Tag: fall exercise ideas

rainbow circle of leaves
Fall rainbow scavenger hunt

Fall rainbow scavenger hunt

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The reds and yellows of changing leaves. Bright green moss. Wet soil, rich and dark. The colors of autumn are raw and gritty, with more street cred than the sweet naivety of spring or the brazen arrogance of summer. I’ve been obsessed with the beauty outside, so I decided to do a fall rainbow scavenger hunt on my run today.

rainbow of fallen leaves

Fall rainbow scavenger hunt

The goal:

To find examples in nature of as many colors as possible, while appreciating the variety, extravagance, and general awesomeness outside.

The fun:

Each neighborhood, region, and weather condition will yield a variety of things to see. This game is full of possibilities.  You can visit a park or nature reserve, or walk the streets outside your door.

Bring your phone or camera to document your finds. These pics may come in handy later, to cheer you up when it’s dark outside and you’re feeling dark inside.  You can also use a magnifying glass or binoculars to get perspective.

If you’re with your family or a group you can split up and compare notes, or make a friendly competition out of it.  Although I did this by myself, I plan to take my kids to try it too. Scroll to the end of the post for a free print out for kids to use (and a playlist to get them hyped-up about finding rainbows).

The benefits:

Combine this fun with some fall exercise in the cool, fresh air.  Focusing on color will open your eyes to the wonder and abundance around you, making this is a bonus win to whatever activity you choose. It can be combined with walking, hiking, running, and cycling—as long as you are okay with stopping to smell the rainbows.

colorful leaves on old, dark leaf mulch

Finding rainbows outside

Reds and pinks

Red comes in like blood, rushing to berries and leaves that are having a moment of glory before falling.  You may catch the creamy pink of flowers in bloom before the ice comes to claim them.

Dark red fall berriesbright red leaves on a Japanese Maple Treepink berries on a tree pink and white flowers left from late summer

Oranges, browns, and yellows

Oranges and yellows can be bright–especially against the contrast of dark wetness that seeps into fall.  On my scavenger hunt I kept gravitating toward the golden tints everywhere, from the ginko leaves littering the road, the quince fruit on my neighbor’s tree, and the sun (that dusted everything in the morning).

Black beetle on a bright orange rosefiery-orange leaf on black pavementbrown curly bark on a tree

sunflower in fallgolden ginko leavesyellow quince on the tree

Greens

Moss and grass pop in bright shades, and fall has so many types of green.  Ferns hang out in the low layers of the forest, waiting to get glossy with rain.

velvety silver-green leavesbright green moss on a treeglossy dark green fern frond

Blues, indigoes, and purples

With all the warm colors around, blues and purples are sometimes harder to find.  When you find a deep, dark purple or a regal-looking indigo you will take notice.  As for blues, the sky and water never disappoint.

Little fall chicory flower in bluePurple berries in fallDeep purple hydrangeasdark purple tree leaves

Black, white, gray, and silver

As the fall progresses, things get both darker and lighter.  Brightness fades into a more subtle contrast, the sky gets cloudy, and the light outside gets soft.  Things can get washed out into a sleepy version of their earlier selves.  There are also afternoon shadows, rain, and sometimes snow and ice.

black berries have turned blacker as they diegray rock in the parkice on the ground in November, silvery whitewhite snowberries in fall

A deeper look

Depending on where you live it can be difficult to find a full range of colors. Sometimes you’ll have to pay close attention or look in unusual places, but variety will reveal itself.

Searching high and low

Look up at trees from below. Some of the coolest colors come from the underside of leaves.  Gaze up at the sky and see the hues of sunrise and sunset.

Search the ground for mushrooms, fallen leaves, rocks, and grasses. Crouch or sit down to get a closer look.

Go big and go small

Taking in views from afar shows how colors can blend into something deep and unique. Find a high point or overlook to take in an entire scene. Appreciate a whole tree, with changing leaves in various stages of turning—this won’t be the same as looking at each leaf on its own.

Close up of a red-yellow fall leaf, with little pixels of colors in flux
Looking up close at things in transition highlights the many colors that make up fall. It seems like a thousand little pigments make up this leaf.

Focusing up close will show something beautiful as well; zoom in and you will see colors separate into tiny rows, dots, and pixels.  (It helps to use a camera or magnifier for this, but it can be done with the naked eye.)  There are little worlds within our world. Micro habitats with worms and bugs are under fallen logs. Lichens, mosses, and algae cling to bark and rocks.

blue and cream-colored resin on tree bark
I love the blues and creams that emerge in the resin on this tree bark

Changes in light and water

Time of day can alter the hues of what’s around you. Light and shadow can reveal things you didn’t catch before.  Appearances also change when things are wet—my favorite is ordinary rocks that bloom into when covered by rain or a stream.

rain changes ordinary rocks into a rainbow of color

The beauty of senescence

Fall brings death and decay as plants age and wither. This can be lovely, however, and is part of the yearly cycle of life. The subtlety of silver on a drying blade of grass, the deep golds and browns in a pile of leaves—these are fleeting colors that you must catch while you can.

Looking at the exhibits in the museum of my suburban neighborhood was cool. I’ve been enjoying the change of scenery this season and each time I go out I notice something different. A fall rainbow scavenger hunt is one way to look at the world through a lens of color. Once you do, it is hard to go back! Every yard, field, grove, or ditch has something amazing to see.

dying flowers in black and silver

Free Printable for kids:

Fall Rainbow Scavenger Hunt Printable

My favorite rainbow songs playlist— click and listen to get pumped up for the hunt:

Rainbow Playlist (kid-friendly)

  1. Roygbiv (They Might Be Giants)

  2. Different Colors (Walk the Moon)

  3. Rainbow Connection (Kermit)

  4. 99 Red Balloons (Nena)

  5. Orange-colored Sky (Nat King Cole)

  6. Yellow Submarine (The Beatles)

  7. It’s Not Easy Being Green (Kermit)

  8. Blue Skies (Ella Fitzgerald)

  9. Lavender Blue (Dilly, Dilly) (Burl Ives)

  10. The Purple People Eater (Sheb Wooley)

  11. A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation (Marty Robbins)

  12. Blackbird (The Beatles)

  13. Over the Rainbow (Iz)

  14. True Colors (Trolls Soundtrack version)

 

And if you can’t get enough color songs, try the next ones too and make your own rainbow playlist! (Warning: these songs are not all sunshine and rainbows, some are raw and gritty—just like the fall.)

  1. Crimson and Clover (Tommy James)
  2. Lady with the Red Dress (Snow)
  3. Little Red Corvette (Prince)
  4. Little Red Riding Hood (Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs)
  5. Red Light Special (TLC)
  6. Red Ragtop (Tim McGraw)
  7. Pink (Aerosmith)
  8. Pink Moon (Nick Drake)
  9. Orange Crush (R.E.M.)
  10. Peaches and Cream (112)
  11. Gold Digger (Kanye West Feat. Jamie Foxx)
  12. Gold Dust Woman (Fleetwood Mac)
  13. Mellow Yellow (Donovan)
  14. Yellow (Coldplay)
  15. Green Light (Lorde)
  16. Green River (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
  17. Leaves that are Green (Simon and Garfunkel)
  18. Blue (Patsy Cline)
  19. Blue Suede Shoes (Elvis Presley)
  20. Blue Bayou (Linda Rondstat)
  21. Mood Indigo (Nina Simone)
  22. Purple Rain (Prince)
  23. Purple, yellow, red, and blue (Portugal the Man)
  24. Brown-Eyed Girl (Van Morrison)
  25. Black and Yellow (Whiz Khalifa)
  26. Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden)
  27. Black or White (Michael Jackson)
  28. Black Magic Woman (Santana)
  29. Paint it Black (The Rolling Stones)
  30. Silver Rainbow (Genesis)
  31. Silver Springs (Fleetwood Mac)
  32. Knights in White Satin (Moody Blues)
  33. White Room (Cream)
  34. Autumn Leaves (Edith Piaf)
  35. Chasin’ that Neon Rainbow (Alan Jackson)
  36. Colors (Beck)
  37. Colors (Halsey)
  38. Colors of the Wind (Pocahontas Soundtrack)
  39. Karma Chameleon (Culture Club)
  40. Life in Color (One Republic)
  41. Rainbow (Kesha)
  42. Rainbow in the Dark (Dio)
  43. Riding on a Rainbow (Cicely Courtneidge)
  44. Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Judy Garland, Wizard of Oz Soundtrack)
  45. True Colors (Cyndi Lauper)
Carrying pumpkins through the patch is great exercise
Exercise through the seasons: Fall

Exercise through the seasons: Fall

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Second to New Years, the start of fall seems like the best time to make changes. Autumn is the beginning of my family’s fiscal year of sorts. Each advancing grade in school is a milestone crossed for the kids, with new routines to go along. There is back-to-school madness, a need for a warmer wardrobe, cooler temps, and evolving priorities. Like the eventual shift in the color of the leaves, we morph into fall people who do fall things.

One thing everyone should be doing is staying active. Adding fall exercise ideas into those new routines can ensure that movement continues, through the busyness of work and school, and into the holidays.  Just because the weather is getting colder doesn’t mean you can’t exercise, and in fact it may be easier to do it now than in summer. Autumn is primo time to enjoy the outdoors. The cool air in the morning is divine, and no matter if it’s sunny, misty, raining, or even snowing, there is a richness to the world that I don’t want to miss by staying in.  You can fit movement into your everyday, like walking the kids to school or biking to work, or make it the centerpiece of your weekend, in a long hike or excursion.

The colors of fall turn the neighborhood you've been looking at all year into something special, so your same old run is renewed.
Going on a neighborhood run in fall is like sleeping with the same old partner, only they’re wearing a jazzy wig. It feels like you are doing something for the first time because everything looks different, more vibrant…and maybe orange, if you are into that.

Fall color

I can’t get enough of the color bursts of leaves. If I’m running, walking, hiking, or biking I am always enchanted by the change of scenery in the same places I’ve been to all year.  This season is made for targeted walks to see your favorite trees, or a forest filled with crayon colors.

There is a kick-ass bridge a few towns over with  gorgeous leaves to see. It is a great place to do an afternoon walk as the ground gets deeper with nature’s confetti.  I also want to check out the Hoyt Arboretum and try a hike with the kids, to see a few certain species of trees that are especially brilliant.  Whether or not it follows the purist’s version, I like to combine a little exercise with my tree bathing.

The tree in my own backyard turns rainbow in the fall. Perfect inspiration to be out working in my yard.
The camera cannot do justice to this favorite tree, in my own backyard, that becomes a rainbow in fall. It has leaves in red, purple, orange, yellow, and green at once. Neighbors from across the way have gushed when they realize this tree is in my backyard, since they can see the colors from their windows and love it every time it changes.  I think it’s an ash tree.

Put your yard and summer to bed

Speaking of leaves: raking these yourself can be an intense but rewarding practice.  The leaves from the rainbow tree eventually must fall, but make great mulch for garden boxes and flower beds.  I always work up a sweat and my kids have a blast jumping into the leaf piles.

Sometimes it takes me awhile, but eventually I do find the motivation to put my garden to bed. Doing yard or garden cleanup, pruning, mowing, and mulching are good workouts and make you feel like you are being productive. Putting away the kiddy pool, outdoor chairs, and other warm weather paraphernalia is bittersweet: I already miss the long, sunny days, but I’m also looking forward to snuggling into the fall.

Harvest, Halloween, and Thanksgiving fun

Corn mazes, haunted houses, and other fall activities provide a chance to walk

The family tradition of going to the pumpkin patch sets us up for a day of walking outside, usually when a blue-skied sunny day hits. We have many options for picking pumpkins PLUS hayrides, hay mazes, pumpkin shooting, and other crazy pumpkin antics.  Carrying your own pumpkin across the uneven ground of a pumpkin patch is quite the workout.

There are also huge corn mazes, like this one at The Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island. Getting lost isn’t all bad, since the more you suck at mazes the longer the walk you get. So feel good about it.

Halloween has trick-or-treating, of course. But there are other ways to get a walk or run done. Try a haunted house or a costume run, such as Run Like Hell . You can even combine runner’s diarrhea with a fright-induced bowel release during a haunted corn maze or zombie run. I found 3 zombie runs this year near me—I like the idea of running as a zombie, but I don’t think I’d be fast enough to scare anyone!

This turkey is trotting along, getting his exercise this fall.

Thanksgiving time has its own races, like the Turkey Trot, or the vegan-friendly Tofurkey Trot (no relation to the aforementioned “trots”).

Some families I know have a football Thanksgiving tradition. Watching TV games are fun and everything, but playing for real, with your family in the mud, is more entertaining. If you aren’t down to get dirty you can always toss the pigskin around in the alleyway, or in the cul-de-sac like we do!

Sporting events

Attending sporting events in the fall is an opportunity for fitness, even if you aren’t the one taking tackles. We attend various college, high school, middle school, and elementary games, depending on which kid is playing what and how our schedule is. It’s a chance to be outside, and sitting in the stands isn’t the only thing you can do.  I try to offset sitting time with active time, and little pockets of waiting can be used for exercise.

We always park a long walk from Autzen Stadium when we see the Ducks play. A fun walk for people-watching.

When we watch Ducks football we have to park quite a long way from Autzen Stadium, which is fine because the trek is always interesting for people-watching.

One autumn I had 4 kids playing football for the season. That required a lot of practices, jamborees, and games. I’ve walked the track at various schools in the region before games and after (and sometimes during, to calm a fussy baby).  I also run the perimeter of the school during practices, and once in awhile I will do a stairs workout on the bleachers.

Walking the track with a stroller at my son's football game. Walking or running during your kids' sporting events is an easy exercise idea.
It’s easy to fit in 45 min hour of walking as I wait for weigh-ins at my 13 year-old’s game. Add in half time and I’ve got a full hour.

For those who want to be on the other side of the game, there are leagues for adult soccer, dodgeball, and other things with balls.  I observed a big community soccer game at the turf field nearby this morning. People of all ages were out there sweating together, and they looked like they were having fun.  Get out and grab some balls, people! It’s fall!

Sign to warn of balls that might hit you at sporting events
I caught this sign at our Varsity away game on Friday night. They get serious about their balls. Enter at your own risk, for sure.

Whether or not you are getting scared, carrying a pumpkin, having diarrhea, or grabbing some balls at the game, there are endless reasons to enjoy yourself while getting a little exercise in.  Activity can be a side dish to your day or the main course, but the important thing is that it happens at all. Let the colors of fall move you while you move, until the exciting wig of autumn must come off, and everything goes back to normal again.

The colors of fall are like an orange wig that must eventually come off

Peer Into the Kaleidoscope