At Outside, we publish dozens of stories, videos, and photo essays per week. The result can be overwhelming: Lots of stories and not enough time to read them.
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So here's our digest of the reading you should catch up on this week. Our goal’s simple: to collect the most interesting, overlooked, and worth-your-time reads from Outside and our other favorite sources.
What We Wrote:
What followed for Ciolli, a longtime fixture and leader in Texas women’s cycling, has been shame, sadness, frustration, anger, and finally the epiphany that maybe the anti-doping system, at least in its treatment of older athletes, is broken.
A few kids don’t make it. They splay out across the track in a pile of elbow and kneepads and full-face helmets. And then, there’s one kid, coming from behind, who executes a perfect pass on his recently potty-trained competitors and crosses the line first.
“There is a very consistent finding that the brain works better after exercise,” Maddock says. But why that is has been harder to figure out.
Many alums come back year after year for the marathon bonfires, the garish parade, the endless free junk food and trail magic. It’s where more than a few marriages have begun (and some have ended in spectacular fashion).Â
Patxi Usobiaga is standing with a stick in his hand, pointing to my next move on a climbing route, and screaming at me: “Venga! Va. A muerte!” (Come on! Go! 'Til Death!)
What We Read:Â
Best headline: “How to Make Peace with the Void Through Birdwatching” [Literary Hub]
Most mysterious story of ocean-bound adventurer: “Long Way Home” [VQR]
Most likely to make us feel extra smug: “The Case for the Disconnected Commute” [CityLab]
Most entertaining exploration of fashionable people wearing hiking gear: “First Came Normcore. Now Get Ready for Gorpcore.” [The Cut]
Most artful presentation of slightly terrifying infrastructure: “Behold the Giant, Glorious Structures Keeping Nature at Bay” [Wired]