Spring break is near – training and routine disruption ahead!
It’s easy to caught up in thinking we need to swim, bike, and run to build fitness. We adhere to rigid schedules, dedicate to ill fitting gym bikes, swim laps in awkward hotel pools, and sweat it out on treadmills to stay consistent.
Early in my coaching career, I played along with it – planning vacation workouts to help athletes stay on track. Then I racked up enough life and children to realize vacations is its own endurance event. These days, my prescription is “do what you can, enjoy what you do” – hiking, snorkeling or racking up 30,000 steps/day at Disney.
(the heart doesn’t know the difference anyways!)
Alex Hutchison’s new book, The Explorer’s Gene, describes an example of do what you can (or what you want) using speed skater Nils Van der Poel. Leading up to the 2022 Olympics, Van der Poel built aerobic fitness through running, hiking, biking, skiing, stair climbing, mountaineering. 3 weeks before his first World Championship, he finally donned his skates. At the Olympics, he earned not one but two gold medals.
Van der Poel’s approach illustrated explore-exploit theory:
Exploration: trying new options to gather more information (leading to better rewards down the path)
Exploitation: choosing the best-known option (maximizing immediate rewards)
Exploitation on spring break: we find ways to swim, bike, run, even at the cost of adding stress. It’s immediately rewarding – we’ve adhered to the plan. But what if the only thing we had to do on vacation was to stay as active as possible, what if we explored instead?
There is value in climbing a 14’er, skiing with the kids or hiking with friends. Moving our body in different ways, learning skills, working through different challenges. With a break from our usual routine, we return feeling motivated and fresh.
The explore approach isn’t only for vacation. The benefit of building fitness is to get fit for a good life, one with adventures that do not always require lycra or have a finish line. Over the years, I’ve had athletes enjoy their good life fitness skiing in Utah, hiking the Grand Canyon’s Rim to Rim, biking through Italy, or even dog sledding in Finland to see the northern lights.
There are 51 weeks outside of spring break remaining to exploit your normal routine and typical activities. Until then, take the opportunity on spring break (or any vacation) to explore: doing what you can and enjoying what you do.
(photo: long-time MSM athlete Kelly B exploring Alaska and enjoying the northern lights)
