Month: March 2019

More fat shoes, farewell to Flanagan, and the continued dominance of Kipchoge

Winston Churchill once said that it was ill-advised to prophesize in advance—that it was “much better policy” to do so after an event had already taken place. I couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately, as with other Churchillian talents—like working in bed and drinking scotch before noon—not everyone can pull off the art of making predictions after the fact.

Count me among the suckers who still try to guess what the future may hold. Fortunately, rather than anticipating the actions of foreign armies or rebellious colonies, I only make predictions about marathon-related stuff. Among other things, there’s a lot less pressure to be right.

Here’s what I think we can expect for 2019. Feel free to ring up your bookie, but if things don’t go as predicted, don’t hold me accountable.

Eliud Kipchoge Will Win Another Marathon Major

Really bold, I know. After breaking the marathon world record by over a minute last September in Berlin, the 34-year-old Kenyan was named #2 on ESPN’s list of most dominant athletes of 2018 and received the IAAF Athlete of the Year award. Both of these accolades feel laughably inadequate when it comes to summarizing the Boss Man’s dominance over 26.2 miles; annual awards are mundane, almost by definition—somebody is going to win every year.

But Kipchoge’s 2:01:39 marathon was a once-in-a-generation type of performance; it was, as Alex Hutchinson wrote for this website, “a stunning 78 seconds off the previous world record, by far the largest margin for more than half a century in an era of supposedly diminishing returns.”

I don’t know whether we will see Kipchoge break his own record in 2019. I kind of doubt it, since even he can’t control the weather. But I do know that when he races, he will win.

Shalane Flanagan Will Retire After Running Boston One More Time

Another daring prognostication! After the American professional fields for the 2019 Boston Marathon were released earlier this month, one name was conspicuously absent. “Where is Shalane?” LetsRun.com asked, noting that the Massachusetts native was not slated to race Boston for the fifth (and presumably final) time. That could still change in the coming weeks. I expect Flanagan will defy expectations and decide to close out her running career by taking one more crack at her favorite race. But that will be it. I may be contradicting myself here, but I don’t see Flanagan running another Olympic Trials. At her level, you don’t commit the Trials unless you are also committing to compete in the Olympics if you make the team—and Tokyo 2020 is a year and a half away.

There Will Be More Fat Shoes

In 2018, Nike launched the second version of its obscenely expensive and highly coveted racing shoe, the Vaporfly 4%. As more evidence emerged that the Vaporfly did in fact improve running economy, there was growing speculation on what this meant for the running shoe industry as a whole.

“I think if it’s really gonna be like the wetsuits in swimming,” Saucony-sponsored Molly Huddle said in November in response to the rise of the Vaporfly. “It’s either going to be something everyone starts making or it’ll be wiped out of the sport. So I think we’re still kind of in that tipping point to see which way it goes.”

Given Nike’s clout in the sport and the fact that the 4%s are already ubiquitous, I don’t see the shoe being “wiped out.” (Also, to once again pilfer a line from The Hutch, if you’re going to ban a shoe, “you have to have a clear idea of what it is that’s objectionable—beyond the mere fact that the shoes seem to work.”) Rather, I expect more companies to come out with their own version of foam-heavy racers.

More Runners Will Wear Those Ghastly Sleeve Things

If you watched Kipchoge break the tape in Berlin, you might have noticed that he was wearing arm sleeves (arm warmers?), even though it was a relatively mild day. Meanwhile, back in April, Mo Farah was sporting a similar accessory at the London Marathon, despite record heat. I remember being totally baffled by Farah’s unseasonal apparel choice—and I wasn’t the only one—but eventually just figured he was wearing the sleeves because he thought they looked cool.

I predict that the running sleeve will proliferate among hot shot amateurs in 2019, for better or worse. More broadly, I think we will see a continued uptick in the accessorization of running; KT tape and nipple guards are only the tip of the iceberg.

OTQ Will Be the New BQ

Okay, I might be overshooting a little on this one. But (and speaking of hot shot amateur runners) at this year’s California International Marathon, a whopping 99 women and 53 men ran Olympic Trials qualifying times.

CIM may be an unusually quick race, but there does seem to be an uptick of non-pro athletes seriously getting after it. Or is it just that the sub-elite contingent has been getting more visibility thanks to social media and apparel companies like Tracksmith or publications like TEMPO who have made the competitive amateur essential to their brand? I’m too far inside the bubble to know for sure, but I think we will see more and more regular folks running very fast in 2019.  

It’s never a bad time to re-evaluate your digital addiction

A lot of cable, Internet, and social media news is a bit like candy: You know you probably shouldn’t indulge in it but there’s just something about it that’s so enticing. So you tell yourself you’re “going to have just one”—one minute, one article, one political Tweet or Facebook comment—but the next thing you know it’s been over an hour staring into a screen and you feel some combination of gross, sad, and maybe even ashamed. No different than wasting calories on junk food, you get upset with yourself for wasting time on junk content. I could have been outside, you tell yourself. I’m never doing this again! Yet it’s not long before the cycle repeats itself.

This cycle sucks. I know because I’ve been swept up in its vortex more times than I’d like to admit. Evidently, so have lots of people. Data from the Pew Research Center on Journalism and Media shows that combined revenue—which is a good proxy for time spent on content—for Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC has nearly tripled since 2006 and doubled since 2009. Yikes.

But even so, we need not despair. There is a way to break the habit.

Jim Davies, a professor of Cognitive Science at Carleton University, says that everything about the news—from the dramatic headlines to the riveting background music to the colors on the screen (lots of red, which experts agree is one of, if not the most, emotionally charged color)—is engineered to prey on our hardwired impulses to pay attention to what seems exciting and important. The manner in which the news is presented—be it on television or the social feeds on our phone—often triggers the release of dopamine, a powerful neurochemical that tags experiences as meaningful and makes us want to seek them over and over again, Davies explains in his book, Riveted.

“High dopamine makes everything look significant,” he writes. “The news needs a fear to monger, regardless of how important it is. It deemphasizes the routine and constant, and brings irregularities to our attention.” The more compelling the drama, he writes, the more we’ll be sucked in.

Consider, for example, a recent story that overtook Twitter for a morning in late October and was covered by most major news outlets. Two girls, ages 11 and 12, at a middle school in Florida, were caught plotting to murder their classmates and drink their blood. Pretty gruesome stuff, right? But here’s the thing: They were caught. No one was hurt. Like the gawker effect in traffic, we can’t help ourselves from slowing down and staring at the wreckage when what we should be doing is getting out of the way so emergency crews can do their jobs.

What, if anything, do we get out of trending stories? Again, here’s Davies:

“Some activities are pleasurable and doing them is inherently rewarding. Others are difficult to do, but pay off with happiness or pleasure in the future. Some other things are important to do, even if you never get much from it. I worry that the news has none of the characteristics that make something worthwhile. It’s not fun, it causes anxiety, it gives you a warped sense of reality, and people who watch it are rarely going to DO anything with the information they get… So why do people engage in it? Its sensational nature makes it feel important when it’s not.”

Unfortunately, simply telling yourself you aren’t going to dump time into trending topics on social media or watch cable news probably won’t work. Your logical brain is no match for the emotional pull of all that dopamine. According to Judson Brewer, psychiatrist, associate professor at Brown University and author of the book The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love—Why We Get Hooked And How We Can Break Bad Habits, you’ve got to give the news a taste of its own medicine; you’ve got to feel your way out.

Brewer, who studies and treats patients for addiction, writes that every abusive substance or experience “hijacks the dopamine system.” In order to get any addiction under control, Brewer writes, you’ve got to re-train your brain. Doing this requires thinking about both your craving (in this case, to check and sink time into the news) and if you give into it, the consequences (how you feel after).

“Each time you ride the wave of a craving [without giving in],” he writes, “you stop reinforcing the habit.” For the times that you do succumb to a craving, if you pay attention to how you feel after, “you move from knowledge to wisdom, from knowing in your head that this is bad for you to knowing it in your bones.” These two skills work in tandem: the more deeply you feel your disgust after indulging in trending topics, the easier it becomes to ride your next craving without getting sucked in. In essence, you are retraining your brain to realize your urge to check the news is noise—not signal—and it’s an urge that you don’t need to act on because the “rewards” of doing so aren’t really rewards at all.

It’s worth clarifying that I’m not suggesting ditching news altogether. The free press is a large part of what makes this country work. I read the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Economist regularly. And Twitter can be effective in certain situations. During the recent California wildfires, Twitter was the best source of real-time info for many people evacuating.

But what I, and lots of people who study this, are suggesting is that the 24/7 cable news cycle and much of what trends as news on social media does a lot more harm than good. It sucks people in and creates the illusion that you’re doing something meaningful when you aren’t. Instead of worrying about illness you can exercise. Instead of despairing about the political situation and making comments on Facebook you can contact your elected officials. Instead of feeling awful for people in unfortunate circumstances you can volunteer.

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Brad Stulberg (@Bstulberg) writes Outside’s Do It Better column and is the author of the bestselling book Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success.

Don’t look down (and other lessons)

There was hardly enough room for two cars to pass each other at 50 mph, let alone a car and something much bigger than a car. On a curvy, narrow road with no shoulder (and often no center line) on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, I was a little gripped. Driving on the left side of the road, manual transmission with the shifter and pedals switched from American cars I’m used to driving, you might say it was far from a relaxing drive along the coast. Every time a car approached from the other direction on the really tight parts, I felt my arms and core tense up, and then relax again as the car passed.

But then, of course, a bus came flying around a curve. Were its wheels on the center line? Oh, they’re over the center line. This’ll be exciting. Don’t hit the bus, Brendan, don’t hit the bus. Instead of watching the bus’s tires to see how far they were in my (already narrow) lane, I stared at the edge of the road on my side, hoping my left tire had a few more inches of asphalt over there. I probably held my breath. Don’t look at the bus don’t look at the bus don’t look at the bus. The bus passed.

But then, later, more buses. Trucks. We were on the island for five days, and every day was a new thrill for me, in the driver’s seat. I never hit anything with that pristine little rental car, because someone a long time ago told me the secret to skiing in the trees: don’t look at what you don’t want to hit. If you don’t want to hit a tree, don’t look at the trees. Your skis will go where you look.

This idea, I found, also works in mountain biking, and in life in general: look where you want to go. Obsessing over all the bad things that could happen doesn’t mean you’re going to run into those bad things (like when you’re skiing trees), but it’s a waste of time. It’s better to obsess over the things you want to happen (and work to make them happen).

We often think of skiing as a break from our normal life, as a vacation. But if it’s worth doing, it’s probably worth learning from. I started thinking about all the things I’ve learned from skiing—the value of earning your turns, you wear a helmet not because you’re a bad skier but because other people are bad skiers, don’t try to teach your partner/spouse to ski, the value of always trying to make better turns—and thought other people might have some ski-gained life wisdom as well. So I asked my friends on Facebook. Here are some of their answers.

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“How to live in the moment. And embrace it. As humans, I think we rarely do that. Also, on the chairlift, how to listen to hear, not respond. Lot to learn if you just let people talk.” —Peter Kray

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“The longer you stare over the edge, the harder it gets to actually drop in.” —Danielle Tarloff

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“Skiing has taught me a key principal of safe urban bike commuting (and general situational awareness): Head on a swivel! Keeping as close to 360 visibility at all times by constantly looking around is important when skiers and snowboards are bombing downhill from behind you, just like cars speeding past on the road. I bet you that bike commuters who also ski are in less accidents than bike commuters who do not.” —Jaeger Shaw

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“You should always trust your gut. When it’s telling you not to do something, it’s usually right.” —Kristina Ciari

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“Complaining about the weather is a waste of energy. Just smile about it. You can’t get hurt going fast—it’s the sudden stop that gets you. And nobody cares if you’re accomplished at X and they value Y.” —Ben White

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“During first lesson, my instructor said, ‘Don't stare down the whole mountain. It’s intimidating. Just look at where you are standing and do what I tell you. When we get to the bottom, you can look back UP the mountain and be proud.’ Man. Has that turned out to be valuable life advice.” —Barbara Neff

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“Here’s what skiing has taught me to apply to the rest of my life:

Happiness = Reality-Expectations.

I went skiing in Japan a few years ago with my husband, it was everything they say it should be. So, two years later, I brought a few friends back to Japan with me. I had inflated what skiing in Japan was like and then over-inflated that expectation to them. When we arrived and there was 2-3 inches of snow and somewhat warm temperatures, we were all super bummed. But how stupid is that? We were with our best friends, in an incredible place, in what on any other day would have been super fun conditions, yet, we had chalked it up to be something magical and were disappointed when it wasn’t. It’s a tough practice, but I’ve learned to set those expectations aside and just remind myself that I am there for the adventure, no matter what happens, and that I can find nuggets of happiness anywhere.” —Sam Kilgore

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“Backcountry skiing taught me to slow down and communicate with others. To speak up and often to keep that door open regarding decisions and risk.” —Dan Ives

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“Get excited about what’s next, not fearful.

The difference between adventure/fun and an epic/catastrophe is having a partner. Suffering is a solitary, singular venture. Comedy is community perspective. Think about it, hiking a ridgeline in a whiteout, wind blowing a bajillion miles an hour is a brutal shitshow on your own. But with a pal, it’s a ‘what the hell are we doing here’ giggle fest. Same is true in life.

Also, don’t ration your passion. Express and trumpet your happiness, your stoke. If you’re having fun, tell those around you. Psyched on the line you’re skiing? Whoop-n-holler during and high five after. Stoked that you just landed that job, paid your bills, made yourself dinner, went on a great date with that special somebody? Deploy your barbaric yawp.” —Paddy O’Connell

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“Ski the turn you’re in. Regardless of how far or hard something is, you can only do the thing you’re doing at that moment. Doing those small things, like a single ski turn, over and over are what make up big things, whether it’s work or an adventure. You need to be mindful of where you are in the ever present moment. Secondly: You have to make the turn. You can’t be passive. If you sit back and let stuff happen to you, you end up getting bounced around, go off-course, and it can end badly. You need to be dynamic, take control, and commit over and over.” —Alicia MacLeay

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“As a ‘recovering’ tele skier, every time I thought I had my tele turn perfected I found the hard way that I didn’t. Same with life. Get back up and keep working to get better.” —Patrick Stoneking

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“When I was quitting my last job, I kept thinking about standing on the edge of a cornice before jumping. Everything I’d done to that point had prepared me to jump: I’d jumped off little bumps, then rocks, then jumps, I’d practiced landing and knew that even if I fell (because I had before) I could pick myself up, brush myself off, and laugh about it later. I knew the snow was soft, but ultimately I still have to take that deep breath and slide forward. Quitting my job felt the same, standing on the edge, having an idea of what my future could feel like but not knowing for sure, and having the confidence that I’d be okay no matter how I landed. It was scary to jump, but jumping turned out to be the most important thing I ever could have done.” —Elizabeth Williams

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“Backcountry skiing and splitboarding have taught me to plan everything better, to scope the whole scene and be prepared for everything. My example: being in too big of a rush to get to the toilet without scoping the whole scene and not having TP …” —Reid Pitman

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“One thing I've learned through skiing and other adventures like rock climbing, is to take risks and be less scared. The bad outcome is usually not nearly as bad as you envision.” —Russ Rizzo

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“I’ve fully embraced the mantra ‘the last one down's having the most fun.’ Sliding down snowy mountains is just fun, and life should be too. So don’t take this shit so seriously.” —Maro LeBlance

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“#1: Don’t leave good snow for the chance of better snow. This is not the opposite of ‘you deserve better’ or ‘treat yo’ self.’ It’s more about taking the moment to appreciate what you’ve already worked for, and how good you’ve got it. I think Moses may have said this first as don’t covet your neighbor’s wife.

#2: Happiness in the moment is directly correlated to the expectations you set previously, and you’re 100 percent in control of your expectations. The only shitty ski days I’ve had are when I just ‘knew’ it was gonna be a sweet powder day with tons of vert, and then it wasn’t. I’ve also had amazing ski days of 1,000-feet vert in the rain, because I was expecting 500. This works for buying houses, getting jobs, cooking dinners, etc.

#3: Skin tracks are better when you keep your chin up and look around, keep your heart rate low enough to breathe, and make your kick-turns razor sharp. AKA, don’t burn out and take the time to do a good job you’re proud of, or else the reward from your job won’t even be worth it.” —Peter Wadsworth

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“Even something as fun as skiing can very dangerous—it will kill you if you’re not super careful and take the time to understand the dynamics of the medium on which you are playing.” —Graham Zimmerman

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“While being the best is fun, it’s not always the most important. Knowing that someone (or lots of someones) can send it harder and better but having the courage to do it alongside them anyway can be just as rewarding.” —Claire Rabun Storrs

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“When things get too fast and out of control, sit down.” —James Larkin

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“If you’re not falling, you’re not learning anything.” —Drew DeMarie

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“Things are not always as they appear. The Imperial Express Superchair looks insane but once you get up to the top, it’s not that bad. Conversely, after that run, the Horseshoe Bowl doesn't look scary at all until you drop in and ask ‘WTF am I supposed to do now?’ because it’s so steep.” —Joe Engels

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“It’s nice to have a sandwich with you.” —Mike SanClements

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“What has cost you more in life, patience or impatience?” —Rob Coppolillo

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“There are a lot of ways to enjoy the snow. Not all of them are the same way you enjoy the snow. Other people choosing to enjoy something you love but in a different way is ok. It even can make it better. Skiers would have never had halfpipes and snow parks without snowboarders. So moral of the story: let other people enjoy life. They’re probably making your life richer for being around them.” —Jesse Finch Gnehm

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“Backcountry skiing has taught me a ton about life. Primarily the uphill part. It’s relatable to life in that nothing just happens. You don’t just have this divine moment where you’re able to say you’re at the top. It’s small continual steps that get you there, that came by planning, working your ass off in whatever the conditions may have been, and keeping a positive mindset that you’d make it. I guess the flip side of it all is that as soon as you’re to the top it’s only a matter of time till you’re working on something else.” —Andrew Petersen

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There’s a fine line between dialing back exercise during the holidays and losing your fitness altogether

The holidays are here. It’s peak off-season time. You want to relax and recover—both physically and mentally—but not so much that it will take you the better part of next year to work your way back to where you finished this one. It’s about threading the needle.

In behavioral science, there’s something called the what-the-hell effect (really!). It describes situations where you’ve been so rigid and disciplined that when you give in just a little, you can’t help but decide you might as well go all the way: I already ate one piece of cheesecake. What the hell, I might as well eat the whole thing. Two bourbons tasted good and warmed my chest. What the hell, I might as well have four. As a rule, you want to avoid this effect. You definitely don’t want all of December to be one long what the hell.

The internet will be buzzing with articles and essays and videos and strategies on how to get through the holidays. My advice: Ignore it all. What is supposed to be a celebratory time of year shouldn’t seem daunting. Just follow these basic principles and you’ll be fine.

Do Something Active Every Morning

What you do first thing sets the tone for the day. If you move your body, you’ll both feel good and send yourself a visceral message that you care about feeling good. This will help you make smart decisions later in the day.

It doesn’t have to be much, says Michael Joyner, an internationally acclaimed expert on human performance. “A rule of thumb I use for the holidays is to get up and do 30 minutes of something active first thing,” he says. “The only goal is not to go backwards, or at least not too far. A few days, or even a week, of barely doing anything is fine—so long as you do something.”

If your body is beat down from a long year of training, even just stretching or light yoga goes a long way. This is every bit as much about keeping some semblance of a routine and the message you are sending to your brain—“I care about feeling good, so let’s not go too crazy later”—as it is about what you’re doing for your body.

When You Let Yourself Go, Savor the Experience

“We know from research that happiness is not just in the moment,” says Kelly McGonigal, a psychologist at Stanford University and author of The Willpower Instinct. “We derive maximum pleasure and meaning from the things we can look forward to, including the planning and anticipating, and look back on, including talking about it with people we shared the experience with or even just revisiting it in our memory.” Inhaling a bunch of cookies at the office is not the same thing as baking them with family and friends and then eating them over conversation and tea. Pounding shots of whiskey isn’t the same thing as sipping it while listening to your favorite music and reclining in a comfortable chair by the fire. Choose the latter, McGonigal says. Doing so will extend the joy you get from the experience.

Don’t Judge Yourself

There is an elegant Buddhist parable that teaches you to “not let the arrow hit you twice.” The first arrow—be it a negative thought, feeling, event, or situation—you can’t always control. And even if you could, sometimes you simply drop the ball. But you can control the second arrow, or your reaction to the first one. So often, this takes the form of denial, resistance, judgment, and loathing. It’s often the second arrow that hurts worse and prevents you from doing anything wise about the first one.

If you overeat or overdrink or get too in depth on politics with your grumpy uncle, the worst thing you can do is beat yourself up for it. Research shows that judging yourself for a behavior you regret makes you more likely to repeat that behavior in the future, because it becomes an escape from feeling the shame that you laid onto yourself. Don’t let the arrow hit you twice. If you mess up, acknowledge that you messed up and then let it go.

Set a Deadline, and Be Patient upon Your Return

Pick a day on which you’ll get back into your rhythm. For most of us, this is January 1 or 2. But here’s the thing: Don’t expect yourself to just magically snap back, physically or mentally. Reestablishing your groove takes time. It’s helpful to think of the holiday season as taking a few steps back now so you can move forward over the long term. “Giving yourself some slack without guilt can help you renew your passion or commitment with a sense of enthusiasm,” McGonigal says.

Also, a word to the wise from personal experience: When you are getting back into things, be patient. Resist the temptation to engage in what I call “panic training,” or suddenly putting forth heroic efforts to try forcing yourself back into prime fitness overnight. This road leads in one direction: to injury, illness, and subsequently worse fitness.

Brad Stulberg (@Bstulberg) writes Outside’s Do It Better column and is the author of the bestselling book Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success.

Keep it simple. Consistency is key. Get out of your own way.

The past year in health and human performance was pretty wild. Des Linden became the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon in more than 30 years. Eliud Kipchoge followed his dazzling sub-two-hour exhibition marathon attempt by setting a new official world record, going 2:01:39 for the distance. Mental health became a more open topic of discussion, in the world at large and also in the world of sports, in no small part thanks to Kevin Love, DeMar DeRozan, Shane Larkin, and a handful of other NBA stars who opened up about their experiences with anxiety, depression, and OCD.

In no particular order, here are the top themes of 2018, along with the essays and articles that explored them.

Mental-Health Battles Are Universal

Mental illness can happen to anyone, including me. At the end of last year, I was blindsided by obsessive-compulsive disorder. The cognitive dissonance and subsequent distress caused by feeling like I was falling apart on the inside, while appearing fine on the outside, was too much to bear, so I wrote about my experience. Doing so—along with therapy, medication, and exercise—was integral to my recovery, as was community and a sense of belonging. I quickly learned that I’m not alone. Many in the health and human performance community are either experiencing or have experienced mental illness. And many have gotten better.

Read More

• “When a Stress Expert Battles Mental Illness”
• “Athletes Share Their Mental Health Coping Strategies”
• “Lifting Weights Helps Ease Anxiety and Depression”
• “Motivation Is Overrated” 

Consistency Is Key

We saw some breakthrough performances in 2018 (see Linden and Kipchoge), but none happened overnight. They all resulted from years and years of consistency. It turns out that the best performers aren’t consistently great, but they are great at being consistent. They show up day in and day out and put in the work. They train by applying the right amount of stress followed by the right amount of rest and recovery. They repeat this pattern over and over and over again. Consistency compounds.   

Read More

• “What Lies Behind Every ‘Breakthrough’ Performance”
• “The Equation That Will Make You Better at Everything”
• “The Case for Not Changing a Thing”
• “Shalane Flanagan on How to Achieve Peak Performance”

Keep It Simple

Health and fitness are almost always made more complex than they need to be. Sure, if you are in the top 1 percent, the details are crucial. But for the rest of us, the best programs are often the simplest. Exhibit A: You could summarize the federal government’s 2018 report on health and fitness in just nine words—Move your body often, sometimes hard, every bit counts.

Read More

• “The 9-Word Ultimate Fitness Manifesto”
• “Walking Might Be the Best Exercise There Is”
• “8 Rules to Do Everything Better”

Get Out of Your Own Way

The great paradox of peak performance is that it happens as a result of trying really hard and then not trying at all. You’ve got to log the hard efforts with dedication and deep focus. This gets you within striking distance of a breakthrough. But once you’re there, the best thing you can do is to just let go—stop trying to make peak performance happen and let it happen instead. As the famous track and field coach Bud Winter said, “Relax and win.”

Read More

• “It’s OK to be Good and Not Great”
• “Want to Perform Better? Play to Win.”
• “The Case for Lowering Your Expectations.”

Thanks for reading the column this year. I look forward to continuing these conversations into 2019. If you have any feedback, questions, or topics you want to see covered, hit me up on Twitter.

Brad Stulberg (@Bstulberg) writes Outside’s Do It Better column and is the author of the bestselling book Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success.

Planet-friendly food doesn’t have to break the bank

If you’ve ever wavered between two equally sized, nearly identical boxes of strawberries at the grocery store and opted not to pay an extra $2 for an “organic” sticker, you’re not alone. In a perfect world, we’d all eat organic produce, local animal products, and sustainably harvested seafood while avoiding wasteful packaging and eating a balanced diet. But planet-friendly eating typically comes with a hefty price tag.

According to the World Wildlife Foundation, your eating habits are responsible for roughly a quarter of your personal carbon footprint, and your decisions at the grocery store can profoundly lessen your impact on the planet on a local and global level. And there are plenty of ways to eat ethically without going into debt. Here are some tips for where to start.

Buy Local Meat Directly from the Farm

A growing number of small farms sell ethically raised meat in bulk, which guarantees you’ll always have local meat on hand at a lower cost than buying from your local farmer’s market. A half-cow can feed two people for nearly a year for roughly $1,100. While that price might seem extravagant, the cost breaks down to about $7 per pound (though costs vary from farm to farm). For comparison, ground beef, which has a lower cost per pound than any other cut of meat, goes for around $10 a pound when you don’t buy in bulk. When you pick up your half-cow, you’ll get a mix of different cuts and plenty of ground meat. A lot of farmers will remove the offal and stew bones, but you can keep them and make your own nutrient-dense stews and broths. For a little more variety, find a friend to go halfsies—if you buy a cow and a friend buys a pig, you can swap cuts of meat. If you’re not ready to commit to a half-cow, some farms offer quarter-cows at a slightly higher price per pound.

Even if you live in a city, there’s likely a small farm within a couple hours’ drive. Full Moon Farms, for example, is located two hours from New York City and sells direct-to-consumer cows, pigs, chicken, and eggs. When you choose a farm, be sure that their animals are antibiotic- and hormone-free, grass fed, and pasture raised. If you need extra storage space, chest freezers are reasonably priced and create space to preserve other bulk buys, like seasonal produce.

Buy in Bulk

The price-per-ounce drops when you opt for bulk dried goods instead of canned beans, small quick-cook rice bags, and single-serve oatmeal. You’ll save enough money to choose fair-trade, organic products and still spend less than you would on nonorganic, smaller-packaged versions. For instance, a bag of dried organic black beans costs the same per ounce ($0.19) as canned nonorganic black beans—and that ounce will expand to about four ounces when cooked. Making the switch also means you have less packaging waste to contend with. Bulk-buying often comes with a health bonus as well—canned beans can be high in sodium, and single-serve oatmeal regularly includes added sugar.

Shop Optimally

Aim to buy organic for the “Dirty Dozen”—the most pesticide-ridden produce, according to the Environmental Working Group, which includes strawberries, potatoes, and tomatoes—and go generic for the rest. Discount grocery stores like Aldi, Trader Joe’s, and Sprouts can be great places to buy from the corresponding “Clean 15” list, which includes avocados, asparagus, and broccoli. The produce items listed there contain low levels of pesticides, meaning the nonorganic options are less damaging to your body and the planet. Additionally, try to buy produce that’s in season, as it’s more likely to be locally sourced rather than flown in. (Check out the USDA’s seasonal produce guide.)

Grow Your Own

If you have a backyard and live in a temperate climate, take advantage of the opportunity to plant your own vegetable and herb garden. Even in a tiny apartment, you can have a thriving herb garden going year-round and small fruit-bearing plants on your balcony in summer months. Leafy greens like arugula and spinach can grow indoors, even through winter. Rebel Gardens offers starter packs of organic seeds to get your garden going, and new products like Glowpear’s planters make it almost impossible to kill your plants, thanks to self-watering technology. Bonus: Research has shown that indoor plants offer a psychological boost that makes you feel happier and more productive.

Join a CSA

Community supported agriculture (CSA) is an inexpensive way to make sure you’re eating your veggies. When you join a CSA, you get a regular delivery of local, seasonal vegetables right to your door for a set price. You’re almost like a shareholder: You gain ownership of a small part of that farm’s output. For a medium-size box, expect to spend around $20 to $40 per weekly delivery, but costs vary by farm. Not all CSAs are created equal, so do your research before picking one. They offer varying commitments to organic and ethical produce and livestock. For instance, Terra Firma Farm in San Francisco is one of the only CSAs that offers 95 percent organic produce.

Embrace Some Canned Alternatives

Fresh, sustainably sourced seafood is rarely cheap unless you catch it yourself. Canned fish can be a great option. There are plenty of healthy, ethical offerings at reasonable prices. Sustainably harvested wild-caught salmon from Wild Planet, for example, costs roughly $11 per pound, less than half the price of wild-caught fresh salmon fillets. And you don’t have to sacrifice flavor: Canned salmon makes a great replacement for fresh in salmon burgers, as a salad topper, or tossed in a pasta.

DIY It

You can avoid single-serve packaging even when you’re reaching for quick, easy fuel. Allen Lim’s book Feed Zone Portables offers recipes for making your own ride, run, or hike snacks. Reduce packaging by wrapping your bars in a reusable beeswax wrapper or using reusable containers in place of a plastic bag. If you’re the endurance type, siphon real maple syrup into a reusable gel flask instead of buying single-serve gels. An ounce of organic maple syrup costs around $0.75, while a single-serve gel is around $1.30—and there are plenty of small-scale, family-run maple syrup outfits out there.

This list has been checked twice for your convenience

One of the greatest things about cycling is that you can spend as much or as little money as you want on it. In fact, once you’ve got the bike, it’s pretty much free to ride it, unless you’ve got an expensive Gran Fondo addiction or something.

Similarly, when the holidays roll around, you don’t need to spend a fortune to delight the cyclist in your life with a gift. Forget the $2,000 carbon wheelset. Here are a few gifts you can buy with the tiny balance sitting in that Paypal account you forgot you had.

Socks ($15 to $20)

Ordinarily, when it comes to uninspired gifts, nothing underwhelms like a pair of socks. It’s the present that says, “You exist, and you have feet.” Cyclists, however, get genuinely excited about socks: they’re our “pieces of flair,” and sock choice is really the only way we get to express ourselves stylistically (unless you count really bad calf tattoos), especially if we’re on a team and all have to dress the same.

Of course you can’t just get your favorite cyclist a pack of regular old tube socks and call it good; this is cycling, so they have to be special socks—and by special I mean more expensive. Still, even a really sweet pair of cycling socks only costs about as much as two cups of coffee…well, okay, that special coffee that cyclists drink, but even so you’re getting off pretty easy here.

Inner Tubes ($5 to $10)

Hey, not all gifts have to be dazzling: sometimes you’re just looking for a cheap, practical little stocking stuffer. To that end, why not give the gift of butyl? See, when you’re a cyclist you can never have too many inner tubes, and while it may seem a bit cold and impersonal to give them as gifts, just remember you’re talking about people who get excited about socks for chrissakes.

Plus, in a way an inner tube is an even more meaningful gift, since when was the last time a sock saved you from being stranded 90 miles from home? (That was a rhetorical question, though please feel free to address your epic “How My Left Sock Saved My Life” pitch to Outside’s features department.)

Just make sure you get the right size and valve type, and that your gift recipient doesn’t ride tubeless. Or, if they do ride tubeless, you can always buy them a bottle of sealant instead, which is seasonally appropriate as it’s exactly the same color and consistency of egg nog. (Warning: do not attempt to drink sealant—or egg nog for that matter.)

A Tool Roll ($35 and Up)

Looking for a more personal gift? Something special, perhaps even handmade? An elegant yet practical item that they’ll carry with them at all times and think of you whenever they use it? Well, if you were shopping for a normal person you might get them a wallet or a handbag. However, this is bikes we’re talking about, so the nearest equivalent is a really fine tool roll.

Sure, a saddlebag will let you carry the basics, but with a tool roll you can practically carry enough stuff to rebuild your entire bicycle, and you can do so stylishly and unobtrusively. Plus, they’re far classier: tool rolls are to saddle bags as crystal tumblers are to Dixie cups.

The Gift of Smugness ($25 and Up)

This may blow your mind, but lots of people work really hard to make cycling better for the rest of us, and despite what you may have heard they’re not all underwritten by George Soros. Does your mountain biker support IMBA? Is your bike commuter a member of the local advocacy group? If not, make a modest donation on their behalf, or buy an item that benefits them. Bikes Not Bombs, World Bicycle Relief, Star Track, the National Interscholastic Cycling Association…there are all sorts of two-wheeled organizations dong all kinds of good work who need your support.

(Note: this is an especially thoughtful gift if the person you’re shopping for is a roadie, since when left to their own devices, roadies won’t do anything to help anybody.)

A Skateboard ($100 and Up. This is by far the most expensive gift on the list, but it’s worth it.)

Hey, we’re all adults here, so let’s be honest: sometimes you’ve got ulterior motives over the holidays, and giving a gift is less about pleasing someone than it is about teaching them a much-needed lesson. Is there a middle-aged person in your family who’s spending too much time on the bike? Was mommy late to the school play because she flatted on the group ride? Did hubs postpone your anniversary celebration because it fell on the same weekend as the Filthy Nebraska 350-Mile Gravel Grinder? Are you sick of suffering through your wife’s ride reports at dinner?

Well, now you can recoup all the time the bike has stolen from you by giving the gift of a skateboard! Yes, no fit person over 40 can resist the allure of a skateboard, nor can they stand on one without sustaining an injury just bad enough to keep them off the bike for awhile and force them to appreciate you! Just find a reissue deck from the halcyon days of their youth, sit back, and let physics and nostalgia do the rest: “Whoa, a Rob Roskopp! I used to have one just like this! You know, I used to be pretty good…” [Stands on skateboard, immediately breaks coccyx.] You’ll be enjoying that romantic anniversary dinner in no time—though your partner may be sitting on a doughnut.

After adopting a meditation practice a decade into his career, Knox is near the top of his athletic game

Taylor Knox shouldn’t surf as well as he does. Watch him in one of his most recent edits, Apply Pressure, getting barreled in the man-made waves of Surf Ranch, and you’ll have a hard time believing the burly surfer with a handlebar mustache is pushing 50.

Known as a power surfer, carving big, forceful turns that cover the entire face of the wave, Knox, 47, still contains as much energy as athletes half his age. But he knows a thing or two about longevity. The Southern California native and key member of the Momentum Generation in the 1990s has enjoyed one of the longest pro surfing careers in history, racking up 22 years on the World Tour before retiring from competition in 2012. He’s still sponsored by Reef, free-surfs around the world, and drops at least one mind-blowing edit every year. Forget retiring to cruise on a longboard. Knox prefers to rip.

“I’d say I’m doing some of the best surfing I’ve done in my career right now,” Knox says. “I feel like my surfing is getting better and better.”

While Knox has always made physical fitness a priority, he credits his long-lasting success to the state of his mind. During a pivotal point in Knox’s career, he discovered Kelee meditation, developed by amateur surfer Ron Rathbun in the late 1970s and ’80s. “I got to a point with training where I hit a plateau on the physical side of things. I was stagnant,” Knox says. “So I started learning about how the body follows the mind, and how, if you have a toxic mind frame, it doesn’t matter how much you work out. You still won’t be able to perform.” Instead of focusing on a single point or mantra, practitioners of Kelee meditation try to focus on nothing for just a few minutes every day. “It’s the 80/20 principle, where 20 percent is about training and nutrition and 80 percent is mental,” Knox says.

What differentiates Kelee from other meditative methods is the Kelee itself, described as the energy field inside all of us. Sure, it’s a little bit New Age woo-woo, but the goal, according to Rathbun, is to let go of the thinking process and connection to the five senses. “You’re shutting down all of the negativity in your mind and all of the physical tension in your body,” he says. Rathbun sent me a video that breaks it down into a few steps. First, you imagine your thoughts as a horizontal plane of energy gradually lowering from the top of your head to the center of your head. Then you allow this energy to drop toward your heart. After that, it’s a matter of spending a few minutes in that state, which Rathbun says is deeply healing. Like anything, reaching this state takes practice. “Meditation is not easy,” Knox says. “When I started, I couldn’t understand why it was so hard to do. But even if it’s just for a few seconds, having no thought going through your head is a big win.”

Many athletes may find parallels with Knox’s rocky path to meditation. Knox uses the phrase “toxic mind frame” often to describe the pivotal period before his mental clarity; a decade into his pro career, he started suffering from anxiety and depression. Just when his career was peaking, he was ready to quit the tour. “From the outside, it looked like my life was great,” Knox says. “I had a brand-new contract. I was successful. I just had a baby, a nice house—how can I not be happy? But I wasn’t.”

Knox’s internal struggle began to affect his surfing, with anxiety creeping into every set. “It was a nightmare. I was second-guessing myself too much and not enjoying the surf. I was burned out, and life felt like Groundhog Day. I needed a new inspiration, and it couldn’t come from outside—a new wave or new destination wasn’t going to keep me going. It had to come from within.”

After hearing about Kelee from a friend, Knox was intrigued. It was the perfect medium for him, offering, like many mainstream meditation practices today, the benefits of meditation without a spiritual context, which Knox never found appealing. After a couple months of practice, Knox began to experience a few seconds of thoughtlessness. He also noticed an immediate difference: His surfing improved, he was sleeping better, and he says he had the clarity to make important decisions in his life. “I just felt like stuff was bouncing off me. Things that used to bother me didn’t bother me anymore,” Knox says. Anxiety no longer followed him into the lineup, and he developed a patience that he never had before. “Meditation prolonged my career for a decade. But the surfing was a byproduct of how meditation helped my whole life,” Knox says.

There’s some research to back up these positive effects. Meditation in general has been shown to improve stress resilience, reduce blood pressure, and ease anxiety. The research on Kelee specifically is more limited, but in 2010, researchers at UC San Diego conducted a clinical trial to determine if 46 HIV-positive subjects showed improvement on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) after practicing Kelee for 12 weeks. They were anticipating a five-point improvement among the subjects, but they experienced a mean overall change of more than 15 points. The results were significant enough to get the meditation on the curriculum. UCSD currently teaches Kelee to its medical students to help them deal with stress.

Kelee is now a regular part of Knox’s day, like brushing his teeth. A few minutes in the morning and at night, he sits in a comfortable position and works to have no thoughts going through his head. “The greatest tool you get from Kelee is detachment,” Knox says. “Detachment from negative thoughts, detachment from things that used to trigger you. It gives me a perspective I never had before.”

Prepare for lots of screaming (most of it from Adam Ondra)

This winter, we’re watching films that follow the underdogs of cycling and the decidedly not underdogs of surfing, swimming, and climbing.

Age of Ondra

What would we do without the agonized screams of Adam Ondra? Well, we would probably still be thrilled watching the game-changing climber’s ambitious projects. Age of Ondra follows him on two such attempts that would be ridiculous for pretty much anyone else: attempting to climb a 5.15d in Norway that he calls Silence, and then attempting to flash a 5.15, which means sending it on the first try. The 25-year-old Ondra is currently the best climber in the world, and he is ridiculously disciplined. His preparation includes training with a ballet instructor, recreating the route in his home climbing gym, and pretending to climb the route in such precise imagined detail that he even screams when he imagines the crux. The takeaway: It takes a lot to be Adam Ondra, but we are fascinated that a human like him exists at all. Currently playing in the Reel Rock 13 tour.

Kim Swims

As if being an accomplished open-water swimmer weren’t intense enough, in 2015 Kim Chambers decided to try a 30-mile swim from the Farallon Islands to San Francisco—straight through what is known as the Red Triangle of great white shark attacks. Just think about that as you watch the opening of Kim Swims, with soothing piano music playing while Kim quietly splashes in the pitch dark. “I’m prepared to take a bit of a beating,” Chambers says in a massive understatement that neatly sums up her laid-back attitude about the swim, which she was the first woman to finish. The film spends plenty of time showing just how much of a toll the ocean takes on Chambers, including horrifying numbers of jellyfish stings and at least one near-death experience. Joining her in the icy waters of Northern California for the film’s culmination is terrifying and exhilarating. Now streaming.

Wonderful Losers

It’s either crazy or endearing that cycling has multiple terms for teammates whose job is to have no desire to win. Wonderful Losers makes a case for the latter. The 2017 Lithuanian film, released in English in October, pays tribute to the domestiques of the Giro d’Italia. Despite his film’s name, director Arunas Matelis isn’t breathless or eager to glorify the men who help deliver food or block opposing teams’ attacks on top riders. He’s most interested in the grind of the support rider, with behind-the-scenes footage of like-clockwork water handoffs, physical therapy sessions with injured and achy riders, and many, many crashes. The interviews with domestiques are relaxed—“They should give me a mention!” one jokes, clearly not expecting a mention ever in his life. Cut between footage of chaotic bike pileups, they offer moments of calm, which is how the star racers they’re supporting must feel about them too. Check here for upcoming screenings.

Queen Maud Land

We’re like Pavlov’s dog when we hear that Cedar Wright and Alex Honnold have teamed up on a film—immediately, unquestioningly excited. And now that they’ve made one with Anna Pfaff, Savannah Cummins, Jimmy Chin, and Conrad Anker in Antarctica? Give it to us immediately! The title refers to a region on the loneliest continent that happens to be filled with extremely remote climbing. The crew pairs off to tackle this wilderness in three unique ways: Anker and Chin tackle 3,600-foot Ulvetanna in serious explorer fashion. Cummins and Pfaff are here to be as chill as one can be among icy spires, climbing 5.funs on Holtanna Peak. Cedar and Honnold bag as many spires as possible in a reliably goofy sufferfest. For climbers already fond of these athletes’ screen presence and skill, this film is like a frozen box of chocolates. Currently playing in the Reel Rock 13 tour.

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Can’t Steal Our Vibe

Never underestimate the power of surfing. That’s the lesson inherent in Can’t Steal Our Vibe, the new documentary about a surfboard drive benefiting Waves for Change, a nonprofit that provides surf therapy to local South African kids. More than just being fun, the surf lessons provide an escape from the hardships of their everyday life. In the film, Cape Town native and pro tour member Michael February teams up with American pros Patrick, Tanner, and Dane Gudauskas to collect more than 700 boards for Waves for Change. The full movie is available on iTunes ($6) and all proceeds will be donated to Waves for Change.

Wildland

What kind of person commits to the high-stakes job of wildland firefighting? Wildland provides one all-male crew’s worth of answers. Some have struggled with drugs or anger or the law. Others are looking for adventure or purpose. All gather to train in Grants Pass, Oregon—including the filmmakers, Alex Jablonski and Kahlil Hudson, who trained alongside the crew for two seasons. That’s why the film’s intimacy doesn’t feel faked—the interviews feel as if they’re between old friends, we spend a lot of downtime with the crew, and we even watch them doze off during orientation talks. Wildland firefighting already lends itself to drama, and this film delivers with sweeping shots of smoking forests and soul-searching conversations. But it’s most remarkable for how quietly observant it is. Find a screening here.

Momentum Generation

The competitive world of surfing that we know and worship today started in the 1990s on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii. HBO Films’ Momentum Generation tells a more complete story of the group of mostly blond teens who made the sport what it is now. You might recognize a few of them—ever heard of Kelly Slater or Shane Dorian? Filmmakers Jeff and Michael Zimbalist gathered the core group to provide talking heads and archive footage, and the result is just about the most insider view possible of how the sport’s culture changed over three decades. Prepare for lots of throwback-quality footage, wipeouts, fights, tears, and very good surfing. Premiering December 11 on HBO.

Often, getting better and gaining confidence on the trails means going back to the basics

Last spring, when I found out that pro mountain biker and trials specialist Ryan Leech was teaching a clinic at the Sedona Mountain Bike Festival, I jumped at the chance to sign up. Leech has been riding pro for decades, and his preternatural abilities on the bike are well documented. The opportunity to ride with him felt like a chance to sit down and talk tricks with Houdini.

Leech has been coaching for two decades and says he loves helping people realize their potential on a bike. “I think every one of us can benefit from skills practice,” he told me. “There’s maybe this feeling that clinics and classes are for beginners, and it’s true that you can see big improvements when you just start out. But we all have things to learn. I’m still always learning about riding bikes.”

I could immediately relate to his point. I have been riding dirt since I bought my first mountain bike almost 30 years ago, so I fancy myself a reasonably good cyclist and always figured that I’d be best served riding more and practicing on my own rather than taking a class. “It’s always so nice to just go for a ride and get your exercise and dump your stress,” Leech agrees. “Skills practice might not be as gratifying. But when you practice, again and again, that’s when those things solidify and become second nature.”

I signed up for a two-hour clinic on jumping, which is one of my weaknesses. I started riding road bikes when I was ten and raced on the road for years, then cross-country dirt and endurance events, all endeavors where getting your wheels off the ground is a penalty. Which is to say I’ve never really worked on jumping—actually, I’ve avoided it like the flu. As bikes have become more capable and my riding style has changed over the years, I’ve figured out how to get myself through jumps and drops. But it’s mostly survival. I figured even some basic pointers from Leech might go a long way.

The day of the clinic dawned gray and blustery, and only two others showed up: a 70-year-old rider who had taken up mountain biking later in life and was looking to become more confident on all terrain, and a twentysomething recent convert who was amped up and brave but inexperienced.

I had anticipated practicing big moves and dramatic bike handling, but the clinic turned out to be all about mastering very basic skills. We started on flat ground, learning the mechanics of picking up the front wheel—the first step in every jump. Once we all had a basic grasp of that, we practiced lifting the rear wheel shortly after the front, sort of like a delayed bunny hop. The systematic approach reminded me of a day I once spent with five-time World Cup downhill champ Aaron Gwin doing laps on a series of three flat S-turns. “Riders often just want to get to the end result,” Leech says. “But what’s important—what’s sometimes difficult—is to take a big step backwards and really start all over again. You have to relearn some basic building blocks. It takes time, but that is what leads to real improvement.”

After an hour on the flats, we moved to a flow trail with some tabletops. Even here, Leech discouraged us from getting too much speed or trying to clear the jump. Instead, he wanted us to keep practicing the front lift/back lift on a slight rise. We did this over and over. At first, I felt good about one out of ten times; by the end, it was maybe three or four of ten. I never cleared the tabletop. Yet the muscle memory of lifting my front wheel and then my back wheel started to click.

And then the clinic was over.

Afterward, I sat down with Leech. He told me that while he occasionally does clinics like the one I’d just taken, most of his business revolves around a subscription-based service that allows riders to download classes and practice on their own time. “The one-hit YouTube videos can be intellectually nourishing, because you get to learn the whole thing in five minutes. But you’re never going to master it that way,” he tells me.

After the clinic, I subscribed to Leech’s service ($19/month or $171/annual) and downloaded a step-by-step tutorial on jumping. It expanded on the in-person tutorial, breaking down jumps into very basic steps that I have been able to practice over and over on my own time. I still spend most of my riding time training for fitness and pedaling for fun, but I’ve tried to add one day a week at the local jump park where I work on skills. At first, it was frustrating and just felt like work. But as I began to improve, the skills days became more and more gratifying. That’s the thing about clinics—there’s no real sense in taking one unless you commit to spending time afterward practicing what you’ve learned and honing your skills. You can do that on your own, but I appreciated Leech’s subscription service for the ongoing motivation, as well as the continuing instruction.

The more I do practice jumping, the more rote it becomes. At our annual bike test in Grand Junction a few weeks ago, the terrain was techy with lots of jumps and drops. I wouldn’t say I looked or felt as confident or pro as Ryan Leech lobbing off launch after launch, but for the first time ever, I felt like I wasn’t going to bury myself trying.