Daily stories and posts regarding health, sport, and the outdoors.

54-Year-Old Suprabha Beckjord Runs 3,100 Miles Around Same Block
D.C.’s Suprabha Beckjord is the only woman ever to enter and complete the Sri Chimnoy Self  Transcendence 3,100 mile race in Queens, N.Y., the longest recognized race in the world. A new documentary, The Spirit of a Runner, details Beckjord’s journey to this unlikely record, showing audiences [...]

Get past your political biases and embrace a “bike-partisan” agenda. You’ll definitely hear that new outdoor buzz phrase at the National Bike Summit, which rolls back into Washington, D.C., for the tenth straight year from March 9-11. The League of American Bicyclists’ annual bike advocacy event combines two days of educational workshops on topics like [...]

Elite Ultra Runner Jeremy Ramsey sheds pounds to chase a legend
“In all things, I try to practice moderation,” says Lynchburg ultra marathon runner Jeremy Ramsey, who during his peak training will log over one hundred miles a week. After finishing fifth at this year’s Mount Masochist 50 Mile Trail Run, Ramsey and I sat down [...]

In 2006, Jonathan Basham set the speed record for completing the 500-mile Colorado Trail. The monumental endurance accomplishment should have only been reason to celebrate. Basham had just run across the rugged Rockies at an average elevation of 10,000 feet for eight and a half straight days faster than anyone before him. But when he [...]

Biscuit Run—1,200 acres located in Albemarle County just south of Charlottesville’s city limits—was slated to become the largest planned residential development in the county’s history with 3,100 new homes. The state scooped up the idyllic swath of forested land—with the Biscuit Run stream as its centerpiece—for the bargain price of $9.8 million from developer Forest [...]

Shenandoah Mountain wilderness advocates and mountain bikers seek common ground for the common good.
Shenandoah Mountain—a 73-mile ridge forming the easternmost part of the Allegheny Mountains—is one of the largest tracts of wild land left in the Eastern United States. For years, groups have squabbled over the best way to protect it.
“Shenandoah Mountain is very special,” [...]

Think that bundle of joy will ruin your running habit? Think again. According to a 2007 study published in the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention, walking or running with a stroller burns 18 to 20 percent more calories than walking or running solo, even on flat ground. A Texas A&M study found similar results [...]

River activists fought so you could take the ultimate whitewater thrill ride. Known by many as the most difficult river in the Southeast, the Cheoah River’s intense class IV-V+ rapids will be open to paddlers and rafters on select dam release dates this spring. American Whitewater reached a re-licensing agreement in 2005 with the Alcoa [...]

VO2 Max is the measurement of the maximum rate at which an athlete’s body is able to consume oxygen. In other words, it puts a quantitative number on how hard you can breathe. A high VO2 rate has a direct correlation with distance-running performance. The higher your VO2 max, the faster you can run long [...]

2,500
Miles that Katie Spotz, a graduate of Warren Wilson College, N.C., is currently rowing solo across the Atlantic Ocean .
100
Estimated number of days Spotz could spend alone at sea
22
Current age of Spotz, making her the youngest person ever to row an ocean
50
The size of wave her custom-made, self-righting boat can withstand
120
Hours in a 10-day [...]

No, not the stuff that stops male-pattern baldness. We’re talking about the burgeoning sport of rogaining, which combines orienteering with ultra running. Teams of two to five navigate a course with map and compass, hitting a number of checkpoints as fast as they can. While standard orienteering events can be as short as a couple [...]

The Green River Race By the Numbers
The 14th annual Green River Race was held last November, with a number of record-setting moments. The race is the most well-respected extreme kayaking race in the country. Here’s how the event shook out in 2009.
1: Number of gorilla suits spotted in the crowd.
2: Number of open canoes [...]

Off Road Trails, a mountain biking guide to Tennessee
The full-color glossy guide features 31 trail systems organized by city (Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville, Tri-Cities). Each system has fold-out topo maps, high quality pictures, and exhaustively researched descriptions. Tanasi, Big South Fork, Raccoon Mountain—all of the major fat tire destinations are detailed, including a couple of [...]

For more than two decades, Skip Brown has been taking pictures for adventure magazines like Outside, Men’s Journal, National Geographic, Runner’s World, and Blue Ridge Outdoors. Along the way, he’s mountain biked Copper Canyon, Mexico; kiteboarded the Columbia River Gorge; paddled the Congo River; and boarded the British Columbia backcountry—all while balancing family life in [...]

Late in October, President Obama signed the 2010 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, a massive package of legislation that invests $32.24 billion in our public lands. Much of that money will go to managing our existing federal lands’ infrastructure, but some cash has been set aside to expand our public real estate portfolio. Here are [...]