Free Inside

Jeff G
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Running
  • Updated Weekly

Free Inside is a weekly conversation with Jeff Garmire and Allison Powell about endurance sports, adventure, science, coaching, curiosity, and whatever else happened that week. Some episodes dive into ultrarunning, hiking, and training. Others end up about bears, the World Cup, nonprofit work, overthinking, or why Jeff still doesn't know what he's wearing to the wedding. No guests. No script. Just honest conversations, bad jokes, and the things we'd probably be talking about anyway.

  1. Oct 7

    Four Days Before the Wedding: Do You Know Your Husband?

    With four days left before our wedding, Allison takes a very outdated test to determine whether she actually knows her future husband. The result: a respectable C+. From there, we try to determine where all the paperweights went, investigate one of America’s most haunted houses, debate whether people can mentally create ghosts, and read horoscopes that want us to buy zebra print and knock down a wall. We also get into disappearing TV remotes, lonely sock baskets, Yellowstone’s dangerously hot water, and the story of a ghost who may have helped solve a murder. Just another completely normal conversation before marriage.

  2. Oct 1

    Marriage Is How You Win the Flirting Game

    This week, Allison and I recap the third annual Montana Meltdown, including what we learned from watching people run in circles for 24 hours, why a completely runnable course can destroy you, and how consistency usually beats speed. Then we quickly lose the plot. Allison explains why she can only perform one accent at a time, takes us inside the strange world of theater school, and tells the mysterious story of the Jamison family disappearance. Somehow, that leads us into wilderness survival, cannibalism, and the proper freshness of human meat. We also revisit one of our first dates, reveal why marriage is how you win the flirting game, and remember our first backpacking trip together—when I led Allison over a mountain to a dried-up lake, fed her an unreasonable amount of rice, and accidentally got us adopted by a tribe of mountain goats. Also, our wedding is next week, and I still need a ring and an outfit. Everything is going perfectly.

  3. Sep 24

    180 Miles Unsupported: No Sleeping Pad, No Candy, Almost No Sleep

    Allison is back from her longest unsupported adventure yet: roughly 180 miles from Meeks Bay near Lake Tahoe to Tuolumne Meadows. She carried all of her food and gear, refused trail magic, crossed Desolation Wilderness and Sonora Pass, and spent three nights trying to sleep in a bivy sack without a sleeping pad. The result was a series of freezing 20-minute naps, an increasingly slow third night and a very important lesson about ground insulation. Allison shares what worked, what failed and what she would change next time—including carrying less water, packing simple carbohydrates and creating an actual sleep strategy. She also talks about reaching 72 hours with more than 20 miles remaining, having a panic attack when she realized the finish was much farther away than expected and finding a way to reset and keep moving. Jeff and Allison also discuss the strange rules of texting, people who reply to every message, passive-aggressive thumbs-up emojis, Montana “howdy” culture and the danger of getting trapped in an endless goodbye loop. A funny and honest breakdown of unsupported fastpacking, sleep deprivation, food mistakes and what happens when your entire world becomes taking the next step.

  4. Sep 16

    Wonderland Trail: 93 miles on her first Solo Backpacking Trip

    Allison Powell decided that her first solo backpacking trip would be the Wonderland Trail—a roughly 93-mile loop around Mount Rainier. As an experienced ultrarunner, three 30-plus-mile days sounded difficult but completely reasonable. Backpacking quickly taught her otherwise. Her days stretched to nearly 14 hours, she arrived at camp around midnight, slept under the stars while a mouse ran across her head, attempted her first solo bear hang, hitchhiked to an off-trail campsite, carried far too much food, and learned that every unnecessary ounce matters. In this episode, we talk about the surprising differences between ultrarunning and backpacking, going into a trip overconfident, doing something alone when nobody else is available, the reality of hiking big miles with a loaded pack, and the practical lessons Allison would carry into her next adventure. There are also suspension bridges, enormous waterfalls, questionable trail math, a missing travel mug, two marmots fighting—or flirting—and a bag of carrots that became the greatest mistake of the entire trip. This conversation feels especially relevant now because Allison is attempting her longest solo adventure yet: an approximately 180-mile FKT from Tahoe to Yosemite. #Trailrunning #Runningnews #Outdoors #Outdooradventure

  5. Sep 9

    The No Soap Era

    When Allison and I met, she didn’t own soap, shampoo, conditioner, a bed frame, enough underwear to make it through the week—or, apparently, pants. The strangest part is that she lived directly across the street from a soap store. In this episode of Free Inside, Allison explains the environmental and financial logic behind her no-soap era, rescuing shampoo from a free box, and buying discounted soap containing pieces of packing tape. We also discuss shopping entirely on vibes, the irresistible power of a clearance sticker, Kohl’s Cash, ultra widows, homeschooling, colorblindness, reincarnated children, and why Allison might return as part of a chicken. Free Inside is our weekly, unscripted conversation about endurance, life, whatever is inside our brains, and the rabbit holes we probably should have kept to ourselves. Subscribe for new episodes every week.

  6. Sep 2

    Allison’s 170-Mile FKT, Homeschool Cheating, and Survival Cannibalism | Free Inside

    Allison is officially attempting her first FKT: roughly 170 miles from Lake Tahoe to Yosemite, carrying everything she needs and hoping to finish in around 72 hours—without a tent, sleeping bag, or sleeping pad. She explains why she chose the route, how she is handling permits, food, batteries, sleep, and the pressure of finally committing to it. We also discuss Jeff’s extremely important early-relationship dinosaur test, Allison getting caught cheating during homeschool, the many unlikely threats ’90s children were taught to fear, and the Andes plane crash that turned into history’s most famous survival-and-cannibalism story. A completely normal morning on Free Inside with Jeff Garmire and Allison Powell.

  7. Aug 26

    Questionable Ham, Bigfoot, and Our First Date

    Jeff Garmire and Allison Powell return for another episode of Free Inside, the spinoff show where outdoor adventures quickly turn into conversations about Bigfoot, ghosts, questionable food, and everything else occupying our brains. We recap our four-day, 72-mile backpacking trip through the Sierra Nevada, including swimming in alpine lakes, hiking part of the John Muir Trail, fighting with bear canisters, missing the store by 15 minutes, and carrying ham that may or may not have been safe to eat. Allison also explains how she beat Jeff approximately 100–0 in gin rummy. Then Weird Allison’s Corner takes us into Bigfoot kidnappings, interdimensional Sasquatches, ghosts, reincarnation, not-deer, haunted limestone, and the disastrous first date where we somehow started discussing aliens. Plus, our Appalachian Trail film Rewritten premieres on YouTube Friday, August 28. This is Free Inside. We are both wearing pants. Support our Sponsors: Janji (code: Freeoutside): https://snp.link/a0bfb726 CS Coffee: CSinstant.coffee Garage Grown Gear: https://snp.link/db1ba8ab Subscribe to Substack: http://freeoutside.substack.com Support this content on patreon: HTTP://patreon.com/freeoutside Buy my book "Free Outside" on Amazon: https://amzn.to/39LpoSF Email me to buy a signed copy of my book, "Free Outside" at jeff@freeoutside.com Watch the movie about setting the record on the Colorado Trail: https://tubitv.com/movies/100019916/free-outside Website: www.Freeoutside.com Instagram: thefreeoutside facebook: www.facebook.com/freeoutside #Trailrunning #Runningnews #Outdoors #Outdooradventure

  8. Aug 19

    Every Book at the Barkley Marathons. It Still Wasn’t Enough.

    For three months, Jeff Garmire and Allison Powell were secretly training for the same nearly impossible Valentine’s Day plan: the Barkley Marathons. Neither of them could explain why they were accumulating enormous amounts of vertical gain through a Montana winter, practicing map-and-compass navigation, waking up for middle-of-the-night training sessions or suddenly planning a trip to Tennessee. Then, on February 14, they both stood at the starting line inside Frozen Head State Park. Recorded during their drive home from Barkley, Jeff and Allison can finally talk openly about the experience. They compare their secret training, the skills they believed they needed, their gear and fueling plans, and the strange challenge of preparing together without being able to tell almost anyone what they were doing. Their races began together in the lead group before eventually becoming two very different Barkley experiences. Allison recounts fighting to stay with the veterans, descending through leaves and briars, searching for hidden books without GPS and joining a group of eight runners who worked together throughout the day. The group collected pages from all 16 books and completed the loop in more than 17 hours, outside the official cutoff, earning the names “Overtime Eight” and “Elite Eight.” Jeff and Allison discuss what worked, what they would change, why accessible calories matter on terrain that never gives you a convenient moment to eat, and how teamwork transformed an intimidating race into an unexpectedly joyful experience. This episode of Free Inside is about the secret Jeff and Allison carried together, the dream they finally shared at Barkley and the two very different experiences that unfolded after the cigarette was lit.

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5
out of 5
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About

Free Inside is a weekly conversation with Jeff Garmire and Allison Powell about endurance sports, adventure, science, coaching, curiosity, and whatever else happened that week. Some episodes dive into ultrarunning, hiking, and training. Others end up about bears, the World Cup, nonprofit work, overthinking, or why Jeff still doesn't know what he's wearing to the wedding. No guests. No script. Just honest conversations, bad jokes, and the things we'd probably be talking about anyway.

Information

  • Creator
    Jeff G
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Jeff G
  • Show Website
    Free Inside

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