Focusing on the positive

Hey peeps

I hope you all enjoyed the weekend- it has flown by!

Friday night we walked to the allotment and ended up spending at least an hour digging up weeds. At least now I can actually see the raspberry canes again (yes it was that bad!). I was so hot and bothered, so needed to cool down. We had some of this amazing ice cream in the freezer- peanut butter ice cream with raspberry sauce, and I had made an iced tea earlier using Twinings Gingersnap peach tea, mixed with a little grape juice and a tray of ice.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early, wanting to get our run in before it got too hot (according to the weather)- luckily it stayed cool and overcast the whole time. Andy ran with me, but I was finding it so tough. After a couple of miles my right foot went totally numb- I tried loosening my shoe laces but that didn’t seem to help. I was also getting tight calves, which is not like me. We kept up a good pace, but Andy kept needing to stop and wait for me, which was making me feel (at the time) quite demoralised (silly when I look back now, but at the time I felt like crying at one point because I was so annoyed with myself for not being able to keep up, when recently I have been keeping up with him OK). I love running with him- it does make me go faster, plus it is nice to chat. But I was feeling bad as I was slowing him down (even though he kept saying it was OK)- and then because my legs were hurting it was making me more worried about the half next weekend. Then, going up the horrible hill at just over 7 miles, my Garmin ran out of battery. This wouldn’t usually bother me so much but I wanted to get up to ten miles, and I hadn’t measured out a route beforehand, I was just going to run around the block at the end to make up the distance. Anyway, a bit after that Andy left me, as he was going to do 12 miles (crazy!) so was adding on a different bit at the end of his run, so I was then trying to work out how far I had been since the Garmin stopped (Andy uses km’s on his Garmin so that was no use to me, as any regular readers will know that my maths goes out of the window when I start running), and trying to work out what I needed to add on to the run. I also wanted to know how long it had taken me, so I had to look at the time when I got home, as the Garmin website would tell me when my run started. Complicated!

On Friday evening I made the batter for post run pancakes, and that was just what I fancied. I had some almonds and a nuun drink as soon as I got in, then showered and made breakfast. This batter was made with 1 mashed banana, 20g peanut flour and 20g wholegrain spelt, and a little baking powder. Simple.  I cooked them gently in the pan, and then had them with a nectarine, some vanilla alpro yoghurt and cocoa nibs (I am getting a bit of an obsession with them). Plus a lovely Tea India masala chai tea.

Andy has been reassuring me about my run, which is very sweet of him. I did some maths, and I think that in the end my run was 9.98 miles (I’ll take that!) and took me just over 1 hour 40 mins, so basically 10 minute miles. Again, not bad, although once he was gone my pace was much slower. But when I did the Great South Run (which is a 10 mile race) I did it in 1 hr 50, so I am quicker than that. Also, the half marathon is a hilly one, and I don’t expect to get a pb, my main aim is to beat my time from the last time I did that (although the course has changed slightly)- that was 2.19. I think I should be OK to make that, and I suppose at the end of the day even if I don’t make that time, it will still be another half marathon completed. Saturday afternoon I was shattered, but then on reflection I had a hard Sweatshop run on Wednesday, ran Thursday and Friday morning, walked on Friday afternoon and tired myself out digging on Friday evening. So no wonder I was tired I suppose.

We have been enjoying my new blender to have some refreshing summer smoothies. This one was made with frozen mango and pineapple, plus Koko coconut milk.

Saturday evening we had lovely black bean and avocado wraps for dinner (this was basically a red onion cooked in paprika, then a chopped red pepper added in, a small tin of sweetcorn + black beans mixed in, served on a wrap with a chopped avocado and some lime juice)- the original recipe was with wenslydale cheese but we didn’t have any so just left that out.

This morning I defrosted a slice of our Christmas pannetone and had it with some peanut butter on one half and passion fruit curd on the other half (from the Bath Christmas markets), plus a mango, Tesco lemon soya yoghurt and those cocoa nibs.

We lazed around for a bit, I did some baking (more on that another day!) and then went to Crews Hill which is basically a row of garden centres. We got a few bargain plants for our garden and the allotment.

We were pretty thirsty when we got home, so made another smoothie- this one was frozen cherries, fresh raspberries and almond milk.

My plan for this week is to take it a bit easier than last week! I am going to have a run tomorrow- probably 4 miles. Tuesday will be a rest day as I have a lot of work to be doing. On Wednesday I shall go to Sweatshop, but not go as hard as I did last week. On Thursday pump is not on, which is probably a good thing, so I am having my hair cut. I might do a gentle run on Friday as I have found that works well for me before a race, and Saturday shall be a rest day. I think that sounds OK. I shall also be focusing on all the positive training I have had, and hopefully just looking forward to enjoying a run in the countryside next Sunday.

What are you looking forward to this week? What are you feeling positive about?