Hi, I'm Willow Belden, and you're listening to Out There.

This is a podcast about the outdoors, from your window box and garden, to the fields on the edge of town, to the forests, prairies, seashores, and wilderness.

On the show, we'll explore our relationship with nature, through stories, interviews, essays, and even some fiction.

We'll travel around the U.S. and the world with tales of love and heartbreak,

passion and adversity, desperation, and triumph. Music Today's episode was inspired by an exchange I had with a friend from Colorado.

I was training for my first

ever cross-country ski race. It was a half marathon, and so I was logging a lot of miles in preparation,

which got me wondering how far I could ski in one winter. I posed the question on Facebook.

Is it unrealistic to try to ski 500 miles this season? My friend Joe was one of the first to respond.

Easy, he said. I used to do that in a month.

Now, you have to understand, Joe is a serious skier.

He owns 20 pairs of cross-country skis, literally, and he was a pro racer in college.

Speed matters here, he said.

He explained that he averages 10 to 15 miles per hour.

To put that in perspective, I usually go about half that speed.

Then again, I didn't start skiing until I was in my 20s.

I want to be able to do 10 to 15 miles per hour one day, I told Joe.

Do you think it's possible to get to that level if you didn't grow up skiing? Absolutely, he said, ever heard of Sarah Conrad?

Of course I'd heard of Sarah Conrad. She's a local legend in Laramie, Wyoming, which is where I live.

Sarah is an Olympic athlete. She's competed in both cross-country skiing and biathlon, which is a sport that combines skiing and rifle shooting.

And what's fascinating is that unlike most Olympic-level athletes, she did not grow up doing these sports.

In fact, she didn't start competing seriously until the age that many athletes are already retiring.

...