Hi everyone, how are you? Another week has flown by and it’s time to wrap up the fitness activities. If you read my post last week, you know that I had a foot/heel/ankle injury and was generally miserable.
I started feeling better this week, and now I’m slowly picking up the bits and pieces of my crushed self-confidence to build it up again, and getting back on track with my attitude. I’m annoyed with how I let the injury get me down mentally, but I’m only human. I learned something from this and can hopefully handle a similar situation better another time by applying other strategies.
One thing I’ve realised, is that when it comes to working on your fitness, people around us are anything but supportive – except of course trainers and like-minded people (such as my husband). The normal thing is to NOT work on your fitness and I get unhelpful comments like “maybe running isn’t for you” and BS like that. From people I consider friends! It hurts me to the core and massively pisses me off. After receiving a comment like that this week, I was triggered more than ever to get back to running. I’ve made two attempts and both times it seems I’ve worked harder than my body apparently has capacity for, and if I adapt my training it should work. Like, I don’t need to go hill walking three times a week. And I need to look after my muscle better between sessions.
In my post last week, one of you said to focus on what I CAN do instead of what I can’t do. This was super helpful and something I needed to be reminded of. Thank you!
I decided to focus on strength training for a while, which only makes sense because my main goal has always been to build muscle and become stronger and more fit – running happened later and was meant to be an on-the-side activity but then I just fell in love with it. I’ll slowly get back into it but in the meantime, I’ll do more strength training at home. I came across a fun ab/core challenge that I’ll start tomorrow!
I was quite busy this week and didn’t do a lot out of the ordinary (which at the moment means work and two gym sessions), but here’s how the week went.
Monday
Physiotherapy exercises only.
Tuesday
Physiotherapy in the office and then to the gym. It was a good session with some increased weights (chest press especially).
- Warm up – leg/hip extensions with resistance band
- Lunges without weight
- Deadlifts with hex bar, 28 kgs
- Chestpress with 9 kg dumbbells
- Flyes, 7 kg dumbbells
- Dumbbell row, 12,5 kg dumbbells
- Good mornings, barbell unknown weight – 17,5-ish? kgs
- Bent-over reverse flyes, 5 kg dumbbells
Wednesday
A very low-key day. Italian class, work and physiotherapy.
Thursday
I did some bodyweight strength work at home but didn’t have a lot of energy for some reason. Perhaps because of poor sleep. I did leg raises, squats, planks (standard and alternating), one-leg glute bridge, push-ups, and then the usual physiotherapy.
Friday
Physiotherapy in the office, and gym day.
- Squats, barbell without weights
- Lunges, 10 kg dumbbells
- Push-ups
- Chest press, 22,5 kg barbell
- “The swimmer” on mat
- Tricep pullovers with barbell
- Shoulder front raise, 5 kg dumbbells
- Tricep curl (standing), 3 kg dumbbells
I was especially happy with the chest press in today’s session. It was heavy and I couldn’t do all the reps on the first and second set. Then for the last set I totally focused on breathing and counting, switched off the brain for everything else, and I could do all reps although the last was just barely there. This was a good lesson that I’ll take with me for next week.
Saturday
We planned to go for a walk, but instead went to look at a rowing machine and the hours just flew by so it became a quiet day fitness-wise. As for a rowing machine – we hoped to come home with one but it was sold out in the shop so we needed to get it online. It will probably arrive early next week though! We’re both really looking forward to it. My husband got a problem with a knee while out running yesterday, but he needs to continue doing cardio work. And for me it would be invaluable too for cardio work until I can run more, and for when it’s too cold and/or icy to run. We’re even thinking of buying a second one, and row together! That would be fantastic. This machine is quite small and may not fit my husband – we’ll see.
I’ve been thinking for a while of getting some cardio machine, but cycling has never been my thing and I really dislike treadmills! So a rowing machine feels like a good fit and it will work a lot on my shoulders too.
Talking about gear, the camera waist bag I ordered a long time ago finally arrived, and it’s absolutely perfect! It’s smaller than I even hoped, but I can even fit a second lens in there if it’s a small one, and there’s a back pocket for the phone if I want to bring it. And this bag will be good also when I travel and want something lightweight.
Sunday
My foot is almost back to normal and I’ve been out for a fantastic walk. It was 7.81 km in total. Perhaps too long so early after the injury but I felt great and had no problems! And it was a wonderful day, 9 degrees (48F) and some wind but when I came down the hill it was calm and the sun started coming out of the fog. The temperature went up to 12C! It was absolutely wonderful and felt like spring, with birds singing, smells of nature waking up, and some bulbs starting to come up. What’s not to love?!
On the first half of the walk I felt so good that my legs were nearly itching to run. Of course I didn’t, but it was a good feeling.
Here, according to the Celtic tradition, the 1st of February marks the first day of spring. Although the weather may not always agree, I like the thought of it!
On Wednesday I’ll start the February 150k challenge! To begin with, I’ll walk in mostly flat areas, except some short hills that are unavoidable, and will do that for a week. If all feels good, I can start doing more challenging walks but will ease into it carefully, and make sure to keep my calf muscles happy. We’ve bought some foam rollers now so that will help. I won’t do any running until I’ve been doing some decent walks for a while and if everything still feels good, I’ll carefully try some running again.
During this week I’ve been looking on YouTube for fitness channels for women at 40+ and I’ve found some interesting ones for inspiration. My main thing now is to keep my chin up, not slip into self-doubt, keep my mindset, keep the jävlaranamma, keep my focus. I’ve even been distracted in the gym recently and that isn’t good. This coming week, my number one priorities are to stay focused, keep doing what I’m doing when it comes to physiotherapy (this will be ongoing work now) and walking, stay strong mentally, and 100% focus in the gym. I can do this and I can’t let my brain stop me!
How was your week? Which was your best fitness session this week? What is your top tip for keeping a healthy attitude and mood during injuries?
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