These are the top three YouTubers for getting a little inspiration to run, bike or just tackle your own cardio caper

At some point, the simple answer is you just have to exercise. Run, bike, walk, lift, kayak, skip, something. You just have to do something for the human body to operate as designed. 

And if you can just get yourself into a groove, make it a hard-wired habit of doing it every day or most days of the week, that inertia — along with a good pair of shoes and the right amount caffeine — is a lot of times all you need to get off your butt and run a few miles or lift a few weights. 

But even for the most disciplined people, sometimes that’s not enough. Sometimes you need a new goal, or a new adventure to provide a little extra push. And fortunately, we’re living in the golden age for finding those ingredients. 

There are hundreds of people on YouTube alone documenting how they push themselves and how they dream up adventures to stay motivated.

Here are my three favorites. 

1. Beau Miles
https://www.youtube.com/c/beaumiles

While Beau, an Aussie, has been known to take on a big adventure or two, including paddling a kayak 4,000 km from one side of Africa to the other, the Beau adventures that inspire me the most are the ones that he finds right outside his back door.

He ran a marathon by running about a mile each hour every hour for 24 hours, then spent the rest of each hour working on his to-do list: planting trees, building a table, painting a fence, etc. Another time, he ran 43 km cross country, jumping fences, shouldering through brambles and trespassing a time or two to follow the disappearing path of a defunct rail line. Then, he kayaked one time and walked another his 90 km commute to work. He kayaked to work. Imagine that. 

Those latter adventures were spurred on by a rather thought-provoking question. 

“Your carbon footprint goes through the roof just so you can find yourself somewhere else,” he said.  “Can my commute offer me the adventures of high mountaintops and wide seas?”

The answer it turns out, for Miles — and you and me — is definitely yes.

But maybe there’s a more compelling neighborhood challenge: The Run Every Street Challenge. Try it: https://bit.ly/3PIastB

2. Dustin Klein
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV9WtB_q5sJfe3Rev5PWy-Q

Some of the dumbest things I’ve struggled with in my journey to find fitness that works for me are two questions: 
1. What does a runner (or cyclist) look like?

2. Do I have to look like a runner (or cyclist)?

My body type and aesthetic bent don’t lend themselves to the short, split shorts and tank tops (singlets) of what you might consider a stereotypical runner, nor the biker shorts of cyclists. It’s one of the reasons I’m a big fan of Courtney Dauwalter, the unstoppable ultra-runner often known just as much for running in basketball shorts as how far she runs in them.

And it’s one of the things that draws me to Dustin Klein. He’s an artist, graphic designer and cyclist in the Pacific Northwest, and that’s what he looks like: a perfect marriage of all those things, with tattoos, stylized bikes and get-ups that look very much like who he is and very little like what might be considered a textbook cyclist.

What keeps me watching are his adventures with his Adventure Squad cycling pals, up mountains; across logging roads; long, designed biking routes through both and through urban stretches to find beer, food and adventure.  Dozens of miles, if not a century or more at a time. Shot in a unique, fun, quirky way that catches all the splattered mud, the egg sandwiches, and overnight van adventures. 

I’m very much more a runner than a cyclist, but there’s a handful of bikers that make sense to me. 

Ted King, who has retired from being a professional road racer to the gravel scene is another: https://www.youtube.com/c/TedKingoftheride/videos

3. Seth James DeMoor

Demoor Global Running.
https://www.youtube.com/c/SethDeMoor/featured

He’s won the Pike’s Peak marathon (which involves more than 7,800 feet of climb) twice, and we’ve watched him win the Gasparilal half-marathon in Tampa Bay this year, not to mention adding his fifth child to his family.

We watch him get up hours before dawn and run up Pike’s Peak in a weighted vest. He takes us with him on his track workouts, and shows us how he rehabs and prehabs injuries. We see the work he puts in to grow his Youtube audience, and his mindful efforts with his growing family.

As someone who is very much a recreational runner, but still looking for ways to run faster and longer, as well as how to hone that work ethic to apply it to the rest of life, Seth is one of my go-tos. We get an up-close look at what does and what lengths he takes to push to the next level — we get to see the work it takes to win a marathon — and he does it in an entertaining, consumable way on a nearly daily basis, perfect for someone who needs new content daily for the treadmill. 

Are you having luck building your own adventures? What’s your tip?