Author: Maria Runs

Another beautiful day

Spring is most certainly here 🙂

I am loving this weather so much!

I was so tired last night that I actually fell asleep for half an hour while reading my run less run faster book- oops!

Today after work I had a 3 mile run with some intervals. I warmed up for a mile (although it was so warm I only had on a vest- anyone else feel weird exposing their arms after months of layers? I felt really self conscious but I know it will go after a few runs!) then measured it by distance- 0.1 mile faster, 0.1 mile slower, for a mile and a half, then a little cool down. In the faster bits I averaged 9.55 miles so not half bad 🙂 Total – 3.1 miles in 31 minutes.

Hooray!

By the end I felt quite tired and my legs felt more stiff so lots of stretching is on the cards this evening. I had some yummy pumpkin pasta (the last of my current freezer stash so I must remember to make some more) -I added some beetroot to it while it cooked and it went all pink and even more tasty! No picture as I was so hungry!!!

I am also looking forward to a pumpkin scone later on.

With the weather getting warmer does anyone else a- struggle to work out what to wear and b- feel weird exposing their bodies after months being wrapped up in many layers?

I wear a vest and ron hill trackster things at the gym all the time, but for some reason running outside by people in their coats and things (and randomly a man out running with shorts and a hoodie with the hood over his head) makes me feel very self conscious.

Toodle-pip 🙂

Pumpkin scones

Evening all!

Thanks for the comments yesterday- I am feeling stronger with my running (and, dare I say it, a little faster) and today that was confirmed. I was so worried about feeling stiff and sore as I was tired last night (and last week I had a rest day after the 10 miles) but today was aerobics as usual, and I felt full of energy.

You will be glad to know that after the rice pudding in a jar yesterday I decided to make my own rice pudding for this evening- I am loving it at the moment, but the Rachel’s one is pretty high in fat (which is ok for me as I do not eat many fatty things) but anyway, I prefer to make my own.

So in a cup I put 25g flaked rice, added 100ml milk (normal this time, but I will try with Kara coconut milk when I have some open) and 50ml water. I left it to soak all day. Then I microwaved it for 1min 20, stirred it, added some cinnamon, a bit of vanilla and a few raisins, and microwaved again for 40 seconds.

Ok so the picture is rubbish! But it is thick and creamy (helped to cool my mouth down after my home made bean burgers- I think this batch had twice the amount of chilli than normal whoopsie!). I added a drizzle of maple syrup but actually the vanilla and raisins make it nice and sweet anyway.

But that isn’t why you are reading is it? You were promised pumpkin scones. I found a good looking recipe ages ago here, but kept forgetting and would only remember when I only had a little amount of pumpkin left. I halved the recipe and weighed them out (the original recipe is in cups etc so I used my cups but put the bowl on the scales)- 30g brown sugar, 200g wholegrain spelt flour, 1tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp bicarb, 2tsp ginger (plus other assorted spices- cinnamon, cardamon, cloves, mixed spice) all mixed up in a bowl, cut in 55g pure spread, then stirred in 190g pumpkin. Knead it together , shape into a circle and then cut into wedges. Uncooked they looked like this;

Cooked they look like this;

They smell so good, and I think they are pretty healthy as the recipe does not have much sugar or marg in it 🙂

Goodnight 🙂

Another 10 miles, and a blog first!

Phew- my legs need a rest now!

After my lovely rest day yesterday, it was a 10 mile run post work today. It was obviously on my mind as I didn’t sleep well last night (dreaming about forgetting to take my lunch/ leaving work too late and being out in the country lanes late at night…). I took extra food with me to work (including some almonds and brazils for the calories but hopefully less fibre!), and made sure I ate it all.

My run was exactly the same route as last week, and I wanted to try and pick up the pace in the middle a bit tempo stylee, although I was not sure how I would do after the 16 miles on Saturday. I had a couple of clif bloks at mile 4 and 6, along with water/nuun. I was going to have another one but I think I ate my snacks a little too close to running so was feeling a bit icky. Anyway, once home and on Nike+ I was excited to see that a– I ran it in 1 hour 43, 4 minutes faster than last week for the same route, and b– one mile I was 8.58 pace! Woah! And a couple at 9.54. I was really pleased to get those speeds in on such a long run (although soon to be a medium run?).

Now to the blog first- you have all heard of oats in a jar, but have you had….

rice pudding in a jar??? (RPIAJ)

This was my carb filled evening snack- cooked nectarine and a pot of Rachel’s rice pud, in my empty pb jar, topped with a couple of chocolate chips. Sooooooo good! RPIAJ, go on, try it! I keep meaning to make rice pudding (I have got the flaked rice and did use to) but the pots are on offer, and when we order from the internet they always pop up! I also keep meaning to make it with Kara coconut milk as I bet that would be lovely. So watch this space (eventually!).

Night 🙂

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 🙂

16 miles with the fairy

Wow I am on top of the world right now!

Thanks for all the comments regarding my running conundrum. In the end I did the mile run at work, then walked 2 miles to the shops, did some housework and pottered about. Then I was very tired! I figured that altogether I had done 3 miles on my feet, so that was enough to check my legs still worked!

Today it was 16 miles and that was all I dreamt about last night. After porridge (with some maple pb yum) and starting off making some bread for lunch, I was ready. Then I remembered I had not actually planned my route, so had to sort that out! Anyway, I did the 10 mile route from in the week (which is sort of most of a 10k loop, turn around at the 5 mile mark and backtrack), then the last 6 miles were up to the lakes, around the lakes for a bit and then home.

The weather was beautiful. I have no idea how it was for the rest of England, but here there was a heavy frost (which had gone by the time I went out) and there was not a cloud in the sky. Just miles of deep blue beautiful sun filled sky. I was feeling so good too. I didn’t even look at my watch until over 5 miles had gone. Then I was already 1/3 done! I had some shot bloks with me which I took at mile 8, 10 and 12. I also found half a packet of urban fruit (dried mango and pineapple) in the cupboard so I nibbled on that during the second half of my run. That seemed to go alright as well although my tummy was rumbling by the end! I happened to glance at my watch and notice I had done 13.1 miles, so I had a look at the time and I had run that in 2 hours 24 minutes, which is pretty good I think. Seeing as it was feeling like a slow run, that is right in the middle of my 2 half marathon times (2.32 and 2.19)- it gave me confidence that I am still maintaining the level of fitness I built up last year. After that it started getting harder (not sure if that was partly because I allowed myself to think about how far I had run/ how long I had been out for). The last few miles again were harder as I was getting a little stiff again. But not awful- I was glad when I reached home but I did feel like I could have carried on a little bit. The running fairy was well and truly with me today! It took me 3 hours and 4 minutes, a bit of that would be crossing roads I suppose. It has given me more confidence for the 20 miler too (the time limit is 4 hours and I am pretty slow) as I am sure that I could do the last 4 miles in an hour. I keep feeling very emotional this afternoon- this was a jump from the 14 mile run, but finishing it and enjoying it (I am sure a lot was down to the lovely weather) has really given me a little confidence that perhaps I will manage the actual marathon.

Anyway, once home I gulped down a chocolate alpro carton, popped the bread in the oven and rushed for a shower as by then it was about half 1 I think-  a long time since breakfast!

The bread was sooooo good! I have not made cinnamon raisin bread for ages and it is really worth it! I have a mini loaf tin so I made it in that this time. The recipe is on here somewhere but basically I put about 90ml warm water, 1tsp yeast, 1tsp sugar, 1tbs flour and 25g raisins in a cup for a bit to activate the yeast. Then I added this mixture to 150g flour (half white, half wholewheat) and a load of spices- cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, mixed spice, ginger.., kneaded it together and left to rise in the tin. This baked in the oven (180c) for 30-35 minutes.  I had mine with maple pb (plus apple and pear) but Andy had his with pure spread and it would be amazing with cream cheese.

Later on this afternoon I had some lovely Christmas tea yummy!

During my run I listened to marathon talk, and this week they did 2 versions of the show- one with added in sections of music from audiofuel. I put both on my mp3 player in case it was annoying, but actually it was quite funny. The music is sort of like keyboard demo music, and every now and then a man talks “keep your arms relaxed….. this feels easy…. take more breath than you think you need…… you need to drink water on runs longer than an hour….. run to the beat 1,2,3,4”- it reminded me of the Friends episode when Chandler tries to quit smoking by listening to the hypnosis CD, but I think it was also pretty good! Anyone used their other podcasts as I had a look on the site and there are special training ones?

Anyway, they mentioned this site- run for Japan. We all know how much help Japan needs, and this website is raising money by people dedicating one of their runs for Japan (you say how many miles. km you ran), and then donating money (eg 10p/ £1 per mile/ per km you ran). They want to have at least one run per country in the world so if you live somewhere exotic then please dedicate your run. And even if you live somewhere boring (you know what I mean) then still please dedicate one run. Anyway, for more info look here.