Month: August 2013

For ages now our weekend breakfasts have been lovely acai bowls- frozen fruit (usually banana, cherries/ blueberries) mixed with some soya/ almond milk and acai powder.

Then top it with a little muesli (or some granola) and some fruit- last Sunday I had mine with a sliced peach and a few blueberries. That was perfect fuel for a walk together around the lakes in the summery weather.

Anyway, I have been missing my weekend pancakes, so on Monday morning I decided to have them for breakfast. I was going on a run first, so I made the batter the night before- peanut flour, wholegrain spelt flour, chia seeds, almond milk, almond extract, baking powder- and then after a shower all I had to do was wait for them to cook. Easier said than done!

I did a 5 mile run, some of it on the fields. I wanted to push the pace a bit, as often when I am on my own I plod along (don’t get me wrong, sometimes all you fancy is a run in the fresh air and the speed does not matter), and so I decided to do a little bit of intervals- really I chose a point ahead and ran faster towards that, and then slowed down again for a bit. Very unstructured, but it was enjoyable (and tough at times). I was expecting rain, but surprisingly it stayed dry even when I got home. All in all it was 5 miles in 50 minutes, with 10.15 being the average pace, but my best pace being 7.24 (not for long though I am sure!).On the way back I had finished all my podcasts so I skipped through to an audiofuel podcast (which is basically a podcast where you run in time with the music, and it is a bit like an interval session as it makes you run faster for a bit, then slower to recover)- I only did one of the intervals as then I got home, but I decided that the next run will be an entire audiofuel podcast. I used to do them quite a lot a couple of years ago, and I quite enjoyed them, so think I might get back into them again. Although I did find that the slowest beats per minute were a bit too slow- I think my stride is too short or something!

Delicious pancakes! I added blueberries while they were cooking, and had them with a big dollop of coconut peanut butter, a peach and some watermelon, plus a Tea India vanilla chai.

I felt a bit nauseous when I first got back from my run- not sure if the fast bursts were tiring me, or I was just thirsty (I did drink water before I went out but it was very muggy)- I waited a while before breakfast and just had a nuun tab in some water- that seemed to help.

Have you ever used podcasts to help with running? 

Saturday started out by me picking up my Dad and brother and heading to Parkrun. I had been on a lot of runs in the week, and they needed volunteers so I had signed up in the week. This time I was barcode scanning- pretty simple you would think …

For those of you that don’t go to Parkrun, it is such a clever system- on the finishers line is someone with a timer device- they press a button each time someone finishes so it records the time, then at the same time when you finish you are handed a numbered chip, 1 for the 1st finisher and so on, and then you queue up and have your personal barcode- from the Parkrun website– scanned along with the chip so they link your barcode with the time that you finished- later on they must upload the scanners and calibrate them with the timer– it is so clever!

Anyway, they started off by announcing that last week there was a new record for fastest female at any UK Parkrun! Hannah Walker came first in the St Albans one last week, finishing in an amazing 15.55! We gave her a clap even though I don’t think she was there, although with around 200 runners it would be hard to spot everyone.

Then they headed off- the course heads off and then is 3 laps of the lake, so you can’t see most of the runners from the start/finish area, but it was not long before the first person (I keep wanting to say winner, but it is not a race!) was heading back. I liked scanning as it was good to congratulate all the runners- a few first timers asked about how it worked, and one lady pointed out that her friend had “never done anything like this in her life before” which is one of the reasons why it is so great- there are loads of children but also older people giving exercise a go.

My scanner was not very sensitive (it had trouble with laminated barcodes or sweaty ones!)- one lady handed me her barcode and it was wet (I hope from water, but possibly from sweat!)- I tried about 4 times to scan it, but it wouldn’t beep, so I tried stretching it as it was a bit wrinkly, and it ripped totally in half! I was mortified! They can take down the barcode number and link them up later, but luckily the other scanner worked! Phew!

My Dad managed a new pb (23.14- I can only dream of that time!) and my brother did well too.

After that it was a bit of pottering around town, and then some baking.

While wandering around the internet the other day I came across a recipe for Nutella cookies which looked like the easiest thing ever! All you needed was nutella, flour, an egg and some fudge pieces (which I still had from Dr Oetker).

I thought they would spread more when I baked them, but they didn’t.

They are tasty (we shared one just to check quality control purposes of course) but I am not sure they were as gooey as I expected- perhaps I should have made them bigger as then the centres would have been softer.

I also made some more scones- I used the gluten free recipe from the other day, but added in a tsp almond extract (again from my Dr Oetker parcel) and some dried cherries.

They smell wonderful!

As they were cooling all I kept getting was wafts of almond- if only Andy would let me have scones instead of a proper dinner!

Did you have a good weekend?