What to eat after a run

Well looks like my order to the weatherman worked! After my breakfast I made some dough for bread later on, and then went out on a ten mile run. Sun cream-check! Sunglasses- check! Raincoat- I got it ready but decided to leave it behind. I was pretty pleased with my time of 105 minutes, but by the end I was really flagging; I had run out of water and I was so hot, and yet again I have had a headache all day. I think I am going to investigate proper hydration drinks instead of water as I think it may be due to dehydration. My run was lovely; I saw so many wild flowers growing (cornflowers, tulips, bluebells) and the weather held out the entire time.

Once home I had the other half of my banana and a Trek Cocoa Brownie Bar. One word; yum! It is similar to the Nak’d cocoa bars but I think it seems more dense. With 11g protein it seems a good choice for veggies, and the soya crispies give it a bit of a different texture. I have seen on other blogs people putting them in the microwave for a little to heat them up, so next time I might try that.

After a shower I finished making the bread. I used the recipe for foccacia bread from The Italian Dietbook, but I made 1/3 of it (so 150g flour, yeast, salt,1tbs olive oil and 100ml warm water for the dough), and changed the topping to some red pesto (the veggie stuff I got in Morrison’s the other day), tomatoes and sun blush tomatoes. It was tasty! I also shared a punnet of Graze rocky mountain mix (one of my faves- pecans, cranberries and dark chocolate buttons).

I spent the afternoon going round the garden centre and am very pleased with my purchases. I have a few plants for the garden (lavender, geranium, clematis) and then more food plants; pumpkin, butternut squash, yellow cherry tomatoes, sweet pepper, another strawberry plant (in my opinion you can never have too many strawberry plants!), and a thornless blackberry bush (for an extremely bargainous £2.99!!!). It is basically a twig with leaves on it at the moment, so not sure if I will get any fruit from it this year, but my blackcurrant bush started out as a twig (it actually arrived in the post in a jiffy bag- someone had sent off to Ribena for me and I nearly threw it away!!) and last year I got a little bit of fruit, and this year it has a lot of flowers on it. So I will be patient with my blackberries.

Tomorrow I was hoping for a day out as it’s my birthday, but as rain is forecast we may have to postpone. If not, I am planning on spending the day baking. I have carrot cake planned, and maybe some kind of flapjack (to take into work). So check back for recipe reviews tomorrow!

Gardening on my rest day

Today was a planned rest day, as am doing my long run (another 9 miles I hope) tomorrow and I always struggle if I have even a short run the day before a long one. It was so sunny when I woke up so decided to walk to the garden centre and have a look. It’s a 4 mile round-trip so lovely to stretch the legs and get out in the fresh air (I can get very antsy if I don’t get outside at all during the day). I had a lovely time browsing the “kitchen garden” section and was very tempted by all the different raspberry/ blackberry/ loganberry fruit canes. But as I was walking there was no way I could carry them home!

We are seeing friends tomorrow so after lunch I attempted some peanut toffee brittle from Rachel Allen’s “Home Cooking”; it is setting in the fridge at the moment, although I am not sure how well it went. I did make sure the temperature was correct on the sugar thermometer but it has not set as well as I expected it would. If all else fails I’ll put it in the freezer! Am sure it will make a lovely ice cream topping.

Later on I had a lovely time pottering about in the garden; digging up dead plants (the snow killed quite a few), potting some herbs, planting beetroot seeds and putting my courgette seedlings into bigger pots. I am hoping to grow a few more vegetables and fruits this year. I had a try last year and was quite successful with strawberries, blueberries, blackcurrants, tomatoes and courgettes. I have already started off some courgette seedlings (including some yellow courgettes which I am very excited about as I have only ever eaten them on holiday) and sweetcorn seedlings. I am going to attempt carrots as well so hopefully I can use these in my baking. Last year I made a courgette chocolate cake which turned out quite tasty, and I love carrot cake so fingers crossed!
I am trying to follow the advice from my favourite gardening book (Carol Kleins’ “Grow Your Own Veg”) and will keep you posted.

Now I am taking it easy after dinner and am going to make sure I drink loads as I often get a headache after my long runs. I am thinking that it might be to do with being dehydrated so am going to make sure I have had enough water the night before too.