Category: General ramblings

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!

Another review

The weeks certainly seem to be flying by at the moment!

Today was a much needed rest day- I was not stiff but my legs did feel tired today. I did some foam rolling last night, and hada gentle walk today (although in the wind it was still hard work!).

The day started with some porridge in a jar! Using small jars of peanut butter has it’s advantages- they run out sooner!

(I had to leave some in the bowl as it would not all fit in the little jar!)- I added some carob powder to the bottom of the jar and then mixed it in- topped it with some cinnamon- yummy 🙂

I cannot think what the carob reminded me of (carob topped 9 bars/ seed stacked bars?)- I like the flavour but it is slightly different to cocoa powder. A nice change anyway.

I also unpacked my shopping from yesterday!

Holland and Barret were having another “buy one get one half price” sale, so I stocked up on PB. I love the meridian stuff (as it is 100% peanuts- no oil, salt or sugar)- once crunchy and one smooth for variety! I also got some mollasses (although later I found out that it was not black strap which has the most iron, grrr) and some blackcurrant fruit spread. In the health food shop I found date syrup (I was looking for rice syrup which I got last time and have used it all, but they didn’t have any), the carob powder and some scrummy orange chocolate.

So here is the weekly review;

Monday I did a 6 mile run with some intervals in the middle- these went ok but I think they tired me out for the week! Aerobics was busy on Tuesday, and on Wednesday I was very tired after such a busy day at work, and so my planned 6 mile was cut down, in the end to 5 miles so not cut down too much. Thursday in body pump I managed heavier weights for a bit longer during the back track, and on Saturday I managed the 12 miles just fine, even with the wind. In fact I think I may have gone too fast. I totalled 23 miles this week, my most so far (and I got onto blue level on Nike+ which means 1000km since May!). I do weigh myself each week, and although at the moment I am focusing on maintaining, I did lose 1lb this week, which may also explain why I was more tired than usual. (I am in the mid range for my height so losing some will not hurt but I did know this week that I probably was not eating enough and so I want to keep an eye on that as often after a longer run I lose my appetite and I want to have enough protein, carbs etc to recover properly from the training). On the whole I feel positive about this week- I know I was annoyed on Wednesday for not completing the allotted mileage, but that is me and my obsession with ticking things on lists! I know in the long run it won’t make any difference. I am pleased with how the 12 miles went, as again it is the furthest since my half marathon (in the summer I think my furthest training run was 11.5 miles or something) so I am pleased I managed it without totally wearing myself out.

The next 2 weeks are going to be hard, as I have a couple of late staff meetings and parents meetings on different days, so my routine will not be the same as normal. I have planned when I am going running, to fit around work but it is not ideal. Fingers crossed I will manage it.

Hope everyone else had a good week/ weekend 🙂

PS I have also added a page; my race calendar to show how I moved from my 5k race for life to my races now. It was quite satisfying to see how far I have come 🙂

Treats for my eats

Evening all

Boy am I glad the weekend is here!

I was so busy yesterday- Andy was having his car serviced (he drove it there in the morning and then ran the 5 miles back home- combining training with life was clever!)- so I raced home from work, we had a quick pasta dinner and I changed, then we drove to pick up the car, I had to get petrol and then straight to body pump. I was showered and shattered at 9pm!

Over the last couple of days I have had some lovely treat snacks so here we go;

This was amazing! One pot of Rachel’s Rice pudding (although I should make my own – I do have some flaked rice somewhere..) with a tsp peanut butter and some dark chocolate chips stirred in once it was warmed. MMmmm.

A white chocolate and hazelnut flapjack- I shared it with Andy and his comment was “nice” whereas mine was “look I got a whole hazelnut!”.

Cherries with chocolate alpro and some pecan and cranberry granola. This is a classic combo which will never get old for me!

There is not much of my lovely ginger cashew cereal left (sniff)- such a delicious combo.

I think the theme might be carbs- I have been tired and I think not quite eating enough when looking at my daily allowance on WLR. I also have been sleeping badly this week (I am a bad and light sleeper anyway) and have been waking up in the night really hungry, so I have been trying to have a snack later in the evening to try to stop this happening! It worked last night anyway.

While I was driving home today, all I could think of was that I wanted to do some baking. I recently bought Vegan Cookies invade your cookie jar- it was cheap on amazon and the range of recipes look amazing (plus I don’t need to worry about having eggs when I want to bake!) so I flicked through until I found a recipe for chocolate fudgy oatmeal cookies. I think the chocolate oat combo appealed! Chocolate plus some extra carbs- yes please 🙂

I also got to use my pretty red baking measuring cups 🙂

I cooked them for a bit, flattened them some more and cooked again and they smell heavenly. I am looking forward to one or two later- they will help fuel my run tomorrow.

Body pump was fab as usual. We had more new people (the classes are getting full and we all could have only one bar each whereas usually the regulars can have a light and heavy bar made up) which makes it good, but also a bit rushed as the instructor has to keep explaining everything. I kept the extra weight on for the back track (last week I added them on for the first little bit only) and this time managed to keep them on until the last break. I was struggling to get the bar over my head right before I took the extra off,  and I am feeling it today! I also kept the heavier dumbells for the shoulders (as of last week where I made myself do it) so feeling good. I feel like I can up the weights for the squats, but my knees sometimes feel a bit sore in the squats and lunges. I am really careful with my posture, but I did used to have a bad knee and still now it can get stiff, so I am wary of increasing too much in case I strain something. My heart rate gets very high and I find it hard so I am pushing myself with the current weights, but what I am saying (in a rambly way) is that I want to concentrate on increasing weights for the non leg tracks more.

Right, off to read some blogs before a lovely dinner of veggie and bean bake and some home made wholemeal bread. 🙂

Minty tea

Mmmm.

I never thought I would like minty tea. But last time I did a teapigs order it was cheaper to get it in the mixed box, than to buy the other ones separately. So I tried it and actually I find it really refreshing. I am actually thinking that in the summer I might try to make my own (I saw Alys from Gardeners World do it before) as I have all sorts of mint in my garden. But I will have to wait for it to grow. Now I shall make do with teapigs!

And the best thing about minty tea is that if you combine it with some dark chocolate (that stuff is so good and on offer at the moment 🙂 bonus) you get an after eight flavoured snack! Perfect!

After that it was time for aerobics. I have never seen it so busy (must be all those new years resolutions kicking in)! The instructor had to go and tell reception to let more people in, as the class limit was reached and she thought we could up it. We did all fit in, but it was a case of “love thy neighbour”. It was fab, we had some great tunes (not the usual) including some old body pump songs- the girl next to be also goes to body pump so we kept looking at each other and saying stuff like “this was a lunges track”, “we had this for triceps” and so on. I was so tired by the end though- 6 miles on a monday is more than I have usually done so I think that might have been partly why.

Does anyone else with blogs get those monthly stats? I got mine through just now and it is crazy- apparently during January 690 “unique” people looked at my blog- it is strange to think that this many people are interested in what I get up to! I didn’t get any funny searches this month though. I think it is amazing that people spread all over the world get connected via blogs – people from far flung places such as Singapore are visiting. I think it is quite exciting that people are “connecting” from all over the world.

Right, I am off to put my feet up now in preparation for my next 6 mile run tomorrow.

Night 🙂

Back to those intervals again

Evening all

I did a lot of foam rolling last night as I started to feel a little stiff and very tired. It seemed to help as this morning my legs felt fine. I was most excited that this evening it was lighter for so much longer! As it was such a sunny day that helped too. In the autumn I start getting impatient to leave work before it gets dark, so I can run, but in the winter I get really used to running in the dark and in the end I quite like the dark (so long as the street lights are on)- it means no one can see how red my face is! So although I love the lighter evenings, it does not affect my running as much as in the autumn if that makes sense? Anyone else love/ hate running in the dark?

After work I had an oaty bar for some energy;

 These are replacing my seed stacked bars for the moment (although they have only a sprinkling of seeds). It had dried strawberries but actually they were quite moist and like little bits of jam in the flapjack (which is made with coconut oil and sweet freedom). Seemed to do the trick anyway!

I layered up with running tops and then headed out- I looked at the pacing on my Nike+ instead of the time or the distance to see if that helped- 2 mile warm up, 2 miles with intervals- this time I did 9 lots of 2 mins running faster (9.30 ish for the faster bits, 10.30ish for the recovery pace although it was hard to see in the dark!), then 2 miles cool down (although I was so cold I did not need much of a cool down). We continue with the theme of me making myself like intervals- these ones were ok but I think I need to go a bit faster. Maybe next week…

Then it was home for some lentil chilli- I forgot a sweet potato so while it was heating up I added some quinoa and water to cook in with it- seemed to work 🙂

I baked some plums yesterday as they were “ripen at home” but have not ripened, so I might have some of those a bit later as another snack 🙂

Night