Half rest day

Evening all. By the way I appear to have gone photo crazy today- I will even save some for tomorrow as I took so many!

This morning I had a fab run. We went to some friends for dinner last night and got back very late, plus the weather forecast heavy rain, so I wasnt sure if I would run in the morning or afternoon. I woke up late (after 9am- must have been tired) to sunshine, so after porridge I set off. Last night I wore my ear-warmer on my run, but I felt it was a little warmer in the day so left it at home.  I took with me some nuun in my water bottle, and decided I would see how I felt on my run. In the end I did around 8.5 miles (my Nike+ said 9.5 but I think I have not callibrated it for a while so I don’t think that is quite right), and I felt good. After 70 minutes I felt a little tired and my legs got a bit heavier, but I pushed on and managed to finish pretty strong. Then to cool down I walked around the garden for a bit and picked some more apples. Then I tried my first US clif bar (I could not wait!);

It was delicious! It did taste similar to the peanut butter one, and it was massive! I had it with some chocolate milk, as by the time I got home from my run it was nearly 1pm and I was pretty hungry. I then had a shower and pottered about for ages, and in fact didn’t have lunch until about 3.30pm.

Home-made squash and carrot soup. Can you see the steam coming off it? I also had some toast with half PB and half chocolate and nut butter.

This stuff is so good. The best bit about it is that it doesn’t taste so nice right out of the jar (means I am not tempted for an extra teaspoon!), but on toast or bread it is scrummy.

By the way, look how orange my home-grown pumpkin is getting- I reckon I might be able to use it this week 🙂

Normally I would go out on Saturday afternoon, but I have all of half term to go to the shops and go on walks and stuff, and so I have been at home, making dough and roasting veggies for calzone later on, and catching up on TV. At about 5 I suddenly felt really tired (maybe that super late lunch was not such a good idea) so I had some teapigs chai and tried the nakd cocoa mint bar.

I was not overly impressed with my first bite, but then as I ate the rest it tasted nicer. The mint flavour was quite strong, but not too overpowering, and it did taste of chocolate mint. I can’t quite put my finger on what it reminded me of. It was not quite as good as the chocolate orange one, but still really tasty.

Then I perked up and made some peanut white chocolate cookies for sunday tea tomorrow. I use the Hummingbird recipe, but I only use half the ingredients as it makes so many, and Iused white choc, and wholegrain spelt flour.

In the oven and then the baking tray after;

And on the cooling rack- they look good!

I was listening to marathon talk on my run, and a listener had emailed in to warn people about to run the Abbingdon marathon that last year people got disqualified for wearing MP3 players as they ran. Although it was in the race rules, I suppose not everyone reads them in detail. Can you imagine how awful that would be if you entered and ran it, only to find to later that you had been disqualified. I had looked at this race a while back (with a view to maybe entering in 2011) but hearing this put me off. I always have music in when I race, but I have the volume down very low so I can hear other people talking, the marshalls, the cheering etc. Even when I ran the half marathon with my brother, I had music playing even though we talked virtually the whole race. It would put me off entering, as for me, running for 5 hours or more would be really hard without music to distract me from hearing my breathing, and helps the time to pass. I suppose some people have the music very loud, and maybe don’t hear warnings from the marshalls. So, what is your opinion on MP3 players during races?