I have the attitude that motivation is useless and that creating habits that you keep consistently is the only way to go if you want to get fit or whatever your goal may be. But after the latest foot injury it’s like I’ve lost it with getting back into a routine other than going to the gym. Sure, I strictly followed the physio program and I still work hard in the gym, but other than that I’ve become lazy and too comfortable. So last Sunday I decided that it’s time I get my shit together and create some new habits with walking.

Earlier this year when I used my Altras, they seemed worn out because they started to rub onto my big toe so I thought the insole was getting bad, but recently I found that they had the wrong insoles!

During my foot injury I used the Altra insoles in other shoes that worked better while the foot was sore, and when I changed back I must have taken the wrong ones. Now that’s fixed and I’ve generally freshened them up, so maybe they’ll work for another walking season.

This week we’ve had some better weather, although with some heavy fog and rain mixed in. I’ve tried to take advantage of the good days as much as possible.

Monday

My new goal is to try to walk every day. It’s refreshing to go for a walk in the morning, but today it was perhaps a bit too fresh. It was around freezing when I got up! I made my coffee and breakfast, and around 9.30 it was up to 4C (39F), so I decided it was good enough to go out. My plan was to go the route where the road goes up the hill and becomes quite rough and more like a rocky mountain trail than a road. The perfect place to test my new hiking shoes!

It was a lovely walk of about 4,2 km. My new shoes did their job really well, the grip was fantastic even in (somewhat drying) mud and my feet were happy all the time, so I feel there is hope for some good, injury-free hikes in these shoes.

In the afternoon it was time to hit the gym. And what a session that was! The soft days are over.

I’m back to the heavy squats and with 12 reps! I felt a bit insecure especially the first few reps but became more confident towards the end, and I LOVED doing this. I’ve only done this weight with lower rep ranges before and felt fantastic after these three sets of 12.

The Bulgarians went ok, some difficulties to get started on the left foot (this certainly must be in my head only!) but then all was good.

The only exercise I didn’t manage to get through completely was the push-ups – the thing is that if you keep pushing to failure with a declined push-up you might end up crushing your face against the floor! This nearly happened, and I managed to do about 9-10 reps in each set.

Tuesday – walking

I needed to go to Cork and took the opportunity to get some walking done there. Cork city still seems popular to tourists, at least I’ve never heard anyone saying anything else, but I feel like it’s getting very run down in recent years and I don’t really enjoy strolling there anymore. But I found a nice little park below the university where it was quieter and very spring-like.

I probably walked a few km, using those newer walking shoes.

Wednesday – gym

Another good session in the gym! We’re still going soft on deadlifts, but all other leg exercises are back to normal now.

Heavier Renegade row with 12 reps is the ultimate endurance (and mental!) exercise for me. I did quite ok with it, 12-9-10 reps, and the bench press afterwards was surprisingly smooth with 12-11-10 reps.

These pullovers are HEAVY. I’m a big fan! The first two sets were fine but at the end of the third I began to wobble a bit but got through the last few with my mantra “I can do it, I can do it…”

Thursday

The weather gods gave us fog and drizzle. To follow my new walking plan I still would have gone out for a walk. But a friend came over for coffee and chat and when she left, the wind had gone too crazy.

Friday – walking & gym

The outdoors looked good in the morning and I prepared to go out for a walk. As soon as I was ready to hit the road, the sky got dark and it had started raining. Like a cliché video about Irish weather! After 10 minutes it looked nice and sunny again, so I went out. The wind was much colder than I expected, and the sky went from clear to cloudy all the time, I didn’t trust it wouldn’t start raining again so I made it a short walk of 2,7 km.

Then in the afternoon, time for another good session in the gym.

The highlights today were the sumo squats, dumbbell bench presses and the lateral raises. I think I’m generally making some good progress, especially the dumbbell bench press with this weight, and lateral raises have been so hard in the past. My last few reps of lateral raises weren’t pretty, but partial reps are also reps!

Saturday – walking

The weather forecast for today was fog and rain. But after 11 am the rain seemed to stop, so I decided to go for a walk. It wasn’t cold, and fog can offer some great photo opportunities.

I put on my new Altras to continue breaking them in but also because that so-called megagrip could come in handy on the country roads after some rain. It was a lovely walk! It was windy but very mild, and the weather switched from foggy and damp to sun/haze and very nice. I was way overdressed with three performance layers.

I felt good and walked down to the pier and back, that’s 6,75 km. I’m slowly working on getting my distances back up.

Sunday

Today was one of the first “real” spring days, with 14-15C (57-59F). I stayed at home instead of walking, and spent a few hours cleaning up the garden, pulling weeds, removing old debris, and making plans. My roses that I moved to the back of the garden last year are still alive although one is just barely hanging in there, everything looks good except one rosemary that I need to replace with something else. I’m so ready for spring and summer now! I have some heavier, very tedious jobs to do but I’ll save that for later when we have consistently warmer weather.

Other exciting news

My husband has signed up for the Limerick marathon in the beginning of May, and he’s doing really well! Despite a late night last night, and missing one hour of sleep because of the turning of the clocks, he went for a long run this morning, did 27 km problem-free (he has some ongoing niggles), and afterwards he’s been working hard in the garden. I look forward to the marathon weekend – I’ll be there to take photos (of course).

Also, we may have a new gig coming up. We haven’t played our Saturday gig since before Christmas because the pub owner (who’s in her 80s!) got sick and I don’t think we’ll get back there. But our percussion-playing friend had heard of a possibility in another pub so we went there last night for a drink and to talk to the owners. It turned out we know one of them from the Tuesday music session, and they seemed very open to having some music there! We’re going to play next Friday, and after that we’ll see if we’re welcome back, lol! I’m looking forward to it and will spend some extra time now preparing songs and doing some guitar practice.

The coming week should be quite normal and we’re expecting decent weather so it should be a good week of walking, more lifting, and we may have a music event on Saturday too.

How are you and how was your week? Is it spring yet where you are? Thanks to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly rundown link-up!