Hi folks, how are you? I’ve had a really good week. Nice weather, my mood and attitude back, good walks, and a lot of other good things.
I’m joining the Weekly rundown link-up with Kim and Deborah, to talk about the week of fitness and training. I enjoy sharing my fitness endeavours every week, for me as an accountability tool and documentation, but I also really enjoy joining the running & fitness blogging community to get inspired, learn more about running, and connect with people.
I’m mostly recovered from the foot injury I had. Now my legs are itching to run, but I’ll wait another week at least. However, I’ve done some really good walks this week. Next week I’ll do some more challenging walks with more hills, and if that still feels good, then the next step is careful running. I’m continuing all my physiotherapy homework.
I think I’m quite much back on track!
Here’s a summary of the week:
- Monday – Core strength and Bulgarian squats
- Tuesday – Gym day
- Wednesday – Start of the 150k challenge. 6,61 km walking.
- Thursday – Walking, 10 km
- Friday – Gym day
- Saturday – Walking, 15 km
- Sunday – Bodyweight strength training, mostly core, + rowing 12 mins
Monday
I started an ab challenge which I quite soon had to modify quite a bit. I couldn’t do all the exercises because I’m not strong enough in certain areas, which was a bit disappointing. But obviously, the girl in the video is a young fit girl who seems able to do anything! At least I got some good ideas for strength moves that I hadn’t done before, and I added some other exercises so I had a good session anyway. I didn’t want to work too much on chest and triceps because tomorrow is gym day, and I get a LOT of that in the gym.
Since I can’t follow her program 100%, for the next time I’ll make my own plan but will take ideas from her workouts.
Tuesday
A good strength session in the gym.
- Sumo squats, 25 kg
- Bulgarian split squats, 8 kg dumbbells
- Flyes, 7 kg dumbbells
- Chest press, 9 kg dumbbells – could only do 1,5 set because of elbows (I did some pushups the day before after all, and I’ve realised now that I really don’t need to do a lot of that at home and should save my energy for the gym)
- Bent-over row, barbell (weight?)
- Lateral raise, 5 kg dumbbells
- Upright row, barbell (17,5 kgs? not sure)
Wednesday
St Brigid’s day, people! It means the first day of spring according to the Celtic tradition. However, everyone has been talking about cold snaps and more snow lately. Except RTÉ and Met Éireann! But I’ll follow the Winnie the Pooh quote that Jenny mentioned recently, and will enjoy every moment I can go out walking, because we don’t have any cold snaps or snow yet. Those people who talked about it could even be wrong!
The 1st of February was also the start of my 150k challenge. I think the biggest challenge will be to raise the money! I realised that I probably don’t know enough people who are interested enough to donate, and I’m no influencer.. but anyway, even if I only raise €60 it will still be something. And it makes me walk a lot more than I otherwise would have! Because of those people talking about snow, I’ve been walking a lot more than I needed to because if we get snow it means I can’t walk those days and then I need to walk more on the good days. I kicked off the challenge with a good 6,61 km walk.
Thursday
A good day of walking! I took a nice walk towards the beach, but turning right before the steep hill, and then back home. In the afternoon I went for another walk in the other direction and in total I did about 10k. I’m trying to not overdo it, but it was a lovely day and my foot was fine.
Friday
My Fitbit gave me a readiness score of “low” and told me to take it easy, but I did a kick-ass session in the gym! It feels like I’m back to my normal focus and oomph and I love it!
- Romanian deadlifts, 30 kgs
- Lunges, barbell 15 kgs
- Chest press, barbell 22,5 kgs
- Alternating plank, elbows to full position
- Good mornings, barbell 30 kgs
- Back extensions on mat
- Seated shoulder press, 6 kg dumbbells
- Reverse flyes, 5 kg dumbbells
Saturday
We had some wonderful weather most of the day and I’ve been rocking my 150k challenge. My husband had planned to run but he has a knee problem so he came with me on a long walk instead. We walked about 15 km – the longest I’ve walked in one go! When we got closer to home my feet were VERY achy! Not in a concerning way, only… achy. Like when you’re on holiday in Rome (or something like it) and walk around the city the whole day. (Now when I have the Fitbit it will be interesting to see how far you actually walk on such holidays!)
We went towards the northern end of the peninsula, all the way to the sea.
Sunday
Well, people, look at this babe! It’s quite simple but we didn’t want to spend a lot this time, and in addition we have very limited space. But we both love it!
And yes, I know this is no Pinterest home, it’s a real-life home that is a work in progress. When we moved to Ireland we couldn’t get a mortgage so we had to buy the cheapest house possible, which meant a simple barely habitable cottage-style bungalow that desperately needed TLC. We’re fixing it up bit by bit. There wasn’t even a kitchen when we moved in, only a utility room to wash dishes and install washing machine and dishwasher. We cooked everything in the barbecue or microwave oven the first few weeks.
Mold has been a big problem in this room until we installed the new ventilation system. Now I’ve cleaned what I can and we need to repaint these walls but it’s not our priority just yet.
But also with the horrible walls, this is a good room for workouts, and today I’ve done some good core strength work – plank variations, leg raises, pushups and more. I also did my first real rowing session. This is a wonderful machine and I realised rowing is much tougher than I thought and an exceptional training option – cardio, strength, endurance and mental training all at once. I started a concert on YouTube and decided I’d row over three songs and then see how I felt. I did 12 minutes and the next time I’ll continue the same concert and row through the next four songs. During today’s session I made a plan for my guitar & singing practice next week, because the concert was with Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, some of the coolest people in the American folk music sphere. Lots of my singing inspiration comes from Gillian Welch. I do some of her songs already. I have more on the to-do list, and it’s about time I get started with them!
Next week will start with a bluegrass gig, with Special Consensus, in the north of county Cork so I’m looking forward to that!
How was your week? What was your training highlight of the week? Other highlights?
If you want to support my walking challenge and Ireland’s children’s hospice, click on the graphic below to get to the donation page. No contribution is too small!
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