Summer Marathon/ Half Marathon is our biggest and longest train program of the year, and with it come some of the biggest excitement and anticipation. To get thing off to an energetic start we have assembled this episode to introduce you to this season lead coaches as well as go over some of the basics that we believe will be useful as we kick-off the 2023 summer running season.
If you are new to Chicago Endurance Sports, we highly recommend you check out our New Member Orientation episode, where we go into detail about how CES training is structured.
Summer Marathon/ Half Marathon is our biggest and longest train program of the year, and with it come some of the biggest excitement and anticipation. To get thing off to an energetic start we have assembled this episode to introduce you to this season lead coaches as well as go over some of the basics that we believe will be useful as we kick-off the 2023 summer running season.
If you are new to Chicago Endurance Sports, we highly recommend you check out our New Member Orientation episode, where we go into detail about how CES training is structured.
Welcome to the Chicago Endurance Sports Podcast. I'm Coach Michael and on this episode, we are going to introduce you to the lead staff of our summer running program. As well as go over some important pieces of information to help prepare you for the start of your marathon or half marathon journey, each of our programs, Elmhurst, Lincoln Square, Old Town South Loop, virtual, and Performance has a diverse staff of coaches under the guidance of a lead coach. Let's meet our lead coaches for the 2023 summer marathon and half marathon training season.
Coach Lori:Hey there. My name is Coach Lori McGee Koch. I have been coaching with CES for the past 17 years. I actually have the duty of being the head coach overall of the program, helping manage some operations and all the content of the program so we can be consistent across locations, which we have four locations and a virtual training program. I'm proud to have helped build that in the coaching staff over the years. I am the lead coach out of the Old Town location, so if you're doing group training, that's where you're going to see me most often. I have run 39 marathons, over 200 half marathons, and then some other shorter distances, although my heart is with running the longer distances and so being a part of the marathon training, makes my heart happy, and especially for first timers and other people trying to reach their goals. Another big part of my experience is, is that I've been a Boston qualifier. I've run some other long distances at some pretty decent paces. Then I've also gone and had two kids. I've gone through different health problems and weight changes and just all over the gamut of just being at different experience levels. So my big thing is that I do really feel like I'm very, very relatable to a lot of different athletes that are out there trying to achieve different goals wherever they're at within their physical fitness. A piece of advice I wish I would've had early on is just, you know, it took me to my third marathon to understand this. A big part of the enjoyment of doing a half or full marathon is not just the race day, but there are so many milestones you reach across the commitment that you make and to make sure that you enjoy those accomplishments. If you're a first timer, this is super important because you are going to be reaching milestones week after week after week. Enjoy and celebrate every one of those, and then look at the race day as your victory lap. Those that are alumni to the distance to the half or full understand the same type of things. You're gonna have different types of accomplishments and the second, third, fourth, 20th round of your training. And again, enjoy the accomplishments along the way. It's a long journey. We talk about the journey across Chicago Endurance Sports and the Journey is all about enjoying every single step. So I welcome you to this season. I cannot wait to meet you if I have the opportunity. Can't wait to hear everyone's stories and just us coming together as this giant group that can nerd out together about running. So I'm gonna leave with my, my biggest thing I like to say is just, yay running.
Coach Katie:Hi, my name is Katie Bryk and I am the lead coach out of the Elmhurst Fleet Feet location. This season I am training for the Berlin Marathon, which is my first international marathon, and it's also my 51st marathon. So I'm pretty excited, as you might imagine. So I was trying to think about what might be some good advice I could give to our new participants that are gonna be running their first marathon or first half marathon this season. And one of the things that I have realized over the past 20 some years of my running is that it's really important to remember. That something is better than nothing. And you might be wondering, what in the world does that mean? Well, pretty soon you're gonna sit down, you're gonna take a look at our schedule for the season. You're gonna go into Training Peaks, and you're gonna look at the training runs that we have, and you're gonna realize, wow, training for a marathon and a half marathon is a really big commitment. There are a lot of workouts that you need to get done over the next 19 weeks. Well, if you're like me, I am a full-time teacher. I am a mom of two very active boys. You suddenly realize on some days you might not be able to get in the 60 minute run that you're supposed to get in. You might have a hard time fitting in the 50 minute cross training. That is on your training schedule. So one of the things that I have realized is that something is always better than nothing. If I can only fit in a 25 minute run on a day where it's supposed to be 60 minutes, I'm okay with that. If I can only fit in a 30 minute cross training workout on a day when it's supposed to be 60, I am okay with that because I have learned that in order for me to get to the finish line, happy and healthy, doing something is always better than nothing. Now, don't get me wrong. If I can get a full workout in, I am always, always going to try to do that. But life gets in the way sometimes. So as you're sitting down and trying to figure out how are we gonna make all of this work while trying to still have a life that you already are very busy in, I just want you to remember that something is always better than nothing.
Coach Ryan:Hello everyone. My name is Ryan Caturan I am the head coach over at our CES Lincoln Square. I am also an avid triathlete. I've completed now two full Ironmans. I'm gonna add another fun fact here, I have run the inaugural Magnolia Marathon where I ran the first seven miles with Chip Gains, that was a lot of fun. Anyway, the one bit of advice to everyone is the best way to meet your, the right expectations and to have a successful training season is to train from your current fitness level versus what goal you think you might be at. Start from where you're at from the fitness level that you're at and work your way through it and eventually you'll get to the bigger grander goals. Thank you so much and we look forward to seeing you all for marathon training.
Coach Michael:I introduced myself briefly earlier, but let me give you a more formal introduction. I'm Michael Schaffner and I'm lead coach at the South Loop location. I've been coaching with CES since I believe 2011, and at some point I've coached at every city location which means I've coached at Old Town Lincoln Square. Like I said, I'm currently lead coach at the South Loop. I hold coaching certifications for both running and ultra running. I have completed 25 marathons and close to 30 ultra-marathons. I am sort of known for having a tendency to be drawn to a lot of unconventional races and unusual running challenges This has provided me with the opportunity to run in a lot of different environments. So I have a lot of experience running on trails as well as at altitude. A bit of advice I can give as we start the season and I think is relevant throughout the season, whether you are new to running or a veteran runner, is to avoid tying yourself up in knots. Too often we limit ourselves by getting caught up in knots. And to clarify when I say knots, I mean N O Ts not knots with a K. For example I am not a morning runner. I am not able to eat before a run, I am not ready to do speed training yet. When we make declarations using strong words like not, can't, or never, we're often setting up arbitrary rules and conditions which have no validity behind them, but too often limit our potential. One big one I hear way too often is, I am not a real runner. I'm still not exactly sure what that means. And I'm sure if you asked a bunch of different people what a real runner means, you get a lot of different definitions. But what I assume when someone says, I am not a real runner, what their thinking is, I am not a real runner unless, and that's where the condition comes in. I'm not a real runner unless, I run every step and never walk, or I'm not a real runner unless I can sustain a certain pace for a certain amount of time. It's similar to saying I'm not a real runner until I complete the Boston marathon. It sounds ridiculous when you go to the extreme, but it really is the same thing. Not statements rarely serve you in a positive way and working to untangle those knots can lead to some major breakthroughs that have been holding you back as a runner. I look forward to working with all you real runners this summer to help unravel your nots.
Coach Autumn:Hi runners. This is Coach Autumn. I am the head coach for the Virtual training team. Prior to starting with Virtual, I was coaching out of Old Town for almost 10 years, and now that I am the head virtual coach, I am also virtual and live in Michigan. Couple things I wanted to share with you at the start of the training season. As you are getting ready, one of the best things that I can advise you on is twofold. First, listen to your body throughout training. If you need rest, you will know and don't force it. Second to that, when you go on your easy runs, truly make them easy. One of the biggest game changers for me was focusing all of my running in zone two and not pushing too hard on those easy runs. You might feel like you're going extremely slow, but it will definitely pay off on race day and it will help keep you from getting injured. Have a great season.
Chris Ott:Hey guys. My name is Chris. I'm the Chicago Endurance Sports Program Manager. Recently moved Chicago and pretty much I'm involved with everything, marketing, social media, assisting all the coaches with their training plans, daily operations, apparel. Pretty much the Swiss Army knife in the Chicago Endurance Sports community. So I'm really looking forward to seeing all of you at every location. I do my best to get out and show face, no matter where the location is. So whenever you get the chance to meet me, say hello. I'm a very friendly person, even though I'm from New York state, which East Coasters can be abrasive, but not me. again. I'm Chicago Endurance Sports Program Manager Chris. Thanks.
Coach Michael:So that was just a quick intro to our lead coaches. However, as I alluded to earlier, in addition to the lead coaches each location consists of a team of experienced and approachable coaches. The CES coaching staff is extremely diverse with each of our coaches, bringing with them their unique experiences and expertise. For this reason, I highly encourage you to take the opportunity this summer to get to know all the coaches at your location. There's something to learn from each one of them. An important thing to understand about the coaches, is that they're there for you. They're there to supply guidance and support, and probably most importantly, look out for your safety. While they'll likely be running beside you, never feel bad about pulling them aside to ask a question. They do their training on their time. If they need to slow down or stop to assist you, that's what they're there for. There's no need to apologize. You're not putting them out or interfering with their training. Our coaches are there because they love to help athletes. Along with that, never feel intimidated or self-conscious about asking questions. All of our coaches are extremely approachable and no question is too insignificant. Too often I learned at the end of the season about issues or questions that could have been quickly addressed and easily resolved, if they had just been brought up earlier. Also be aware that at every group run, we will have a coach designated as a sweeper who will stick with the back of the pack to make sure everyone gets back safely. Once again, don't be afraid to ask questions or for assistance. A common thread amongst all our coaches is they truly care about seeing you succeed. We'll be introducing you to some of our coaches in upcoming episodes of our podcast. But in the meantime, let's address some basics you should understand about how the CES program works from the head coach of our running program Coach Lori.
Lori:At the beginning of the season, one of the most important communication pieces that you're 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. we look very specifically at each individual s s participant Fact Sheet to ensure that we're giving you the best training recommendation that we possibly can. When you receive those training schedules, you're going to notice that they have a name that is a color. Our Purple and Green programs are run-walk specific programs, our continuous run programs are Yellow, Red, and Blue. So we'll assign one of these training programs and 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. So you're going to get this PDF training plan, of what you're doing every day, but you're not going to know the details of how exactly to perform the workouts, open up your Training Peaks and it'll guide you through what you need to do for that workout. A good example is your PDF will say Hill workout 45 minutes, and you're like, what is that? That's where you open up your Training Peaks, and it'll guide you through what you need to do for that workout. I think sometimes when people get their training programs, they automatically look what that long mileage is, but once you get your training program you are going to see that there's kind of a prescribed thing that happens every day on that training plan. Let's talk about the group training. Unless you are virtual, there's group training workouts, so group training happens twice a week. So there's a weekday workout and there's a weekend workout. 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 training. And now talking about the weekend workouts, those runs are all about, building endurance. They're supposed to be at a nice, easy, conversational pace. 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. When you show up, there'll be a gear check. There's some restroom opportunities. Also the stores typically provide water and Gatorade at the start and the end of the workout. We suggest to you that you show up earlier rather than later, so you can get kind of the lay of the land. And then a coach will do some announcements, giving you a lot of information on what to expect for the day. So we really hope that this answered questions about what you can expect as you're coming into a new training season. There is a large coaching staff here to provide assistance.
Coach Michael:That was just a quick overview, but we go into a lot more detail of the CES program on our podcast episode titled New Member Orientation, which you could find in our archives. If you are new to CES I highly recommend you take the time to listen to that episode, as it likely addresses a lot of questions about how CES training is structured. I'll share a link to the New Member Orientation episode in the show notes. However if you subscribe to this podcast, which is available on all your favorite podcast platforms, you will be able to easily access any of our past episodes as well as automatically receive future episodes. I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to this episode. This is just the start of your journey. We have a lot of information headed your way all season long to prepare you for race day. Speaking on behalf of all our coaches. We are so excited to share what is sure to be an epic journey.