Wes Judd
Santa Barbara
Enthusiast, running coach, weekend warrior ultrarunner, just happy to be here.
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Articles by Wes Judd
Oatmeal Is Still the World’s Best Performance Breakfast
Sure, it's old fashioned. But it's also nutritional rocket fuel, and athletes are making it taste great. Here's how. Join Women's Running Create a personalized feed and bookmark your favorites. Join Women's Running Create a personalized feed and bookmark your favorites. Join for free Get access to everything we publish when you sign up for Outside+.
Oatmeal Is Still the World’s Best Performance Breakfast
In a world of green juice and chia seed pudding, this age-old dish is the original, and perhaps most powerful, superfood, especially for athletes competing at the highest levels. “I’ve asked a lot of elite endurance athletes about their breakfast foods, particularly before races, and oatmeal comes up again and again and again,” says Matt Fitzgerald, endurance coach, nutritionist, and author of The Endurance Diet.
Wes Judd Archives
My Stories Weekly Newsletter Learn how to rack up those miles and be your healthiest self.
The New Rules of Wellness
Fuel Christine Byrne Jan 22, 2021 There Are No Rules for Healthy Eating The key to a good diet is flexibility Wes Judd Sep 28, 2017 Oatmeal Is Still the World's Best Performance Breakfast Sure, it's old fashioned. But it's also nutritional rocket fuel, and athletes are making it taste great. Here's how. Christine Byrne May 2, 2019 Intuitive Eating Is the Opposite of Dieting—That's Why We Love It Old-school diets may have fallen out of favor, but diet messaging is still everywhere.
Ice Age struck indigenous Australians hard
By Wes Judd | September 27, 2013 Population numbers plummeted due to harsh conditions at the peak of the last Ice Age, says a new study. A NEW STUDY HAS revealed how indigenous Australians coped with the last Ice Age, roughly 20,000 years ago. Researchers say that when the climate cooled dramatically, Aboriginal groups sought refuge in well-watered areas, such as along rivers, and populations were condensed into small habitable areas.
The Perfect Home Gym for 2019
When you buy something using the retail links in our stories, we earn an affiliate commission that helps pay for our work. Read more about Outside’s affiliate policy. Can’t find enough time in the day to get to the gym? Too cold to run outside? With this equipment, you can get it done under your own roof, on your own time, with your own stuff, no excuses.
What Happens to Your Body on a Long-Distance Swim
Ross Edgley, a British athlete and fitness enthusiast, is currently on a mission to swim 2,000 miles around the coast of Great Britain. That means spending 12 hours a day in cold, sea jelly–filled currents. The feat has been a dream of his since childhood, and after talking to rowers and gauging his ability to work with tides, Edgley realized it just might be possible.
The Busy Person's Guide to a More Adventurous Life
Three foundational rules to fund your outdoor lifestyle using only what you have in your bank account right now
Testing Out #VanLife While Holding Down a 9-to-5
I was standing outside the back of my van, doors open, brushing my teeth in the brisk February air, when the camp host rolled up in his lightly rusted pickup truck, glaring at me. “Good morning!” I said cheerily, spitting toothpaste onto the pavement, already knowing I was in trouble.
We Made 6 Writers Learn Fitness Lessons the Hard Way
We sent a few rookies hurtling down dangerous singletrack, bounding through an American Ninja Warrior course, and splashing across miles of open ocean. They proved that if you’re willing to work hard, conquer your fears, and maybe don some superhero spandex, anything is possible. Become a Bro The quest: go from being a bookish, frail, risk-averse weakling to a badass master of downhill mountain biking. (Photo: Patrick Leger) The trouble started right away.
Why Runners Are Obsessed With the Grand Canyon R2R2R
One of the craziest speed records in ultrarunning takes athletes from the top of the canyon, down to the bottom, and then all the way back up again—twice. This singularly difficult and awe-inspiring traverse has garnered a reputation as a requisite proving ground for elite ultramarathoners. (Photo: Jason Hatfield) Of the 6 million people who visit Grand Canyon, only 1 percent venture below the rim. A fraction of those cross the canyon in what’s called the rim-to-rim hike.
Why Runners Are Obsessed With the Grand Canyon R2R2R
For exclusive access to all of our fitness, gear, adventure, and travel stories, plus discounts on trips, events, and gear, sign up for Outside+ today and save 50 percent. Of the 6 million people who visit Grand Canyon, only 1 percent venture below the rim. A fraction of those cross the canyon in what’s called the rim-to-rim hike. An even smaller group turn back around and do it again, traveling rim to rim to rim.
Your Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Morning Runner
“I’m glad you’re recording this, because I want to go on record: Morning people do not exist,” booms Brogan Graham, the gregarious cofounder of the free morning exercise movement the November Project. With upward of 20,000 members in dozens of worldwide “tribes,” as they’re called, the November Project has nearly become synonymous with mornings. Convincing people to wake up before the sun, and often in subfreezing temperatures, was no picnic, contends Graham.
Celebrity species names - Australian Geographic
While many species names hark from descriptions or notable features of the organism there's also the opportunity for scientists to name a species after a person, though it's etiquette not to name a species after yourself. Here are some species names after more notable famous people.
What Happens to Your Body on No Sleep
Scientists have a firm grasp on the purpose of certain automatic physical functions, like blinking, breathing, or digestion. When it comes to sleep, however, researchers still aren’t clear on why exactly your body needs to shut off every night. Details aside, one thing’s for sure: When you don’t sleep, your body revolts.
What Happens to Your Body on No Sleep
Get full access to Outside Learn, our online education hub featuring in-depth fitness, nutrition, and adventure courses and more than 2,000 instructional videos when you sign up for Outside+. Scientists have a firm grasp on the purpose of certain automatic physical functions, like blinking, breathing, or digestion. When it comes to sleep, however, researchers still aren’t clear on why exactly your body needs to shut off every night.
What Happens to Your Body on No Sleep
Scientists have a firm grasp on the purpose of certain automatic physical functions, like blinking, breathing, or digestion. When it comes to sleep, however, researchers still aren’t clear on why exactly your body needs to shut off every night. Details aside, one thing’s for sure: When you don’t sleep, your body revolts.
Stop Eating Sandwiches for Lunch
Steer clear of takeout, snack foods, and grab-and-go sandwiches Make batches of nutrient-dense ingredients on a Sunday, and throw them together in different combos for lunch all week. (Photo: p_ponomareva/iStock) When midday hunger hits and you realize you have nothing to eat, it’s easy to turn to an unhealthy option. “All of us do it.
To Look and Feel Younger, Running Is the Real Miracle Drug
Here’s the funny thing: We already have something that can ward off disease and prevent, even reverse, the telltale signs of age. In fact, look at the Venn diagram of what a hypothetical anti-aging pill would accomplish and what this existing tool already does for the body, and you’ve got two circles nearly overlapped. You don’t need to be a biohacker or billionaire to tap into this fountain of youth. Just lace up your sneakers and go.
The Best Performance Food for Every Activity
Twenty years ago, performance nutrition meant water and a banana. Today, it more closely resembles a science experiment, with neon-colored gels, powders, gummies, and an endless stream of protein and energy bars. That leaves many people (including us) overwhelmed and confused, so we set out to determine what to eat and when to eat it.
6 Kitchen Appliances That Will Transform Your Training
Here at Outside, we’re strong advocates for investing in high-quality gear. Just a few key items can transform an average camping trip, allow you to explore new corners of the wilderness, and elevate your performance. This same idea applies to the kitchen. Having the right appliances and culinary gear makes it that much easier to create a restorative recovery meal—a crucial part of your diet when training—and make the underwhelming energy bar or subpar recovery shake a thing of the past.
François D'Haene Breaks John Muir Trail Speed Record
Around 5 a.m. on Tuesday, October 17, French ultrarunner François D’Haene arrived at the northernmost point of the John Muir Trail just two days, 19 hours, and 26 minutes after departing from the trail’s southern terminus. In doing so, the 31-year-old set a new supported Fastest Known Time on the iconic trail that traverses eastern California’s Sierra Mountains. His effort shattered Leor Pantilat’s 2014 record of three days, seven hours, and 36 minutes.
How the World’s Best Athletes Get Their Caffeine Fix
Caffeine fuels expeditions far and wide, from ultra races and endurance cycling events to Mount Everest summits and months-long thru-hikes. It’s a performance enhancing, do-it-all supplement that requires you to break zero rules of competition. “Caffeine is fascinating because it does so many things in the body,” says Louise Burke, head of sports nutrition at the Australian Institute of Sport and coauthor of the 2011 book Caffeine for Sports Performance.
Oatmeal Is Still the World's Best Performance Breakfast
In a world of green juice and chia seed pudding, this age-old dish is the original, and perhaps most powerful, superfood, especially for athletes competing at the highest levels. “I’ve asked a lot of elite endurance athletes about their breakfast foods, particularly before races, and oatmeal comes up again and again and again,” says Matt Fitzgerald, endurance coach, nutritionist, and author of The Endurance Diet.
Oatmeal Is Still the World's Best Performance Breakfast
Get full access to Outside Learn, our online education hub featuring in-depth fitness, nutrition, and adventure courses and more than 2,000 instructional videos when you sign up for Outside+. In a world of green juice and chia seed pudding, this age-old dish is the original, and perhaps most powerful, superfood, especially for athletes competing at the highest levels.
All the Gear You Need to Start Running
Outdoor sports have a big barrier to entry. Climbing, mountain biking, and surfing, to name just a few, all require a high degree of skill and comfort with danger. They’re also incredibly expensive, with a figurative starter kit easily totaling a grand or more. Running, in contrast, is the everyman’s sport. Lace up a pair of shoes, walk out the door, and pick up a jog. Do that a few days in a row, and all of a sudden, you’re a runner.
On this day: Kingsford Smith disappears
AUSTRALIAN FLIGHT PIONEER Sir Charles Kingsford Smith is one of aviation history's most dashing figures. His career was chiselled from daring firsts: the first non-stop crossing of mainland Australia, the first flight from Australia to New Zealand, the first eastward Pacific crossing, and the first flight from Sydney to London. Ultimately, however, 'Smithy', as he was widely known, is most remembered for his disappearance on this day in 1935.
Aussie reefs: incredible new images
FOR NEARLY TWO YEARS, Catlin Seaview Survey – with the help of an international group of photographers and scientists – have been diving reefs across the globe to capture stunning, 360-degree panoramic images of underwater ecosystems in the name of conservation. The Australian-based project has already partnered with Google to create "Underwater Street View" through Google's site, and eventually hopes to capture the entirety of the Earth’s reef systems.
Super-strong human relative bred with ancient Australians
THE MOST RECENTLY DISCOVERED human relatives, the Denisovans, may have crossed a treacherous marine barrier in Indonesia and interbred with the ancestors of Aboriginal Australians, researchers say. Scientists from Australia and the UK have proposed that a human-like species known as Denisovans (Denisova hominin), discovered in Denisova Cave, Siberia in 2010, crossed the Wallace Line, one of the world’s most prominent marine borders between South-eastern Asia and Australia.
Rob Krar's Favorite 1.7-Million Acre Running Spot Needs Saving
Late last year, Arizona Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva, a member of the House Natural Resources Committee, introduced a landmark bill that would protect 1.7 million acres of land around the Grand Canyon in the form of a national monument.
How 'Star Wars' Can Help You Understand Serious Psychotic Disorders
Depression, gambling addiction, schizophrenia, PTSD: There’s really nothing fun about these serious mental disorders. But psychiatrists and devoted Star Wars fans Ryan C.W. Hall and Susan Hatters Friedman are trying to change that with a series of papers published in Academic Psychiatry that examine these disorders through major Star Wars characters.
Astronomers Found an Ancient Ocean on Mars
An artist's rendering of Mars four billion years ago. (Photo: NASA/GSFC) Mars: Our red, dusty, cold desert neighbor. Right? Not so fast. A new studyconducted by NASA reveals that, in its infancy, Mars was likely a wet, warm planet with an ocean larger than the Arctic. It would have spread over a fifth of its surface and been a mile deep at spots; proportionally, it occupied the same space as the Atlantic does on Earth.
Why Are Most Hockey Fans White?
A very white crowd at the 2010 Winter Classic at Fenway Park. (Photo: Victoria Welch/Flickr) You’ve seen the video a thousand times: a television news anchor reports near a riled-up crowd; a fan, perhaps invited—oftentimes not—yells something inappropriate into the microphone; the host fumbles to recover; the video goes viral.
A Conversation With the Psychologist Behind 'Inside Out'
Emotions expert Dacher Keltner, who advised director Pete Docter throughout the making of the new Pixar hit, dives deep into the science of emotion, and tells us how Inside Out could teach Western culture an important lesson. Pixar has a proud tradition of taking things that are incapable of expressing human emotion—robots, toys, rats, cars—and imagining a world where they can, in fact, feel.
Who Runs 100 Miles?
Ultramarathon running draws a particular type of athlete—one who has plenty of free time, doesn't mind pain, and is also white. On July 12th, in the foggy Maine air sometime just before noon, a haggard, goateed, pencil-thin Scott Jurek kissed the carved-up, sun-bleached wooden sign atop Mount Katahdin, the tallest mountain in Maine.
The Navy SEAL Who Snagged All of Colorado's 14ers on a Splitboard
The morning of May 21 was cold and clear in central Colorado’s Maroon Bells–Snowmass Wilderness, just east of Aspen. Around 9 a.m., ex-Navy SEAL Josh Jespersen summited the jagged, exposed 14,130-foot Capitol Peak. Having set out on a splitboard six hours earlier, Jespersen was tired, hungry, and ready to ride down. But he paused for a moment and smiled. ”I was exhausted. But I was so pumped,” he says.
What Ultrarunner Jim Walmsley Can Teach Us
New perk: Easily find new routes and hidden gems, upcoming running events, and more near you. Your weekly Local Running Newsletter has everything you need to lace up! Subscribe today. When Walmsley toes the starting line of June's Western States 100 in Squaw Valley, California, it will be the culmination of a year's worth of 100-mile training weeks on the rugged terrain outside his Flagstaff, Arizona, home.
What Ultrarunner Jim Walmsley Can Teach Us
New perk: Easily find new routes and hidden gems, upcoming running events, and more near you. Your weekly Local Running Newsletter has everything you need to lace up! Subscribe today. When Walmsley toes the starting line of June’s Western States 100 in Squaw Valley, California, it will be the culmination of a year’s worth of 100-mile training weeks on the rugged terrain outside his Flagstaff, Arizona, home.
What Ultrarunner Jim Walmsley Can Teach Us About Performance
Jim Walmsley crossing the Rucky Chucky river at the 2016 Western States 100. Photo: Myke Hermsmeyer When Walmsley toes the starting line of June’s Western States 100 in Squaw Valley, California, it will be the culmination of a year’s worth of 100-mile training weeks on the rugged terrain outside his Flagstaff, Arizona, home.
Getting Outside Is the Ultimate Training Plan
Standing without using your hands: tougher than it sounds. Photo: Christopher D. Thompson Let’s try something: Lay flat on the ground and attempt to stand up without using your hands. Sounds simple, right? It’s not. You’ll likely feel some straining in your back and core, your hips will hurt as you push them out wide, and you’ll wobble as you try to find the right positioning for your legs. Should you finally get into a good stance, your quads will burn as you stand up.
Dinosaurs May Have Been Tripping on Hallucinogens
There are two ways to introduce this new joint study from Oregon State University and the USDA Agricultural Research Service. The more accurate, and certainly more responsible, course would be to say that researchers have found a perfectly preserved amber fossil that contains the oldest grass specimen ever discovered, on top of which lies a 100 million-year-old form of the ergot fungus.
Dinosaurs May Have Been Tripping on Hallucinogens – Pacific Standard
There are two ways to introduce this new joint study from Oregon State University and the USDA Agricultural Research Service. The more accurate, and certainly more responsible, course would be to say that researchers have found a perfectly preserved amber fossil that contains the oldest grass specimen ever discovered, on top of which lies a 100 million-year-old form of the ergot fungus.
Just How Important Is Color? – Pacific Standard
When was the last time you thought about color? Save for the occasional breathtaking sunset, or The Dress phenomenon last month, how often do you consciously stop and think about the specific shades of the world around you? Unless you’re a fashion designer, painter, or an interior decorator, it’s probably something you take for granted. A recent video by Valspar Paint highlights just how awe-inspiring color really is.
Can Shocking Your Brain Make You a Better Athlete?
We’ve known for a while that the final frontier of sports performance is the mind. While athletes have been practicing different forms of meditation and visualization for years, a new device called Halo Sport, released this week, hopes to bring mental training into the 21st century. The gadget, which looks like a pair of bulky Skullcandy headphones, transmits 1-2.2 milliamps of electricity via three electrodes in order to stimulate the brain’s primary motor cortex, which controls movement.
We Made 6 Writers Learn Fitness Lessons the Hard Way
We sent a few rookies hurtling down dangerous singletrack, bounding through an American Ninja Warrior course, and splashing across miles of open ocean. They proved that if you’re willing to work hard, conquer your fears, and maybe don some superhero spandex, anything is possible. The trouble started right away. “I’ll send you a training plan,” said James Wilson, creator of MTB Strength Training Systems and onetime coach to downhill world champ Aaron Gwin.
Fitness Tech Is Changing How We Climb Everest
Over a month ago, mountaineers Adrian Ballinger and Cory Richards set out to summit Everest via the north side, in Chinese Tibet, without the aid of supplemental oxygen. Using social media and the hashtag #EverestNoFilter, they decided to bring the world along for the ride, sharing photos and videos of life on the mountain via Snapchat, and publishing their movement on the fitness app Strava.
Has ‘Game of Thrones’ Affected the Way People Think About Climate Change?
An invisible force threatens to destroy life as we know it, yet society remains largely indifferent. A small group of devoted soldiers, who know the true strength of this threat, warn us of the horror to come. But alas, their warnings are to no avail. Sound familiar? Fans of HBO’s Game of Thrones, which returns this Sunday for its fifth season, will surely think of the Night’s Watch.
Skiing the Hardrock 100
For the past two winters, ultrarunners Jason Schlarb and Jeremy Wolf have traveled to Patagonia and New Zealand during the snowy months to train for their packed summer race schedules. This year, however, with Wolf bound by work and family obligations, Schlarb started looking for an adventure a bit closer to home.
Adam Kimble's Insane Plan to Run Across America
If you haven’t heard of the runner Adam Kimble before now, don’t worry—you’re not alone. Though the 29-year-old Chicago native finished first last year in China’s 250-kilometer Gobi March, and came in third two years ago and the Yellowstone-Teton 100, his feats of distance running haven’t gotten much notice outside of small ultrarunning circles. But that may change next month when he sets out to break the record for the fastest ever run across America.
A Historic Day on Maui’s North Shore
Two weeks ago, surf photographer Ryan Moss was at his home in San Jose, California, when he got a text about a swell headed towards Maui’s North Shore—an area that, due to the size and potential lethality of its waves, most surfers simply refer to as Jaws. At first, he was skeptical. The swell was three days out, and they can easily change in that time. Plus, many of Jaws’ swells peak in the middle of the night, when even the best big-wave riders won’t surf it. Moss wasn’t sure he’d bother.
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