April, 2014 - AnnaTheApple

April 30, 2014April 30, 2014

Weddings, cake and apple

Hello! We’re in that awkward spot of half way between last weekend and next weekend (and a Bank holiday on Monday, wahay!)

Last weekend was a busy one. We had Parkrun in the morning as usual. We had to dash off pretty quickly afterwards to get home, showered and sorted as we had my friend’s wedding later in the day in Bristol.

I do love a good wedding, don’t you? Though it was a little overcast and drizzly at the start, when it was important the weather held out and there was some beautiful sunshine. Though it was quite chilly!

The ceremony was lovely. It’s so strange seeing one of your close friends walking down the aisle with her dad about to marry someone.

I mean I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I’m a married woman!

I know this is quite sad, but I’m so happy I was actually able to wear my fascinator! My mum gave it to me ages ago and I finally had an occasion and a dress that went with it. The dress is from Warehouse and I love it! I didn’t do anything with my hair because, well, I’m not that creative and it’s quite stubborn in that it just likes being straight. Ben looked rather dapper as well I must say!

I don’t normally drink but I did enjoy quite a few G&Ts and bucks fizzes, but luckily it was over a long period of time so I wasn’t an embarrassing drunk! I don’t usually drink so it was a nice change. My lack of drinking is not really a conscious thing, just that I don’t like wine or beer. I find cake and chocolate help me relax better anyway 😉

The table favours and theme for the wedding were great. The wedding couple are obsessed with Florida and the theme parks so they named each table a theme park, like Magical Kingdom, Busch Gardens and Universal Studios. We were Seaworld. In our table favours there were American sweets (candy?) like Reese’s Kisses and Baby Ruths (what on Earth are they??) and Tootsie Rolls.

The wedding breakfast (though really lunch – isn’t that a strange term?) was delicious: tomato soup, followed by chicken with vegetables and a creamy mash and then the most amazing slice of apple pie.

Then it was time to cut the cake.

How cool is that? An upside-down cake! It was chocolate cake with a white chocolate hard coating.

I had three slices. To be fair they were tiny slices so really I’m sure it was only one ‘proper’ slice 😉

Later there was a lot of dancing and craziness. I missed the second coming of the cake and was a little disappointed (I know, I know…) but had a spare apple in my room in the hotel to tide me over into the evening.

I am too cool for school I know. Can’t beat a late-night apple 😉

Needless to say I felt so tired on Sunday. The bride had booked the breakfast room in the morning for 8.45am for us all to have breakfast together. The day before that didn’t sound too bad, but in the morning I could have definitely had a bit more sleep! I might have had a little doze in the car on the way home…

We then enjoyed an afternoon of doing nothing. We watch the new Thor film (not bad at all!) and just chilled. Normally I hate just sitting down and doing nothing all day but actually it was lovely. A nice way to recharge the batteries.

Have you been to any weddings recently? What’s your favourite part?

Do you know of any interesting wedding themes that people use? At our wedding we used a ‘sweet’ theme, so each table was called a different sweet and the favours contained pick ‘n’ mix.

How do you recharge your batteries after a night out?

April 28, 2014January 5, 2017

Last week’s workouts

Last week was a weird running week. I sandwiched a tough run (the first RR10 race) between two fairly easy runs.

I took Monday off as a complete rest day. I think it’s so important to rest your body. It can be so tempting to just run all the time but I know from experience that this never works out well for me.

Tuesday I could have gone to the interval session with the club but I had the RR10 on Wednesday night and really wanted to try hard. So I went for an easy 6 miles after work. Nothing remarkable.

Wednesday was the RR10 in the evening. This is basically Hampshire’s set of league races that are around 4-5 miles long and tend to be fairly hilly and off-road. Like clockwork the rain started as soon as I left work about two hours before the start.

Ben dropped me off at a fellow club friend’s house so I could do a mile warm up run. I can’t just start flat-out race speed without warming up first. My legs de-friend me that way. Ben’s knee was giving him a bit of grief so he declined the extra running.

The RR10 was located at our local Parkrun in Netley Abbey so I was familiar with the area.

Sadly the toilets were locked at the time of the evening and I was desperate for a wee (sorry for TMI) It wasn’t even like a safety wee, it was a ‘genuinely-required-pee situation’. I had to dash off to find a bush, which was such an effort as most of the bushes were a bit scarce in their foliage and there were so many flipping dog walkers. Anyway, I found one of the necessary criteria. Hmm a whole paragraph on my peeing situation – apologies.

We did a bit more warming up. Anyone else just feel terrible during warm ups? Like every ache your body has ever experienced rears its head. I felt so de-motivated and tired.

Anyway we all headed to the start (our running club was looking strong with it’s red white and blue vests and such a great turn out). I planned to line up fairly near the front so I wouldn’t get caught behind people (RR10s are based on positions not time). Then we were off.

It was painful, fast, muddy, slippy and the whole time I was just thinking “this is hard.” and “I could slow down, that would be nice”. I decided not to look at my watch because a) I was concentrating on not falling over with all the mud and b) I just didn’t have time. It was one of those races I just kept my head focused the entire time.

Amazingly I came 10th female, and first female in my club. Judging from how tough the race felt and my race photos, it’s clear I worked hard for it!

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Still have my name on my vest from the marathon. All the cool kids are doing it 😉

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Are race photos ever flattering? This is on the last 100m. I remember seeing the photographer and in my mind briefly thinking “Oh jeeze this is going to be bad” as I desperately tried to sprint to the finish.

The next photo is one of my favourites. Not because I look nice or anything like that. It’s just the evil daggers I’m throwing at the photographer.

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I look seriously grumpy!

I was so chuffed with my position and after grabbing a drink I stood and cheered as other club runners finished.

Ben finished 192nd out of the men. There are always a lot more men than women unfortunately for Ben. He was chuffed though as his knee hadn’t caused him any issues. Whew.

Safe to say it was a very muddy run!

Then cakes appeared. Well, obviously I was there in a nano-second. Would you be surprised if I said I had four cakes? Yeah I’m not either. To be fair though two of them were quite slim biscuits. The other was a regular sized (amazing) cookie (with mini eggs in it?? WOW) and a slice of iced sponge.

I went home buzzing as you can imagine!

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It took ages to fall asleep that evening. Maybe it was the cakes or my aching legs but I really struggled.

Thursday I woke up tired and achy, but in a satisfying way. That evening I went to running club with the absolute iron intention of an easy run. I ran the mile down there at a nice relaxed pace enjoying the sunshine. I tagged along with the normal group I go with but telling myself over and over again not to go to fast. My options were limited with groups – it was either an off-roader (the one I went with) or a 7 mile 8-8.30min/mile group, or the much slower (than me – it’s all relative!) groups.

In the end I think I’d chosen well as we took it nice and easy and the terrain was very similar to the previous night’s RR10 so speed just wasn’t an option. Whew. But my legs felt very heavy and tired. I almost dashed off home as we past near where we live. It was a good 8.5 miles though in the end with an average pace of 9mins (a couple of those miles 10mins so that was good).

Friday was another rest day. I had intended on a strength workout (this week has been terrible for that) but it just didn’t happen sadly. You win some, you lose some. I did have a sports massage though on my calves. My left calf was feeling tight and almost a little niggly so I wanted to nip that in the bud quickly.

Saturday I got up earlier than usual and ran the 4 miles to Parkrun to help set up. I ran the extra miles because Ben and me were off to a wedding later in the day so a Sunday run was never going to happen 😉

On starting the run I felt so tired and my legs so heavy (still!). I was not feeling it at all. I made Ben make me a coffee that he’d take with him so I could drink it when I got there. He’s lovely like that.

He took me a black coffee and my water bottle. Very handy having him go by car. I saw him pass me when I was about 0.5miles away and it definitely made me run faster “need coffee!!!”

I got to parkrun, we helped set up and I was dragging my feet a bit. It was cold and I just wasn’t in the mood. However, when we lined up I put some music on and just got into it. I ran 22 minutes flat! It was crazy, I suddenly just decided “let’s do this”.

Not my fastest, but the course is the three laps with the hill and some fairly boggy grass so I was chuffed. The effort was definitely there! I was pleased I went for a speedy run.

After that, it’s two days off and then strength workout tonight (Monday night) and then hopefully intervals with the club Tuesday evening.

How was your week in terms of work outs?

How do you motivate yourself to work hard? Music tends to help me and also the ‘race environment’ gets me going.

How often do you work out and what’s your balance between cardio and strength? I try to do at least two strength sessions a week and usually 4-5 runs.

April 24, 2014

Easy Easter

It’s amazing what two extra day’s off can do to your motivation. Getting back to work on Tuesday was tough. It felt like I’d been off for ages. Thankfully we have another Bank holiday off very soon as well. Whew! 😉

Our Easter weekend was quite low key. On the Friday we decided to just have a lovely lazy day. We walked Alfie and went to Sainsbury’s for a few items (read: chocolate adventure). Can’t really beat that! In Sainbury’s we both chose an Easter egg each and we also got a film (Hunger Games: Catching fire).

I went for an unusual egg (a ‘squegg’) because it just sounded amazing. I much prefer more interesting eggs rather than just plain chocolate.

It’s hard to tell, but it’s actually a flat egg. This worked perfectly for me as I love putting chocolate in the fridge. Fitting an entire 3D Easter egg in the fridge is tough, but this slab of choc worked well. Actually too well. That evening I might have stood with the fridge open chomping my way through it. Three quarters of the squegg later…I felt sick but very satisfied. I don’t regret it!

Anyway, Saturday was Parkrun in the morning:

And then lots of jobs. We cleared out some drawers of clothes…apparently I was hogging drawers with my mass of clothes…surely not! 😉 In the end we had three bags of clothes to go to charity, a bag of rubbish (stuff that really couldn’t go to charity) and some bottles for the bottle bank. Love a good clear out! We were both really ruthless.

Sunday we went for a seven mile easy sociable run with some guys from the club. It was just nice to not worry about pace and relax into the run.

Later Ben and me headed to his mum’s for a lovely home-made lunch.

She’s been inspired by Masterchef so it was all very tasty and a bit different (not that her usual meals aren’t nice, it was just more adventurous). *In the posh Masterchef voice* Salmon and cod roasted over a bed of vegetables, all marinated in a delicious orange and parsley dressing, served with pesto stuffed tomatoes and lemon buttered greens. Well I say!

And followed by lemon meringue with ice cream. YES.

We then had a relaxed evening at home in a bit of a food coma.

Monday (oh isn’t it nice to have such a long weekend?) was a rest day. We went out with our friend to Nando’s and all three of us ordered a whole chicken each.

I got a corn on the cob and side salad to go alongside (my mission was not to be defeated. Ben made the mistake of getting garlic bread and mash and couldn’t finish his chicken. Schoolboy error).

I think this went down a bit too easy if I’m honest…

But definitely worth it. Though I felt so full for the rest of the day. Dinner really wasn’t an option that evening.

So lots of food, a fair bit of chocolate, some running and good quality rest time. I do love weekend’s like that. I feel like I need to get my eating in order a bit though as since the marathon I’ve kind of just gone a bit mad on everything. But it was Easter 😉

How was your Easter?

What’s your ideal Easter egg?

Do you have any Easter traditions? We don’t really. We’ll always have a nice meal but that’s about it. And maybe a few eggs…

April 22, 2014

Recent Runnings – bank it while you can

Happy belated Easter. Hope everyone had a nice weekend and extended time off (if you were so lucky to have the Friday and Monday off). I also hope lots of chocolate was enjoyed. Because let’s be honest that’s what it’s really all about (joke!).

The past week I’ve had a good amount of running. In fact, I’ve hit both running club sessions, Parkrun and a longish run with the guys from the club on Sunday. I’ve never managed that all before – usually I have to run on my own at least once.

Tuesday night was a hard incline intervals session. I felt strong running and though I hated it I did enjoy it – if that makes sense? It was tough but a good kind of tough. In the end I ran 7.8 miles. I definitely felt it the next day though!

Wednesday was no running but I did 45 minute’s in the gym working on my calves, hamstrings, glutes and core. Boring but necessary.

Thursday night was a longer than expected run with running club. I wasn’t looking for a speedy run at all as my legs felt so heavy from Tuesday. I’m really just not used to intervals anymore. So I was just wanted some good miles with good company. Well I did get some good company. But I just found it very hard.

I ran down to the meeting spot (which is just over a mile), then joined with a group who weren’t intending on blasting it. The only thing is it was off-road and there were several hills. In fact, our leader was actively looking for hills. I really struggled and felt really tired afterwards. I didn’t feel my usual amazing buzz. So I saw this as a ‘warning run’. A ‘don’t be stupid and try and jump too quickly back into things’ run. I’ve just done a marathon (and off the back of returning from injury and not having a great training lead-up). I cannot let the marathon and my results make me think I’m invincible. One run does not change you (I think those were Hollie’s wise words).

Hollie has been giving some great advice recently. For example, running and racing are like gambling. Quit while you’re ahead. That doesn’t mean quit running, but don’t think if you get a really good time or PB that suddenly you can keep racing every weekend and smash out good times all the time. Bank that result, take some recovery time, and then race again when you’re fresh and ready. Sound advice which I’m trying to follow.

After a rest day Friday, it was Parkrun on Saturday. I went for an easier pace to compensate for the tough Thursday. In fact, I loved it! Ben and me ran with some running club friends and helped out one of them to get a PB for the course.

It was great fun cheering and encouraging him round and seeing how chuffed he was at the end. We kept to around 8 min/mile pace which was perfect for me.

Sunday I was still feeling tired from the running so I was looking forward to a nice easy-paced longish run with some guys (and Ben) from the club. It’s really nice now that Ben’s properly into running and improving all the time that we can run together more now. Before when he first started it just wasn’t possible. Gotta watch my back soon I think 😉

We just managed to miss the rain thankfully! But it was very cold starting out.

It was quite funny because we actually got lost from half of the group and then had to make a quick and precarious dash across a gold course to get back. Scary times! Not sure the golfers appreciated us there…

This week is all about the RR10 (Hampshire Road Racing league) on Wednesday night. I plan on running an easy run on my own tonight and then (depending how I feel) pushing it on Wednesday so see where my paces are at. It’s all about position rather than time which I find annoying. I much prefer to compare myself to myself with my time than compare myself to others in terms of placing. Hey ho, all good speed work and lots of the club will be there.

And cake. There’s always cake 😀

How have your workouts been lately?

Do you quite while you’re ahead when you’re running really well? I’m just terrified that I’ll get injured. You always hear people getting injured when they’re doing so well in their running…I have no major races coming up so I have no reason to push everything hard.

Do you take part in any club leagues?

April 17, 2014April 17, 2014

Post marathon – all the foods?

So here’s my last post of our Paris weekend.

After Ben had finished the marathon, we staggered back to the hotel room both eagerly recounting our races. Ben sadly didn’t enjoy his and felt very disappointed with his time (despite the huge improvement on his last one). It was hard because I enjoyed mine so much. But I knew I’d feel the same way if I’d have been unhappy with my race. Sometimes it just works out like that. I remember at the Great South I hated the race, but when I met up with Ben afterwards he was absolutely buzzing with how much he loved it.

Anyway, I had the best shower in the world. It was one of those really good power showers and the heat of it was just amazing. I had been fairly cold after the marathon waiting for Ben so this was pure, unadulterated joy.

Afterwards I wrapped myself up in the hotel dressing gown and slippers and enjoyed my first post-marathon apple. No apple will ever taste as good.

Then Ben presented me with the best present ever. A Marathon Talk 26.2 Adidas hoodie.

So soft! I love it. I’ve wanted one for ages but obviously couldn’t get it until I’d run a marathon. I love that he knew that’s what I wanted. What a guy!

That was my outfit going out for late lunch/early dinner that day. I must say walking was a bit of an issue! Everything was 10 seconds behind and I was shattered.

My unhappy post-marathon walking (hobbling?) face

My expectation after the marathon was that I’d be ravenous with hunger. I wasn’t. In fact my stomach was just not happy at all. It coped well with the apple but then really wasn’t up for anything much else. But we had to eat obviously. We kept things simple and went back to the same cafe we’d been to before and we both had a starter (goat’s cheese on toast for me) and I had the same Caesar salad as before.

It tasted very nice but my stomach still wasn’t completely OK. Funny side story, the waitress was only vaguely aware of the marathon and even asked how far it was. Seriously??

We picked up some food from a little corner shop to munch on in the evening (and Ben needed wine – he’d not drunk for four weeks prior to the marathon bless him).

At this point I was so completely fed up with water. I’d been drinking it all damn day I needed something else. I’m not a big drinker (one G&T and I’m anybody’s and post marathon it’s probably not wise for me) so I went for some crazy sparkling chemically-induced ‘fruit’ beverage.

We rented a film from the hotel TV thing (World’s End) and I promptly fell asleep at about 9pm. It was a horrific sleep though trying to get comfy with my very achy legs. And I woke up about 6.30am wide awake. Ben was like a rock next to me. I woke him at 8am out of boredom and sudden onset of RUNGER.

We headed to a lovely little cafe for petit dejeuner. We went for the whole hog.

Plain omelette, croissants, bread and butter, dried meats and coffee. Everything but the croissants disappeared. We were seriously stuffed though until about 3pm.

We then went for an ill-advised walk to the Champs-Élysées and then down to the Tuileries Gardens where we collapsed onto some lovely chairs.

It was lovely and sunny and we kept spotting fellow marathoners wearing their finisher’s shirt and hobbling along like us, struggling with very simple things. Honestly curbs – who invented curbs??

We needed mini breaks like this for every 15 minutes. It was so tiring walking. But also good to keep the legs moving.

We carried on walking to the Louvre. The queue was huge so we decided to move on.

Possible the most stupid thing I’ve ever done – that landing was incredibly painful!!!

We walked up the road we ran along the day before. It brought back so many memories. It was great chatting to Ben and reliving it as we were walking.

We finally got to Notre Dame (after two hours of walking and stopping).

Bit ski-whiff sorry!

After this we decided to trek back. All I had in my mind to keep me going was the thought of a break in one of the parks near the Champs-Élysées for an ice lolly. Honestly we were both fading by this point.

We got there an hour later and enjoyed a lovely ice lolly. Then headed for the next part of our trek back to the hotel with a cake pit stop for lunch.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love cakes. But I’m talking bit old fat slices of Victoria sponge, moist carrot cake, and chunky brownies. OK yes typical British cakes. In my marathon-fogged brain I stared around me in the French Patisserie…their delicate cream cakes and choux pastries I realised weren’t quite going to kick it. Yes I KNOW it’s France and it’s different but I couldn’t help but feel a little bit disappointed (I’m not entirely sure what I expected to be honest!).In the end I went for a rather large meringue and giant cookie. I’m sorry Paris, but British cakes are much more satisfying.

We had an earlyish dinner and another early night. We were absolutely knackered.

The next day we had a bit of time in the morning and early afternoon before flying back. We decided to treat ourselves to breakfast in bed.

I had the omelette, a sweet bread roll thing and a couple of pastries (they were only small honest! :))

Then we headed out for more walking. The legs were feeling more normal (though still fairly stiff and achy).

The day before I’d worn some plimsolls. I think my feet had swollen from the marathon because they were so uncomfortable. So I made the good move of wearing trainers the next day.

All in all, we had a great time in Paris. I must say we went more for the marathon than the sights but I’m glad we got to see them (both running and walking). I’m not sure we would go back as it was fairly expensive and I’m not hugely cultured to appreciate the significance of the different sights.

Now, enough marathon talk! Time to move on…until Berlin gets closer that is 😉

Are you a a fan of ‘cultural’ sights when you go on holiday? Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate them and it was absolutely fantastic to see such epic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower. But I’m not one to spend hours around them. I’m ore a fan of ‘natural’ landmarks – like beautiful mountains, lakes, etc.

Would you ever do a race in a different country?

What would you/did you do post-marathon? I thought I’d eat more than I did. My stomach just didn’t feel right for quite a while.