This week was kicked off with a bang (or two)!
Just after I published my post last week I realised we didn’t have e-mail set up on our server. Oh, all this tech stuff! Can’t live with it, can’t live without it! E-mail is now working and I’m glad I discovered the problem because otherwise if I lost my password I wouldn’t be able to recover it and access the blog.

If you clicked the comment reply subscription checkbox in my rundown post last week and didn’t receive any reply notification, I apologise. I found the e-mail problem only after I started receiving comments without getting e-mails about it. I did reply to all comments, but to see them you need to go back to last week’s post.

The other bang was a heavier program in the gym. It’s been a fabulous, oomphy week!

Monday – gym

Since this was the last week in the gym before my holiday, I got a different program. Not a soft easing-into-the-holiday program as I expected, but a strength & endurance program with heavier weights and (slightly) fewer reps. And despite all the troubling body parts lately, I felt 100% ready for it.

Those back squats felt heavy! I thought they were heavier than 55 kgs. But whatever the weight, they challenged my body, so mission accomplished! I chickened out a bit with depth on the lunges but got into a decent flow after a while.

The chest press was the big comeback of oomph and confidence! You may remember that I had a strange moment with the 12,5 kg dumbbells last Friday, but here I was a few days later, pushing a 40 kg barbell with no trouble. After this, I did some good sets of both shoulder press and upright row – the latter with a weight I haven’t done since last summer, 25 kgs. I felt great and the whole session made my day.

Tuesday

We had a lovely summer day! I meant to go for a walk, but I started pottering around with suitcases and time flew away. But I spent some good time outdoors watering grass seeds and making rose cuttings. I found some beautiful Rugosa roses last year and still have a MariaLisa rose (really two, but one is very cranky). I hope to fill a full bed with the Rugosa, and eventually a hedge too. Wish me luck!

My neighbour is going to babysit them while we’re away but I’m sure they’ll be well looked after.

Wednesday – gym

I did some small jobs in the garden in the morning. A friend had Montbretia plants to get rid of, and she brought… LOADS. I put them in my empty planting box for now to keep them happy while we’re away (I have a plan for further down the hill later), and I needed to put my rose cuttings in pots to prep them for my neighbour.

Then in the late afternoon it was time to hit the gym for another good session.

The deadlifts felt great. Maybe I’m beginning to make friends with deadlifts again? That would be nice.
I felt in good form today! Everything worked well and other than the deadlifts I especially enjoyed the split squats, bilateral dumbbell rows, and shoulder press. The 17,5 kg barbell shoulder press was a BIG challenge and I didn’t make it to 8 full beautiful reps, but partial reps are also reps.

Thursday

I had plenty to do but felt I needed to get out for a walk. The weather was really nice and warm. My calves needed some rest so instead of going down to the nearest beach (with the long steep uphill to come back), I took another way and just turned back to make it about 5k. It was partly cloudy but beautiful.

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Friday – gym

Time for another gym session, the last one before the holiday. I looked forward to it, but my left arm was much crankier than usual and I wasn’t sure how it would behave. Aargh! I just wanted to have one more good lifting session before taking a break!

All went well! I really enjoyed this last session. The Bulgarians were harder than they have been recently, but some swearing in Swedish did the trick, or if it was some extra determination! I got back in the flow but with the heavier weight they certainly weren’t as successful as some week ago.

Again I felt strong with the chest press today, and looked forward to the lateral raises with a mix of horror and excitement! I suspected they would be coming and with a very challenging weight, since 8 kgs are already way beyond my comfort zone. When I got the 9 kg dumbbells in my hands, I had no idea how I’d be able to do any proper lifts with them. With a new heavier weight I always need a few “warmup” reps to get used to the weight, but after that I did ok!

And just like that – I was done, and will have no more gym for a few weeks.

Saturday – longish walk

It was a lovely morning and I went for a walk. I wanted to get some Irish sea air before leaving the country and walked towards the village, but turned left when I saw the tide was out (as if that was a surprise at that time of the day) and walked towards the larger beach where I haven’t been for a while. It’s always beautiful there!

The actual walk offered some nice splashes of colour.

This last photo shows that my camera is quite capable for photographing insects even without a special lens or extension tubes! Obviously not a real closeup, but I still liked how this one turned out. If you want to see more of my bee photos from last week you can see them here.

In the evening we had a gig in that pub where we now play once a month. It’s a bank holiday weekend with nice weather and people up for partying so I expected a wild night. It was very quiet to begin with but soon the pub began to fill up and we stopped just before 11 pm because it was packed and with so much background noise that there simply was no point going on. We do background music with no amplification and we couldn’t even hear ourselves. But some friends of ours were there, and one of them is a photographer so I might have photos or even a video to share later! It was nice to have them there and it was an enjoyable night for the most part.

Sunday – rest

And that’s all, folks! After last night, and after all the heavy lifting and prepping this week I’ve decided to just relax today, pack the last bits and pieces, and I might throw in a piriformis glute bridge and something else later but generally it will be a soft day.

A few words about Italian weather…

I think I’m close to Irish now because I’m obsessed with weather. I’ve been checking Italian weather forecasts all week and today they’re expecting some heavy thunderstorms with lower than usual temperatures in the next few days, but then there’s a new heatwave coming and according to the local weather app, Rome is expecting temperatures up to 38C (100F) next weekend. I’m glad we won’t be in Rome, and honestly, always stay away from Italian cities in the summer! Our area will be a few degrees cooler but I assume we’ll have at the very least 33-35C and probably more. This is what I’m used to in Italy at this time of the year and my body hasn’t handled it well in the past. I’m curious to see if it makes a difference that I’m much fitter and healthier than I used to be. There’s always Campo Imperatore (at 1200 metres above sea level) and other nearby mountain places to escape to.

My plan is to keep posting on the blog, but it may be mostly photos from my walks! In the coming days I will be slow to reply to comments but I’ll get there.

I hope you had a good week, and as always, thanks to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly rundown link-up!