Author: Maria Runs

Onwards and upwards

Hopefully

Today was going to be part 2 of operation use up the bananas. But my stomach got worse in the night, and today I have been in more pain- grrrr. I hope this bug works it way out my system soon as I am getting annoyed with it. Thanks for all the lovely messages 🙂 I looked on NHS direct and the advice now is to eat things (it always used to be to not eat anything for 24 hours) but all I have managed so far today is a small bowl of plain porridge and some ginger oat cakes. Not the best. I was also supposed to be making calzone for dinner, but now poor Andy is using the veggies to make a pasta dinner for himself.

Anyway, onto the weekly review. It started off ok!

Monday’s 6 mile run was steady and fine.

Tuesday’s aerobics was good, I tried to take it a little easier than usual.

Wednesday was an enforced rest day due to long work hours.

Thursday was body pump and I managed to keep the same weights as last week

Friday was a 3 mile run which I took as an easy run and was fine.

Saturday was a disaster! Under 4 miles instead of the planned 10. But then being ill has that effect!

All in all, I am looking onwards to next week and trying to forget about the last run!

Operation “use up the bananas”

Part one

I followed the link that Laura suggested and made some banana blobs for my lunch.

With one mashed extremely ripe banana (the smell made me feel weird as I do not like it when they start going black, and these were covered in black blobs!), 15g oats, 4g ground flax, 2tbs milk, 1tbs pb, a sprinkle of cinnamon and about 10g chocolate chips.

I put them in a wholemeal wrap and had it with a pear and it was amazing! This may also be my lunch tomorrow how exciting!

I think I may well have to make banana bread tomorrow! I saw on the net last week a recipe for banana bread, and it looks fab, so I might try that.

Onto other things- be warned this may contain too much information and also some self pity.

My plan today was a 10 mile run. I followed the same pre run ritual as always- porridge (check), clean bathrooms (check- I am always too tired after to be bothered to do this!), lots of water (check), nuun and water in bottle (check), marathon talk loaded to mp3 player (check), some clif shot blocks to take with me (check), a trip to the toilet (check).

That was as good as it gets I am afraid. I set off, and after about 5 minutes I was having bad stomach pains. I thought they would go (like a stitch goes if you carry on) so I carried on, but after about 2 miles I was struggling and had to stop and walk. My legs felt very weak and I also felt a bit dizzy. I was near to a big tescos so I went in to use their toilets. I ended up sat in the toilet for about half an hour, I was all clammy (not normal sweaty you know but that weird cold sweat) and I felt awful. By then I knew I would not be carrying on. I had my phone with me, but Andy was down in southampton and I didn’t fancy calling anyone else! So I half ran half walked back home, and then had to lay on the sofa for ages. Now this week I have had a cold, but that is mostly gone, but I think I may have picked up a slight bug. After a shower I felt ok, but a bit light headed (and I realised it was a long time since breakfast) so I had the wrap and pear, and after basically sitting about I felt better. Well, I felt very annoyed at myself for not doing the planned run, but I know it can’t be helped. Anyway, I needed to pop to the shops for a couple of things for my dinner, so I headed out. I actually felt really upset when I drove past the park where I normally run- the weather was lovely today and it was so busy with people walking and cycling, and I felt fed up that I will now have to wait another week. Isn’t that a bit ridiculous? Anyway, I got a few more bits from Natural Health;

It’s the kind of shop where things have labels stuck on them, as oppose to shelf labels, so they get different stuff in each week. I was very excited when I saw the coconut oil (in so many blog recipes) and also the brown rice syrup- I did have some clearspring stuff before which I used up and was glad to see some more. I also got some face wipes- I normally use proper wash off cleanser but sometimes if I sit around for a bit I think the sweat and grime soaks in to my face.

Anyway, then I went to Waitrose and actually felt like I was going to faint in the shop as I got bad pains again. So I rushed home and have had a bit of an upset stomach ever since. So I am pretty sure I have a little bug or something.

I did enjoy some tea this afternoon (Darjeeling loose leaf tea which I love when I go to the waffle house)

I have also been drinking loads of water as I still feel a bit shaky and now have a headache.

So now I am going to have some dinner in a bit (I defrosted some squash soup and I am going to add some kidney beans to it and have it with a sweet potato) and bascially lay about a bit more and try to cheer myself up.

Anyone want to snap me out of it?

🙂

Long time no see

Well, a few days anyway!

I am glad that my first busy week is out of the way. First to exercise: Wednesday was a late meeting at work, so I had already moved my run from then to Friday. Thursday was body pump and I was very tired. I still managed the same weights as last week (and kept on the 15kg through the back track until the last break by which time I was very shaky!), but I felt like it was harder work than usual. Today I had a 3 mile gentle run after work. I was very tempted to go further as 3 miles at the moment does not seem far, but as I have a long run planned tomorrow and I was tired from my week I persuaded myself to keep to the 3 miles and have a cup of tea afterwards.

Now to the food- I have had some more delicious snacks!

This is amazing! Seriously! One pot of alpro chocolate, mixed with some PB2 and then topped with Bear granola. Yummy! PB chocolate cherry crunch heaven.

Some Maple hazelnut cereal – this is lovely but very very sweet. Basically like eating crunchy flakes of maple syrup!

A lovely flapjack with pumpkin seeds, apricots and sultanas (I shared it with Andy after body pump as it is massive).

Also after a suggestion from Jess I used some muesli instead of oats to make some porridge;

(Glad I put the packet there as when I was looking through the pics I was wondering why I had two pictures of blueberry porridge). Verdict? Lovely! I thought the nuts would go all squishy or something (as I soak it overnight) but they stayed crunchy. Some of the grains did not soak up the milk so there was a nice chewy texture to it. I had it today too as I was so impressed!

Ok, today my question is- what is the best thing to do with ripe bananas? I have loads and I made banana cookies last weekend (delicious, but only used up one banana and made a million cookies), and I don’t fancy a smoothie. I could make banana cake but we are not seeing Andy’s parents this week so I can’t donate any to them, and my freezer is rather full! So, any ideas will be gratefully received!

Cheers me dears 🙂

A blueberry day

Evening all

Today started with some blueberry porridge- how exciting!

I put them in last night, and then when you cook it some of them pop! Super tasty also!

I managed to get through my first busy day at work (hurrah!) and then managed to fit in a blueberry oat bar before aerobics. Eating this while marking work was not the easiest thing to do! Crumbs everywhere!

(By the way I did only eat one, but look at the massive blueberry on the last one in the pack! Impressive!)

Then it was off to aerobics. I tried to take it a little easy as I was feeling tired. Aerobics can be super high impact, I suppose like interval training as you might do half a minute of high intensity stuff, then half a minute of something a bit easier, for the middle half an hour of the class. So I tried to make my movements a little smaller as I was tired. I still enjoyed it, which is the main thing 🙂

Now I am finishing a bit more work (and distracting myself from that by reading blogs oops) and then I will put my feet up. I do actually have some meridian blueberry fruit spread, so I suppose I could round the day off with something else blueberry flavoured- that has got me thinking…..

What’s your fave way to eat a blueberry? Or multiple blueberries as they are very small!

Night

And we’re off!

That is what it feels like- this week is like a race to the finish line! 1/5 done already!

I did 6 miles today, but this week I am having no interval or anything like that, just general mileage. I was tired (probably still from the 12 miles on Saturday) so I just took it easy, didn’t look at the time or anything. I managed it in 61.5 minutes, so I am pretty pleased as I felt much slower.

I tried to make sure I was fuelled during the day more, so I added a banana to my breakfast, and some clementines with my afternoon snack (although that was a fail as I forgot about them to ended up eating them after dinner). Hmm. I also had some muesli last night (scrummy dessert!) to top up the carbs in the evening!

Today with dinner I had some Twinnings English Breakfast tea;

This picture is mainly an excuse to show you one of my teapots! Do you know that I have four teapots? Pretty impressive for a two person household! I love some tea with my dinner (and I know you are not supposed to due to the tea inhibiting iron absorption, but I like it too much!).

Anyway, that is all for now. Six miles done, one run ticked off this week already, so not bad for a monday 🙂 As for the comments yesterday, I am glad so many people are loving the H&B buy one get one half price deal- never realised those big tubs of pb are loved by so many! I am still on my last big tub so have not opened the new ones yet. And I do love the idea of oats in a massive tub!