I’m back to routine (ish). A big sigh of relief! This post will be a mix of fitness, music, and life lately. We’ve had some crazy but fun weeks, first in Sweden and then there was an in-between week before we went to the midlands to see some Swedish friends at their music gigs and sessions.

Before we went to Sweden, I had a strength breakthrough, or however I should label it. Do you remember that I tried some deadhangs a while ago and that it didn’t feel so good? On the Monday before our trip, my trainer drags out the pull-up machine and instructs me to do assisted pull-ups. Whaaat?! But I’m all for trying what he thinks I can do, so…

I did 6 shaky reps and then he gave me a better resistance band. Then I managed to do 10-8-9 reps in the remaining three sets. Obviously not full chin-ups, but it was still ME pulling myself up with the help of that bouncy band. I felt like a little kid who just learned to ride a bike! Haha!

Fitness in Sweden was about getting out for some walks

For this year’s trip I had decided to not do any lifting while we were in Sweden, mainly because I wanted to rest my angry left elbow, but also because the trip would be so busy that I had too little time to chase gym opportunities. Instead I went for some walks, the longest and loveliest one was a 10 km “oops” walk. Oops, because I meant to walk 5k but took the wrong way. It was fabulous though!

I also enjoyed some walks in Göteborg (where I spent some quality time with my sister) and Orsa (where my parents live). You can see most of the photos in this post.

The in-between week

Back to the gym

We landed in Dublin at 9 pm on the Saturday and with some needed stops to charge the car, we came home at about 2 am. I had already had a few nights of poor sleep before that, and was rather foggy on the Sunday, and still quite tired on the Monday. But the show must go on, including getting back to the gym.

I did some good sets of sumo squats and deadlifts on the Monday and also ok-ish dumbbell rows, but after that my energy and oomph was gone and the rest of the session was a big struggle. And the day after – OH SHIT, THE DOMS!!! It was the most brutal one since my first ever sessions in that gym! I could barely bend my knees to sit down on the loo and wondered what I had done to deserve this. The fatigue and in addition some oddly humid weather must have played a role.

The following gym sessions went better, this week I actually went to the gym both Wednesday and Thursday and did split sessions with back & chest (I managed to switch these sessions to push leg day one day forward) and then legs & shoulders, because on the Friday we were leaving in the morning to go to the midlands.

The weekend – music fun and a bog walk

We spent the weekend in Cavan, Longford and Roscommon, three very small counties in the midlands where there isn’t much to see for people who are used to the West Cork scenery, but some music friends of ours were over for a tour, so we had decided to come and see them. We haven’t seen most of these people for many years so it really was a treat! On the Friday there actually was a session rather than a gig, and not a typical trad session either but more like an acoustic session with all sorts of music styles, so we joined and played some of our bluegrass songs. Around midnight the crowds got a bit excessively loud, and when we did our last song we barely heard ourselves. Some guy hung over my shoulder to listen to us! I took that as a nice sign of appreciation.

On the Saturday we went to Longford to do some shopping and charge the car, and then looked for places to go for a walk. My husband found an area where there’s an iron age road excavation, apparently older than the Egyptian pyramids, and there’s a visitor centre and a looped walk around the boglands. We didn’t see the visitor centre but did parts of the walk.

The landscape was very underwhelming to us but it was a nice enough walk, about 5 km.

In the evening our friends had a gig in another village, and they asked us to do some songs during the break!
The venue was… challenging. There was a charity event and a birthday party going on and the pub was packed. We didn’t get to play until around midnight, when people were quite “warmed up” (and we’re talking pints here, not jumping jacks), and the background noise was enormous.

I only had a singing mic so there was no point trying to play any guitar solos, my husband played all solos on the mandolin and our arrangements are so much better with both guitar and mandolin. In addition, even with a mic I struggled to hear if my singing came out as it should, and my husband didn’t hear my guitar much (normally there’s a monitor for the musicians to hear themselves). Still, we had fun! It’s good to do something like that for the experience, and I felt humbled that our friends liked our music so much that they let us hijack their gig. We had a great night and came back to our hotel at about 3 am. OMG! I’m too old for this rockstar lifestyle! (note to self, our friends on tour are actually older!)

After driving home we had, yet again, only one day to recover our sleep enough to show up in the fitness sphere on the Monday. But it was a fabulous weekend!

That finally leads us to the first proper week back to normal (ish). For me it was back into routine, but we had two gigs coming up, and for my husband it was a new normal because he started working with a running coach this week.

This week

It’s been a bumpy ride! But I got a bit of everything done. Here’s a summary:

Monday – gym
Tuesday – walking, 4,86 km
Wednesday – gym
Thursday – walking, 6,68 km
Friday – gym
Saturday – walking, 6,84 km
Sunday – let’s call it active recovery

Monday – gym

Honestly I was a bit worried to get back to the gym after the “rockstar life” weekend. But I actually felt good and managed to do a quite normal session. What a relief!

FYI, my adductors were still somewhat unhappy during the sumo squats after last week, when my intense DOMS was triggered specifically by sumo squats. But after a few reps I felt good, and I felt surprisingly strong with the reverse lunges too. Everything upper body was harder, but I did ok.

Tuesday – walking

Today I felt that no matter what, I wanted to get out for a proper walk. A proper one, with hills! They are doing some road works near us, so the traffic is diverted to the area around the beach I usually go to for hill walking, so that wouldn’t be a good option. I went down the hill and towards the little gravel road which is always a nice walk and with two decent uphills.

Wednesday – gym

I was still so tired after the weekend, but I felt like back to normal in the gym! The oomph is coming back and that makes my day.

These were probably my most stable Bulgarian squats since way back (like spring 2023?). I felt already on Monday’s reverse lunges that my balance and stability was spot on. With the Bulgarians I keep to my strategy to start on the left leg.

Thursday – walking, 6,6 km

I went out for a good walk. They are doing a resurfacing job on the road in our area and the traffic is supposed to be diverted but I barely saw a soul on the small road, and not on the main road either. I saw some farming vehicles on the fields, and when I walked back I just barely managed to avoid having to share the road with this:

I walked to one of the beaches and back. Apart from the harvest machinery, the traffic has never been so light around here.

The rest of the day was spent mostly preparing music, warming up the flatpicking and singing… we were having a gig in the evening, in the pub where people are actually listening. We’re so used to playing in busy pubs where people are more focused on their pints and conversations that this is actually nerve-wracking. But also nice, of course. And after the Saturday, I was delighted that we could do our usual arrangements and still be heard. It was a nice evening and we had a good crowd, including a group from Australia.

Friday – gym

During my music prep on Thursday, somehow my lower back/pelvis/abs/glute/WHATEVER flared up with an odd pain, on the side where I’ve had problems before. This time it was different and came from nowhere after sitting down for a while. It was an odd hard-to-describe tightness, soreness and I couldn’t even decide where it came from. I brought it to the gym and had my trainer assess it. It appears to be a mix of problems with the right side oblique, glute, TFL and more… if it’s still a problem next we’ll make next Wednesday a therapy session. I’m extremely annoyed but I know it could be worse and it’ll probably be ok but I generally had a bad day.

As usual I could still train, but in a modified form.

The pull-ups again! I didn’t do so well with them today but I think I was a bit distracted too and I’m glad to give them a try. I did 6 reps in each set and at least a few good reps. It’s a work in progress.

For the all-over-the-place issue I got an exercise to do and strict orders to not do any gardening as I had planned. Pff.. who’s going to move my shrubs?

Saturday – walking

It was a lovely morning and I went for a walk. Does a “rest and recovery” weekend include hilly walks to the bay? Maybe. I felt much better and decided to walk to the pier but turn back earlier if I had pain anywhere. It became a pleasant, pain-free 6,84 km walk. It was breezy but warm, almost too warm for what I was wearing. But heat training is good, right? Especially when you’re planning a trip to Italy during the hot season. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

After I had a shower we went straight to town to have lunch and then a stroll at the local oldtime fair and brass band championships, it’s usually a good time!

We went to see some friends play jazz but were surprised to see that both the nearby bars were closed (WTF? This is the perfect day for good business!) and there was nowhere to have a drink while enjoying the music. We listened to a few songs but ended up going home to have a beer in our own garden instead.

In the evening we had our own gig in a pub on the other side of town. It was very busy! It’s always enjoyable to do some music but nicer if you hear yourself and there’s an actual audience!

Sunday

I had strict orders to not do any gardening but… hmmf, someone had to move my shrubs because I’ve underestimated how large they can grow, and the longer I wait, the harder it’ll be. So I did it, it was a light job and my sore area is happier if I move around rather than sit at my desk.

For the next few weeks I’m looking forward to some in-routine quiet time, a bit of music, and getting my upset muscles somewhat in order. Generally, everything is good. But I still need a good holiday and it’s getting closer!

Hope everyone is doing well and thanks to Deborah and Kim for hosting the Weekly rundown link-up!