I’ve been a long distance runner for years but haven’t really used more than a stopwatch /old Fitbit.

In the last 2 months, I had a major races ahead of me, with almost 5000 ft. elevation gain over like 13 miles. I attempted this race 10 years back and it didn’t go well. Sure I’m older now, but I kept asking myself: how much am I leaving on the table by not tracking my running data and refining my running plan. And can I actually finish this race without my legs giving up somewhere in the middle.

So I went all in and got an Apple Watch and figured out how to have all my data kept in one place: It’s called Fulcra, and I was basically able to store all of my running data, my current calendar info (which I’ll explain in a moment), my cardiologist’s report, and all the info around the upcoming races.

All I had to do was connect Claude, Apple Watch calendar, etc. to Fulcra and I had my very own running coach that would give me a running plan building up for the mountain half marathon. And it would tweak the recommendation each day, based on how I slept/other recovery metrics and any subjective (like days my achilles flared up.)

Importantly, it told me which zone to keep it in for each run.

It’s kind of crazy how well this ended up working. I’m no spring chicken, but my race was this Saturday and not only did I finish with strong legs, but I knocked off more than 20 minutes from my time 10 years ago.