Back in the gym, a goodbye and a new beginning

Welcome to Sunday!
I’ve been extremely tired this week. Either it was a shock for the body to go straight from summer to winter, especially with our cold house (did we have it so cold inside the other years?), or it was because of a sinusitis I had on and off while we were in Italy. Or both.

Lately I’ve been thinking… should I keep posting to the Weekly rundown link-up, since I’m not going to run again, and it’s mostly a link-up populated by running bloggers? But then, it’s described as for fitness bloggers, not necessarily runners, so why not! I enjoy reading what the runners are doing training-wise and otherwise, and it’s a good thing for me sharing my fitness endeavours and documenting my progress in the gym.

So let’s talk about this week and the return to the normal fitness routine.

Monday – PT + Walk, 4,6 km + a bit of shoulder strength
Tuesday – PT + indoor cycling 17 km
Wednesday – PT + back to the gym!
Thursday – PT + indoor cycling, 9,5 km
Friday – Gym
Saturday – Walk, 5,96 km
Sunday – rest

Monday

This Monday was a bank holiday. What a bummer when all I wanted was to get back to the gym! But honestly, I was quite happy NOT going to the gym because I felt exhausted after the travel home, and it probably did me good to not dive straight into the weighted squats and bench press. Instead I went for a walk. And what weather we had! The morning was chilly and since Sunday offered 5C, I prepped with full cold weather gear. But when I went out, the sun nicely warmed my face and it was at least 15 degrees. I had to go back inside and take off a layer… or two. What a treat!

I walked about 2 km and then (too soon!) felt my feet were getting tired so I turned back. In total I walked 4,6 km. My feet still get easily tired but it’s ok. I’ll gradually increase distances and I’ll get to 10 km eventually.

While I was at it, I did some arm & shoulder strength exercises with my slightly too light (4 kgs) dumbbells. Better get them used to some action again!

Tuesday

I got back on the bike, a random route in the French alps (via Kinomap) that they called “scary descent”. What was supposed to be scary I don’t know – the deep canyon by the side of road? You don’t scare me so easily!

It was nice to be back on the bike however and I rode 17 km. Not the most exciting route with only descents, but at least I got to move my legs a bit.

In the evening we went to the Halloween music session in the hotel bar in town. We hadn’t been able to prep any fancy costumes but played with black clothes and some white face paint. My husband looked like “death” in “The seventh seal”!

Wednesday

Back in the gym! Yaay!

First a warmup with bodyweight squats and lunges. I’m quite familiar with them by now! Then I got straight into the meaty stuff.

• Squats, barbell 30 kgs
• Deadlifts with hexbar, 33 kgs
• Dumbbell pullovers, two 9 kg dumbbells
• Dumbbell row, 15 kgs
• Flyes, 9 kg dumbbells
• Push-ups
• Lateral raise, 5 kg dumbbells
• Upright row, barbell 17,5 kgs

Everything was very challenging. But how lovely it was to lift some heavy weights again! Particularly the upper body exercises were hard, which I expected after only doing push-ups during my time away. I managed to get to the end of all of them, but everything was hard. The dumbbell rows seemed a lot heavier than before, but I was surprised that the lateral raises went much better than expected – because I had done some shoulder work, although light, on the Monday?

Thursday

I was so slow to get going this day. Bit by bit, mixed with coffee, I did my PT done, and since a music session (with the slow session group) was planned for the evening, I needed to awaken my concertina skills so I dusted off the concertina box and sat down to go through tunes (with mixed success, I must say). Later I got onto the indoor bike and did what was described as 8,6 km on the app but in the actual video turned out to be 9,5 km… a route near Lake Tahoe with some nice uphills.

In the afternoon I went to see my physiotherapist, for the last time.
It was planned I would continue going until Christmas, but after assessment and chat, we both agreed that I’ve made so much progress, that I’m now where I need to be with strength and function and that I can continue from here on my own, and with the help of my trainer. The physio will send an e-mail in a few weeks to check how I’m doing, but other than that I’m done.

It was such a bittersweet feeling! He’s been so good and so incredibly supportive during this awful time, has been a “safety net” in a way and has really gone the extra mile with everything to get me as close as possible to where I wanted to be and a bit further too. I’m forever grateful, and I’m coming out of this stronger than I was before the injury, because I’ve never worked so much on my foot and lower leg strength before.

He recommended how to move on, doing single leg heel raises holding dumbbells for example, and we also discussed doing careful plyometrics because I asked about how to approach some low impact training which would be good for bone stimulation. I’ll wait with that for now, but will definitely try heel raises with added weight.

I felt a bit sad leaving, but also had a good feeling that I had started a new chapter, and could leave the old miserable one behind.

Friday

Gym day! Today I had some more energy despite a night of poor sleep. I warmed up with inchworms and bodyweight Bulgarian split squats. Then on to this set:

• Bulgarian split squats, 6 kg dumbbells
• Romanian deadlifts, barbell 30 kg
• Dumbbell chest press, 10 kgs
• Good mornings, barbell 20 kgs
• Parachutes
• Renegade row, 6 kg dumbbells
• Forward raise, 5 kg dumbbells
• Seated bent-over raise, 4 kg dumbbells

Today I got the “nice” surprise that the Renegade rows I’ve been doing earlier were modified, and that we’re now moving on to real Renegade rows, with one push-up between each lift. Holy *****, that was hard! Only on the last set I started to get the hang of it and I really enjoyed the challenge.

Saturday

This week has been so busy so I had promised myself to have a soft Saturday and my only plan was to go for a walk down to the sea and back. I’m 100% determined to get my walking distances back on track, and I have several loops as training – from 6k up to 10. 10-15k is what I used to walk frequently before my injury. In Italy I did manage to walk up to 7k in, more or less, one go, but mostly I’ve been up to 4 or 5 km. The walk to Ballinglanna and back is about 6k and includes some challenging hills so I thought that would be a nice one to try.

So how did the actual walk go? I was happy to realise that my feet didn’t get tired until I was almost home, and that both my leg strength and cardio fitness must have improved a LOT. This road is a long downhill that ends with a steeper part when you get down to the beach, and so of course a long uphill to get back. In January I needed to stop and rest halfway up the hill, both to get my breath back and to rest my calves and hamstrings.

Today getting uphill was nothing, and even my legs were happy enough despite being quite sore after the week’s deadlifts and whatnot. I felt good – yay for all the heel raises, squats and lunges lately! The main problem was an insane wind, the road leaning sideways (which made my left peroneals complain, they’re not used to this lately) and a lot of annoying traffic.

Sunday

This is the first day since we came home that I have some good energy. I didn’t have a plan for today, and mostly consider it a day of rest. I have root vegetables in the crockpot, apples prepped for a pie I’ll make later, and my husband is making chili jam for a cheese board. Sounds like it could be a good day, don’t you think?

This coming week should be a totally normal week with gym sessions x 3, some cycling (going to try Zwift again) and walking. I also plan to keep up the good work for my feet and lower legs by continuing some of the exercises my physio gave me, on the non-gym days. Heel raises will definitely happen but also lunges, ankle strength & mobility, and balance exercises.

I hope you are doing well and had a good week. Tell me about your highlights in the comments!

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Thanks Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly rundown link-up!