Wednesday morning and we have some life admin tasks to do today so after a slightly slow start – great night’s sleep – we are off into the town centre to sort out things such as the bank account, meet with our lawyer and try and sort health insurances. A growth day today for me so no training.

Thursday – off to find my happy place – Sparta gym. Well, the Spanish in the smaller towns are not as focused on fitness and training as I would like! Gym opening hours are Monday to Friday 8 am to 2 pm and then it’s siesta time so they reopen from 5 pm to 9.30 pm. On Saturday the hours are 10.00 am to 2 pm and they are not open at all on Sunday – yikes 😊

That said, I pop into the gym and sign up for three weeks which is the length of time we are in this area. It’s glute day today and for the first 30 minutes I have the gym all to myself apart from the personal trainer manning reception. The gym is actually intended as a boxing gym so some of the equipment I am accustomed to using isn’t here but with an ankle strap and some bands we can make this work. The basics are here – abductor, adductor, leg press, cables so it’s a good session and one where I feel I can load a little more weight on the machines as my hip is feeling good but I don’t want to push too far. So glutes completed, I do 30 minutes of cardio on the cross trainer then off home for a well-earned breakfast of oats and protein bread – I carried a couple of packets with me and am now thinking of how I am going to get this going forward as they don’t ship internationally.

I don’t have any scales to weigh in which is a shame however I would like to get a few good weeks of healthy eating and exercise under my belt before I weigh again. I’m back in the gym in the afternoon when they open at 5 pm for another 30 minutes of cardio. I have split the cardio into two 30 minute sessions as I find that my left knee can sometimes exhibit some referred pain from the hip operation so just need to take it easy until the strength in my muscles is rebuilt.

Friday morning is chest and shoulders – shoulder press, shoulder shrugs, lateral and front raises, push ups, scarecrows and rear delt followed by 30 minutes on the cross trainer. I am beginning to feel more normal – I probably feel the best I have since prior to my operation so am really looking forward to some serious training in the next few weeks.

There’s no afternoon session for me today as we are off to a belated ANZAC day BBQ with Keith and Eileen – we are house sitting for them in August so it’s great to get to know them better and their beautiful dog Rosie who spends most of the evening sitting on my knee.

Saturday and the gym opens at 10.00 am – this unfortunately means I can’t go today because we have to go and meet the couple we are house sitting for from 2 May at 11.30 am and I don’t really want to turn up there all hot and sweaty so I’ll do an early session of body weight, band and some free weight exercises by the pool. Dave and Fiona, the friends we are staying with, have a small selection of dumbbells which I have positioned outside by the pool so that I can use them early in the morning without disturbing anyone.

This morning is legs so I have devised a little training program making use of what’s available – step ups, calf raises, goblet squats, side lunges, rear lunges, walking lunges and Bulgarian split squats. For the rear lunges I have fixed a resistance band to the railings and am actually using that to ensure my stationery leg is pulling against the band in order to strengthen my abductors.

Today is my 6 week anniversary since having the hip operation and so I will now sign off Hippy Times. The next blog phase will take us through May to early June when David and I go to the UK so join me on Wednesday morning to discover the next challenge!

Hippy Times 🏋🏻‍♀️