Running - Maria Runs

Deep Heat review

Hey peeps,

Hope you are all well. I am off to Brighton in a bit as we are doing the 10K there tomorrow morning (the joy of rail replacement buses will soon be mine). Training has been going well, so fingers crossed. For the last two weeks at the Sweatshop run I have been at the back, which has ended up being good as the guy from the shop has also been there. It has made them really tough as in the last mile he starts going “don’t let your pace drop, close the gap with the person in front, pick up the pace, finish strong ” etc- for both weeks those thoughts have crept in (I am tired/ I’ve had a busy week/ I can’t go any faster) but then with him going on I have sped up a bit and to finish the run really fast is good practise for a race.

On Thursday I had slightly lighter weighs for the back track and the lunges at pump, as those are the ones that seem to affect my running the most. Seriously that lunges track is a killer! Partly because recently the lunges track has been mixed with more squats, so we are not used to it any more. I was considering a run yesterday, but looking back at my training I seem to do better in races if I have a few days off beforehand, so I went to see my Nan straight after work, and then came home for a restful evening listening to the film podcast and then watching a film.

I just need to look up a pacer band (I like the one here) and see what I need to do to get that sub hour 10K!

Onto the review:

So a while ago I was sent some products from Deep Heat to use.

The Deep Heat spray was much easier to use than the cream. I do use the cream occasionally, and I do like it, but I find it so hard to wash it off my hands after. Using the spray made it much easier.

After a tough run I quite like a cold shower (well after a warm shower I turn down the temperature and spray my legs)- I have read that they do that with horses as the cold constricts the blood flow, and so the contrast between that and warming up after means that your blood vessels open wider, and encourage more nutrients to flow in to support recovery. Anyway, whatever the science behind it is, I find it much more beneficial.

After my tough half marathon and Blenheim, and the 10 mile muddy race the week after, I used Deep Freeze on my hamstrings and it really helped.

I have not tried the Max strength stuff yet, but luckily I have not had the need for it! Hopefully I won’t need it this weekend either!

Do you use anything like that to help with recovery?

Are you a fan of ice baths or cold showers? I did have a few ice baths when I was marathon training, but I could only take about ten minutes!

Coconom baking

So ages ago I won some coconut sugar on a competition on Tamzin’s blog.

I love coconut sugar- if I make pancakes and cook an apple to go alongside them I always cook it with a little coconut sugar- it is so delicious.

We were going to see my parents on Friday so I decided to use it in a fruit cake as they (especially my Dad) love fruit cake.

I used a “light fruit cake” recipe (with added spices) as I didn’t want it to be too similar to Christmas cake, and swapped all the sugar for the coconut sugar.

I didn’t ice it, so instead I glazed it with apricot jam (just heat up a small amount and then brush over) and topped with flaked almonds and orange peel. It was really good even if I say so myself! And I still have some left 🙂

Over the weekend I also received a couple of lovely parcels:

Some popchips– yummy! I have already had the salt and vinegar ones as they are my favourite. They also emailed the other week to say that they are going to release the sweet potato flavour in the UK- not sure I should be so excited by this, but anything sweet potato is a winner. Although when I was in Sainsbury’s the other day I saw two weird things. One- cinnamon flavoured pringles. Which might be OK I suppose. But then next to them were chocolate mint flavour pringles. I mean, am I the only person who thinks crisps need to be savoury? It wasn’t even April Fools…

I also received some gorgeous tea from Teaple. They are basically full leaf tea but without the need to use infusers or strainers, as they are in lovely pyramid bags.

I could not resist trying the Earl Grey- called Lord Grey’s Tweed Trousers (love the quirky names)- and will be working my way through the rest of them pretty soon.

On the running front, I had Monday as a rest day, although we did have a short walk in the drizzle after dinner yesterday evening. Today I went out in my new trainers again- they seem fine now I am lacing them up a bit better. I have kept a plaster on my toe as the skin is sore, but it does not seem to be getting any worse, so hopefully I can keep them.

Braving the shops

So yesterday afternoon I had to wait in as I was expecting a delivery (in the morning, but of course it didn’t come until gone 3pm).

I got a few bits for work and then could not resist these baking books (the babycakes book topped it up for free delivery, so it was basically free, right?). After that I had to go to the allotment to plant out some rhubarb crowns that came this week (not allowed to go there after dusk so I didn’t have long) and then I popped out to the shops. I even braved TK Max after hearing good things about it. I am not much of a shopper anyway (in that I don’t have the patience for more than an hour of shopping) but I just really want to tidy it up. I hate the way it is organised- all the coats on one rack were all different colours and sizes- like the Next sale I just cannot be bothered to sift through it all. I found the food section and was impressed with some of the lovely things on offer- I got some Christmas coffee to go in hampers, and some tea for us (vanilla chai, and peach and passionfruit which is gorgeous).

I also popped to Boots and as things were 3 for 2 I got some nail varnish, a sort of pearly top coat, and some conditioner.

Then I made some gingerbread- I used a recipe from the British Bake off book, although I simplified the recipe. Basically you had to heat treacle, butter and syrup in a pan. In a bowl you had flour, sugar, spices and bicarb- you added milk and an egg, and then whisked in the cooled treacle mixture- it all frothed and bubbled up- I imagine how honeycomb is supposed to- before baking it in the oven.

Today I added some lemon icing (just zest and juice of one lemon mixed with icing sugar)- the sunlight was so bright but the picture has not come out that well.

Anyway we had it with our Sunday tea and it went down very well indeed- really moist and sticky like a good gingerbread should be.

This morning I woke up early, and the weather was gorgeous so I went out for a run. I decided on 10K- so I did an out and back route so I could get it just right. I was keeping a close eye on my watch- I knew I had to be under 10 minute miles, although I need to actually work out my pace properly for next week. Mostly I was doing 9.25 ish, at one point it crept over to 10.02 but that prompted me to speed up, and I even kept up a good pace going back up the hill on the way home.

Photo: So I managed sub hour 10k on my own, now bring on Brighton next weekend :)

I was very pleased to see that even with crossing roads I had managed sub 60 minute! I might manage my target next weekend! More on that another day I think. Plus, good news, I wore my new trainers- I laced them up much tighter, and put a plaster over the cut, but they were much better so hopefully I will keep them.

Even though I wore a long sleeved top, a jacket, tights and gloves I was pretty cold, so after a shower I went back to bed to warm up. I am reading the new John Grisham book at the moment so read a few more chapters.

Later in the morning we realised that we had run out of a few things (annoying seeing as I only went to the shops yesterday) so we parked a bit away from the town and then walked in. We got to Starbucks at just after 2pm, so decided to take advantage of the festive drinks offer. I had a gingerbread steamer (so no coffee, just steamed milk and gingerbread syrup)- very delicious.

Plus my new nail varnish nearly matches the cups! It was so nice to sit outside- even though it was pretty chilly we were wrapped up warm from our walk anyway.

Are you a good shopper? I find that if I go somewhere new, whether this country or another, I can shop for a bit longer, but if I go to my local shops I can only stand about an hour before I get fed up and want to go home. Although saying that often if we are away somewhere we spend most of our time in coffee shops/ tearooms!

Parkrun plastic!

A while ago I ordered myself a “proper” Parkrun barcode- you can just print a paper one off the website, but they do get a bit wrinkled in your pocket while you run. I decided they would be good presents for my Dad and brother too, so I got my Mum to sneakily email me their numbers, and they all came in the post a few weeks ago. I got them from the official place, here, if anyone else is interested.

Please excuse the awful chipped nail varnish that needs to come off asap!

The last time I went I couldn’t use it as my brother came with me, but today I was all on my own so I took it along to give it a try (with my paper one as backup!). The weather predicted rain, but luckily it held off until much later (around 11 am I think). The start was jam packed- I tried to stay on the path as the grass was quite long and very muddy- it looked very slippery. It started as the bells went off at the local church, and I spent the first section going pretty slowly. I overtook a few people in the end, but had decided to use the first bit to warm up as it was freezing! I kept my long sleeved top on the whole time, and wished I had worn tights instead of capris. It was such a good morning for a run, although the air was so cold so it was tougher breathing. I thought that for some miracle I would get around the first loop of the lake without being lapped, but alas a speedy person came past me right at the turn! Another speedy runner nearly pushed me over as he shoved past- how rude.

I had glanced at my Garmin a couple of times- I knew my first mile was slower due to the crowding, but the second mile was much quicker, so again I flipped my watch around so I could not look at it for the final bit. This seems to help a lot. There is a tiny hill (slope? It is steep but only for a few steps) before you run back along the path again, and this often seems to sap all the energy from my legs, but today I was feeling OK in my legs- it was my breathing that could not keep up (I think the cold air made my throat dry, and then I had a few bits of saliva in my throat which I could feel moving when I was breathing if that makes sense- felt like I might choke). The finish chute is on the grass, and annoyingly someone overtook me on the mud (I felt very unstable) and then stopped right before he got to the chute- at least the volunteer asked him to keep moving but I nearly smacked right into him! (And I just checked on the results and it was not even his first one!)

The queue for chip scanning was huge (but no wonder- I was number 171- the same as 2 weeks ago)- I was very glad of my top then as I was getting very cold indeed. One problem with turning my watch around is that I forget to stop it when I finish- I noticed it was still going on 28 something, so I knew I had gone quite fast, but no idea of my time. It meant that the text message was a lovely surprise- 27.16 so not bad- only 26 seconds off my pb- and my third fastest time. I am sure I run better in the cold.

What was weird was that in my final lap I wasn’t by many people, so it felt like I was near the back. But as I was in the queue loads more people came in, and a total of 274 people completed it, so there were just over 100 people who came in after me- it didn’t feel like that!

My race number for the Brighton 10K arrived this week too- exciting stuff!

Once I got home I had a lovely hot shower and some porridge before getting on with the housework- I think I cleaned the house in record time!

Then I made some tea in my infuser- love it! Along with a little chocolate- I was going to use this in baking but wanted to see what it tasted like on its own first.

Also marathon talk released their 200th episode this week. You guys all know how much I love it, and I could ramble on, but this post sums it up really well. So have a read.

Have a lovely weekend 🙂

Christmas teapot!

Hey peeps, I hope you are all well.

We had a lovely weekend in Kent, visiting plenty of National Trust places. On Friday afternoon we went to Chartwell where Winston Churchill lived- for an interesting look around and some cake for lunch then on to Ightham Mote for a look around before heading to our B&B. On Saturday morning the weather looks good so we went to The White Cliffs of Dover for a lovely walk- we didn’t quite make it all the way to the lighthouse (2 miles away) as it looked like it would rain, but we ended up staying dry. We shared some cake in the tea room, and then headed to Canterbury for the afternoon as the weather had predicted rain. We did stop for a drink in Starbucks in the afternoon and it poured with rain- good timing indeed, but it stayed dry for us. Our hotel for that evening was on a leisure park, so we went to Nando’s I was very impressed with their options (they do veggie burgers/ wraps etc)- we shared hummus and pitta bread to start, and then I had a lovely salad with green beans, avocado and seeds sprinkled all over. On Sunday morning we went to Bodiam castle (in the picture)- we had some delicious carrot cake in the tearoom. Then we went to Sissinghurst castle for a walk around the gardens before heading home. Kent is a great place to go as there were loads of other places we could have visited- we got value for our membership for sure!

It was lovely, and we were so lucky with the weather as on Thursday it had looked as if it would be a washout.

Also I bought myself a Christmas teapot! Andy actually pointed it out to me in a shop window- that was a mistake! I did look at it and think about it while we walked around the shops, but decided to treat myself.

Last week (at long last) I got myself some new trainers. I tried on a few pairs, but the updated version of the shoes I had already were very comfy, so I went for them.

I went for a run on Friday (we we left at lunch time) but I didn’t wear them as I was going on the fields and didn’t want them to get all muddy. On Monday after work I went for a 3.5 mile run, but annoyingly after around 2.5 miles they started to rub on my little toe of my left foot. It seems to be where they bend. This evening we went for a walk and I wore them and tried to lace them differently, but one shoe was still rubbing. Annoying- I shall have a look on google- I can swap them for another pair in the next month, but I don’t really want to do that!

Hope you are enjoying the 5th of November! We didn’t go to a fireworks display this year, but on our walk there were plenty going off- I love seeing them from a distance.