Another run- exciting stuff!

Hello!

I had another run today, yay!

Yesterday I had a late staff meeting, and loads of work, so I did not get home in time for aerobics, although I did manage a short walk after dinner.

Today I was planning a run- I was not sure how my hamstring would be on a slightly longer run, so I did a 2 mile loop to see how I felt- I felt fine so then I carried on with a 2.6 mile route. It was all fine. I actually managed to pick up the pace a little, and did 3 of the miles at 10.23 pace. I was out for 50 mins (some crossing roads coz of rush hour meant it took longer than it should.

But I am pleased that I feel fine after. Last weekend it was sore after a few miles (maybe 3/ 3.5) so I know it is better now.

After that I had some work to do and had to wait for my chilli to cook, so I decided to make a chai latte. Or something like that. Not sure what they are called.

I made some chai tea (breaking into the massive Whitards stash) and left it to cool while I had a shower. Then I mixed that with some almond and hazelnut rice milk, some ice and a bit of agave.

Yum! I am pretty sure the rice milk made it delicious, and I think I should have left the agave out as it was quite sweet (the rice milk is sweetened). I did feel weird drinking cold tea (although it was a nice spicy flavour that it added)- I think my brain needs to get around that! I am sure the caffeine helped me work super fast too!

Is that a chai latte? Having never had one from Starbucks or anything I have no idea- do they normally have coffee in them too?

Night 🙂

Pesto for lunch

I had some of my yummy almond and basil pesto in a pitta today, with some roasted courgette, as a tasty lunch.

(The jar is still pretty full though!)

After work I went for a short run (I did some lunges and stuff for a bit of a warm up first)- I ran for 29 mins and did about 2.7 miles or something like that. And actually my hamstring was feeling fine. But I did not need to go any further. When I got home I did the yoga for runners (which says 20 mins, but really takes nearly 30 mins I think).

With the run next weekend, I am going to be helping out at the school area, so that will be fun as all the kids get to do a 1.5 mile fun run (and last year I missed it as I was doing the half marathon). So I can still support the school, but I do not have to worry about pushing myself too hard or anything.

And I am super excited as I got an email from the lovely Jemma who is organising a bloggie food swap! I have a US partner 🙂 Yay! So, UK people, what would you miss if you lived in the US? What would you send to someone in America? 🙂

Night

Tahini cookies and a run!

So yesterday I mentioned my obsession with tahini (and Alison, I love the idea of having it with dark chocolate, and Shaman love the honey idea too mmmm). In my Vegan cookies invade your cookie jar book, there was a recipe for Tahini lime cookies. Well, it seemed rude not to!

Well, I didn’t have cornstarch, so subbed in some ground flax instead. They are yummy! The lime flavour really comes through (from the lime zest) and the sesame flavour is also lovely (it used 1/2 cup tahini). They have a lovely texture too, kind of chewy and crisp, like a good pb cookie. Another recipe that should be made again!

I also made some fresh mint tea 🙂 Ffion you were right- super easy!

A load of fresh mint (I have a few types in my garden, one might be spearmint possibly) and boiling water. I let it brew for a while, and voila!

It was tasty and I got 2 cups of it! It was not as sweet as the teabags, but maybe I should have used smaller leaves.

And finally the run;

I went out this morning, for a gentle run. My 6.7 mile route was calling to me! I ran past the Race for Life in Welwyn, which meant I spent a lot of the run reminiscing- that was my first race a few years ago, and the reason I started running. On the day I was so nervous as the most I had run for was 15 mins (then a min walk, then another 15 mins) but I really wanted to run the whole way. I was so worried and apprehensive, and I was also so proud when I crossed that line (and I did run it, in 35 mins). I love the whole ethos of the race, that everyone is welcome, and the messages people have on their backs of who they are running for, and of course the amount they raise for charity.

Anyway, I digress.

During the run my left hamstring started feeling tight again. It was sore after the marathon, but the sports massage really helped, and on Saturday I was fine walking. But I suppose I am still not fully recovered (I did not expect to be). Anyway, I just took it super slow (it took me 80 mins), and felt fine when I finished. I have decided I am not going to do the 5k next weekend. I think I would have to run it slowly, and I think I would be a bot disheartened if it took me a long time. So I will see if they need any helpers instead.

Anything else I can do with tahini?

🙂

Shopping mistake! and kitchen tales

Hey

How is Saturday here already? I cannot believe that the marathon was a whole week away! Strange.

Anyway, I have been on half term, so have had more time to potter about! I went to get my hair cut the other day and sadly the bookshop next door was closing down- it did mean everything was super cheap so I picked up a couple of bargains. The Raw book has loads of recipes in it, and the Food Doctor book has a little bit of info about keeping blood sugar levels stable and then a lot of recipes too.

Exciting! I was off to a BBQ on Friday so I decided to use my food processor (still a novelty) and make some pesto for a salad (a recipe from the raw book). I had to soak the almonds overnight, and then blitz them with tomato, olive oil and basil leaves.

I cooked some quinoa and roasted some veggies and then mixed it all up.

It went down pretty well- a couple of my friends were brave to try it and they both liked it too!

I have a lot of the pesto left over, and apparently it will keep for a week if you seal it with more olive oil.

I had some today on some rye bread for lunch and it was delicious 🙂

I am looking forward to having this for lunch this week yum 🙂

OK, onto the mistake.

I was most excited when I went to the Galleria (shopping centre) to see that the Julian Graves is now a Holland and Barrett! And it has buy one get one half price on everything (permanently according to the member of staff I spoke to), so I got a few things I had had my eye on for ages.

Wheatgrass and Spirulina to add to smoothies and stuff (getting a bit carried away with the old green smoothie possibly) and some flavoured rice milk. I have read a few times that those things are good for smoothies- the Spirulina is about 50% protein, plus lots of other vitamins, so seemed a good idea to give foods a little boost. I liked the plain rice milk but those flavours sounded so good I had decided already I would try them if they were on offer.

Well, I was hot and tired when I got home, and so I decided to make a smoothie- 1/2 frozen banana, cherries, the nutty milk and 1 tsp (yes, teaspoon) of spirulina.

It was a very very dark colour indeed. And it was so salty, and smelled sort of fishy. I got a bit paranoid and had to read and re-read the packet- yes it was vegetarian and vegan, no it did not contain fish or fish oils or anything. Anyway, I could not finish it and spent the rest of the day feeling like I had swallowed seawater. I did eat quite a bit of milk chocolate, but that did not take the taste away. So, any ideas on how to disguise it will be gratefully received!

The rice milk was lovely (I tried some on it’s own, also in an attempt to get the taste of the sea out of my mouth), but then I also had it in porridge and found it too sweet.

I also got a bargain when shopping! Hooray that Whitards were having some kind of crazy 3 for 2 deal, with a load of stuff also 25% off.

Tea pyramid! I got some Chai, Spice Imperial (black tea with orange and spices), Mango black tea and vanilla black tea. Plus some freebies- all for £7! Wow!

As for exercise, yesterday I did some yoga before breakfast (I am still rubbish at it, but I can see that it will help build strength too), and then had a little walk.

Today I went into London to meet some friends (I managed to get very lost outside Kings Cross Station- they are doing loads of building work and I came out of a different exit and walked for about 15 mins in totally the wrong direction before I rang Andy and got re-directed!)- I also walked back from the station and it was so hot outside- by the time I got home I was tired! Anyway, I was thinking of having a run this afternoon, but I run worse in the afternoon anyway, and it is warm, so I am going to go out tomorrow after breakfast. Fingers crossed. Anyway, with all the walking today my legs feel fine- the tightness in my ankles/ calves/ shins/ whatever it was has completely gone, so I am thinking it will be OK tomorrow.

I am also getting a bit obsessed with tahini! This was my lunch from the other day- some roasted veggies (the ones that did not go in the BBQ salad) and tahini on rye bread. Sooooo good 🙂

So, any ideas on how to disguise the salty fishy taste?

And have you ever bought something you had seen (on TV/ adverts/ blogs etc) and regretted it right away?

I must learn by my own mistakes I suppose!

Recovery

But first, the big question- would I do another one?

Well, on the way around (finding it so tough) I decided that I would never say never, and that I probably will do another marathon, but when I am a bit faster. Mainly because then the pain would last for less time! I have the Great South Run booked in the Autumn (10 miles) and I think this sort of distance, some 10k’s and maybe a few more half marathons are what I need to up my speed. Plus this year I missed a lot of races that I had previously enjoyed because they did not fit with the marathon training plan. So I am going to spend time doing those shorter races (it’s all relative- I am not saying they are short, just less than the marathon), hopefully speed up again, and then maybe do one later on (e.g. Autumn 2012 or something like that). It is funny because already, less than a week later, all I can remember are the good bits (the finish line!) and the hard parts (eg 3/4 of it) seem to have faded away in my memory! Plus now I can walk properly again it does not seem to bad!

I have been thinking about recovery a lot these past few days!

I think the walk from the stadium to the hotel was a good thing, as it did mean my legs did not seize up straight away. I did think I had a blister, so I made use of the free compeed plasters, but actually nothing has come of that.

As the marathon finished late in the day, we had time for a shower and then a very slow walk to dinner, and that was it. I used the ice gel after my shower and that also helped, but I did forget to have a cold blast with the shower that day.

During the night I remembered my compression socks (duh!) and put them on- they actually gave me calves immediate relief and I wished I had some kind of compression things for my thighs too. Ah well. In fact I was stiff all over- my shoulders must have totally tensed up near the end, despite me trying to roll my shoulders and wiggle my arms.

On the Sunday (after enjoying the hotel breakfast- how I love rye bread and muesli- and also a shower with some cold blasts at the end) we decided we should not stay in the hotel all day, so braved a trip on the underground to the old town (Gamla Stan). Going down stairs proved difficult- I was going down sideways one step at a time. Not so good. As we got to the platform the train came and Andy ran to the train, so I had to as well. It was only the length of a few carriages, but I actually felt like crying when I got on the train- so painful! We walked around for a few hours, but that was all I could manage.  I was even getting the lift in the hotel (even though it was only 2 flights of stairs! I felt so lazy!).

We had decided that we wanted to do some proper sightseeing, so on the Monday we left the hotel at about half 10. We walked (slowly) to the park where there are a lot of museums. It was a beautiful sunny day, and it was so lovely to be outside and enjoying the city. We went to an open air museum (it had buildings from all over Sweden in it- to preserve them, and also animals like reindeer, elk, and also rabbits 🙂  )- this was great but the park was on a steep hill and going downhill was painful. We sat for a bit to eat our lunch (we are very well prepared and had packed some bagels in our suitcase!) and then walked to another museum. It was a shipwreck that sunk after sailing for 25 mins, from the 1600’s, and it was so well preserved. Worth a visit for sure. But my legs were getting more and more stiff. The museum shut at 5pm (so we had been walking for a long time- we watched a 25 min film in that museum, and sat for 10 mins for our lunch and that was it) and so then we walked back to the old town, looking for some dinner. In the end we found an Italian, and boy did I enjoy my pizza! By then my legs were actually hurting, so we got the underground back to the hotel instead of walking. Not sure if a day of walking and sightseeing is the best recovery, but we did not want to go all that way and not see anything.

Walking around was good, and we kept seeing parts of the marathon route, so we just chatted about how we felt during those parts of the race. I was still going down stairs sideways.

I think we got back to the hotel at about half 8, and then I did a lot of stretching.

Tuesday we came home- our flight was at lunch time so we took our time getting to the airport (no expensive taxi this time, which by the way cost £50!!!- we got the bus instead!), and walked up and down the terminal for a bit before getting onto the plane. Exciting news- I could walk down stairs properly again- hooray!!! My left hamstring was bothering me the most, but the front of my ankles was also hurting while I was walking.

Wednesday I had my sports massage- I walked up and it took me longer than usual. She found so much tightness in my back and hamstring, and I am still sore today from it, but actually my hamstring is no longer tight. She said I might have minor shin splints from the pressure (as I have a sort of tight feeling near the side/front of my right ankle when I walk), so I am not going to try a recovery run just yet. I was thinking that I might have a gentle jog today (Thursday) but because I still have soreness when walking I do not want to make that worse. I can see I am not recovered yet- I suppose it will take a while.

Hopefully I might manage a short one at the weekend, maybe Sunday. I am not going to body pump tonight either. I did think I might go and just use light weights for the squats and lunges, but I tried going a squat and lunge in the living room and it was not very easy! So I am going to be a good girl and recover some more. Hopefully!

Last night I went out for dinner with some friends- a few of us walked back to the car park together and mine was away from the other cars (it was dark and creepy)- I contemplated running to my car, took 2 steps and realised it was not so good. No pain or anything, but not quite right just yet.

Exciting news– I downloaded my Nike+ today and got a video from Paula- saying welcome to the 0.1% of the population who have run a marathon! Not sure if that is the UK population, or the world, or what, but it was exciting! I did calibrate it after the 20 mile run, but it still thinks that I did 27.93 miles (although I let it run on for a few mins after)- Andy had his Garmin on and it tracked a few km over (46 instead of 42), but there was no line to follow down the centre of the course, so I suppose you must run a little over the actual distance.  I was most excited by the video anyway!

Anyway, I have been feeling a little more tired than usual, and so I am trying to take it a little easier this week. Being half term is good timing. Usually I would be taking advantage and going out running in the mornings, but I don’t feel like doing that, which is good, as I should not be doing that! So instead I will take advantage of the extra time to do some other stuff (gardening, shopping, cooking, seeing friends etc). Yay 🙂 I spent this morning doing work (boring), popped to the shops and then did some gardening this afternoon (nothing too strenuous- just planting out veggies into the vegetable patch).

So, I think the recovery is going well. For a few days after I felt really sore, and I was a bit worried, at times, that I might have actually done some damage. But now, later on, I think that my muscles and tendons and joints and everything were just so worn out, so hopefully with a few more days of rest I will be back out there again.

Question- next Sunday (12th) is the St Albans Half marathon. No I am not contemplating that, but there is a 5k, and the PTA from my school try to get people to enter- I did the half last year and it was nice to support the school. But the deadline for entries is 6th June. Does anyone think I would be able to do that?

Thanks for all the congratulations and wishes from you all- love you guys 🙂