Category: iphone

I finished the LA Marathon on Sunday in 6 hours and 30 minutes. Walking the whole thing straight would’ve been faster, and I was on track for a 5 hour and 45 minute marathon, but my foot blew out in the last 4 miles. There were lots of things that almost derailed this marathon, but I’m glad I did it. All the hard work paid off this time.

Hopefully, it’s nothing more than a muscle injury and not a fracture. I’ll find out soon.

There are 4 tools that really helped me out. I’ve tried a dozen tools but these 4 turned out to be the best of the lot.

Runkeeper was by far the best for daily use. I’ve tried different apps and even got a GPS enabled watch, but Runkeeper proved itself to be quite a bargain at around $10 USD .

Next up is the free Marathon Coach app by Running Method. It’s free but shouldn’t be used as a stand alone since it’s GPS features are quite buggy. However, the synergy you get when used with Runkeeper is excellent.

Tim Ferriss’ book, The Four Hour Body, really helped me out a bit. I experimented one week by reducing the amount mileage by 75% of my midweek run and replaced it with sprint work. This sprint work was provided by AccelerateSF at Kezar Stadium. These guys are great and train you for $5 / session by experienced marathoners and track runners. The result was a fast (for me) weekend run where I ran 10 miles in 2 hours and 5 minutes vs. a previous 2 hours and 10 minutes. What’s more is that this speed gain pretty much remained with me throughout training.

Rapid carbohydrate loading after a short bout of near maximal-intensity exercise is the last piece of technology that helped me. I didn’t hit the wall at all during the LA Marathon by following this program.

There were a few mistakes I made during training:

• Be sure to keep your nutrition levels up. I had a zinc deficiency that led to an infection. I did not eat enough protein or consume enough calcium in the beginning. The requirements for these double during training.
• I think the reason I got injured was because I didn’t have the year of running that is required as a base prior to any marathon training.

Marathon training is quite the commitment but I’m glad I did it!

(I also raised money for the American Heart Association as part of my marathon participation.)