and look at that, it's smart, but to make them smart, these are some extra steps too to help you with your race day plan and making sure that you're setting yourself up for success and to actually sort of evaluate what what you are capable of.
Coach Michael:Yeah. I think what comes to goals, as Cynthia alluded to, it is very individual. Everyone has a purpose. You might go back to your Why we talked about in a previous episode about why you originally signed up for the marathon. Maybe some of you have run the marathon before and you have specific goals.
Coach Lori:We're having a great time saying that word today. That's right.
Coach Cynthia:Specific,
Coach Michael:specific, specific, specific goals. Uh, and, so you might have a time goal. if it's the first marathon, you might be just running to complete it, as Cynthia said, or you're running for a cause. And that's what's really driven you to be there and, you're celebrating all the work of raising money or bringing attention to a cause. But really try to make the goal personal. I think when it's personal and its important to you. Mm-hmm. the idea of writing it down makes it a little more permanent and it makes it, you're actually deciding it to be a goal. But also it's important to be realistic about goals, right? If you've been training with 11 minute pace all season long, you're probably not gonna do a two 30 marathon. It could surprise us, but, you know it's one of those things and it's good to be ambitious with your goals cuz this is your time to shoot your shots, but also know that with reward comes risk. So the higher your goal and ambition the harder it might be to achieve and the risk of achieving it might lower. So you might decide. Do I want like, a sure thing and just have a fun, easy marathon and get through it. Or I really wanna go all out and push with the understanding that if I go out hard, chances of things working out the way I want them to go may be lessened a bit.
Coach Cynthia:Yeah, and I think with goals too, it's important to set several goals. Like you have a plan A, a plan B, a plan C, and a plan D, because no matter how hard you've been training, and I say this even to my folks that are trying to break a three hour marathon, you can train hard and you can have had a very successful training block, but also know that there are things that will happen on race day that are out of your control that there's nothing you can do about. So with those specific, goals, you wanna give yourself a window. All right. If your goal is based on time. And I like to put a 10 to 15 minute window in there. Like, Hey, all the stars are aligned. I have the perfect weather conditions. I don't have any GI issues, I got great rest. All those things that you have control over are perfect. All the things you don't have control over are also perfect. This is where I'm gonna hit it. And then be realistic. Like you said, Coach Michael, like there's a lot of things that could happen that you have no control over and be prepared for that. Cuz if you're mentally prepared for both sides of that, it's going to make your, race day more enjoyable. And I think that's something we've all mentioned before. Having several different plans because anything could happen, but always having a plan of like, crossing that finish line healthy and if something does happen during the race and you have hurt yourself, being able and being flexible enough to be like, Oh, is this worth crossing the finish line? Or do I maybe need to stop? Hopefully that doesn't happen. But know that there's so much out of your control. Life happens. And being cognizant of that while you're making those goals, puts a little less pressure on you. And having less pressure will likely, help you be more success.
Coach Lori:Well, going back right, going back to the smart specific. Part of that to me also speaks to make it sure it's individualized to you and you're not comparing yourself to others and what they're trying to achieve. So that very specific part of, of it is, again, going back to if you have a charity goal and you're doing this for a charity or maybe if you're a first timer. Which is very different than being a returning marathoner. So those things should be very specific to you, and you should not be comparing yourself to other people. This is not the time to do that. And when you can kind of let that go and make sure that you are making sure that you are setting your goals, in that way is going to ease your mind a little bit and help you a little bit more with trying to figure out what you're kind doing in the course. Going back to the measurable thing, I kind of look at that from a little bit of an angle of how are you going to measure your success, not just what the final outcome is, but how are you gonna measure your success as, as you're moving through the course. And we could talk about this a little bit more on another point, but how are you going to mentally get yourself through the race and, letting yourself start off a little bit easier and then how you're going to kind of navigate, yourself throughout the course. Because if this one's super easy, then we probably, these personalities probably wouldn't be doing this, but we, we still have to have ways to kind of set ourselves up for success and sort of measure what we're going to navigate throughout the course. We've already touched on achievable, making sure that we are setting a realistic goal to ensure that we are, actually navigating and trying to achieve something that we've been doing all season that you've already know that you did with the training program and being consistent or maybe you were not consistent. So you maybe have to figure out and be flexible with what might happen on that race day. But going back to goals for the first timers versus people are, that are returning marathoners. Coaching wise, I think, Coach Cynthia and Coach Michael, you would agree that those goals could be very different and they should be. I always like to talk to people about that. So you, it's a part of setting yourself up for success and ways that you can achieve what you're out there to look for. I don't know if one of you wanna talk more about, goals for first timers and then we can kind of go a little bit more into like returning marathoners and some extra tips for that.
Coach Michael:Oh, okay. Can start with that. I'm sure Cynthia will have something to add, but for you, a first timer, a lot of times people in general, runners especially, are numbers driven. You know, when they pick their what their pace is gonna be on the weekend and stuff, they're very driven by numbers. And so they might come up with, I wanna finish in this time. And it might be based on, Oh, I saw that Oprah ran this time and I wanna beat her time. And it's really very arbitrary. It's not really mm-hmm. you know, really personal to your own training and yourself as an athlete. So it's not necessarily realistic. As a first timer, it's really hard to gauge a time. Some people wanna say, Well, I do a half marathon this time, so I'm just gonna double it, and I'm just, Do you know my half marathon twice? And Cynthia smile at it because anyone who's on a marathon understands that running a marathon is not the same as running two half marathons. There's a lot more to that. It's certainly okay to have a goal time involved if you're a first time marathoner, but it might be more of, enjoying the experience and executing what you've been practiced all seasons to see how good you're able to execute your plan and celebrating all the work you've put in for the season. But you have anything to add to that Cynthia,
Coach Cynthia:yeah, for a first time marathon I was, I think honestly it is like you said, just taking in the experience, you've never done 26.2 miles and getting through that and remembering, the moments in the marathon where you felt this way and where you felt that way, and the people that were cheering you on, and if you're doing the Chicago marathon specifically, going through all those different neighborhoods and really taking in the city and what the city has to offer, I think, getting from the start line to the finish line is a great goal. Just to be there, to be present in the moment, in the mile that you're in, I think is a great, first goal for first time marathoners, getting through it. Mentally it'll get harder and harder and physically it'll get harder and harder as you add on the mileage. Know that and, prepare yourself to, maybe have a goal of when I get to this mileage, which I've never done before, like. If it's anything over 18 to 20 miles, it's gonna be your first time doing that and giving yourself something fun to do during that. That can be a goal too, so that you can help yourself mentally. So the goals are measurable, but they don't have to be, I'm gonna hit this split, or I'm gonna, you know, I want a negative split this race. For first time marathoners, I would say that is not a goal that you need to worry about because once you get past 18 and 20 miles, you're gonna be breaking personal records. Every step you take is going to be a personal record. And like Lori said if this was easy, there would be more than, 0.9% of the whole world doing it. Less than 1% of the population runs a marathon. So you're already just coming to the start line doing something amazing. Know that and know that every step that you take after your longest run is going to be a personal record. Take pride in that and remember that. And, enjoy, enjoy every moment of it.
Coach Michael:I was just gonna say, I think this is great, but I do also know people are numbers driven and some people are gonna wanna try and hit a goal time. And I was thinking, we talked about setting multiple goals, maybe just not making your goal time, your top goal, maybe that's your B or your C goal. So, that'll be extra topping on the cake if you do hit that goal, but if it's lower on your list and you hit one of your other two goals or other goals, you can walk away from your race seeing as a success.
Coach Lori:Yeah this is where you recognize that everybody's personalities are a little bit different for myself that I've done 39 marathons and every Yeah, baby. Yeah. Now everyone impressed? Okay, now, Okay. Yeah. I, um, But I only mentioning it because of like the varying different types of goals and like mental places I've been going into these races and I've always found that my most successful races is when I have not a time goal and have zero expectation of that. Yep. And I'm a little bit more relaxed about it and I have other goals in between. So a lot of times I set goals for myself where, okay, at mile eight I would like to see that I can start off slow and pick it up. My best goals that always sets me up for success is to make sure I negative split that race and then as I became more experienced as a marathoner, I always try to make my last mile the fastest. And that came with the experience. But I have been able to do that for like the last five marathons I've done and that's been able just experience and being able to control the pace. And I'm not saying this is a first time marathon or tip, but. just going in with it. Just, this is the race goal and it has to be, this time is not something everybody has to do. And as a first time marathoner, you guys have already nailed it. Enjoy the experience. Because here's the thing, the training is the experience. That's the best experience that's possible. And especially if you did the kind of the group training and had this whole thing come together, you, it is, this is your first time marathon Every week you were achieving something pretty cool, which is a longer distance than you ever did. So for first time marathons, I really do look at the race as a victory lap, of celebrating all that time and commitment and effort that you had to put in week to week to week to week. And again, you were, we've probably already said it, like three or four times you're gonna PR that first day. So it's good, It's good stuff.
Coach Cynthia:Mm-hmm. so.
Coach Lori:But the returning marathoners. Right. That's, that's where I wanted to go next. Yes. Okay. You go Coach Michael.
Coach Michael:Well, I wasn't actually pass the mic on to someone else.
Coach Lori:I can start talking about it. Returning marathoners, again, I probably touched on it from my experiences already, is, you know, you learn from every race that you do and no matter what, the mentality too, of returning marathoners too is every race that's at this distance is going to be probably a very different experience. It can be very different from your first marathon learning that you have made some mistakes, and then you take those mistakes and you modify them and help set yourself up for success for that next race. Some of it is, maybe you don't have a time. I love it when people don't have time goals. Cause I, I promise half the time, I feel like when people don't have time goals, they really, really surprise themselves because they're so relaxed in such a good state going into it. Some of it is maybe this time you are doing a charity and the first time you did not. And so it's just has a different meaning
Coach Cynthia:I would add to that, knowing after you've done your first marathon and you alluded to this Lori, every race you do after that is an experience and is going to be different. And whether your time goal is I wanna take X amount of time from my last marathon. I think those goals. Are great, but for folks who were running races maybe before the pandemic, I think this is something to remind yourself every time you are at the start line, you're a different, you. Every day you're a different you. And I think sometimes folks do like to take a look, especially cuz Strava is real and Strava envy is real. And we mentioned before, don't compare yourself to other runners, but also try not to compare yourself to harshly to previous you runner. Every training block is very different. And if, the pandemic you maybe let the wheels get a little rusty or mentally it was difficult for you. Give yourself a chance to be a new you and have different goals and even runners who have run several marathons, Like, take that into account. Who you are today is different than who you were during the last race. Whether your fitness is excellent and far superior, or your mental fitness is not doing so hot, all of that, you should take into account when setting those goals. So even for folks who want that specific time goal, who have done several races, who have done five marathons, ten marathons, it's what Lori said, give yourself a time goal, make it a window, because sometimes those time goals aren't measurable because of what race day brings you. There's so much that you can't, control. And maybe have a goal, especially if you're a very big numbers person, I challenge those runners who are big numbers people to give yourself a goal that isn't numbers driven and that's more experience driven. And thinking outside of those numbers that can become so crippling for so many people. Give yourself a chance to have a goal that is like, I will help somebody else and cheer somebody on throughout the race that looks like they might be struggling. Cuz if you take yourself out of it and take the pressure off yourself mentally that opens you up for a more positive experience. And having that smile on your face and not, looking so hard on your watch can make you faster, bring joy to your mental self and your body and help get you across that finish line crushing a goal that you never thought you were capable of. Michael?
Coach Michael:That's, that's good. Does that need be added to or should we move on?
Coach Lori:Yeah, no, you gotta one up that now.
Coach Michael:Well, I was reading, Jack Daniels, uh and according to his, the split should be based on So.
Coach Cynthia:Speaking of splits, like those negative splits, negative split is something that I love doing too. Lori. And I will say with the weather of the day, if you are like, I really want a negative split this, let's say the weather is supposed to start off 55 degrees, but by the time it hits 10 it's gonna be 90 degrees. That might not be the day to negative split folks. So if you're really worried about all of that please, talk to a coach and we help you modify or talk through some of those race goals with you. That's what we're here for.
Coach Lori:Well sometimes people argue cause I negative split most of my races now it's like mm-hmm. It's always my goal. Yeah. I don't even care what my finish time is. Usually I just need a negative split that then it goes back to the numbers and nerding out about it. But a lot of people are you, with you if you do negative split a race, they think that you didn't give enough in the beginning and you had too much left at the end.
Coach Cynthia:Uh-uh.
Coach Lori:It's not true. But it takes, sometimes it takes people a couple of races to realize that the negative split works. A lot of people don't believe in that.
Coach Michael:It takes lot of trust and that's why it's not necessarily something for the first time marathoner. Right. And it's a good challenge for a multiple marathoner. They've proven they could do the distance and now it's a new sort of test. And we've talked about this a little bit later, but. I know from experience and from watching athletes over many years that once you start slowing down, that cycle increases, you know, incrementally faster. You slow faster. Once you start slowing down, you go slower, slower and slower. Than if you're all either sustained even pace or be able to slowly increase your pace over time.
Coach Cynthia:But adding to that too, I playing the devil's advocate there. Having one slow mile doesn't mean that you have to succumb to those numbers and be like, Oh, I had one slow mile. I will likely get slower and slower. Take every mile as a different mile. You can have a bad mile and the next mile. You can have a better mile. Whether that is, you don't feel that pain, that nagging pain or that ache that you felt in that last mile, your stomach, all you had to do is belch and now you're good to go. Or now you're, back on pace. So don't give up on yourself. Mentally reset yourself. Every time you pass a mile marker. Give yourself another chance. And also know that, man, the first 20 miles of this marathon is warm up. Alright? Especially if you've done a marathon before. Think of those first 20 miles as a warmup to the best and likely the hardest 10 K of your. And, don't give up on yourself. When you get past that, and know that it's gonna be hard. No matter what speed you are going, whether you are a 15 minute miler or a 4 26 minute miler, you're still putting 26.2 miles on your legs, which is difficult for humans to do, and it's not gonna feel pretty. And that's okay. You've trained for this. You will likely not explode when you cross that finish line unless it's exploding with tears of happiness. That's correct. Because you've accomplished a great thing.
Coach Michael:Put that to Hallmark
Coach Cynthia:Although if somebody does explode at the end of this marathon, I'm gonna be in trouble because I've just said it out loud.
Coach Michael:So should we get to some expo talk?
Coach Cynthia:Yeah.
Coach Lori:Yeah. I mean, this is the race. We haven't even gotten to the expo yet.
Coach Cynthia:I know.
Coach Michael:So at the end of your race week, right before your race is gonna be time to visit the expo, and if you've never been to Chicago Marathon had expo before for a runner, especially a new runner, I think it's a little bit like, in Willie Wonka when they enter that room where everything's edible, you know, and there's that, everything's colorful in that amazement cuz it's really, really a cool expo and there's, it's
Coach Cynthia:a world of pure imagination.
Coach Michael:Yes. So I think we have several dos and don'ts on how to enjoy the expo properly. You wanna start us out here, Cynthia?
Coach Cynthia:Yeah. When you come to that world of pure imagination and you see all the delicious treats, before your eye, No. What you are there for? The thing you're there for is to get that bib. All right, so your golden, the golden ticket is, That's right. Lori, is that bib. So that should be the first thing you go to. Is it, planned out that it is the furthest thing from those front doors so that you can buy all these lovely treats? Yes that's how they've worked it out, because people are there to make money. Know that, get that bib first. I would even set a timer on your watch, on your phone to be like, This is how much time I should spend at the expo, because if you visit every booth, you could spend hours there and that's time on your feet that you don't need to be on your feet. Anything to add to that, Lori?
Coach Lori:If you, do you think that you wanna check out things? Look at the vendor list and see very specific things that you want. But yeah, you can spend a lot of time on your feet. And just note too, when you get to McCormick Place, plan out how you're going to get there, and it's gonna take you probably even twice as much time to get there. Then you even think, because once you even get in there, if you go into one entrance, it takes you a long time to walk across to get to everything. And so, Add that to the time of your feet as well. But the expo can be overwhelming. I already talked about it earlier, but I'm gonna say it again. Do not buy a new outfit that day unless you're returning marathon or you know, it works for you. First timers, don't do it. Don't do it. But back to Michael's point, making lists and stuff too. So if you know that there's things that you wanna check out at the expo and you know that specifically you need to buy for your race day, make sure you specifically list those things out and make it as efficient as possible. Map it out, make that plan. But it's very crowded there. It can be very overwhelming there. What else?
Coach Cynthia:The expo is open Thursday, Friday. Saturday. All right. And I'm gonna tell you right now, the times that aren't gonna be as crowded are Thursday during the day, Friday during the morning, or during the day.
Coach Lori:Yeah.
Coach Cynthia:Saturday is just gonna be a, you know, some,
Coach Lori:Yeah. Saturday you're gonna get frustrated cuz you're gonna walk in there and then you're, you might be one of those people, but don't be one of those people. But then don't be surprised if you run into these people. Yeah. That they're panicking, they're trying to run it as fast as possible and you're just trying to walk around. They're bumping into you and everyone's bumping into each other. Maybe this whole podcast is about anxiety, but anxiety is one thing that does not help you.
Coach Michael:If you're able to go Thursday or even Friday, it's giving you an extra day to rest. So if you are there for a long time and on your feet, Then, you know, you could probably spend a little more time on a Thursday cuz you have a couple more days to rest. The other thing mentioned about being on your feet and being at more McCornick Place. I don't know what they do with those floors, they're concrete or whatever, but they really do hurt your feet. I've worked there where I was there all day long and I've felt more fatigued and stuff than I have just, I, you know, I dunno if it's a McCormick thing, I don't know. It's a magic McCormick Place deal. But yeah, it's hard on your legs, so it'll give you that freedom if you're able to go early as opposed to also not having to, fight the crowds as well.
Coach Lori:Maybe it's the phantom floor of our phantom paints of like, why that floor feels that way.
Coach Cynthia:That's right.
Coach Michael:You also might wanna budget yourself depending on what kind of a spender you are. Some people are able to regulate themselves a little bit more, but there be a lot of cool things to spend money on. Everyone's looking for that secret sauce that's gonna take a couple seconds off the race. As Lori said, don't be tempted to buy something and try something, that you haven't used before on race day. And if it's something in your hand, you might wanna give a second thought saying, Do I really want this or do I need this, before you take out the credit card.
Coach Lori:See, nobody knew that we were gonna get financial advice on this too, if people listen long enough, sure they're going to be saving themselves some money and in their investments and stuff. So think that, Thank you for that, Michael.
Coach Cynthia:And there's gonna be all sorts of fun stuff for you to try. Like food Try this fancy new product. Try this protein bar and maybe maybe don't, maybe don't try it. Or like bring yourself some Ziploc bags to put those free samples in for after race day if you really like, Oh, I wanna try that new, you know, shock block or this new fancy candy. Like, yeah, you don't need to put all that new stuff into your body if you don't know how it's gonna react.
Coach Michael:Uh, I wanted mention a couple things to take advantage of at the expo, and one of those would be the pacer booth. Cynthia you're pacing this year so why don't you tell us all about the PACER Booth?
Coach Cynthia:Yeah. the Pacer booth is a great place to stop by. You do not have to sign up to be in a pace group, which is the first thing people try to do when they go into that pacer booth. But it's more of just, knowing what wave you're in and knowing if there's going to be a pacer that is running your pace within your wave. And let me tell you, there's a lot of pacers for this race and there's multiple pacers for each time. So I'm pacing the 3 55 group and they have, 9 3 55 pacers. There's three in the first wave, three in the second wave. And I, maybe there's six. But, for several pace groups though, there are nine, there are, some in every wave. So if you're like, Oh, I'm not in the first wave, I'm not gonna get my desired pace to pace with, check out the pacer booth. We'll be able to look it up, what corral you're in, what wave you're in, and if there's a pacer for that particular pace that you're trying to run. Also, the pacers have to run even splits. And these pacers, if they don't and they don't get asked to return, so, there's also tattoos that you can put on and grab yourself a couple, You know, I've seen some people with like three, tattoos that you can put on your arm that'll give you the exact splits of what you should be running. People love that. And I think, if you're somebody who loves not permanent tattoos, you know, even for fun, make yourself sleeve, you know, grab as many as you want. But it is nice to have those right there because it's not like a band that will accidentally fall off during the race. Just know that you're gonna wanna put that on before you put sunscreen on or your body glide.
Coach Lori:I'll add to that cuz I was on the Nike Pace team for 10 years. And, building on that, Yes. So there's these like temporary tattoos that you could put on that helps with your pace time, but to manage expectations to the, they have pacers up to 5 45 and then there are two groups that are two to three groups that are run walk, but they do not publicize that what's on the website. So to manage expectations for people too that, you should, if you are wondering what, intervals that they're doing, you should check out that at the booth because they will not publicize what those are. It depends on the pacers and what their capabilities mm-hmm. are for those run walk groups. So there are not pacers after 5 45. So I wanna help people manage expectations too, if they were hoping for like a 6:00 or 6:30 on that as well. But you can ask those questions, and Michael, like you said, taking advantage of what you can find at the expo, manages expectations and asking those questions at the Nike pacer booth to see what kind of resources and support that participants of all ranges have out there.
Coach Cynthia:And I know some people are like, Oh, am I gonna have the same Pacers through out my training on race day? And I believe, there's maybe three CES folks that are pacing the Chicago Marathon. I know, I am and Coach Randy is, and I'd have to recheck the other, but yeah, I think if you coach Randy are this year, Okay.
Coach Lori:So Michael, you said that's one of the things that you should check out. What was the other thought that you had to say to check out? Couple other thoughts I had was, a lot of times they'll have professional athletes or, or quote unquote celebrities speaking or signing and if you want to take advantage of them or meet them or, get insta with them, is that what the kids say? Make the TikTok with them, just check in advance to see when they're gonna be there. So you could schedule your visit to coincide with that. The other thing that you definitely wanna do at the expo is pick up your race day resort credentials. Chicago Endurance Sports has a race day resort, if you're registered with the training program you have access to, and at the expo there'll be a booth and we'll publish that information in our newsletter, but to pick up credentials for our race day resort. So that's taken care of on race morning. You don't have to worry about anything. You just kind of walk on in and, you know, sit on down, and get ready. So, those are a couple of things you'll definitely wanna take advantage of at the expo. And I guess another one I can think of, because I, I worked as, a volunteer at the info booth at the expo for several years, so I get all kinds of questions. But if you have people who are following you, people from out of town, they're gonna be traveling through the city. The CTA sells a special pass, that you could buy. It's like a one time ride as much as you want pass. And they have a booth at the expo you'll wanna take advantage of as well to get them, what they need to get around the city and follow you everywhere along the course.
Coach Cynthia:That's right. And this is like the easiest marathon for people who are watching. So know that there will not be a moment where at least somebody won't be out there cheering you on. but yeah I I didn't even know about that. Special pass, Michael. Thank you for that hot info. So yeah, that's the expo and, which happens Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, which is before, the race. Let's talk about what to do the day before the race. If that's the only day you can go to the expo, great. That's part of your plan. But there's other things that you should do before the race. Like, lay out your gear. This is my favorite thing to do. And, as Coach Michael said, You can insta layout lay out your gear, which a few folks don't know what that means. Okay? It's where you take a picture of all your stuff and your bib. And it's great if you're not somebody who likes to write down a checklist. Now you can visually have that, so what's the shirt you're gonna wear? What's the shorts you're gonna wear? And I like to put out two different outfits depending on the weather. So like, this is, if it's cold weather, I have this layer. If it's warmer and I'm gonna have this layer, how many gus or gels put your nutrition out? The type of socks you're gonna wear, your shoes. Your bib. That way people can follow you. I even put like my deodorant and my body glide out there. That way I'm not waltzing around like at three o'clock in the morning trying to figure out where everything is. It's laid out there. All I have to do is get my body out of bed, put these clothes on, and then eat some breakfast. But yeah laying out your gear is definitely a thing I like to do and I like to take that picture. If you don't like to take a picture, you like to write down the checklist. Michael, you're a lister. Yes. What would you add to that list?
Coach Michael:Well, I though I'm a lister. I always like the fact of laying things out because there's a lot of times it's the devils into details. Those little things that you forget at the last minute, like a big thing for me that I put out. Bandaids. So I make sure I protect my nipples, and I don't wanna forget that, but it's an easy thing, you know, on race morning, it's so hectic and you're up early, you're so concerned about everything. If it's laid out in front of me once my pile is gone, I know I've collected everything, or I'm wearing everything I need, I have my watch on. My watch has been charged. You know, little things like that. Oh yeah, sunscreen, easy to forget. But if you put this all out in advance, it's there in front of you. And if you overlook it, you overlook it. But it's having it together and in place and knowing you have it. We talked about gels and gus and things like that. Racing it around your house at the last minute, looking for things on race morning where you're worried about either getting picked up on a ride or getting downtown or whatever. Last thing you wanna think about. Make things easy on yourself. Try and reduce the, once again with like bad anxiety, again, do what you can to reduce the anxiety.
Coach Cynthia:And speaking of looking around to her, how you're gonna get a ride. That's a great thing to do the day before. Figure out how you're gonna get to the race. What's your plan? Yes. You know. Do you have a friend who loves to wake up early and will drive you to race day resort, before those streets close, do you wanna divvy some what? The e divvy, right? Those are the hot things are, is that gonna be near your place? Cuz a lot of those, you know, no, no shame on divvy, but sometimes those bikes aren't around when you want them to be.
Coach Michael:Do you need to secure a parking space through like Spot Hero or, or something? And where are you gonna park? Uh, when did the streets close? So you know when you need to be, where, when, Or you don't get sidetracked or delayed be due to things like that. A lot of people are gonna be all traveling to the same part of the city at approximately the same time. CTA is dependable, but it's gonna be crowded. So, I'm sorry, did you say the CTA is dependable? I, What do you mean? Did you say the CTA is dependable?
Coach Cynthia:That's, I said CTAs. It should be dependable that morning.
Coach Michael:Here's hoping that it is depend upon that it they'll be trains running into the city.
Coach Lori:Here's hoping it is. So that's right.
Coach Cynthia:But know that you don't wanna maybe count on that train getting you there at exactly the right time. Maybe get on the train that'll get you there 15 minutes beforehand, you know? Cause you're not gonna be able to sleep.
Coach Lori:Yeah. And even when you plan the train down there, it's, it takes longer than you think to walk through getting into this start line area and you're checking if you're doing race day resort that's fine. We can talk about that a little bit too, but it, and we help you if you're doing the race day resort with CES to get you to your corrals in time. But again, it takes you longer that even to walk to race day resort from where you're parking and from the cta. So I would say for everybody, always plan that you're leaving 30 minutes before you even think you need to leave.
Coach Cynthia:Yep. And again, that's a part of decreasing the anxiety. Did we just turn this into like a self-help I mean, we did That's why training for a marathon really trains you for everything in life.
Coach Lori:Okay. So we're not gonna charge for this, We're just gonna charge insurance policy for this, Correct. For Lloyd's Mental health. Okay, cool.
Coach Cynthia:Cool. Yeah. But that works in everything we've talked to about day before, gets right into race morning and things you can do, like Lori said, be prepared to be there 30 minutes before maybe you need to. And part of that is knowing that things can come up that are unexpected. So you have to be a little flexible. You know.
Coach Lori:That's, that's something you can control. You can control trying to leave as early as possible. And when you do that, the other things that you can't control, control makes that easier.
Coach Michael:Remember, you need to get there early enough to allow at least three or four visits in the bathroom.
Coach Cynthia:That's right. Right. Speaking of things that you can control, you can control, what to wear. You can't control the weather, but remember, like you've laid out the day before, you laid out a couple different outfits just in case that weather changes, which it inevitably will. But remember to dress as if it were 15 to 20 degrees warmer than the actual temperature. So get some throwaway gear or a garbage bag.
Coach Lori:Maybe that individual that's listening to this, it's an understand what throwaway gear is. So what are the options, everybody? You've mentioned garbage bags. Yeah. And what happens with the garbage bags?
Coach Cynthia:Well, you you cut a hole on the top, or I guess if you're using it as a garbage bag, you would cut the hole on the bottom and then on the sides seam, you would cut two more holes. The one on the bottom is for your head. And on either side of the seams, that's where your arms are gonna. And then the top of the garbage bag is like, if this were a dress, it would be the bottom of the dress or a California Raisin costume. If anybody old enough to remember the California Raisins.
Coach Michael:I heard it through the grape vine.
Coach Lori:Oh. So that's, an easy, you know, throwaway
Coach Michael:I'll keep you warm. The idea is you wanna keep warm while you're standing in the corral.
Coach Cynthia:Which luckily for race day resort, you're gonna be real close to those corrals. But if there's some running gear that, you are like, Oh, I need to get rid of this. This doesn't fit me. It's stretched out the I'm, this is ugly, and I thought it was cute when I bought it. That is a great thing to wear while you're in that corral, that extra layer, it's something that you can take off right before your, corral goes off. And if you're like, Well, I'm really don't wanna throw this away. I'd rather I donate it. Know that all the gear that is at the side of the starting corral, all of those throwaway layers are going to be donated. So, you are donating it,
Coach Lori:Yeah. You get all excited too when you know you're about to start, because you see all those, pieces of clothing starting to fly on the air.
Coach Michael:I was talking this weekend, you know, they sell our more immersion stuff, but if you have like a pair of tube socks, that's it. Easy, yeah. Pull'em on and, you know, easy, easy to throw away. And it cause it keeps your hands and your arms warm, at the same time. So what about eating in the morning?
Coach Cynthia:Well, what have you been eating this entire training block? Stick with that. Okay. We're talking, we're gonna talk about anxiety again. What's the first thing that I do when I'm anxious? I put food that's available in front of me, into my mouth. You know, what's not gonna be great on race day? Eating too much food and then starting the run with a full stomach. And if you're doing race day resort, there's gonna be food there and you're gonna be like, Oh, my wave doesn't go out for another 40 minutes. It's time to have the fourth bagel. Maybe it's not time to have the fourth bagel. Recognize what you're putting into your mouth and you wanna keep it similar to what you were doing the entire time you've been training.
Coach Michael:I would recommend not relying on the Race Day Resort morning food but bring with you or eat at home, what you've been training with all season long, what's worked for you. This almost relates back to race week or night before. Make sure you have the foods you need in the morning on hand so it's there for you.
Coach Cynthia:Also think about the timing of when your corral leaves and when you need to be in your corral. We've been doing all of our training runs at 6:00 and 6:30. If your corral doesn't leave until 8:00, maybe you don't need to eat food at four o'clock in the morning, you should have something right when you wake up, but maybe wait to eat what you normally eat before that long run and time it out to when you are going to be leaving the crowd. Whether that's, Oh, I'm drink coffee at this amount of time to get my body moving. think about that and time that out accordingly. Cuz that can be something that messes people up as like, well normally I eat at,four o'clock in the morning because I'm starting my run at 6:00. But if your race start time is later, just take that time and subtract it so that you're not overeating.
Coach Michael:And what about coffee? What would you say about caffeine and coffee? Well, you know, I'm a big fan of coffee. I always have one cup of coffee exactly an hour and a half before I start running. So, if you haven't been drinking coffee beforehand, race day is maybe not the time to start. Some people like coffee, it wakes them up. It makes, I mean it's the same with caffeine and the nutrition you take throughout the race. If it's something new, that's not the day to start something new. If it's something you have been doing throughout your training, yeah, get that coffee. But watch how much you're drinking because you are gonna be up earlier and you're gonna be at the Race Day Resort or at that start line earlier than you would for your training runs. So think about the timing because you know how your body works at this point and how much time you have between that cup of coffee and toilet time.
Coach Lori:Going from the sleep nerd perspective too is if you are really worried about, and like if you're like me, I am not a morning person. I have a lot of what's called sleep inertia. So when you first wake up, you like, it's impossible to get up and, you're not really sure why you even put yourself through this in life, even though you've trained the whole season. But that's like your first initial thoughts for like the first 10 minutes. It's not a bad idea to try to go to bed earlier the few nights before and try to wake up that much earlier it will actually help what's called your circadian rhythm to feel just a slightly better on race day. this is like another little tip that a lot of people don't think about. For a lot of people it might be impossible too because the way your lifestyle is, but it's just something to think about too, cuz you are going to be getting up, especially if you live in the suburbs or something like that. 3:00 AM instead of 5:00 AM when you're doing your whole training around the whole time. And that's gonna make a difference in how, just how focused you are and what your hunger signals, are too. Cause if you're waking up even earlier than you normally do, a lot of times people have a hard time eating with a even wanna normally eat because they're just not hungry at all. Because that's just not the typical time of day that your body is singling hunger. Yeah. And so they have a, they struggle even more about how they're ingesting their hydration and nutrition.
Coach Cynthia:Absolutely.
Coach Michael:So we got you to race morning. You're Race Day Resort Coach Lori said that we'll do a good job of trying to get you into your corrals on time. You do need to leave your, for your corrals a little bit early cuz there's a lot of people and there's security and there's steps you need to take to actually get to the starting line. But we'll help you with that as long as you're on time to the Race Day Resort. We'll get you in the corral on time. At that point, there's a lot to be said about your race. We've talked about it all season. It's a really good idea to talk to your coaches about, Your race if you have specific questions. But we do have an episode called Race Day Strategies. Or Marathon, is it? Marathon Race Strategies,
Coach Cynthia:It's the 2021 Marathon Race Strategy Podcast.
Coach Michael:Right. Which I record last year. You could download that. Listen to that as well. I'll put links to that in the show notes. But that's give you, step you through a lot of the process. But that takes us to, we've finished the race, we've hit our goal, we've crossed the finish line, We've got our shiny heavy metal around our neck. What's next?
Coach Cynthia:I mean, celebrate everything you've done right and celebrate how, whatever that means to you. If that means, Hanging out at Race Day Resort, High fiving people, giving hugs, giving gratitude. You some people write down their accomplishments, put it in a social media post, but really take time to enjoy and celebrate your accomplishment and what you have done. A lot of people try to go to the next thing, like, what else can I sign up for? Depending on how the race went, but give yourself time to truly, take in what you've done and, give yourself a pat on the back.
Coach Michael:To speak to that last week, we are doing our taper and people were kind of going, Oh, this week we only have to do 10 miles. And I'm like, did you hear yourself, if you were in public with normal people who don't run, and you said, Oh, I only have to run 10 miles. They would think you're crazy. So, you've done a lot and really take a moment to appreciate all the work you've done, all the mileage you put in, and be grateful that you have the health and ability to, participate in such an activity. It's pretty remarkable.
Coach Cynthia:Absolutely. And, don't negate the 18 weeks of hard work that you've done. Like you just said. Yes, you have a medal now, but, you put in a lot of work, physically, mentally, you likely had to sacrifice some things and consider all of that.
Coach Michael:So our thing we wanna do is, is just to keep moving. Don't just sit on the couch. The rest of the weekend or next week.
Coach Cynthia:Or that hot tub.
Coach Michael:Or the hot tub.
Coach Cynthia:Bed.
Coach Michael:So moving around, as you've probably learned throughout training is, a good way to keep yourself from stiffening up. You might be sore. But the more you move, chances are the better you'll feel. The more you sit around and don't do anything, it's probably gonna lengthen and increase the amount of time you start to you all feel better. So what's another do post race?
Coach Lori:What's another do? Whether or not you do well in the race or whether or not you've met your expectations and or you felt like you have not met your expectations is don't get yourself down too much about it. Give yourself two or three weeks to recover. But know, there's other goals that you can set. Reach out to other friends and try to reset your goals because there is kinda like a postpartum, kind of marathon type of let down that people actually have because they're training in a different way and it's very real physiologically to not train so much as intensively that your body kind of actually adapts just mentally and physically you adapted a different way because you're not training in the exact same way. So give yourself two or three weeks to celebrate, but then try to reset other goals. Or if you're not sure what those other goals are, reach out to other friends or reach out to other resources to make sure that, you're maintaining these things and joy that you had before.
Coach Cynthia:Lori to add to that, and that's something that I see happen time and time again with athletes is you have spent, especially if you're doing group training, you have spent so much time with these other folks getting through a long run, but also like you share a lot of things with people on those long runs. You're making true connections. And to go from doing that for several hours every week to Oh, I'm done with this race. mentally and physically you are drained, which makes you susceptible to getting sick. Often people will catch your cold or get the flu after this because you're, endorphins play a role in, you're just not as protected. But I would say that's also you become way more vulnerable after the race is done. It's like you have done this amazing thing, you've spent a lot of time with a lot of different people sharing things. It's been emotional and prepare for that too. Like yes, you wanna slowly get back into moving your body and finding those other goals, but know that it's emotionally gonna take a toll on you and, continue to keep those connections with those folks that you were running with, cuz. You can discuss what went well for your race or what didn't go, you know, as planned. And it's okay to have emotions about all of those things. And just like you would, you know, go to a PT if you were feeling bad, hey, you know, that there might be a dip in, how you feel emotionally, maybe schedule extra, time with your therapist cuz running a marathon is such an amazing thing and getting through that and know that there's like, after that big happy moment or whether it is happy or whatever emotion it is you've spent 18 weeks doing this thing, so you're gonna feel some feels about it physically and emotionally. Be prepared for that. Give yourself time to work through all of that too. Your coaches, for a lot of us, we've been through a lot of races and we can help you guide through some of that. But also, I mean, I have to say this to a lot of my athletes. I'm like, I am not a clinical psychologist or a therapist, so I can help you with the running part of it. But it's not a bad idea to reach out to your therapist and be like, Hey, I'm, I might need some extra help with, these next coming weeks.
Coach Michael:That's great advice. Also the other side of that, a lot of times is people, complete a big at like this and like I put in all this training, I don't wanna lose any of my fitness, so I'm gonna keep pushing and I'm gonna sign up for this next race next week and this other race and this other race. And I think a big part of that message needs to be, is. Honor the recovery, the work you put in and that your body needs some downtime. You can't go, go, go all the time. And if you do that emotionally, you are gonna really fry yourself first of all. You know, even if you feel a little dip after the race, if you keep pushing, you're gonna fry yourself. And the other thing is, a lot of times people are like, Oh, I feel recovered. I don't feel any aches and pains. I feel fine. But that doesn't mean you're recovered.
Coach Cynthia:Correct.
Coach Michael:A lot of recovery just takes time and rest. And even though you don't feel like anything's bad, you still need to give your body proper time to recover. And when Lori talked a lot about sleep, sleeping properly is a big part of that recovery. Correct.
Coach Lori:Yeah, I will say a lot of times people be on the verge of an ache and pain throughout the summer. And what will seal the deal of like a full on injury is that they'll still do the race and it's fine, but then they didn't take like the month off and they probably needed to take off. That's usually the, the straw that breaks the camels back on the post race.
Coach Michael:And the schedules are made with the following post race weeks, right?
Coach Lori:Yeah. And then we're gonna do a three week training program leading into our Winter Warriors. But it's just gonna be all about recovery and light mileage and, just still keeping those social connections that we think are important to, just, I don't know, being connected with such a big feat that we've done all summer. I mean, like this has been a big part of most people's lives as you lead up to a marathon. So it is just like such a big build up. You have the race day and then. So we're, we're providing some resources other than we're not clinical psychologists. It's the things right. That we can relate, but we cannot treat.
Coach Michael:And as much as we talked about anxiety, this whole, episode, enjoy the heck outta your run. Really? That's right. I mean, the, the, course is so much fun and there's so much to experience and there's people from all over the world there, cheering you and you're running with them. Take some time just to soak that in and enjoy the heck out of it and appreciate all the work you've done.
Coach Cynthia:Absolutely.
Coach Lori:Nerding out about this stuff. I think all three of us really enjoy doing that. I mean, we can talk for hours and hours, but we can, talk about more stuff post race and Winter Warriors and stuff to do out throughout the year. And there's so many topics that we hope that, people can enjoy. And at the end of the day, we hope that people have enjoyed CES and, what we call the journey and the experience and making friends and very, very, very excited to see every individual's journey through.
Coach Cynthia:Right. And transformation truly
Coach Lori:throughout their vic. I like to call it the Victory lap.
Coach Cynthia:That's right. Absolutely. Enjoy the journey. Enjoy the Victory lap and enjoy this podcast now. Bye.
Coach Michael:Thank you for listening, and we hope you enjoyed this episode of the Chicago Endurance podcast. In the show notes, you'll find links to a couple of our previous episodes that compliment this content. For race day tips, check out the episode 2021 Marathon Race Strategies. And for help on goal setting, you could check out the Prepping Your Mind for Running Success. As a special bonus, I've added a race day visualization exercise from that episode at the end of this recording.
Coach Kristina:I'll take everybody who's listening through this little mini visualization. So start with just a little bit of deep cleansing, breathing. So everyone just kind of take a moment and settle into your, to your chair, and breathe into your nose and out through your mouth three times. Deeply kind of these big yoga, deep cleansing breaths. Really engage your belly and start to feel maybe some of the tension in your shoulders go away. And when you've breathe those first three breaths, then you can close your eyes. And I want you to envision yourself at the start line of your race. You might be in the front of the pack, might be in the back of the pack somewhere in the middle, but go ahead and picture the kind of day that you would like to see, the kind of clothes that you're gonna wear. Especially the shoes for us runners, and I want you to picture yourself with a face full of excitement, but also a calm determination. What does that look like on your face? What does that do to your body posture? How are you carrying yourself up to that start line? What kinds of words are you saying to yourself to get yourself ready to run a good race? And now take another couple of deep breaths and everybody can open your eyes and just think about what that felt like for you. Think about the words that you were saying to yourself and maybe write them down in your journal. Think about what you were wearing or how prepared you looked and see if the level of quiet, calm, confidence changes in your face. See if your posture changes just when you call upon this visualization.