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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.