Hey, I’m back!

If you read my previous post, you’ll know that (for various reasons) I’ve been mostly unable to post during my trip to Italy, I more or less stayed offline and only used the computer to transfer and edit photos. As it should be! Although I would have loved to share some updates and at least some photos, I’ve been happy to leave the digital world for a bit and enjoy the outdoors to the fullest. We’ve been enjoying a lot of sunshine, hot weather, lots of walking, some fabulous hiking, lovely fruit and veg, wine and grappa, my husband has kept his running going and I’ve been doing daily push-ups on the terrace.

Now we’re back in Ireland! After a very pleasant and well-deserved break we’re ready to welcome the autumn, and also inspired to get back into routine.

So how did it all go… with fitness and else? To me a trip to Italy offers a lot of movement opportunities! I don’t go to Abruzzo to sit on a beach under an umbrella. Abruzzo is the home of hiking and generally exploring the outdoors. It’s a haven of mountain trails and natural beauty in a variety of ways, all year if you’re into winter sports (snowshoe hiking is a big thing!). Where we stay we’re close to the sea, close to the mountains in all directions (Maiella, Gran Sasso, etc), you can hike, visit historic sites, stroll in medieval villages, enjoy all the arrosticini, taglieri and divine tomatoes, and you can climb to the top of Corno Grande (Gran Sasso) if that’s your cup of tea.

Climbing isn’t my thing as you may remember, but I certainly wanted to explore some easier trails and be active in other ways! Knowing it would likely be very hot I had decided to go with the flow, see how the weather would behave, how my body would behave, and what was possible.

It was HOT HOT HOT! The first days there was a period of cooler weather which meant 25-28C, then a new heatwave came along during the first weekend and we had 32-35C for two weeks. One day when we came down from the mountain the car thermometer showed 39C (102F) at one point. The last week it was cooler and we even had some rain.

I started most days with a walk, either a shorter walk around the olive tree fields, or a longer (up to 5k) to town (including a stroll in the old town centre) and back.

I promised myself to finally do the push-up challenge I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I started on the second day, and mostly did one set to failure. At most, I managed to get up to 27 reps and that’s a big PB for me.
In the beginning I also did shoulder taps, but stopped after a while after it started getting very hot quite early and I was up to 40 reps anyway and felt that walks and push-ups were enough.

Just before our trip I found out there would be a running event in Pianella while we were there, and we managed to sign my husband up for that. We thought the non-competitive race (which was the only one he could join at this time) was only 3 km, so he started out with a pace accordingly, only to discover that everyone did 7 loops to run 7 km, whether in the competitive race or not. Quite tough especially in the 33C heat but he did a good job and I enjoyed photographing it.

My most enjoyable experience during this trip was the hiking!

We started in Roccacaramanico where the hike got very short, because after about 1 km the trail was blocked by what looked like a previous rock slide. We probably could have climbed over the rocks but when we didn’t know if there even was a proper trail on the other side we didn’t know if it was worth the effort, and headed back to the village for lunch instead.

After lunch we went to the nearby Sant’ Eufemia a Maiella to see what trail options we could find there. There was a small loop with this cool art exhibition and at one point we got to a gravel road that seemed to lead elsewhere but we saw no indications as to where. I’ll have to check a proper map for this. But I enjoyed the art exhibition!

But wait, what else did we find?! An outdoor gym?!

We both had fun with some chest presses and lat pulldowns, and I did the knee raises from that other machine (sadly no pull-up bar on the other side). There was a leg curl machine but it seemed to be out of order. This was a lovely treat after a week of no gym! I wanted us to go back once a week but it never happened.

Other hiking experiences included Bosco Sant’ Antonio (a bit disappointing but I think we should have started elsewhere to find the longer trails), Lago di Scanno, then the Valle dell’ Orfento, Passo San Leonardo on the trail that leads to Pacentro, Eremo di San Bartolomeo in Legio, the neighbourhood of Campo Imperatore, and one to see a waterfall that turned out to have no water… some of these were HARD but I loved them all. Some of you will remember that I have a complicated relationship with previous hikes, and I’m sort of a coward with difficult trails, but this time I promised myself to not chicken out, because I’m stronger and more capable than my brain lets me believe. The hardest and scariest hike was by far the one to San Bartolomeo, and we didn’t even take the long route. I’ll share more in a separate post, but it was all successful and we’ve enjoyed some amazing landscapes.

More details about these hikes will come soon so keep an eye out for that if you’re interested!

During the last weekend we had some Irish style weather with some heavy rain mixed with sunshine, but when it was dry we took some time to visit Chieti (but not a lot to see there honestly), hang out with some friends, and I let myself recover from the hikes. My legs were toast!

This past week the weather was much milder with temperatures from 23 to 30C, so it allowed for some more movement at any time of the day. For the previous three weeks the above recap will do, but here’s how this past week has been!

Monday

After the hike on Saturday which wasn’t particularly challenging but included some steep hills, my calves felt like they were glued to my hamstrings, my quads were crazy sore and since we weren’t sure about the weather and also knew the trails would be wet, Monday became a very soft day.

I went for a short morning walk (2,9 km) and then did my push-ups after breakfast. Today I made it to 25.

We visited IKEA in Pescara! LOL! Since we were in Italy for almost a full month, we had bought some extra kitchen gear and the owners of the agriturismo will let us store a box with stuff until we come back next year. So we needed to buy a good plastic storage box, and it’s also fun to just look around.

In the evening we got some new nice company on the terrace.

A bit too nice, perhaps. This kitten was hyperactive and absolutely all over the place. She comfortably ran in and out of the apartment, hopped into the compost bin and almost walked into the fridge when I opened it to get something out. She was everywhere during the last few days and seemed to pop up from anywhere almost like in some horror movie! But ok, she was cute.

This is another type of company we had on the terrace, but only after dark:

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Tuesday – hiking near Altopiano del Voltigno, 5,58 km

I took a short morning walk and my push-ups (26,5 today!), and after breakfast it was time to hit the trails again, for the last time during this trip. A bit up in the National Park of Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga there’s an area called the Piana del Voltigno which is a plateau at about 1400 metres over the sea where there are some good hiking trail areas. We were here briefly in 2018 but only walked a bit on the actual plateau, not on the trails. It was further up than what I remembered! The temperature dropped from 29 to 21 degrees during the trip. I was wondering if I should have brought a jacket! It’s funny how you get used to hot temperatures.

I’m having some difficulty looking up exact loops and actually find them when we get there (the signposts always say something else… or we just don’t find the exact spot, or whatever) so I’ve given up and had decided that we’d just go up to the car park, look for a trail that looked nice and if there wasn’t a loop we’d walk about 3 km and then turn back, depending on the terrain (longer distance if it’s an easy trail). I’ve realised I have a long way to go to train my feet and legs to be happy to do long hikes. I get very tired and sore in my feet after maybe 5 km, and I’m terrified of getting another injury so I’m going to ramp this up SLOWLY. 6 km is max what I allow myself to do right now in one go with rough terrain.

We decided to go towards the Valle d’ombra (very dramatic name!), a gravel road that later got rougher and narrower and led into the forest, over some grassland and then we arrived to a sort of picnic area. We continued into the forest and downhill, hoping we would get to some nice spot with views over the mountains. But the trail led to the main road! It’s possible it continued on the other side of the road but we turned back there. It was a lovely walk with some challenging uphills and quite rocky in some parts but otherwise an easy trail. I’m in love with beech forests that are so common in these mountain areas.

This trail had an elevation gain of 229 m, not quite as much as the hike at Passo San Leonardo but my legs certainly felt it.

Wednesday

The last full day in Italy! Our live good morning greeting sat outside the door as usual. We think this is the little one’s mam.

I went for a short walk to enjoy the olive trees one last time.

Everything today was about packing suitcases, finishing food, cleaning up, getting organised with payment and buying some wine to take home. We enjoyed a last afternoon coffee at Elio’s bar, some relax on the terrace too and needed to finish a packet of hazelnut icecream. Hard life! In the evening we enjoyed dinner at a fish restaurant in the nearby Loreto Aprutino, Ristorante Carmine. If you’re coeliac and used to never having the luxury to choose and that food is just a problem to solve when travelling, this is the place to go. The experience is extraordinary and I’ll share more about it later.

We enjoyed a prawn cocktail, mixed grilled fish, tiramisù (yes, they had it gluten-free!), wine, coffee, grappa, and to me it was like being treated as royalty compared to almost all other restaurant experiences. Bliss!

Thursday – travel day

It’s always sad to leave the agriturismo and Pianella, but after almost a month I was also very ready to get back home, back to work, training, music, and embrace the autumn. September can be a fantastic month in Ireland and after all the good weather this summer, both at home and in Italy, I’m ready to handle the cooler temperatures.

Today obviously the only movement that happened was airport walking. I tried to track it for curiosity but it didn’t really work. I’m sure it was a few km.

Ireland treated us well with a mild 17C and sunshine. We came home at about 9.30 pm, had a quick snack and went to bed.

Friday – back to the real gym!

What a lovely day! We had beautiful sunshine and 19C. That felt almost cold last week at Campo Imperatore, but in Ireland… it’s different. After lunch I went for a short-ish (2,6 km) walk and really enjoyed it. Then later it was time to go to the gym! The real thing this time!

I was almost nervous to go back! How would I perform after such a long time away? I expected to struggle a bit especially with legs, but I expected some lower weights than before my holiday too.

Ugh, it was like I had forgotten how to do proper squats. My calves didn’t want to cooperate and my heels sort of wanted to lift off the floor to help. I was happy to get such a low weight! The hexbar was the same weight as before my trip – I made it but again felt stiff and awkward. Everything upper body was fine but the pullovers were tough. But I’m back and I’m loving it!

Saturday – REST

Oh shit, I’ll never go on holiday if the DOMS treats me like this after the first gym session back. When I reread what I wrote about my post-hike DOMS I laugh – that was absolutely zero compared to coming back to the gym!

We went to Cork to visit some shops before continuing to Kinsale for lunch and later an event for cask owners at the Blacks distillery. A short tour with cask sample tastings was enjoyed, and walking up and down stairs (ouch for my quads) was the most movement I did today.

Sunday – REST

Today we have wind gusts up to 72 km/h with showers, and even if my suffering leg muscles would need it, there will be no walking in the lush green of Ireland with photos of cows. Instead I’ll stay at my desk to edit photos from Italy and drink coffee. I’ll be back to it on Monday!

I hope you are doing well and that the last days of August are nice to you. How was your week, in fitness and else? Please share in the comments.

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