Two weeks to go till the LA Marathon and I have been spending most of my time tapering and googling the word “taper” so that I can remember all the negative things that come with it and be able to endure the next two weeks. I am hoping that this means that I will come out of the race sane and somewhat in tact.

Signed up and ready to go for the LA Marathon?! That makes at least two of us! I created a twtvite to have a list of people on twitter so folks know who to cheer for on race day.

I heard about the Chi Running methodology when I first started running from my training partner, Meagan. She had been running for three to four years at that point and had suffered a few injuries (knee and hip) from her last few races. Because Chi Running’s main sell was a way to run injury free and the highest efficiency, she bought the book to hopefully prevent further or recurring damage.

For a mere $99 (which is less than what you would pay for a iPod Nano) you can track calories burned, your amount of sleep, and distance traveled with a new cute sure-to-lure-iAnything-lovers-product simply called “Fitbit”. It’s a tiny device that you wear throughout the day that monitors and tracks your fitness. The device syncs up with the fitbit.com online community site which will then track and analyze all of your data.

If you’re a running enthusiast, race addict or extremely goal oriented in general, you probably keep your eye on your pace at all times. When I find myself coming back from illness or injury as much as I’m excited to be able to run again, the first week or so is usually met with a ton of frustration. Without fail, my pace is usually knocked slower by almost a minute.

Whenever I have a conversation with people about any race, training or running in general, I find myself spewing out terms that leave people with a big question mark on their foreheads. I then recall when it was not too long ago that I too was unaware of what most of the words belonging to the secret runner’s code meant.

Being born and raised in Los Angeles (by “Los Angeles” I mean LA proper) I’ve always had a natural aversion to the Valley. For those who are not familiar with the term “The Valley” it refers to any place that is a part of the San Fernando Valley in LA County (also known as known as the 818, Valle or SFV). I realized that there was a whole world of running routes just recently discovered when I finally opened up my running horizons.

Have you ever given yourself an excuse not to run – especially when it comes to a long run? It’s hard enough having to face 20 miles of road time and when it comes to having any kind of active social life, late nights, etc… getting the training runs in seem near impossible. With the LA Marathon now less than 30 days away…

If you’re living and running in the urban sprawl that is Los Angeles, you may find it difficult at times to find a good group to run with. Have no fear, I have a Google Map* of popular running clubs in Los Angeles to help avoid such excuses in the future. The map is updated as often as possible to include accurate date and time meet information. There are also notes and reviews for some of the running clubs I or other runners have tried out.

Like most people, I started running for health, fitness but most importantly, extreme vanity. When I ran my first marathon last year, I ended up gaining a ton (like 4 sizes worth) of weight and swearing off the 26.2 distance “permanently”… now that I am back for round two of the LA Marathon (and 90% back to my weight) I am just as determined (if not more so) that the marathon weight doesn’t happen again.

I just started working on my LA Marathon playlist (it takes a while longer than I thought it would to do a 5+ hour playlist) which made my mind wander to how few celebrities who live in LA are actually going to be running the LA Marathon. I mean really, only Shia LeBouf? What’s going on with the West Coast celebrities?! Music and motivation isn’t the only site that features celebrity running playlists. Here some cool ones I’ve found online that with music I’m actually likely to poach from:

One of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2010 was committing myself to cross-training at least two times a week. I’ve read all about the benefits of cross-training (injury prevention, active recovery, overall running fitness improvement, etc) and have really wanted to up my game as a runner. Running is my favorite form of exercise, so it’s been pretty difficult so far for me to find a cross training activity that is both beneficial and that I actually enjoy.

If you just PR’d at your last race or are running your very first marathon one of the most exciting things after the accomplishment (besides the finisher’s medal) is capturing the best moments on film. I have yet to meet one runner who is consistently happy with their race or finisher photos. If you are looking leave out as many horrific and traumatizing race photos from the brightroom events database here are some tips.

As road racing and distance running and all of it’s hot trends (i.e.barefoot running) are gaining popularity, people in the medical field are seeking to quantify definitive answers on the question of whether or not the human body is built for distance. Researchers at the University in Minnesota are gathering data in a pretty interesting way: make training for a marathon a class!

After a race the inevitable happens: post race depression. Now what? Well, train for the next of course! But lately I have started asking myself why? Is it volume? Is it free bling? Is it for a new PR? I’ve been conflicted the past few months on how to train/race… I love to race but after the volume I’d seen in a short amount of time, I started wondering about the quality of the racing experience as a whole and what that *really* entailed for me personally.

This was my second time running Surf City and as shocking as it was it was by *far* the best half marathon performance I have ever had. I didn’t PR, but I know that I definitely would have had my friend and I not stopped during the race to chat for 5 minutes to one of our supporters who drove from LA to Huntington Beach with some awesome signage for all the twitter runners out in the crowd. This was also my first time live tweeting during a race (I got to temporarily take over the kspacetv account to tweet pictures and observations so I am sure that slowed me down a bit as well.

You know what’s worse than not being able to sleep the night before the big race? Not being able to mentally check out whether or not you have everything ready. After having been through so many of these nights, I’ve compiled a list of must-haves here that you can use to make sure if at all possible you’re at least able to rest.

A friend of mine who is a speed demon and soon-to-be Boston Qualifier, Kerrie, shared one of her favorite track workouts with me to prep for 5K races.

The L.A. Marathon is now officially less than two months away. Although my training seems to be on track, I’m still nervous every single waking moment. I find comfort in my friends, especially those that I pull a lot of inspiration from. One person I’ve especially admired and look to during my internal running turmoil is my friend, Paul Both, an ultra-runner who is currently on similar journey of his own – running across the continental United States.

If you’ve already broken all your New Year’s Resolutions, why not start the year over by celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year (this year will be the year of the Tiger) with a good ol’ race? The Chinatown Firecracker 5k/10k is one of best local courses in Southern California – I kid you not… Imagine running over the hills of Elysian Park, parts of Downtown LA and a grand finish running the off the ramp of the 110 freeway – yup you get to run ON the freeway. I ran this race for the first time last year by myself and had the *best* time.