When life throws a wrench in marathon training plans, two runners rely on their coach for workout alterations, advice, and confidence about the race ahead.
In Pursuit of 26.2 is a series following two Equinox members as they train for the New York City Marathon, from their first long-distance runs to the finish line. Since early August, our athletes have been following a new personalized training program created by an Equinox Personal Run Coach, powered by Precision Run, and utilizing Equinox services to strengthen, stretch, and stabilize. Check back each week for a new installment.
Any running coach worth their salt can give you guidance on how to stay hydrated without having to lug around a water bottle. They can tell you the types of sneakers to wear for speed and arch support, the energy gels to slurp down mid-workout, and the anti-chafing creams to slather on your thighs before you hit the pavement.
But when travel plans, sudden injuries, and mental setbacks come to spoil your marathon training plans, you need a coach who has the years of experience and certifications necessary to help you make adjustments on the fly. Someone like Equinox Personal Run Coach Corky.
"Often when you have a marathon plan that doesn't have flexibility or that feedback with a coach of, ‘Okay, how do we shift things around?’ the runner is kind of left figuring it out,” says Corky. “And if they don't have the tools, the understanding of principles of stress, rest, recovery, so on and so forth, that's often where a lot of us just make rookie mistakes — myself included back in the day.”
To avoid those easily preventable mistakes, first-time marathoners Aurora Straus and Luis Colón both took advantage of Corky’s expertise as they prepared for the New York City Marathon this fall.
Before her last-minute birthday trip to Italy, 25-year-old Aurora met with Corky for a strategy session. It was late September, the marathon only seven weeks out, and Aurora couldn’t afford any more blips in her training. Enter: her coach, who can adjust her training for her flight schedule, time zone, energy levels, and mental state. The duo discussed ways to ensure Aurora stayed consistent with her workouts while abroad, planned some routes, and decided when it would be best to run on the treadmill rather than outdoors, she says.
That planning — combined with a lax itinerary — proved to be beneficial. “I think it's the most that I have been able to successfully stick to my training program this entire time,” says Aurora. “I wasn't working. The jetlag was hard but I was able to sleep as much as I wanted to. I could work out when I wanted to, and I was eating a lot of pasta, which is obviously very good for training.”
A coach can also keep you on track toward the 26.2-mile goal when the going gets tough, something Aurora knows all too well. During her Italian getaway, Aurora’s shins took a turn for the worse; the aches went from being an occasional nuisance to a constant pain, she says. To help her cope ahead of race day, Corky advised Aurora to switch to a stationary bike or elliptical when running felt painful and continue meeting with her physical therapist to get to the root cause. Hopefully, says Aurora, this creativity in training will allow her to maintain her fitness without exacerbating her symptoms.
Just like Aurora, Luis leaned on Corky for support when training wasn’t going to plan. The 32-year-old missed a scheduled Precision Run class after returning from Greece, a trip that left him jet-lagged and exhausted. A workaholic by nature, Luis began beating himself up over the slip-up. But Corky knew just what to say. “She told me that I was ahead of everything overall and that, honestly, you're going to have days where you're going to miss [workouts] or scenarios where things are stacked against you,” he says. “Sometimes it's the weather. Sometimes you're sore. It's never going to be perfect, but just accepting that and engaging with what's ahead of you is most important.”
After that quick pep talk, Corky moved on to discussing what was coming down the pipeline, including two half-marathons in October, he recalls. “I kind of love that about her energy, the approachability of it, and [the encouragement] that you still have to stay focused on what's ahead,” says Luis. “She jumped right into focusing on those half-marathons and other scenarios that honestly, in the long scheme of things, are way more important than focusing on a 45-minute interval class that I missed.”
And that reality check when the sky feels like it's falling is exactly what running coaches do best, says Corky. “A lot of people underestimate just how mentally and emotionally draining and how many highs and lows there are throughout the marathon training journey,” says Corky.
“There are a lot of times where if we have a bad run, whether it didn't feel as good as we thought it would or we didn't have the pace, it's very easy for the marathoner to start spiraling and question everything and anything,” she adds. “Often in that panic, we start to make some bad choices. We start trying to overdo it. It's amazing how one bad run overshadows the dozens of great runs that happened preceding that…Having a coach when a runner goes to a less-than-productive space is really, really helpful.”
Corky’s pragmatism and assurance will become even more valuable as race day approaches. Luis is facing a slew of work deadlines in the weeks leading up to the race, and Aurora may experience more setbacks from her injury.
“There's a potential scenario here where Corky is more confident in my ability to finish the marathon than I am,” says Aurora. “This was not a part of the scheduled programming, not being able to get through my longer runs in the last few weeks leading up to the marathon. So I'm definitely going to be leaning on her the week of [the race] for confidence that I can do it.”