Whew, I feel so much more human after getting some good night’s sleep for the past couple of days.
Honestly, the weekend adventures hugely took it out of me. And, this is going to sound CRAZY coming from me, but I have decided to not jump straight back in to running. My body is literally exhausted. I haven’t done cycling in years so to suddenly jump on a bike and cycle up a mountain large hill is quite a shock to my system. I’m happy to say my previous injury from the other week seems to have disappeared. However I now have a new twinge in the back of my knee but it doesn’t feel that serious. But ice, rest and cake should make things all better.
As annoying as it is, I’m going to take a break from running this week and try using the elliptical machine at work instead. I think I really need to just take some time to allow my leg to fully heal. The Challenge really didn’t help things just after getting better last week. I hate the elliptical but I think I need to do something to stop myself from going mad.
My next race is a 10 mile trail race through the New Forest (beautiful forest in the South of England) on 14th July so I’m hoping this break will be good enough to be better before then.
So speaking of cake…it was my birthday last week and I didn’t really get a chance to go into much detail about how I celebrated. Well I didn’t to be honest. I had the UK Challenge the next day and that went on until Sunday so celebrations were limited. But my amazing mother brought round cake in the evening. People, there is always time for cake.
How pretty is this cake?? It’s gorgeous! My mum isn’t a great baker. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her bake. Ever. I could controversially say I’ve never seen her cook…but I don’t want to incur the wrath of the mothership 
(love you, Mumsie!!)
But, despite not being Nigella Lawson, my mum knows how to SHOP. And she did good on picking this beauty out. A Waitrose special cake (for those non-UK-based, Waitrose is like the queen of all supermarkets. Maybe just one below M&S Food).
However, the decorative butterflies could not be eaten we quickly found. Very disappointing and slightly nasty to chew. But otherwise, a very tasty jam and buttercream birthday cake sponge.
At work I was also give some very beautiful flowers from my lovely co-workers. 
So I felt very spoilt despite having a mid-week birthday with no weekend celebration!
And in the morning (I’m working my way backwards through the day here for some reason…) my husband, Ben, decided to send me on a bit of a treasure hunt around the house. He had printed out lots of different pictures of my favourite clothes shops and running gear shops and restaurants (and hid them all about the place with clues to direct me to them). I could pick and choose what I wanted in terms of spending some money to get some clothes and going somewhere to have a nice meal. There were also little pictures of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and our favourite Indian restaurant so that’s on the horizon too hehe. So lots all my favourite things to look forward to!
From my parents they gave me a Lululemon workout top. SO chuffed. I’ve seen this top all over the Internet I loved the design.
Not sure how much I’ll get to wear this year round due to the weather though! Best get wearing it soon
From my mother-in-law she bought me a Lumie Bodyclock Starter Alarm Clock.
Not hugely necessary at the moment as it’s so light in the morning…but in the winter this will mimic the light of a sunrise and will, supposedly, gradually wake me up just before my alarm. I love being woken up my sunlight in the morning at the moment so this will be great (hopefully!) in the winter when it doesn’t get light until like ever 9ish.
On to some food-related news…stir-fries are back in the game again. Anything where more than half the meal is veg is a winner for me. I’m not sure it even warrants a recipe (basically throw together a load of veg, noodles, chicken and a handful of cashew nuts). But I did make my own sauce and that was pretty tasty.
Lemon Stir-Fry Sauce (serves 2)
- 2/3 cup chicken stock
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. lemon juice
- 2 tsp. sugar
- 1 tbsp. flour/corn starch (to thicken it)
So easy, so tasty.
Psst! I’ve got some exciting news which I will divulge soon in my next post!
What’s your favourite stir-fry sauce? I love lemon, but I quite like black bean as well.
What do you like getting for your birthday? I’m not great with surprises so I usually ask for things I’ve seen previously. From Ben I just said surprise me and I was so chuffed he put so much effort into the treasure hunt and in the end letting me choose what I wanted from a predefined list (which he knew I’d love haha).
Do you like being woken up early by the sun? Though it means I can’t sleep in at the weekend I love having the whole day ahead of me and feeling all refreshed.
What a sweet idea Ben did for you. Boy is creative! :)…and that cake, um jam & buttercream? Oh my word, that sounds to die for! I cannot believe those pretty butterflies weren’t editable though. What a bummer!
I really don’t like getting gifts for my birthday. What I love is a sweet homemade card from Joshua, and a quiet evening in with whatever movie I want to watch, whatever meal I want, oh & of course a nice massage 🙂
Aww that’s lovely 🙂 And yes a massage is definitely a birthday requirement hehe.
That cake is so pretty, I love butterflies!
So pretty and so tasty hehe.
That body clock alarm is so interesting. I’ve heard that there are similar applications on iphones with waking you up naturally and gradually. After you try it out for a few weeks I’d really like to hear your thoughts on it and maybe a review? Sometimes we focus so much on food and exercise that it’s hard to remember that sleep is just as important in living a healthy lifestyle.
Cute fitness top! I am all about black athletic clothes. Oh, and I hate the elliptical too 😛
Happy birthday again 🙂 Great-looking cake.
Yeah I’ve seen those apps – Yeah I have one of those apps but just use it to monitor how well I sleep (I’m such a nerd haha) but I don’t use the alarm function as I prefer just having my normal alarm go off.
I’ll definitely do a review! The problem is it’s not dark in the morning’s at the moment haha.
Love the top. And omg, cake and recovery go hand in hand, right?? Cake is my spirit animal.
Haha I love that: spirit animal!
Happy Belated Birthday! That cake is gorgeous 🙂
I love a delicious birthday cake …and I love baking one even more especially for other people! You look great in that top.
I’ve been waking up 30-45 min before the sun rises so I can get an early morning run in at daybreak. It’s too hot in Florida to run any later than that 🙂
Thanks 🙂 Yeah I can imagine Florida being difficult to run during the day – and all that humidity!
I have a lumie and I love it! Although I am a light sleeper so it woke me up, so I use it as a light once the alarm has gone off- but the light is so gentle and much nicer.
Glad you had a lovely birthday, and I am not surprised you were tired after the weekend- a rest from running sounds very sensible, hopefully you will feel better soon.
I’m hoping it will mean much more gentle wake-ups in the morning hehe.
I love the lumie clock, I have one as well and it’s great! Your cake looks fab, love the way you describe Waitrose as being just below M&S, there is definitely a Supermarket ranking in the UK isn’t there!
Cool that it works for you 🙂 I’m quite excited to get using it in the winter.
oh gosh I don’t even wanna talk about sleep right now. The dumb birds and sun wake me up at like 5am every morning now and its driving me bonkers! And Im one of those people who cant fall back asleep, so it really sucks.
The cake is gorgeous!
Ahh yeah it’s annoying at the weekend but great in the week. Luckily we don’t have tweeting birds haha.