Outdoor runners have always had a lot of data to juggle: their pace, heart-rate, mileage, route, calories, weather and much more. Though in recent years there’s been a new, considerably more ominous data point for alfresco athletes to monitor: the Air Quality Index (AQI).

The index, which measures the level of air pollution at any given time and location, is an increasingly necessary tool for outdoor enthusiasts in the age of climate change.

“If you’re a mountain runner, you’re checking the AQI daily,” says Avery Collins, a professional ultra-marathoner who lives in Silverton, Colorado. “Especially in the month of August.”

Denver, Colorado, where I live, is known as one of the fittest, healthiest places in the US, attracting a lot of runners, hikers, cyclists and climbers. I moved here from Iowa 20 years ago and have been an avid runner in the city and mountains for more than a decade.

But Denver also often has the worst air pollution in the country, and sometimes the most polluted of any international city in the world, thanks to a perfect storm of factors that, throughout much of the summer, make the city unhealthy to exercise in. The natural “runner’s high” that I – and scores of other Denver runners – pursue, can be tainted when breathing deeply in polluted air, leaving my lungs heavy, throat scorched and head dizzy, like I just spent the last hour sucking on the tailpipe of a big-rig truck.

This is, in part, due to the wildfires currently blazing around nearly half of North America. But it’s also a larger and more structural environmental problem that goes back further than this summer alone.

A meteorological phenomenon called the “inversion effect” (where cold air on the ground gets trapped by a layer of warm air above it) prevents Denver air pollution from drifting into the sky, which wasn’t as much of a problem before Denver’s population boom led to stagnant traffic jams. Forest fire smoke also gets trapped, blanketing the city in a thick fog, turning the sun orange and the nearby mountains invisible.

And the nearby Suncor oil refinery just last week agreed to a $10.5m settlement with Colorado for spewing illegal pollutants into the air, the largest environmental fine in state history.

I hate running on treadmills – especially when some of the best parks in the US are right outside my door – but throughout much of the summer I am greeted by an Air Quality Alert on my iPhone every morning, and then have a difficult choice to make.

Running in Denver – especially during wildfire season – often leaves me with a sore throat, headache, dizziness and brain fog. I haven’t had a cigarette in eight years, but feel like I binged a whole carton after running through the Mars-like orange haze of the city during an Air Quality Alert.

While some pro runners like Avery Collins say the Air Quality Index is essential for training (opting for a treadmill run or another indoor workout on bad days), a few Denver runners I spoke with would rather not let air pollution stop them from enjoying their run.

“In these times, you have to pick your poison,” says Kelly Waldo, who runs about 25-30 miles (40-48km) in Denver each week. “I am aware of [the air pollution], but I still just put my shoes on and get after it.”

Waldo adds that he had bronchitis as a kid, and does sometimes get headaches after a long run. While he doesn’t check the AQI, he does keep his runs at 5am, before the morning rush hour begins.

“You can see how polluted it is, especially in the last 10 years,” Waldo says. “It’s mind-boggling that we rank up there with India. But who wants to run on a treadmill?”

“I don’t think about air quality,” says Frank Anello, a Denver ultramarathon runner who just completed a 200-mile race through the mountains. “I don’t care. Nothing’s gonna stop me from running.”

Studies have shown air pollution to have a negative effect on athletic performance – both physically and mentally – as well as a number of health risks (such as lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory issues and even dementia), according to the Environmental Protection Agency and American Lung Association, which recommend limiting outdoor activity when an Air Quality Alert has been announced.

“I have such a crazy addiction to running, I can’t be concerned with air quality,” says Anello. “Same with blizzards or downpouring rain, freezing cold or blistering heat – I’m getting my miles.”

I can relate to Anello who, like myself, struggled with addictions to a variety of substances years ago, and found running to be a less destructive way to deal with those madcap impulses.

I wrote a book on this topic a few years back, and spoke with a variety of ultra-runners who hoofed thousands of miles not for the health benefits, or in pursuit of physical beauty or a longer lifespan, but because it got them off drugs and alcohol. “This is the new way to live crazy,” one of them told me.

Running through toxic air – and dealing with the physical side effects – is certainly crazy, but that’s the mentality of a hardcore runner. Nothing will stand between us and a runner’s high.

So even though my iPhone attempts to grab my attention with an Air Quality Alert – and the Rocky mountains, typically visible from my balcony window, are shrouded in a London-esque fog – I too lace up my shoes and, like Kelly Waldo, “get after it”.

Denver officials have pointed toward plans on the horizon to tackle air pollution, including stricter controls on pollutants like benzene, but those won’t make a difference anytime soon.

In the meantime, I jog through the sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide spewed out by the Suncor refinery. Through polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from the wildfire smoke. Through the nitrogen dioxide, benzene and formaldehyde emanating from rush-hour traffic.

I know I’ll be paying for this – both in the short and long term – but it still beats a treadmill. Or, even worse, even more unthinkable, no run at all.

The post Running in America’s worst air: ‘Like binging on a carton of cigarettes’ appeared first on Josiah Hesse.

Remember the line from Titanic, where Leo tells Kate that the freezing Atlantic water “hits you like a thousand knives stabbing all over your body”? Well, that’s Wim Hof’s idea of a pleasant afternoon. Often called “The Iceman,” Hof has crafted a health regimen involving cold weather exposure, intense breathing exercises, and meditation. This, Hof claims, allows him to control his body temperature, adrenaline levels, and even immune system at will, shielding him from physical danger when performing stunts like being submerged in ice for nearly two hours, hiking Mount Everest, or running a marathon in the arctic—all while wearing nothing but shorts and shoes.

He now instructs classes on the Wim Hof Method at various retreats around the world, attended by athletes looking to increase their endurance, spiritual seekers yearning for transcendence, and the chronically ill in need of healing.

When American journalist Scott Carney met Hof, his intention was to expose him as a con man. After all, this Dutch weirdo was claiming his breathing exercises and submersion in violently cold water could heal all sorts of serious illnesses. Though after only a couple of days participating in Hof’s retreat in Poland, a process that involved laying in the snow wearing nothing but shorts while hyperventilating, Carney was sold, and became one of Hof’s biggest advocates.

This conversion was no small feat. After all, Carney is the author A Death on Diamond Mountain, a cautionary tale about spiritual journeys taken to the extreme, leading to fatal injury or suicide. Charlatan gurus prescribing dangerous feats to gullible followers were Carney’s white whale, but Hof inspired the author so profoundly that he made him the subject of his latest book, What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude, and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength.

Carney has chronicled the long history of cultures around the world that embraced (or just dealt with) their skin being exposed to freezing air or water, often as a method of improving one’s health and mood. On a blizzardy Martin Luther King Day in Denver, Colorado, I spoke with Carney about his latest book, and why he continues to jog around town sans clothing in winter.

You originally traveled to meet Hof as a skeptic; what criteria were you looking for to show Hof was bullshit?
Well, I’d just written this book about gurus who claim to have superhuman powers, and how people fall into these intense spiritual paths thoughtlessly—often to their own demise. I’ve seen people die when pursuing spiritual aims over material ones.

So when I went there I expected Wim would have all these followers who infinitely trusted him, with no questioning of what he’d say; and that he’d be demanding that they give more and more control of their lives over to him. But that’s not really who Wim is. He’s actually a terrible guru. If you think about someone who might be a role model, Wim is not that. He’s a crazy guy that you would never want to be, and that’s the beauty of him. With all of his flaws—he’s disorganized, he’s a smoker, he had a drinking problem, not the epitome of human health—and yet, he has this thing, this method, and when you try it, it works.

So what are the components of the Wim Hof method?
Environmental exposure and the breathing method, which is hyperventilating and holding your breath. You learn to hold your breath for about three minutes at a time. And then you get into a cold environment and try to suppress your autonomic response systems, like your shiver response. And it’s not that shivering is bad; it’s that you want to tell your body to heat itself in a different way. Which is basically ramping up your metabolism.

Is it a case of your body getting tougher and developing mechanisms to fight off the cold, or your brain accepting the discomfort of the cold? Like the Lawrence of Arabia line: “The trick is not minding that it hurts.”
Initially, because I was unconditioned and hadn’t stood in the cold, I felt really cold, but I was showing my body the power it already had. At first your body is going to scream when you’re in the snow, because it’s not used to that stimulus, and it wants to keep you safe. So it has no gauge to understand what safe is. So you’re giving your body a little motivational push, telling it this is not going to kill us.

So do you never feel cold anymore?
There are different ways of feeling the cold. In my house I keep the thermostat around 61, and that’s enough to make me want to shiver. One of the goals of the training is to repress your shiver response. But sometimes if I’m not paying attention I’ll shiver when I’m in the house. And then I’m cold.

But if I’m doing something like running outside [half naked, in cold weather], I’m focused on not getting cold, of resisting the environment. And it’s a different set of sensations. Then I can tell that I’m cold, I can feel the sensation on my skin, but it’s almost like I’m wearing a wetsuit. It’s a very powerful feeling. So it’s all about focus.

What did you notice in your own body when going through this process?
Well, when I first started the process with Wim I lost seven pounds of fat in seven days. Which was pretty cool. I got tested at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine during a six-month training session, and I went from primarily burning carbs in my workouts to primarily burning fat, and was able to advance a stage of endurance on their endurance test. And the only thing I changed in my workout was adding 15 minutes of breathing a day and the cold showers. And they said that was the equivalent of me adding seven hours of cardio exercise a week.

Did you ever fear for your safety or your life in this process?
Yes, I did. The method lets you expand your ability and your endurance, but it doesn’t make you impervious to the environment. It doesn’t make you invincible. And it’s entirely possible to push past your limits, and it’s important for people to be mindful of that during this process.

Has anyone died from doing this?
Yes. There have been, I think, three deaths. But they’ve all been because people are trying to mix with Wim Hof method with free diving, and that’s dangerous. Free-diving is the idea that you go really deep underwater and hold your breath for a super-long time. The Wim Hof method also allows you to hold your breath for a long time, so people think they should combine them. Unfortunately, it increases the risk of something called “shallow water blackout.”

If you faint when you do the hyperventilation, your autonomic system forces you to gasp, and when that happens under water, you drown. And that’s killed three people. And I think most of them were swimming under a frozen lake. So don’t do this under water.

I imagine it’s a tricky thing for you as a journalist, wanting to report on these treatments while being careful to not tell people they should stop seeing their doctor. 
Sure. This is a complementary treatment. I’m not saying medicine is dumb and we should all just take cold showers. Though I think Western medicine can be very myopic and drug-centric. What I’m saying is the environment you inhabit is important.

I met guys who had plum-sized joints from rheumatoid arthritis, who were basically bed-ridden, and through environmental stimulus, it was reversed. And that was inspiring. As a journalist I have to look at the evidence, and sometimes the evidence is pretty remarkable. There’s always the possibility of false hope. If people look at this and say, “Okay, I’m not going to take my chemotherapy and trust in this.” That’s just as misguided.

Do you still run in nothing but shorts in the winter around Denver? What’s the reaction?
I do. When I was doing the training regularly, I’d have all these people high-fiving me, and that’s part of the fun: Look at this half-naked guy. You feel like somewhat of a celebrity for doing something that’s totally natural.

The post Is Freezing Your Ass Off Good for Endurance or Just Plain Reckless? appeared first on Josiah Hesse.

The post Runner’s high: the athletes who use marijuana to improve their training appeared first on Josiah Hesse.