Before and after

Afternoon peeps, hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

Yesterday after work we went into London for a picnic concert! What a great idea! It was at Kenwood house, which is somewhere in London (we parked at a tube station and then there were free buses to take us to the park), and we sat in the park on a picnic blanket, while an orchestra (I think it was the London philharmonic but am not sure) played music from films- we had Star Wars, The Great Escape, Psycho, Jaws, and loads of others. It was a brilliant way to spend an evening.

Today it was time for a run, and I was a little nervous because of cutting short my Monday run. I did try to take a “before” picture, but this was my most successful attempt. The flash kept going off and I have no idea how to turn it off, and Andy was out running so he could not take it for me.

Anyway it was supposed to show that I was giving my marathon t shirt it’s first outing πŸ™‚ And also my tennis visor as it was gently raining at that point, and that is meant to keep the rain off my glasses.

Well, the run started out just fine. It was raining but my legs were feeling good and I was running consistently, and not feeling too tired or anything like that. I passed the poor regiment fitness people crawling under nets in the muddy grass, and went through Welwyn town centre, and was even contemplating running for longer. Then, 5 miles in the rain changed from gentle/hard rain, to bucketing down. I was drenched in less than a minute- I could feel my socks soaking up water, I could hear my trainers squelching with every step, my t-shirt and capris were heavy and dragging because of the water. To top that off an orange van drove past and caused a tidal wave of muddy disgusting road water to smack into me. I was no longer a happy bunny. I was basically furthest from home there- no chance of a short cut, so I just had to get my head down and try to get home as fast as possible. I did wave thanks to the nice drivers who either let me cross the road when I was waiting (there were so many that just drove on- come on people you are warm and dry in your cars) or who pulled out to avoid splashing me. But there were several more drivers who drenched me. Well, I think I was at saturation point already but you get my point. I mean, just because I am out running in the rain, does not mean I want to get any wetter!

Not sure if you can see how wet I am but I was dripping all over the place (I had to take them off after this and put them in a bag so avoid soaking the carpet etc!)- and my t-shirt was stuck to me with all the water! (Andy took this picture having got home right after I left and missed all the rain basically! If only I could run that far before breakfast). Andy had even put his phone off silent in case I rang him (although I did not take mine with me oops!).

I jumped straight in the shower (very unusual for me as normally I have some drink and food first) and my hair was so wet I could have just put on the shampoo straight away. I was so cold!

Anyway, after that I had another treat from my bloggie swap box;

Another delicious Clif bar (chocolate almond fudge), and some Kara coconut milk and nesquick.

Yum look how dark and chocolatey it is πŸ™‚ Sorry it is a bit blurred!

Right, for the rest of the weekend I have a fudge makingΒ extravaganza planned (as gifts for people at work)- I am thinking dark chocolate mint, and some kind of coconut one (would white chocolate go with coconut?). And maybe those tofu brownies that Katie made and Rachel has converted into UK weight measurements. Oh, and hopefully get to see Bridesmaids as this weather is perfect cinema going weather in my opinion!

So, running in the rain- yay or nay? Do you get rain rage?

And exciting weekend plans?

More chia pudding

So a while ago the lovely Lucy sent me some chia seeds with the giveaway goodies that I won. I have quite liked them as a post body pump snack in some pudding, so I made some up today. I have to say it was the best yet. I mashed a small banana in a bowl with some cocoa powder and a tsp pb, then added in some Kara coconut milk (have not had this for ages, mmm) and whisked it up with a fork. Then I added some chia seeds (maybe a tbsp) and then some xanthan gum to help it thicken. I left it in the fridge for a few hours while I was out and when I returned I had this lovely (not so photo friendly) delight to enjoy!

The picture does not show how thick is was, and it was delicious. I did wonder if I would need some sweetener, but the mashed banana makes it so sweet anyway. Delish.

Body pump was fab- I decided to go with a heavier hand weight for the triceps as the last bit is only short, but it was so much harder (this is using a 3kg weight instead of 2kg)- I did not think that it would be that much harder! anyway the instructor said I would soon get used to it. Man that lunges track is hard- squats, lunges, squats, lunges, squats, lunges etc! No rest! I forgot to take a towel, but I did make a conscious effort to keep my shoulders relaxed during squats and that did help. But then getting the bar off after is so hard- how do people do that??

Yesterday I had a run after work- after Monday’s run getting cut short I was actually a bit worried about it. I did my Audiofuel run and it was fine. Well, it was really hard work- it makes other muscles in my legs ache. What is weird is that overall it does not make me any faster, but I suppose that makes sense as if I am running faster for short times, I need the recovery periods to be slower.

Also I finished trying those coconut water flavours and did a little review here. πŸ™‚

Cream crackered

Yo πŸ™‚

And welcome new commenters- always love to hear from people who read this πŸ™‚

Gosh what a busy day! A double staff meeting (yeah how mean- no slacking off here even though we are nearly in the final week!) and a rush to the shops on my way home (partly because Emma said Sainsbury’s did PB&co pb- but my one didn’t- but also for other stuff e.g. cards for parent helpers and that sort of thing) meant I got home at 6.05pm, when I leave for aerobics at 6.10pm. I saw nak’d bars on offer so I had a cocoa mint bar in the car (as I was hungry) and then rushed to aerobics. Busy but fun. I had a sweaty ponytail at the end and we did so much cardio that we never even got the mats out for press ups or anything.

So, a few things.

One; I often listen to the Food Programme on the BBC podcasts, and the one I heard the other day I thought was really interesting. They were looking into trans fats and how they are in a lot of food (or not much according to government stats). But I still ended up confused. I do know a few things- that “hydrogenated vegetable oil” means that by forcing hydrogen into liquid oil, it turns it sold at room temp,but this in turn makes it harmful as it is not natural and the body cannot process the fats normally. Β So I know to avoid foods that contain those (yeah peanut butter m’n’m’s I am talking to you), and now I only use Pure spread because it says clearly it is free from hydrogenated oils. But apparently sometimes they are just listed as vegetable fats, so even if you do read the label (I do, but apparently most people don’t) it is still hard to work out if foods contain them or not. And of course the ideal would be all unprocessed natural foods, but that is hard. So anyway, the link is here if you are interested. And any comments to add about trans fat?

Two; I got an email today about a 5k fun run in London, organised by a charity called Trees for Cities. It is on Saturday 17th September at Battersea park, plus when you finish you get a tree sapling to take home. So if you fancy that the info is here.

Three– I got a comment on my raw chocolate company review to say they have a new flavour- orange and goji berry, so check that out here!

Gosh what a lot of links! πŸ™‚

Night

Back with a bump

So after the excitement of the weekend it was back to work with a bump!

I also realised I forgot (yet again) to do my Sunday training review and my memory is terrible! So here is what I remember:

Monday- run after work. Think it was about 5.7 miles or something.

Tuesday- Aerobics. Super sweaty. Full press ups! (Although my hands were sliding across the floor due to being so sweaty)

Wednesday- Audiofuel run- found it hard work but did it. Plus 25 mins yoga for runners.

Thursday- Body pump. Right, I have a question. At the moment I can do 15kg squats, but by the end it is my neck/ back that hurts. Do people have those special bar coater things to help with this? In the winter I kept my hoody on for that track and used the hood as a cushion- no way can I do that in the summer. I am putting it on the right place, according to my instructor anyway. So tips welcome.

Friday- 3.1 mile run before work. This set me up nicely for the day and helped with the body pump aches I am sure,

Saturday and Sunday- walking around Silverstone. I even forgot yoga because it did not feel like a Sunday! Whoops!

After work I planned a run- I headed out (complete with new red shock absorber Run bra πŸ™‚ Β – I could do a magazine thing; “Top- Nike running specially chosen to clash with; Β Bra (just seen)- Shock Absorber, sweaty messy face and hair-models’ own”) but I think I was probably a bit dehydrated from the weekend. I really hate using public toilets, and while I do use them (silly I know) I also drink way less when out so I have to queue for less. So at the race yesterday I think I had less than 1 litre of water all day (I did have stuff at home too, but it was hot). Plus I could not work out when would be a good time to go because I wanted to see the drivers parade, the red arrows and stuff, and had to allow half an hour for queuing. Anyway today a mile or so into my run I felt really weak and a bit shaky. I had taken water with me so made myself push on, and then the water I was drinking started making me feel sick. I had to stop for a bit, and then walked for a few minutes. I was having a conversation with myself that went like this;

You have run 3 miles already, you can do 3 more”.

“But I feel really bad, I don’t want to make myself ill”.

Mind over matter, come on you are just lethargic“.

“No, I think I am actually not in shape to run- come on you are not training for anything at the moment, and at least you did a run today”.

OK, fine, we will try again on Wednesday“.

So that is what I will be doing. Home for some coconut water with pineapple! Yum! Tastes like pineapple juice. πŸ™‚ Once home I felt fine, but I think I probably was dehydrated, and it is warm out there (plus yet again, I spent all afternoon outside teaching PE so not ideal). I have cooled down now!

So body pumpers- how do you cope with a heavy bar?

Silverstone weekend

Hey guys!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend- I did πŸ™‚

We were up so early (6am on Saturday and 7.30 today) to get up to Silverstone in time, but it was fab. In brief, Saturday we had “roaming seats” which meant we could sit anywhere there was space, so we watched practise sessions and then the qualifying in one grandstand (luckily it was covered as it tipped it down!)- it was great, the cars were so noisy (I had earplugs though phew), but it was freezing cold! I think I shivered for the whole day. As soon as you went down to the ground it was fine, but up high it was windy. We also saw some other cars racing (in a different stand just to mix things up a bit), and Jenson and Lewis having a little chat on the vodafone stage after qualifying.

Today there were a few things before the race, but we had seats (in an open air stand) so we did not have to get there as early. Β It tipped it down with rain once we were in our seats, but we had dressed for the rain and brought an umbrella, so we were OK! It did stop before the start (although Jenson and Lewis did ask for rain yesterday as they would have stood a better chance I think- we were in two minds- rain makes for a more exciting race, but then we would have got wet!). We saw the drivers go around on the back of a lorry, the Red Arrows did about 30 mins of awesome amazing stunts, and then it was race time! I won’t bore you with the race, as I am sure you would have watched it if you were interested. But I have never been to one before, and I was wondering how I would get on, as you can only see part of the track (and we could see the start of the pit lane too). Normally when you watch it on TV they tell you where everyone is, so I did think I might get a little confused. There were big screen TV’s showing the feed just as it comes on BBC, and when the cars were not near you could hear the commentary. Andy listened to the radio (on an mp3 player) but I wanted earplugs instead, but I did manage to follow what was going on. There were some exciting overtaking moves, and I was loving that the crowd were cheering every time Jenson or Lewis went past- loads of clapping and air horns and stuff! I had not thought about it before, but you know at a football match the players can hear the crowd, but in those cars with all the noise (and seriously, it is so much louder than on the TV, so much more high pitched) there is no way the drivers can hear, so I did not know if there would be any cheering during the race, just at the end. But it was great! πŸ™‚ Andy was trying out his new fancy camera (one of those digital SLR ones) so no photos from me I am afraid!

What was not so great (but cannot be helped) was the awful traffic coming home today! The park and ride bus took an hour to get us back to the car park, and then the motorway, urgh, no idea what went on there.

Anyway, it was a brilliant weekend. And I have one question (Ferarri fans need not apply)- Jenson or Lewis?

I am for Jenson Button all the way- a few years ago (maybe 5/6?) one of my friends gave me an official photo of him as a birthday present, as I was rather taken by him! Andy even teased me that if I met him I would be even more star struck than when I met Mickey and Minnie Mouse (and yes I was an adult at the time too). πŸ™‚ But I love having two Brit drivers in the same team, and I was still cheering on Lewis when he did some fancy handbrake style turning stuff in front of the grand stand to celebrate at the end! πŸ™‚