Trekking poles offer several benefits to long distance runners (see sidebar), particularly over extremely hilly or rugged terrain. The catch is making sure the benefit of the poles exceeds the additional weight and logis...
Tag: Review
Do you keep a running log? A lot of people do, noting a few details about their daily runs. But I am unsure how many runners keep a journal. When I say “journal” I mean more than just the recording of the time and distan...
Good summer apparel is inherently deceptive, as the best lightweight garments and simplest designs are usually rooted in high-tech fabrics or construction elements. We’ve tested a handful of summer kits for men and women...
“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain and difficulty. I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult liv...
Whether you’re logging long miles between aid stations or long hours between trailheads, hydration packs are your weapon of self-reliance; there’s enough space for all the fluid, gear and supplies you need to cover the d...
You’re running and running and running and it’s time for that extra energy boost. If you enjoy a gummy product (like I do), chews are the choice for you. I’m a fan of the chews because I feel like I’m eating candy that’s...
Adharanand Finn has a dream job. In 2012 he traveled to Kenya and spent six months immersed in the running culture there trying to uncover the secrets of what makes the Kenyans the fastest runners on earth. The book he w...
Hydration belts can be among the most valuable and dependable pieces of gear in your closet. They carry a modest amount of fluids along with key cargo essentials, and can be used for everyday training as well as a minima...
Ultrarunners and other endurance athletes should pay attention to the main message of this fascinating book. Decades of intensive training and racing can cause long-term damage to your heart. Surely we have all wondered...
There’s almost nothing that makes a long run more miserable than the tell-tale burning sensation of friction in your most sensitive areas. Chafing is a year-round adversary for distance runners: in the winter, extra clot...
In his newest book, The Road to Sparta, Dean Karnazes takes a deeply personal and engaging look back into Greek history. With the help of two modern-day Greek scholars he explores the well-worn tale of Pheidippedes and t...
Most major brands are expanding their lineup of trail footwear for 2017 seeing the steady annual growth of trail and ultra-distance running in North America. Runners have a breadth of great options, and new sub-categorie...
Winter running jackets present an eternal challenge for clothing designers. The primary objective is to balance two competing needs: enough insulation to keep you warm in frigid conditions, but enough ventilation to keep...
Charlie Engle, by his own admission, is an addictive personality. His new memoir, Running Man, is a brutally honest and compulsively readable account of his years as an alcoholic and crack addict and how he managed to fi...
It’s our holiday custom to crowd-source gear recommendations from the entire UltraRunning Magazine team for our annual gift guide. This year, they were given the following guidelines: tell us your favorite new product, o...
With the holidays fast approaching the books slated for review start piling up at a furious pace. As I write this, the stack that is on my desk is towering over me as precariously as a certain tower in Pisa. Amidst this...
At its heart, ultrarunning is an old-school discipline: We run for the feelings, the experience, the scars and the stories. However, our sport paradoxically attracts a remarkable number of data geeks, for whom no data po...
It has been quite a long time since I have written a book review for this esteemed publication. In the years that my husband and I published UltraRunning, I reviewed five to seven books a year, but that figure is but a s...
Altra – Lone Peak 3 $120 This is, quite simply, a fantastic update to an already great shoe. The new Lone Peak 3 is far and away the best fitting trail shoe from Altra to date, with an extraordinary fit in both the inst...
We’ve all been there: those agonizing last miles of a race or long training day when the only thought in your mind is, “I can’t wait to get these shoes off my feet!” When your work for the day is over and you’re ready to...