OK, so for a while now my goals with regard to running have mainly been to go further. A few years ago I started with a 5K, the following year I did a couple of 10K’s, the year after a couple of half marathons, and this year the full marathon. During that time, I have got a little faster, but I have not really focused on it much- I am getting ever closer to the 1 hour 10k, but have not made it yet. I have been reading (and listening to marathon talk of course) about this subject, but the bottom line is, in order to run a faster race, I have to train faster.
So Friday after work I did another audiofuel interval workout. I did the middle one again, which tops out at 180 steps per min. Although the recovery parts are slower than I normally run, I have come to realise that I need to have them slower in order to be able to run faster in the other parts. The first intervals feel a little fast, but fine. The second ones feel comfortably hard, and the fastest ones feel very hard (like, I want to stop and have a little trouble breathing but in a good way). Without access to a track I have always found doing intervals hard- it would be a combination of looking at my Nike+, flipping between time and pace to make sure I kept it up, or running fast between lamp-posts etc, so really more fartlek style. I like the fact that these tell me how fast to go and I manage to maintain that pace consistently, as oppose to my fake interval training where in realilty I must vary my speed all the time.
Anyway, the run was good,but I was glad to get home!
Time for some refreshing coconut water! My face does not look at all red, or in fact that sweaty and I have no idea why, as I was baking and dripping yet again!
Anyway, I am going to keep this up as I can see that it forces me to run faster than my comfort zone, which can only be a good thing.
While I am on the topic of running faster, I have a little plug for my beloved marathon talk. At the end of every interview they ask the question “if you could have 6 months of guaranteed perfect training dedicated to this, how fast could you run one mile?” and they have a little magic mile leader board. They are having a little magic mile summer challenge– basically you register on the site, and then between 1st -14th August you have to run one mile flat out, and log your time. There is some kind of complicated age ranked scoring system, and it is basically UK vs the world,with participation ranking higher than speedy times. So go on, sign up! I am! They even have a training plan, if you want to take it super seriously. 🙂
On Thursday it was body pump, and I did like the music a little more this time (phew). I found a couple of tracks a little easier (squats being one, although that may be because I have cut back the running miles for the moment) so I went a little heavier (although the lunges track is a killer)- I also went crazy and did full push ups! Well, we only have 4 at the start of the shoulder track (I normally do half girly ones- you know, on your knees but with hips low but I did used to be able to do full ones ages ago so I knew I was capable)- no going back to girly ones now!
Friday night we went to friends’ house for dinner, and I provided dessert. So, if you do not want to see cheesecake, STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER / scroll down a bit as healthy stuff resumes further on.
It was a chocolate, caramel and hazelnut baked cheesecake from the new Hummingbird book. You made the base, chilled it, made the cheesecake mixture and then mixed half with caramel sauce, and half with melted chocolate- you can kind of see the layers. Then it was baked.
After chilling overnight it was topped with caramel sauce and roasted hazelnuts. Yum. My friends actually discussed kidnapping me and keeping me tied up in their kitchen- to be honest I would love to be baking all day haha!
OK- healthy stuff resuming alert!
I have had some tasty dinners, including lovely pasta with roasted veggies and pesto (one of my fave meals).
I topped this with a little reduced fat cheddar (which was on offer and it actually pretty nice- I do not normally go for the reduced cal/fat stuff, but it tastes nice). Yum.
This was lovely banana-cocoa-pb pudding topped with raspberries. Delicious.
Today I went out on a run- I did the route from 2 weeks ago, and actually 2 mins slower, but my legs felt really heavy. I think the extra weight from body pump and also the harder run yesterday probably didn’t help that. I did though have water with me (well, water with a nuun tab) which did help a lot. It was lovely, but I was in a hurry after as I had to get to my school summer fayre. Anyway, before I left I could not resist trying a Clif bar from my bloggie swap!
Yummy! It was scrumptious. Andy had a bite and said “will we be living on Clif bars this summer?” (as we are going to America) and then “do they sell them in supermarkets over there?”- US blog friends- where do they sell them?? And thanks again to Britt- what a super tasty parcel 🙂
Anyway, as it was hot I took some water with me to the fayre and then spent a few lovely hours, first manning a bouncy castle, and then wandering aboutin the sunshine. Love it. 🙂
So, how do you runners out there get faster? And have you signed up for the magic mile challenge? Go on, you know you want to!
🙂
Yum! This gave me loads of energy for aerobics and I felt like I was leaping all over the place- love it!
One in a pb jar- yum 🙂
And one in a bowl. The bowl is not dirty, but for some reason it goes like that once it has been in the microwave- no idea what it is! Anyway, loving strawberries at the moment.
I got this for my birthday (it is a Birthday Rose)- so pretty. The flowers are little and so delicate.
These are Hollyhocks which I grew from seed a couple of years ago. I did not think they had made it, as none of them flowered last year, but this year they are so tall (taller than the fence)- even though they are English flowers I think they look so tropical.
Some other pretty flowers (Laviteria- not sure how you spell it).
Clematis.
My little veggie patch! We actually have some courgettes growing that will be big enough to be picked soon! Including some yellow ones! How exciting! I think the corn needs some sunshine though. There are also pumpkin, butternut squash and carrots. 🙂 My strawberries, blueberries and blackcurrants are by my apple tree, and of course I love growing all that fruit.
Once home it was time for some lovely cold coconut water- lovely 🙂
This was lovely Rude Health crispy muesli, with a chopped apple and milk- so refreshing in the morning.
Dinner was version 2.0 of Saturday’s dinner. I cooked the rest of the quinoa (red and white stuff) with a little tomato puree, water, spinach and beetroot, and put some falafels on top. Then once cooked I served it on the rest of the spinach, drizzled with raspberry basil dressing (which is amazing by the way). Super tasty. I also had some cherries- hooray! They have been out of stock fot ages so I was so pleased to get some this week. Yum.
First up were some amazing chocolate crispy squares from Oh She Glows (I found them while looking for chia seed recipes!!)- I used Rude Health puffed oats as I had them, and did not have rice crispies. They are amazing. Seriously. The recipe is 
That is a lot of bananas! I have had some banana “pudding” (mashed up with pb and carob powder) and have some in the fridge. But I still had loads left and I did not want to put them in the freezer. Then I remembered seeing a recipe for banana brownies on Peanutnutterbutter’s blog- recipe 
I added some peanut butter chips to it as well, as they need using up! This smells so good and will be going into work as everyone will approve of the fat free recipe. 🙂
I was going to ask you to guess which one, but you can see it in the pic! Whoops! I had it with some falafel type things (chickpeas in the food processor with tomato puree, garlic, chilli, a little water and some gluten flour- then rolled into balls- it made 12), some red and white quinoa (I have run out of dried stuff and the pouches were on offer), beetroot and lettuce. Really I should have had it in a pasta bowl in layers, as the dressing made the qunioa lovely too. It was really summery, and reminded me of dressings we used to get when we went on holiday to France. Yum. Plus, look how pink it is!
Not sure why they are not cupcakes? But basically it was a normal muffin/ cupcake batter, with some nutella (well, whole earth chocolate hazelnut spread) stirred in, then spoon batter into the cases, add a blob of spread and then more batter, and top with chopped hazelnuts. They smell amazing!
Finally, a random picture from the other day- I whizzed up 80g frozen raspberries and added some alpro chocolate. It does go just like sorbet. Then I had the rest of the alpro dessert underneath. Yummy.
Parcel one was my bloggie food swap, from Britt at 
Parcel two was from the lovely Lucy at 
Yum. Mighty Maple pb in a pitta. It was sooooooo good. It tasted like maple syrup (no Sh** Sherlock), and went all melty in the warm pitta. Yum. 🙂 Any bets on how long I can make it last??
Home for some refreshing coconut water- this stuff has pomegranate and acai (some kind of berry) in it. I thought it would be quite tart, as pomegranate juice normally is, but it was lovely, so refreshing. 🙂 They are 500ml bottles so I have half for another day, although I think I could have drank it all!