I took a long and refreshing walk to Tensta and back. I think I need to go hiking soon again, even though it’s so gray outside.

I ran across a suitable workout video after all. The best thing about it was that it had exercises that I never normally do. I used muscles that I normally don’t exercise much, or perhaps just used them in novel ways, and was surprised at how weak I felt.

The other best thing about it was the host, Raneir Pollard – funny, enthusiastic and heart-warmingly nice.

Another day of running errands by bike – to Sundbyberg and back. The route there is not very inspiring since it mostly runs parallel to large roads, but it’s easy to follow and never crowded. And it’s got some significant hills, which is good from the point of view of working out.

Following my tentative workout plan, Wednesday is strength day. I made up another circuit today, similar to Monday’s.

The circuits seem to work pretty well. I am sweaty and completely out of breath by the end of them and slightly sore the next day. The YouTube video I followed last week was too low intensity for my taste. They alternated 30 seconds of exercise with 30 seconds of rest, whereas my own circuit is 45/15. The rest should only be long enough to look at the list of exercises to see what’s up next, and pick up the weights or move into position. I’m not here to rest!

There is probably a YouTube channel with the perfect workout videos for me – 30 to 40 minutes, high intensity, low impact, doable with the weights and equipment I have – but right now I’m not interested in investing the time in finding one.

Photo here.

The workout action selfie series continues. There isn’t much else that is photo-worthy in my life just now. And even that’s setting the bar for “photo-worthy” quite low: someone is doing something in daylight.

I’m saving up errands so I have a reason to cycle somewhere as my daily workout. Today I cycled to Kista to buy a new microphone/speaker for the computer. The old one started acting up, but then again it was at least fifteen years old.

I like the route to Kista. It goes through a lot of large, open, green spaces. Many of them are mostly brown this time of the year but still.

If I’m going to keep up the daily workouts, then I’m going to need a bit of a plan. I need enough of a challenge and enough variety so it doesn’t get too boring, but I also don’t want to spend too much time thinking about it every day.

I’m thinking of doing strength training on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; cycling or something like that on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And on weekends – whatever I can fit in.

That means strength for today. I’ve been to enough circuit training classes that I feel I can make up my own. Lower body, upper body, pushes, pulls, core. And burpees, because it feels like they kill me, so they’re probably really good for me.

For the workout photo today I brought out my proper camera instead of taking a phone selfie, so it was also my daily photo here.

Today’s workout was also today’s photo session. First I finished my workout and then I did at least 5 minutes of extra swings out of pure vanity, or perhaps out of my pride as photographer, to get decent photos. Action selfies are difficult! Getting the timing right required a lot of attempts.

I cycled to the recycling station with Adrian and got rid of stuff. He was somewhat less happy about it than I. Too many hills, he said, while I thought the route was as flat as anything you can possibly get in Stockholm. I think he’s getting out of shape. His afternoons at after-school care are no longer filled with running around but with Minecraft.

I was on my feet all day – grocery shopping, other errands, cooking, more groceries, more cooking – but none of it counted for the challenge. So I went out for another late night walk. I spent most of the walk with my eyes glued to the phone screen, reading the news about Biden winning the presidential election, in happy disbelief. (Not disbelief that he won, but disbelief that the seemingly endless vote counting was all of a sudden done.)