This Gear Helped Me Run Faster Marathons in My 40s
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We usually run slower as we age. But this year, turning 43, I set a goal to run a faster marathon, and use the best technology I could find to help me train. I detail the whole journey in a long feature for WIRED. It ended up working, twice! Here's the gear that helped me on the way.
For Proper Form
You strap this little green device to the middle of your shorts—and then try to remember to take it off before you put everything in the washing machine. It measures how much your body sways when you run, the cadence and length of your stride, and how much time your feet spend on the ground. It’s a useful way to help figure out how to optimize your form and posture as you run. The speed we go basically comes down to a simple formula: fitness times form, divided by mass. Some running coaches doubt that we can really improve form, but I’m convinced we can, particularly if we have data that tells us how much energy we are spending moving forward—and how much we are wasting by bopping up and down.
For a Symmetrical Stride
You lace one of these little guys into each shoe and it measures the symmetry of your motion and the power you are generating. It can help you figure out the right shoes to run in, and whether there are inefficiencies in your stride. You can test, for example, whether you pronate more in one kind of shoe than another, or whether it takes more effort to run at a certain speed on a certain course.
For Run Tracking
This is on the higher-end of Garmin’s performance watch line. I used it to measure my resting heart rate, to accurately track runs, and as the central repository for all the data I was gathering. It would give me, for example, my TRIMP score, a measure of the total effort put into each run. It’s not entirely accurate—it predicted I would run a 2:20 marathon based, I think, on a few workouts where the GPS didn’t connect properly and had me running faster than world-record pace. But it’s by far the most accurate watch I’ve run with.
For Racing
A lot has been written about these shoes. They are light and well cushioned, and they contain a small carbon-fiber plate, shaped like a spoon, that may help return energy to you as you run. At least with me, they also seem to help with recovery. I was able to run the NYC Marathon this fall four weeks after the Chicago Marathon. Normally, four weeks after a marathon, I’m still sitting on a couch with my feet in a bucket of ice.
For Stamina
Beet juice, as I write in the article, contains nitrates, which may help with blood flow, and thus stamina. The problem is that most beet juice tastes disgusting. I experimented and eventually settled on these little bottles, which are flavored with a little lemon juice too. I would order them by the box and then drink one little bottle down each morning before breakfast.
