nutrition
-
Best Practices for Healthy Nutrition
Steve Markusen Featured Photo: First ride of the season and four months until the 2026 state championships. March 25, 2026. Credit: Charlie Markusen Foreword The starting judge lines us up for the first event of the 2017 Minnesota State Senior Cycling Championships: the 10K time trial. It is a miserable spring day: the air temp…
-
Burning Fat for Fuel
Photo: The early bird gets the worm: first tracks on the XX Face of Mt. XXXX, Teton Pass, WY 2025 The buried ski track winds through Lodgepole pine and Douglas fir, branches laden with snow. It is 7:30 am, January, 2025. The sun peaks over the Gros Ventre Mountains bathing Teton Pass Ridge in dawn…
-
It’s War: 7 Strategies for Winning the Weight Battle
Photo: Losing the war: three months ago and six pounds lighter. U.S. Senior National Cycling Championships, August 2025. I know the bad news even before stepping on the scale. Over the last several weeks, my pants fit tighter, I feel heavier and my stomach is prone to bouts of indigestion; familiar signs of weight gain.…
-
Staying Fit as We Age: Lessons from One of the World’s Best
Photo: Staying fit to keep up with my daughter who is 40 years younger. Big Sandy Opening trailhead after a 7 day 50 mile back pack in the Wind River Range, Wyoming. 2023. The title of the article in the Washington Post caught my eye: At 77, she’s as fit as a 25-year-old. What her…
-
My Aching Back: Managing Lower Back Pain
Featured Photo: The origin of my lower back pain: backcountry telemark skiing. Berthoud Pass, CO 1979. Credit Dale Anderson It’s 5:30 AM. Turning off the shower, I grab the squeegee to clean the glass door. Lifting it over my head, I feel a twinge in my lower back— red light. My lower back muscles spasm.…
-
Weight Loss: Changing Your Body Set Weight
Photo: Off the beaten path looking at Baker Lake, Klondike Glacier, and Klondike Peak on our way to climb Gannett Peak and a new body set weight. Wyoming, July 2024. Credit Paul Gardner. We walked in circles under grey skies. The air was bitter cold. Thanks to an early season snow storm, two foot high…
-
Training with a Plan Part III: The Taper
Featured Photo: Max Markusen leading the first technical crux, Lady Mountain Route, Zion Utah May 2024 Carefully making our way across an exposed traverse above a sandstone cliff, we pause to marvel at the scenery and solitude. The shadows on the canyon wall slowly descended as the sun climbs. Far below the sound of the…
-
Training with a Plan, Part II: Light the Fire
Photo: Carrie Markusen in a cloud on the summit of Hailey Pass, Wind River Mountains, Wyoming 2023. Emerging from the forest, we follow a faint path winding through wet alpine tundra dotted with drooping Blue bells. Dark clouds scud across the sky pregnant with rain. A flash of lighting brightens the sky. I count, “One,…
-
Training with a Plan, Part One: A Disciplined Approach to Achieving Goals
Photo: Achieving goal on Spaceshot, Zion, Utah. Credit: Paul Gardner, 2000 Sitting at my computer, I am listening to the drumbeat of rain on the skylights and day-dreaming about adventure… The position is surreal: a vertical wall split by a single crack. There is no ledge. Called a hanging belay, I am connected to the…
-
Turning 70: Reflections on the Blue Zones
Photo: Looking forward. Roaring Fork Pass, Wind River Range, WY Skiing the last 100 yards to the parking lot I was feeling my age. My son Charlie and his friend Aiden were waiting at the car; just as they waited for me earlier at the top of Mavericks, a 5 mile, 3000 foot vertical backcountry…