Photo by Muffy Aldrich
The Modern Guide to The Thing Before Preppy

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Autumn Sports, Workouts, and Exercise?

 

A reader question:

Fall is coming.  So a question that might be interesting for the community is what are your favorite sports and workouts to get exercise when the air gets cooler and the days get shorter?

 

34 comments:

  1. For me, it's time to lace up the old boots for some long hikes and much beloved leaf peeping!

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  2. I hike year-round and cycle until there is snow on the roads and paths. i don't mountain bike on trails but do ride on dirt paths trails that aren't too bumpy or jagged.

    For those interested in cycling who want the option of dirt paths, consider a hybrid or cyclecross bike. hybrids, you ride upright, like a beach cruiser; cyclecross, more like a road bike. They're both a fair bit lighter than mountain bikes, and both usually have beefed-up forks, seat posts, rims, and wider tires with better traction and a more forgiving ride than true road bikes.

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  3. Can’t beat cycling, from one who grew up riding a bike. Didn’t we all? But, alas, now live where country roads have very narrow shoulders. The prospect of a bicycle accident is very foreboding.
    Decided if I was going to get hurt moving about on land, I would prefer to be injured in a car accident, hiking or walking, or skiing. Using a “bongo board” is very good prep for x-c or downhill.

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  4. I also hike year-round. I don't out of town much anymore but I'm fortunate in living in the big suburbs where there are lots of woodland trails with many interesting things to see. I generally do a two-mile hike everyday. I'm not wild about the rain but it's pure delight to be out when it's snowing, although it's rare to get more than five or six inches at once over the winter. But right now I'd call it tropical.

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  5. Country walks as the grass tips to that deeper autumnal green, I'm fortunate enough to live where the English hills lay still unblemished by modern society so I do my utmost to embrace them. Otherwise, (calm winds permitting) the near-daily sea swims continue, but as autumn rolls these become more of a challenge of will than relaxing pleasure. Nothing a post-swim wooly hat, wooly jumper & flasked coffee doesn't solve. Submitting yourself to the cooling waters at the sun's rise and set really does soothe the soul.

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  6. Tennis, but I play all year unless it is too cold. I do play more in the fall and spring though. GLH

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    1. Tennis for me as well, but I stop playing when it gets too warm. I can't wait for a drop in temperature in September!

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  7. Regular daily 30 to 60-minute walks around the neighborhood and X-country roller skis (classic) during weekends to work on improving technique.

    Best Regards,

    Heinz-Ulrich

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    1. Used roller skis in high school. Going down hills was quite exciting!

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  8. I walk on the beach year round as long as it isn't dangerously windy or cold.

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  9. Bourbon, cigars, and friends over for dinner.

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  10. Golf and tennis are best when it gets cooler. Heck, when I lived in Rhode Island it would be golf year round. Last year out here in Pittsburgh I played the week between Christmas and New Years. Not only do the crowds thin out but it is much more comfortable playing outside in the cooler weather. Hiking as well, fewer crowds, cooler temps, much more enjoyable experience.

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  11. The activity is not quite as relevant as the attire. Fall allows one to perform, comfortably, the most important act in all of Prep Land: layer. For her, it means a turtle neck under a Nordic Sweater under her father's 80-year-old parka. For him, it means a Polo under a Brooks Brother's Shirt under a Shaggy Dog under a very-beat-up Barbour. Layering for a Prep is akin to wearing merit badges in the Boy or Girl Scouts - it tells the unwashed masses that they are among the elite.

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    1. The elite should know that it's Brooks Brothers, not Brooks Brother's.

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    2. The well-bred should know it's vulgar to so rudely correct someone about an unimportant matter.

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    3. But it's not vulgar to boast of one's elite standing while using a "grocer's apostrophe" when opining on such an important matter as the use of layering to proclaim social status and put your inferiors in their place. Ah so.

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    4. Two wrongs, etc.

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    5. You two stop. Why is it so important for you to show 'the unwashed' that you are so elite? I am in the Social Register, for goodness sake and I wear whatever I want, whenever I want, wherever I want and I don't care one iota what anyone thinks of me. And YES - sometimes I wear ripped, baggy jeans because they are comfortable and because I CAN.

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  12. Hiking in the Blue Ridge looking for grouse and woodcock.

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  13. Rowing & hiking! Thanks much!

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  14. Participatory: running, trail running, hiking, road and mountain biking, rollerblading, hoping for opportunities to cross-country ski and snowshoe. (There aren’t many pick-up soccer, rugby, or touch football games for men my age around here.) I like to watch the last Formula 1 races, the U.S. Open, football (mainly college), the wind-down of baseball.

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  15. The exercise and outdoors activities will remain the same, but they will be much more pleasant. Carrying your golf clubs around the course, even a relatively flat links style course, is less fun in 100 degree weather than it is if the temperature is just above freezing. Fifty-five is my sweet spot.

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  16. Sports and activities remain the same - primarily running - but my favorite part is that I complain far less about the temperature, the heat affecting my pace, the need to put on sunscreen so often, the sweat, etc.

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  17. Living on an acreage provides more than enough physical activity. With autumn approaching, the Mister and I ready the garden and flower beds; weed, tidy and trim the yard; harvest apples and pears; and prepare for an onslaught of leaves. I do bemoan the shortening daylight, but carrying a lantern on a walk fixes that.
    Alfred Wainwright wrote, “There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” Being prepared and well dressed makes inclement weather much more tolerable, dare I say, enjoyable.

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  18. Martial arts and weightlifting. Later in the year,deer and elk hunting.

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  19. Camping, backpacking, mountain biking - anything outdoors. I love fall weather and not needing to bother with timing my workouts around the heat of the day. - Liz

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  20. Cross country and endurance running. Fall is the best season for it! The crisp air and mud and leaves on the trails!

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  21. Get yourself a Concept 2 rowing machine. Super workout that targets all your major muscle groups. Add two or three 40 minute hikes/walks per week and you are all set.

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  22. I stick to the same endeavors as the rest of the year – long meandering walks down country lanes, and horseback riding. Autumn is my favorite time to ride!

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  23. Long walks followed by drinks by the fire :)

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  24. Fly fishing in New England. I just doesn't get better!

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