Dreaming of holidays

Hey guys

I love holidays! They are my favourite thing in the world. My cereal bar habit aside, I don’t have crazy shopping days/ go out drinking or anything like that. I save my money for holidays! I was looking through some photos today, so if you don’t mind I am going to share some pics from some holidays. They were all over 2 years ago, but they feel so recent.

Loved Canada 🙂 Sooooo soo beautiful!

There is amazing wildlife (we were not that close- Andy has a great camera so he zoomed in but some people were only about a metre away- crazy).

And cute wildlife! We had walked around a park, got back to our hotel and then saw on the news that there were loads of racoons there so the next day we went back! Maybe they are like squirrels to Canadians but to me they were exciting!

This is me trying to hide my nerves while going up a cable car at Lake Tahoe. The views were worth the nerves!

We went to San Francisco twice- the first time the bridge was surrounded by cloud for the entire trip (and I had to buy a coat as I didn’t take one with me!)- the second time it was beautiful weather so we walked a long way to get the perfect picture!

The stunning Pacific Coast highway- amazing scenery again.

And of course it could not be complete without a Disney/ gingerbread photo! 🙂

Just looking at the blue skies has lifted my mood- today was such a grey day and I felt in need of some sunshine!

Normality resumed, today was a rest day. I had a staff meeting, and when I got home I had a cup of tea (teapigs chocolate) with a sesame honey stick;

Yum! Then I did a spot of baking (I had a brown banana you see….)

I made the banana oatmeal breakfast cookies from the vegan cookie book (I used half chickpea and half wholegrain spelt flour)- the only sweetener they have is 1/4 cup brown rice syrup, and 1/8 cup agave (I used sweet freedom as that is what I had), and of course the banana and some dried cranberries. I used brazil nuts instead of pecans, and added a few chocolate chips. Yum 🙂

So on the subject of holidays- what is your dream holiday?

I love a good road trip, I love sightseeing, walking and being outside. I do not like laying on a beach. I would love to go to Hawaii to see the volcanoes, the blue skies and blue sea.

Off to dream some more….

Eating

Oh my word I feel like I have been eating all day!

I was very conscious of the 10 miler planned after work, so I packed extra snacks and actually made sure I ate them.

(Extra’s in bold)

Breakfast- porridge + PB + dried cherries

Snack- 2 clementines, nakd cocoa mint bar, small box of almonds, brazils and choc cranberries (10g of each)

Lunch- Sandwich with cream cheese and roasted peppers,  an apple

Snack- Pear, clif bar

Mid-run fuel- clif bloks

Post run- Kara coconut milk with sprinkle of nesquick

Dinner- Green mountain! (Spaghetti with pesto, courgette, peppers, cheese.)

To be continued… (later this evening! )

Honestly! Usually my long runs are at the weekend, so I have time to eat extra food! Fitting it in to work was hard as obviously I cannot eat while teaching, so there are only small times in the day (I can now eat a sandwich and apple in 10 mins which for me is good as I eat very slowly indeed- although this did not help the run today as I could still kind of taste the bread- not good!).

So I was nervous all day, it was on my mind. I changed quickly and headed out the door before I had time to change my mind. I had a good old Adam and Joe podcast (from 6 music) to cheer me along- I managed to not laugh out loud (mostly). The first 2 miles were tough, the 3rd mile something went wrong as I slowed down loads (and it was not even uphill) but then out came the clif shots to work their magic (possibly psychological)- I had one at 4, 6 and 8 miles and they helped. All in all 10 miles took me 1 hour 47 minutes- I was relieved to have finished under 2 hours, and actually my pace was under 11 minute miles, which is not bad for such a long distance.

I am pleased I managed it, and apart from the 3rd mile I kept a pretty constant pace, even on the horrible long slow hill. I am also pleased that my runs were moved about as I think tomorrow being a rest day is more ideal than having to run 6 miles following on from this.

Question- According to WLR today I have had 32.5g fibre already- I have read before that over 35g (?) starts to hinder the amount of nutrients your body can absorb. So what to eat to up the calories without having crazy amounts of fibre? (And this was without any pulses in my food diary- rare for me). I don’t want to resort to sugary things …

Brucie Bonus!

Hey!

So today I was supposed to have an extra long additional staff meeting (= rest day), but it was cancelled today. So, what did I do with my time? Why, run of course! I had already moved (in my head) my runs this week, and so I moved them around again (which actually works out better as I was going to have to do 6 miles on Wednesday after another meeting, and now I can have a rest day then- score!).

The small problem was that I only had some small snacks with me for the meeting (apple, honey stick bar) and remembering that apple did not agree with me before had that at lunch to give it time. So once home I had half of one of the energy bars (from the box my Dad gave us for Christmas);

This was quite nice- very sweet and chewy, a bit like a mule bar. Not sure if I would buy one (I do have rather a lot of bars) but it did give me energy for my run which is always a bonus. The plan was 6 miles which I love now at this time of year as there is a nice loop near me. I warmed up for a few miles, and then decided to up my pace a bit (I have not done intervals since being ill and have basically been back to my old plodding ways) so I put the Nike+ on the pace setting and did 3 miles on 10.06 (although this may be faster as the callibration needs doing). Anyway, that was good for me, and I was pleased to maintain it for that distance. Then I slowed down for the long slow hill and then the last mile. I felt weird running in just a long sleeved top- after all the months of wrapping up with 2 or 3 layers for my midweek runs. The sun was still shining and everything- another bonus!

Then it was dinner time- I added some quinoa to the lentil and cannelini bean chilli (felt in need of a few carbs!);

Steamy! And also very spicy- we use lazy chilli and I am rubbish at getting the amount right!

Thanks for all the comments about the running in general- I am trying not to panic about the 16 mile run- like Alison says, its only 14 +2.  I will take it slow and see what happens. I am worrying more about doing 10 miles tomorrow, as normally a run of that length is at the weekend when I have time to spare. So I will be taking plenty of snacks to work tomorrow to fuel me- I promise I am learning lessons!

This is my snack for in a minute;

A cooked nectarine with some alpro custard (tastes like normal ready made custard) with some cherry coconut cereal sprinkles. 🙂 Gotta get me some carbs for tomorrow.

Night

PS- Rob I have tried the chickpea/ gram flour in a sweet pancake bake thing, and I think it had a stronger taste than normal flour which I was not so keen on, but actually in the pancakes with the vanilla and cinnamon I could not taste the flour so I would say it is worth trying it in sweet dishes.

PPS (is that how you do it?)- I finished my cosy tea review which you can see here if you are interested – I appreciate not everyone loves tea quite as much as I do haha!

Another successful week

Hi guys

I can’t believe another sunday is here yet again- the weeks are going by so fast!

Today I was tired from yesterday! I also forgot to get my porridge ready last night (shock) but then I remembered I had a couple of porridge pots- I am thinking these are good for weekends away etc.

I made it with coconut milk- porridge rescued 🙂 Although it did make it so thick- I kept on adding more milk as I like my porridge more runny than this!

We walked up to the shops to stock up on nuts in Julian Graves (and I also found some dark chocolate coated cranberries which I don’t think will last long when I open them!), I was tired on the way home- not too stiff but a little.

Then I made chickpea pancakes 🙂 I don’t like making the thin pancakes (I don’t like them as much, plus they are hard to flip over) so I made little ones with (I guessed the amounts) chickpea flour, baking powder, egg, milk, vanilla and cinnamon. While they were cooking I added some chocolate chips, and also topped mine with a little choc pb.

They were tasty and I was pleased they actually looked like real pancakes 🙂

Onto the week;

Monday- 6 mile steady run- completed but I was still tired from the 14 miles on Saturday.

Tuesday- Aerobics- fuel fail meant I was tired again. But I still did it.

Wednesday- 7 miles- done- mind over matter made me complete this one.

Thursday- Body pump- kept the same weights and matched last week on the abs track front.

Friday- Much needed rest day!

Saturday- 10 miles accidently turned into 11.7 miles- lesson about route planning learnt!

Sunday- Another rest day and again well needed! Managed a gentle walk but I was very tired by the end.

Weekly total; 24.7 miles. Lesson learnt- fuelling and route planning are important. I am calling it a successful week as I managed to complete my runs, and I recovered ok from the longest run I have ever done. I was doing well with my snacks etc in the previous weeks, but this week for some reason I have not done so well.

I am going to really concentrate on eating properly during the next week, as next Saturday I am supposed to go 16 miles. I don’t want to think about that too much, but if I get there tired then I will do no good. I am also having another messed up week, due to an extra and longer staff meeting, so I am going to miss aerobics and do my runs on different days. Anyway, I won’t ramble!

I need to do some more foam rolling now. So, what have you done this week that you can call a success? Let’s all be positive and celebrate our achievements 🙂

On a completely random note, I got an email from wiggle saying that until Tuesday (I think) they are having 20% off “nutrition”. So any guesses on what I have ordered? (Clif bars and nuun). But someone might find that useful? They also do Mule bars on there, but I like the apple ones and Andy doesn’t and it made sense to order ones that we both like.

Talking to the geese

Hello!

I have had such a lovely saturday- some running, some gardening and some baking. These pretty much equal a perfect saturday.

First up is the run! The plan was for 10 miles- having a cut back week after the last few weeks of higher mileage. I thought I had run 10 miles a couple of weeks back, and so I went out on that route. I also thought the weather would be colder- I had on a craft long sleeved top and a jacket over that (luckily left the gloves and ear warmer at home)- well after a mile I had to stop and take the jacket off but I was still too hot. The run was ok- I had some clif blok things during the run. But it turned out that I miscalculated/ misremembered the route and ended up doing 11.7 miles- whoopsie. Then when I looked at my plan, due to me being ill and missing a few runs I actually have not run 10 miles for 7 weeks. Silly me again. Half a mile from home I had to stop and cross a busy road and when I started running again my muscles had practically seized up- the last half mile was a painful stiff hobble. I am alright now though. So another lesson learned- actually plan my route.

I got a friendly wave from one runner, and a “hello” from another one which I always like. Also when running around the park there was a big white hissing goose on the path- they are nearly as tall as me. I said out loud “I don’t like the look of you” and then a man (who was also right in front of me) turned around and said “were you talking to me?”- I had to admit that no, I was talking to the scary goose. Whoopsie again.

Refuelling time-

Kara coconut milk with nesquick, and a Hazelnut honey stick. This was so amazing (my first time trying it) that I took a pic once it was opened too- how unlike me;

Yum– a gooey carob (tastes like chocolate) centre coated in hazelnuts.

I also put all my nakd bars in a box today (remember a while back I got the deal off the website?)- well I think it will keep us going for a long time;

They are all about 4 deep I think!

After some soup it was time for gardening. I didn’t take any pictures but I saw so many ladybirds 🙂 It was such a perfect day for it too.

Then I got down to baking- I made some raspberry and white chocolate brownies for tomorrow. Basically I made a normal brownie, and then sprinkled it with some chopped white chocolate and the last of my frozen raspberries.

Before baking and then after slicing.

It is so good- the raspberries turn into a sort of sharp jam. Yum.

Then it was time to lay on the sofa (compression socks on) with some tea and snacks.

Lovely Whitards Christmas tea 🙂

So – your perfect Saturday?