Running - Maria Runs

Nut butter loving and ZMA

Hey everyone, I hope your weeks have all got off to a good start.

Yesterday we had to go to a funeral down in Southampton, and didn’t get home until about 8pm. But today has been back to normal, thankfully.

At the weekend I bought some of the new Meridian nut butters- Almond and peanut. They are lovely! I tried to make some apricot and almond jam (from my Superjam cookbook) but I think I overcooked it as it has set very solid!

Andy had bought some hot cross buns as Grand Prix snacks, so I toasted one for lunch on Sunday with some peanut butter, and put some of the jam on one side (you can see how solid the jam was!). Plus apricots and doughnut peach (from Asda- so delicious).

I have also been loving it for breakfast on overnight muesli. This one had strawberries and blueberries as well as chia seeds, muesli and almond milk. Today I had a similar one with a peach in there too.

I posted this the other day but it was sooooo good! Sourdough toast, nut butter and then blueberry sauce (made with blueberries, a splash of water and a tsp coconut sugar cooked in a pan until bubbly).

When I was in town on Saturday I saw this peanut butter ice cream in M&S- Andy had mentioned before that he wanted to try it, so I bought some as a treat. Then I realised that I had parked in Waitrose and also needed to pop in there so I had to do some speedy walking and shopping so I could get home before it would melt!

It is such delicious ice cream- the best peanut butter stuff I have tried in England (and I have tried a few…)- the peanut butter swirl was quite salty so I have had it with fresh strawberries (these are from the allotment) and a sliced peach. At least because it is so rich we only need a small amount- we have already had two servings each and there is still quite a bit left in the pot.

Today I went on a short run after work. I bumped into some of the Sweatshop runners (there is a beginners course on Tuesdays and I found out at the weekend that some of the Wednesday group have been volunteering as sweeper runners on Tuesdays)- they did invite me to join them but I want to save my legs for tomorrow. I actually had really stiff legs today which surprised me. I appreciate a rest day after a long run, but often find the first run back tough as I think my legs prefer to keep moving. Normally I would have a more “active” rest day (with a walk or the allotment or something) but that couldn’t happen yesterday of course.

Sadly no nut butter in my dinner! I have made 3 more lots of this for lunch this week. I sliced a big pack (350g) cherry tomatoes and put them in a tray with some balsamic, dried basil and a little salt. I then left them in a low oven for nearly an hour (I had a shower and Andy cooked his dinner). I cooked some quinoa and then served it with beetroot, avocado and some basil tofu.I poured over the tomato/ balsamic juices which were delicious. Mozzarella would have gone well with it too, or some fresh basil, but I didn’t have either of those.

A while ago I was sent some ZMA vitamins from Activate Nutrition. It is a supplement with zinc, magnesium and vitamin B6, and it is designed to help people recover from workouts as often people are deficient in these minerals and vitamins. You can read more about it here.

The directions were to take two about half an hour before bed, and I quite liked that as I got into a bit of a routine. Normally I have a multivitamin every other day as a top-up, but I do often forget as I am rushing about in the morning. I am not sure I felt much of an effect, but I never feel that supplements like this can do any harm. (I have not taken my multivitamin on the same days to make sure that I don’t get an overload).

Do you have supplements or just rely on your diet?

Do you have a favourite nut butter? I much prefer the drippy ones, and the 100% nut ones, so we often make a trip top Sainsbury’s as it is the only place that sells the pb&co stuff. I used to buy the big tubs of Meridian stuff in Holland and Barrett, but it used to get really solid near the bottom of the tub so I have stopped. I thought they had just re-branded their packaging, but I think they might have blended them up a bit more as I have had a stir around in the jar and it seems drippy all the way to the bottom.

Politeness vs pb’s!

Two weeks to go until my next 10k! I love it when we get race things in the post, although this is the most minimalist race envelope- literally all it contained was the number. Not even a little leaflet with the event timings, or a map, or anything!

Yesterday morning I was up bright and early (before 6am) as Andy was off to the Grand Prix qualifying. So I decided to head off to Parkrun. When I woke up I was hungry, but I didn’t really want to eat anything before the run, as I sometimes feel a bit sick on the finish line (just from the effort I think) and just feel I generally run better before food. I did pack some water and a clif bar to have after, and decided I would just take it easy on the run and see how it went.

I glanced at my watch a few times and realised I was going quite fast- each time it was showing 8 something (at one point 8.05??). I was for a while right in front of a man who was grunting and groaning in a rather alarming fashion with each breath he took- I was trying to run faster to get away from him! He caught me up and apologised (I think I said something like “glad to hear you are putting all your effort into this” but really I was wishing he wasn’t! Thankfully I managed to pull away from him for the last mile and a bit. The route is along a path to the lake, around the lake 3 times, and then back along the path. By the time I got to the end of the lake section my watch only said 24 minutes, so then I had a panic that I was going to beat my best time. Does this happen to anyone else? I get it in races too- basically then I get an adrenaline rush, and then my legs so all wobbly. I was trying so hard to think about anything other than running as it was making the run super tough. I caught up with a couple of people, who I gathered were first timers from their talk. When you finish there is a little chute (two temporary fences set up parallel to each other)- you run through it and as you run in the front, the timer person presses their thing (a magic stop watch) to get your time, and the person at the end gives you your chip. Anyway, I think I could have overtaken them right at the end (although this could be hindsight as I was pushing hard), with a couple of metres to go, but I felt that it wasn’t actually a race, and it might come across as being a bit rude. But when they got to the chute they both stopped, so I had to stop right behind them, which probably only cost me a second, but it was a bit annoying! My watch said 27.10, but my official time ended up being 27.12 which was identical to my pb! What are the chances of that? At the end of the day it is just for fun, and there is always next time!

I had half the clif bar and some water, and pottered around for a bit before my shower, so breakfast wasn’t for ages! I made some peanut flour pancakes, topped with vanilla almond butter, and some blueberries which I cooked for a few minutes to turn into a sauce.

I had a pottering about day after that. I popped to the shops as I had a Holland and Barrett voucher to spend. I went in M&S to look for a belt, but came out with chocolate peanuts (better than a belt probably) and those little sock/tights things.

In Waitrose I spotted a new almond milk by Rude Health- I love their muesli’s and multigrain thins, so I am looking forward to trying this. It has brown rice in there too (for sweetness apparently), so it is not just plain almond milk. There was a rice and an oat one too.

I had some melon and strawberries while watching some Wimbledon. Then I went on a walk through the fields and around to the allotment. I spent ages just watering the plants.

There is a little courgette growing on this plant, how exciting!

Lots of strawberries growing too! I picked a bit pot full.

The blackcurrant bush (whoops to my thumb being in the photo!) is heaving, and a few of them were ripe so I picked them too.

It is not looking too bad- the weeds are still growing a lot, but at least we can see our plants too. Although I need to pick the rest of the leeks, they are rather enormous now!

This morning I was up early again, so I went on a run before it got too hot. Well, that was my plan. It was baking by 8.30! I went for shorts- capris are quite long on me- I really want some knee length ones but I can’t seem to find any. Even when they look short on the hangers when I try them on they are long. Anyway, I reserve these shorts for emergencies and hopefully for when no-one will see me!

When I got back (after 6.8 enjoyable but hot miles) my neighbour was out so I had to have a chat. Was hoping to sneak back inside without anyone seeing me! Not sure if you can see how red my face is compared to how pale my legs are! (And yes we bought that mirror from Ikea years ago and have never decided where to put it, so it just gets moved about from wall to wall!)

I made a blueberry and blackcurrant sauce (the blackcurrants, plus about half a little punnet of blueberries, a few tsb of water and a tsp coconut sugar)- I cooked it in a little pan for about 5 mins until it bubbled. I had it on sourdough toast with some meridian peanut butter (bought some this week and it is so drippy it is lovely) and some melon. Like a posh pb&j 🙂

I am going to have another chilled out day today- watch the Grand Prix, maybe do some baking, maybe visit the allotment or have another walk.

Have you had a good weekend?

What is the last new product you have tried?

Runner up

Hey peeps,

Thanks to everyone who voted for me in the Whittard Afternoon Tea Blogger Carnival. I didn’t win (but it’s the taking part that counts)- but the runners up were also sent some tea!

I have my eye on the organic Earl Grey. Luckily we bought a new sideboard a few weeks ago, to replace some shelves in our living room, so we now have an overflow area for storing extra tea.

Also my other i-herb order finally arrived! We loved the sweet potato popchips while we were on holiday (I hope they start selling them over here soon) and I had some weight allowance left so I added them. I was mainly after the Vanilla Almond Butter which I had seen on Peachy Palate– it lives up to the expectations!

I couldn’t wait to try it so had it the next morning on toast along with a peach (think I put lemon curd on the other slice).

Scrumptious! It is super drippy too, so I am going to try it drizzled on some muesli one morning as I bet it would go really well.

On Wednesday I was actually feeling really nervous before the Sweatshop run- I knew we would be doing the long route through the fields, and I just worried I would be tired. The weather wasn’t as humid as last week which helped, but it was still hard. I ran the first mile or so at the back, but after that headed out on my own. The end of the field is so tough- it’s a good half mile of really deep grass, and narrow tyre tracks, and there were stinging nettles and brambles that had to be avoided. Also there was some confusion as they wanted to make it get up to 4 miles (it was 3.85) so talked about how to add a bit on. I thought I knew what they meant, but the people in front of me turned earlier (but still later than last week) so I followed them and we ended up doing 3.95 miles, but the lead runners (who are super speedy) and the people at the back did the extra, which was something like 4.35 miles I think. I did it all at an average 9.44 per mile, which isn’t bad as I am normally much slower on the off road sections. My run back home was much slower!

Last night I went to Pump- I mentioned last week I was not that keen on the new release, but perhaps it will grow on me. Although the abs track is rubbish- these weird hip thrust things, and then holding a weight above your head and reaching up (which hurts my neck even though we have to rest the head down between each one). I did add some extra weight to the chest as you only use the bar for a bit, used heavier dumbbells for the first rotation of the shoulders, and I tried to add extra during the biceps but had to knock it off as I couldn’t lift the bar half way through!

My shoulders are already aching today!

Have you ever won anything?

Skiing and Strawberries

Hey peeps- how are we all doing?

Just back from a walk to the allotment- the strawberry plants are loaded and I picked a big handful of ripe ones today- they smell wonderful.

On Saturday I mentioned I was off skiing- not on holiday, just a lesson!

When I was younger there was a dry ski slope in Hemel (near where we lived) and so I had lessons, and my family had a few skiing holidays in France. I was always very nervous and I liked to find an easy slope and go up and down it all day, whereas my Dad, sister and brother would go on all the slopes and ski to all different places. Once, they convinced me to come with them, and we skied from France into Italy on nice easy slopes (the ski pass included lots of different places) and then it turned out the only way back was a red run (green= easy, blue= OK, red= hard, black= plummet vertically to your death )- after being stuck on several runs my poor Dad had to walk home with me while we carried our skis! Anyway, the last time I went skiing was a good ten years ago, but last year Andy got some skiing lessons as a birthday present and really enjoyed them. The dry slope has now turned into a Snow Dome, and a Groupon popped up for a double lesson, so we booked it.

I was super nervous before, but I ended up loving it. It was a beginners lesson which turned out to be a bit easy, but I wasn’t sure what I would remember from all those years ago. We got there about half an hour early to give us time to get boots, skis and helmets, and then spent an hour and a half walking up and skiing down. There were only 6 of us in the lesson and the instructor was really good- he kept giving us challenges, so in the end I had to ski down the slope, turning around certain poles while doing “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”! I was hoping we would get to use the lifts, but not this time. We think we will book one more lesson at a higher level, and then just go for fun.

We ended up being really busy over the weekend but I did manage to spend a bit of time baking. I made Cherry and Marzipan Tray-bake.

I based it on a cherry cake recipe from the Great British Book of Baking, as I could not find a recipe that fitted what I wanted.

I preheated the oven to 170C, and lined my brownie pan with paper.

Then I creamed together 175g pure spread and 170g caster sugar. I added 3 eggs, and a tsp almond extract (I used Dr Oetker). Then I stirred in 200g plain flour, 3 packets of baking powder (I have these little packets which I think are the equivalent of a tbs each), and 50g ground almonds. Finally I chopped up a tub (200g) of glace cherries, and mixed them in.

I poured this mixture into the pan, and then topped it with 50g chopped white marzipan.

I baked it for 35 minutes- it is hard to tell when it is cooked as the marzipan will be liquid at oven temperatures, so will leave residue on the cake tester.

I find they slice much better when they are cold, so I left it on the wire rack for a while.

I had a piece on Saturday afternoon to give me some energy for skiing (as our session wasn’t going to finish until 8pm)- delish! I love the combination of cherries and marzipan. I took most of it to work on Monday and wasn’t sure how it would go down as I know marzipan is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it was all gone by lunchtime!

Once we were home I was quite chilly, so I had a hot chocolate to warm up with too- I love that Montezuma’s stuff.

I had Sunday as a rest day (we went out for breakfast to Bill’s, then watched some of the children from school in a parade in town, then spent the afternoon visiting our parents) so Monday after work I went out on a run. It was much warmer than I had expected. I headed for the fields as I didn’t fancy running near to traffic, and was enjoying listening to podcasts I went a bit further than I had planned- 5 miles in 50 minutes. Tomorrow we are doing the long fields run which was tough last week- not sure I am quite looking forward to it- I’m just hoping it won’t be as humid as it was last week as that is what makes it really tough.

Have you ever been skiing? Or would you be tempted by it?

Running in the rain

So the weather this week has been more…. English? On Wednesday it threatened to rain all day- it was so humid and muggy. I headed up to Sweatshop and was so hot and sticky by the time I got there (and it’s about .75 miles away, so not far). I was hoping we would choose a short-ish and shaded route as I didn’t feel like putting in a max effort! Then it turned out that someone had invented a new route, which actually was going on the fields, then across sort of cross country fields to add on another mile. At one point I was running through knee high grass, and couldn’t see the runners ahead of me as there were lots of trees around. By the time I got back to the shop we had run 3.85 (fast) miles, and I still had to run home. Tough!

Thursday at pump we had the new release- I am not a fan so far. Tough on the legs, no music I really knew/ liked, and the abs track is just weird and hurt my neck.

On Friday after work I went on a short (2 mile) run to try to ease the aches in my legs, and was back just before it poured! Later on it brightened up so we headed to the allotment after dinner for some weeding, and I picked my first lot of strawberries!

This morning I went on a run before breakfast- I was going to try to avoid the rain but that just seemed impossible so I put on my tennis visor and went for it. The first mile was gently uphill but right into the wind so my glasses were covered! I was really cold and wished I had worn gloves. But then later on the sun came out and it was suddenly baking. In the end I did 5 miles which I was pleased with- we are going skiing later so need to save some energy! I was going to have pancakes, and had made the batter the night before (spelt + peanut flour, chia seeds, almond extract, baking powder) but decided to bake it instead while I showered. (I had the coconut water when I got home)

I put sliced apricots on the bottom with a little coconut oil to stop it sticking (should have put that on the sides too) and then some blueberries on the top. I also topped it with a little coconut/ chocolate butter.

I had it with a mint black tea, and some strawberries from the allotment which taste amazing. It baked for 30 mins at 160C, but I think I could have left it for a little longer to firm up more. Baked apricots are always a winner in my book anyway.

I don’t mind running in the rain, unless it is torrential as I hate soggy shoes. Plus once I was out running and it rained so hard that the water filled up my eyes (so weird) and I actually couldn’t see. That was not good! And lightning makes me a bit nervous. I think the thought of running in the rain is worse than the actual act- if I am at home and it’s raining I might do some prevaricating to put it off a bit, but if I am out there and it rains I don’t really mind, as I think I will be having a shower when I get home anyway.

Do you mind running in the rain? Are you growing any of your own fruits or veggies this year? Favourite baked fruit?