Category: Stuff I love!

Happy Birthday Parkrun!

So this week the Parkrun newsletter popped into my inbox and I saw that they are celebrating their 9th birthday. When it started they had 13 runners, and now they have over 630,000 runners registered. That is some impressive growth. They are all over the UK (check the website to find one near you) and they have spread into Europe, Australia, New Zealand, North America and South Africa.

I am a relative newcomer to Parkrun- my first one was in March this year- and I don’t manage to go every week (in fact today was my 8th one, plus 3 times volunteering) but I love it and now really look forward to it starting my Saturday.

Just why do I love it so much? When my Dad first mentioned it to me, I mentioned it to Andy who basically said “I could have run a 5K and be home and showered before you have even got to the start”. Which is a good point. But then I started running with Sweatshop and found that I loved running with other people- it helped me speed up a lot, and helped me to run without a podcast or music. My Dad mentioned it to me again, and it came at the perfect time as I was all signed up to marathon talk’s Jantastic, and the third challenge was to predict a time- I had chosen a 5K time of 27.00 (although I had somehow entered 27 hours not minutes as my prediction)- so I went with my Dad and brother in the pouring rain– I managed 27.12 so I was pretty close to my prediction, and got a 5K pb to boot!

I love the whole ethos of Parkrun. Run by runners and volunteers. It is free to enter, welcomes club runners, joggers, people new to exercising, families, children, some courses are wheelchair /running buggy accessible… basically it is inclusive to all.

I love that it is a run and not a race. The people who come at the front are the first finishers and not the winners.

I think that runners are really friendly, and I love that the volunteers (and fast finishers) cheer everyone on. My local one is a large event, and when I have helped there is some community aspect there as there is a core of people who know each other well, and from what I have heard, smaller events are really friendly and everyone gets to know everyone else.

I love the feeling of starting Saturday off with short sharp exercise- it is done in half an hour and by 10am I can be home and out of the shower, full of energy for the rest of the day.

I love that there are children involved- some of them run, some of them stand by the side and cheer the runners on- it is great for them to see some positive role models, and enjoy being out in the fresh air.

I also really love the timing system and all the stats. The timing is so clever, and later in the day/ over the weekend, you get a text (or email, or both, or just check the website) with your placing, time, whether it was a pb, how many Parkruns you have completed and more!

I was not sure that I would continue to go, because I tend to like having a long run on a Saturday morning, but I have managed to fit it into my running routine. I find that I need a rest day after a long run, but I am OK to run the day before, so some weeks I have been to Parkrun on Saturday, and then done a long run on the Sunday. I have not run the day before a race (although I did today, as tomorrow the 10 miles are the same distance to some of my half marathon training runs), but then if I am around those days are a good day to be a volunteer.

I would love to get my 5K pb down even further. A few weeks ago I managed 26.50, which I was so exited by! But I want to go faster and would like to go at least once a month.

I also want to earn my 50 t-shirt. It will take me a few years, but it is the sort of thing that has no shortcut. Paul who blogs at Father Fitness recently completed his 50th Parkrun, which is a fantastic achievement.

Some other bloggers who have bitten the Parkrun bug are Lara, Lauren, Anna, Mary, Catherine, Claire and Steph to name quite a few (apologies if I missed you off)- check them out if you want to be enthused further with the whole concept!

Post Parkrun pumpkin pancakes (love some alliteration) are the best too. I used the last of my Orgran Buckwheat pancake mix, some egg replacer and a big tbs pumpkin puree, plus soya milk. I cooked the apples in gingerbread syrup, and added some cinnamon at the end, and then topped the pancakes with a few Beyond Dark chocolate chips.

So happy birthday to Parkrun, long may it continue.

If you go to Parkrun, what do you love most about it?

If not, would you be tempted?

Cake and Bake show!

Hey peeps, I hope you all had a lovely Sunday.

I was off early this morning (well, early for a Sunday) to go to the Cake and Bake show in London, as I had been sent some tickets from Sainsbury’s.

We arrived as it opened so had time to wander around and marvel at the beautiful cakes on offer before it got too busy.

I could have bought piles of cakes!

I also loved this Toy Story themed cake on the Disney stand- loved how all the aliens were a little bit different.

There was a Clandestine Cake Club stand, and I had found out the night before that one of my friends was submitting a cake so I had to pop by and see the cakes (and managed to see her too). Now I am tempted to sign up as there is one local to me, although I need to look through the website a bit first I think.

One of the first stands we visited was for Devilishly Good Brownies– and the samples we tried (a vanilla/sea-salt one) were amazing so we revisited it later to buy lunch. I bought a chocolate orange one which was amazing (we had a brownie each for lunch and enjoyed a little sit down), and I bought a pb and coconut one (the offer was to buy 3 you see….) for another day.

My friends pointed out a tea stand to me- that was a mistake! The Alison Appleton stand had some little glass bottles filled with loose leaf tea to smell (as samples) and the lady was even boiling her fancy kettle to make up some Earl Grey, which I sampled. I couldn’t resist the black tea with caramel, and again there was an offer if you bought three so I ended up with Earl Grey (smells amazing), Gentleman’s Toffee (black tea with caramel drops) and Marie Antoinette’s tea (black tea with ginger, rose, cardamom and ginger).

I fell in love with those cups on sale too, so have added them to my collection. They did have a beautiful teapot but it was £55 which is a bit out of my teapot budget! I also bought a vegan nanaimo slice from Ms Cupcake– I have seen these on Oh She Glows and they look lovely so I have saved it for another day.

They had goody bags for sale, so we each ended up buying one. I wanted one mainly for the booklet and the bag (I am a sucker for a bag) but I wasn’t that impressed with the contents.

It contained the guide (which has recipes and things as well as the map), a lime drink, a few money off vouchers and some cake mix. I think cake mixes are OK if you are in a hurry, but it seemed a strange thing to have in the bag seeing as most people going to the show would be making their own cakes, so something like cake ingredients, decorating tools or even some interesting flour/ sugar would have been better in my opinion!

I also bought a copy of the Sainsbury’s magazine (as it was only £1), some cherry flavouring (have been looking for some for ages), some ready coloured icing in Christmas colours, and a gorgeous cake stand. The stall (they have a facebook page if you fancy a look) had loads of plates of various sizes with holes drilled in them, and then you could select 2 or 3 plates and make your own stand. A really pretty blue and white stand caught my eye, and I was trying to find plates that matched it when the lady told me I could buy any of the display ones too, so I was sold! I have not put it together yet but you can see the three plates I chose- so pretty!

We ended up walking around for over 4 hours! It was so busy by the time we left so I was glad we had turned up early.

By the time I got home the brownie for lunch had worn off, so I made some toast with avocado and tomato- I needed something quick!

I have spent the rest of the afternoon/ evening watching the GNR (the end was so exciting!) and reminiscing about last year. (For newish readers- at the end of 2011 I was quite poorly and admitted to hospital, and it turned out I had a massive cyst on one of my ovaries that had to be removed, so I was not allowed to do any exercise before the op in case it twisted/ ruptured, and then was only allowed to start running again in May 2012) I ran the GNR last year for charity, and it was my “comeback” race. I was so nervous and even had some tears in the starter pen as I was so worried that I would not be able to finish it, and it sort of put the operation and hospital visits behind me as I proved to myself that I could do these things again. Anyway, watching it this afternoon has brought back those memories and it is nice to think that those times are well and truly behind me now.

I love watching things like this though. I love seeing all the charity runners, and the end of the men’s race was so exciting! I was trying not to find out what happened, and had accidentally seen it on facebook, but then in the last minute I thought I must have read it wrong because it was such a close finish!

Anyone joined the Clandestine Cake Club? Did you enjoy watching the GNR today? 

I was sent tickets to the show as I am part of the Sainsbury’s blogger network, but I was not asked to review it or anything- I just wanted to blog about it.

Change of plans

Hey, I hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Yesterday, after body pump (where I used lighter weights as I had missed 3 weeks I think) my legs were still sore, so I thought I would try a short run as that often helps. Well, I only did 3 miles but whereas usually they loosen during the run, they didn’t at all, so when I got home I got out my yoga mat and did about 15/20 minutes of some of the “Yoga for Runners”. After my shower this was followed with Deep Freeze and some foam rolling.

I had made some breakfast the night before- muesli, chia seeds, almond milk, frozen cherries, almonds, and then I added a little vanilla almond butter. Plus some coconut water (I had some after pump so needed to finish the carton).

Originally Andy and I were going to head up to Norwich for the weekend (he has a ticket to the football) so I was going to head to Parkrun to get my weekend run in before we drove up. But we could not get a hotel, so we decided to go up for the day instead. It has worked out well because I have missed Parkrun (good to give my legs a rest I think) and can do a longer run on Sunday morning. I need to do 6 miles and was going to do that after work on Monday, but it is better to do it at the weekend.

I decided to use my new tea infuser! With peppermint tea.

It drained through before I could take the photo!

Right, off to Norwich- have a lovely weekend 🙂

Delicious no bake fudge

I always love the recipes on Oh She Glows – they are generally so easy to follow and delicious too. I often look there for inspiration if I fancy something different for dinner, but the baked and sweet goods tempt me too!

Recently Angela posted a recipe for raw chocolate walnut fudge, and once I read the ingredients I just had to make it!

Coconut oil, nut butter (I used half almond and half peanut), cocoa powder, agave, vanilla and nuts. I used pecans as I don’t like walnuts that much, and I sprinkled on some coconut.

I have had it in the fridge (no space in the freezer as it was filled with ice lollies!) and it starts to melt as soon as you pick it up, but it is delicious. It reminds me of raw chocolate, which makes sense as it is similar ingredients. Next time (I am sure there will be a next time) I would slice into tiny squares as it was hard to hold once I had taken a bite!

Have you been tempted by any internet recipes lately? 

 

Afternoon teas (running and scones)

Hey peeps- hope you are all doing well.

This week I have mainly been running and eating scones- not a bad combination if you ask me (as long as it is in that order).

On Monday morning I went out for a quick 3 miles before getting ready and heading into London. I was meeting a couple of friends for afternoon tea (at lunch time, as you do)- before we met I had time for a trip to Wholefoods.

I actually only wanted to get some pesto (we ran out of our Brighton stash and have been having some pesto we picked up at Bill’s, but it is not as good)-anyway I think I didn’t end up with too many impulse purchases- some peanut popcorn, chocolate pumpkin seeds, chocolate pb, lovely coconut bounce balls, a raw brownie and a couple of Seed & Bean mini chocolate bars.

Luckily I was getting a tube when there was a torrential downpour, and when I came out it was sunny, so I walked through to Covent Garden instead of going back to the underground.

We had a lovely time catching up (and the afternoon tea was pretty good too- they gave me a plate of veggie sandwiches, we had lovely scones and some pretty cakes- we couldn’t even finish them all- plus we could have one lot of loose leaf tea but unlimited teabag tea, so I think I had 3 pots- Earl Grey to begin with, then two of strawberry and mango)- the time flew by and it was so relaxed- compared to when you go out for lunch and the waiter hovers by hoping you will clear off.

I walked back from the station but then the rain poured and the thunder rumbled, so Andy came to pick me up half way home. To counteract all the sugar from lunch time I had a lovely salad with spinach, beetroot, tomatoes and basil tofu.

Tuesday started in a similar way- this time I went on a longer run around the lake, and even saw some little ginger rabbits!

So cute! As my run went on the rain got harder and harder- I did 5 miles and about 2 minutes after I got home it was bucketing down.

Then, after breakfast and a shower I made some scones.

As I was off to another afternoon tea later that day- this time it was at a friend’s house and we were all bringing different items. I was in charge of gluten free scones (as one of my friends has coeliacs) – I was going to order some but the date was not good, went to Tesco’s to get some but couldn’t find them (or even a label), so decided to brave it myself! I used this recipe, and I think they turned out really well. I did have some Dove’s Farm baking powder (which is g-f) but I was worried that some flour might have got in, so I bought a couple of those Dr Oetker packs to use instead.

Previously (I think on Sunday) I made some caramel shortbread, also with a gluten free base.

I used a gluten free recipe (which was basically g-f flour, butter, sugar in the base, a tin of caramel, and then g-f chocolate for the topping)- now I usually make my own caramel and I wished I had, because this stuff was far too gloopy (which is why I put it in the cake cases)! Finding g-f chocolate was hard work too- in the end I used Dr Oetker chocolate chips but so many of them were made in a factory also processing gluten.

I had bought some strawberry jam, and made some blackcurrant jam (with our very own home-grown blackcurrants!) so I had rather a lot to take around.

Again it was a lovely relaxing afternoon- tea and scones, what’s not to like?

After popping to see my Mum on the way home, we went out on a walk in the evening as the weather had really brightened up.

Today we might be going to the cinema later, and my brother is away (so he won’t be running with Sweatshop), and the weather was forecast to be wet for a lot of the day, so I decided to run first thing. I went on the fields, as I have not done that route for a while. It was drizzling a bit after the first mile, and then it got heavier and windier (I had my tennis visor on but the wind was blowing the rain onto my glasses still)- I decided to finish on the tough bit of the field instead of going back to the road, and I am not sure if it was a good idea. The knee length grass was wet, so within a few steps my socks and shoes were soaked and squelching around. I did 5 miles and I feel like running on the fields is a different kind of run to pavements (tougher)- that was enough for me!

I had some strawberries that were going a bit squishy, so I cooked them in a pan with a tsp of Sainsbury’s vanilla sugar, and then when they had thickened a bit I added a tsp of chia seeds- I had this on top of a warmed cherry scone and a black cherry tea.

Running and scones- pretty much a perfect combination!

What is your perfect combination?