Today is that most maligned day of the week, Monday. Over the weekend I took advantage of the winter weather, trekking a few hours north for some cross country skiing and snowshoeing. Cross country skiing is my favorite winter activity and I look forward to it every year, but my home is just a little too far south for reliable snowfall. I found this gem of a place committed to cross country and snowshoeing, reserved a room at a nearby motel, and made it happen. Awesomely, my boyfriend was able to join me even on short notice – that can be tough for him! I also tend to take forever planning things, often to the point that they don’t happen. Embracing the recent snowfall and going on very little notice felt like a real win in this arena and we both had a great time!
It was our first experience with snowshoeing. My fingers turned to ice as I fumbled with the straps, and I was relieved when I finally got them figured out and slid my digits back into my gloves. After driving through the afternoon and arriving with just a couple of hours of time to use the rental gear, we set off in the dwindling sunlight. Frequent markers and snowshoe tracks made it easy to follow the trail and eventually we came to a major split. Clearly, the easy and more well trodden track was the one going back to the ski center. In the other direction there were only boot prints, presumably from a staff member tasked with walking the trail daily, and paint spots on trees. We adventured off that way and tromped through brush, across nearly frozen rivulets, and over fallen trees. Eventually our track met back up with the loop taking us to the center and we headed in to return our gear.
For the evening we stayed in and relaxed with a movie and some reading. Sunday morning dawned at a brisk -4 Farenheit. With no wind and the sun mostly obscured rather than reflecting blindingly off the snow, it turned out to be a perfect day to ski. It was my boyfriend’s first time and he did just an amazing job. The trails were nicely groomed and there were a variety of difficulties. Not too many folks ventured out in the cold early on and we were often alone in the peaceful woodland. Staring out with a flat trail then progressing to one with slight hills, we got into the groove and felt the bliss of nature even in the cold. After zipping to the center for lunch, we were off to the longest trail with some bigger hills. I tumbled halfway down one. Yes, we all fall. I may even have tangled my skis up and gone down on a completely flat part of the trail. By now the trails were getting crowded and I was very happy we had started early. After finishing up that trail and returning his skis, we settled in for the car ride home.
I definitely expected to be sore to the point of not running today, but I woke up pleasantly surprised to find just a little bit of soreness in my backside! I hopped on the treadmill ready to see what I had in the tank, and after a longer warm up went on to have a great tempo run. After a weekend of no running my mind naturally drifted to the idea of variety. Saturday morning I did some lifting at the gym and of course there was evening snowshoeing. Sunday activity was several hours on the ski trails. A variety of activities. Variety is indeed the spice of life. If variety is the spice, then good old routine is the base tomato sauce that carries that spice. As I’ve gotten older, I realize that life can get over-spiced.There can be a focus on variety over routine. There can be a focus on being adventurous, on trying new things, rather than enjoying the things you have come to know and love. There is a feeling that if you are doing life the same way over and over you are missing out. Your life is boring, sad, crushingly disappointing.
What I am finding works best for me is to stick with those routines I know bring me joy, or at least the calm of knowing what to expect. Could I drive my kids to school a different way everyday? Sure! Would we discover new things? Most likely. Would my morning stress level shoot up? Absolutely. I keep driving the same way to school because it keeps a busy time of day more streamlined, less stressful. I know what to expect.
One apparently controversial thing I like to do is eat the same things for breakfast and lunch everyday. People definitely give me a lot of flack over this and seem convinced that I am missing out. I am perfectly happy not spending time weighing all the many options I have for these meals and figuring out how best to prepare them. I make what I know will fill me up and give me the energy to get through my day and call it good. Other people might cringe at this repetition and feel sad or bored with their meals, and that’s fine! They will choose to prioritize adding variety in this part of their lives. We all have to prioritize.
Another thing I find difficult about trying to experience a vast variety of anything is you never get around to the same thing twice. Or three times. Or often enough to get better at it, to appreciate it more. Unlike breakfast and lunch, I love trying new things at dinner and with baking. When recipes started exploding all over the internet I printed so many recipes that honestly, I couldn’t make them all even once (yes, I’m old enough to have printed things out from my PC because we didn’t have mini computers in our hands). In my experience since then I’ve come to understand that you need to cook or bake something many times to get it right, and it just improves every time. Recently I tried making brandy snaps for the first time. They were OK, not great, but edible. I could have checked that off the list and moved on to the next recipe in a quest to try more and more new things. Instead I tried again, and a third time, and made some honestly delicious brandy snaps that everyone loved. By focusing for awhile on one thing I had a much better experience of that thing.
Running well requires the same variety with focus. It is vital for both a physically and mentally stimulating (that is, not boring) plan to involve changing things up. Equally important is continuity and consistency with an eye on what works well and what maybe doesn’t add to your growth. If everyday is some new workout you read about, you will never notice patterns in your running. If my knee starts hurting but in the past week I’ve changed my shoes, my route, and my pace, how will I figure out what the problem is?
We are also overwhelmed with options for almost every decision we make. It’s not humanly possible for me to try everything available. New ideas, new activities, new foods to try are popping up everyday. By intentionally deciding which parts of my life I want to add variety to, I can avoid feeling the need to partake of as much as possible. I can focus on adding to my repertoire of joyful things rather than ignoring what’s already there or diluting my life with marginally interesting things I am trying simply for the sake of trying them. I choose to add experiences to my life that really grab my interest and attention and leave the rest aside.
This past weekend away was a great spike of variety into my routine and I feel refreshed by having gone away. At the same time I’m happy to be back to my regular routine, back to my miles of running and contemplating. I’ve spiced up the tomato sauce of life just a bit, and am happily enjoying it as is until the next infusion of new flavor comes along.