I’ve been offline for a while, although I’ve been reading blogs and commented on some. I needed to be away from writing to refocus, and finally took the time to rearrange my websites as I want them (which is possible now when we have a functional server!) and get a proper, more descriptive domain name for my fitness/personal blog. You can read the “why” and the ins and outs of it all here.

If you find this post through the Weekly rundown linkup, you will know me from susanne.ie, which has hosted a bit of everything over the years and now collects my blog links and other things I do on the internet. For anyone getting annoyed with my transitions between domain names, I’m sorry, but my blogging has been a work in progress for years, and the good news is that this setup is probably very close to how I want it to be.

When I last was seen on this link-up, I was generally frustrated over a shoulder issue and was quite run down mentally, over a variety of things but the shoulder and lack of proper strength training because of it was one of them. During this time I’ve been thinking “at least it’s not a foot again!” but I was also reminded why I, when I had the foot injuries, thought in terms of “at least it’s not a shoulder!” because sure, you’re much more disabled with a foot injury but there’s still SO MUCH you can do in the gym, compared to when you have a sore shoulder. Shoulders are involved in everything!

But now I’m back – maybe.

Lifting heavy is good for the soul

This week I got a nice surprise in the gym – we’re going into a period of heavier weights. How long has it been? Ages! This program means 4 sets x 6 reps and with quite challenging weights. Exactly what my soul needs after the last few months. Here’s how the week went.

Monday

So today was the first session of heavier weights, and it was leg & shoulder day. Since I’ve been on quite low weights on squats and deadlifts for a while, they weren’t overly challenging, but it’s good to start ramping up the weights again.

This squat weight was perfect – heavier but not so much that I couldn’t do good squats. I felt great, and likewise with the deadlifts. But OMG, the lunges were so challenging. I chickened out quite a bit with depth but hope to do better next time.

The shoulder exercises were fantastic. Such a good feeling to do these weights again! I expected both my elbow and left upper arm to complain but they didn’t really. It was the first time I tried this weight on forward raises and it went much better than I expected!

Tuesday

So, can we cancel this day from history? I don’t know what happened. I slept poorly, but not so bad that I’d feel like stricken by a bad flu the day after. I felt like in a hangover in the morning, then at lunch barely had energy to sit up and this only happens when I have the flu. I had some tension headache but with no other problems than some DOMS I could only blame the increased load in the gym. I did my best to get all the macros and my creatine in but it was a completely unproductive day (except I finally opened up this blog).

Wednesday

Miraculously, I was in shape to go to the gym again. My Garmin wouldn’t agree, and by the time I got to the gym I had 9% in body battery (for non-Garmin users, that means the watch thinks you’re close to dead, lol). But if I hadn’t had the watch I wouldn’t have known, and I felt good in the afternoon. Today it was time for chest and back to get some hammering.

Yes, I’ve been doing well lately with the chest press, but I thought my coach had gone mad when he loaded up the bar to 50 kgs. As (almost) always, I was open to giving it a try. I managed to get the bar off the rack and even down to my chest, but that was all! I was happy to let him take it from there.

With the bar offloaded a bit, we tried again. This time I managed to do 6 ok reps. It was super hard and not a great range of motion but I was able to lift the thing up and down six times. This was 47,5 kgs. Interesting how much 2,5 kgs can make a difference! Or was it mostly in my head? I did another set of 6, then 5 and 4 reps in the last two sets. I’d like to have done prettier reps, but should still be proud to have done that weight at all! The dumbbell chest presses didn’t go as well as I thought they would but when I’m not in good form, the chest press is the first exercise to suffer. I still managed to do 6-5-5-4 with assistance to the start position.

Interestingly, the heavier flyes went really well. Flyes have been troublesome since July because of some issue in my right upper arm. All of a sudden, since Monday, the issue seems to be gone and I could push it and enjoy the lifting. Such a great feeling!

All the back exercises was fine and I felt quite exhausted at the end of the barbell row. Overall it was a good session. The first week of a heavier program is always a bit of trial and error for me, getting used to the heavier weights, growing the confidence, mental strategies and more. It’s challenging but always a boost in confidence, which is very well needed after all the setbacks this year.

Thursday

I wasn’t feeling as bad as on Tuesday, but still… off. I still took myself out for a short walk, because in the late morning the weather was nice, and we were awaiting some very nasty weather days. It was mild, not too windy, and with a careful sunshine.

Friday

Back to the gym! Today was a softer session which I was happy about because I still didn’t feel great. I was still glad to get some movement done.

The highlight of this session was the shoulder press and bent-over raise. It’s been a long time since I did the barbell shoulder press and they’ve been troublesome on and off because of the shoulder issue. It’s also an important exercise to do now and then and I did better with it than I have for a long time. Likewise, both the bent-over raise and flyes have been hard because of my sore upper arm (can we just stop having these issues?) and both of them are working well now. Feels like a mystery to me that the problem disappeared so quickly, but of course I’m delighted.

Saturday

This weekend was spent resting and relaxing, while my husband was gearing up for a hard marathon. Today we went to town to visit our wonderful butcher and give him a farewell gift, because after 20 years in business, and almost 7 years looking after us, he’s retiring. It’s so sad and such a loss to the town! He’s such a friendly, cheerful and fun personality and shopping our steak and chicken has become like visiting an old friend. He knows our needs and wants, and often throws something extra in the bag. I’m tempted to make a t-shirt that says “These muscles are built with Scully’s steak”!

For the evening they invited customers into the shop for a farewell party with drinks, but we went in the morning since my husband would be busy in the evening preparing for the marathon. We gave him a bottle of Swedish whisky, but will actually see him again next week to collect some extra steak. They’re keeping busy fulfilling special orders, which shows how many have appreciated their work!

Sunday

Another day of rest but I’ve also been following my husband’s marathon through his Garmin Livetrack. He left early in the morning for county Kerry and the Gap of Dunloe. This is a tough and hilly marathon through what is called the Black Valley (yes I know it sounds terrible but I think it’s actually beautiful!) with an elevation of 600 m. My husband has been training hard for this for some time but in recent weeks he’s had a knee problem and then something with a hamstring so he’s behind with the distance. He seemed to be going strong for the first 27 km or so and then at the point where everybody says “this is when the real marathon starts”, there was a steep uphill. At the time of writing, all I know is that he finished at 5.26. As I always say, whatever the finish time, if you finish a marathon at all it’s a huge achievement, let alone a hilly one just after a knee issue. So big kudos to my brilliant husband even if the finish time was slower than he wanted.

And what about myself then?
I’m feeling much better but still not great. Lots of things point towards stress and burnout. Other things point towards a possible sinus problem (it wouldn’t be the first time fatigue is the only symtom to begin with). Or possibly both, so I’m treating it as both for the moment. I really hope to be in shape for the gym next week, but we’ll see about that.

Thanks to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly rundown!