I'm the CEO of Outside. I bring my bike on flights, drink ketones every day, and tell my staff to get off Zoom.

Robin Thurston, the founder and CEO of Outside Interactive, tries to spend as much of his workday as possible outdoors.

Robin Thurston This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Robin Thurston, the 54-year-old founder and CEO of Outside Interactive, based in Boulder, Colorado.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I grew up in Colorado, and I've been in the outdoor space for a long time.

I was a cyclist when I was young, grew up through the national team system, and then raced in Europe for four years.

I still ride my bike 7,000 to 10,000 miles a year.

I tell the story about how my dad, in 1979, threw an Outside Magazine at me and said, "We're going here." The front cover featured Arches National Park .

I remember it as a very excruciating 10 days as a young child, but I was exposed to the outdoors a lot.

After cofounding MapMyFitness and later holding leadership positions at Under Armour and Helix, I founded Outside Interactive, the outdoor media and tech platform that now owns Outside Magazine, Velo, Gaia GPS, Inntopia, Outside Days, and more, in 2019.

Thurston has a long history of biking and prioritizing outdoor time.

Robin Thurston Screen time is taking over.

Never in human history have we spent as much time indoors as we do today.

It's pretty scary to think that we probably spend around 5-10% of our lives outdoors.

That's not really what we're supposed to do.