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6 Ways to Carry Your Phone on a Run

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I’m somewhat baffled when I see people running with a phone in their hand. I get why you want your phone with you: for safety, for taking spontaneous photos, for emergency calls from loved ones. But awkwardly gripping a sweaty phone during a run is hard work (tightens your muscles and throws off your b...

The Best Trail-Running Shoes for Every Terrain

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Today’s trail-running shoes are more advanced than ever, incorporating cutting-edge materials, innovative designs, and clever blends of foams, plates, fabrics, outsole rubbers, and lug patterns. This combination results in shoes that excel across diverse terrain like never before.
A great pair of trail...

Fanny Packs Are Back and I’m On Board, Sort Of

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I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ve been wearing a fanny pack lately. And not ironically, as part of a retro costume with roller skates, leg warmers, or a boom box on my shoulder.
I’d been seeing them on the streets and trails for a while, but I had successfully fought the resurgence of the 1980s...

The Best Running Shoes for Training and Racing

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We are experiencing one of the most thrilling eras in the history of running shoes. In recent years, cutting-edge materials, innovative geometries, and creative combinations of foams, plates, fabrics, and soles have resulted in faster, lighter, and more comfortable models than ever before.
The good new...

The Best Thing You Can Do at the Beach, and Three Smart Things You Can Do for the Beach

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Growing up in San Diego, I used to beachcomb with my mom. We’d walk slowly, staring down at the sand at our feet with the sound of waves and seabirds in the background, looking for sand dollars and interestingly shaped shells. It was calming. Mesmerizing. We’d lose track of time.
So when I found myself...

Camp Shoes Make Life Better

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There’s nothing wrong with wearing running shoes or hiking boots around camp, whether you’re backpacking or car camping. They work. They protect your feet, as shoes tend to do. But I’m a firm believer in the value of camp shoes—lightweight, easy on-and-off footwear to wear when spending nights outside....

Reviewed: The Travel Yoga Mat I Take Everywhere

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For the past few years, I’ve sought a yoga mat I could easily travel with—something lightweight and foldable that would allow me to unroll anywhere: the back patio of an AirbnB, a hotel room, the basement of my brother-in-law’s house during Thanksgiving week. Unrolling a yoga mat is like having a porta...

8 Funky Shorts (and Jorts!) I’m Loving This Summer

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Shorts can be boring. They’re just short pants, often made out of a lightweight but durable polyester blend—which makes them great for warm weather running, hiking, gardening, lounging, biking, camping, or just about any outdoor activity—but predictable. Earlier this summer, however, I discovered the p...

Best Bikinis for Beach Bums Who Refuse to Grow Up

I’ve always felt that the right two-piece bathing suit reigns supreme over a one-piece for active women of any age or body type. The top of a bikini provides sports bra-like support—or at least more support than the top half of a one-piece bathing suit. Bikini bottoms tend to stay in place better than the bottom of a one-piece, which, with movement, inevitably creeps and needs constant readjusting. And in the summer heat, the lack of fabric around the midsection just feels better.
Having grown u...

My New Splitboard Sometimes Frightens and Frustrates Me—That’s One Reason I Love It

It is fairly terrifying to trust a strip of fuzzy fabric to keep you from careening backwards down a steep, snowy ski hill while trying to climb up it. That fuzz’s friction is all I could think about the first time I splitboarded up Steamboat, Colorado’s blue runs at seven a.m. while my family was still nestled in their beds in the condo nearby. I had only ever splitboarded once before on demo gear, so I was putting a lot of faith in my new Pomoca Free Pro 2.0 skins affixed to the bottom of my 2

The Best Winter Running Shoes for Road and Trail

Winter running shoes have come a long way from the heavy, clunky, almost boot-like waterproof kicks offered a decade ago, and most shoe companies are now creating one or more weather-defying models.

Earlier this winter, a small fleet of runners and I tested this year’s offerings in Boulder, Colorado to find the best of the bunch. (Many of last year’s models are still available, as well.) This season’s top picks range from relatively lightweight (for a waterproof shoe) and agile runners with tra

I Own Expensive Skate Skis. Here’s Why I Still Reach for My Old Beaters.

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The year I moved from beachy San Diego to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colorado, I decided to learn how to skate ski. All the endurance athletes around here are doing it, I thought, and I considered myself among that crew. I rented a pair of slightly banged up Fischer SCS demo skis from the local outdoor shop and headed to North Boulder Park, where, graciou

I Love My Fleece Tops, but Should I?

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It’s winter, which, for most outdoors people, means that it’s fleece season. Cozy, comfy fleece season.

Fleece dates back to 1981, when Yvon Chiounard worked with Malden Mills (now Polartec) to create something that felt as warm and cozy as his favorite wool sweater, but that dried quicker and compressed down smaller for backpacking trips. Since then, outdoor adventurers of a

Why My Favorite Strength-Training Equipment Is a Backpack Made for Distance Running

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Two years ago during one autumn week, I carried a load of food, water, a change of clothes, and some recovery slides on my back while running the Appalachian Trail between huts for four days. As one would expect, I worried how my body would hold up under the added weight. By the end of the trip, however, I felt stronger than I had when we’d begun.

Back at home in Boulder, Col

This Obscure Piece of Gear Made Me (a SoCal Gal) Fall in Love with Winter

In my late-20s, I moved from San Francisco into a ski-lease cabin on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe with just my yellow lab, Hannah. I’d left the comfort of roommates and city life for a quieter existence that better-suited my inner mountain girl (who had yet to fully emerge from my Southern California upbringing and post-college urbanite self). I—we—lived alone most of the time, though there was no telling when one or more of 16 lease-mates might drive up from the city to stay a night or two (or

Why a Simple Camping Mug Is the Perfect Holiday Gift

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I bought my first tin camping mug from a gift shop in Yosemite Valley at the end of my first-ever car camping trip. I was a senior in college and traded the U.C. Santa Barbara Halloween party scene for a fall weekend in the trees. From the moment I picked up that blue mug with its white speckles off the shelf, I loved everything it represented: the experience I’d had that week

4 Favorite Road-to-Trail Running Shoes

My favorite neighborhood running loop in my hometown of Boulder, Colorado makes choosing a pair of shoes a challenge. The route starts with a walk down a sidewalk past a few houses to a path that cuts through the middle of a community garden. There, I run across wood chips, weeds, and hard dirt, hit another sidewalk, and run concrete for about a mile, crossing two busy streets. At mile 1.3, I turn onto a rocky singletrack through tall grasses up, and then down, a very steep, loose, rocky hill wi

The Best Trail Running Shoes of Winter 2024

Heading out the door? Read this article on the Outside app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app .

It is impossible to name the single best trail running shoe for everyone. Every runner’s body, gait, speed, experience, and ride preferences are different, so every runner will interact differently with each trail shoe. The shoe that your best friend or your sister-in-law loves may be uncomfortable for you and make running feel slow, sluggish, or even painful. Finding the perf

These Are Three Great Do-It-All T-Shirts for Women

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I’ve been on a quest to find best do-it-all T-shirts for women and that means more than being able to breathe and feel good while I run, hike, ride, climb, do yoga, lift weights, paddle, and yes, sleep. To me, a perfect T-shirt can also be worn casually without screaming “I work out!”

Throughout my testing over a few months of doing all of the above, I came up with the follow

My Love-Hate Relationship with Wraparound Sunglasses

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In the 1980s only the freaks wore wraparound sunglasses—the hyper-serious professional beach volleyball players and pro triathletes who did entire Ironman races in just their Speedos and shields. The predominant take-over-your-whole-face sunglasses worn by these athletes were Oakley Blades. I may have been a kid back then, but I still had some sense of style and judgment, and

Should You Eat Gummy Bears or Energy Chews on a Run?

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I personally used gummy bears as endurance fuel for a solid ten years. These adorable chewy candies have long been a solution for athletes seeking an inexpensive and sugar-rich fuel for prolonged endeavors. But with more sport-formulated gummy options like Clif Bloks and Honey Stinger Chews on the market than ever, I wondered if there was much of a difference in how they make

A Love Letter to the Wavestorm, the Best Beginner Surfboard Around

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On mornings before high school in San Diego, my friend Tanya and I would occasionally paddle out into the ocean, her on a fiberglass shortboard, and me on my dad’s 10-foot, soft Doyle foam longboard that weighed about 30 pounds when wet. I didn’t feel cool maneuvering that giant red tank around, and I spent most of my time getting pushed around in the whitewater. But I sure as

Reviewed: The Travel Yoga Mat I Take Everywhere

For the past few years, I’ve sought a yoga mat I could easily travel with—something lightweight and foldable that would allow me to unroll anywhere: the back patio of an AirbnB, a hotel room, the basement of my brother-in-law’s house during Thanksgiving week. Unrolling a yoga mat is like having a portable gym with me wherever I go. A dedicated space for workouts and yoga makes me feel like I’m riding a magic carpet to fitness and me-time, wherever I am in the world and whoever I’m with.
I’m a on...

How a $65 Camp Chair Has Made Me a Better Parent—and Person

If you’re an active, outdoorsy adult with children, there’s a solid chance you spend a good amount of time as a doting spectator of youth sports. (The offspring of active people tend to be active young people.) And if you’re an adventurer of any sort, you know that conserving energy is key to success. (If someone in your expedition needs to stop for a bathroom break, for example, you lie down on the ground and put your feet up.) So when you find something that helps maximize both, like the Crazy...