This became another untypical week, because even if it certainly was a back-to-routine week, it was also my birthday week, including some fun events with more late nights. But it also included some good gym sessions and other good things.

Monday – gym

I started the day with some foot exercises and later it was gym time. This was a wonderful session.

I’m back to a heavier weight but I did ok with the Bulgarians! It’s all determination and as soon as the back foot is in place I HAVE TO stop the brain and just start squatting immediately. I was very happy with today’s sets. Were they spotless? Definitely not, but there was very little stumbling and hesitation.

The sumo squats are also back to the heavier weight and I felt great with them. Generally, I’m back to better focus and oomph, and can push myself more. The Renegade row went ok-ish – at least not as bad as some week ago. After two meh sets, in the last set I fired up some oomph and pushed through all 12 reps.

Tuesday – walking in the cold

It was cold and windy but I needed to move my legs, so I went for a walk. It was COLD. I walked about 4 km towards the sea and back, avoiding the steepest hill to be nice to glutes and calves.

I saw these lovely splashes of colour:

I’ve been inspired lately to try some nature photos in black and white. It’s perfect for these dull days (with not much colour out there anyway!) and I like the dramatic look.

In the evening we went to play in the music session. When we were about to leave at 11 pm, one of the musicians said “Now it’s midnight in Sweden, that means it’s your birthday!” (he knows my birthday from Facebook) so there was a small celebration and the pub owner (also musician) wanted to give me a birthday whiskey. You don’t say no to that, I enjoyed a celebratory 15-year-old Redbreast and it became a later than usual night!

Wednesday – gym

My birthday! Sleep hadn’t been optimal for natural reasons but my husband woke me up at 7 am with singing and birthday presents – the latest Dingle whiskey, and a foot gym which is a little box with a slanted board and resistance bands to strength train the toes and feet! Isn’t that the coolest ever?

By 5 pm I had filled up my energy levels and was ready to pick up some weights.

I had decided to work more on focus and to get the full stretch in every exercise. This proved to be a good strategy to distract from the “I’m exhausted and can I really do another 4 reps?” feeling and I was able to push through very well. I was particularly happy with the chest press. I’ve made a lot of progress with this one recently.

The single leg RDL was interesting to say the least! I’ve done this at home without weight, as part of my foot rehab as a stability exercise. Then I kept a few fingers on my desk to help with balance but now I was supposed to do it without holding on to anything, and holding a dumbbell.

I like this kind of challenge and it doesn’t have to be perfect! It worked ok on the right leg. Not so much on the left, but that was expected and just shows what I already knew, that my balance is still off on the left leg. The exercise was hard enough to be a good challenge but also within the limits for being “safe” (if I lose balance, I just put the other foot down and all is well).

When I came to the lateral raises, I was exhausted but those ugly reps means you continue working the muscle to failure instead of giving up.

After the gym, my husband had booked a table at a local restaurant. I had pan fried fish with a lovely herb sauce and mashed potatoes. This restaurant is absolutely fantastic at blending flavours and whatever dish you choose, it’s always a taste experience.

After dinner we went home to taste my birthday whiskey – it was a thumbs up for us both.

After poor sleep and a tough gym session I was overtired like a whiny 2-year-old (but much nicer!) and on top of that I took an espresso at 8.30-ish pm after dinner (what was I thinking??!!) and had also mixed grapes and grains (whether or not that makes a difference in those small amounts). My body was in full action mode when I went to bed and I probably didn’t make it better by reading Substack articles on my phone. Sleep became a disaster but I regretted nothing – when it’s your birthday it’s ok to do some extras!

Thursday – rest day

This was, to no surprise, a rest day from all fitness endeavours.

Friday – walk + gym

My new walking shoes arrived! At first it seemed they were almost still a bit large, but I laced them tighter around the mid foot and then they were perfect. They are SO comfortable! Some would think they’re a bit clown-ish looking because of the extra wide toe box, but I don’t really care, I just want comfortable shoes.

These are minimalist style shoes but with a thicker sole than standard barefoot shoes. The stack height is 14 mm, about halfway between that of Altra Lone Peaks and my barefoot shoes, and I feel like this is the perfect fit and that they fill a gap in the market that I haven’t seen before. I’m a big fan of minimalist shoes, but for longer walks I still want a thicker sole and some cushioning, but I don’t need or want all the extra fluff of classic running shoes.

After some longer walks I’ll know more about how I like these shoes, but my impression is very good so far. I walked 4 km and it was a lovely, lovely day with all the signs of spring – the sun warming my face, birds singing, buds on trees, water trickling in the creeks, and 10-12 degrees (50-53F). Exactly what we needed after some very miserable cold, rainy and windy days.

In the afternoon it was gym time.

After these squats followed by the 50 kg RDLs I think I’m officially back to where I was before my foot injury. That’s something to celebrate! I would have wanted to go a bit deeper with the squats but was still happy with them, and was surprised with how well I managed with the RDLs. Ideally these could also be deeper, but as long as we make progress everything is good, right?

I’m very happy to see that my elbow is doing well and can handle these front raises now without complaining.

Saturday

It was windy and rainy again. I did foot exercises and then dived into some guitar practice. It became a slow day. In the evening we played in the pub. It was good to be back, but it seems unlikely it will be a regular event again. This is ok – a new era perhaps, we have other places to at least join in with other people (like the Tuesday music session), and I’ll focus on learning some new tunes and songs and get my guitar fingers to work properly again (I just haven’t practised a lot lately).

Sunday – leg TLC, stretch, and rowing

I started the day with some foot exercises but skipped heel raises since my calves and hamstrings were a little upset from my Friday RDLs. Instead I did some extra plantar massage and dynamic glute/hamstring stretches.

We finally started fixing up the home gym that has been a disorganised disaster for a while. My husband bought a Wahoo gadget in the late autumn, to connect his ordinary bike and planned to have it in his office, but it’s been left in the gym which made everything very crowded with the other, stationary bike still there.

But since I haven’t really got back to cycling, and since I also need to keep being kind to my legs and let them recover properly between lifting sessions, I decided to skip cycling for a while and instead get back to the rowing machine for cardio when the weather is too bad for walking. This led us to start getting this place in order and I’m so glad we took the time to do it!

Outdoors is as grey and wet as it can be, so when the gym was nice and tidy again with all the tools available, I got back on the rowing machine. I LOVED it! Seems I have better endurance with it now and I never hit that “hmm how long do I need to sit on this thing” mode but could have kept going for a bit longer but wasn’t sure how my easily suffering glutes would handle it so I wanted to keep it short. I rowed for about 20 minutes while keeping a Billy Strings concert going on YouTube.

I loved how all my still-suffering body parts since the Friday workout felt afterwards. Perhaps a great option for active recovery.

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My plans for next week is to have a very normal, routine week. We’ll see how that goes!

I hope you had a good week with some fitness and/or other highlights. Thanks to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly rundown link-up!