I went running last night…It went surprinsgly OK. After spending ages warming up, I left the house and started running. Everything felt normal. No twinges. No pain. No discomfort. Just normal running. I swear I almost stopped in the road and danced about with happiness.
I’d be lying if I said it was a truly spectacular run though. It was tough. I kept around 8mins/mile and it felt hard going. Not tough as in my legs felt niggly. Just tough as in “wow I haven’t really run this speed for a while”. This obviously fills me with great confidence about the upcoming marathon. Not. Anyway, I was aiming to do 6 miles but couldn’t find a route off the top of my head through areas that were well-lit as it was so dark. So I did 5 miles. Towards the end of the run my knee started to make itself known just a little. No pain, just discomfort. But this is to be expected, right?? There was no pain afterwards, maybe just a feeling of weakness, and this morning (Wednesday) everything feels pretty much fine.
Fingers crossed! I have my running school session tomorrow night so I hope that doesn’t aggravate anything.
Anywho…Ben has been flying about Europe recently leaving me on my lonesome…well, with Alfie! Thankfully he’s back this week but previously he’s been gone like every week. Alfie loves this as it means he gets to stretch out a bit at night on Ben’s side of the bed.
Though through the night he still manages to move right where my legs want to go and I wake up in the morning curled up in an uncomfortable ball.
The one benefit of Ben being away is that I get to eat whatever meals I fancy without some sort of sarcastic comment about there being too much veg. I love my husband but he doesn’t share the same love for vegetables that I do. He always looks at his plate in mock disgust if I’ve had the audacity to put a few peas on there.
For What I Ate Wednesday I thought I’d share a couple of meals that I’ve been loving lately.
As always, thanks Jenn
I didn’t do any slow cooker meals last week as (surprise surprise) I had a lot more free time on my hands with not going to the gym or running. But I still fancied something quick and easy one night.
OK, granted, this looks pretty awful. But it’s one of my favourite meals lately. I’m sure I’ve posted it before but hey ho. It’s chicken and lots of veg (courgettes, mushrooms, onions, squash) and a small jar of salsa with a big dollop of cream cheese (probably two tablespoons). It’s a kind of ‘throw it into the saucepan and see what happens’ kind of meal. So creamy and tasty though.
I also enjoyed a lovely roasted vegetable and bacon meal.
This was courgette, mushrooms, tomatoes, beetroot, onion, squash, 1/2 tin of chickpeas and 2 slices of bacon. I scattered lots of garlic, rosemary and thyme over this with a good splashing of balsamic vinegar. So good.
Yep way too many vegetables in there for Ben. I’ve been really enjoying these sorts of meals though. It feels very season-appropriate. Variations are endless…sausages, goats cheese, sweet potato…anything really goes.
I plan on making a nice creamy tomato soup tonight so hopefully I will post the results of that at some point if it’s tasty 😉
Do you like bacon? What’s your favourite meal with bacon?
Does your other half enjoy the meals you cook? Ben usually does unless I go crazy with too many vegetables. Usually as long as there’s cheese in there he’s fine 😉
How long does it take you to get back into shape after some time out of exercising? I don’t think I’m out of shape from not exercising for over a week, but I do think I’ve lost a bit of fitness. And that my legs aren’t as strong, especially my knee now.
Anna, I am beyond happy to hear your knee is feeling better. What a relief!! Of course you’ll remain in my prayers until you’re fully healed.
I’ve heard of combining salsa with cream cheese for a delicious sauce but totally forgot about it. Your dish looks exceptionally delicious.
Joshua will eat very few vegetables… Think one cup of broccoli or peas. Lol
Thanks, Jessie.
Haha what are men like, eh??
So glad to hear you’re feeling better Anna! You had some pretty awesome meals this week, everytime I see your delicious eats I’m more tempted to throw out the toaster so we have counter space for a slow cooker!
Thanks, Claire! 🙂 You always make me crave fajitas and veggie burgers on your blog :))
I love all the vegetables here!! Nick is a meat eater but he eats Vegan at home as I cook, I’m sure he would prefer if I cooked meat but he enjoys most of the things I make, he draws the line at lentils though, he really doesn’t like them! I think once you have a little break from exercise you actually regain fitness fairly quickly. Glad that your run went well, fingers crossed for you!
That’s great that Nick is quite happy to not eat meat with you 🙂 Haha Ben is exactly the same with lentils!! And beans really. Once I did a lentil and bean thing. He was not happy.
It is bound to take a while for you to feel back to normal again, but I am sure this time next week you will be feeling pretty much there. It would take a few months for your fitness to really start to go. When I wasn’t running due to my op etc I had to go back to 1 min walk, 1 min run, (think I didn’t do any exercise except gentle walking for nearly 6 months) but I progressed quickly back up to running a 5k nonstop again- much quicker than when I started running. So you do keep some of that base fitness for a long time. After the summer holiday I got really sore legs running again, but a few epsom salt baths helped, and after a couple of weeks I was back running normal distances without the stiff legs.
Yeah I definitely believe in having a base fitness/muscle memory. It can’t just disappear unless you really do nothing for a very long period of time (like years). I really need to try the Epsom baths, they sound good. To be honest, at this point someone could tell me that eating grass would make things better and I probably would!
Oh lord I don’t even know which meal to comment on. So. Good.
Hehe 🙂
Bacon! It’s funny I’m not even a massive bacon fan, but when it’s offered to me I can’t resist. This literally happened this morning. I love the idea of using it to jazz up a roasted veggie dish! I think anything involving cheese and bacon is pretty much food of the gods 😉
I think it’s the smell of bacon that’s alluring. I never used to like it but I always loved the smell. Now I love it. It adds a lovely smoky taste to stews and meals.
Glad you had a pain free run! I love bacon now and again especially with broccoli and pesto such a great match! My boyfriend will luckily eat anything so no complaints from him : )
I love bacon, particularly bacon sandwiches as a weekend treat! Also smoked bacon and lentil soup is soooooo yummy! Good news on the knee – hope the running school goes ok 🙂
that last ‘mix’ looks AH-mazing! and i’m sure it’s one of those meals that tastes even better the 2nd day re-heated!
so happy i came across your blog!
xo,
Taylor
http://www.tayloredfitness.co
That roasted vegetable and bacon meal came out looking so good Anna! Bravo. Now I want to make it. But first I need to get a cute white casserole dish like yours 🙂
Fingers still crossed for you and running 😉
Yummm I am a HUGE fan of roasting up a ton of veggies, tossing them with some creamy/cheesy sauce, and calling it dinner. Fabio hates when I do that lol so, like you, I usually only have it when he’s away 🙂 It’s so nice though!
Haha yep Ben’s the same. It’s a nice chance for me to just eat everything I love.
You can add almonds if you want a milky-looking smoothie
or shake. Now taking cinnamon will not give you license to eat poorly, but the health benefits
of cinnamon will help your body to increase its insulin sensitivity by
copying the good properties of insulin. This should never be a Band-Aid for not putting forth the effort that getting ready for an event requires.