May, 2013 - AnnaTheApple

May 31, 2013

Random Tid Bits

Hi guys. I hope your week has been whizzing by as quickly as mine has. Missing out Monday does help!

My week hasn’t been that exciting I must admit…same old same old. I thought I’d do another post of randomness…

1. We’ve had a lot of rain round our parts so it’s been pretty depressing. Kind of ironic that as soon as the long weekend finishes it begins raining. Though rain sucks (hello stupidly long commutes because people forget how to drive), I do love going to bed hearing the rain outside. It sounds so cosy!

2. Last night I went to running club and it was TOUGH. The usual guy who leads the faster group was on holiday and so one of the other guys led it. He took no prisoners. Usually the other guy keeps a nice speed up but will stop to wait for the people at the back and let us all catch our breath. It’s more relaxed that way and not so intense.

However, last night the leader just wasn’t keen on stopping or waiting. We kept having to tell him when someone dropped behind and he just sighed as if irritated and then doubled back. So it was relentless with limited stops. I was shattered by the end.

I wasn’t too impressed with him to be honest. Yes OK he said we were going to do 7.30mins/mile pace but at least two of the guys struggled and he should have pulled back for them.

3. Does anyone else get seriously bothered by this??

I hate it when my music doesn’t have proper track names, artists or albums. Gahhh. It means I need to listen to each track to figure it out. It’s on the to-do list…

4. Alfie apparently likes watching TV. He goes mental though if there’s any windscreen wipers. I think he had a bad experience with them when we drove him home after first picking him up. It was raining and we had the wipers on and he really didn’t like it.

I also fed him a bit of an apple on the journey home as well (probably the one and only time I’ve ever willingly shared an apple). He gobbled it up quickly. Only to throw it back up on me an hour later. What a waste *sighs*

5. In other Alfie-related news, he loves to sit by the window in the sun and get a fur-tan

6. I’m loving my running socks. They have little bits of padding on them in nice places (how vague is that? I won’t lie, I don’t know foot anatomy…) and they have “L” and “R” so you know which foot they go on. It might be psychological but I really think they help my running.

7. I love having customers in the office. We get exciting fruit platters and delicious food. OK it’s supposed to be for them but there’s always left-overs.

There is no easy way to eat a massive slice of watermelon at work. It’s messy and un-ladylike. And I love it

8. This is the amazing red velvet cupcake I got from the Swallow Bakery at the weekend. I realised I hadn’t shared a photo of it.

HEAVENLY. It actually makes me sad that it’s gone.

9. After my running club runs on a Thursday night, I always find I’m just not hungry for dinner at all. But I do have dinner because I know otherwise I’ll die of hunger a few hours later (slight exaggeration perhaps). But it’s just never that appealing when I get in. The day after though my hunger goes into overdrive. I always need more food than usual. Which works perfectly today because tonight we’re off out with friends to the amazing all-you-can-eat Brazilian restaurant we went to before. Amazing.

And that’s all folks! Have a great weekend

If you have a dog or a cat, what crazy things do they do that make you laugh?

What’s your favourite flavour of cupcakes? I love lemon flavoured ones and red velvet. I’m not a big fan of chocolate (weird, I know).

Do you have any fitness clothing/gear that you find really helps with your performance?

May 29, 2013

Bank Holiday Weekend – Part 2

Howdy! My last post covered Saturday of the long weekend – catch it HERE if you missed it I’m going to miss WIAW as I wanted to carry on with the rest of the long weekend recap. Hope you don’t mind!

So carrying on with Sunday and the 10k race…

Ben and me woke up early again, had breakfast and prepared for the race ahead. It looked warmed and sunny which is great if you’re not running 10km…I started to feel really nervous as my legs felt tired from the Parkrun the day before and I didn’t know what the course would be like or anything. It was in the New Forest in an area that it being improved (planting trees etc.) and isn’t usually open to the public. The 10k was an event to raise money for the improvements.

Ben’s mum (Di), my parents and me all piled into Di’s lovely shiny BMW and headed off. When we arrived we realised that it was going to a be a bit of a bumpy parking situation…

The ground was basically just peat and random chippings and branches with lots of mounds. I felt very bad as Di had offered to drive and had only washed her car the day before…it got very dusty

The course was stony underfoot and basically all out in the open. In the sun.

I always have about three pees before a race. I’m sorry if this is too much information but it’s true. I get nervous that I’ll need to pee during the race. So I used the porter-loo (my worst nightmare) three times before we began.

There were about 100 people and we all crowded up to the start just before beginning. And then we were off! There was a guy right at the front with his dog attached to him by a lead and as soon as we all started running the dog just went mental. He wouldn’t stop barking. It was quite off-putting to be honest and I think a lot of people were annoyed.

I think the first mile was downhill because we were all zooming along. It felt great! I saw the girl in green ahead of me and decided to try and overtake her at some point. I kept her in my sights and it motivated me to keep my pace up.

Then on mile two I was still feeling strong and managed to just gradually overtake her. I think she slowed down though so that helped!

Look how happy we look there…we didn’t know what was coming

The parents got a good spot to spectate as there were several loops that came back to where they were so they got lots of times to cheer us on and take photos. We would definitely need that cheering later on!

As we got to mile 3 I had slowed down form my first zippy mile and was really feeling the heat, the undulating course and the pain. It was the first time in a race I genuinely considered stopping. Or at least stopping to walk. It was so tough.

No more smiles now!

The photo above of me is on the last mile. When my parents and Di cheered me on I just shook my head and gasped “it’s so hard”. There was only one water station half way through and I can never run and drink very well so in the end I just threw it on myself.

I kept looking at my watch. I elatedly thought as I got to around 5.6miles I’m almost there. Ha. My watch beeped 6 miles and I saw what was ahead of me. A MAMMOTH hill.

The photo doesn’t quite do it justice, but I assure you that hill felt like a mountain after 6 miles of hot running. I finished and as I crossed the line and stopped I felt a little bit dizzy with heat. I quickly headed to the drinks stand and only then realised to turn off my Garmin. That’s how shattered I was!

My official time was 45:47 and I was the first female, 14th overall (out of 90). Quite pleased considering how painful I found the race. Mentally and physically tough to keep going and not give up on that last hill as well.

When I saw Ben in the distance about to start the uphill I headed down with some water for him as I could tell he was finding it just as hard as I had. He pushed through it and finished in 58.32min. Not a PB for either of us but I definitely felt a sense of accomplishment.

The race organisers had a good spread of post-race snacks as well.

I had one of the orange slices and honestly it made me feel terrible. Note to self: don’t eat fruit post-run. I got really bad cramps.

Being first female I got a prize: £30 off of a running website!!

Of which I have already put towards a new sports bra and a pair of running gloves (with a cool thumb but that allows me to work my Iphone screen).

After dying for a little bit we decided to head off and find a nice coffee shop to have a bit of tea and refreshments.

We went to a little coffee shop/garden centre called Lavender Tea Rooms. And it was so pretty! There was a field growing lavender and all these beautiful plants. Inside the tea room they sold all these pretty little trinkets, lavender teabags and lavender-flavoured biscuits.

My dad had a bacon roll (which looked very posh!), my mum had cream tea, Ben and Di had toasted teacakes (no photo sorry) and I had mint and pea soup. I would have normally had a scone but my tummy still felt a bit dodge. I thought soup would be a better call! And I am so glad I had it – it was the best soup I have ever had. So good in fact that my mum tried a bit and ordered some for herself as well! And the baguette was lovely and warm.

Then we headed home. When I got home I quickly showered and then headed out (with a couple of apples for the journey) to a BBQ with my friends. I didn’t partake in any food (apart from a slice of cake) as I had just had lunch and was later having an Indian with Ben but it was lovely to hang out with my friends in the sun. Though I felt a bit like I had heat-stroke and I was burnt from the run on my chest and arms.

I met their little guinea pig as well, who was lovely. I used to have loads of guinea pigs so I was quite content to stroke it on my lap.

UNTIL IT PEED ON ME. There’s gratitude for you.

We played some games and chilled out and then I left early to get back to Ben to eat a very well deserved Indian.

Though we both noticed how thirsty we were after the Indian. I mean I know how salty Indian takeaways are but I think that combined with losing a lot of water during the race really hit us. We both went to bed with water by the sides of our bed.

Monday was a lovely relaxed day with the family enjoying a tasty BBQ.

And so a great Bank holiday weekend if I do say so myself! Family, running, tasty food and sunshine. Perfect!

What do you prefer: tearooms or coffee shops? I do love coffee but there’s something so terribly quaint about a tearoom. I’m just sad I missed out on the scone. Next time for definite. They even had lavender flavoured scones!

What childhood pet did you used to have? We had two dogs, hamsters, nine guinea pigs (at one time!), fish and rabbits.

What do you like to eat post-race? I think I just prefer to drink lots of water and then have a proper meal a little while after.

Hills at the beginning or a race or then end? I thought I’d prefer the end but now I’m not so certain!

**I’m sorry if you’re getting bit sick of me going on about being the first girl in races and things like that – I don’t mean to sound like I’m bragging at all. I’m just pleased with how my running is doing. The races I’ve been doing are by no means huge races. They’re smaller informal races, so there’s a better chance to do well!**

May 27, 2013

Bank Holiday Weekend – Part 1

Hello lovely people! How good does a long weekend feel? And with such lovely sunny weather! Ben and me have been really enjoying the weather and have been fairly busy these past few days.

Saturday morning we both naturally woke up early. So nice to have the sun gently wake you up. We did a couple of chores and then headed out to our local Parkrun in the lovely Victoria Country Park.

This time I did not make the mistake of having breakfast beforehand!! I was quite nervous due to last time. When we got there we found out we were doing the ‘harder’ course which was three laps and had an incline in it. To be honest I wasn’t too bothered as I didn’t know what to expect as I haven’t done a proper 5k in ages. And there was a pacing event on as well so there were lots of volunteers pacing different times which was cool.

On the first lap I managed to get slapped in the face with a stinging nettle as I turned round a corner. I thought “ha, well I won’t make that mistake on the next lap!” But by the second lap I’d forgotten it and got slapped again. And you wouldn’t believe that it happened on the third as well… I clearly have the memory of a goldfish.

I was enormously pleased with this! It’s funny because I saw the ‘Sub 22 minute’ pacer on the second lap round and thought well I’ll just stick with him as I was happy with getting 22 minutes! But as we carried on running I felt myself have enough energy to get past him and carry on a bit faster.

And I came first girl! It also felt great to be cheered on by the volunteers and then to cheer on everyone else as I waited for Ben to finish (not that he was that much further behind me!)

He got 25.07, a new PB

So we felt pretty good after that. We went home, had some much needed breakfast as by this point it was after 10am.

After showering and chores we were off to Chichester to have lunch with my family for my mum’s birthday. Between my dad, my sister and me we had decided to surprise my mum by not telling her that Rachel (my sis), Nick (brother-in-law), Ben and me would be there. She just thought it was her and my dad. So we zoomed to Chichester to get to the restaurant before her and waited there for her to arrive. We got her a glass of Prosecco as well ready and waiting.

We were sat in a window seat so I was worried she’d see us but when she walked past but she was completely oblivious. My dad did a discrete nod and then they headed inside. Honestly, her face was a picture. She was so surprised and over-the-moon it was just lovely.

And the food was divine, as always. This restaurant is a big favourite of our family (it’s called Trents).

For starters Ben and me had our usual thing…

A ‘dipping board’ with olives, basil pesto, hummus, pittas and crudités.

And for main I had a chicken Caesar salad.

Really chunky croutons, anchovies and chicken. Yum. The dressing was so good as well.

Then we moseyed about and looked in some shops. We went into one of my favourite sweet shops (Ye Olde Sweet Shop):

Look at that huge Sherbet Fountain (do you remember those?? I hate liquorice but I used to love dunking the liquorice stick into the sherbet and licking it off).

We also went to another of my favourite Chichester food-places: The Swallow Bakery.

Wow word: AMAZING. Honestly I spent a good 10 minutes perusing what I wanted….marshmallow cupcakes, carrot cupcakes, rainbow cupcakes…and all these other cakes, brownies and flapjacks as well.

I’m not sure if that’s clear enough to see, but you can have a cupcake MILKSHAKE. A cupcake blended in a milkshake. And they had gluten-free option cupcakes too which I thought was great.

Ben and me went for strawberry meringues and red velvet cupcakes. Then we parted ways with the family and went home. Such a lovely day out!

After dinner, we ate the meringues. We just couldn’t not. I mean seriously, it was a push waiting that long to tuck into these bad boys (we didn’t share; we had one each).

Sugar-induced coma occurred promptly after this. But it was so worth it. We still have the cupcakes (I’m not sure how we haven’t eaten them yet, but seriously they well be gone by the end of today).

We were shattered and so had another early night as we had yet another 10k the next day (yes, I know. We are official obsessed. You don’t want to know how many we’ve signed up to. Our bank account is not pleased with us).

Right, I will stop there as this is becoming a bit lengthy. Hope you’re having a great Monday off (if you have indeed got it off)!

What’s your favourite way to spend time with your family? Going for a meal is definitely one of my favourites. Or coffee and a cake with my mum. Can’t beat that mum-daughter time.

Are you doing any Parkruns? Or races in general? We’re completely hooked on both. I love the adrenaline and feeling of accomplishment of a race. It definitely beats solo runs! Also Parkruns are a great way to measure improvement/progress every week.

Cupcakes, brownies, cake…what’s your favourite baked sweet treat? Mine is cake. A big slab of cake. But I do love cupcakes. And brownies. And cookies. Oh and scones obviously

May 24, 2013

Sleepless Nights and a Special Birthday

There are good times during the day when it is sensible and productive to think about important decisions, tasks at work, and things that you need to do.

I have found that 3.30am is not that time. At 3.30am everything can seem like a complicated problem. Everything gets ruminated and examined from every possible angle. Time gets sucked away and your mind whizzes at ninety miles an hour. Problems are not solved at 3.30am.

That was last night for me. I tossed and turned all through the night with a mixture of a zillion things going through my mind and achy legs from my running club run that evening. Consequentially, I did not sleep well.

Loving that peak from 3-3.30am…not

I didn’t need the Sleep Cycle app to inform me that I had pretty rubbish sleep quality. I was fully aware of that at several points during the night. In fact, I’m sure I ruminated on it at 3.30am.

I love running club but it does mess around with my sleeping after I’ve had a hard run only hours before. And on top of a tough week at work…well I had no chance really. It’s funny because at that time in the middle of the night, you almost want you alarm to go off so you can get up. When you do eventually fall back asleep however, those thoughts are long gone.

Anyway, so this week has been tough at work and tough running. My 10k on Sunday pretty much savaged any energy I had left in my legs and left my runs feeling tough beyond belief. I usually comfortably run between 7.30-7.45mins/mile. On Tuesday I was struggling to hit 9mins/mile. Very humbling! Reminds me that I’m not superwoman and rest is important.

But I enjoyed the run regardless and just ran at a pace that my legs felt comfortable. I think it’s important to get back into it after a tough race but I also think it’s important to that slowly and sensibly. Shake out those achy muscles and get some fresh air.

And importantly – a big happy birthday to my amazing, super mum.

I couldn’t ask for a better mum. She may not be the best cook in the world but she is definitely a great listener, a loving person, kind beyond words and always there whenever I need a mum-daughter chat or coffee.

On to some good food. The other night I tried a new recipe. It’s loosely based on THIS recipe that I had pinned (follow me if you fancy!)

Tomato and Feta Chicken (serves 2)

2 chicken breasts
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
Tin of chopped tomatoes (I used chopped cherry tomatoes)
Herbs (e.g. oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary)
Garlic

– Pre-heat oven to 200C/400F.

– On the hob in a small pan, cook the chopped tomatoes with the herbs and garlic until bubbling.

– Add most of the feta (reserve two heaped teaspoons) and stir so it begins to break down and melt.

– Season the chicken with pepper (no salt as the feta is very salty) and add to a small casserole dish. Cover with sauce, pop in oven and cook for about 15mins.

– Remove then sprinkle over the remaining feta and pop back in for another 5mins (until the chicken is cooked).

The sweetness of the tomatoes and the saltiness of the feta worked so well together. And so easy to make, definitely one to repeat as an easy midweek meal!

So it’s Friday today, hurrah! This weekend is a long weekend with the bank holiday on Monday (a day off in the UK). I plan to enjoy a nice relaxed Parkrun tomorrow – NO PRESSURE allowed. And then Ben and me might have signed up to another 10k for Sunday….um, yes we are obsessed.

Have a lovely weekend!

What are you up to this weekend?

What’s your favourite kind of cheese? Mine is goat’s cheese without a doubt. But I do love cream cheese.

Do you wake up in the middle of the night with thinking-overload?

May 22, 2013

What I Ate at the Weekend

Hi lovely people! Thanks for your nice comments regarding my last post. I really do worry too much about the most stupid things, don’t I? In the great scheme of things, it just doesn’t matter!

And it’s WIAW already. Unbelievable. Check out Jenn’s blog Peas and Crayons to get involved or just for a nosey about.

Here’s some bits and pieces of what I ate over the weekend.

Breakfast (*sighs* fat lot of good that did me on Saturday…) was my standard oatmeal and almond milk:

I had this both Saturday morning and Sunday.

Saturday and Sunday lunch were exactly the same as for some reason we had an overload of eggs in the house. I personally blame the husband for he did the food shop…

Saturday, I made kind of a frittata/omelette.

I used tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, onions and three eggs and then big blobs of cream cheese. With this I had Brussels, a bit of lettuce and beets.

On Sunday Ben and me had to rush back after our 10k race and eat lunch super fast to go out and meet our friends. So this happened:

Not nearly as pretty. It sort of failed – flopped if you will. But the taste was absolutely fine. That’s all that matters…right??

We had a great afternoon then hanging out with my friends at a local country park where there was a farm you could look around.

We had a lovely time waking round looking at all the animals. And we saw a sheep being sheered as well. The sheep was seriously not happy. To be fair, nor would I be. It’s not that warm at the moment…And it looked naked afterwards!

And we saw some ducklings and chicks. One of them we named the Smurf Chick because it was blue!! Apparently its dye marking had run a bit. Awww.

We even got to try milking a cow! The farmer said we could try our hands at milking Buttercup the cow, who I must say was very accommodating. Then they got the machine and showed us how they machine milk a cow.

Buttercup can produce 40 pints a day. Jeeze. The farm can’t sell the milk as it hasn’t been pasteurised (so it’s raw milk) and you need a special licence. The staff there can drink it and use it themselves but they can’t let anyone else try it or have any. The farm try and use as much as they can with making cheese, cream and lots of puddings during their lunch and dinner breaks and also feeding other animals but unfortunately a lot has to be wasted. Such a shame.

Dinner on Saturday night was two tortilla pizzas:

Times by two

Lots of veggies, chicken and BBQ sauce and a bit of goat’s cheese. Perfect. I’m all about the toppings for pizza. We were going to buy some make-your-pizzas from Sainsbury’s (as is our post-race standard dinner) but we were so busy we never got to the shop so we had to make do with a proper DIY version. Still good in my book!

Dinner on Sunday was a meal out with the friends after the farm visit. We went to our local Harvester. Though the Harvester chain isn’t going to win any awards any time soon for inventive cooking or fine dining, it was pretty good for an inexpensive relaxed meal.

And an all you can eat salad bar?? Amazing. And when I ordered a Diet Coke the barmaid then pointed to the refill machine and I, embarrassingly, got overly excited by this prospect – free refills?? It’s been a while…I was significantly caffeined up that evening

As soon as I saw BBQ ribs on the menu I was set.

And alongside this there was a corn on the cob. Yum!! We had such a laugh with our friends it was a great end to the weekend.

Ben and I were shattered when we got home. Such a busy weekend of running, fun times and good food. Just the way I like it!

For me weekends are all about enjoying good food. I quite like going out for dinner or lunch one day (though we don’t always manage it). I also like to spend the time on a Saturday night making a good recipe that I wouldn’t get the chance to make during the busy week because it takes a bit longer. Weekends are also about enjoying some less healthy snacks, like slices of cake, a good pudding or ice cream. Don’t get me wrong, these things can appear during the week but it’s not always possible and it’s nice to really appreciate it when watching a good film or spending some fun times with your friends.

Do you eat differently at the weekend?

Raw milk: would you ever try it? I was disappointed we didn’t get to try it but understood the reasoning behind. From what the man said to us, it sounded like it was quite heavy and creamy.

What’s your favourite meal? I think BBQ ribs are definitely one of my favourites.

What’s your favourite way to eat eggs? I do like fried eggs but as a meal I like omelettes or scrambled egg with loads of added extras. I’m all about variety!