Year: 2024

How To Prepare For Your First Ultramarathon (Other Than Running)

You’ve signed up for your first ultramarathon, you’ve been putting in miles, and the big day is coming up soon. But, despite all those miles of training, have you really done everything you need to do to ensure success on race day? Running is only one part of success in ultras. How you manage the […]

World’s Toughest Mudder 2024

World’s Toughest Mudder was quite a rollercoaster. While I had a pass/fail goal of 65 miles, my real goal going in was 70. Several times in the past I felt 70 was attainable, but mistakes had cost me. This was my sixth WTM, and when I looked back at each one I’d done in the […]

The Tyranny of Toddler Class

When my daughter, Emma, was a little more than a year old, my wife, Becky, found a toddler music class for her. It was for ages one to three, and kids sang and played instruments in the class. It sounded great. Of course, with Becky’s work schedule, she couldn’t take Emma. I’d have to. No […]

Craft Beer Has Lost Its Way

I came of beer-drinking age at an amazing time. It was the mid-1990s, and after almost a century of bland, boring brews from Budweiser, Coors, and Miller, dominating the American beer scene, craft beer was suddenly exploding in popularity. It was a time of unprecedented creativity and experimentation. New breweries were popping up all over […]

Killington Beast Training Tips

The Killington Beast is brutal. It’s not like other Beasts, and certainly not like any other Spartans at all. It’s completely unique in its climbing, not just in terms of elevation but in the repetitive steepness of the climbs. Success often comes down to three things: Your ability to be on your feet for a […]

Back to 100

In September 2020, I fractured by right tibea plateau in three places. I came off an obstacle awkwardly, landing so from the knee down was bent back, from the knee up was forward, and all my weight smashed into the top of that plateau that holds the weight of the rest of your body. What’s […]

Stop Getting Fitness Advice from Celebrities

Our health and fitness magazines and websites have more resemblance to Entertainment Weekly than actual health publications. Headlines read “Johnny Hollywood’s Ab Routine,” “This Person (Who is Releasing a New Movie) on His Morning Habits,” “Get Arms Like This Guy Who Plays a Superhero.”

woman wearing smartphone armband and blue earphones

The Toughest Workouts

After enduring a perfect storm of the holidays, followed by a trip to Ireland, followed by a nasty bout of COVID, to say I feel weak and out-of-shape is a massive understatement. But it has made something abundantly clear: The toughest workouts aren’t the epic, multi-hour ones that you tackle when you’re in shape. It’s […]