Since its completion in 1979, the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) has been used to store electrons and positrons ranging in energy from 2 GeV to 6 GeV. Researchers at Cornell are now preparing to use CESR to demonstrate a new beam cooling technique called optical stochastic cooling (OSC). The OSC experiment will require 1 GeV electrons, well below the lowest energy previously stored in CESR. In this dissertation, I recount some of the challenges of low-energy operation and the results of initial attempts to store 1.5 and 1.0 GeV electrons in CESR.