Why a Seasonal Approach to Fitness? 

🐛helps prevent boredom, for folks like me who love to do a bit of everything and can’t stand the thought of doing just one thing all the time 🥱

🐛improves movement quality- by cycling through different movement styles, modalities, and intensities throughout the year, almost no stone goes unturned.

🐛doesn’t eliminate or prevent injuries (nothing can) but reduces injury due to varied movement throughout the year

🐛allows for biological rhythms to emerge. Most mammals are not running long distances in a cold, dark, winter. Me neither 🤷🏽‍♀️😅

❄️ Winter:

I primarily lift at the gym. I increase my usage of cables and machines for strength training. Always a DB or KB in sight- a year round staple for me. Reps are lower, weight is higher. I reduce my overall cardio output. I focus on building strength, maintaining mobility, and getting warm “lazily”- the sauna/steamroom. Outdoor walks 3-5 days/wk, 30 min for vitamin D and mental health support. Cardio for movement + warmth, not performance.

🌷Spring:

Base building, Z2 running makes a reappearance to build cardio capacity back up. Machines and cables make less of an appearance. Weights stay heavy, reps stay low-ish. Walks increase in length, 30-60 minutes outside- shorter on run days, longer on rest days. Mobility is a mainstay.

☀️Summer:

Significantly reduced gym time, increased garage time. Big focus on “functional” movements (it’s ALL functional but you’ll know when I mean when I use this term). Tires, ropes, balls, sandbags reappear. In full blown training mode for running- most of my time is spent here. Speed work/interval work enters the chat. Walks stay at about 60 minutes, except for days with lots of yard work.

🍁 Fall:

Race season officially begins- 5k, 10k, half marathon is all I’m interested in. We’re back in the gym a lot, intensity stays low to moderate to account for running volume. Walks stay long. Moderate weight, moderate reps are used. We finish race season around November, then prepare for winter again 🔄

Strong and sturdy in my 80s- here I come! 💃🏽