September, 2014 - AnnaTheApple

September 15, 2014September 15, 2014

A post from a husband needing advice…

Today I am taking a back seat on the blogging front and letting my husband take the reigns as he needs some advice…

Hi everyone, I’m Ben. You know of me as Anna’s husband if you read her blog! I’ve been running for 18 months now. I gave up smoking last march and running keeps me off the cigarettes. I’ve run 2 marathons – both disasters! For Portsmouth I had a torn hip flexor and was in pain from mile 8 (read about that fun time HERE). And for Paris I had cramp from mile 4! Berlin was going to be my “good race”.

I have been struggling with an injury for some time and I always expected it would recover weeks, if not months, before the Berlin marathon. However, here I am less than 2 weeks before Berlin and I haven’t ran in over 5 weeks! I need some blogger advice from runners so I thought I would hijack Anna’s blog to ask anyone reading this…

It all started surprisingly enough in marathon training. I went out and ran an 18 miler, averaging 40secs per mile slower than marathon pace and I felt my hamstring get a bit tight. It wasn’t enough to stop me but was enough that I could feel it. The day after it was tight but I thought it was just a tight muscle so took an extra rest day and then ran a local RR10 (local 4-5 mile race). Again after the race it was tight so I took another extra rest day before running Ultra 12 (a 12 hour through the night relay race).

Did I mention we won it? I’ve never won anything before in my life! I don’t run to win; I’m not a fast runner so this was a big deal.

I ran 4 x 5 mile laps and after each one my hamstring was agony. That was the start of my break. I took 10 days off. In that time I went to physio, he wasn’t bothered and said take time off. The hamstring was tight because of an issue with my back. That was also causing pain in my knee which was more painful than the tight hamstring. I listened to him and decided to take time off, not run, I kept my fitness by cycling and occasionally swimming. I expected to be running within a few weeks.

The last 6 weeks have been a pretty bad time for me, I know Anna has been injured on and off for a while and I have tried my best to support her throughout that time but it is tough to support an injured dejected runner. When it was my turn to get injured my usual positivity around injuries was replaced by negativity and almost a defeated attitude. I haven’t eaten well and have drank more alcohol than usual. Mainly because that’s what I do, if I can’t run I eat cake, chocolate, fast food and drink beer and wine.

Anna’s drink of choice (squash) and mine (wine)

Anyway, enough of that. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it looks like I might be able to do a run this weekend. My hamstring is still ridiculously tight but I have to at least try the run. If it goes badly then I will have to admit defeat and say Berlin is off. I will go and support Anna and get absolutely obliterated on German beer.

But what if the run goes ok? I have kept up my fitness so that I can run the marathon but can I actually get around 26.2 miles with such a lack of miles in my legs? My plan if I run it is to go out at 9 min miles (3:57 marathon time). Ironically if I ran this consistently then I would PB. But I am not going for a time. Anyway, if I go out at 9 min miles (which is a comfortable pace for me the last time I ran) then I push that as far as I can – hopefully 15-18 miles. The next 11-8 miles are then going to be a world of pain, walk running to get to the end. I know the sensible thing would be to not run it but I mean seriously – this is Berlin. I am not after a time, I just want to get around.

What do you all think?

September 11, 2014September 11, 2014

OM Yoga Magazine September – Yoga while pregnant and a giveaway

I’m not pregnant. Have to quickly put that one in before any rumours start (or hopes are raised – I’m looking at you, mother). However, the latest issue of the Om Yoga Magazine has a lot of focus on yoga through pregnancy, which I just find fascinating.

To be honest, I find the whole pregnancy thing in general fascinating and can’t wait to be pregnant. My dream would be that I could still comfortably (to some extent?) work out, run and also do yoga through my pregnancy. Obviously I know that’s quite a tricky thing and I’ll have no idea if possible until that day arrives – maybe I’m being very naive!

Anyway the latest issue of the OM Yoga magazine focuses on practicing yoga while pregnant and has lots of great articles and tips. I think this is brilliant and I’m so glad the days of pregnant ladies being told to remain as sedentary as possible are long past us. Healthy exercising mums usually means healthy babies!

I think it’s always safer to have practiced yoga before trying it out when you get pregnant (I could be wrong though!) – which is why I’m quite glad I’ve gotten into it now. Hopefully I can continue when pregnant.

There are some great yoga moves within the magazine for pregnant women which don’t look that daunting but also don’t look too easy. I guess you still need to challenge yourself even when you’re pregnant 😉

And on a random note, I also love this issue as it has a lot of beetroot recipes (I love beetroot). I always have beetroot in my salad – I just adore it. But I do not love having pink fingers long after I’ve chopped up beetroot. Not a good look.

I also have an exciting giveaway to launch! OM Yoga and Lifestyle magazine are running the annual OM Yoga Show in London at the end of October. They have kindly given me weekend tickets to give away to two lucky lovely readers! The pairs of tickets are worth £54 each, and the winners can come along for all three days of the show, and bring a friend.

“The Yoga Show offers the perfect introduction to this ancient Indian practice with workshops and classes on all kinds of yoga, including BoxingYoga, Hot Pod Yoga, and even Hip Hop Yo’ga! For those who are experienced yogis, there is the opportunity to learn new skills, or improve on existing ones. When it’s time to take a break from practicing yoga, visitors can take some time to explore over 250 exhibitors who will be attending the show. They are committed to ensuring that the yogic lifestyle is as fulfilled as possible, with yoga clothing, accessories, complementary therapies, super foods and so much more on offer.”

As well as the classes, workshops and exhibitors at the OM Yoga Show, there’s also the opportunity to enter the Mind Body Soul Experience for free. The two shows are being held at the same time in adjoining Olympia Halls – two shows for the price of one!

The dates are 24th, 25th and 26th October 2014 (Opening Times: Friday 11am – 6pm, Saturday 10am – 6pm, Sunday 10am– 5pm) at the Olympia National in London.

TWO lucky readers the chance to win two tickets for all three days of the show!

To enter (each of the below counts as one separate entry, so please leave a separate comment below for each one that you do):

Leave a comment below telling me why you’d like to go to the Om Yoga Show
Follow me on Twitter
Follow @OMYogaMagazine on Twitter
Tweet: “Want to win two tickets for the Om Yoga Show @yogashow? Take a look at @annatheapple88 blog and giveaway: https://www.annatheapple.com/?p=5460”

Please note: This giveaway is open to everyone and is international, however you’ll need to get to London obviously. The giveaway ends Sunday 12th October 2014.

**This post contains affiliated links**

September 10, 2014

Nature is out to get me

Last weekend after getting back from our cycle, I took Alfie for a long walk. I didn’t bother showering before I left because it didn’t make sense and Alfie needed a walk. I got back from the walk and experienced something quite horrific.

I got ready to get in the shower. My hair was in plaits so I took them out and ran my fingers through it to untangle it. I felt something stuck in my hair and a sharp sting to my neck. I had already take my contact lenses out so couldn’t really see but when I looked in the mirror there was definitely something in there.

I panicked and shouted to Ben. I flipped my head upside down and yelled that there was something in my hair that had stung me. I was flailing about a bit and he couldn’t quite see through the voluminous mass that is my hair. His demeanour instantly changed as soon as he found what the ‘thing’ was. He started speaking in that calm, slow voice that you use with panicked animals. This freaked me out even more – the thing in my hair must be deadly, must be massive and dangerous.

He grabbed my hairbrush and started whacking at my hair in true Man Style. This scared me even more that he didn’t even want to touch the thing. I started crying and wailing like a lunatic, terrified this giant flesh eating spider was about to crawl up my hair onto my scalp.

Eventually he got it off me. The verdict: it was a wasp. I flopped onto the bed in a heap of emotional drainage.

I know I reacted in a very whimpish way but frankly it terrified me. Though it was quite funny afterwards. All occurred butt naked. Good times 😉

But then, not two days later another attack of nature.

I was drying my hands on our tea towel which was hanging from a hook and suddenly out dropped what I thought was a dead spider. It was all scrunched up and not moving. Then it jumped up after lulling us into a sense of false security. I balked and ran up the stairs, Alfie got the hell out of the kitchen and Ben was left to deal with the fiend. but I’m a bit of a weird one in that I hate killing thing so I made him take it down the road and throw it in a bush – far away from our house. I don’t want that thing making it’s way back to us!

Whew. Jeeeze. Nature is a bitch.

In other news. Alfie has been keeping a keen eye on my foam rolling lately. I’ve been using a tennis ball on my calves to help loosen them up. Sadly for him I’m using his ball. He used to get exciting but now he realises that ‘catch’ is no longer what’s about to happen.

And again, where are his paws???

And on a random note, I found one of these at a petrol station.

It tasted amazing and was very refreshing. I’m quite impressed how mainstream coconut products are becoming!

What are you scared of?

How do you get rid of spiders?

What’s your favourite coconut product?

September 8, 2014

Good times and good puddings

Happy Monday. I’m feeling like summer is definitely over. Now the kids are back at school in the UK my joyous commute to work is like 20-30 minutes longer, and it’s dark, it’s cooler…but then I do love autumn and who doesn’t love Christmas?

Considering how low I was feeling last week, my weekend was actually pretty awesome. It started with a three mile run on Saturday. Cue dramatic tense music. The run went OK. It actually felt pretty good. My shin was only mildly uncomfortably at odd points during the run, not continuously. And afterwards it felt pretty good. Walking as well was fine. But I’ll talk more about running and my Berlin plans in another post.

After running, Ben and I drove up to Cardiff to meet up with my university friends and their respective husbands/partners. Obviously stopping for a quick coffee break. It has to be done!
Then we arrived at Cardiff, caught up and went for a walk. Though the boys got grumpy about walking and went straight to the pub!

The pub was so lovely. It’s called The Old Cottage. For starters Ben and me shared a mahoosive sharing platter which rocked my world. I’m all about sharing platters, which is odd as usually I don’t share food. But I know I’m on a safe ground with Ben as he never eats as much as me anyway.

It consisted of flatbreads, ribs, chicken skewers, lamb koftas, a sweet chilli dip, tzatziki, watermelon and salad. Oh my life it was good. Ben loved it because of the flatbreads and tzatziki and I loved it because of all the meat and salad. We work well as a pair 😉

For main I had a superfood salad with chicken which was divine and then Ben and me shared a pudding platter. A PUDDING PLATTER. It contained a salted caramel chocolate pot, a gypsy tart (basically a treacle tart), a crème brûlée and a cookie ice cream sandwich. Sadly the chocolate pot was a disappointment as it was so rich and bitter but everything else was amazing.

After more catching up and playing the funniest game in the world – Cards Against Humanity (hilariously so un-PC), we headed back home. Mid-stop I finally found an Anna!

Didn’t find a Ben though… 🙁

When we got back it was a relaxed evening with no dinner required – we were still so full!!

The next morning we had a nice lie-in and then met up with our friend, Nathan, to go for a bike ride at 10ish. We wanted to go a little later so we could stop for lunch somewhere half way through. We cycled 20 miles through lovely countryside and then up the most GOD AWFUL hill known to man (or at least known to me in terms of cycling).

The hill was so tough. It went on and on, right up Portsdown Hill in Portsmouth. We cycled along the hill and then had the cool experience of cycling down it, fun times!

We eventually got to Portsolent, locked the bikes up and then headed for food. We chose Zippers which was amazing. What was cool was that we sat outside and could see the hill we’d just conquered.

Past the houses is Portsdown Hill

I went for an epic line-up (epic in Anna-terms I hasten to add). I had the salad bar to start – you get one trip for a starter so I made sure to strategically load my plate up with lettuce, peppers, feta, chickpeas, roasted butternut squash, broad beans and roasted vegetables.

Then for main I had, but of course, Caesar salad with a side portion of sweet potato fries. HEAVEN. For pudding I had the chocolate fudge cake with vanilla ice cream. Ben had apple pie and Nathan had the cheesecake but seriously I think mine won. It was immense.

We had to have a bit of time walking around before getting back on the bike though…still haven’t mastered the self-restraint thing when eating on a cycling break. Especially when you have to cycle back up Portsdown Hill again afterwards. It was tough, but surprisingly I felt more alive on the way back than the way there.

It was a very hilly ride! In total we rode just over 38 miles but when we stopped at 33 miles I stopped my Garmin like normal and then promptly fell off my bike. Annoyingly I somehow then managed to save the cycle data which means it ended the ride!! So I had to restart my Garmin for the last 5 miles home. I think I was more annoyed about my Garmin than falling off, which was actually quite painful but luckily I landed on my hand rather than any useful marathon running body-parts.

I felt much better after this cycle than last week. I wasn’t crawling to the end. This is probably because we had a longer break in the middle than before I guess. After getting back I took Alfie for a lovely long walk as I felt bad for leaving Alfie for so long for the second day running and listened to a Marathon Talk podcast (I got to hear Maria’s ‘subtract 60 streak’ mention!).

Then I was pooped. No need for dinner again! Hurrah for a weekend of no cooking 😉

How was your weekend?

Do you enjoy hilly rides? I quite like the feeling of conquering a big hill. You feel amazing.

Do you enjoy sharing platters?

September 4, 2014

Where’s my head at? Marathon woes

Hurrah, Thursday! Unfortunately yesterday felt like Thursday to me…which is slightly annoying today. Hey ho!

Tuesday I saw my physio again. He says my shin seems a lot better. It does feel better but it still doesn’t feel completely right. It’s weird. It’s not a pain or a sharp feeling. It’s more like a discomfort and a tugging at my shin, if that makes any sense? If I push quite firmly at it there are tender areas but no sharp jump-out-of-my-seat pains. On the runs leading up to having time off I’ve felt it as a kind of nagging discomfort, until finally I knew I had to stop because if I pushed through it would turn to pain. Then afterwards it feels tender and I could feel it when I walked – that discomfort and pulling sensation.

Anyway, he told me I could run the next day – nothing crazy, just three miles. He said to stop if I feel any sort of pain or sharp stabbing feeling. A certain level of discomfort is fine though. I was going to run Wednesday morning but after a 20 mile bike ride the night before I decided to leave it until Wednesday evening after work. Also this way my body would be nice and warm and loose rather than all tired, cold and tight from being asleep so recently.

I felt sick all day thinking about running. How did I get here? How did running become such an anxiety for me? I was literally scared to run. I didn’t want to run but knew that it would be worse if I didn’t because I would continue to wonder how the shin was. I had had just over a week off of running, two sessions with my physio…this run was, on paper, set up to be good.

As soon as I started running I felt weird: stiff, strange…but the shin felt fine. I felt fine. As the run continue the shin did niggle from time to time but nothing like before. It didn’t alter my gait or speed. After the run it was tender but nothing horrendous. I stretched and iced. Today it feels OK. Not amazing but not as bad as it has previously the day after a run.

I have no idea what this means though. Really the test will be the next time I run, which is Saturday and again just three miles. I look back at my ‘training’ for Paris and I’m trying to compare it to understand where I’m at.

I’m happy (‘happy’ being a very loose word there) to run Berlin as long as the shin issue has gone. I can’t plough on through 26 miles in pain or discomfort and then be out for months afterwards. That’s not how I roll. But if the shin issue goes and in the two weeks leading up to the marathon my runs are feeling relatively normal (I’m under no illusion that everything will suddenly feel absolutely perfect) and the shin is not getting any worse then I can run Berlin. Any ideas of improving my times or hitting any certain goals obviously are gone, but just to enjoy the run like I did for Paris will be more than I can dream of at the moment.

It is four and a half weeks from Berlin. For Paris I had sprained my ankle when it was four weeks from the marathon date, and had to take two weeks off. But that was an acute injury that disappeared quite quickly. Who knows about this shin issue?

If you were me, what would you do?

Have you ever had shin splints?

Any advice out there would be marvellous!