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Outside, rain drenches the town of Morrisville, running in rivers down streets as windshield wipers twitch in double time. But inside a caramel-colored building a mile or so from Main Street, it's toasty warm and dry. Men in aprons and shorts are literally whistling while they work. And why not? At lunchtime, they'll thumb their noses at the nasty weather and hop on one of the products they're making: a Concept2 indoor rower.... Read more

Forget Turkey Trots, long walks in the woods and praying for an early opening day at Killington. One of the best ways to torch the excesses of Thanksgiving dinner is cross-country skiing, which burns up to 1200 calories per hour. Sure, the snow has to fly first. But cross-country ski trail designer John Morton of Thetford Center is finding new ways around fickle Mother Nature, planning paths that hold the white stuff when it falls and providing other recreational options when it doesn't.... Read more

Sporting a purple-and-white-striped Adidas shirt, Dockers khaki shorts and a pair of sturdy Keen sandals, Tammy Charbonneau is the classic gym teacher. As she preps for P.E. class at Burlington's Champlain Elementary School on a recent Tuesday afternoon, I expect to see her wheel out a squeaky cart of orange dodge balls, or a stack of square, flat, wooden scooters. I can almost feel the itch of my old polyester gym uniforms and my armpits starting to sweat as I wait to be picked for a team.... Read more

With his oversized briefcase, boundless energy and mile-a-minute banter, Gordon Hay could be an old-fashioned door-to-door salesman. He proclaims that his product can provide happiness, improve performance and even save marriages. Hay also spews phrases such as "You can learn how to control your destiny" and "This will just take five minutes." This would be enough to make me politely shut the door and retreat to my living room.... Read more

Steve Norman's Burlington yard is a grease monkey's dream: a sagging, green Volkswagen bus, a vintage BMW motorcycle and a 1981, multicolored VW Sirocco all share lawn space outside his blue-and-white house. But the coolest set of wheels is an old, black $50 KHS road bike, which stands inconspicuously against a pile of lumber.... Read more

It's a sticky Friday afternoon, and the air hangs heavily inside the gym at Rice Memorial High School. Spanking-white Air Jordans squeak across the wooden floors as nearly 30 players, all wearing royal-blue, numbered jerseys, spread out under the five hoops to dribble, toss and pass spinning basketballs. Taped on the folded bleachers is a yellow cross, made from two measuring tapes, and some of the guys take turns stretching their fingertips for an arm-span calculation. Height-wise, most of them stand well over the 6-foot mark. No. 19, West Bolton's Jesse Dunn, high-fives No.... Read more

Rebecca Gutwin doesn't seem like a "pink" person. Her T-shirt, which reads "William Smith '03-'04 Crew," is gym-class gray -- and soggy after a morning run. Her curly, brown hair is tied in a no-nonsense ponytail. But the laces in her Adidas are the hue of Pepto Bismol; the Swiss Army knife attached to her key chain? Hot pink. These are not just girly accessories, they're symbols: At 21, Gutwin is a breast cancer survivor. And pink is the "team" color of the Komen Race for the Cure.... Read more

On a normal day, the indoor tennis courts at South Burlington's Sports & Fitness Edge are populated by grown-up players outfitted in neat tennis togs. It's quiet - except for the rhythmic thwack of tennis balls and the occasional grunt. But on a recent, sultry Tuesday afternoon, the space has morphed into a three-court circus, with nearly 30 squealing pint-sized players rushing around after balls tossed by instructor Jake Agna of Burlington. "Go for 20, go for 20!" yells Agna, coaxing his proteges to hit consecutive shots during their rapid-fire drill. "Keep switching!"... Read more

The KeyBank Vermont City Marathon has "legs" -- and we're not talking about the nearly 7000 pairs of quadriceps registered to run the race on May 28. More and more participants are choosing the relay approach to the marathon; instead of one solo runner, up to five divide up the 26.2-mile route into portions, or legs. Selected by a computerized lottery, a record 1000 teams -- a total of 3500 runners -- got the green light on February 1.... Read more

Earlier this month, Shelley Lutz was headed out on a 28-mile bike ride when the all-too-familiar harbinger of allergy season hit. "We were standing there in the parking lot and all of a sudden my nose was running like a sieve," recalls the 53-year-old Rutland resident, a UPS employee and longtime competitive cyclist. "I was like, 'Uh-oh, OK, time to start taking more of my allergy stuff.'"

Lutz, who also suffers from drop-to-your-knees headaches, is one of hundreds of Vermont athletes and outdoors enthusiasts who are arming themselves for the war against wheezing, sneezing and breathing difficulties.... Read more