Trying to rest!

Hey peeps

I hope everyone has had a good week- I have been trying to take it a bit easy before the half marathon tomorrow (eek).

Wednesday -which apparently was Running Day or something? As if you can ONLY run on those days- I saw a comment on a blog (a blog I find very annoying but I can’t get it out of my dashboard so I sometimes read it to annoy myself- it worked) going on about national doughnut day, and someone commented “I wish we had national doughnut day here in Canada”– Why? I mean, I am sure there are Tim Hortons on every corner- just buy one if you want one- they are on sale every other day too). Ahem. Anyway, on Wednesday I went to the Sweatshop run, and we went for the fields route. I didn’t want to go too fast, and so I ran near/ at the back most of the time. I chatted to the guy from the store (and even got complimented at the end for my even pacing- pretty much 9.32-9.42 per mile), and enjoyed being out in the sunshine, although I was super hot when I got back!

I made us cold chai lattes to cool down with – almond milk, Tea India marsala chai and some chai syrup (just a little splash- maybe a tbs between us). I love that unsweetened almond milk.

On Thursday I went to get my haircut as body pump wasn’t on- good timing really as I think even though I say I will have lighter weights I still end up with achey legs. I was worried about making it as traffic has been bad this week, but I ended up with some time so went for a chai latte while I did some marking.

I fancied a little change so I now have a bit of a side fringe, although I can’t decide if it is going to annoy me or not. We will find out when I have to dry and style it myself! I had to pop to Waitrose for cornflakes and milk for Andy- not a good idea:

Cinnamon popcorn! Sounds yummy! I have tried the tea already and it’s lovely (blackcurrant and acai- very fruity) and I had the apple crunch nakd bar at breaktime on Friday and really liked it. I am saving the mango coconut water for tomorrow, although on reading it I prefer the ingredients on the Vita Coco mango and peach one.

After that we went to the allotment for a bit- Andy did some planting while I did a lot of weeding.  I also picked some rhubarb and dug up a couple of leeks to have for dinner. It is lovely going up there in the evening, but quite hard work too!

On Friday we went again to finish planting (I wish I had taken some photos as it looked lovely in the evening sunlight) and do some more weeding. I had considered a short run on Friday evening, but decided against it in the end to be a bit more rested.

My Friday dinner was some bean burgers from the freezer (I think they were sweet potato and kidney bean burgers- I never remember to label them), sweet potato mash with leeks, and a few more leeks on the side. They were strong!

Even though I didn’t run this morning I still fancied pancakes for breakfast. These were made with 20g peanut flour, 20g wholegrain spelt flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp chia seeds, a drop of almond extract and some almond milk (perhaps 150ml) all left in the fridge overnight. I cooked them in the pan although for the second batch I had a lot of batter left. Served with fresh fruit, a little nutella and a little coconut pb.

After spending the morning doing work, we popped to Ikea (this ended up being a 3 hour round trip) as we wanted to buy a new sideboard, and had been sent a voucher which runs out tomorrow. Not sure if that was ideal half marathon prep as I am pretty tired now!

We had smoothies when we got home- made with frozen mango, pineapple and kiwi  (a mix from Waitrose), a frozen banana and some almond milk.

I have started to feel nervous about tomorrow now- I am not sure why I get so nervous before races- it is not as if I am in a position to win them, and I won’t be at the back either, and even if I was, I know that there is nothing wrong with that.

I did this race back in 2010 (you can read my recap here) although this year they have changed the course. I know that the evil hill at mile 3 is still there (Bluehouse Hill for anyone local!), but apparently after that it is slightly less hilly. I would like to beat my time, which was 2.19- I am not expecting a pb. I am not sure if there are pacers either- if there are I will keep an eye out for the 2.15 pacers again. Right, off for some dinner and a relaxing evening.

Runners- do you still get nervous before races/ events? I say events, as I get nervous before Parkruns too!