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Outside Magazine, April 2008

Fit Stops
Turn your vacation into a full-body recalibration with these performance-enhancing getaways

By Adam Skolnick


	Go from racer to winner at Zap Fitness in the Blue Ridge Mountains (courtesy, Wikipedia)

Zap Fitness
Blowing Rock, North Carolina

Guinea Pig Labs

Find out how fit you are at these three performance-testing facilities:
Meredith College's Human Performance Laboratory, in Raleigh, North Carolina, offers body-composition analysis and an endurance test that determines substrate utilization—the number of calories burned at different workout intensities ($175; humanperformancetesting.com). Colorado's Boulder Center for Sports Medicine measures VO2 max and lactate threshold. Physiologist Neal Henderson also performs a Wingate test to determine whether cyclists are better suited to sprinting or climbing ($225; bch.org/sportsmedicine). San Anselmo, California's Whole Athlete is interested in only one measurement: maximal steady state (MSS), which is the maximum power you can maintain for half an hour ($195; wholeathlete.com).

Best For: Decent runners who want to start breaking ribbons
A Reebok-sponsored running camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Zap Fitness was designed to train Olympic hopefuls. But the six-year-old retreat also welcomes amateurs? of all levels. Guests come for weeklong visits, during which they train with would-be Olympians on three-to-ten-mile morning runs through Moses H. Cone Memorial Park. Coach Peter Rea teaches proper running form for hills and flats, and runners take yoga classes and receive massage therapy. Evening recovery sessions include bluegrass performances by local musicians. Accommodations are spare—the bathrooms are shared—but that just makes it easier to wake up and run. From $720 per week; zapfitness.com

Next Page: Tempe, Arizona

L.A.-based ADAM SKOLNICK has written for Wired and Travel + Leisure.

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