Tom (left) followed U.S. ski team trainer Topper Hagerman’s advice that he mimic the feel of monster-mogul runs by adding three two-minute sprints to his thrice-weekly running or biking program. Two other days a week, he added three sets each of squats, lunges, bench presses, pull-ups, crunches, and back extensions, stretching thoroughly after each workout. Three days before his trip, he cut out the weights to rest his muscles. Jerry (right) played Grand Theft Auto instead.

Above 7,000 feet, dehydration increases, so Tom stayed off the booze, which slows acclimatization. At dinner, he packed in pasta, rice, and potatoes, along with veggies. Jerry went for the sauce.

Tom skipped Leno and turned in early. The thin air made sleep difficult, but he avoided any temptation to pop a Tylenol PM or sleeping pill; such drugs slow down a body’s natural altitude adjustment. Jerry stayed out doing the cabbage patch.

While Jerry guzzled coffee and ordered all the greasy meat on the menu, Tom fueled up on carbs with multigrain cereal and toast, and protein from eggs and dairy to replenish his power. He savored an espresso, keeping it to just one.

Before the lifts opened, Tom slowly walked up and down the ski hill for 15 minutes in his hikers. He finished his warm-up with 20 slow torso rotations. Jerry plopped down to make pretty snow angels.

Illustrations by Oliver Kugler

On his first easy run, Tom kept his boots slightly loose. Then, before his next run, he buckled them snug; he felt as solid and steady as if bolted onto a roller-coaster rail. Jerry went off a double black diamond and tumbled all the way down.

“The fitter you are, the more noticeable the effects of altitude are going to be,” says Benjamin Levine, head of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s Institute for Exercise. So Tom eased into a morning of green and blue runs. Jerry kept “shredding.”

The windchill hit zero, and Jerry hadn’t felt his toes since noon. Tom, however, had dumped some cayenne pepper down his socks and knocked back a shot of ginger tea. “Seriously, Jerry,” said Tom. “This stuff works.”

Tom stayed sharp, downing a liter of fluids and eating 30 grams of carbohydrates per hour. (A PowerBar has 45 grams, a pack of Gu, 25.) Jerry ate snow, though none of it was yellow.

Jerry should’ve known that it’s no sin to quit at 2 p.m. if you start wiping out on runs you carved with ease earlier. Why? More injuries occur on Saturday afternoon than at any other time of the week.

A hot tub relaxes sore muscles, but soaking for longer than 15 minutes will exhaust, not rejuvenate, the body. Jerry had never heard that one, so he ended up a prune-skinned waste.

Jerry wasn’t hungry, but he should’ve eaten and drunk a liter of water before hitting the bar. Tom enjoyed just three frothy pints, and he wisely quaffed a liter of H20 before bed. Jerry slammed a 12-pack of beer.

It can take as little as three days to acclimatize to 10,000 feet, which meant Sunday—38 hours after Tom and Jerry arrived—was the best time to try that leg-busting halfpipe 540 or huck off a 20-foot-high cornice.

Before stuffing himself into coach class for the flight home, Tom spent 30 minutes stretching, then treated himself to a burger and fries to fuel himself for the long trip. Jerry had to be helped home on a stretcher—not fun. The End.

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CYCLING THE AEGEAN

The whitewash wonders of Greece

ISLAND HOPPING IN GREECE AND TURKEY—ON TWO WHEELS
After 30 miles of biking along the jagged shores of the Aegean Sea, my seven companions and I rolled into Güllük, a sleepy port on the southwest coast of Turkey, about 600 road miles south of Istanbul. We walked into a bar, where a grizzly fisherman put down his glass of raki, an aniseed-flavored Turkish alcohol, and swaggered up to us, laughing. “Good!” he roared, gold teeth flashing, while plucking at my spandex tights. “�ձ������ü��!“—thank you—I yelled back, striking my best superhero pose. The bar erupted, raki spilling everywhere.
Güllük was our second stop on a trip that began at an ancient mausoleum in the Turkish town of Bodrum and ended ten days and 350 miles later at a nude beach on the Greek island of Naxos. A bike route that begins with crypts and ends with public nudity might seem odd, but in Greece and Turkey the ghosts of the past and the pleasures of the present happily coexist. Combining small portions allowed us to explore two cultures, and our criteria were simple: ocean views and ancient ruins.
After an olive-and-tomato breakfast in Güllük, we continued north and soon hit the Laba Dagi Mountains. We’d creep uphill, negotiating a steady slalom of sheep dung, and then race down the other side at 40 mph before hitting the next hill. At the end of our second 40-mile day we turned off the main road at a rotting wooden sign that indicated the village of Kapikiri. Instantly, trucks gave way to donkey carts, tinkling cowbells replaced blaring horns, and pantaloon-wearing women harvested vegetables in boulder-strewn fields. Dead tired, we checked into the Pelikan Pansiyon, a rustic inn just beyond the village’s medieval walls, and slept until we had to pedal off early the next morning. Over the next two days we worked our way 50 miles north through mountains and along ragged coast to the port town of Kusadasi, our launching point for Greece.

Greek ferries were made for bike touring. On a bike, you’re always the first on and the first off, blowing past waiting cars. On deck, you’re treated to an intimate view of Greek life: grandmothers unwrap tin foiled family feasts while teenage lovers neck behind the snack bar. After two hours, we stepped onto the sultry island of Samos, famous for its orchids and sweet wine. We ditched our panniers at the Hotel Samos, near the ferry terminal in the main town of Vathí, and set off to explore.
Ten miles over the island’s hilly spine we arrived in Pythagorio, where Pythagoras, the man who tormented generations of students with a2+b2=c2, was born 2,500 years ago. From Pythagorio we headed west, winding through olive groves and hill towns on one of the best 20-mile rides of our lives.
After sampling Samos, we jumped a ferry west to the Cyclades Islands and disembarked five hours later on Naxos, a windswept island that supplied the ancient world with marble. Checking into the Hotel Adriani was like dropping in on friends. The cheerful owners, father and son, welcomed us with a toast of kitron, a lemony elixir distilled only on the island.
The next morning, four of us biked 20 grueling mountain miles to Apollonas, on the island’s lonely northern tip, only to find that all the residents had left to attend a funeral. We headed back, parched and slightly delirious, stopping at a nude beach. With the cove to ourselves, we stretched out on the hot pebbles and soaked up the fading warmth of dusk. In that sublime moment I felt—like the bohemian writer Lawrence Durrell before me—”rocked and cherished by the present and past alike.”

Hiking the Dingle Peninsula

Getting lost—and found—on Ireland’s ancient tangle of trails

Rock on: a coastal vista along the trail

The path cut through undulating hillsides of green gorse and purple heather. Sheep danced away as we neared. We had walked alone for hours—lost—when two hikers appeared ahead. We prayed that they were shepherds who could guide us back to civilization, but instead we met two schoolteachers from New Hampshire, also lost. Our lyrical guidebook, The Dingle Way Companion, read, “Cross the field diagonally, clear a stile set in a stone wall and drop down through boughs of fuchsia, entwined as if in prayer. . . .”
Recreational hiking is still an emerging sport in Ireland, where working the fields once left little time for constitutionals. Nobody knows that better than Joss Lynam, the 78-year-old author and patriarch of Irish hiking, who led the push to expand the National Waymarked Ways (just Ways, for short), which link about 1,910 miles of ancient bog paths, goat spoors, and fisherman’s trails. “If you’re chasing sheep over the hills five days a week, you don’t want to do it on the weekend,” said Lynam. That’s changing. In 1991 there were only 12 Ways. Today there are 33. But Lyman was no help to us now, and in a late-afternoon routine that we repeated daily, we hitchhiked, wet, hungry, and happy back to our hotel.
There are no huts along the Ways, but farmers allow camping, and trails often pass through or near towns with hotels, hostels, and B&Bs. On this trip last fall, my wife and I fell for the village of Dingle and its cobblestone streets; blue, green, and orange row houses; and dark pubs. So instead of hiking the entire 95-mile Dingle Way, which hugs the perimeter of southwest Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula, we stayed for three days on the outskirts of town at spacious, modern Greenmount House, an inn with ocean views. We took daily hikes averaging 14 miles, crossing green fields and stark beaches. Mornings began with a buffet of smoked salmon and homemade breads and jams before we headed west from the inn through intermittent rain. We would survey Dingle’s harbor, looking for the wild but fish-begging dolphin named Fungi, then pick a direction and go.
On the flanks of 1,693-foot Mount Eagle, about five miles west of Dingle, we stood among the cattle and wildflowers, watching the morning mist rise to reveal craggy islands to the west and 3,000-foot Brandon Mountain to the north. We stopped to pluck blackberries. We stopped at the medieval ruins of Menard Castle and Celtic stone huts called clochain. We stopped to watch gannets dive from their cliffs into the water below, and we stopped to check the “guidebook.” Eventually we found a road and stuck out our thumbs.
On our final day, we walked through spongy, shoe-sucking peat bogs to the tip of Dingle Peninsula. Atop sandstone cliffs we looked down 500 feet to islets and caves. Later, when we were lost—again—we stumbled onto Kruger’s pub. After an hour of listening to the Gaelic tongue of farmers, we forged on, content to let the landscape lead the way. Finding our inn was a bit less important after the pub’s cool Guinness and hot whiskey.

Mountain Biking in Provence

Meet the Moab of France—sweet singletrack enhanced by olive groves and better wine

C’Est magnifique: the vineyards of Provence

At some point along a meandering ridge trail called the Grande Randonnée 9, the thought took hold: The region around Apt, in southern France, is a kissing cousin to that mountain-biking mother lode, Moab. Both areas are sun-drenched convergences of startling geology, sudden inclines, and long vistas, crisscrossed with technical trails. Apt even shares Moab’s Mars-colored riding surfaces—the powdery, ocher-infused dirt of Provence glows as lustrous as Utah’s sandstone. It just hurts a lot less when you biff on it.
But I had to set my revelation aside when the GR 9 turned abruptly to the right, sauntered among the stone ruins of a castle, plunged down an ivy-laced ravine, and skirted olive groves. When the ride finished in a town with cobblestone streets so narrow my bike could barely pull a U-turn, Moab’s fast-food franchises and prefab motels seemed, well, an ocean and a continent away.
Like the Impressionist painters who moved to Provence for the astonishing intensity of its light, mountain bikers also find much to their liking here. With more than 300 days of sunshine a year and frost-free winters, Provence’s riding season is long and hassle-free. The widely spaced trees—cedar, oak, juniper, and eucalyptus—keep trail duff and deadfall clutter to a minimum.
I first rode Provence three years ago. Near Nostradamus’s hometown of Salon-de-Provence, I snuffled down singletrack brimming with rosemary and thyme. On my second trip, I ventured farther inland to the Parc Naturel Régional du Lubôron, 637 square miles encompassing the 11,500-person village of Apt, as well as winemaking estates, lavender fields, rugged slopes as high as 3,690 feet, and startlingly phallic ocher formations.
A stop at Gassou Shop, on the west side of town, got me pointed to Apt’s trademark playground, Le Colorado Provençal, a canyon six miles to the northeast. The Colorado Provençal ride is one of many possibilities; hundreds of miles of riding trails surround Apt. Ridable chemins (roads) and sentiers (trails) spider up, down, and over the 31-mile-wide Lubéron range.

Once at the canyon, I followed the yellow markings that denote mountain-bike-friendly trails, spinning up a gentle grade to the rim. Birdsong and golden light made the preserve’s wind-eroded dirt pillars appear celestial, but still damn weird. As in Arches National Park, cyclists are banned from pedaling sensitive formations; unlike in Utah, the sights loom yards, not miles, away. The seven-mile loop concludes with a rollicking descent.
Each evening, I returned to the affordable (about $40 per night) Hôtel L’Aptois, on Apt’s eastern edge, to prepare for French post-ride refueling. Among several unpretentiously good restaurants, Au Petit Saint Martin stands out: a romantic room inside the chef’s house, tucked into a labyrinth of backstreets that a certain automobile-obsessed nation would have bulldozed long ago. On Saturdays, Apt hosts a bustling outdoor market where your euros buy fresh cherries and criminally good $4 bottles of Côtes du Lubéron wine.
Eight days in Apt coated my bike with grit the same hue that Provence native Paul Cézanne used in his palette. Too bad that when I flew home, U.S. customs officials washed the bike to keep our shores free of hoof-and-mouth disease—I wanted to spread ocher dust all over home.

Paddling the Tromsø Archipelago

The search for an Arctic Eden beneath Norway’s midnight sun

The arctic landscape of Norway

Catch a break from the North Wind, paddle 24 miles, and trust the advice of a modern-day Viking named Bent, and we just might make it to Eden. That’s the plan as Tim Conlan, the leader of our sea-kayaking expedition, spreads his nautical charts out on the dune grass inside our lavvu, an indigenous Scandinavian tepee. Twig in hand, he sketches the route to a long, sandy beach on the island of Rebbenesøya. There, in a crescent-shaped bay, awaits Eden, or at least that’s what Conlan’s sailing buddy Bent indicated on the chart. And as we were besieged at our first campsite by voracious sheep, thwarted the next day by a headwind so fierce it took us an hour to paddle a mile, and kept off the water by heavy gusts on our third day, this idyllic campsite—beachfront property, with freshwater streams and majestic ridges—sounds like Valhalla. We agree to an early start (4:30 a.m.) and pray that the wind abates.

We’re four days into a ten-day kayak tour through the thousands of mountainous islands west of Tromsø, well above the Arctic Circle and about 1,100 miles north of Oslo. The Tromsø archipelago covers about 450 square miles, and the rugged coast reminds me of the High Sierra, only with the valleys flooded by the sea. The region’s wide fetches and channels leave us exposed to the wind, and our progress has been slow. In fact, by the end of the trip we’ll have managed only 64 miles of a planned 100. Fortunately, the hilarity of tackling language barriers and debates about everything from polar bears to taxes to Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe will have gelled our international team during the wind-enforced downtime.
Ten of us—four Americans, three Swedes, a German, a Brit, and an Afrikaner-Canadian—signed on for this Nordic ramble with Crossing Latitudes, Conlan’s Bozeman, Montana-based guide service. For seven years, Tim and his Swedish business partner and wife, Lena, have led kayak trips south of Tromsø, threading the granite towers of Lofoten and island-hopping the skerries of Vester&3229;len. The Conlans wanted to know what’s around the next fjord, so they arranged this exploratory, as outfitters call trips they have yet to complete themselves and run with experienced clients to gauge feasibility.
Aside from paddling, we’ve played spirited matches of the Viking game kubb (think horseshoes with rocks) and hiked to the top of Haaja, a 1,600-foot peak with a dead-drop to the breakers below. Aside from the sheep incident, our campsites have been untracked, snug in the curve of dunes or perched on low bluffs, and we’ve taken full advantage of the midnight sun. Last night, sensing a lull after dinner, we hit the water and covered 18 miles between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m., all the while reveling in the strange, affecting glow. It may cause insomnia, but the midnight sun sustains you, too, as if you were a plant in bloom. The one thing you don’t want to do here is flip your kayak: The water is a frigid 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
It takes about seven hours of paddling over two days to get there, and then, finally, we surf a two-foot break into the deserted beach on Rebbenesøya, and Bent’s Eden is, well . . . fallen, but beautiful. Several detonated mines from World War II lie half buried in the dunes. We beachcomb and scramble up the ravines behind camp and drink from snowmelt streams that trickle through mountain birch. Scores of bright forget-me-nots, carnivorous sundews, and budding multe (cloudberries) crowd our feet. Above us, a sea eagle soars.
Conlan concedes he won’t rush to add Tromsø to his outfitted trips. Nevertheless, he’s considering a second Troms” exploratory trip for 2003, farther north, where the archipelago hides more-secluded coves of glacier-smoothed rock and sun.
Access and Resources:
Crossing Latitudes (800-572-8747, ). Offers guided kayak trips in Sweden and Norway. Wilderness Center (011-47-77-69-60-02, ) and the Vesterålen Padleklubb (011-47-776-12-40-73) in Troms” rent kayaks and/or provide transport for put-in and take-out. For relatively inexpensive lodging in Troms”, try Ami Hotel bed and Breakfast (doubles, $81-$93 per night; 011-47-77-68-22-08, ). For information, contact the Norwegian Tourist Bureau (212-885-9700, ). For backcountry planning, contact the Oslo offices of Den Norske Turistforening, the Norwegian equivalent of the Sierra Club (011-47-22-82-28-00, ).

The Power to Move You

More self-propelled adventures

(SKATING)
THE ELFSTEDENTOCHT // THE NETHERLANDS
The Elfstedentocht (meaning “11 cities tour” and pronounced however you see fit) ice-skating race covers a stupefying 124 miles over the frozen canals, lakes, and streams of the northern Dutch province of Friesland. Of course, to have a 124-mile race, you need 124 miles of ice—a winter-weather miracle that has happened only 15 times since 1906 (the last time in 1997). To guarantee your go at the course, forget the ice skates and try in-line instead. The race route is a clockwise loop from Leeuwarden, Friesland’s capital, past flower-filled meadows, pristine lakes, and quaint villages—particularly Hindeloopen, a conglomeration of windmills and clock towers. You’ll skate mainly on perfectly paved, wide-berth bike paths, and when you do have to mix with traffic, Dutch drivers will always brake for you. Nonetheless, if your plan is to tick off all 124 miles, sign up with Amsterdam-based Skate-A-Round (011-31-20-4-681-682, ), which offers self-guided tours of four or five days for about $123 and $237 respectively, including hotels and some meals (the five-day tour stops at more-expensive hotels and includes more meals per day). You roll solo but get the convenience of luggage transport, maps, and an information guide on what to see en route.

(TREKKING)
THE GR 20 // CORSICA
One look at Corsica’s coastline, its time-forgotten villages, and its mountainous middle and you just might join the local separatist movement to boot French rule so you can keep the Mediterranean isle for yourself. Yes, politicos do get shot here, but the 26-year-old insurgence involves mainly nuisance attacks: wee-hour, low-power bombings that target government outposts—never tourism, the island’s bread and butter. The best spot for your tour of duty is the GR 20, a 125-mile Grande Randonnée (really big walk) that cuts a diagonal path from Calenzana, in the northwest, to Conca, in the southeast. This is one of the most stunning—and challenging—mountain hikes in Europe. It’s segmented into 15 stages of six to seven hours each, loaded with dense pine forests, moonscape plateaus, glacial lakes, and flowery valleys. The route is meticulously marked and well traveled, especially in July and August, but beware: By trail’s end, your total altitude gain will be nearly 35,000 feet, much of it over rocky and exposed terrain. There are bare-bones hostels and campgrounds at the end of each stage, but no provisions—and very little water—in between. For help planning your route, visit the tourism office of the Parc Naturel Régional de Corse (011-33-4-95-51-79-00, () in Ajaccio, the island’s capital. French travel agency Nouvelles Frontières () offers eight- or 15-day guided trips for $700-$1,250.

The Power to Move You

More self-propelled adventures

(CANOEING)
THE GAUJA RIVER // LATVIA
Sandwiched between Estonia and Lithuania on the Baltic coast, Latvia is a growing blip on the ecotourism radar. And for good reason: More than half the country, which is slightly larger than West Virginia, is unadulterated nature. Much of the terrain is languid and low-lying—sprawling pastures, wooded groves, marshlands crowded with cranes and peregrines—but things turn dramatic at the town of Sigulda, 31 miles northeast of Riga, Latvia’s vibrant capital. This is your gateway to 227,000-acre Gauya National Park, and particularly to the Gauja River, which cuts a choice 56-mile path through dolomite cliffs and sandstone ravines. Makars Tourist Agency in Sigulda (011-371-924-4948, ) arranges three-day self-guided canoe trips for $62 per boat, including transportation to and from the river, gear, and camping fees. The trip starts in the northern bounds of the park, at the village of Valmiera, and you float back to Sigulda along the Gauja’s broad, rapids-free waters. Certain sections practically boil with trout and salmon, and the banks are thick with beavers, otters, and the occasional lynx. You’ll stop at riverside campsites, some of which have hiking trails that meander into the park’s deep forests and valleys.

(CAVING)
THE TATRAS MOUNTAINS // POLAND
Straddling Poland and Slovakia, the Tatras Mountains are an irresistible draw for European tourists. They come for the alpine summits (the highest is Mount Rysy, 8,198 feet) and world-class skiing. But if you want to get off the beaten path, go under it—into one of the range’s stalactite-studded caves, the patient result of carbonic acid eating away at the mountains’ limestone base over the millennia. Try the handful of easy-access caverns open to the public on the Polish side, notably the Mrozna cave, a horizontal jut 1,676 feet long. A one-hour underground tour follows a high-ceilinged path amid startling stalactites and trickling streams. The tourist office at the gateway town of Zakopane (011-48-18-201-22-11, ) is central intelligence for cave information and tour outfits. Tatras Mountain Rescue Team (011-48-18-206-34-44) is your ticket to serious spelunking if you have a modicum of fitness and don’t mind a tight squeeze. In addition to conducting searches, these mountaineers lead trips into hard-to-access or otherwise off-limits areas, particularly the Wielka Sniezna cave, the biggest specimen in the Tatras at 2,670 feet deep and 11 miles long. Guide services cost $100-$200 per day, by reservation only.

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UNTIL RECENTLY, conventional medical wisdom could offer only a rough sketch of the life span of your brain. It went like this: Sometime around your 21st birthday, your gray matter peaked at full size, and as the years slipped by thereafter, nothing could prevent memory loss, the steady depletion of brain cells, and the sad, slow deterioration of your once zippy intellect. It was a prospect more depressing than a Poison reunion tour. Fortunately, it was also wrong. A recent batch of studies, including a long-term project from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in St. Louis, show that regardless of your age, you can reverse the downward spiral and continue to increase your capacity to learn. The key: training your brain as diligently as you do your body.

If you consistently exercise, you’re already rewarding yourself with a cerebral supercharging. “People who work out regularly have better-functioning brains,” says Dr. Richard Restak, a professor of neurology at George Washington University Medical Center. Brain experts have understood for years that general cardiovascular exercise increases the flow of blood and oxygen to your head, thereby enhancing brain function. Restak, 60, has spent the better part of two decades refining this idea. In the process of writing and researching more than a dozen books stressing the correlation between a fit brain and a well-tuned body—including the best-selling The Secret Life of the Brain—he’s used the latest scientific findings to design efficient brain-boosting regimens. For outdoor athletes, that means balance drills and hand-eye challenges that improve the synergy between your brain and muscles.
Restak is also an expert on ramping up brain function through mental training. After years spent studying the cognitive abilities of subjects ranging from fighter pilots to musicians, he developed the idea that the brain is a dynamic structure that can be improved when challenged. It’s no crackpot theory. Recent studies from several of the world’s top brain research centers have revealed that adding a steady dose of intellectual bench-pressing—brain teasers, anagrams, riddles, or memory games—can enable you to continually upgrade your ability to learn and access improved mental performance for outdoor sports. “Where sheer mental agility is concerned,” says Restak, “our brain capacity can keep expanding as long as we live.” As the world’s premier personal coach for your gray matter, he can show you the way.


Here’s Restak’s two-part approach to brain development—physical and mental—which you can effortlessly incorporate into your existing workout plan. But if you’re still balking at the hard work, here’s a quick review of the alternative: brain shrinkage. Just as it does to your muscles, neglect will take an ugly toll on your intellect. The choice, my fine mental midgets, is yours.

Sweat Smarts

TIGHTROPE (1 set)


1. Imagine standing on an invisible rope, left foot in front of the right and hands to either side. Shift all your weight back to the right leg, keeping it slightly bent, extend it to the left side, then extend it behind you and place it behind the right leg. 2. Repeat with the right leg and continue taking slow steps backward along a straight line for ten steps. ADVANCED: As you proceed backward, keep your yese closed.



1. SWEAT SMARTS

CARDIOVASCULAR WORKOUTS—running, swimming, biking, etc.—help more blood and oxygen reach every fold, synapse, and cell of your brain, thus improving the organ’s ability to run smoothly. But keeping your brain well oiled isn’t the same as increasing its capacity to learn and grow, and it wasn’t until recently that neurologists grasped how exercise can affect the very building blocks of the spaghetti inside your head.


In 1997, researchers at the Pasteur Institute in Paris discovered that exercising muscles stimulated the growth of brain axons—branches on each nerve cell that transmit information to other neurons. And more axons means more smarts. Subsequent studies found that exercise also triggers neurogenesis (new cell growth in the brain), which improves learning. Just last June, researchers at the University of California-Irvine’s Institute for Brain Aging published a report showing how exercise in rats increased levels of neurotrophins, proteins that stimulate the growth of new nerve cells in the part of the brain that deals with learning and memory.


CROUCHING TIGER (1 set)
1. Stand with your weight on your left leg,squatting slightly, with your right leg behind you and your toes just touching the floor. 2. Swing your right leg out in front of you. With your knee bent, raise your thigh parallel to the ground. 3. Hold that position for the 10 seconds, then straighten your leg and crouch on the left as low as you can and hold that position for 10 seconds. 4. Stand on both feet. 5. Repeat the excercise with the other leg, ADVANCED: Try holding the poses for longer durations.
Outdoor athletes aren’t rats, of course, but Restak stresses that certain types of regimens can target areas of your gray matter that improve performance. “Anything you do that requires coordination tests the cerebellum,” the area of the brain that controls balance, dexterity, and planning. “And unlike muscles, it doesn’t wear out. It improves the more we challenge it.”


To give it that challenge, you’ll want to learn some basic tai chi, the ancient slow-motion martial arts practice. Restak recommends tai chi because it requires balance and leg strength, which arouse the portion of the cerebellum that controls balance and coordination. By keeping this area stimulated, you can develop stronger mental agility and promote synergy between your brain and muscles. With practice over time, this can help you navigate a tough set of rapids or negotiate swift backcountry turns. Tai chi classes are widely available, but to get yourself started, try adding the two simple exercises shown at left and above before or after your endurance and strength workouts.

Brain Work

2. BRAIN WORK

EXERCISE IS GREAT, but holding your own against Stephen Hawking takes more than working up a sweat. To increase your brain’s capacity, you need a mental regimen that will consistently take on the three cognitive regions of the brain: the frontal lobe (in charge of speech and planning), the hippocampus (memory), and the parietal lobes (processing sensory information). It’s easier than it sounds.


Memory tests, word puzzles, and other brain teasers can stimulate all three of these areas of the brain, actions that elicit two neurological responses. First, they trigger the release of neurotrophins, which promote arborization—the growth of new microfilaments, or dendrites—expanding the network that connects the regions of the brain and enhancing cooperation between the left and right sides. Or, as Restak translates it: “You build a bigger brain.” The process is somewhat akin to the way your body builds new muscle fiber after a tough weight-lifting session.
Second, such stimulation has been shown to boost plasticity, the brain’s capacity to learn, remember, and reorganize itself. A long-term study released in February of this year by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute showed that brain teasers and memory training helped rejuvenate neglected areas of the brain. By undertaking a daily set of these mental gymnastics, subjects both young and old experienced improvements in cognitive function and showed signs of reversing the typical decline in memory associated with growing old.


To take advantage of the brain’s large capacity for growth (arborization) and learning (plasticity), you need to develop your own set of mental exercises to keep your mind fertilized. The trick to doing that, says Restak, is adding a mental component to your workout. “Physical and mental skills are not opposed to each other,” he says. “They should form a continuum.” In other words, instead of simply zoning out or stewing over your stooge of a boss, try adding one or more Restak-endorsed brain teasers (see “Mind Games,” right) to your favorite ride or run. Just make sure to keep your eyes on the road.

The Zone Offense

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Downhill Suspects (Cont.)

Fresh Loot

WITH FANTASTIC OPTICS, great value, and snug fit, up till now the only thing ��������É goggles lacked was panache. With the new ZYPHER, though, style finally catches up with performance. The Zypher sandwiches a Gore-Tex gasket between two lenses to minimize moisture buildup and provide a double dose of UVA and UVB protection. ($40; 800-222-6553, )

THERE SHOULD BE A SHED’S WORTH OF board tools on the market, but BAKODA’S MCIVER DRIVER gets our vote for being gloved-finger friendly: A button pops open the screwdriver like a switchblade. Plus, it’s magnetized to keep your bits from vanishing into the pow. A tape measure takes the guesswork out of swapping boards between sessions, and the palm-size design minimizes the chance of a belly-flop-induced puncture wound. ($30; 206-762-2955, )



IN SEARCH OF A FREEZE-PROOF agua system for those minus-30-windchill days, NIKE ACG worked with professional ski patrollers to develop the CONVERTIBLE HYDRATION PANTS. Hydration pants? Yep, a pocket on the lower back of the suspenders accepts a 50-ounce bladder. By nestling your H2O stash closer to your torso than traditional hydration packs do, it keeps your refreshment in its preferred, thirst-friendly state: liquid. ($250; 800-344-6453, )

THINK HELMETS ARE DORKY? One good head smack on the hardpack will change your tune. Take a less painful path to enlightenment and don GIRO’S FUSE: It’s lighter, tighter, and cooler than any other lid around. A switch lets you close or open six vents on the fly, and you can custom-tune the airflow by plugging any or all of a half-dozen other ports during the sub-zero days of January. ($150; 800-456-2355, )

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I WAS 14 WHEN BY DAD RUMBLED HOME with a Vietnam-era Army ambulance and a plan to take our annual summer road trip to a higher metaphysical level. He converted the rear of the rig into a camper and we headed west—at a top speed of 52 miles per hour—from New Jersey. My brother and I, mortified at first, came to take pride in the crowds that our conveyance, with big red crosses on each side, drew at every stop—the Badlands, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon. It was the most memorable vacation of my childhood. Now I have sons of my own: Sean, five, and Leo, three. While I’m not quite ready to buy a surplus military vehicle, I felt it was time to expose my boys to the beauty of the road trip. So, like Dad would have, I mapped out a five-day route along green-dotted scenic highways through the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains, and we set off by minivan on a 900-mile, four-state loop crisscrossing the Appalachian Trail.

Byway to heaven: a side road exploring Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains

Illustration by Zohar Lazar

Day 1Asheville, North Carolina-Damascus, Virginia
We get under way in the funky town of Asheville, driving north into Tennessee and cutting east into the dense pines and the undulating hills of Cherokee National Forest. Curvy two-lane Carter County 133 gives us a taste of the Southern back roads yet to come: horse farms, tobacco drying in the sun, tiny clapboard churches, antique shops, country cookin’ joints, the occasional Confederate flag, and a bumper sticker proclaiming that “Charlton Heston Is My President.”
Descending through a dark forest into Virginia, we pass through a tunnel cut into a craggy rock ridge. Damascus, known for its annual Appalachian Trail Days Festival, is sliced by the trail and sits beneath 5,729-foot Mount Rogers, Virginia’s highest peak. My wife, Mary, and I rent bikes (with kiddie seats), and take a shuttle 14 miles up the Virginia Creeper Trail, an old railroad bed. The gentle grade rolls us past waterfalls and wildflowers, over trestles and bridges, and back down into town. On the main street we discover The Maples B&B, a century-old home converted to an inn with some of the only strong coffee in town.

Day 2DamascusÐSeebert, West Virginia
An early start puts us in Blacksburg, home of Virginia Tech and a hub for outdoor enthusiasts, by breakfast. I once worked in Blacksburg, and on Saturday afternoons loved tubing down the New River. Since our boys are too young for that, we drive 20 minutes west and stop for an easy 3.8-mile hike up the Cascades National Recreation Trail to see Little Stony Creek take a 66-foot plunge at one of the region’s surfeit of waterfalls.

We cross into West Virginia late in the afternoon, and along swervy U.S. 219 the boys battle a little car sickness. That’s quickly forgotten when we reach our wood-paneled cabin, one of three run by Greenbrier River Cabins that sit beside the 75-mile Greenbrier River Trail. I take a short solo bike ride before we crank up a fire in the wood stove and grill burgers on the back deck overlooking the wide and rocky river.

Day 3Seebert-Hot Springs, Virginia
It’s up and down and up and down along U.S. 219 and other back roads to reach Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area—a spiky-topped mohawk of stone that’s a rock-climbing delight. We hike two steep miles up to the base of the rocks to watch climbers dangle from the cliffs. Later, the boys watch them through binoculars while munching on pizza at Harper’s Front Porch Restaurant.

After a quick walking tour of the eerie and luminous Seneca Caverns (West Virginia’s largest and, at 165 feet, deepest caves), we head south into Virginia and descend into a valley that holds the town of Hot Springs and the massive 200-plus-year-old Homestead resort, where we’re headed for a respite. That night, we chase each other through a hedge maze in the Spa Garden, where steam rises spookily from a pool of spring water.

Day 4Hot Springs-Roanoke
We linger at The Homestead, a genteel golf/tennis/spa club that is expanding into an outdoor sports center. First, we drop the boys off at KidsClub, a counselor-led activities program. We’ll hear later all about their hike up to the horse stables and their failed efforts to snag trout in the kids’ fishing pond. Meanwhile, Mary goes on a guided horseback ride up the mountain trails on the resort grounds while I tour the same well-groomed trails by mountain bike.

We regroup and take a dip in the spring-fed indoor pool. It’s not till evening that we drive south to Roanoke, whose quirky skyline makes it a treat to enter at night. A huge neon coffeepot mounted above a downtown building and an 88-foot star posted atop Mill Mountain beckon visitors. We check into the restored Tudor-style Hotel Roanoke and walk the lively downtown square.

Day 5Roanoke-Lake Toxaway, North Carolina
We start at dawn, picking up orange juice, coffee, and bagels at Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea for a quick breakfast beneath the star. From there, we hop on the Blue Ridge Parkway and cruise nonstop back to Asheville. By late afternoon we’re paddling a rented canoe down a short, calm stretch of the French Broad River, which bisects the city and passes behind the massive Biltmore Estate. We then head west into Pisgah National Forest, a craggier cousin of Cherokee National Forest, and reach Earthshine, a cedar-log lodge on a 70-acre farm. Lodging includes morning kid programs such as learning about pioneers by spinning wool and pressing cider, or going gem mining on Crystal Creek.

That night, I ask the boys what they thought of our road trip. We all agree the minivan was a bit tippy on those switchbacks. But then I get an endorsement that would make my father proud. The little one, Leo, says, “Cool, Daddy.”

DAY ONE (Asheville, NC-Damascus, VA)
MILEAGE: 125.
DRIVE TIME: 2.5 hours.
DIRECTIONS: North on U.S. 23; U.S. 321 east to Elizabethton, then Route 133 north into Damascus.
STOPS: Virginia Creeper Trail, with bike rental and shuttle from Blue Blaze: half-day, $20 (800-475-5095; ).
STAY AT: The Maples B&B: doubles, $40Ð-85 (866-701-2266; ).

DAY TWO (Damascus-Seebert, WV)
MILEAGE: 200.
DRIVE TIME: 4.5 hours.
DIRECTIONS: Virginia 91 north to I-81 north, exit onto U.S. 460 west, then take U.S. 219 north to West Virginia 27 east into Seebert.
STOPS: Tubing on the New River (rentals and shuttle from New River Junction, 540-639-6633).
STAY AT: Greenbrier River Cabins: $125 per night for four people, two-night minimum stay (304-653-4646; ).
DAY THREE (Seebert-Hot Springs, VA)
MILEAGE: 200.
DRIVE TIME: 5 hours.
DIRECTIONS: U.S. 219 north to West Virginia 55 east to Seneca Rocks; West Virginia 33 south to U.S. 220 south to Hot Springs.
STOPS: Greenbrier River Trail (), Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area (304-567-2827), Seneca Caverns (800-239-7647; ).
STAY AT: The Homestead, which has Family Vacation packages for $400-460 per night for two adults and two children (800-838-1766; ).

DAY FOUR (Hot Springs-Roanoke)
MILEAGE: 80.
DRIVE TIME: 2 hours.
DIRECTIONS: U.S. 220 south to I-81 south; exit 143 onto I-581 south.
STOPS: Breakfast at Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea (112 Campbell Ave., 540-342-9404).
STAY AT: Hotel Roanoke: doubles, $74-$99 (800-222-8733; ).

DAY FIVE (Roanoke-Lake Toxaway, NC)
MILEAGE: 300.
DRIVE TIME: 6.5 hours.
DIRECTIONS: Blue Ridge Parkway south to Asheville, North Carolina; I-26 west to North Carolina 280 west to Brevard; U.S. 64 west to Lake Toxaway.
STOPS: Canoe the French Broad River, with rentals from Southern Waterways (800-849-1970; ).
STAY AT: Earthshine Mountain Lodge: $150 per adult per night, $50-$70 for kids (828-862-4207; ).

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REMEMBER THIRD GRADE, when working out consisted of a rubber dodgeball and ten friends? The 10:45 recess bell would ring and you’d sprint to the playground to peg your classmates in the head—probably burning 500 calories in the span of 15 minutes. Exercising was nothing more than goofing off with pals; performance goals and losing the spare tire never entered the equation. But now you’re an adult, and workouts have become dutiful and often lonely interludes—you running alone on a trail or grinding away on a stationary bike—with as much appeal as a trip to the dentist.

Critical Mass: members of California’s Mountain View Masters Swim and Social Club

It’s not too late to put playfulness and group dynamics back into the mix. From Boston to Burbank, thousands of like-minded outdoor athletes—cyclists, runners, and swimmers—have banded together to form clubs that add camaraderie to their cardio routines. These groups aren’t like the anonymous shoulder-rubbing of health clubs. In return for modest annual dues (between $35 and $300), you’ll get professional coaching, new regimens, and a workout schedule that reads like a social calendar (sprints on Tuesday, distance on Thursday, competitive bottle-lifting on Saturday night). “When you only train by yourself,” says David Keating, a coach with the D.C.-based Washington Running Club, “it’s like a really miserable, bad-paying job. But a club is like another world you can escape to.”
Companionship isn’t the only benefit. Paying dues and peer-group pressure may increase your motivation to make early-morning workouts; coaches can correct bad habits; and most important, a little friendly competition will ramp up your own performance.


“The best way to improve,” says Mark Wilson, coach at the Hudson Valley Triathlon Club in Woodstock, New York, “is to train with people who are better than you. It rubs off.”


On the following pages you’ll find a behind-the-scenes peek at three of the country’s most active clubs—the Washington Running Club; the Mountain View Masters Swim and Social Club in Mountain View, California; and, for cyclists, the Century Road Club Association in New York City. With spring approaching, we asked them to divulge their favorite group workouts for getting in shape for the upcoming race season. Take their lessons back to your own club or start a new one. Working out won’t be as easy as dodgeball, but the surprise truth is, misery hates company.

The Technique Tweak

Mountain View Masters Swim and Social Club

An MVM coach directs a cool evening workout.

WHEN AMATEUR TRIATHLETE Laura Schuster wanted to get serious about her training, her first target was her dismal time in the swimming leg. After countless frustrating hours alone in the pool, she decided to join the Mountain View Masters, a Bay Area swim club with 250 members and a paid coaching staff of seven. Jumping in a pool with a legion of Speedo-clad swimmers analyzing her technique was daunting at first, but after just one day Schuster had a breakthrough. What happened? Like many swimmers, she had problems stemming not from weak endurance, but from bad form. An MVM coach pointed out her short stroke and poor hip rotation—and almost immediately she became more efficient. “Personally, I’m a faster swimmer now because of the club,” said Schuster, whose 100-yard splits have dropped 10 seconds and who has gone from slowpoke to club president. “And now I love having other people telling me what I’m doing wrong.”

SWIMMING WORKOUTS
The MVM offers a different workout six mornings a week, but the most rigorous group sessions are head coach Alan Liu’s Monday-morning anaerobic-threshold sets—fast-paced intervals broken up by short rest periods. Try it with a few friends:
1)Warm up at a slow pace for 10 minutes, followed by another 15 minutes focused solely on technique (ideally a club coach can monitor your strokes).
2) Now the real work starts. With each swimmer in his own lane, sound the starting gun and swim a fast-paced (i.e. 90 percent of your maximum effort) 100 yards followed by five seconds of rest.
3) Repeat the sprints with five- to ten-second rests for 30 minutes. Record your total distance; the goal each week is to beat the previous week’s best distance. Fast swimmers should be able to complete about 2,500 yards; slower swimmers about 1,500.
Contact: (408) 735-1326;

Spinning Classes are for Sissies

Century Road Club Association

DURING HIS 50 YEARS with New York City’s oldest cycling club, professional bike racer Lou Maltese established a cantankerous, competitive tone that has lived on at the Century Road Club since his passing. “There’s definitely an air of crankiness that we proudly maintain in honor of Lou,” says former club president John Eustice. But don’t let the gruff facade fool you; the CRC welcomes newcomers and a no-nonsense competitive atmosphere might be exactly what you need.

If you’re already a serious cyclist, you’re probably a wonk: You know how to diet and how to read a heart-rate monitor; you use the words “lactate threshold” in everyday conversation. What’s missing are the intangibles that can make you a better racer. “Cyclists are pack animals,” says Eustice. “You have to learn gamesmanship if you want to compete.” Trying to develop cycling strategy solo, he adds, “is like trying to learn football by yourself.” That’s where the CRC comes in. During weekday-morning distance workouts and in weekend interclub races along their six-mile rolling loop in Central Park, you’ll glean Tour-level pointers—where to position yourself for a sprint finish or how to get the most out of a draft line—from teammates and coaches every time you straddle the saddle. After a full season, maybe you can replace fitness wonk with sprint champion.
CYCLING WORKOUTS
Jump-start the season with head CRC coach Dave Jordan’s anaerobic power workout:
1) Start out riding with a dozen cyclists in a pace line at a moderate cadence.
2) After a one-mile warm-up, have a front rider lead the group for a three-minute interval at a “breakaway” pace (about 80 to 95 percent of his maximum heart rate or, for nonfanatics, a pace he feels he could only keep up for about ten minutes).
3) Slow down, rotate someone else to the front, and ride for one minute at a moderate “recovery” pace (60 to 80 percent of MHR).
4) Continue rotating the leader and repeating “work” and “recovery” intervals on both hills and flats. Total workout should be roughly 20 miles, or about an hour of riding.
Contact: (212) 222-8062;

Long-Distance Lovers

Washington Running Club

WRC members gang up to tackle the loneliness of weekly distance workouts.

WITH 120 MEMBERS, ranging from former professionals to four-and-a-half-hour marathoners, the Washington Running Club is the D.C. area’s ultimate prescription for the malady that plagues every runner: the dreaded performance plateau. WRC members are by no means running despots, but club president Jim Wadsworth has fostered an atmosphere that helps runners focus on a specific goal—and keep after it. “A lot of people use [the club] for motivation,” he says. “They figure if they pay some dues and commit to something it’ll make them get out and do it.” With runners of all speeds, members form pace-specific groups at almost every workout. Tagging along with stronger runners can push you beyond your comfort zone and into the next performance category.

Veteran and rookie marathoners will discover a secondary bonus from club membership. Group distance runs, like those held every Sunday by the WRC, will be your elixir for the acute boredom and dire loneliness of the weekly two- and three-hour runs you’ll be hoofing to get ready for a marathon. Members meet in Georgetown at 8 a.m., break into groups based on distance and pace, and then run between 10 and 20 miles with conversation buzzing over the entire route. After continued yapping at the postworkout coffee social, a sore jaw will replace the misery of tired legs.
RUNNING WORKOUTS
The WRC’s Sunday runs are popular during fall’s marathon season, but to clean the cobwebs off this spring, try coach Dave Keating’s infamous short-distance speed sessions:

1) Start with 15 minutes of stretching and warm-up jogging.
2) With a group of runners of roughly the same ability, run a fast-paced mile (i.e. about 45 seconds faster than your marathon or long-distance pace).
3) Run a slow-paced quarter-mile—about two minutes—to recover.
4) Continue running fast miles with quarter-mile rest periods until you reach a total of three miles.
5) Try the routine once a week, aiming to increase your distance to five miles over the next two months.
Contact:

A Club to Call Your Own

Most decent-size towns should have at least one club in your chosen sport; find one by asking around at sport shops or do an Internet search. Still can’t find what you’re looking for? Rally other enthusiasts into your own club. Here are some guidelines for getting started:


1) SPREAD THE WORD through flyers at gyms and sport-specific shops, or run a classified ad in the local paper.
2) CREATE A WEB SITE. Newcomers to a town will search for you that way. Clubs we spoke with say homepages are their strongest marketing tools and great places to post photos and club news.


3) START A NEWSLETTER. This is crucial for sharing news of members’ race results, listing workout schedules and social events, and sharing fitness articles.


4) BE CLEAR AND FRIENDLY about your club’s mission to newcomers. Whether they’re serious racers or repentant couch potatoes, letting new members know exactly what to expect from the club prevent them from becoming disenchanted.


5) PLAN A MONTHLY SOCIAL event barbecue, potluck, or happy hour at the local brew pub—that brings members together for something other than working out. It will help keep the group intact and attract new athletes.


6) RECRUIT GOOD COACHES. Members will expect a lot of feedback and a variety of workouts and venues. A club should charge annual dues that can pay for a part-time coach (say, $15 to $20 an hour) to run regular training sessions.


7) ELECT OFFICERS (president, vice-president, and secretary are enough) if your club grows to more than a handful of neighbors, and create a board of directors and a treasurer to oversee the club budget.

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Bearskin Lodge

Stoned at Red Mountain

GRAND MARAIS, MINNESOTA
Winters mean cross-country skiing in the expansive Boundary Waters Wilderness, and summers mean hauling yourself across the same region by canoe. Sore legs or sore arms—either way, a professional massage awaits. Lowdown: rooms, $103 to $348; 800-338-4170, . Rubdown: $60 per hour.

The Spa at Chateau Whistler
WHISTLER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
At this full-service luxury spa in North America’s hard-core skiing mecca, rub shoulders with cricket players and aristocrats who nip into the forest for a bracing round of falconry. Enjoy luxuries ranging from a Papaya Enzyme Bath to a deluxe massage. Lowdown: rooms, $180-$1,000; 800-401-4018, . Rubdown: $85 per hour.
Lodge at Moosehead Lake
GREENVILLE, MAINE
Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are popular winter pastimes at this restored 84-year-old hunting lodge, but the true passion here is snowmobiling. Ach, another buttocks rub, please! In summer, after canoeing Moosehead Lake or rafting the Penobscot River, the massages are less cheeky, but still necessary. Lowdown: rooms, $145 to $425; 207-695-4400, . Rubdown: $75 per hour.

Red Mountain
IVINS, UTAH
Situated between the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and Bryce and Zion National Parks, Red Mountain bills itself as “the” adventure spa. But of course. Enjoy hundreds of miles of park trails by day; soak up seaweed wraps and hot-stone massages by night. Lowdown: rooms, $500 and up for four days; 800-407-3002, . Rubdown: $65 per hour.

Reset Your Inner Clock

New insights on the link between exercise and rest

Light sleeper: Sunshine plus exercise equals rest

BEFORE YOU retreat pathetically into your annual winter hibernation, we have some words of caution: It won’t be long until you’re losing sleep over your lazy new lifestyle. Early results in a $2 million research project by University of California-San Diego sleep guru Shawn Youngstedt show that one hour of daily moderate exercise can have a profound effect on the quality of your slumber by steadying your circadian rhythms, the daily patterns of activity regulated by your internal body clock. More important, you can enhance the benefits if you exercise outside instead of under the soul-sucking flourescent lights of the gym. “If you can get natural light and exercise together,” says Youngstedt, “you could increase the amplitude of your rhythm.” Thus, to get deeper sleep, get outside.


The individual connections between light, sleep, and exercise are well documented. A 1997 Stanford University study showed that people who do four heart-pumping workouts a week nod off faster and sleep as much as an hour longer than sofa spuds; and several studies conducted in the past decade verify that soaking up bright light during the day helps tune the body’s clock by reducing the production of melatonin, a compound that helps induce sleep. Now Youngstedt, an amateur triathlete with a decade of experience studying sleep science, is producing the most comprehensive data yet through his four-year study on the synergistic effects of exercise, sleep, and light on the body’s internal clock. After subjecting one group of volunteers to exercise and another to bright light, his investigation found that both groups enjoyed improved sleep patterns. So, the thinking goes, combining them would yield the best rest.
With today’s average American getting less than an hour of sunlight each day, outdoor exercise may be the key to good slumber. But doctors aren’t yet prescribing bike rides over sleeping pills. “It’s still a new concept,” admits Youngstedt. “Getting outside is the important thing, but people today are outdoors much less than our ancestors.”Sick of counting sheep? Try the tips below.


The Sleep Regulator



THINK OF YOUR body clock as a droning New Age tune. Circadian rhythms are the song’s steady drummer, an internal Yanni playing two important beats a day: an initial snare tap in the morning that causes the body’s temperature to rise, signaling you to wake up, and a bass thump as night falls, triggering a drop in temperature and the production of melatonin to make you drowsy. Ideally, the beat should remain consistent—so you sleep and wake at the same time each day. But when work, travel, stress, and car alarms change the beat daily, sleep suffers. According to Youngstedt, a regular routine of outdoor exercise will keep your internal Yanni in line: Exposure to sunlight in the afternoon will delay sleepiness in the evening, and the exercise will help cue your body’s fatigue at approximately the same time each day.

Those In the Know, Doze

WHEN TO EXERCISE:

• If possible, save your outdoor exercise for late morning or early afternoon. That’s when muscles are more responsive and adrenaline levels higher, while the sunlight will delay fatigue until roughly six hours later, helping you effectively nod off when you should.
• Strenuous activity within three hours of bedtime can delay fatigue by stimulating the adrenal glands. Try to work out at the same time each day, and, even when your schedule is in flux, not too late in the evening.
• Three 40-minute cardio workouts a week in the afternoon make a good exercise foundation, but Youngstedt says sleep improves greatly if you can work out for an hour or more every day.

• Slather on some sunscreen and soak up as much sun as you can in the afternoon and evening. A study by one of Youngstedt’s colleagues found that the average adult gets less than 60 minutes of bright sunlight a day; Youngstedt advises that the minimum should be at least two times that.
• If you really can’t get outside, spend a half-hour beneath a light box of 5,000 to 10,000 lux. Of course, finding a an occupation with a more flexible schedule might be a more tolerable option.

• Outdoor exercise is also a useful antidote to jet lag, and according to Youngstedt, timing is everything. If you travel west a few time zones, e.g. New York to Los Angeles, take a run outside each evening to help delay your internal clock (you’ll fall asleep later) until it’s in sync with L.A. time. If you go from New York to London, take your run outside in the mornings to fast-forward your internal clock.

• All that exercise and sunshine won’t help without what the doctors call good sleep hygiene:
• Your mattress should be firm and the bedroom should be dark, cool, and quiet: a place for sleep (well, OK, and sex) only. Keep stress—and TV—out.
• Go to bed at the same time each night; if you’re tense at bedtime, practice deep breathing and contracting and releasing your muscles.
• To prevent middle-of-the-night bathroom trips, hydrate through the day, and ease off in the evening. And abstain from big nightcaps: One or two alcoholic drinks is okay, but any more will inhibit deep sleep.

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