Yet another positive week

Hey guys

Yet again Sunday is here and it is time to review the past week. It was a bit all over the place due to work stuff, but it actually went really well.

Monday- 6 mile run after work, complete with 3 miles at 10.06 pace in the middle. Feeling good.

Tuesday- 10 mile run after work- I spent all day trying to fuel up for this, and I think that really helped. Pace was a bit more all over the place (not sure why but this could be down to crossing more roads, more hills etc). Pleased to have managed a run of that distance after work.

Wednesday- rest day

Thursday- Body pump- still keeping up with the same weights- fun as usual

Friday- sort of rest day- 1 mile fun run at work and 2 mile walk after work

Saturday- 16 mile run. I am still in shock as I type it that it went so well! I kept a fairly even pace which only tailed off for the last couple of miles (to be expected I suppose).

Sunday – rest day- had a 3 mile walk to keep the blood flowing as I am not feeling really stiff or anything, but my hamstrings feel a little tight, and my knees feel stiff when I first stand up.

Weekly total- 32 miles. (Well 33 if I count the run at school!) Crazy!

I still have 6 weeks to go until the 20 mile run/race, and 10 weeks til the actual marathon, so I feel like I have plenty of time to increase mileage. The training plan is almost on a fortnightly cycle, with one long run and one super long run every 2 weeks, so hopefully I can keep the momentum going and not burn out.

All in all a very positive week. I was nervous of the 10 miles after work, and of the 16 miles, so I am really pleased to have completed them. I think I am getting better with the pacing for my long runs too.

I think I am getting better at fuelling my runs- especially the ones after work. I am used to doing 3 or 6 mile runs after work, and tend to only need a small snack, but really with these runs getting longer I know I need to pay more attention to this. I think the reason why I often feel tired at aerobics is because the later start means that I am getting hungry as I would normally eat dinner at around 7 (but the class goes on til 7.30). So I am trying to plan my snacks in a smarter way.

Last night I made some chickpea stew- this has in it 1 aubergine, 1 red pepper, 1 courgette all chopped and cooked in a pan with a squirt of oil, then I added a tin of chopped tomatoes, some garlic paste, 1/2 tsp lazy chilli, 10g ground almonds, a load of rosemary, a tin of chickpeas and 100g baby spinach.

This simmered away for 25 minutes. I was so stuffed after that (it made 2 portions so half is in the freezer now- and it doesn’t look that big but trust me it was a massive food pile!). It is lovely and I liked the addition of the spinach.

Later on I popped over to see Andy’s family- they had watched a football match and had fish and chips, so after eating my dinner I brought them dessert.

These are hazelnut caramel squares, from one of my Rachel Allen books. They are similar to millionaire’s shortbread, but the base is almost cakey- it’s flour, sugar, butter, eggs and cocoa powder. The caramel has toasted hazelnuts in it, and then it’s topped with dark chocolate. Yes a total sugar bomb but also pretty amazing!

Today I tried another porridge pot (cue Andy with a joke about the porridge never running out);

I cooked it by adding hot water to it, and the cinnamon smelled lovely, but it didn’t really taste very strong. Oh well.

We had a little walk today, and I also had another honey stick bar alongside more tea.

Yum! I have reviewed all the bars so if you want to, check it out here.

I also attempted pumpkin chocolate pancakes. I basically made a batter with flour (half chickpea, half spelt) milk, cocoa powder, baking powder, spices and pumpkin puree. When I cooked them in the pan I added some dried cranberries and chocolate chips.  They were alright, but I could not taste the pumpkin (maybe I should have gone for plain pumpkin ones and not chocolate pumpkin ones)- they also were not very sweet- I think I should have added some honey or something like that. You win some, you lose some.

They looked pretty anyway, and the cranberries were lovely in there.

Right that must be enough pictures for now!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend- feel free to share anything 🙂

Especially if you were getting out and enjoying the sunshine 🙂