Happy Sunday! Here it’s rainy and dreadful but it’s been a good, into routine sort of week, in and outside the gym. Until I started suffering from seasonal low mood, I always loved the autumn and enjoyed walking in the cooler (but still fairly warm) weather, fresh air and seeing nature change colour. Where I live now we don’t get much colour in the autumn but there’s still that beautiful autumn feel and I’m slowly learning to enjoy the autumn again. Or perhaps I feel good about it this year because I’ve had such a good summer!

In the gym I’ve continued to work around my sore shoulder/upper arm (two different areas involved) and I haven’t had a spectacular week but most things are working well and the troublesome exercises have been less troublesome towards the end of the week.

Monday – gym

It was good to come back to the gym, and this session was good for the soul and confidence.

Weighted step-ups are always a nice challenge! The only troublesome exercise was the fly, and I was delighted beyond belief that I could go back to the heavy lateral raises without problems. I needed that. Those lateral raises have been my pride and joy around any other niggles so far!

Tuesday – walking, 5,69 km, and another walking shoe issue

The weather was fantastic, like summer. I went for a walk with a friend and we went to that little cottage on top of the cow road. The montbretia flowers are gone now but it’s always beautiful up there.

Talking about walking – some time ago I noticed that my new Altra walking shoes (the new Escalante 4) were already wearing out on the inside of the heel. They look like someone’s been eating on them! And I’ve been using these only since April.

Interestingly, it hasn’t been bothering my heel and I only noticed this when I was putting them on one day. I haven’t read one single review that mentions this problem. My husband is pushing me to send these photos to Altra, but I’m not sure. After a few months use and after using my trail shoes a lot in Italy, I realise that I’m not a big fan of the Escalante 4 so I wouldn’t want another pair even if they offered me one. For runners who are used to highly cushioned shoes this will sound ridiculous because the Escalante is the lowest Altra model when it comes to stack height and level of cushioning, but I think they feel too spongy and wobbly (this can be because of the flimsy upper rather than the cushioning) and I don’t always enjoy walking in them. The new Lone Peaks instead, they are the perfect walking shoe. Enough but not too much cushioning, and without the spongy feel. They have nice stability but still good ground feel in my opinion, and just SO comfortable.

Because of the heel issue with the Escalante, I will need to look for another pair of road walking shoes, because they will soon enough be too worn out. I’ve been looking at all sorts of options. The Topo model that seems like what I’m after is sold out everywhere in Europe. I was interested in trying another Altra model but became sceptical when I can’t try before buying. I looked at Bahé since they have a new more cushioned model, but I’m not sure if my feet want arch support as well for longer walks. And they are quite expensive when you don’t know (I’ll probably try these later on for other purposes because they are great shoes).

My husband came with the ultimate idea – why not get another pair of Lone Peak 9+ if I like them so much? The only thing that can happen is that the lugs wear out, but so what? I’ll use the new pair for road walking anyway. And the supergrip outsole is probably a good feature for the winter.

The best colours and sizes are sold out in most places but I found a pair in a decent colour from a German running shop for €119. A no-brainer!

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Wednesday – walking

Today we had a planned power outage because they were installing some new households. Isn’t it wonderful when they say power could be disconnected from 9.30 am to 5 pm, without saying any more details than that? The possibility to plan work etc… really we should have taken the opportunity to go for a hike since none of us was able to do any work. The power was cut at about 10 am and I went for a short walk. I wasn’t up to it at all because there were random, not forecasted drizzles but what else was there to do? The weather was quite nice otherwise.

Thursday

My husband went for his run with blissful sunshine and when he had been gone 5 minutes, I looked out and the sky was dark and there was a very heavy downpour. This pattern continued so I stayed inside.

Friday – gym

I felt tired, low in mood, and my shoulder wasn’t great, but I never skip the gym.

This was actually a very good session. I’m still enjoying the lighter weights for legs. The squat form feels normal again, and I hit my best depth so far with the RDLs.

I was sceptical about going back to the heavier dumbbells with the chest press but when I gave it a try it actually worked quite well, the shoulder press felt much better than it did on Wednesday too, and today I finally managed to do some proper sets of Renegade rows for the first time since I don’t know how many months. So a good, uplifting session indeed.

Saturday – walking, 9,1 km

Despite some nasty forecasts, it was the perfect autumn day – sunny, warm, some wind. The perfect day for a good walk. I took a route I don’t usually walk, and probably won’t go back there much because parts of the road is tiny, and OUCH if you need to meet a tractor there!

But it’s beautiful, and I met some company i don’t usually get on my walks around here.

And more of these beautiful berries.

It was a beautiful walk. 10 or so minutes after I arrived home, there was a sudden rain shower. How funny!

Sunday – rest

Today we’re having quite nasty weather with storm-like conditions coming later, so it’s a stay-indoors-day. I’ll do some photo sorting and editing, and prepare for the new camera club year. I was a bit lazy last year with it, didn’t share much of my own photos, didn’t go to a lot of meetings, and generally didn’t make a big effort with photography. Yes, I took lots of photos for myself and for the blog but didn’t really make an effort to improve skills – or perhaps I was just stuck in not knowing what to focus on. Anyhow, I’ll try to do better and will spend today to make a plan. The perfect activity for a rainy day!

How are you and how was your week? Please share in the comments.

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