This week I’m celebrating good squats, camera gear, shoes and lilacs, while waiting for more consistently good weather. It’s been a mostly indoor-focused week but I squeezed in one good walk.

Monday – strength training at home

Easter Monday is a holiday here so the gym was closed. It was sunny and dry but SO cold and windy. I stayed at home and did a strength workout, a gentle one to be nice to my left elbow but still get some movement and put some muscles to work.

It was a good session and my left arm and elbow behaved quite nicely. I enjoyed doing a set of heavier shoulder presses. I’ve done them with 8 kgs in the gym before during the heavier program, but it’s a long time ago.

Tuesday

Rain, rain, rain. For fitness I did toe curls, that’s all.

Wednesday – gym and some walking

Today I started a photography challenge for myself, to make myself take 5 photos every day, of anything. I’m hoping to get back into the habit of using the camera every day. You can read my post about it and see the first batch of (very random) photos here.

I went out to see a friend for coffee and a walk. It was lovely to see her again and we talked about everything from plants to camera bags to a lot of other things. Then we walked around town until it was time for me to hit the gym.

These heavy squats require a lot of focus and oomph. When I do them I feel so grateful for how far I’ve come with strength.

My 7 kg lateral raises are still quite the struggle, so I was surprised to see 8 kg dumbbells for today’s sets. I have a feeling I said exactly the same when we increased to 7 kgs, and I’m not one to complain about heavier weights. I was happy to give it a try, and did ok. Then, I finally, FINALLY had some breakthrough with barbell shoulder presses. Today was the first time ever that I managed to do three full sets of them. This is the reward for all the hard work and frustration!

The delivery of my new walking shoes has been delayed and I was hoping to see the parcel outside the door when I came home, but no. On the other hand, we were looking forward to two very rainy days so maybe it didn’t really matter if I had my walking shoes or not.

Thursday

It’s been a long time since I saw such heavy rain. Needless to say, there wasn’t weather to go for a walk. I took the time to finally call a camera shop to get an update about a flash I ordered a LONG time ago. They called me back later and told me that Sony had stopped selling that flash and that they had been looking into getting it from somewhere else or something similar, and they would update me within a few days. At least I knew they weren’t just ignoring my order (or at least not anymore?), but why list something in an online shop that you don’t actually have in stock?

In the evening, at least my shoes arrived!

Friday – gym

It was cloudy and drizzly all day even if the forecast had said it would stop raining at lunchtime. Yes, I know it’s perfectly fine to go for a walk in drizzle. I need to get better with that. I kept working away inside and later enjoyed a good, solid gym session.

These flyes were a good variation. When you have your legs raised and don’t get support from your feet, the core gets to work a lot more. I always embrace a good core exercise!

In the evening they called me back from the camera shop and said they couldn’t get the flash, but that I could get the newer version of it for a discounted price since I’ve been waiting for so long. This means I’ll pay them another €40 and I’ll get a fancier flash, and I will have it within two weeks. I couldn’t say no to that and it seems I’ll have a piece of gear for indoor photography right in time for the outdoor photography season. LOL! At least I’ll have plenty of time learn how to use it before winter comes. And a flash can be useful outside too!

Saturday – finally a walk!

Finally a good weather day and with new walking shoes to enjoy, I hit the road after breakfast.

The new Altras (Escalante 4) turned out to be a perfect fit. I had hoped to use the Bahé shoes for everyday walking, also longer distances, but my feet haven’t agreed to that. These are a bit higher but they still feel quite minimal, and are very lightweight. They have some cushioning but not so much that they feel spongy, and they have enough but not too much arch support. I knew as soon as I put them on that my feet would love them.

So what about the Bahé shoes? They are still lovely, comfortable, and fine for shorter walks. One day I decided to try them in the gym, and they were absolutely perfect! The Bahé have more sideways stability than my other gym shoes, which is very helpful for any stability-craving leg work (hello, heavy squats) but especially lunges and Bulgarian squats, they have nice grip for things like Renegade rows, and they are still minimal enough for decent groundfeel.

So I guess that finally concludes the shoe saga! And in case you wondered, I’m not affiliated with Altra nor with Bahé, I just love the shoes!

With happy feet and the lovely weather I decided to take that 8,4 km loop I walked some week ago. I felt confident about the new Altras, but you never know with new shoes so if my feet got tired, I could just turn back instead of continuing on the full loop.

It was sunny with some fog, and quite warm. At home the fog was lifting, but when I got closer to the bay I saw there was still some lovely mist over the pier, so there were some good photography opportunities.

My feet were achy when I got back, but much less than some week ago when I had been using my old, worn out, Lone Peaks. 8k is also a quite decent distance!

In the afternoon we went to some supermarkets where my husband had seen they were selling plants. I found a lilac! I’ve only seen a lilac in one spot since we moved to Ireland. They are very common in Sweden and I miss them so much. This is a pale pink variety I haven’t seen before, but with a lilac, I’ll give it a try. I ditched my boring azalea that doesn’t want to thrive, and put the lilac in its place. I also bought some roses (that are unlikely to survive the wind here, but let’s try it..) for a garden bed in front of the house, and decided to move the old plants there to the back, including the chives that are very happy this year.

Don’t move plants so late in the season when they’re already in bloom. This won’t look any good until next year, but this is still a better spot for them and we can always just chop them off and use in cooking.

I managed to get in over 20 000 steps today. No wonder my feet were exhausted. I took out my old loyal ice pack and did all my foot/toe mobility exercises in the evening. Almost no walking in a week and then 20 000 steps in one day is probably not a good idea, so I’ll do my best to be less picky with weather during the coming week. In two weeks there’s a 5 mile charity walk in a lovely location by the sea and I want to be ready for that.

Sunday – foot TLC

A dull, windy day was forecasted. I’ve done foot mobility exercises, toe extensions, heel raises and plantar massage. Other than that I’m taking it easy. I’ve been taking it easier with heel raises lately after I started walking more, but will probably need to bring them back. I did them daily for months and my feet didn’t start complaining about anything until I stopped! My big toe joint has been sore lately and those exercises I got from the physio always help. For the next week I’ll get back into my routine from a few weeks ago. I remember I had the same problem when I started walking more after my stress fracture too – so I guess I’ll just keep active, and do my heel raises.

Next Sunday is my husband’s marathon! Unless the weather forecast changes to heavy rain, I’ll be there to take photos. For now the forecast looks brilliant with sunshine and 13-16 degrees. Fingers crossed!

How was your week? Did you have any particular fitness highlights or other highlights?

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