Category: Running

Wow I am on top of the world right now!

Thanks for all the comments regarding my running conundrum. In the end I did the mile run at work, then walked 2 miles to the shops, did some housework and pottered about. Then I was very tired! I figured that altogether I had done 3 miles on my feet, so that was enough to check my legs still worked!

Today it was 16 miles and that was all I dreamt about last night. After porridge (with some maple pb yum) and starting off making some bread for lunch, I was ready. Then I remembered I had not actually planned my route, so had to sort that out! Anyway, I did the 10 mile route from in the week (which is sort of most of a 10k loop, turn around at the 5 mile mark and backtrack), then the last 6 miles were up to the lakes, around the lakes for a bit and then home.

The weather was beautiful. I have no idea how it was for the rest of England, but here there was a heavy frost (which had gone by the time I went out) and there was not a cloud in the sky. Just miles of deep blue beautiful sun filled sky. I was feeling so good too. I didn’t even look at my watch until over 5 miles had gone. Then I was already 1/3 done! I had some shot bloks with me which I took at mile 8, 10 and 12. I also found half a packet of urban fruit (dried mango and pineapple) in the cupboard so I nibbled on that during the second half of my run. That seemed to go alright as well although my tummy was rumbling by the end! I happened to glance at my watch and notice I had done 13.1 miles, so I had a look at the time and I had run that in 2 hours 24 minutes, which is pretty good I think. Seeing as it was feeling like a slow run, that is right in the middle of my 2 half marathon times (2.32 and 2.19)- it gave me confidence that I am still maintaining the level of fitness I built up last year. After that it started getting harder (not sure if that was partly because I allowed myself to think about how far I had run/ how long I had been out for). The last few miles again were harder as I was getting a little stiff again. But not awful- I was glad when I reached home but I did feel like I could have carried on a little bit. The running fairy was well and truly with me today! It took me 3 hours and 4 minutes, a bit of that would be crossing roads I suppose. It has given me more confidence for the 20 miler too (the time limit is 4 hours and I am pretty slow) as I am sure that I could do the last 4 miles in an hour. I keep feeling very emotional this afternoon- this was a jump from the 14 mile run, but finishing it and enjoying it (I am sure a lot was down to the lovely weather) has really given me a little confidence that perhaps I will manage the actual marathon.

Anyway, once home I gulped down a chocolate alpro carton, popped the bread in the oven and rushed for a shower as by then it was about half 1 I think-  a long time since breakfast!

The bread was sooooo good! I have not made cinnamon raisin bread for ages and it is really worth it! I have a mini loaf tin so I made it in that this time. The recipe is on here somewhere but basically I put about 90ml warm water, 1tsp yeast, 1tsp sugar, 1tbs flour and 25g raisins in a cup for a bit to activate the yeast. Then I added this mixture to 150g flour (half white, half wholewheat) and a load of spices- cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, mixed spice, ginger.., kneaded it together and left to rise in the tin. This baked in the oven (180c) for 30-35 minutes.  I had mine with maple pb (plus apple and pear) but Andy had his with pure spread and it would be amazing with cream cheese.

Later on this afternoon I had some lovely Christmas tea yummy!

During my run I listened to marathon talk, and this week they did 2 versions of the show- one with added in sections of music from audiofuel. I put both on my mp3 player in case it was annoying, but actually it was quite funny. The music is sort of like keyboard demo music, and every now and then a man talks “keep your arms relaxed….. this feels easy…. take more breath than you think you need…… you need to drink water on runs longer than an hour….. run to the beat 1,2,3,4”- it reminded me of the Friends episode when Chandler tries to quit smoking by listening to the hypnosis CD, but I think it was also pretty good! Anyone used their other podcasts as I had a look on the site and there are special training ones?

Anyway, they mentioned this site- run for Japan. We all know how much help Japan needs, and this website is raising money by people dedicating one of their runs for Japan (you say how many miles. km you ran), and then donating money (eg 10p/ £1 per mile/ per km you ran). They want to have at least one run per country in the world so if you live somewhere exotic then please dedicate your run. And even if you live somewhere boring (you know what I mean) then still please dedicate one run. Anyway, for more info look here.

Oh my word I feel like I have been eating all day!

I was very conscious of the 10 miler planned after work, so I packed extra snacks and actually made sure I ate them.

(Extra’s in bold)

Breakfast- porridge + PB + dried cherries

Snack- 2 clementines, nakd cocoa mint bar, small box of almonds, brazils and choc cranberries (10g of each)

Lunch- Sandwich with cream cheese and roasted peppers,  an apple

Snack- Pear, clif bar

Mid-run fuel- clif bloks

Post run- Kara coconut milk with sprinkle of nesquick

Dinner- Green mountain! (Spaghetti with pesto, courgette, peppers, cheese.)

To be continued… (later this evening! )

Honestly! Usually my long runs are at the weekend, so I have time to eat extra food! Fitting it in to work was hard as obviously I cannot eat while teaching, so there are only small times in the day (I can now eat a sandwich and apple in 10 mins which for me is good as I eat very slowly indeed- although this did not help the run today as I could still kind of taste the bread- not good!).

So I was nervous all day, it was on my mind. I changed quickly and headed out the door before I had time to change my mind. I had a good old Adam and Joe podcast (from 6 music) to cheer me along- I managed to not laugh out loud (mostly). The first 2 miles were tough, the 3rd mile something went wrong as I slowed down loads (and it was not even uphill) but then out came the clif shots to work their magic (possibly psychological)- I had one at 4, 6 and 8 miles and they helped. All in all 10 miles took me 1 hour 47 minutes- I was relieved to have finished under 2 hours, and actually my pace was under 11 minute miles, which is not bad for such a long distance.

I am pleased I managed it, and apart from the 3rd mile I kept a pretty constant pace, even on the horrible long slow hill. I am also pleased that my runs were moved about as I think tomorrow being a rest day is more ideal than having to run 6 miles following on from this.

Question- According to WLR today I have had 32.5g fibre already- I have read before that over 35g (?) starts to hinder the amount of nutrients your body can absorb. So what to eat to up the calories without having crazy amounts of fibre? (And this was without any pulses in my food diary- rare for me). I don’t want to resort to sugary things …

Hey!

So today I was supposed to have an extra long additional staff meeting (= rest day), but it was cancelled today. So, what did I do with my time? Why, run of course! I had already moved (in my head) my runs this week, and so I moved them around again (which actually works out better as I was going to have to do 6 miles on Wednesday after another meeting, and now I can have a rest day then- score!).

The small problem was that I only had some small snacks with me for the meeting (apple, honey stick bar) and remembering that apple did not agree with me before had that at lunch to give it time. So once home I had half of one of the energy bars (from the box my Dad gave us for Christmas);

This was quite nice- very sweet and chewy, a bit like a mule bar. Not sure if I would buy one (I do have rather a lot of bars) but it did give me energy for my run which is always a bonus. The plan was 6 miles which I love now at this time of year as there is a nice loop near me. I warmed up for a few miles, and then decided to up my pace a bit (I have not done intervals since being ill and have basically been back to my old plodding ways) so I put the Nike+ on the pace setting and did 3 miles on 10.06 (although this may be faster as the callibration needs doing). Anyway, that was good for me, and I was pleased to maintain it for that distance. Then I slowed down for the long slow hill and then the last mile. I felt weird running in just a long sleeved top- after all the months of wrapping up with 2 or 3 layers for my midweek runs. The sun was still shining and everything- another bonus!

Then it was dinner time- I added some quinoa to the lentil and cannelini bean chilli (felt in need of a few carbs!);

Steamy! And also very spicy- we use lazy chilli and I am rubbish at getting the amount right!

Thanks for all the comments about the running in general- I am trying not to panic about the 16 mile run- like Alison says, its only 14 +2.  I will take it slow and see what happens. I am worrying more about doing 10 miles tomorrow, as normally a run of that length is at the weekend when I have time to spare. So I will be taking plenty of snacks to work tomorrow to fuel me- I promise I am learning lessons!

This is my snack for in a minute;

A cooked nectarine with some alpro custard (tastes like normal ready made custard) with some cherry coconut cereal sprinkles. 🙂 Gotta get me some carbs for tomorrow.

Night

PS- Rob I have tried the chickpea/ gram flour in a sweet pancake bake thing, and I think it had a stronger taste than normal flour which I was not so keen on, but actually in the pancakes with the vanilla and cinnamon I could not taste the flour so I would say it is worth trying it in sweet dishes.

PPS (is that how you do it?)- I finished my cosy tea review which you can see here if you are interested – I appreciate not everyone loves tea quite as much as I do haha!