On January 2, Buffalo Bills football player Damar Hamlin on the field. After nine minutes of CPR, medical personnel revived his heartbeat and rushed him to a hospital where he remains in critical condition.

Some that he suffered something called commotio cordis, where a direct blow to the chest causes the heart to go into a fatal rhythm. A typical commotio cordis arrest involves a small high-velocity object striking the chest鈥攗sually a baseball, softball,听or lacrosse ball. Athletes in outdoor sports, who are less likely to encounter flying baseballs, face a much lower risk of commotio cordis, which is an extremely rare occurrence in any population. But Hamlin鈥檚 episode follows a number of high-profile cardiac arrests in athletes, including soccer star Christian Eriksen in 2021, who survived and later played in the 2022 World Cup, as well as the fatal arrests of , last year, and marathon runner Ryan Shay, in 2007. All of which have renewed discussion about the risks sports pose to an athlete鈥檚 heart.

What Causes Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Athletes?

Overwhelmingly, exercise is good for cardiovascular health. It lowers the chance that you鈥檒l develop high blood pressure, diabetes, or high cholesterol, all of which can lead to blood-vessel damage, the main cause of fatal heart attacks. And exercise keeps the heart muscle itself strong. But there鈥檚 a well-known paradox about exercise and the heart: any time your heart is stressed, your risk of a cardiac event goes up a little. In other words, if you have an underlying cardiac issue, going for a run or playing sports might provoke a problem, even if it makes you healthier in the long run.

For athletes in endurance sports, there are four buckets of cardiac issues to watch out for: electrical disorders like arrhythmias, heart muscle disorders like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, genetic coronary artery disorders, and obstructive coronary artery problems like arteriosclerosis. Athletes under 35 are more likely to have problems from the first three buckets, while athletes older than 35 are at risk from the fourth bucket. They鈥檙e also at a much higher risk overall.

Does Exercise Cause Heart Problems?

This is an area of controversy among sports cardiologists, some of whom argue that years of intense aerobic exercise can raise this risk of cardiac issues, most notably a problem called atrial fibrillation, where the upper chamber of the heart beats ineffectively. Some research also suggests that lifelong endurance athletes have higher amounts of scar tissue in the heart, as well as stiffer coronary arteries. Whether these findings translate to higher risk of death is uncertain.

The relationship between exercise amount and cardiac problems appears to fall along a U or J shaped curve, where people who don鈥檛 exercise have a higher risk of issues, people who exercise moderately have low risk, and people who exercise all the time might have a slightly elevated risk compared to the moderate group. But 鈥渋t鈥檚 not fair to say that there鈥檚 a hard stop for exercise dose or intensity, where the increased risk outweighs the benefits,鈥� says Dr. Tamanna Singh, director of the Cleveland Clinic鈥檚 Sports Cardiology Center.

What to Look For

Athletes often know their bodies well, Singh says, and should be attuned to a sudden drop off in performance. The classic example is of a middle-aged man breathing hard while walking upstairs, but for athletes accustomed to running six-minute miles, the change might be more subtle. Other signs to watch for are erratic heartbeats, dizziness or fainting, and of course chest pain. Some well-intentioned doctors, even cardiologists, may disregard cardiac symptoms in young, healthy athletes, but Singh prefers that patients err on the side of caution.

The Wild Card: COVID

In the aftermath of a COVID infection, a small number of people鈥攑robably around 0.6 percent鈥攅xperience an inflammation of the heart muscle called myocarditis, which can lead to sudden cardiac arrest. If you鈥檝e had COVID and are experiencing any symptoms, it would be wise to see a doctor. But Singh is not worried about heart problems associated with COVID听vaccines. It is 鈥渘ot true,鈥� that vaccines raise the risk of cardiac arrest, she says, despite research showing that some young men experience myocarditis after vaccination. The incidence of myocarditis following infection is much higher, and, she says, 鈥渢he benefit of vaccination far outweighs the risk.鈥�

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In 2020, lots of things have had to adapt, including , the beloved annual climbing film tour. With in-theater movie watching not an option this year, its 15th installment will stream for 72 hours this weekend starting tonight at 9 P.M. Eastern Time ().

Reel Rock has always showcased hard, cutting-edge climbing鈥攖hink , or 鈥攁nd that鈥檚 still the case this time around, but this year鈥檚 lineup puts a particular focus on climbers with more diverse backgrounds than the tour鈥檚 films have featured in the past. The most traditional of the films is Action Direct, about French climber M茅lissa Le Nev茅鈥檚 first female ascent of the late Wolfgang G眉llich鈥檚 famous 9a/5.14.d, in Germany鈥檚 Frankenjura. Next, Deep Roots听tells the story of California climber Lonnie Kauk鈥檚 second ascent of Magic Line, a 5.14c trad route established in Yosemite by his father Ron in 1996. First Ascent/Last Ascent is about鈥攏otice another trend here?鈥攕everal trad first ascents, this time by British climbers Madeleine Cope and Hazel Findlay in remote Mongolia. Finally, Black Ice, the most interesting film from this year鈥檚 tour, follows a group of Black climbers from Memphis, Tennessee, on a trip they take to Montana to go ice climbing and winter camping.

That鈥檚 a lineup that, for only the second time in the tour鈥檚 history, does not include any big names like , Adam Ondra, , or Dean Potter. (Technically, Conrad Anker makes an appearance in one.)

The first three films are standard fare: pro climbers on quests to climb the unclimbable. For the most part they鈥檙e adequate or, in the case of First Ascent/Last Ascent, which focuses on Findlay and Cope鈥檚 charming friendship, even a bit better. But Black Ice is something entirely different.

The climbers in Black Ice are connected through Memphis Rox, a climbing gym in a tough part of south Memphis with no other gyms or recreational facilities to speak of. Memphis Rox is a non-profit with admission on a sliding scale and an orientation toward community. It鈥檚 been the subject of some , largely for introducing climbing to a community of Black people who might not otherwise get to climb.

While the setup of the film felt a bit cringeworthy, it becomes much more compelling once it begins to tell the story of a climber named S鈥橪acio, a 20-year-old who is recovering from a hard childhood and near-fatal gunshot wounds suffered several years earlier. The North Face-sponsored trip to Montana is S鈥橪acio鈥檚 first time leaving Memphis, his first time on an airplane, his first time camping, and, it seems, his first break from the trauma and stress of his life. He ends up having a profound experience of connection and perspective, and the film is a great example of how climbing can be vital, and why it is so important that more people get to do it.

Reel Rock has included stories about people other than climbing鈥檚 larger-than-life white men in the past, but this year鈥檚 lineup feels deliberate. While not always quite hitting the mark, the films remind us that a more diverse climbing culture isn鈥檛 just important, it鈥檚 also more surprising and interesting than the status quo.

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In October 2018, just before his 52nd birthday, endurance athlete and podcast host Rich Roll offered up the short version of his life story on :

I didn鈥檛 reach my athletic peak until I was 43.
I didn鈥檛 write my first book until I was 44.
I didn鈥檛 start my podcast until I was 45.
At 30, I thought my life was over.
At 52 I know it鈥檚 just beginning.
Keep running. Never give up. And watch your kite soar.
He ended with two emojis: a hand giving a peace sign and a plant. (Roll is vegan.)

If this kind of self-help poetry makes you squirm, you鈥檙e probably not among the rabid fans of the , which is one of the most popular interview shows in the world, with some 68 million downloads and counting. In an era of high-paced everything and outsize personalities, his appeal is his patience and humble inquisitiveness. His guests range from elite athletes (climber Alex Honnold, Olympic triathlete Gwen Jorgensen) to meditation acolytes (Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, comedian Russell Brand) to spiritual leaders (yogi , pastor ). With everyone, Roll is 鈥渦nrushed and caring,鈥� says entre颅preneur and life coach , who has been on the show twice. 鈥淗e鈥檚 like the endurance-athlete version of Oprah.鈥�

Roll鈥檚 approach grew out of the personal journey he outlined in that tweet. He was a talented swimmer at Stanford but developed an alcohol problem that later ended up destroying his first marriage鈥攄uring the honeymoon鈥攁nd nearly derailed his career as an entertainment lawyer. He sobered up after a stint in rehab, then became a workaholic, spending the next decade toiling toward burnout. At age 40, realizing that he was miserable and dangerously unhealthy, he went vegan and started endurance training. Two years later, he finished 11th at the , an infamous three-day swim-bike-run sufferfest in Hawaii. He wrote a book about his transformation, 2012鈥檚 , quit his job, and started recording conversations for a podcast. Back then nobody listened to him. Now lots of people do: mostly because nobody does a better job of helping us understand how we can improve our lives by being more patient and less, well, maxed out.

I spoke with Roll inside his recording studio at his home in Southern California鈥檚 Santa Monica Mountains, where he lives with his wife, Julie Piatt (a vegan-cookbook author and host of her own podcast), and the youngest two of their four children.

鈥淲hat happens in the secret-society rooms of addiction recovery stays there. What I can say is that you become a skilled listener. You develop a huge capacity for empathy. And you learn how to be vulnerable. It鈥檚 not a mistake that a lot of successful podcast hosts are in recovery.鈥�

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think of myself as a member of the wellness industry. I鈥檓 just following my curiosity.鈥�

鈥淲hen I got sober, I was intent upon becoming a productive member of society. I repaired my relationships with family and friends. I became a successful corporate lawyer. I drove a sports car and lived in a very nice house. From the outside, it all looked really groovy. But on the inside, I was coming to terms with the fact that I was chasing somebody else鈥檚 life.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檓 constantly dispelling this myth that I鈥檓 some crazy gifted athlete. In my first half-Ironman, I barfed during the swim. By the time I got off my bike, my legs were so cramped up that I ran 100 meters and just stopped. It was a DNF. My beginnings in triathlon were very humble鈥攂ut I loved it.鈥�

鈥淚 had a bad bike crash in the spring of 2009 and ended up in the ER. It really made me question what I was doing. I鈥檓 going to crack my head wide open for what? I was laying there and Julie asked me, 鈥業f this was the end, do you regret it?鈥� I said, 鈥楴o, this is what I want to do.鈥� Somehow, my compass was being calibrated.鈥�

鈥淎 lot of people read self-help books and think that they鈥檙e changing their lives, but they鈥檙e not implementing any of the advice. Mood follows action. It鈥檚 not how you feel. It鈥檚 not the ideas that you have. It all boils down to: What are you doing to improve your life?鈥�

鈥�Having everything go your way isn鈥檛 a learning experience. My second Ultraman was the perfect race for me. After leading by ten minutes on the first day, I crashed my bike, ending any chance at the podium and shattering my ego. But I still had to pick it up and finish. I love everything about how that ended up.鈥�

鈥淎fter my book came out, we spent years being totally broke. We couldn鈥檛 pay our mortgage. We had our trash cans taken away because I couldn鈥檛 afford the garbage service. I was talking about spiritual principles and how you have to trust your heart, but my faith in those ideas was tested. At times I thought, I鈥檓 full of shit. These journeys can be gifts, but when you鈥檙e experiencing them, you feel like you鈥檙e going to die.鈥�

鈥�It鈥檚 all about emotional connection. The information is secondary. With each guest on my show, I need to figure out a way into this person so that I can understand them.鈥�

鈥�Left to my own devices, I would not be doing any of these things. I鈥檓 very rational. But my wife has shown me the limits of that operating system鈥攁nd the expansiveness that comes when you believe in possibility, trust your intuition, and act on inspiration.鈥�

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When Todd and Steve Jones, the cofounders of action-sports media company听Teton Gravity Research,听started making 鈥攁 look at the storied skier鈥檚 last year on the World Cup circuit鈥攖hey were imagining very different material from what they got. Their plan was to be behind the scenes as Vonn pursued one of the sport鈥檚 most coveted records: Swedish slalom racer听Ingemar Stenmark鈥檚 86 total World Cup wins. Vonn was only four wins away, and it seemed听within reach. But then, last November, she hurt听her knee before the season鈥檚 first downhill competition. She recovered鈥攕ort of鈥攊n time to ski five more races, but the filmmakers had to pivot.听

The resulting film, which premieres on HBO on November 26, is arguably a lot more interesting. It follows Vonn as she fights to return to the World Cup and chase Stenmark鈥檚 record, or at least end her legendary career on a high note. A few elements of the documentary felt off to me鈥擨鈥檓 not sure I would have used Billie Eilish in a film about a ski racer down on her luck, and Liev Schreiber鈥檚 stentorian voiceover appears at seemingly random intervals. But the Jones brothers and their team had close access during her recovery and comeback, and the result is the most comprehensive and intimate portrait of Vonn I鈥檝e ever seen.

Near the beginning of听The Final Season, we watch听Vonn听injure herself on a practice run before the start of last year鈥檚 season, and follow her to the hospital where she reacts emotionally听as she learns she鈥檚 suffered fractures around her knee that will require at least six weeks of recovery. Vonn has become听a world-class rehabber after enduring nearly a dozen surgeries, but this time, the knee doesn鈥檛 really cooperate, and she struggles in her first races back. In January, she travels to a World Cup downhill event in Cortina d鈥橝mpezzo, Italy, where she broke the women鈥檚 overall wins record in 2015. She finishes well behind the leader, Mikaela Shiffrin, who is on her way to supplanting Vonn as the greatest women鈥檚 ski racer ever. Another skier听gives Vonn a bouquet of flowers, and she weeps.听

Why force another comeback on a body hanging together by worn cartilage and sutures? Vonn鈥檚 motivation is clear鈥攕he decided to become the best ski racer in history as a young girl, and she won鈥檛 give up so close to the World Cup wins record. The Jones brothers, treading carefully, also hint at another motive: earning the affection of her demanding and rigid father, Alan Kildow.听

As a young racer, Vonn fell out with Kildow over her relationship with Thomas Vonn, her first husband, and they didn鈥檛 speak for six years in her 20s. After Lindsey and Thomas split in 2011, she and Kildow reconciled. Of the divorce, Kildow says, a little too smugly, 鈥淭here was a certain predictability to it, a certain inevitability to it.鈥� I think The Final Season听gets Lindsey鈥檚 relationship with her father, a former racer, right. It鈥檚 hard to miss听how, in what should be a friendly interview, they light and position Kildow听behind an imposing, dark desk, wearing a Nordic ski sweater, with a severe look on his face. After we鈥檙e introduced to Kildow, we see clips of Lindsey skiing as a young girl, with her father听behind the camera complaining about her technique. It鈥檚 clear he鈥檚 been a looming presence in her life, even when they weren鈥檛 speaking.听

After Cortina, Vonn, in pain, announces that she鈥檚 at the end of her rope, and will finish her career at the World Championships in Are, Sweden. Her coaches urge her to reconsider. 鈥淓veryone is trying to convince me to keep going, and it鈥檚 like, don鈥檛 you think I鈥檓 trying everything I can?鈥� she asks her media manager. 鈥淚t just shows you. It鈥檚 like any other athlete. You鈥檙e a commodity. When you extinguish your usefulness, they move on to the next one.鈥� It comes as a relief to see that a few members of Vonn鈥檚 entourage actually seem to have her best interests at heart. Namely, her physical therapist Lindsey Winninger, who is always by her side looking out for her body, and her dog Lucy, an irresistible Spaniel rescue who travels with Vonn to Europe. 鈥淪he has no idea what ski racing is,鈥� Vonn says.听

Before the world championships begin, Vonn has a barrelful of fluid drained from her knee, and gets a cortisone shot听to quell the inflammation in her damaged peroneal nerve. In super-G鈥攁 race also won by Shiffrin鈥擵onn suffers another brutal crash, blackening her eye but leaving her knee intact. At a press conference before the downhill, a reporter asks Vonn what it鈥檚 like to race knowing she probably won鈥檛 win. Vonn responds, icily, 鈥淲ho said I won鈥檛 win?鈥� 听

The downhill goes as well as could possibly be expected: Vonn is third, earning her an eighth World Championships medal. She retires with the 82 wins鈥擲tenmark鈥檚 record survives. Afterwards, Alan Kildow says that it was never really about winning, but about leaving a mark on ski racing, which, well, seems a bit dubious.听Vonn, though, talking to reporters in the finish zone, looks content for the first time in the film. 鈥淚鈥檝e accepted where I am in my life,鈥� she says. 鈥淚鈥檓 happy and I鈥檓 excited for the future. I鈥檝e cried enough tears, and now it鈥檚 time to enjoy it.鈥�

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A great deal of ski racing, Shiffrin told me last summer at a photo studio in Los Angeles, is logistics management. How do you get thirty or forty pairs of skis, seven pairs of ski boots, plus speed suits and poles and helmets and goggles across Europe, during winter, on time, without losing anything? It鈥檚 a challenge that doubles or triples if you plan to race in all six of skiing鈥檚 disciplines, which almost nobody else does, because that鈥檚 crazy.听

Two days before the World Championships began last February, in Are, Sweden, Shiffrin had raced and won a slalom in Maribor, Slovenia. Only a few skiers planned to race both the Maribor slalom and the super-G in Are, but Shiffrin was one of them, which meant she needed to charter a plane from Slovenia to Sweden to give herself a day of training before the World鈥檚 race began. She arrived on time, but her coaches and much of her equipment did not. That meant she and her mother, Eileen, had to go on a hunt to find basic pieces of equipment, including gloves and a pair of goggles that complied with International Ski Federation rules. She won the super-G, but other problems arose: although her coaches eventually arrived, their bags did not, and they needed to rent ski clothes. Then Shiffrin got sick.

Every professional skier races through a cold now and then, but this wasn鈥檛 just a cold. Shiffrin had a chest infection, and it was causing her coughing fits. It left an impression: I had arrived at the L.A. photo studio with a set of detailed questions, but she spent roughly 30 minutes telling me about the cough. It started with dizziness, a fever, and weakness. 鈥淓very time I moved, my heart rate would spike. I鈥檇 breathe harder, and then I鈥檇 have a coughing fit,鈥� she said. She began to fear even limited movement. Before the slalom, lying on a bench in the ski lodge, she had a fit so violent that it knocked her over and left her convulsing on the floor underneath a table.听

Shiffrin skied the first slalom run at 70 percent effort, she said, which put her 0.15 seconds out of first. In Are, slalom 颅racers come off the chairlift, take a left turn, and ski down a cat track and under a bridge to the start gate. Before the second run, as Shiffrin approached the bridge with her physiotherapist and Eileen, another coughing fit started, this time with a twist: she coughed so hard she threw up. (Beginning around 2016, Shiffrin started puking before important races. But this vomiting, she told me, was different from vomiting caused by nerves.)

Eileen is Shiffrin鈥檚 mother but also her best friend, and it must be said, she鈥檚 not a softie. After the vomiting concluded, Eileen told Shiffrin that she didn鈥檛 need to race if she didn鈥檛 want to. That was a shock. Inside ski racing, a World Championship title is more coveted than an Olympic medal, and Eileen is often an unyielding coach. Her permission to sit out the event took some of the pressure off. Suddenly a chest infection didn鈥檛 seem like such a big deal, and Shiffrin decided to race. She won by more than half a second. It was a lesson in resilience.

A year earlier, before the Olympics in South Korea, Shiffrin made the mistake of mentioning that she might like to win five gold medals, which was never going to be an easy goal. There was the media, which is a given, and also Shiffrin鈥檚 nervy stomach, and a crappy stretch of weather that wrecked a carefully planned race schedule. She started out strong, winning the opening giant slalom. Then a series of wind-related delays arrived, she backed out of the downhill and the super-G, flubbed a gate in slalom, and missed the top spot in super combined (two races of slalom, and a run of super-G) by nine-tenths of a second. She won a gold and a silver鈥攏ot bad鈥攂ut didn鈥檛 come close to five medals. 鈥淭he Olympics were a big success,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut there鈥檚 a little piece of my heart that aches for the slalom race and wonders what I could have done better.鈥�

Then came Shiffrin鈥檚 2018鈥�19 season, during which she won 17 World Cup races (a record), stood atop the podium in four different events, captured World Championship gold medals in both the slalom and the super-G (also a first), and won both the overall title as well as discipline titles in slalom, giant slalom, and super-G. Sometimes my eyes glaze over when I see statistics like these: Shiffrin wins races at a pace so frantic it鈥檚 hard to comprehend.

One could be forgiven for assuming, as I did, that her historic season owed something to post-Olympic relaxation, which allowed Shiffrin to regain her flow after briefly misplacing it in South Korea. Well, that鈥檚 not what happened.听

鈥淭he intensity, truthfully, has gone up,鈥� her coach Jeff Lackie said. Global fame and the addition of super-G and downhill to her race schedule have added hassle and stress, and they make it tougher to do everything right. 鈥淎ny time you鈥檝e achieved the success that she鈥檚 achieved, the stakes go up, the expectations go up,鈥� he said. 鈥淪uddenly, you鈥檝e got Bode Miller weighing in on your career, someone you grew up idolizing. As focused and intense as she is, it鈥檚 hard not to be aware of that stuff. It鈥檚 not detrimental, but it鈥檚 something that needs to be managed.鈥�

Shiffrin has given these pressures a characteristically positive frame. Bearing down and focusing is familiar, and therefore calming, she told me. 鈥淚f I have to focus harder, that鈥檚 never been a problem for me,鈥� she said. 鈥淎dding more events is a challenge鈥攊t鈥檚 like a puzzle.鈥�

In person, Shiffrin is about what you鈥檇 expect if you follow her on Instagram: bubbly, charming, intelligent, self-aware. She answers questions not in complete sentences but complete paragraphs, and often in story form. She loves talking about ski racing.听

You don鈥檛 have to look too closely to see that Shiffrin does a few things different than her World Cup competitors. No surprise there鈥攕ince her debut in 2011, she鈥檚 won 60 World Cup races and two Olympic gold medals, and she鈥檚 well on her way to becoming the best ski racer in the history of the sport. You don鈥檛 come by that kind of dominance by doing things the way they鈥檝e always been done.

To take one example: Shiffrin and Lackie are obsessive about logging data from her workouts. This might seem like a small thing鈥攈aven鈥檛 athletes always kept training logs?鈥攅xcept that in ski racing, it鈥檚 not. There are gym sessions to keep track of (a lot of them), plus days spent on the hill, plus data from the various recording devices Shiffrin uses, including a heart-rate monitor and a device that measures the velocity at which she performs squats. (Why is this important? Slalom racing requires that Shiffrin contract her leg muscles faster than during downhill races, and the velocity monitor allows her to tune her muscle coordination appropriately.) When we met in Los Angeles, she told me she had just begun using a gadget that she places underneath her mattress to measure sleep quality.听

Putting together this mountain of data allows Shiffrin and Lackie to figure out exactly how hard to push, and when, and when to back off. Some of the data is subjective, some isn鈥檛. Lackie analyzes the input with data-visualization software, but if Shiffrin forgets to log her workouts, even for a day, the whole thing becomes a bit worthless. The point is, even data management is a lot of work. Hardly anyone else is willing to do it, and it鈥檚 another place where Shiffrin is working harder than almost everyone she races against.听

In the past 20 or so years, we鈥檝e learned a lot about how to mold great athletes. Winning at the global level takes a lot more than just talent, especially if you鈥檙e in it for the long haul. As a result, there isn鈥檛 much low-hanging fruit left in professional sports鈥攏o room for the footloose rogues like Bode Miller. To be the best at ski racing means being the most physically talented, the most emotionally mature, and the hardest working in the gym. It means training with the best coaches, skiing on the fastest skis, and practicing turns from the moment you step off the chairlift to the moment you get back on it. Shiffrin is famous for her consistency: she never misses gates during training, never skips a day in the gym, never forgets her nap, never gets lazy about data logging, never loses a whole season to injury. Does this make Shiffrin an innovator? Well, nobody has ever won as much as quickly as she has, in as many different kinds of races. Winning that much is in fact quite innovative鈥攊t鈥檚 brand new.

Working with Shiffrin has made Lackie a better coach, he says. Because she鈥檚 so consistent in her approach, the moment she stops improving, he knows it鈥檚 because he made a mistake. The reason Shiffrin wins so often isn鈥檛 that she makes better turns than anyone else in ski racing, though of course she sometimes does鈥攕he certainly can. It鈥檚 that from turn to turn, she鈥檚 always pretty good. Other racers are mostly pretty good, and then, for a second or two, they鈥檙e slightly less good. That鈥檚 where Shiffrin gets the edge.

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Free Solo won an Oscar for best documentary. Jimmy Chin鈥檚 acceptance speech, before yielding the microphone to his wife and co-director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi: 鈥淗oly shit.鈥�

Holy shit, indeed. Free Solo, the first true climbing film to reach a mainstream audience, chronicled Alex Honnold鈥檚 2017 solo of El Capitan鈥檚 Freerider route. It听has already earned almost $19 million at the box office, and won best documentary at the British Association of Film and Television Arts several weeks ago. The film benefited from Honnold鈥檚 thoughtful charm on camera, and Chin and Vasarhelyi鈥檚 incredible access during Honnold鈥檚 years-long training process, including while he was thousands of feet off the ground without a rope.

But, like Man on Wire, which won an Oscar in 2007, Free Solo鈥檚 drama isn鈥檛 only physical. As Honnold told Lisa Chase last year, Chin and Vasarhelyi could have oversold the physical risks, but instead stayed close to Honnold鈥檚 emotional experience, particularly as his friends and girlfriend Sanni McCandless contended with the possibility of his death. Vasarhelyi saw that Honnold was sometimes unreachable, and her intuition made the film great. It has deservedly reached a wide audience.

Still, climbing hasn鈥檛 ever been a mainstream sport in the U.S., and it feels unexpected that the two mass-appeal climbs of the past decade are Honnold鈥檚 free solo and Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson鈥檚 2015 first ascent of the El Capitan鈥檚 Dawn Wall, which was covered pitch by pitch in the New York Times. Most climbers are sport climbers or boulderers. A tiny percentage will ever get on El Cap, and many fewer will ever solo a hard route.

So for climbers, it may be strange days ahead. After the Dawn Wall, it was important for climbers to point out that Caldwell and Jorgeson had freed the world鈥檚 hardest ever multi-pitch sport route, but not the world鈥檚 hardest ever free solo or听the world鈥檚 hardest-ever sport climb. Free Solo鈥檚 reception in the broader culture鈥攚here all kinds of rock climbing are seen as daredevilry鈥攈as been slightly different than in the climbing world, and Free Solo has already created some confusion about Honnold鈥檚 status. CNN called Honnold the 鈥済reatest rock climber of all time鈥�; The Washington Post said Free Solo was a top-notch mountaineering movie. Honnold was a good person to make a documentary about, but it鈥檚 weird that nobody in the real world knows who Adam Ondra or Alex Puccio are. 鈥淭he bottom line is, free soloing sucks,鈥� Climbing magazine editor Matt Samet. People die too easily, and climbers know how many free soloists are gone. Climbing will keep covering Honnold because he鈥檚 newsworthy, Samet wrote, but not with much enthusiasm.

Anyone who has watched Free Solo has probably wondered how a climber as obsessive as Honnold has held up on a film tour that began in September. (Hopefully he has a good travel hangboard.) Last night, after an evening of pre-Oscars parties, Honnold texted that he was feeling good, and humbled that so many people had seen the film. But the ceremony was 鈥渢he end of a very long ride,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been touring with the film nonstop for six months so one way or another it鈥檚 pretty great for it to finally wrap up.鈥�

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On June 3, 2017, Alex Honnold on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley without a rope. The ascent, which involved astonishingly insecure and difficult climbing, is among the most impressive in the history of rock climbing. Working in secrecy, a film crew led by Jimmy Chin captured both the climb and two years of Honnold鈥檚 preparation. The resulting documentary, Free Solo, produced and directed by Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, opens nationally in theaters on Friday. It is a dramatic, gorgeous film, and its subtle presentation of Honnold and the emotional stakes of his climb make it one of the best outdoor-sports documentaries of all time.

Helpfully for Chin and Vasarhelyi, those emotional stakes could not have been higher. Nothing about free soloing is theatrical, and many of the climbers who paved the way for Honnold鈥擠ean Potter, John Bachar, Dan Osman鈥攁re dead. In interviews, Honnold is careful to emphasize that free soloing is not something he does casually, but considers a 鈥減eak experience鈥� that he prepares and plans for obsessively. He certainly is obsessive and it is true that he free solos very hard routes only occasionally. But those facts undersell soloing鈥檚 recklessness, and, as the film shows, it falsely reassures us that Honnold is in control. 鈥淧eople who know a little bit about climbing are like, 鈥極h, he鈥檚 totally safe,鈥欌�� Tommy Caldwell, one of Honnold鈥檚 best friends, says in the film. 鈥淧eople who know exactly what he鈥檚 doing are freaked out.鈥�

This is the uneasy tension at the heart of Free Solo: If Honnold dies, how responsible are the filmmakers, his friends, and his audience? That鈥檚 an age-old question in the outdoor industry, which works with extreme risk to sell jackets and magazines. Still, few of us would watch a film about a man playing an actual game of Russian roulette. What exactly is the difference between Russian roulette and free soloing?

By now, most of us already know the film鈥檚 main character. Honnold, 33, has put up a series of astonishing ropeless climbs on some of the sport鈥檚 most iconic multipitch routes, including solos of Moonlight Buttress in Zion National Park; El Sendero Luminoso, a 15-pitch climb in Mexico; and, , the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome in Yosemite. For many hard climbers, El Capitan鈥檚 3,000-foot granite face, across the valley from Half Dome, is the holy grail; for a soloist, it鈥檚 more like a white whale.

Honnold, though, isn鈥檛 a wild man. On screen he is irreverent and thoughtful, a picky eater with strong fingers who has lived in a van for almost a decade. Early in the film, answering questions at his old high school in California, a kid asks Honnold how much money he has. 鈥淚鈥檝e got about $40 in my wallet,鈥� he jokes. 鈥淚 mean, I have a lot of money. Probably as much as a successful dentist.鈥�

But Free Solo suggests that there is another dimension to Honnold. His late father may have struggled with something like Asperger鈥檚 syndrome, and as a kid, Honnold started soloing because he was too embarrassed to ask for a belay. As an adult, he seems consumed with perfection.

As we watch Honnold learn the route, however, we see where his cracks are. He struggles with both lacerating self-doubt and injuries, including a busted ankle from a roped fall low on Freerider鈥檚 tricky slab section. Later on, during his first attempt to solo Freerider, he bails in the same section, and a cameraman helps lower him down. On the ground, the filmmakers capture Honnold in conversation with Peter Croft, a legendary free soloist who is now in his sixties. 鈥淵ou made a perfect choice,鈥� Croft says, congratulating Honnold for valuing his life over the climb. 鈥淚 just need it to end,鈥� Honnold replies, looking distraught. For a moment, it sounds like an admission鈥攖he project has become a burden. But Honnold finishes his thought: 鈥淭he circus,鈥� he says. The problem isn鈥檛 El Cap, it鈥檚 other people.

鈥淭he circus鈥� is perhaps the bigger challenge, and his often tense relationships with the people around him become the emotional core of the film. For two years, Honnold swore Chin and his crew to secrecy to keep pressure down. But the small group who know about his plans鈥擟hin, Caldwell, and his girlfriend, Sanni McCandless鈥攕till seem to oppress him. McCandless鈥檚 emotions, in particular, are a wild card: she is as transparent as Honnold is reserved, and seemingly spends half the film in tears or on the verge of them. She can鈥檛 ask him to stop soloing, but she doesn鈥檛 want him to die. 鈥淓veryone I鈥檝e ever dated has told me that I鈥檓 a sociopath, basically,鈥� Honnold says. Occasionally it鈥檚 hard to disagree.

Airtime is also given Honnold's interactions with Chin and his crew, who appear throughout Free Solo. Chin, of course, has already made a feature-length climbing documentary, Meru, with himself at the center of the action, and initially it wasn鈥檛 clear he needed to be in this one, too. But his presence poses an interesting question: Are the filmmakers themselves putting Honnold at risk? Chin means it literally鈥攈e worries that a camera operator could distract Honnold and send him to his death鈥攁nd philosophically: Would Honnold want to solo Freerider if nobody knew he was up there?

In Free Solo鈥檚 expertly filmed white-knuckle climax, Honnold asks McCandless to leave Yosemite Valley, then begins the climb. As he makes his way through a delicate, technical sequence 2,000 feet off the ground, someone aims a camera at Mikey Schaefer, a pro climber and member of Chin鈥檚 crew, who can鈥檛 bring himself to look through the viewfinder on his own camera. Watching this moment, it seemed clear to me that the tension and grief felt by everyone around Honnold is probably a proxy for his own inner turmoil. If you want to know what it鈥檚 like to be Alex Honnold, watch the people around him wincing and weeping as he climbs out of view.

Should the rest of us watch him climb? In the months since I first watched Free Solo, I haven鈥檛 settled on a satisfying answer. Honnold sometimes strikes me as a tragic figure, wrapped so tight that he can鈥檛 acknowledge how much pain he causes those who care about him. 鈥淔or Sanni, the point of life is happiness,鈥� he says. 鈥淔or me, it鈥檚 performance.鈥� His priorities are all wrong.

Still, I鈥檓 not sure Honnold鈥檚 career would actually look much different if he鈥檇 never gained an audience. Talking with Croft, Honnold muses about the sense of calm and freedom that he feels high on the wall. He鈥檚 chasing a weird, deadly form of meditation, but one that is probably familiar (in a diminished form) to any climber who has stuck a sketchy move when they needed to, or any skier who has threaded the needle in a high-consequence couloir. For many of us, learning to do something hard and scary when the stakes are high is essential to being alive. Honnold has carried that idea to its extreme and beautiful limit. 鈥淚 think when he鈥檚 free soloing he feels the most alive, the most everything,鈥� Honnold鈥檚 mother, Dierdre Wolownick, says. 鈥淗ow could you even think about taking that away from somebody?鈥�

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Jim Walmsley is known for two races, the 听in听2016 and 2017. In 2016, Walmsley attacked from the gun, at times running as much as 45 minutes under Timothy Olson鈥檚 course-record pace. Jenny Simpson, the world champion 1,500-meter runner, used to train with Walmsley in Colorado Springs, and she tweeted updates on his progress, keying in a broader section of the competitive running world. It was a good story: an almost completely unknown runner was dismantling the course record of the country鈥檚 most famous ultra. Western States begins at altitude near the Squaw Valley ski area, in eastern California, then drops gradually westward to Auburn, outside Sacramento.听By late afternoon, Walmsley was on pace to break Olson鈥檚 14:46 record, but at mile 92听he made a wrong left turn and ran two miles off course. Discouraged and exhausted, he reversed direction at a walk and finished in 20th place. Still, the race was a sensation. Scott Jurek, who has won the race seven times, called to offer a mix of condolence and congratulation, and Hoka signed him to a sponsorship that allowed him to quit his job at a bike shop in Flagstaff, Arizona.

In 2017, Walmsley intended to prove that his race the year before had not been foolish. Myke Hermsmeyer, Walmsley鈥檚 friend and unofficial documentarian, produced an emotional short film about the 2016 race, and a group of his fans and friends came to watch and crew; many wore T-shirts that read STOP JIM, an homage to the STOP PRE T-shirts that Steve Prefontaine fans wore in the 1970s.听One had been edited to read, in smaller letters, FROM GETTING LOST. In 2016, Walmsley had covered a steep听early section of course fast, and in 2017 he went out even harder even though听parts were snowed in. Shortly after the start, Ryan Sandes, a top South African racer, asked if Walmsley planned to attack the course record again. Walmsley said yes, and Sandes let him go. By midafternoon, however, temperatures were in the high nineties, and at mile 52 Walmsley鈥檚 stomach began to give out. He vomited profusely while leaving the Foresthill aid station at mile 62, and dropped out at mile 78. Sandes won in 16:19.

On June 23, Walmsley will race Western States for a third time. Unlike in either of his previous attempts, he is now both well-known and seasoned, with course records at half a dozen of the country鈥檚 top ultras, including the Lake Sonoma 50 Mile, where he broke his own record by nine minutes in April. At distances below 100 miles, he is the best ultrarunner in the country. Ultrarunning is a sport that favors a tortoise-over-hare mentality that irritates Walmsley听and that his running style challenges. But he still hasn鈥檛 won Western States, and the question he has posed to the sport鈥攚hy can鈥檛 he race 100 milers hard from the gun?鈥攚ill again be the subtext of this year鈥檚 race. 鈥淗e hasn鈥檛 stuck it yet,鈥� said Bryon Powell, the editor of running website . 鈥淗e鈥檚 going for the 1080 flip that no one has ever done, but he hasn鈥檛 landed it.鈥�

Western States 鈥済ets brought up every day of my life,鈥� Walmsley told me听in May. 鈥淚t鈥檚 almost a part of me, I guess. If you can get it done at Western States, you got a good year.鈥�

Walmsley, who is now 28, is tall and gaunt, even for an ultrarunner. When I met him in Flagstaff on a warm Sunday night this spring, he was wearing sweatpants, sandals, and a听large down jacket; Walmsley doesn鈥檛 have much body fat. In conversation, he would be a familiar character to anyone who has spent time around a college or high school cross-country program鈥攈e鈥檚 a running nerd. Over drinks one night a few days later, he took ten minutes to explain that closed-cell insoles absorb less water and are lighter than the open-cell insoles that come standard in running shoes. 鈥淚 can talk about running forever,鈥� he said.

Walmsley grew up in Phoenix, where he was a state champion cross-country runner and qualified for the Foot Locker National Championships. After graduating, he ran at the Air Force Academy, where he was a second-team all-American in the steeplechase, running 8:41. He had a PR of 13:52 for the 5,000 meters. Those are decent times for a D1 runner, but they stand out in the world of ultras, which more often attracts athletes who have a talent for grinding and suffering听rather than running fast.

When Walmsley graduated from the Air Force Academy, he had hoped for a billing as a logistics officer near a major city, but was instead assigned to Malmstrom Air Force Base, near Great Falls, Montana, to pull 24-hour shifts supervising nuclear-missile silos. On a day off in 2013, after going for a 40-mile bike ride and a 14-mile run in the morning, he met a friend to go rock climbing. They hiked to a crag but realized they both had forgotten to bring a rope, and retreated to a bar. Later听they met the friend鈥檚 wife for dinner and split a bottle of wine. On the 90-minute drive back home, Walmsley realized that he was dehydrated, sleepy, and had had too much to drink, and he pulled over to nap. He awoke to a Montana state trooper tapping on his window. After taking a field sobriety test Walmsley blew 0.081 on a breathalyzer and was arrested for operating under the influence.听(In Montana, as in many other states, it is illegal to have physical control of a car while intoxicated, even if you are not driving it.)

The Air Force placed Walmsley on probation and pulled him off silo duty. Though embarrassing, the DUI likely wouldn鈥檛 have permanently threatened his military career. But around that time, a involving readiness exams for missileers consumed Malmstrom. According to Walmsley and various news reports, many officers viewed the tests as pro forma, and cheating had been common for years. More than 100 officers at the base were eventually implicated, including most of Malmstrom鈥檚 senior command and the commanding general, who later resigned. Junior officers were generally spared from serious punishment, but Walmsley had admitted to cheating, and, with the DUI, it became hard for the Air Force to keep him around. He was given a general discharge, a form of separation that is less serious than a dishonorable discharge but still indicates that something in his service went wrong.

Walmsley was humiliated. He returned to Phoenix depressed and suicidal, and moved in with his parents. 鈥淚t felt like the first time in life that I was failing, that I failed,鈥� he told me. His parents were supportive, and he began seeing a psychiatrist, who recommended that he make running a bigger priority; it seemed to help him cope. Last year, in the video that Hermsmeyer produced before Western States, Walmsley spoke openly about being depressed, and the rawness of that interview has since lead people with similar problems to reach out. But the post-discharge period still feels extraordinarily painful, and he avoids discussing it in detail. 鈥淧eople want me to talk about it,鈥� he told me. 鈥溾�楬ow did you get through it?鈥� In a lot of ways I never got through it. I just moved on.鈥�

In 2015, Walmsley left Phoenix and moved to Flagstaff, and began training hard. He reconnected with Tim Freriks, a 2013 graduate of Northern Arizona University who听Walmsley had known in high school, and entered a series of the country鈥檚 top ultras. Racing under the radar and without a major sponsor, Walmsley won the JFK 50 Mile, and set course records at the Bandera 100K and Lake Sonoma 50 Mile. Freriks and Cody Reed, another NAU runner, traveled to Sonoma with him, and Freriks finished second. After the race, the three started calling themselves the Coconino Cowboys, after the nearby Coconino National Forest.

Last year, Eric Senseman and Jared Hazen moved to Flagstaff, after helping crew for Walmsley at Western States. Both now run with the Cowboys听and, with Reed and Freriks, qualified to race Western States this year. Except for Hazen, who withdrew this week with a hip injury, all will be on the starting line in California.

Hoka picked up Walmsley after his 2016 race, but the Cowboys are members of perhaps the only elite training group that is uncoached and not unified by a single sponsor. (They do have small deals with Squirrel鈥檚 Nut Butter, an antichafe balm, and Pizzicletta, where they eat for free on Sunday evenings.)听Like small groups of friends across the world, they have the ability to be unambiguously cruel to each other and still sound loving: Hazen, who finished third at Western States in 2015, is called Tank, because he is physically small.听At dinner one night, I heard Reed ask Tommy Rivers Puzey, who also trains with the Cowboys, if he would pace him after mile 60; Puzey said no, because he wasn鈥檛 sure Reed would make it that far. The next night, as Walmsley signed promotional posters for Squirrel鈥檚 Nut Butter, he told me that听if Senseman tried to run with Walmsley for the win, he would 鈥渃rack Eric like an egg.鈥� Hermsmeyer, sitting across from Walmsley and trying to offer a note of moderation, said, 鈥淭here鈥檚 equal shit talking.鈥� Walmsley thought for a moment. 鈥淭im doesn鈥檛 talk shit,鈥� he said finally. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a pretty nice guy.鈥�

Without the wrong turn in 2016, Walmsley thinks he would have finished seven or eight minutes under Timothy Olson鈥檚 course record of 14:46. There is a consensus among the group, which Walmsley alternately accepts and rejects, that he went out too hard in 2017. (Between the two races, he told me, 鈥淚鈥檝e had 165 out of 200 miles go pretty awesome. I鈥檓 doing some things well.鈥�) In 2017, after building a nearly 20 minute buffer over his 2016 pace, which was already quick, he gave it all back fighting through snow-covered trails on the descent to Robinson Flats, at mile 30. Then it got hot. By mile 62, he was off record pace but still holding a lead of an hour,听and was greeted by a crowd of dozens and a film crew when he arrived.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 expect how many people would be waiting,鈥� he said. In retrospect, he should have taken 20 minutes to collect himself, cool down, and rehydrate, but the crowd spooked him. 鈥淭he publicity and attention I was getting was all brand new,鈥� he said. Instead of waiting, he chugged a bottle of fluid and took off, jogging a matter of feet before vomiting. That was the end of his stomach. (Two months later, with that experience under his belt, he fought off similar stomach distress to finish fifth, behind Kilian Jornet and Francois D鈥檋aene, at the 105-mile Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc.) 鈥淚t wouldn鈥檛 surprise me if Jim does hold back a bit the first half, the first 30 to 40 miles,鈥� Freriks told me. 鈥淩unning super aggressive hasn鈥檛 paid off for him the past couple years. But who knows. Jim just likes going for it.鈥�

In Walmsley鈥檚 view, going for it is the obvious way to win ultras. 鈥淵ou look at track, or the marathon, or cycling, there鈥檚 generally a pack,鈥� he said. In those sports, races get broken open late, once fatigue has set in. 鈥淯ltrarunning, you can still run off the front from the beginning and get away with it.鈥� Until the sport matures, Walmsley is willing to risk blowing up if it sometimes means winning spectacularly. He is also willing to telegraph his race plans. His approach, he said, is, 鈥淭ell them what you鈥檙e going to do, and go do it.鈥� This is contrary to the style and ethic of the ultra scene, and helps explain why Walmsley is sometimes regarded as arrogant. 鈥淚t鈥檚 off-putting to some people,鈥� Bryon Powell said. 鈥淎 hundred miles is a long distance鈥攖here are lots of variables, and things do go wrong, and maybe that鈥檚 why you should temper your own expectations.鈥�

For the past several years, Walmsley has logged most of his training publicly, . Despite minor injuries in March and May, Walmsley has put in eight 100-mile-plus weeks this spring, including a 150-mile week with 35,000 feet of climbing. In Flagstaff, Walmsley lives in a room he rents from a retired W.L. Gore and Associates engineer in her sixties named Anita. Half of his bedroom wall is lined with blue boxes of Hoka shoes, and to their right is a framed map of the Western States course, on loan from a friend of Walmsley鈥檚 father. In 2017, Walmsley鈥檚 run up the early, steep section of the course put him far in front of the field; most everyone hikes this climb, which is the high point on the day, but he ran it. 鈥淭his year, it would be nice to be a little bit slower, because I can鈥檛 fuck it up again,鈥� he said, looking at the map. 鈥淏ut there鈥檚 free time right there.鈥�

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Training essentials for road and trail.

Leki Micro Trail Vario Poles ($220)

The three-piece design on these ultralight carbon poles makes for fast and easy deployment or collapse as conditions change from rowdy to moderate. We especially liked the cork grips鈥攁 lifesaver after hours on the trail.

Tracksmith Reggie Half Tights ($68)

Named for Boston鈥檚 famed Reggie Lewis indoor running track, the Reggie half tights became our go-to for fast workouts. The Italian-made, stretchy nylon-elastane material minimized chafing and breathed well.

Brooks Ghost Shirt ($40)

The Ghost might be the thinnest, softest shirt we鈥檝e ever worn. The polyester dries so fast, you won鈥檛 notice it鈥檚 there鈥攁lmost, well, like a ghost.

Salomon Air Logo Cap ($30)

The wide mesh on the top and back of the Air Logo vented heat on midday runs, and the stubby brim did just fine keeping the sun鈥檚 rays at bay. At night, the reflective accents helped us stay visible to cars on the road.

Petzl Actik Core Headlamp ($70)

We love the simplicity of the Actik, which powers its 350 lumens via a rechargeable lithium battery that鈥檚 easy to top off before a run. No outlet? It also runs on three AAA batteries.

Arc鈥檛eryx Norvan 7 Hydration Vest ($179)

At just over nine ounces, the Norvan is silly light for how capable it is: seven liters of storage, a water-resistant compartment, and a pair of holsters for hydration flasks all cinch down to avoid bouncing.

L.L.Bean CoolMax Nano Glide Socks ($18 for two pairs)

We admire the Nano Glide鈥檚 ankle cut, and the stretchy nylon-poly mix has just enough padding in the heel and forefoot.

Mammut MTR 71 Shorts ($65)

Mammut nailed these shorts: a wide waistband keeps them in place, a zippered pocket holds a key or gel, and the poly-blend fabric never rubs.

The post The Best Men鈥檚 Running Kit of 2018 appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

, one of the best marathon runners in American history, almost became a baker. As the 45-year-old writes in her new memoir, ($27, Crown 颅Archetype), she was an extraordinary junior athlete in the late 1980s and early 鈥�90s. But after becoming frustrated by injuries in college, she decided to leave the sport and open a caf茅. Then a chance introduction led her to legendary coach Joe Vigil, who taught Kastor as much about life as about training. Within two years she became a national champion, and later made three Olympic teams, ending a two-decade American drought in the Olympic marathon in 2004 with a bronze medal. Her 2006 U.S. marathon record of 2:19:36 has not been threatened since. The key, Kastor writes, was between the ears: learning to feel gratitude and humility, and to see setbacks as opportunities for growth. 鈥淢y mind changed; it became a place of constant positivity,鈥� she writes. 鈥淭he more I looked, the more there was to be grateful for.鈥�

Kastor doesn鈥檛 break new ground in her earnest retelling of such lessons, but it鈥檚 a useful reminder that athletic success is never simply about physical ability.

If Kastor rewired her mind to elevate her performance, Scott Douglas, author of this month鈥檚 ($20, The Experiment), has used running to soothe his. The journalist and former Runner鈥檚 World editor has suffered from chronic depression since middle school, almost as long as he鈥檚 been logging 70-plus-mile weeks. A large body of research has shown that lacing up is good for our bodies, but as Douglas reports, depressed people who exercise often feel as good as people who take antidepressants. And those who exercise regularly may be somewhat less likely to become depressed in the first place.

How come? The reasons are complicated, but running seems to increase the size of the hippocampus and strengthen neural connections linked to memory and focus鈥攃hanges that are structural and lasting. And it can catalyze lifestyle changes: running offers a way to socialize, encourages goal setting, and gets you outdoors. Douglas won鈥檛 ever be completely immune to low moods. But for him and many others, he writes, 鈥渓ife would be immeasurably worse鈥� without running.

The Runner鈥檚 Media Diet

Blog: She Can and She Did

Kelly Roberts, social-media buff and Boston Marathon hopeful, revamped (formerly known as Run, Selfie, Repeat) for 2018. It still features her signature quirky, honest posts and now adds other women鈥檚 voices for maximum inspiration.

Youtube Channel: Alexi Pappas

Anyone who feels energized after reading the professional distance runner and filmmaker鈥檚 Twitter poems will be delighted by . Expect unbridled enthusiasm on everything from ice baths to banana bread.

Newsletter: The Morning Shakeout

Mario Fraioli鈥檚 dives into sometimes-esoteric news and commentary for serious running nerds. But there鈥檚 plenty to chew on for all levels and interests.

Instagram feed: @firstrun

Knox Robinson, founder of run crew Black Roses NYC, serves up an of group jogs, race days, and extremely cool runners wearing sunglasses. Don鈥檛 skip the poem-like captions and detailed training logs below the photos.

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