Author: Maria Runs

I would run 1000 miles

Ok, so I realise that the song is actually walk, and possibly 5000 miles. But still, it is in my head after I logged on to my Nike+ today. 1000 miles since last May. Not bad going. Paula even had a little video clip for me!

So first up today was our school trip- walking around a model village all day is actually very tiring! Making sure you do not lose any children is quite stressful! It was a lovely day but they were so excited (even about going on a coach) so it was tiring. I even had a cup of tea right after the kids went home which is very unlike me, but I was shattered. Then home for a run in the drizzle. Nice. Well, actually it was quite nice. I had a 5 mile run, and as I mucked up my weekend runs I missed the interval run on Monday. So I had considered doing some of that while I was out, but after about 2 miles I think the tea wore off and I felt so tired, so in the end I kept it very gentle. I feel like I am totally easing off more than I should, but hey-ho.

Dinner was fab- some of my lentil tofu veg bake with some crunchy food doctor beans on the side, and a massive pickled onion 🙂

Thanks for the comments about the carb stuff- I have been reading different things and the idea now seems to be that just to make sure you get enough normally, and not to go crazy. I think we might make some pasta to have cold on Friday evening on the plane (I am going to the airport straight from work- Andy is going to pick me up, and as our flight is at 8 we do not want to wait until we get there for dinner. And I love the bagels idea- we have some in the freezer so I might dig them out for snacks at the end of next week. But I had a look over my food diary on WLR and I seem to be getting enough at the moment anyway- I suppose I do not follow a low carb diet or anything like that- I tend to have them at most meals.

I feel like I am on the final countdown now- on my run today I thought “only 3 more runs after this before the big one”- and tomorrow is my last body pump (as I am not going next Thursday). I am kind of excited but also very very nervous.

Right, off for some blog perusing now 🙂

Carob crazy

Not carrot crazy.

Those carob cookies I made last week were scrummy- I had the last one on Monday night.

These are so good- with chewy raisins as well as carob flakes. Mmm. And the carob flakes are good because they do not taste that nice on their own- they are not like chocolate chips where you could eat a handful. I think, anyway.

Yesterday I went for a seed stacked bar with chai tea, for my pre aerobics snack, as I had been thinking about how yummy carob is.

Yum- although I think they were left in the sun for a bit as they coating is now a bit cracked. Ah well all tastes the same.

I started yesterday with some bircher style muesli- some oats, milk, yoghurt and raisins left overnight, and then added a sprinkle of muesli for crunch in the morning.

Again that was delicious. I love that rhubarb yoghurt as it is not too sweet.

Yesterday was aerobics and we were back to our normal brilliant instructor.

I had a green mountain for dinner- spagetti with courgette, green pepper and spinach, with pesto. Very green indeed.

And some mint tea with some rum and raisin chocolate.

The raisins on the chocolate were lovely- sprinkled on the top. But the chocolate had a strong rum taste which was a bit strange- may have to give the other half to Andy. As one who does not like alcohol it was not my fave. Although I used to love those “rum truffles” that you got from bakeries- they were like big fudgy balls coasted in chocolate 100’s and 1000’s- I don’t remember them tasting of rum though (my Dad used to get the for me when I was little sometimes)- anyone else remember those? I wonder what they were made of.

Right, I am off. I have a little run planned later (although we have our school trip today so may well be very tired!)- then I need to plan the shopping list for next week. Got to think about uping carbs for the final few days of next week so any good ideas?

Cheers

Gentle day

So as promised I did not have a run. Lucky really because my legs were feeling tired at work today. Less sitting down as it was PE, playground duty and stuff like that.

So anyway, when I got home, first I made some muffins to take to work tomorrow. I keep on seeing muffin recipes with yoghurt, and I have some lovely Rachel’s rhubarb yoghurt, so I used it in the recipe. It was supposed to have chopped rhubarb also, but I didn’t have any, so I used blueberries instead.

They look pretty anyway, I always love blueberries in baking as they go all jammy in the middle. I am hoping the yoghurt keeps them nice and moist too.

Then I did some yoga for runners (the free 20 min podcast)- there were some stretches (or poses) in there that felt so good- it is reminding me to think about my shoulders in the day too and keep them relaxed. After that some Earl Grey tea while tea cooked 🙂 Very civilised and relaxing.

Then we had a nice 40 min gentle walk after dinner, so as promised- and I feel like that was quite enough for me today!

I have not yet used the food processor- I think that may have to be saved unti next weekend now!

Night

PS really sad news about Sammy Wanjiru dying- he was so young too.

Most consistent run ever

Hey!

So this morning when I woke up I was feeling fine (I was yesterday evening too) so I went for the 8 miles (8.5 miles the route is)- decided I had better not push it and just finish strong.

It was cold out there- the temperature was nice in the sun but cold in the shade. Anyway, I think I run much better in these cooler temperatures and for the whole run I was feeling strong and good. I left my Nike+ on the pace screen, and whilst running it seemed pretty consistent. When I got home I was amazed- my miles were 10.17, 10.22, 10.24, 10.22, 10.24, 10.23, 10.47 (one road to cross) and 10.23- they were all so close to the same pace. It made me happy anyway. I was glad to finish strong and not too wiped out. While running I was feeling so good that I was considering running further, or going out tomorrow. But then I did decide that I am supposed to be taking it a little easier, and if I went out Monday and Wednesday, my next rest day would be Friday (which would be a whole week without a rest day) and I know this is not good for me. Some people can do that, but I know it gets me a little run down. So tomorrow I might do some yoga when I get home, or have a walk. Hold me to that!!! I watched some of the Great Manchester run stuff while I did a load of stretches (I cut out a page from a magazine that has loads of different runners stretches- they are ones we do at aerobics and body pump but there are some I always forget so I thought I would keep them to remind me).

Then I tried my almond milk (I got it ages ago from the mini Wholefoods in London)-

Oh man this was like drinking marzipan (which I love!)- it was so good. But very sweet- I don’t think I would like it all the time. Alongside some oatcakes with meridian smooth pb and morello cherry spread. Mmmmmmmm love that pb & j theme.

I have been loving this Rachel’s coconut yoghurt- seriously it is so amazing. I had it as a snack with some chocolate alpro, but actually this was not my best idea as the chocolate overpowered the coconut  a bit. It is much better on its own with muesli.

Last night I also had some yummy chocolate

This was an alternative to milk chocolate, and it was ok, but not as nice as the dark stuff. I suppose that is because dark chocolate is supposed to be without milk, so it doesn’t have any substitutes in there.

Anyway, back to today. I made some chocolate pb swirl brownies (from the pb&co cookbook I got for my birthday)

Yum. You basically made 2 mixes- one normal choc brownie mix, and then one with pb instead of chocolate, poured it on top and swirled it about. They were good (and luckily Andy’s family always take the left overs!).

We also planted some of the plants that we got yesterday, and I went to pick up my food processor. The size of the box made me panic rather a lot, but they just over package it something chronic. OK so I should have put something in the picture to compare it to, but I reckon the box is easily 2 foot long, 3 feet tall and 1 foot deep. Seriously it is ridiculous.

So anyway, I have gone so far as to get all the bits out the box, but I am very excited about using it for all the recipes I keep seeing. Plus when I next make pumpkin tofu pasta I will be able to do it all in one go, instead of about 4 batches in my mini chopper!

Onto the weekly review (this is such a long post!)

Monday- 6.7 miles

Tuesday- Easy aerobics due to a different instructor

Wednesday- 3 miles

Thursday- Body pump- used lower weights for squats, lunges and back, but normal for all the arm stuff.

Friday- 40 min walk (rest day)

Saturday- Run cut short to 5 miles due to pains

Sunday- 8.5 miles nice and strong and very steady.

So total miles = 23 miles

Less than 2 weeks to go now, I feel like I need a little countdown now! Time is ticking!

Also I was lucky enough to review some Food Doctor products, and you can see my whole review here if you would like.

Run cut short

Hey

So, today started fine, with me having breakfast, checking my route and downloading marathon talk. I set off, hoping to beat the rain, and aiming for 12 miles. Soon after I set off I started having a pain in my stomach, but decided to run gently and hope that it went away. I was reading a Runners’ World article about the power of positive thinking, and was hoping it might rub off on me. I got to the lakes and saw loads of goslings with the geese (got a bit scary at one point at the geese were too close for my liking) and also some baby moorhens (they are the little black water birds with the red bit on their beaks)- very cute. But my stomach was still sore, and I saw an empty bench so I sat down as I was feeling really shaky. I did wonder if I had left it too long since breakfast, so while I sat there I had one energy blok and some drink, but I still felt bad. At that point I was thinking of doing 9 miles instead of 12. After about 10 mins I got up with the view of continuing, but then realised I was still shaky and had forgotten my phone. Grr. The one time I could do with it. Anyway, I ended up going back home- I did manage to run home, but I felt so fed up. On the run home I was trying to decide whether I actually could have run the entire distance, which is silly as I know I do not try to get out of them normally. I tried to convince myself I was doing the sensible thing, but I was pretty upset when I got home. I was also freezing- it was actually really cold out there, and as I only ran about 3 miles, then 2 miles, I did not get up much of a speed. Anyway, after a hot shower I felt a little better, but then I had a mini panic that I might be getting some kind of infection again.

After that I had some lunch (but not much) and then we went to the garden centre for a bit, and by the time we got home I felt shattered. I ended up having some rice pudding and a slice of toast as I realised at that point I had not had enough lunch, and felt the need for some sugar. I had a couple of hours of work ahead of me (and to wait for shopping) before we could make dinner, but it took a while for the food to kick in. I think I did not eat very well on Friday- it was a rushed day, we ate dinner pretty late and I didn’t have my usual snack later in the evening. And again today I did not eat enough in the morning/ at lunch.  Work has been busy and is getting a bit stressful, so I think I was probably more tired than I realised, a little underfuelled and stuff like that. The stomach ache has gone now anyway,so not sure what it was but I have been drinking loads of water to help too!

So tomorrow I will see how I am in the morning and maybe attempt another run (but maybe 8 miles or so, not the 12). Sounds ok?

I did have a nice dinner (by the time it came around!)- I fancied those carrot pancake bake things that I made last week, but I had no carrots. I did however have some courgettes.

So enter courgette pancakes-but-cooked-in-the-oven. Batter:

Green! 1/2 grated courgette, 35g chickpea flour, 15g apple sauce, 30ml rice milk, rosemary, baking powder and enough water to make it runny. Baked for 25 mins.

Yummy! Topped with tahini and served with Food Doctor easy grains with tomato and spinach, and some Food Doctor dry roasted bean mix (crunch)- I felt the need for some protein to help me out!

Anyway, I did have some good points from the day. I started my marathon list. It is a long one already! I ordered a food processor (I was given money for this for my birthday, and get to pick it up tomorrow! Hooray what to make??), and got some lovely plants at the garden centre- hanging basket of strawberries, some oriental poppies, 2 different pumpkin plants and one squash (the pumpkin seeds I planted earlier this year have not made it), and a few other bits. 🙂 Andy will be out planting while I am (hopefully) out running tomorrow!

Fingers crossed anyway.