Author: Maria Runs

Less rain this time

Hey peeps

So Monday when I left work it was teaming it down with rain again. I had a run planned, but during the drive home I talked myself into staying at home and doing a DVD (shoes in the airing cupboard drying- thanks Jessica for the hairdryer idea), but then as I got closer to home the sun was trying to come out, and the rain eased off, so I decided to just go for it as I knew the fresh air would make me feel better. Although I did decide on a few pieces of white chocolate fudge would give me an energy boost- note to self, fudge is not a good pre run snack unless you want to feel sick for half the run.  Anyway, I did over 4 miles, in 43 mins, so for me (especially recently where I seem to have slower loads) was a good pace. And it did not rain during my whole run so my trainers stayed nice and dry!

Look! These are my garden blueberries!!!! They were delicious 🙂

And I got a new toy!

I was ordering some other things from Lakeland (gifts, not for me) and I saw this strawberry thing, which gets the green spiders out of strawberries! So nifty! Normally I use a knife but then cut off half the strawberry, but this you push in and it grabs the green bits, then you twist it and it pulls them out! Magic! I was trying to take a picture of me using it but it needs 2 hands! And the brownies I made the other day are lovely- had one with cherries and strawberries, and even though it smelled like banana, it did not taste like it. Phew.

Today was not aerobics as I had a work thing, but I did manage in between meetings to pop to Waitrose and get some treats for me.

Actually I do not think quinoa is a treat! But I saw these bars on Lucy’s blog the other day- seedy, nutty and grain bars (they had none of the squashed fruit bars), and they were still on offer so I decided to get them. I also got some Montezuma’s chocolate- have not had this in ages and decided that those 2 flavours (minty and with cocoa nibs) sounded lovely. Then I was most excited to see that Rude Health now do “thins”. I never like rice cakes, but I used to get them as they were lovely spread with toppings. Anyway, they do oaty thins (which I got-made of 50% oats and 50% spelt, 24 cals per thin), multigrain ones with quinoa and brown rice and stuff (which I nearly got, and possibly were gluten free) and rice ones too. I am very excited to try these- I bet they will go super well with peanut butter 🙂

So, fave rice cake/ oat cake topping? I think I will have to go with pb and raspberry jam/spread. Yum.

Baking extravaganza!

Evening all 🙂

Hope you all had a good weekend despite the crazy weather. I ended up stuffing my trainers with brown paper yesterday, as they were so soggy. Today I took the paper out and it was wet through, and so I put my trainers in the airing cupboard. Hopefully they will be dry for a run tomorrow.

This weekend I have mainly been baking.

First I attempted some mint chocolate fudge. I made my usual fudge recipe, and then added some chopped dark chocolate before pouring it into the pan. I then sprinkled it with sugar which I had mashed with a pestle and mortar with some mint essence. The fudge tastes fine, but it was so crumbly so cutting it was not so easy!

Interesting shapes no? Anyway, I hope it will still be happily received.

Then I made some peanut butter cookies from my Peanut Butter & Co cookbook. I was a bit wary of trying this recipe, mainly because the Hummingbird recipe is so good!

These were amazing- so chewy and almost gooey on the inside- stuffed with peanut buttery goodness. These were for Sunday tea so we have none at home now.

Then I made some of those brownies that Katie invented and Rachel also made.

I also had some white chocolate stars from Sainsbury’s so I added these on the top (sadly no edible glitter!). I had a minor problem in that I did not have enough apple sauce, so I used some mashed banana instead- hopefully they do not taste too banana-ey. I am going to freeze this in slices ready for later. 🙂

Then it was the piece du resistance- white chocolate and coconut fudge. I used the normal recipe (from Rachel Allen’s Home cooking) and added some shredded coconut to the middle and to the top.

There it is cooling (all the white chocolate melts from the heat of the fudge and pours out the sides).

And sliced! This batch sliced much easier, and looks so pretty too. These will be in bags soon, for end of term gifts. So not too much to tempt me with at home!

I did have a lovely lunch;

Andy bought some Wensleydale and cranberry cheese to have at our picnic on Friday (and he bought rocket salad too which I was very impressed with as he is normally very fussy with salads and only buys iceberg!)- so I had some on some toast with a red pear. And you can see my lovely teapot so of course I had to have some tea.

OK so time for a quick training recap of this week;

Monday- attempted a mid length run but cut it short due to having to stop and walk- think this was tiredness and dehydration.

Tuesday- Aerobics hooray!

Wednesday- Audiofuel run which is still hard work but in a good way I think! Plus yoga for runners podcast.

Thursday- Body pump hooray! Upped weights only for dumbells in the triceps track, and forgot to take a towel. Whoops.

Friday- Rest day.Picnic concert. Plently of body pump aches!

Saturday- Long and wettest run ever.

Sunday- Rest day- yoga for runners podcast.

So fingers crossed that my trainers are dry by tomorrow.

And it is on to the final week of work before the summer holidays, so I was wondering does anyone have any lovely school memories from the last day/ week of term? We used to get to take in games from home on the last day which always seemed like such fun! I was easily pleased I think!

Before and after

Afternoon peeps, hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

Yesterday after work we went into London for a picnic concert! What a great idea! It was at Kenwood house, which is somewhere in London (we parked at a tube station and then there were free buses to take us to the park), and we sat in the park on a picnic blanket, while an orchestra (I think it was the London philharmonic but am not sure) played music from films- we had Star Wars, The Great Escape, Psycho, Jaws, and loads of others. It was a brilliant way to spend an evening.

Today it was time for a run, and I was a little nervous because of cutting short my Monday run. I did try to take a “before” picture, but this was my most successful attempt. The flash kept going off and I have no idea how to turn it off, and Andy was out running so he could not take it for me.

Anyway it was supposed to show that I was giving my marathon t shirt it’s first outing 🙂 And also my tennis visor as it was gently raining at that point, and that is meant to keep the rain off my glasses.

Well, the run started out just fine. It was raining but my legs were feeling good and I was running consistently, and not feeling too tired or anything like that. I passed the poor regiment fitness people crawling under nets in the muddy grass, and went through Welwyn town centre, and was even contemplating running for longer. Then, 5 miles in the rain changed from gentle/hard rain, to bucketing down. I was drenched in less than a minute- I could feel my socks soaking up water, I could hear my trainers squelching with every step, my t-shirt and capris were heavy and dragging because of the water. To top that off an orange van drove past and caused a tidal wave of muddy disgusting road water to smack into me. I was no longer a happy bunny. I was basically furthest from home there- no chance of a short cut, so I just had to get my head down and try to get home as fast as possible. I did wave thanks to the nice drivers who either let me cross the road when I was waiting (there were so many that just drove on- come on people you are warm and dry in your cars) or who pulled out to avoid splashing me. But there were several more drivers who drenched me. Well, I think I was at saturation point already but you get my point. I mean, just because I am out running in the rain, does not mean I want to get any wetter!

Not sure if you can see how wet I am but I was dripping all over the place (I had to take them off after this and put them in a bag so avoid soaking the carpet etc!)- and my t-shirt was stuck to me with all the water! (Andy took this picture having got home right after I left and missed all the rain basically! If only I could run that far before breakfast). Andy had even put his phone off silent in case I rang him (although I did not take mine with me oops!).

I jumped straight in the shower (very unusual for me as normally I have some drink and food first) and my hair was so wet I could have just put on the shampoo straight away. I was so cold!

Anyway, after that I had another treat from my bloggie swap box;

Another delicious Clif bar (chocolate almond fudge), and some Kara coconut milk and nesquick.

Yum look how dark and chocolatey it is 🙂 Sorry it is a bit blurred!

Right, for the rest of the weekend I have a fudge making extravaganza planned (as gifts for people at work)- I am thinking dark chocolate mint, and some kind of coconut one (would white chocolate go with coconut?). And maybe those tofu brownies that Katie made and Rachel has converted into UK weight measurements. Oh, and hopefully get to see Bridesmaids as this weather is perfect cinema going weather in my opinion!

So, running in the rain- yay or nay? Do you get rain rage?

And exciting weekend plans?

More chia pudding

So a while ago the lovely Lucy sent me some chia seeds with the giveaway goodies that I won. I have quite liked them as a post body pump snack in some pudding, so I made some up today. I have to say it was the best yet. I mashed a small banana in a bowl with some cocoa powder and a tsp pb, then added in some Kara coconut milk (have not had this for ages, mmm) and whisked it up with a fork. Then I added some chia seeds (maybe a tbsp) and then some xanthan gum to help it thicken. I left it in the fridge for a few hours while I was out and when I returned I had this lovely (not so photo friendly) delight to enjoy!

The picture does not show how thick is was, and it was delicious. I did wonder if I would need some sweetener, but the mashed banana makes it so sweet anyway. Delish.

Body pump was fab- I decided to go with a heavier hand weight for the triceps as the last bit is only short, but it was so much harder (this is using a 3kg weight instead of 2kg)- I did not think that it would be that much harder! anyway the instructor said I would soon get used to it. Man that lunges track is hard- squats, lunges, squats, lunges, squats, lunges etc! No rest! I forgot to take a towel, but I did make a conscious effort to keep my shoulders relaxed during squats and that did help. But then getting the bar off after is so hard- how do people do that??

Yesterday I had a run after work- after Monday’s run getting cut short I was actually a bit worried about it. I did my Audiofuel run and it was fine. Well, it was really hard work- it makes other muscles in my legs ache. What is weird is that overall it does not make me any faster, but I suppose that makes sense as if I am running faster for short times, I need the recovery periods to be slower.

Also I finished trying those coconut water flavours and did a little review here. 🙂

Cream crackered

Yo 🙂

And welcome new commenters- always love to hear from people who read this 🙂

Gosh what a busy day! A double staff meeting (yeah how mean- no slacking off here even though we are nearly in the final week!) and a rush to the shops on my way home (partly because Emma said Sainsbury’s did PB&co pb- but my one didn’t- but also for other stuff e.g. cards for parent helpers and that sort of thing) meant I got home at 6.05pm, when I leave for aerobics at 6.10pm. I saw nak’d bars on offer so I had a cocoa mint bar in the car (as I was hungry) and then rushed to aerobics. Busy but fun. I had a sweaty ponytail at the end and we did so much cardio that we never even got the mats out for press ups or anything.

So, a few things.

One; I often listen to the Food Programme on the BBC podcasts, and the one I heard the other day I thought was really interesting. They were looking into trans fats and how they are in a lot of food (or not much according to government stats). But I still ended up confused. I do know a few things- that “hydrogenated vegetable oil” means that by forcing hydrogen into liquid oil, it turns it sold at room temp,but this in turn makes it harmful as it is not natural and the body cannot process the fats normally.  So I know to avoid foods that contain those (yeah peanut butter m’n’m’s I am talking to you), and now I only use Pure spread because it says clearly it is free from hydrogenated oils. But apparently sometimes they are just listed as vegetable fats, so even if you do read the label (I do, but apparently most people don’t) it is still hard to work out if foods contain them or not. And of course the ideal would be all unprocessed natural foods, but that is hard. So anyway, the link is here if you are interested. And any comments to add about trans fat?

Two; I got an email today about a 5k fun run in London, organised by a charity called Trees for Cities. It is on Saturday 17th September at Battersea park, plus when you finish you get a tree sapling to take home. So if you fancy that the info is here.

Three– I got a comment on my raw chocolate company review to say they have a new flavour- orange and goji berry, so check that out here!

Gosh what a lot of links! 🙂

Night