Sometimes weekends need to be like this…

This weekend was one of those weekends that just ticked all the right boxes. It was so good. I went to Bristol, saw my friends, ate tons of rubbish, did a bit of running and just enjoyed it all. In a very cheesy sentence: let’s start from the top!

I worked from home on Friday and had our meal planned out for that evening. It was going to be one of the Hello Fresh meals and I was looking forward to it. But as the evening drew in I felt myself wanting something a bit ‘naughty’ and Ben’s gym plans fell through…so I might have made the very quiet suggestion that we could just get another Indian take-away as the weekend before’s was so rubbish. Ben heartily agreed. We chose a better Indian restaurant this time and it was PERFECT. And satisfied my primal need for meat…

I had chicken tikka and half a chicken tandorri with lots of onion salad and some poppadoms. It doesn’t look wholly appealing in the photo I grant you, but honestly it hit the spot. Though my tummy did not appreciate such an onslaught of onions.

On a different note, I’m very excited and very grateful to say that I’ve been selected to help promote a campaign that the Running Bug are launching. They’ve teamed up with the stylish fitness brand Helly Hansen to host their first ever ‘Running Bug fashion week’ and have sent me a selection of gear to try out and to spread the message that working out doesn’t have to mean not looking good. Yes it might sound a bit superficial but I’m a big believer that work out gear doesn’t have to be purely functional. Like with everyday clothes, I want to look good doing what I enjoy. I also like to wear crazy bright colours and different prints that I probably couldn’t get away with in normal life!

You wouldn’t believe how long this photo took to take as Alfie kept walking into it bless him

So when the kit arrived on Friday I might have jumped around the living room a little bit and annoyed Ben with all my excessive excitement and trying everything on IMMEDIATELY. And this will sound stupid but I was actually pleased it was raining on Saturday morning as it meant I could try out the jacket and capris combo for my run. I switched my long run from Sunday to Saturday as I was away in Bristol for Saturday night so I ran to parkrun (5 miles) and then did parkrun (3 miles) to make it to eight miles. Perfect.

The weather was appalling. I was absolutely soaked by the time I arrived at parkrun. I only had less than 10 minutes to wait until it began but it was enough to make me a bit nippy! As soon as parkrun began my brain tried to take over and get into parkrun mentality but I held myself back and tried to run slower.

Muddy, slippy and wet but good fun

Though to be fair, by the time the second lap (my 7th mile) came about I was getting tired and would have crashed if I’d have attempted to have gone faster anyway! My average pace for the entire ‘long’ run was 7.56mins/mile which is too fast for a long run (I say this every week I know) but I’m putting this down to parkrun not helping!

Ben was time-keeping and got very soggy and cold indeed and had to warn all the finishers of the muddy ground as it was a slip-and-slide battlefield!

We helped clear down and then dashed to the car quickly. I was so cold by this point! Ben had brought my jacket from home in the car but it was still freezing. I took the longest, hottest shower when I got home which I’m sure ordinarily would have given my third degree burns.

Then I had to dash off to Bristol to see my uni friends (we stayed at Kate and Jamie’s house – our fellow Orlando holiday buddies). We chatted and caught up which is always lovely and then headed off for some food at the Winter Stream Farm. It’s funny because normally at a restaurant I’ll peruse the menu and try and choose something that I really fancy and something not astronomically priced or nutritionally ridiculous. But it was like I slotted back into Orlando mindset and just went straight for a big plate of BBQ ribs, fried chicken and roast potato wedges.  I didn’t even see what salads they had on the menu! Who am I??

I only left a single potato and was completely satisfied by that meal. Sometimes you just need a big plate of the good stuff.

There was also an OBSCENE cake selection.

We all decided to get a slice to take away (and for our other halves too – mainly so you then have two different slices to try…). I went for a HUGE slice of carrot cake and got Ben a HUGE slice of toffee waffle cheesecake. I had to keep pinching myself that this wasn’t a dream 😉 It was brilliant as they literally called it a “cakeaway”.

Honestly they are MASSIVE. The sheer weight of them was pretty impressive. I was desperate to gobble them up but stowed them away to take them back to Southampton.

We headed back home and did a lot more chatting and chilling (as girls do) and then decided to do the only thing that makes sense when we get together at someone’s house. Make the World’s Best Brownie of course. This has featured on the blog before…I wouldn’t like to think how many times in reality we’ve made this recipe and devoured it. A lot I suspect.

Sensibly we decided this was dinner. Basically this brownie fulfils every sweet toothed cake-addicted person’s dream. You make a brownie and you eat it literally five minutes from the oven with a spoon. None of this cutting it into pieces and putting it onto a plate to have over several days. Immediate gratification (and subsequent feeling sickness).

It’s the only way to do it properly 😉 The recipe is on my previous post about this brownie (HERE) – and the trick is to leave it slightly underdone so in the middle it’s gooey and the chocolate is all melty. LITERALLY HEAVEN.

But yes, we did feel sick. And I regret nothing. Well, the next morning I might have slightly regretted the sheer amount of rubbish food I’d been eating over the past 24 hours. I planned to do a quick three mile run around where Kate lived (far more socially acceptable to run three miles than eight miles when you’re staying with friends! But yes, they know what I’m like and they do think I’m bonkers).

What concerned me was an onslaught of rain hammering on my window an hour before I was going to get up. I was ready to throw the towel in for the run but then it quickly cleared up and became quite a pleasant and dry morning. Three miles done and dusted before anyone had showered or gotten up! It went OK though it felt like a slog (thank you brownie).

After breakfast we went our separate ways. It only takes an hour and a half for me to get home from Bristol so I was back in no time. I showed Ben the cakes and his eyes just lit up. Dinner was sorted.

I can’t say I felt particularly well after consuming that entire carrot cake slice for dinner (literally for dinner) but I had no regrets. It tasted AMAZING. Ben couldn’t quite finish his beasty cheesecake as it was “overwhelmingly creamy” (I personally don’t see the problem?). Afterwards I laid on the couch in a sugar coma…I was a euphoric gluttonous wreck. Time for a week of healthy nutritious food I think!

What did you get up to this weekend?

Have you bought any new workout gear lately? I can’t seem to stop…

Do you have days when you just think “sod it” and eat what you fancy, whatever the consequences?

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