Hello Monday! Hope you all had a lovely weekend, ours felt like old times again. The holiday is a distant memory sadly (one week of work pretty much wipes away all that joy away…).
This weekend started with a delicious meal of ribs. I’d love to say I marinated them myself but I didn’t. I just saw them in Tesco and spontaneously bought them. Though I have ribs on my recipe to do list for definite.
Both Ben and I agreed that though it said it was for two, you could have easily eaten one pack on your own. The portion size was a bit measly (though I might still be distorted by my holiday…). With the sweet potato fries though it worked OK, it was just slightly disappointing.
Saturday morning both Ben and I got ready for parkrun. I’ll do a post on my running (and Ben’s injury update) soon I promise (if you’re even interested!). As a cliff notes version, my running is going very well. I’m running three times a week while also going to the gym three times a week doing lots of bootcamp/strength and conditioning style routines. I feel less pressure and more love for running than I have in ages. It helps that I’m loving the gym and get a real sweat on there that I don’t feel the need to run as often as I used to as I know I’m getting stronger in other areas that will help my running. I’m still happy with my decision of deferring London as it would immediately panic me and pressure me to hit certain mileage as it’s so soon…but I do have races in the future lined up.
So parkrun. We helped set-up and there was much love for Ben returning which is always nice. I decided to push it as all my other runs have been easy. The course is the hardest one (the winter course) where, because it’s three laps, there are a total of six hills you need to get through (over?). I’m not really in a good running shape but felt like it was a sustained effort and a great workout to help get back to where I used to be. Third lady and 22:35 which I was over the moon with.
I also got my hair cut. This is monumental news as the last time I got it cut was April 2013 (THIS post). I tend to notice when it needs a cut because my arms start severely aching when I’m blow-drying. I was rather apologetic to the hairdresser but she said it actually didn’t look that bad for the length of time I’ve left it. I suppose there’s a compliment there? Anyway instead of being a cheapskate I actually paid for a quality cut rather than the cheaper place I usually go for…hairdressers were called technicians and the power doesn’t cut half way through a blow-dry!!
That being said, it still looks pretty much the same just a bit shorter! At least my arms will be happy…
Ah yes it was Valentine’s Day as well wasn’t it? Ben and me aren’t romantic and lovey-dovey so this passed us by. It’s also my dad’s birthday so we popped over to see my parent’s and treat them to a nice coffee in a lovely little tea room in Lee-on-Solent called The Tea Party.
We decided to forgo afternoon tea as we’ve all got back from a holiday and Ben and me have said February is a more ‘sensible’ (read: boring) month. I can assure you though, I found it hard to stop staring at the BEAUTIFUL cakes and it’s definitely an afternoon tea location to be trialled soon!
They serve alcohol as well so my mum had a lovely little glass of Prosecco in a baby sham glass as well as her tea, as you do. I stuck with a latte.
It was a lovely catch up and mourning of our respective holidays!
Sunday I went for a really good six mile run. It was one of those runs that just felt good. I felt strong, in the zone and found myself going faster than I had intended. I let myself off for it as six miles isn’t that far, but for my future Sunday runs I will really ensure to run slow – probably a good 40-50 seconds slower than I ran. I will take no chances this time around! I’m trying not to make the same stupid mistakes I always seem to make. I’m always climbing the mileage v.e.r.y. slowly; next week is seven miles for my long run, for example, while keeping the other runs the same.
I got back, wolfed down breakfast, chilled for a bit and then met up with Nathan for a 17 mile bike ride.
Hideous selfie
Ay, ay, ay! When you haven’t ridden in so long it is tough. We did our usual route and we both slower (as you can expect) than previously. It was a tough ride but I really enjoyed it. I felt shattered when I got in. But a good NON-BROKEN shattered. I won’t be cycling every week but once in a while it’s nice to get out there.
Then obviously we all went to Nando’s…kind of standard I suppose. I forgot how filling a whole chicken is, but I was not defeated!
Then the afternoon involved ironing and watching Belle (very good film) and going to be stupidly early as I was pooped. Good weekend 🙂 All that was missing was cake…
I’m pretty much back into the normal swing of things again. It’s scary (and sad) how quickly normality and reality submerges you when you get back from being away. It’s like you never went away…
The other parts of my holiday recaps are coming but for now I thought I’d rant and rave for a bit.
Rant: I was driving back from the gym and had BBC Radio 2 (this was about 6.40am) and Chris Evans was reading some texts out. He read one from someone who said “I’m training for London” and Chris Evans was like “what does that mean? Training for the entire of the city? Training to do what? You need to sort your texting out!”. As a runner and a marathon lover obviously I knew exactly what the texter meant. He was training for the London marathon. It just annoyed me that Chris Evans was so oblivious to is and assumed the texter had made a mistake. I suppose as a non-runner you wouldn’t automatically know I guess…but it still irked me.
Rave: I am missing American food big time. I think Ben and me both agreed that if there was a froyo place near to where we lived it would probably become a Friday night and weekend habit. Not good for our bank account, teeth or tummies! I also miss the BBQ food…
Walking past these at Tesco on my lunch break I couldn’t help but grab them and buy them quickly. BBQ ribs for Friday night! It softens the pain somewhat 😉
Rant: Speaking of American food…
Obviously we brought back some treats to enjoy at home. The birthday cake M&Ms are my favourite. I dislike plain chocolate M&Ms as I find them too chocolatey, if that makes sense, but I love these. Very moreish though! I don’t like the Harry Potter Bertie Botts Every Flavour Jelly Beans though. Ear wax and vomit flavours?? Noooo thank you!
Rave: New trainers!
I’m now a big believer in rotating trainers rather than just using one pair all the time. I still love my Brooks trainers but I think I’m always a Mizuno girl at heart. Sooo comfy and just seem to mould well to my feet. These were sent to by Millets to review so that’ll be up next week sometime.
Rant: So much washing. It’s unreal. I do tend to do some hand washing on holiday for my smalls and gym stuff (otherwise they’ll sit in my bag for ages all sweaty and gross) but still the amount of washing needed to be done was ridiculous. That coupled with going to the gym and running and Ben going to the gym and running now…ay ay ay!
Rave: OK strictly speaking this isn’t really a rave, it was just very funny. I’d planned to go to the gym on Wednesday so my alarm was set for 5am. It went off, I got up…and then Ben’s alarm started going off which hugely confused me. He shouldn’t be getting up until 6am. As Ben’s alarm takes a while to wake him up (we’re so different) I nudged him and said “Ben, your alarm is going off??”. He rolled over, turned it off and said “was going to go running…too tired…not a morning person…mrrfff” and went back to sleep.
I got back from the gym about 6.45am to a very quiet and very dark house. I ran upstairs and opened the bedroom to find Ben still asleep. He woke up to the noise, bolted upright in bed and proceeded to reel off a few choice phrases and words I shan’t write here and leapt to the bathroom…he hadn’t re-set his alarm from before! He was 45 minutes late. Yes I’m a bad wife for saying this, but him leaping out of bed half asleep in major panic semi-naked and dishevelled was fairly amusing. Major kudos to him: he got out of the house (with a shower) in under 15 minutes. Oh to be a man…
Rant: I’m really suffering from dry skin on my legs. It started on holiday and I wondered if I was allergic to the hotel linen or water or something, but it’s still bugging me now. We bought some really good moisturiser in the States which is helping to some degree.
Funny name hehe…yes I’m a child
I normally get dry hands during the winter but hand lotion helps…but dry legs? Bit random and very annoying. Finger’s crossed it’ll clear up soon.
Any tips for dry skin?
Do you bring back food from a holiday?
What’s your trainer brand of choice? I like Mizuno, Brooks and Adidas Boosts.
So here’s the first part of my holiday review. I’m going to recap Orlando and Dallas separately as they were so different and also do a post on food (because it was amazing).
For the Orlando part of our holiday we were spending it with one of my university friends, Kate, and her husband, Jamie. Ben and I get on really well with them but we’ve never been on holiday with them before (I have with Kate but not Jamie as well). There was apprehension I think between both parties beforehand as to how it would go but honestly there were no issues. Jamie is very much like me (hello all the foods) and Kate is like Ben (food is fuel). But we all love roller coasters and have quite crazy senses of humour. We really gelled well and there wasn’t anytime I felt either party had to compromise for the other. In fact sometimes it was Ben and Kate compromising for Jamie and my food choices, or vice versa!
We met up at the airport and all agreed Jamie’s Oliver’s (Jamie’s Italian) restaurant would be perfect for breakfast.
We all had the mammoth full breakfast and it was deeeeelicious and oh so filling. I also made sure to buy myself some food from Prêt a Manger as well as I detest the microwave plane food so I was sorted.
We arrived in Orlando probably about 10-11pm British time but by the time we got out and got our cars it was very late. We grabbed some food from a brilliant little spot Jamie knew of (side note: Kate and Jamie are like the experts of Orlando having been there quite a few times and Jamie, like me, always does his research on good restaurants so we were set!) and then we crashed at the hotel.
Our hotel was a Universal hotel called Cabana Beach Bay Resort and it was huge. There were four different buildings, a Starbucks, a bowling alley, arcade, two large pool areas (regular pools, lazy river, water slide and hot tub), a diner, bars, gift shop, an amazing gym and regular shuttle buses to City Walk where Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure are located.
The first day started rather dismally it must be said. It was chilly and raining. We met up to go to IHOP for breakfast which was great but we realised that with the weather being pants it probably wasn’t a good idea to go to the parks. This made us all a bit grumpy.
In the end though Ben and I decided to be really exciting and go to the gym while Kate and Jamie went shopping. Judge away but we didn’t fancy shopping and had planned to go to the gym Sunday morning so just switched it up so we could sleep in the next day. It made sense to us!
Work out selfie– could we be having anymore fun??
I’ll post more on the fitness side of the holidays another day as we did do a lot of running and gym stuff on holiday. It might sound odd but to me it’s part of who I am and to not do it would be weird. Plus I hate coming back from holiday feeling unfit and struggling to get back into the swing of things.
Anyway while we were at the gym the sun came out! Jamie and Kate arrived back and we got ourselves showered and ready to FINALLY hit the parks.
That’s Jamie photo-bombing behind us – we didn’t even realise!
We went to Universal Studios and it was brilliant. The whole new Harry Potter area (Diagon Alley) was brilliant. It looked so realistic and the new ride was pretty good. The Harry Potter restaurants were hilarious with the American’s take on British food (jacket potato with broccoli and cheese anyone?).
MIB ride – Kate taught me the tricks of the trade to high score
We went on quite a few different rides and enjoyed ourselves immensely. The best part about our hotel is the location as we could dip into either of the Universal parks so easily (within 15 minutes) so we never felt we had to stay and do everything all at once. We went back to the parks quite a few times over the course of our eight days there.
Sunday we decided to do Sea World. Before the holiday I didn’t want to go. I’ve seen Black Fish and I’m not a fan of watching animals that should be in the wild amuse humans for the sake of making money. It’s not right. That said, we decided to go because Kate and Jamie said the park was great with the rides and our tickets were a combo anyway so the money was going there regardless of whether we actually went or not. Feeble excuse I know. In my defence though I didn’t watch the shows with the others. It’s not something I enjoy so I left them to it while I went on a few rides and wandered around the park (the shows were only 30 minutes). It’s very strange walking round a theme park on your own!
The rides were brilliant. There was one called Manta and it was basically like Air at Alton Towers but on steroids. So much fun! Because it was so close, like Universal Studios, we were able to pop back in to do the rides again another day.
Monday we went to Busch Gardens. This park is quite far away as it’s located in Tampa, which is about an hour and a half away. We decided to drive separately (most of the time we drove together) so if one couple fancied leaving early they could.
Busch Gardens is a fantastic park for adrenaline junkies. It’s literally all just big roller coasters, no messing around. And we loved it! It was very quiet and we went straight to the new ride, Falcon’s Fury, and got on it twice in quick succession.
I honestly haven’t been that scared on a ride for a long time. It takes you up so high. As we got near the top the bravado I had when I was safely on the ground had disappeared and I said to Ben I wanted to get off. Not much he could do there! The seats then tilt you so you look straight down. If the restraints failed you’re dead, 100%. Then it drops you and you fall straight down. It was AMAZING.
The rest of the day we ran round the park like little kids going from one ride to the next. It was awesome. Kate and Jamie fancied looking around the animal enclosures (of which there were loads: giraffes, cheetahs, hippos, etc.) while we decided to make our way back and get some froyo and then chill in the hot tub.
We also had a fun day of playing crazy golf and bowling which was just such good fun. The golf was brilliant; lots of banter and fighting talk. The good thing was that we could pay for two sessions discounted so we came back one evening for another round. I was appalling at bowling but it was still a good laugh (though I lost by stupid amounts every time).
The bowling was at the hotel and the crazy golf was on City Walk
One of the best evenings was seeing the ice hockey. At first I was like “pfft, I’m not that interested but it’ll be an experience”. But WOW it is intense.
The Amway Center
And there was a fight! Like a proper gloves-down-helmets-off-fists-out FIGHT. While Kate and I were shocked and morally outraged the boys were loving it! OK I know this is a regular thing for ice hockey but to us naive and gentle ‘soccer’ watching Brits (“oh no there’s a ball, I will fall down now”) it was shocking.
Obviously I tried to catch it on my phone
For me one of the best days by far was the last Saturday in Orlando. It started with Ben and me getting up stupidly early to drive to Clermont (30 minutes away) for the Orlando parkrun (insert stupidly excited dance here). I’ll talk more about this on another post but it was brilliant!
We then found breakfast in a rather dodgy IHOP afterwards (this is what happens when Ben and Anna venture off from their Orlando Experts and fend for themselves). After showering and meeting up with Kate and Jamie we then headed off to Pig Fest. What is Pig Fest I hear you ask? I apologise in advance now to any vegans or vegetarians, this will not be your thing at all.Pig Fest is basically a huge gathering of people who compete in BBQ cooking. BBQ’ing in the States is not as we Brits know it (sausages and burgers) but proper smoking ovens serving things like ribs, brisket, chicken wings and pulled pork. Literally heaven. Look how excited Jamie and me are?? This was an afternoon for Kate and Ben to take one for the team.
Jamie and me with our Pig Bucks
You bought ‘Pig Bucks’ at the entrance (1 dollar = 1 Pig Buck) and then use those bucks to buy from different vendors to eat to your heart’s content. There were also non-selling vendors who were just competing as well. I would say it was 95% American. It wasn’t really a tourist hot spot in the sense that the parks are. And this made it so much more fun!
It felt very ‘real’ America, you know? The food was awesome…Jamie and I were like children in a sweets shop. Oh the ribs!! Ben isn’t a huge BBQ fan but he fully enjoyed the deep fried sweet treats. But more on that in another post…
We also spent an evening in Downtown Disney and saw the new Hunger Games film. This is something Ben and I would never have thought to have done and when Jamie and Kate suggested it it sounded like a good way to chill out.
The film was pretty dull though…I fell asleep twice! But you have to see it to see the final one *grumble grumble*. I did enjoy the experience though (and naps in such comfy chairs are awesome).
Basically Orlando was a whirlwind of roller coasters, theme parks, all the food and just good fun. It was lovely to spend the time with Jamie and Kate and we just all got on so well and had a laugh together. I would say we definitely missed them in Dallas!
Just chilling with Decepticon (like I know who that is…)
Ben would kill me if I didn’t mention one final awesome thing about Orlando…the cars:
Both couples got Mustang convertibles…*sighs*. Having the roof down was cool but it did mess my hair up (I know, such a girl comment).
Have you been to Orlando before?
Do you enjoy roller coasters?
Do you ever watch live sports on holiday? We’ve never done so before but Ben is now addicted. We only saw a very minor league team but he wants to see the big guns now (NHL? Is that right??)
Hey hey hey, I’m back! My holiday in Orlando and Dallas was AWESOME. It was just amazing. I’ll do a full reap when I’m back to normal functioning and get my schizz together…At the moment I’m just about coping with regular life.
We got back on Saturday morning about 7.30am British time (1.30am Dallas time – ouch). I had a pretty terrible flight back. Leading up the flight I felt really ill – like massive stomach cramps going on. So the first hour of the flight was basically Ben holding my hand and me wincing at cramps which felt like my stomach was being torn in two. This meant neither of us could relax. Eventually after standing up and pacing at the back of the plane things calmed down and we could finally just chill. What a trooper Ben is to deal with me! I watched Gone Girl which was really good. Rosamund Pike is amazing!
I’m such a light sleeper that sleeping was really hard (especially as there was a lot of turbulence) so after 2 hours or so I gave up and watched Whiplash instead. Definitely a good move. What a film! I definitely recommend. It is so tense!
Saturday and Sunday are basically as blur of tiredness. I slept for 12 hours on Saturday night but woke up exhausted, dizzy and disorientated. Basically I felt rough. Like awful. Not just tiredness, but a deep exhaustion and confusion. I’m feeling more normal now but still tired. Ahh the joys of long-haul flights!
Anyway before I get back into the swing of things, I have a review. I was kindly sent some MuleBar energy products to review a few weeks ago. The company sounds brilliant. The idea of the products came from these two guys who wanted energy bars that tasted good and didn’t upset their stomachs when they did crazy things like climbing the Andes! They made prototypes in their own kitchens and, in their own words, “peddled them around” races (source) to get people to try them and give feedback. I love that the products were born this way – it just feels so much more “real” that way, you know?
I was sent a range of different type of bars/gels and different flavours. I was quite intrigued by a curry flavoured one!
This is their answer to protein shakes. They’re basically high protein to help the growth and maintenance of lean muscle mass after exercise (not necessarily climbing Everest or the Andes though!) What’s cool about them is that they’re the only Fairtrade protein bars on the UK market. There’re also no synthetic ingredients, artificial preservatives, colourings, flavourings or palm oil, and are suitable for vegetarians.
I was sent two flavours: Chocolate Date and Chocolate Banana.
Chocolate Date Nutritional Info:
Calories per 65g serving: 240cal
Protein: 13.3g
Carbohydrate: 31.8g
Of which sugars: 27.9g
Fat: 6.7g
Of which saturates: 1.6g
Fibre: 2.5g
Salt: 0.1g
And the ingredients don’t look awful at all (compared to some energy bars!).
Thoughts? I tried the Chocolate Date one and Ben tried the Chocolate and Banana one (I’m not a big banana fan – other than actual bananas strangely enough). We both thought they were really tasty. Very sticky, chewy and sweet and it felt “naughty” eating it, you know? Nice and filling too without any synthetic after taste. This would be a good snack between lunch and dinner, or (and this is how I would use it) straight after a race when you know food might be a while away but you need something. The protein and sugar in it will be perfect for muscle recovery and tide hunger over. Alternatively, when you’re up a mountain and need an easy snack! 😉
Apparently easy on the stomach and digestion, these are ideal for during exercise for the slow release energy they provide. They’re Fairtrade and organic certified, and contain no synthetic ingredients, artificial preservatives, colours, flavourings or palm oil, and are suitable for vegetarians. And they have a compostable wrapper!! So if you do drop the rubbish accidentally then it’s not going to harm the environment.
I was sent five different flavours: Apple Strudel, Jimmy’s Choc Orange, Eastern Express Savoury, Mango Tango and Summer Pudding.
Mango Tango Nutritional Info:
Calories per 56g serving: 201cal
Protein: 4g
Carbohydrate: 36g
Of which sugars: 23g
Fat: 5g
Of which saturates: 0.5g
Fibre: 2.g
Salt: 0.04g
They all have a similar nutritional profiles, the calories being around 200 calories (some less, some more). Interestingly the savoury Eastern Express bar contains Garam Masala and cayenne pepper so is a more spicy and obviously savoury bar, rather than simply another sweet one.Really enjoyed the Summer Pudding flavour
Thoughts? I really enjoyed these. Kind of sticky and chewy, and not too sweet. Definitely came in handy when we flew from Orlando to Dallas and arrived quite late in the hotel and were hungry and needed something smallish rather than having a big meal so late in the evening.
I also really like that there’s a savoury bar as sometimes on a long cycle or walk too much sweet stuff can get tiring and taxing. You need something a bit different from time to time. And I loved the curry flavour. It wasn’t hugely overpowering but very nice.
Similar to the bars, these have been designed to be easy on the stomach and are organic. They contain brown rice, agave syrup and Himalayan crystal salt to keep you going during exercise. They also have a caffeinated gels (one with 50mg and one with 100mg of caffeine). Again no synthetic ingredients, artificial preservatives, colourings, flavourings or palm oil, and suitable for vegetarians, organic and Fairtrade certified. They also have funky quick tear packaging.
They have five flavours: Apple Strudel, Salted Caramel, Cherry Bomb, Zemon Zinger and Cafe Cortado.
Salted Caramel Nutritional Info:
Calories per 37g serving: 108cal
Protein: 1g
Carbohydrate: 25g
Of which sugars: 19.5g
Fat: 0.17g
Of which saturates: 0.1g
Fibre: 0.5g
Salt: 0.1g
Thought? I haven’t tried the gels yet purely because I haven’t been on any long runs or cycles to use them. However I LOVE the sound of them. I love that they’re fairly ‘clean’ with no nasties in there (though sadly not vegan for any vegan runners). The salted caramel one sounds made for me. Check out the ingredients:
Pretty good right? I’m very excited to give these gels a blast on my next longer run or cycle. I think these might be a game changer for me. And I really like the Lemon Zinger flavour has 50mg of caffeine, which I’m always a fan of.
I really like this company and the products. I’d be more inclined to have the gels but I can definitely see myself picking up the protein or energy bars occasionally for when I’ve got a race coming or am going for a long walk with Ben.
What’s your favourite flavour energy bar or gel?
What is your snack of choice if you’re on a long walk/hike?
That being said, it still looks pretty much the same just a bit shorter! At least my arms will be happy…
We decided to forgo afternoon tea as we’ve all got back from a holiday and Ben and me have said February is a more ‘sensible’ (read: boring) month. I can assure you though, I found it hard to stop staring at the BEAUTIFUL cakes and it’s definitely an afternoon tea location to be trialled soon!
They serve alcohol as well so my mum had a lovely little glass of Prosecco in a baby sham glass as well as her tea, as you do. I stuck with a latte.
It was a lovely catch up and mourning of our respective holidays!
Hideous selfie
