The aftermath

Today I had to hang around at home all morning, as I was waiting for a parcel for me, a parcel for Andy, and a person to come and fix my windscreen. Did I get on with some work? No, of course not. I did some cooking instead. (P.S. I did do some work before dinner!).

I made some bean dip to have for my lunch first of all. This was from the meridian website- basically it was a tin of cannelini beans, 2tbs tahini and a roasted red pepper, all whizzed up. This went very well in a warm food doctor pitta for my lunch.

Next up was the lasagne, although I actually forgot that part of it. I made two separate layers- layer one is a box of tofu whizzed up with some sundried tomato and garlic paste.

Carefully layer on some of the blended tofu.

Layer two was some roasted pepper, courgette, a tin of artichokes, lentils, tinned tomatoes, spinach, garlic. I cooked this mixture, and then layered it into trays (two layers of each) -I topped it with a tsp of basil pesto, which I swirled into the top tofu layer.

Then I had one for my dinner;

It was delicious! The basil pesto swirled in really made it. The tofu layer was really creamy, and all the veggies and lentils were delish as usual. A success, even if I forgot the lasagne sheets!

I also made some peanut butter cups- basically melted some dark chocolate, put some in the bottom of a cake case, put in the fridge for a bit to harden up, then put on a little bit of pb, spoon on the rest of the chocolate (re-melt if needed!) and then leave in the fridge again. I was worried it would stick to the case, but no fear, it came away just fine. So amazing.

Ok it is hard to see in the picture, but it is delicious. I have some mini cake cases so next time I might do bite-sized ones…..

Anyway, back to the running (and the massage aftermath); Today I was feeling tender in places, but yesterday I was recommended to try a gentle run today. So I did. After lunch (I hate running after lunch) I headed out- it was so hot out there! My shoulders were feeling much better, but my legs felt weird, like there were loose bits of muscle flapping about and pulling on my bones or something. Anyway, I kept it steady, pretty slow, went up to the lakes (which was packed), back around and straight home. I purposefully didn’t take water with me, as I knew I would be tempted to stay out for longer. Anyway, in all I did 5.7 miles in 62 mins. But then what was weird was that in the shower I shaved my legs, and that felt quite sore (as did putting on lotion after).

After that it was green smoothie time. Can you believe I forgot to freeze a pear for it? So I rummaged through the freezer and found another frozen banana (I hoard these as I do not like eating them when they get brown bits, and hate throwing them away, so our freezer is full of frozen bananas!), and a nearly empty pack of frozen mango chunks.

So today it was 40g spinach, 60g frozen mango, 1 small frozen banana, 15g flax seeds, 200ml Kara coconut milk, plus xanthan gum. I sprinkled some coconut on it, then tried to drink it- it was so thick I had to go and get a spoon! I suppose most of it was frozen. Tomorrow I might go for a cocoa one as I could not really taste the mango in it.

I had a nice walk before dinner, and my legs are working just fine.

So now I am being nosey (and curious as to who managed to get to the end of this post!)- any nice plans for the long weekend? We are having a pretty standard weekend- Andy has to run 18 miles on Friday, we have the wedding reception on Saturday, and will be catching up with Andy’s family on Sunday. Hopefully some garden time thrown in there at some point too.

Night 🙂

Green Smoothie!

Somewhat inspired by a few bloggers- Jessica, Laura and especially Lucy who was very convincing in her arguement that you cannot taste the spinach- I had my first green smoothie today! I got a link from Laura’s site to the actual green monster website (who knew there was such a thing!!) and made it pretty simple. (I also had a yummy food doctor pitta and pear)

It looked like a lot of spinach to me, but it was only 40g, with a frozen banana, a tsp ground flax seeds, and topped up with about 250ml Kara coconut milk, and some xanthan gum to thicken.

I tasted a bit with a spoon from the blender, in case I needed to add anything else, but it seemed pretty tasty.

Super green!

It would not even fit in the glass- I had to drink some and then top it up!

Verdict? I could taste the banana and coconut milk, but I really could not taste the spinach. I normally make smoothies with juice (I don’t make them often as I find they give me a bit of a sugar rush) but actually it was much nicer with the coconut milk.

I might even have another one tomorrow! I had spinach in my fridge to add to a lasagne which I am planning on making tomorrow, so I must save some for that! The only problem will be what to add!

As the day has gone on, my back (I think it was actually the bit of the glutes which was massaged this morning) has felt more and more tender, and when I was walking to the post office my calves felt sore. Other parts feel a bit sore, but I feel like I have a good amount of energy. I got outside and washed my car (my goodness it was filthy!) and then went in the garden for a bit.

Look at my pretty tulips;

Dinner was some delicious chilli (really easy- roasted pepper and aubergine, cooked with kidney beans, tomatoes and lazy chilli) served with some Food Doctor easy cook quinoa + nutritional yeast.

This quinoa was so easy! It is pre cooked, so you just tear open the pouch and either serve cold, or cook in the microwave for 2 mins. The perfect intro to quinoa if you are unsure how to cook it.

So, what should I put in my smoothie tomorrow?– votes on a postcard please. Or perhaps leaving a comment would be quicker 🙂

First sports massage

Ouch!

And I signed up for an offer, 3 for 2, so I have to go back!

Actually it was not as bad as I feared. Thanks to the advice I had a little idea of what to expect. I wore shorts and a vest, and walked up as it is about 20 mins away. When I got there I had a little chat with her about why I was having one done, she asked me about any sore or tight spots, and then told me what she would do (glutes, hamstrings, calves, quads, ITB, neck and shoulders).

I was panicking this morning about having to take my clothes off (silly me- I know she has seen it all before) but she said to keep my shorts on (and she had towels all over the place). I was rather surprised when she rolled down the waistband of my shorts to get to the glutes.

We chatted all the way through (as she is a runner too) which did help to relax me, although at some points it was hard to hold a conversation. It began with discomfort, but some spots were pretty sore and were quite painful. I am a bit of a wimp with pain, but she was really pushing her fingers into the muscle.

When she was working on my shoulders and neck at the end, I could feel things almost popping. They were stiff this morning after the run yesterday, so I suppose they really needed it.

I have to decide when to have my next one, so I am going to see how I feel tomorrow. Walking home I could already feel sore spots in different places (but I was told that I could feel bruised in places), and my legs feel a bit weird, almost like when you get the feeling back after having pins and needles.

All in all, I am glad I went for it, as a lot of my muscles were very tight, and I can already feel that I can move my shoulders better now. Plus at least when I go back, I will know what to expect.

For the rest of the day, I am pottering around. I was most excited to see that the seeds I planted the other week have popped up!

So I am going to pot them on this afternoon. It is such lovely weather so I am looking forward to getting outside. I might have another walk later too.

Onto other things- I finished watching the London Marathon highlights. Seeing how fast the elite runners go is just crazy- I am in awe of their speed! I just find it so inspiring- especially all these people running for charities. I was starting to feel a bit guilty as I am not raising money for charity for my marathon, and due to the timing I am not doing a Race for Life either (I normally raise money for that each year) but I am signed up for the Great South Run, and I am going to do that for charity, so I will still be doing something this year. I decided that I wanted to run it for myself, and if I was collecting sponsorship it would be extra pressure and I would feel like I was letting people down if I didn’t manage it. Although it is a great opportunity to raise money, I want to do it for me, and me alone.

Anyway, if you have not already, look here to see the race recap of Rose. I have loved reading her marathon training journey, and you can read her London Marathon report if you pop along to her blog. Well done Rose 🙂

Rob has some interesting lessons from his recent Paris marathon (in very hot weather too) which is also worth a look. I should be taking notes I think!

One thing that did occur to me was the pointlessness of the texting in- BBC had a scrolling bar with messages of good luck texted in- but surely if you are running it you cannot see the messages? Anyway, marathon fever is starting to get to me now!!! The Stockholm marathon website is going to become one of my “favourites” soon I think! Although I was glad to see they have pace runners (for 5.00, 5.15 and 5.30- well and faster but these are the ones that I will be near). Thanks Alison for talking some sense into me (I am a bit panicked as the course shuts after 6 hours which does not give me much breathing space)- having the pacer runners has made me feel better, as I am sure there will be others running at that pace.

Right I am beginning to ramble way too much now, so I am going to go now!

Laters! 🙂

Ice, ice baby

Yo!

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I had a fab time in Italy (no pictures allowed though as the dress is being worn again at the reception next weekend)- the weather was lovely, the scenery was fab, and Venice was interesting. We must have walked for miles while we were there, especially on Saturday as we had to check out of our hotel in the morning, but our flight was not till 11pm, so we had all day to walk (bar a 20 min sit down on a bench). Our holidays are hard core- we don’t have a sit down in a cafe or anything like that! We take cereal bars and bananas and have that as lunch while we walk! Sunday we spent most of the day walking too- around Whipsenade with my parents.

Then to today.

I had an 18 mile run, which was supposed to be done on Saturday, so that was the plan for today. I nearly did not go, as when I was about to leave I had to spend about 10 mins searching for my water bottle, which I knew I had already filled up this morning. Eventually found it in the fridge.

I set off, and just reminded myself to go slow. Mostly when I checked my watch, it was telling me 11.30ish per mile, which I think I will be able to maintain for the entire distance.

So, some numbers (mostly because I can’t remember it that well!).

Layers – 3 (body glide, sun-cream, vest)

Water (with nuun) drank- 500ml

CLif shots eaten- 3

Nakd bars eaten- 1 (cocoa orange yum)

Nakd raisins-um, I didn’t count them. Half a pack.

Podcasts listened to- 3 (marathon talk, Christian O’Connell and The Food Prog)

Times I cried- 1 (when they said on MT that there will be times in the race that is really hard- this was at about 16 miles for me I think so it was getting hard).

Runners I passed who smiled at me- 3 (hooray)

Runners I passed who did not smile- 3 (boo)

Total time- 3 hours 28 minutes.

Once home I braved an ice bath! First I had some chocolate milk and a nice hot shower to wash my hair etc. Then I put on a warm jumper, filled the bath with an inch of cold water, tipped in a tray of ice cubes and sat in (my poor toes!)- then topped up with more cold water. I had the radio on (and my bean burgers cooking in the oven for lunch) so was only in there 10 mins (until the pinger on the oven went)- although getting back out was a bit of a challenge- I was having visions of Andy getting home later with me stuck in the bath and the oven on fire.

It was rather weird drying my legs when I could not actually feel my skin- totally numb. I also shivered a lot- is that normal?

Anyway, now it is time for compression socks, and watching some of the London Marathon (I taped it because I love to watch it and knew I would miss most of it yesterday).

Now I am getting super nervous about my sports massage tomorrow- I have told them it is my first one, but I don’t really know what to expect- can anyone enlighten me a little?

Cheerio 🙂

More gluten free baking

Hey

Before I head off to Italy I was due to  meet up with some friends, including my friend with coeliacs. When I saw the quinoa flour the other day, I decided it would be perfect to try out in place of regular flour in some baking.

I found a brownie recipe in the Great British Book of Baking (a Christmas present which I have not yet used), and the recipe only needed 50g flour. So I thought it would be a good place to start.

I left out the nuts in the end, as my pack of pistachios said they were packed on a line that also handled gluten. The recipe was a standard brownie recipe- melt chocolate and butter, add eggs, vanilla, sugar, then stir in cocoa powder, flour and nuts. I baked them for a little longer than the recipe said, as although I like them squidgy, they were really really gooey. But they turned out really well.  🙂 I was a little apprehensive, as on the packet of quinoa flour, it said that it was typically used in savoury recipes (and it did smell like the packet of quinoa) but actually the brownies are very sweet. I needn’t have worried- we all enjoyed them anyway!

Before I headed round there I had time for one more run. I was supposed to do 5 miles, but in the end the weather was so lovely and I was feeling great, so I ended up doing 6.8 miles (in 69 mins- my fastest ever I think!). I kept my Nike+ on pace, and kept an eye- on the flat, down hill and gentle uphills I was under 10 min miles. I was feeling so strong (perhaps the slice of fruit cake- Andy’s birthday cake- last night was the key?)- the weather was fab as the breeze was cold, so in my vest and capris I was cold so I had to run fast to warm up. On the steep uphills I was slower, which is why my pace overall was a shade over 10 min miles. But for me, sustaining that pace on a longer run is great going.

Once home I had some yummy pudding- (sorry it looks like a mess- I mash it all up the sides and did not want to waste a bowl on making it look presentable!)- mashed banana, 15g ground flaxseeds, tsp carob powder (literally, 5g or something), a tsp (15gish) pb, and left to set in the fridge. Yummy! I topped it with a pear, and alongside some alpro milk with nesquick it was filling enough to be lunch! So good.

So, I am off for a few days. No guest posts lined up or anything like that (I am not that organised- also have no idea of the logistics of that)- enjoy the next few days 🙂