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Find out what and when to eat before high-intensity, race pace and recovery runs – as well as races. Most of us have no problem devoting time to thinking about what we’re going to eat after a run. In fact, it’s pretty much the only thing we do think about during the last half an hour or so of a run, when the idea of the full English or 16in pizza to follow is the main factor in finishing with negative splits. Likewise, planning what to eat during a run is something that many runners will spend a lot of time on. Gels, energy bars, sports drinks, electrolyte tabs – they’re all commonly found in the pockets, backpacks and belts of serious runners, who will plan when to take each of them down to the exact minute or mile of their run. However, when it comes to what to eat before a run, it’s common for people to be more blasé, grabbing their trainers and heading out the door at lunchtime, straight after work or first thing in the morning, with little thought to when or what they last ate. Not only can that attitude lead to some gastrointestinal, ahem,…

Our expert guide will help you become a better, stronger and injury-proof runner, whether you’re a veteran or just starting out We humans rose to the top of the food chain because our big brains helped us out-smart both predators and prey. Stands to reason, right? But it might actually be our heart, lungs and legs that allowed our brains to get so big in the first place. As a species, we are really good at running. Indeed, our capacity to run for hours on end is incredibly rare in the animal kingdom, and it’s possible that we are only here today because our ancestors evolved this ability as a hunting tactic to exhaust even the bigger and stronger prey trying to escape them. The endurance running hypothesis, a well-studied field of anthropology and human evolution, claims it was our long-distance running ability that gave these small groups of hunter-gatherers the essential animal fats and protein that allowed them not only to survive, but to thrive. These days our survival doesn’t depend on an ability to out-last a mammoth, but regular running will increase your life expectancy as well as your life quality. It will make you fitter, healthier and…

Be inspired and pick up some valuable insight with these top running reads. Even the most obsessed runners can only spend at most a few hours running every day, which leaves a lot of time to fill. Sure, you might “work”, and occasionally need to “sleep” and “eat”, but there will be plenty of free time left where you need something to do that isn’t running. So why not pick up one of these excellent books and use that time to read about running? Running With The Kenyans: Discovering The Secrets Of The Fastest People On Earth In Way Of The Runner, Adharanand Finn explored a largely unknown running culture in Japan, but the world is well aware of the prowess of Kenyan runners, having watched them triumph in Olympic events and major marathons for many years. To write Running With The Kenyans, Finn moved to Kenya and trained with the country’s elites to try and discover the secrets of their speed – but the book is also an inspiring account of his travels and training for his first marathon. “I loved Adharanand Finn’s Running With The Kenyans,” says professional ultramarathon runner and Hoka One One athlete Tom Evans. "I…

Cold fingers and toes cause quick misery in the backcountry. The key to feeling as warm as possible is keeping your digits toasty. Take care of your hands and feet and you’ll have a much more pleasant winter camping experience.The numbness you feel in your extremities when you get cold results from a lack of blood flow and stressed nerves. There is no set temperature at which this happens, since blood circulation varies from person to person, but it can be expedited by restrictive clothing, wetness, or lack of insulation. Combat the cold with these quick-and-easy remedies:• Cover your head. Wear a hat that goes over your ears. Keeping your whole body warm is the first step to maintaining bloodflow to the extremities.• Swap out damp socks and glove liners. Sweaty, wet liners and socks will keep you feeling cold and can cause frostbite, so change into dedicated dry pairs at camp.• Loosen your boots. Tight footwear can cut off circulation. Go for a relaxed fit in camp, but tie your laces so you don’t trip.• Use toe and hand warmers. Toe warmers with sticky bottoms work great, as they’ll stay in your gloves or footwear. Stick them on top…

La Baguette, the tiny coffee shop at the base of Revelstoke Mountain Resort, is routinely bustling at 8:00 a.m. Six young women from B.C. and Alberta crowd around a table with gear tucked at their feet, preparing to head out of bounds into the RMR backcountry for a Girls Do Ski ski touring course. They earnestly lean in to hear over the buzz as pro skier Leah Evans welcomes them to the experience they’re about to have and praises them for showing up to expand their horizons. Evans, founder and head coach of Girls Do Ski, asks the group their goals for the two-day course. It’s not just a formality, or a method of easing them into the day—Evans listens intently so that she can tailor her coaching to each of their needs. The girls’ answers range from wanting to understand how to navigate terrain and learn processes for making decisions to becoming contributing members of a group in the backcountry. Their motivations echo industry survey findings that women face four major hurdles when entering a new sport: intimidation and lack of confidence, inadequate knowledge of gear, uncertainty in how to plan outdoor outings, and cost. Even with adding courses…

Revelstoke, B.C. has it all: heli-skiing, cat-skiing, backcountry skiing, and a 3,121-skiable-acre resort with 5,620 vertical feet of pure B.C. pow for the shredding. It began as many things do, on a wild promise. Rooted in British Columbia's inland temperate rainforest, at the edge of the foreboding Selkirk Range, was Mount Mackenzie. With 5,620 vertical feet of elevation to the valley floor—where the Columbia River cuts through an expansive flow of wetlands that stoke a brooding microclimate—and 34.4 feet of annual snowfall, the proposition of a ski resort here was one of mythic proportions. So when, in 2003, a group of real-estate investors tabled a master plan for a billion-dollar ski resort that would supplant Powder Springs (a humble subalpine ski hill etched onto Mount Mackenzie’s skirt, above a 7,500- person blue-collar Victorian burg with affordable land), those in the know tuned in sharply. CMH and Selkirk Tangiers Heli Skiing had been based out of the same locale for years, along with a cat-ski operation called Cat Powder Skiing Inc., which milked the upper reaches of Mount Mackenzie. Revelstoke Mountain Resort (RMR), as it would be dubbed, would absorb the cat-skiing, build out to have the longest vertical drop in…

Visiting with a Masterfit University-trained bootfitter isn’t just about sorting out boot pain and discomfort issues—it’s a chance to completely reboot and elevate your entire skiing experience. A session with a boot tech starts with a quick but thorough biomechanical assessment that will uncover clues about how your foot and ankle function and unveil the root causes of common skiing balance and control problems. The essential information the boot tech discovers about you sets the stage for changes to be made to your boots for comfort, stance and performance. The experience of sitting down with a bootfitter is unique to each skier, based on his or her needs, rather than a high-volume, cookie cutter approach.  However, the Masterfit custom bootfit experience is straightforward and not overly time-consuming. Finding the right type of boot in the right size, shape and stiffness is a good place to start and your bootfitter may discover that your current boots already fit the bill.  If not, now is the time to find that ideal match while a variety of models and sizes are still available in most shops. Don’t wait for late season sales to try and save a few dollars.  By then, availability is…

A little creativity is needed to stay active in the winter. Short days, numerous layers of clothing, and stomach-filling holiday meals don’t exactly inspire an after-work run, bike ride, or weekend kayak trip. But, instead of hibernating when the temperatures drop and the sun sets before you get home, use the season to expand the ways you stay active and mix up your workout routine. The benefits of being active in winter are numerous, and you’ll have a head start while everyone else is scrambling this spring to get into beach shape. In case you need a few ideas to get started, below are eight tips that will help get you out and keep you active this winter. 1. Run During Lunch As winter days get shorter, take advantage of your midday break for lunch and fit in a quick run. It’s usually the warmest time of day and safer than running at night. If you time it right, you can easily take 30 minutes and run a couple miles, and still have time to grab a bite or protein shake afterward. It might also give you a much-needed energy boost to power through the rest of the day. 2.…

East Coast skiing is known for ice and challenging terrain, but steeps? That too. Western skiers take it for granted that their ski areas are more hardcore than their Eastern counterparts and like to pooh-pooh the idea that the East Coast boasts some truly challenging terrain. Mountains out East may not have the vertical you get out West, but we're willing to wager that advanced and expert skiers spoiled by wide-open slopes and forgiving snow would call these narrow, gnarly East Coast runs more than a little challenging. 1. Upper Madonna Liftline, Smugglers' Notch, Vt. Ski Magazine So you like an audience? You can practically touch the chairs overhead from the Liftline entrance. Fifty-something-degree pitch, boulders, mandatory air depending on coverage. Gnarly. 2. The Slides, Whiteface Mountain, N.Y. Ski Magazine Whiteface Mountain's steep chutes. The slides are a collection of chutes and ice-covered waterfalls that are guaranteed to scare the pants off even the most technical of skiers. Be ready for it all: glades, rocks, cliffs, and more. 3. Black Magic, Magic Mountain, Vt. Ski Magazine Magic Mountain ranks tops in the Challenge and Terrain categories in the East for SKI Magazine's Reader Resort Survey. Narrow, largely under the liftline…

Though the words coming out of our mouths might not make sense to each other, when the snow falls, skiers worldwide understand one other perfectly well. I’m sitting with seven other skiers and two guides in CMH’s Galena Lodge getting a briefing on what to expect over our next few days. The seven other guests (all men) and myself (not a man) are signed up for a heli-accessed ski touring trip. We’ll spend a day on either end of our trip with the rest of the lodge’s guests, but for the two days in the middle we’ll get a heli bump in the morning and spend the day touring together. The majority of our group has traveled halfway around the world for this unique experience. From the get-go it’s pretty obvious Toshiaki, an outgoing Japanese man, speaks very little English. He tries, but we can only make out a few words. Of Toshiaki’s travel companions, three other Japanese men in their mid-50s, one drops a singular English word on occasion and the other two seem fine to let Toshiaki try to communicate on their behalf. The rest of our group is comprised of two Americans and an Italian who doesn’t…