by Michael Dorausch, DC

Along the concrete and asphalt paths of Venice, Santa Monica, and other coastal parts of West Los Angeles, people have been increasingly turning out for early morning training runs in preparation for the March 2008 Los Angeles Marathon.

During my morning visits down to the beach I’m seeing increased numbers of people training in groups. The 22nd annual LA Marathon is taking place on March 2 of this year and those groups are likely to grow in size during the next 45 days or so.

But what if your training alone?

I’ve been running the shoreline between Marina del Rey and the Santa Monica pier for the past seven years and one of the best things I’ve ever done is purchase a GPS fitness trainer to keep track of my progress.

The one shown here is an older model known as the Garmin 201. I’ve logged hundreds of miles on it and it’s been absolutely spectacular in helping me to keep my training schedule in check.

There are newer models from Garmin, such as the 301 (which includes a heart rate monitor) and the 305 (which appears more like a wrist watch than the model shown here).

If I were to buy new one I’d likely get the 305 model since it appears so small.

I’ve written tips on marathon training in the past, and I’ve had posts about the 2006 LA marathon, the Nike women’s marathon in San Francisco, the New York City marathon 2007, and other related marathon posts. I’ve mentioned time and again about the importance of measuring one’s performance and tracking your goals. The GPS based unit has helped me improve my running times and provided all sorts of stats (like miles run in the past year) that help keep me motivated to continue moving forward.

This morning I noticed that fellow blogger Ross Dunn had the ADEO GPS Fitness Trainer on his wish list. I hadn’t seen this device before but it looks pretty snazzy. I don’t know how it compares to the Garmin but maybe Ross will get one and provide us with a review.

As a chiropractor and an avid runner, I’m not particularly crazy about running on concrete (as I see many people doing down at the beach). Make sure you are getting fitted for the appropriate type of running shoes, especially if you’re going to be impacting hard surfaces for long periods of time. I posted in the past about Adidas locations that provide orthotic foot scanning.

Have a great run!