Transition mindfully from winter to spring and your fitness, health, performance and well-being will be the better for it.

Wherever you are in the United States; wherever you are in your periodized training plan; wherever you are in years, – you are at the junction of winter/spring. In some areas the seasonal change is abrupt. In some areas it is difficult to identify because it looks an awful lot like winter yet. Some training plans are stalled because of winter’s residue, while snow sports enthusiasts are squeezing the last days out of an unusual season. Whatever  the case may be, the transition to warmer weather and longer days is inevitable.

Perhaps the important word here is transition.

Transition suggests change, of course, but also a mindful or meaningful or deliberate change. There is a move involved, to be sure, but it is more a journey or passage or metamorphosis. Transition also suggests growth.

Parker Palmer, (writer, speaker, educator, activist) writes: “There is a hard truth to be told: before spring becomes beautiful, it is plug ugly, nothing but mud and muck. I have walked in the early spring through fields that will suck your boots off, a world so wet and woeful it makes you yearn for the return of ice. But in that muddy mess, the conditions for rebirth are being created.”

Yes, spring is messy. In fact, transition is often messy. But how often does one lose a job, move unwillingly to a new area, or be forced to give up a sport or activity for one reason or another, and find that what subsequently follows is even better, more suitable or brings more pleasure?

Perhaps more than any other season, spring brings with it a freshness, a feeling or anticipation, a hope. Longer days, warmer sunshine, bird song, softer breezes whisper optimism. Promise may be a better word – promise of the freedom of shedding layers and picking up the pace; promise of the health-giving benefits of green growth, outdoor exercise, fresh produce; even the promise of summer’s vacation, days off, time for recreation and relaxation.

Looking past the “mud and muck” one looks up. And the body responds. Sluggishness disappears as play

enters the picture, activity becomes choice instead of must-do, and every body becomes lighter, more agile, energized.

Approach a transition purposefully, cognizant of potential discomfort or unexpected effort, and that transition just might bring about change that energizes and, literally, puts a spring in your step.