Category: General ramblings

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 🙂

Maple peanut butter

Hello!

So I was looking on this website, basically salivating over all the flavours of pb. I have finished my jar of chocolate pb so I decided to mix things up a bit. In the mini chopper went some smooth pb (I think it would explode if I started with nuts), some maple syrup and some cinnamon. Loads of cinnamon!

The picture does not do it justice! Enjoyed with a crunchy jazz apple- yum!

Body pump was great as per usual 🙂

Ok so I am having a bit of a dilemma. I normally have a rest day Friday and Sunday, but this week I had an extra one on Wednesday (I missed aerobics for the 10 mile run). Tomorrow I will be home pretty early, and I have the 16 mile run planned for Saturday. I am leaning towards having a 4 ish mile run after work, as I have not run since Tuesday. I need a rest day after a long run, but tend do be alright if I run before. But the only times I have run twice in a row, the second run has been 10 miles max. Also I have only got up to 14 miles, so will it spoil my chances on the 16 miler? Am I better to rest+ walk?

I am leaning towards a walk, some work and maybe the housework that I normally do on Saturday. When I mentioned it to Andy he told me I was silly to think about it, which sort of makes me want to prove I can do it. Hmm. This leads me to believe perhaps it is silly? I have done the midweek miles that the plan says for this week. And I am running a mile at work tomorrow for comic relief (we all are).

I think I have rambled for too long! Night

(Actually it is not night for me, it is read blogs while watching the channel 4 thingy).

Dreaming of holidays

Hey guys

I love holidays! They are my favourite thing in the world. My cereal bar habit aside, I don’t have crazy shopping days/ go out drinking or anything like that. I save my money for holidays! I was looking through some photos today, so if you don’t mind I am going to share some pics from some holidays. They were all over 2 years ago, but they feel so recent.

Loved Canada 🙂 Sooooo soo beautiful!

There is amazing wildlife (we were not that close- Andy has a great camera so he zoomed in but some people were only about a metre away- crazy).

And cute wildlife! We had walked around a park, got back to our hotel and then saw on the news that there were loads of racoons there so the next day we went back! Maybe they are like squirrels to Canadians but to me they were exciting!

This is me trying to hide my nerves while going up a cable car at Lake Tahoe. The views were worth the nerves!

We went to San Francisco twice- the first time the bridge was surrounded by cloud for the entire trip (and I had to buy a coat as I didn’t take one with me!)- the second time it was beautiful weather so we walked a long way to get the perfect picture!

The stunning Pacific Coast highway- amazing scenery again.

And of course it could not be complete without a Disney/ gingerbread photo! 🙂

Just looking at the blue skies has lifted my mood- today was such a grey day and I felt in need of some sunshine!

Normality resumed, today was a rest day. I had a staff meeting, and when I got home I had a cup of tea (teapigs chocolate) with a sesame honey stick;

Yum! Then I did a spot of baking (I had a brown banana you see….)

I made the banana oatmeal breakfast cookies from the vegan cookie book (I used half chickpea and half wholegrain spelt flour)- the only sweetener they have is 1/4 cup brown rice syrup, and 1/8 cup agave (I used sweet freedom as that is what I had), and of course the banana and some dried cranberries. I used brazil nuts instead of pecans, and added a few chocolate chips. Yum 🙂

So on the subject of holidays- what is your dream holiday?

I love a good road trip, I love sightseeing, walking and being outside. I do not like laying on a beach. I would love to go to Hawaii to see the volcanoes, the blue skies and blue sea.

Off to dream some more….

Another successful week

Hi guys

I can’t believe another sunday is here yet again- the weeks are going by so fast!

Today I was tired from yesterday! I also forgot to get my porridge ready last night (shock) but then I remembered I had a couple of porridge pots- I am thinking these are good for weekends away etc.

I made it with coconut milk- porridge rescued 🙂 Although it did make it so thick- I kept on adding more milk as I like my porridge more runny than this!

We walked up to the shops to stock up on nuts in Julian Graves (and I also found some dark chocolate coated cranberries which I don’t think will last long when I open them!), I was tired on the way home- not too stiff but a little.

Then I made chickpea pancakes 🙂 I don’t like making the thin pancakes (I don’t like them as much, plus they are hard to flip over) so I made little ones with (I guessed the amounts) chickpea flour, baking powder, egg, milk, vanilla and cinnamon. While they were cooking I added some chocolate chips, and also topped mine with a little choc pb.

They were tasty and I was pleased they actually looked like real pancakes 🙂

Onto the week;

Monday- 6 mile steady run- completed but I was still tired from the 14 miles on Saturday.

Tuesday- Aerobics- fuel fail meant I was tired again. But I still did it.

Wednesday- 7 miles- done- mind over matter made me complete this one.

Thursday- Body pump- kept the same weights and matched last week on the abs track front.

Friday- Much needed rest day!

Saturday- 10 miles accidently turned into 11.7 miles- lesson about route planning learnt!

Sunday- Another rest day and again well needed! Managed a gentle walk but I was very tired by the end.

Weekly total; 24.7 miles. Lesson learnt- fuelling and route planning are important. I am calling it a successful week as I managed to complete my runs, and I recovered ok from the longest run I have ever done. I was doing well with my snacks etc in the previous weeks, but this week for some reason I have not done so well.

I am going to really concentrate on eating properly during the next week, as next Saturday I am supposed to go 16 miles. I don’t want to think about that too much, but if I get there tired then I will do no good. I am also having another messed up week, due to an extra and longer staff meeting, so I am going to miss aerobics and do my runs on different days. Anyway, I won’t ramble!

I need to do some more foam rolling now. So, what have you done this week that you can call a success? Let’s all be positive and celebrate our achievements 🙂

On a completely random note, I got an email from wiggle saying that until Tuesday (I think) they are having 20% off “nutrition”. So any guesses on what I have ordered? (Clif bars and nuun). But someone might find that useful? They also do Mule bars on there, but I like the apple ones and Andy doesn’t and it made sense to order ones that we both like.