It’s amazing to think that I spent my first few years as a runner without a GPS-based running watch. It feels like GPS activity watches are ubiquitous now among all endurance athletes. The first running GPS watches were the huge, clunky 205 and 305 models from Garmin. Compared to today’s offerings, they had a lot of shortcomings: battery life of a few hours, a requirement for proprietary software on your computer, accuracy issues, GPS lock issues, and limited storage....

I was scheduled to meet my team for work in Rome, Italy, for a week. We all stayed at a hotel in the Prati neighborhood, in the central part of the city. I had never been to Rome. Our itinerary contained a lot of meetings and work, but not so much that we wouldn’t be able to escape to explore the city. I was definitely excited for the trip. I woke up on the first morning of our offsite at 6am....

After I spent a week working in Rome, I spent a night in Venice followed by 3 nights in Florence. Venice, though a fantastic place to explore on foot, is not great for running. At least, not the main island. There are no cars. If you have to move a lot of heavy things, the cargo gets moved by boats. Most people walk everywhere on extremely narrow streets. At times, it was shoulder-to-shoulder pedestrian traffic in the trafficked main corridors....

I made a really stupid mistake recently. To explain the significance, first you need to know some background information. I’ve been running in low-drop or zero-drop shoes for the better part of a decade. These shoes are very different from “traditional” running shoes because they eliminate a full centimeter’s worth of cushion between the heel and the ground. The change in this cushioning has an impact on, ahem, the impact....

Earlier this week, I arrived in New Zealand to spend two and a half weeks here with my wife for our honeymoon. I had never been to New Zealand, but I heard nothing but wonderful comments from friends when they found out where we were going. My favorite comment that I heard was “New Zealand is similar to California, but without all the people.” Indeed, after being here for a couple of weeks, I can say that this is true, at least through the eyes of an outdoor adventurer....