Running - Maria Runs

Energy gel territory

Evening all, hope you all had a fab Saturday.

At Christmas my Dad put together a box of running things for me and Andy- as well as a running top each it also included things like various energy gels (he said he had so much fun choosing all the things and was told by the lady in the shop that we would need to try different ones to see which ones we prefer). I have been a bit chicken about trying them, but today I decided to start. I took with me 2 clif shot bloks in a sandwich bag (did not want to be faffing with the packet)- this went in the pocket in my waist pack.

I thought they would be all joined together, but they are seperated in the packet already, which would make them easy to eat on the run. The plan today was 11 miles, and I decided that instead of looking at the time on my Nike+, I would look at the miles instead, as I can get a bit obsessed with the time at where I think each mile marker is. After about 7 miles I took one of them, and was pleasantly surprised- they were soft, like a soft fruit jelly whereas I thought they would be really chewy like wine gums or toffee or something (not keen on that). The flavour (mountain berry) was yummy too. I duly had water after (well nuun but that counts I am sure) and then at about 8.5 miles I had the second one. The pack says 3-6 every hour, but I wanted to try first. I did not feel like I got a rush of energy or anything, but interestingly my speed did pick up during those miles- the first one is fairly steep downhill so that may be why. Anyway, I had no side effects and felt good, although I did feel tired and the wind was so cold it felt like my bones were frozen and my face is still sore now. In the end my route was 11.4 miles, which took me 1 hour 57 mins (including several road crossings). Again, I was tired when I got home, but not shattered, and I did not feel like I was limping home, I managed to end feeling pretty strong. 🙂

I am quite impressed with the ingredients too- brown rice syrup, evaporated cane juice, brown rice syrup solids, pectin, citric adic, colour, flavour, sunflower oil and glazing agent (nothing sounds too scary or chemically)- each “blok” is 33 cals, 8g carbs and 4g sugars, 23mg sodium and 7mg potassium so good to know they replace some of the lost salts too.

Andy was off to the football in the afternoon (Southampton) so we had a fairly big lunch (he had run 11 miles before his breakfast)- some spicy bean soup and some mozzerella, pesto and pepper quesadillas. Plus some nuts.

(The quesadillas are super easy- spread a small wholemeal tortilla with basil pesto or basil puree, sprinkle on chopped pepper and some mozzerella, top with another tortilla and grill on a griddle pan thing, flip, then serve. Normally I do not add the peppers as it made it all lumpy and very hard to flip, but we had a spare one in the fridge).

This afternoon I made a birthday cake for Andy’s Dad- using some delicious Green and Black’s cooking chocolate and a Rachel Allen recipe.

Apparently it has more cocoa butter in it for easier melting- mmmm.

Stirring the melted chocolate (in a little bit of milk) into the batter-mmm some more!

I made the caramel frosting from Veganomicon for something a little different I hope, although it went all stiff like fudge and was very hard to spread! It will taste better than it looks I am sure! Anyway, I go for the rustic look- then we know it is home-made!

I also tried making my own cereal bar type thing this afternoon, using rude health oat puffs, some PB, rice syrup, dried cherries, spelt flour and a few other things. I had one with some tea this afternoon, but it was not quite right. I am not sure if it just was not quite sweet enough, or if the oat puffs burnt a bit in the oven. Anyway, it was alright, and I have a few ideas of how to improve it.

I am going to lay down in front of the football now -night 🙂

Snacks continued!

Thanks for all the comments! It was clearly an issue a lot of people felt strongly about! I must say that I am not offended by what people say to me, but I do think that some people with more food issues could be driven to being more anxious around food, so I do think people need to think about what they say! I think that as I work with a lot of older women who are constantly on diets (but never exercise), the issue of food is often discussed. Glad everyone else loves their snacks too! I think it’s the best way to fuel exercise, and also to stop me from getting so hungry that I stuff myself.

Onto today; I was most excited to have a delicious breakfast

Last night I put a packet of apple porridge in a bowl with some Kara coconut milk and a sprinkling of allspice. This morning I cooked it and then added a tsp peanut butter, and also added some cinnamon. Totally delicious!

After work (and a clif bar- I orderd some oatmeal raisin ones from Wiggle and they arrived yesterday, randomly with some haribo sweets in the box too which I took into work and were gone in a few hours!) it was run time. At the end of aerobics last night my calves were feeling really tight, and on my run today I had to stop a few times to stretch as they were getting quite tight again. The plan was 6 miles,with 2 in the middle slightly faster. The warm up was fine (in the drizzle though) and then after that I sped up a bit. The aim was 9.30 miles, and the first one was just over 9 mins, but this one is downhill! The next one was around 9.30, so I was pretty pleased. I do look forward to the lighter evenings where I can stray a bit further- the two mile loop is getting rather boring now! I am getting a lot of ticks on my plan which is feeling more satisfying as it goes on!

Once home I had to make my pumpkin pasta- I thought I had one more in the freezer, but no, I had to make it today. Before my run I weighed out the dry pasta and left Andy a note to cook it for me if he got back before I did (which he did). So once home, I quickly added the spinach to wilt it, whizzed up the pumpkin, tofu and sundried tomatoes and mixed it in, and then it was ready to bake while I had a shower 🙂 Served with some green beans and beetroot it was very tasty indeed. I have 2 more for the freezer so the next few weeks will be back to the easiest dinners ever!

Now, off for an evening snack 🙂

Night

I will like intervals!

(If I keep repeating it, then it might come true!)

Evening all

Thanks for the comments on yesterday’s post- I am going to try and remember to do a little roundup each week, as for myself it is quite satisfying to see how I have been getting on, and will be easier for me to look back on too.

Actually, today I did quite enjoy the intervals. Shock! I was down for a 4 mile run with intervals, so I did a mile warm up, then spend the next 2 miles going faster for 3 mins, then jogging for 1 minute to recover. The very last interval was uphill and really hard work, but at least I knew it was the last one and could slow down after that. The last mile was a cool down, but faster than my warm up as seems to be the case at the moment. Altogether it was 4 miles in 40 minutes, and I know my first mile was 11 mins, and after that I forgot to look, but I know that the intervals are making me run those miles a little faster. Plus they help mix it up and stop be plodding along at the same speed the whole time.

Then it was time for some more lentil stew– it was so delicious! Plus 13g protein in one serving is not half bad.

So today I am curious about your listening habits. When I started running, I did not listen to anything because I had to concentrate on looking at my watch for when to walk and when to run (my plan is here if anyone fancies giving it a go- go on you know you want to 🙂 ). Then once I could run for 15 minutes, I started listening to music. I love listening to music, and I would sort out a folder of music that was all fairly upbeat to keep me going. But a while back someone posted on WLR about listening to marathon talk (do you think I can now go for one post without mentioning it?) and so I started listening to podcasts instead on my long runs. This has now taken over, and I always have podcasts in. As well as marathon talk, I like a lot of the radio 4 ones- Friday night comedy, the food programme (not so good when you are hungry), sometimes medical matters ( although I get a bit queasey when they talk about blood and hearts), infinate monkey cage…. It’s all quite entertaining. But mostly I think it has helped my pace even out and become steady. I always felt that when I was running to music, I had to run to the beat, which is good in races if a song comes on to gee me up the hill or something, but not so good if it turns out I am struggling as I am running a little too fast. I was talking to Andy about it, and on his long runs he now doesn’t listen to anything, as he found that music was making him slow down to be in time with the music, and now he likes the time to think about things. I prefer some sound as the sound of my breath is very alarming- once I hear my breathing I start to think about breathing, which means it stops being natural, and I start shallow breathing and panicking, or wheezing and gasping, whereas if I don’t think about it, my lungs know exactly what to do and I am fine. I almost need noise cancelling headphones which just cancel out my breathing sounds! I do love the music at the exercise classes I do, and when a cheesy tune comes on it does give me a bit of a lift.

Anyway, what do you all do when working out?

Parcels, pace, pottering and peanut butter

Afternoon peeps!

Yesterday was a rest day, not much to report although after work I did go to Morrisons to get some lovely so crispy bites (they are like rice cakes but tastier), and had a walk. My shoulders were so sore yesterday, after the tiny bit of extra weights for the rest of the track I was no surprised!

Look what I got in the post!

The lovely Jess offered to send me some Dorset cereal porridge, and also included a jar of PB2 which is sort of powdered peanut butter- sounds amazing although I have not yet tried it. 🙂 Thanks so much Jess 🙂

Today has been great so far- I got up and while Andy went on his 11 mile run (how does he do it before breakfast?) I had my porridge, with a blob of pb, and pottered about. I set off with the new marathon talk podcast (what else people?). I had planned the same route as last week, and was pretty pleased with my pace- considering it was 10.5 miles I was within 30 seconds of my time last week- this could be down to stopping longer to cross roads or whatever. Again the run felt good, I was a bit hungry by the end so I think soon I will start taking something with me, not sure what. Anyway, although it drizzled a bit, it was much less windy, and I ended feeling strong. I think I need to remember this feeling for when the runs are harder work! I only saw a few other people out running today, and recently I have been seeing loads.

Once home I had a clif bar (which Andy now likes too-cue another order on wiggle methinks) and yummy hot chocolate- I heated up some Kara coconut milk in the microwave, and then added some nesquick powder. Delicious and warming as I was very cold! Although the cup got hot so it was hard to drink- next time I need to heat it in one thing and drink it out of something else.

After lunch(which was toast with PB and mashed banana and a delish fuji apple) I had a lovely snack of some Mighty Muesli with yoghurt, which was very tasty indeed. It has a massive ingredients list including oats, barley, rye, sunflower seeds, quinoa, dried cranberries, linseed, alfalfa seeds, pumpkin seeds…..(and the best bit- no dried milk powder- I do not like that in muesli)- Yum

I also made some fudge for my friends- I used my fave Rachel Allen recipe but subbed in some broken mint matchmakers instead of the white chocolate- to make minty after dinner fudge.

It made loads so I am going to take some into work on Monday.

Tonight we are off out for dinner, and I had a little browse of the restuarant website- I got a little annoyed as loads of dishes were marked as vegetarian, when they contain parmesan. They had a contact form on the site so I sent them an email (a nice one) as I find it so frustrating that this is such a common mistake on menus. Anyway, I saw they do a pizza with goats cheese, peppers, caramelised onions and some other things, which looks amazing, so I think I am going for that 🙂 Anyone else get annoyed by things being labelled wrong? I like pizza express as they clearly state on the menu how to make things vegetarian.

Off for some tea now, later guys

Lentil loving

And some other pulses.

By the way I had to move the blog over which is why it was not working yesterday. But normal service should be resumed now.

Today the plan was 6 miles, 2 mile warm up, 2 miles tempo, 2 miles cool down, which I duly did. I was tired though- the other night I did not sleep well and yesterday at aerobics I was having such trouble following the moves! Luckily the girl that goes behind me in my row did not mind! She knows I normally do them right. Back to today- the run was fine, and when I looked at my watch at the mile markers (they are in my head but I know where they are) I was doing pretty well, first 2 miles in 21 minutes, next 2 miles in 18 mins, and a nice cool down too.

And the best bit? Why that was the warm shower! Oh, and ticking off the runs on my piece of paper with a red pen!

Last night I made a new chilli- Lentil chilli.

YUm! It was super easy and I didn’t even put an onion in there, although you could! It made 4 big servings, and was perfect for refuelling post aerobics.

In a pan I cooked 2 chopped peppers and a courgette (but any veg would do, those are my faves!), then added 2 tins tomatoes, 1 tin kidney beans and 1 tin lentils, some garlic and chilli, and then left to simmer for a while (eg time to shower, dry hair etc). I had it with a sweet potato, which I microwaved (sorry Jess) because I forgot about it until 10 mins to go! What an easy dinner!

Yum again! Look at the steam!

I used to be such a bad vegetarian- carbs and cheese all the way (honestly I used to have pasta with tomato sauce most nights as that was all I could be bothered to do), but this week I realised that I have been good at getting my protein from beans/ pulses. This is not that recent but I have been branching out with other varieties.

Saturday I had bean bake (which is onions, peppers, tomatoes, herbs, garlic, cannelini beans) with some home made bread which exploded all over the baking tray and so I renamed foccacia bread.

The bread once it exploded!

Sunday Andy’s mum made a lovely bean chilli 🙂 (which is even more lovely as they all had roast chicken)

Monday I had my lovely chickpea stew

And then lentil chilli yesterday. Do you know I never even used to like baked beans? Although I do have a theme to most of my dinners- I like to add courgette and peppers to just about everything!

Last night I also tried some of my Nature’s Path cereal;

This was so delicious! It was so crunchy and it had a good ginger taste (but not too strong)- really different from other cereals- perfect for adding crunch to yoghurt etc too I would think.

Ok, I am first going to say well done for reading this far, as I realise this is quite a long post! I have a selection of energy gels, and I am wondering, at what stage in my training do I need to try them? When do I actually take them? They have on them things like 3 per hour, of max 40 per day (both of which seem exessive) so any ideas? Do they really give people bad stomachs? Am I better to try them before a shorter run so they don’t spoil my long run? Or near the end so I am close to home if trouble strikes? I know some people have them for 10k’s and half’s, and I never did, so not sure if I am behind the times, or behind the training?

Phew, long question, I will leave you all to ponder- night 🙂