AnnaTheApple - AnnaTheApple

August 18, 2016September 17, 2020

Secret London #SecretFitness Session

I’m not usually that keen on going to London because it’s such a faff; I hate trains and I’m a country bum. Buuut when I got invited to the Secret London event that involved getting my hair done, Alp products and yoga on a stand up paddle board, well I was convinced!

The location of the event was a mystery until 24 hours beforehand (hence the “secret” part), though I was told it would be around Oxford Street so I could at least plan my parkrun into the equation!

It was actually really easy to get to and was set in the lovely location of Merchant Square.

I was greeted straight away by the very friendly people from Secret London and Collective Two (the organisers of the event) and shown the cool set-up they had.

I got to choose a pair of SuperDry flip flops and sipped on a delicious Alpro Berry and Coconut Smoothie while I waited to get my hair done by the guys from Headmasters.

Charlie (from TheRunnerBeans blog) and Bex (from TwinsInTrainers blog) were already getting their hair done so I went and said hi.

It was a bit like meeting the cool kids from school to be honest as their blogs are a lot more popular and known about than my iddy biddy one. They were lovely, of course.

I can’t tell you how nice it was to have someone do my hair for me. I am the girl who has my hair cut once a year and the most exciting thing I do with it is put it in plaits (braids) or a pony tail because my capability to do anything else is beyond me. We were all having braids done and in cool styles. I literally said to the hair stylist, do as you wish!

In the end it looked fantastic (if I do say so myself!). It’s definitely not a style I’d be able to recreate at home or that I’d normally choose. While we were all chatting and enjoying ourselves there was a camera crew hovering around and a photographer snapping away. It felt very glam but made me a little insecure…There I was, fresh from parkrun with no make up on. Bex and Charlie looked so effortlessly glamorous in comparison, clearly more used to this sort of thing than me!

And then we headed to the water area to begin our stand up paddle board yoga. We were all fairly nervous because there was a genuine risk of falling in. I’d brought spare clothes and a towel but still! The instructor, Jen, from Pure Yoga Zone was lovely though. And she had the most adorable little dog, Clyde, with her too (yes, he went on the SUP with her too!).

We got on board and headed out onto the main bit of the water. It was fairly windy so our SUPs clustered together but this meant we could chatter and giggle together while trying to master the yoga moves.

The yoga moves weren’t tricky at all in themselves. It was fairly ‘entry level’. But on a paddle board it was a different story. Even moving from your knees to your bum was a dodgy episode that required balance and strategic navigation.

And yet as the time went on we all became more and more confident. It required us to think carefully when doing the moves and to use our core to keep us balanced on the board.

It was actually quite a tough session! I’ve done yoga before but sometimes you can ‘sleepwalk’ through it. Despite the tranquil surroundings there was no sleeping through this session!

At the end we got our boards together in a line (no easy feat in the wind I assure you) and posed together like the yoga buffs we’d become.

Then after safely getting back onto dry land we headed for some vital refuelling (I hadn’t eaten breakfast or eaten post parkrun so I was definitely ready for food!).

We were treated to a smoothie bar that was stocked with the toppings you could imagine (OK, relatively healthy toppings you could imagine) and smoothie flavours.

I went for a berry smoothie with just about everything in it from chia seeds, to fruit, to nuts and almond butter. Delicious. Now I’m not usually a smoothie lover but I was very happy to chomp this down.

The three of us then had a little interview to talk about our session and were chuffed to hear that we sounded almost like we’d had media training with the answers we gave and our ease in front of the camera. Dahhhhhling we’re bloggers, don’t you know? This is what we do. (<—Ummm, yeah I’m about the most awkward person in life ever).

It was a fantastic experience and I fully recommend SUP yoga (and now want to go SUP’ing again asap). If you get the chance to go to a Secret London session I’d definitely give it a go. It was a fun experience. And we got lots of cool goodies to take away with us too.

You can buy tickets to these events, it wasn’t purely invite only, so keep your eyes open if this is your thing!

Have you ever been SUP’ing before?

Do you do yoga?

What’s your perfect smoothie creation?

August 17, 2016August 17, 2016

Race to the King 2016–Shantha’s recap

Today I have a really exciting post from my lovely friend and running extraordinaire, Shantha. She’s such a lovely, lovely person We’ve done a few long runs together (though she is a lot more speedy than me she’s happy to go a bit slower!) and she’s a pleasure to be around.

She has recently completed the incredible Race to the King (ultra marathon of 53.5 miles along the South Downs Way). I cheekily asked her if she’d do a race recap for me as I think her achievement is so fantastic (ultra marathoners are just amazing!). So enough of my rambling… Here’s Shantha.

I entered the Race to the King 2016 in December 2015 in that typical pre-Christmas “oh what are my running goals going to be for next year”, having never competed at above marathon distance before. And to be honest in that headspace most of us are in when we commit to something that is a significant challenge but in a quite a blasé ‘oh it’s still six, seven, eight months away, it’ll be ok’. I was privileged to be chosen for the Women’s Running Magazine Project 26.2 in 2014 and wanted to have a similar focus on a single event.

What is the Race to the King or #RTTK16? Organised by the excellent Threshold Sports, it is a double marathon (actually 53.5 miles – I know the maths doesn’t add up, more of that later) over the stunning South Downs Way, starting to the East of Chichester in a village called Slindon, heading north for about 6-7 miles before hitting the long distance South Downs Way.

Course map [Source]

You finish in the beautiful city of Winchester, right in front of the Cathedral.

Finish [Source]

You can walk or run it, and you can opt to do it with an overnight stop or non-stop. It is fully supported with numerous amazingly stocked pit stops for fuel, hydration, medical support if needed and cheery volunteers motivating you on! Never one to make it easy for myself, I chose the non-stop run!

(There is so much to write about this event, and I am conscious that most of you readers will be pretty savvy runners, so I will stick to a review of the race and a brief summary of how I prepared for it).

2016 was the inaugural RTTK and the organisers were brilliant in the months leading up in keeping you informed with vital information, training tips and just enough to excite me at the thought of this challenge. Having read several reviews of other Threshold events (Race to the Stones) I had pretty high expectations on this event. The event was billed as a double marathon (52 miles) but in the weeks before we were informed that an extra 1.5 miles would be added to the off road, highly undulating route to enable a further pit stop to be added. On the day this change was gratefully received and meant that on average the pit stops (where if you so wished you could gorge on malt loaf, Tunnock’s tea cake, sweets, sandwiches, even soup, pasta and porridge at the latter ones) were 10kms apart. However the lovely technical tee that I purchased has ’52’ emblazoned on it, so regularly I do the typical runner explaining the full story thing.

On arrival at Race HQ on Saturday 25th June everything was super organised, registration was a breeze, plenty of clean portaloos (and at every pit stop) and motivational music to get every runner and walker in the zone. We started at 8am and really jogged and walked to start (due to the volume of people). This was initially frustrating but probably made no odds overall and helped conserve energy. The crowds started to thin after 5km, interestingly coinciding with the first climb and then people became increasingly spread out.

The first half of the race over some of the major climbs of the downs and finishing south of Petersfield was stunning and varied. English countryside at its absolute best; grassy down lands, wildflowers at the side of the bridle path and butterflies. The beauty of an ultra of this length and the slow running pace (I probably averaged 11-12 min per mile over the entire event) is that you focus on yourself but you can lose yourself in the marvels of Nature. However idyllic that sounds, the perfect sunshine was drowned by thunderstorms of a biblical scale before the descent through in to the Queen Elizabeth Park and under the A3.

It was interesting seeing how other runners were dressed and what equipment they were carrying. Whilst I did spot a pink (male) gorilla (!) most were in the usual variety of kit. I ran with ‘normal’ trainers (I stick with Mizunos) but significantly more cushioned that my stripped down marathon lightweights, normal running socks (just a smidgen of Vaseline over the toes), shorts, tops, undies, sunglasses and that I had all worn numerous times before. Like other races, I knew that nothing should be done for the first time.

In terms of fuelling, I ran with a stock of Clif Shot Bloks and a Nathan Race Vest which I carried about 0.5l water. I took a cube of Blok every 30 mins and then at the pit stops ate pretty much what I felt I like, being conscious that for the first 20 miles my body would be okay on a minimum (bananas and squash to drink) and after mile 26 where I was heading into unknown territory I needed to up the calories.

I loved the training and ticking off each week and the increase in mileage. I used the 50 mile training plan written by US ultra legend Krissy Moehl and provided I listened to my body it really worked for me. It was tough doing back to back long runs and I probably didn’t do enough conditioning or interval work, BUT I managed to squeeze in a few runs with friends like Anna and I completed the race without a single injury OR niggle (unlike the hard and intense training I have completed for marathons). However I think that committing to training over at least 6 months and running at a less intense pace increases the sustainability. That said, during the various phases of adaptation I regularly had aching limbs and fatigue.

The second half of the race was so interesting as this was the new experience for me. Whilst I kept any walking to a power walk up the steep hills initially like Butser Hill, in this part of the event, any incline reduced speed to a jog. Mentally my approach was simplistic and perhaps naive. It was a case of deciding that I would finish come what may, and simply putting one foot in front of the other. Not suffering blisters made executing that strategy straightforward.

Climbing Butser Hill

The final miles and descent into Winchester were really tough and the valiant spectators who cheered us on were so welcome to see. What I loved about runners’ family and friends who cheered on was how special they made me feel and how their words really meant so much. I was lucky enough to have my mum supporting me, and whilst that was fabulous emotional support, there was a practical side…chauffeuring me home!

Running over the finish line was emotional and Threshold had clearly planned this moment carefully, thinking through details such as placing a medal around your neck, to creating great props (swords and crowns) for a top Facebook/ Twitter post to giving every finisher a blank cheque at the Cathedral Refectory to fuel up.

Would I do an ultra again? Definitely. Would I recommend RRTK? You’d be mad not to give it a go. I’m now maintaining a no pressured running routine of 20 miles per week whilst I decide on my next challenge, which could well be another ultra!

Anna here again… How fantastic is she?! I can’t fathom running over a marathon but 53.5 miles!? And her time was incredible too!

I’m so pleased it went well for her as she’s such a great person – and an inspiration! I look forward to seeing what she does next

Have you ever run an ultra before?

Would this be an event you’d enjoy?

What would be your ideal snack at a pit stop?

August 16, 2016September 17, 2020

Karkoa Gym Bag Review

A few weeks ago I was sent a gym bag to review from the luggage specialists Karkoa.

I was sent the Plume bag in rose grey (you can watch a YouTube video HERE that shoew it in action).

My usual days for running are Tuesday and Thursday and I do that straight after work as I can avoid the traffic this way by delaying my leaving time. So having a good gym bag to take to work is important to me. I don’t take a huge amount as I always shower at home but I need a bag I can fit in my running gear and any extra bits and bobs.

What I really like about it is that it has numerous compartments for all your different items. The most important thing for me in a gym bag is a separate storage area for my trainers to where I’ll put my clothes because I don’t want my trainers stinking them out (I’m not that stinky, but you know what I mean ).

Also, in winter my trainers can get a bit muddy or wet so having a separate area is really handy.

The storage area is a zipped compartment on the side and is a structured section underneath the main compartment. I’ve previously had a gym bag that had a separate trainer bit but it ate into the main storage area and really annoyed me as it limited the space. At the other end of the bag you have another similar storage compartment that you can put things like a cosmetics bag or what have you.

There’s also an insulated zipped pocket to put a water bottle. I love this! Again, it doesn’t take space away from the main compartment but nor does it feel bulky or huge. There are two side pockets: one that’s more of a deep pocket and the other which has mini compartments (one zipped) for things like money and phone. And inside the bigger main compartment it has more storage pockets too

When I went to London on Saturday I decided to fully test this bad boy out by taking it with me. I needed to take a change two sets of clothes for after parkrun and the blogging event, a towel, a spare set of shoes, water, cosmetics bag, and all the stuff I’d normally put in a handbag. It worked perfectly. I had it slung over my shoulder all day and it was fine. It fitted in everything I needed perfectly.

It also handily comes with a waterproof bag for dirty clothes so you can keep things nice and fresh in the bag itself. And it comes with a waterproof toiletry bag.

I can’t sing this bag enough praises. Most importantly it passed the “Anna Is An Idiot” test too (a key test in my life) when I dropped smoothie over it at the blogging event on Saturday. The material is very easy to wipe clean (thankfully!). I fully recommend it. Yes it’s not the cheapest bag on the market at £60 but it is definitely worth it if you use a gym bag frequently.

Do you use a gym bag?

What’s important to you in a good bag?

Do you run from home or elsewhere?

**Full Disclosure: I was sent this bag for free in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own honest ones.**

August 15, 2016

A trip to London and Highbury Fields parkrun

Happy Monday! Back at it with another week. This weekend was a bit of a mad one.

I was sent an email invitation midweek to a blogging event in London on Saturday and made the snap decision to go. It sounded really cool and, though London is such a faff to get to and get around, I’m trying to be more of a “yes” person. I also wondered if I could squeeze in a London parkrun before as the event didn’t start until 10am.

I almost gave up on the idea as it seemed all the parkruns were about 40 minutes from the location of the event and just not doable… until I had a look at Highbury Fields parkrun and realised it would take about 15 minutes on the tube.

I’m terrible at anything to do with public transport or being organised in general so I was a bit worried of all the pieces falling into place. I jokingly said to my dad he should come with me to help and he said that him and my mum had been wanting to go to London for ages so they’d be happy to come. The plan was we’d get a very early train (6.40am) and then get the tube to parkrun from Waterloo, do parkrun, then go to Oxford Street where my event was going to be near and they’d go off shopping while I did my thing. Then we’d meet up later for lunch.

We had enough buffer time to get to the parkrun thankfully so that wasn’t too much of a rush. The tube station is very close to the park and we saw the familiar fluorescent jacketed people setting up the finish funnel as we got into the park. We headed over and they explained the course and start to us and pointed me in the direction of the toilet as well.

The course was five and a bit laps around a smallish park and fitness centre (side note: I saw people running on treadmills which blew my mind as it was a beautiful day and there was a lovely park outside!). There was a slight long incline up one side of the parkrun and a gentle decline the other. I’d been previously warned about this by the lovely Helen that though the incline wasn’t steep it did become wearing as the laps went on.

I started off way too fast and the first stretch was going up the incline. My legs felt drained almost immediately. Today was not my day, I thought. My parents (my mum’s first parkrun experience) stood on the side-lines to cheer us on. My dad had brought his GoPro so got some cool photos.

After one lap my only thought was, “I have to do this four more times?”. I really wasn’t in the zone and was finding it quite tough.

I fell into step with a guy running a similar pace to me and that really helped. He was probably running slightly faster than I would have if I’d have run on my own so it was good to stick with him. We overtook people which felt encouraging.

One more lap

My pace master friend was the guy in blue in the above photo. He encouraged me to keep going on the last mile and I gasped, “I’m trying!”. He helped me pick up the pace.

I finished in 22:06 which was quite surprising (though my Garmin has measured it as 2.9 miles so maybe that’s why!). It wasn’t the best parkrun experience (in terms of actual running) and that incline DID feel more and more horrific as the laps went on. I hugged the guy and said thank you to him as honestly I probably would have gone a lot slower otherwise!

Always smiles when you’ve finished!

Then it was a mad dash back to the tube to get to Oxford Street. On the tube I had to baby wipe myself and freshen up as best as I could. I took my trainers off and put my flip flops on and attempted to sort my hair out. I was sat there doing all this next to a seriously elegantly dressed lady and felt like a right mess! But needs must.

I got there just five minutes late and they were fine thankfully. The event was a Secret London event (partnered with Collective Two) and was to involve getting your hair done by Headmasters, then yoga on a stand-up paddle board (!) followed by some smoothies from Alpro. But I’ll talk more about that in another post. Thankfully I was able to properly change and freshen up.

Bathroom selfie for the win

The event lasted around two hours and was super fun. I then caught the tube to meet my parents for lunch at Barbecoa, Jamie Oliver’s London steak house. I adore Jamie Oliver so was really excited about this!

I was still in my yoga gear so felt a little dressed down but my hair looked cool soo…

The restaurant was fantastic. It had beautiful views of St. Paul’s Cathedral and the service was incredible. Out waitress was so friendly and so helpful and made us feel very welcome and relaxed.

Top left picture is the view from the window

For starter I had chicken wings (I know, I know, so boring and predictable). They were very tasty. Though there were ribs on the menu I decided to try something different for once. I chose the pit beef which, if I’m honest, I didn’t really know what it’d be!

It came with half a romaine lettuce, bacon crumbs and bacon jam. I also ordered a side of charred broccoli with almonds and some parmesan-y sauce.

The meal was incredible. Literally every mouthful I was like, “this is so tasty”. It was very rich though and by the time I’d finished I was really full. I’d fully intended to have a pudding but I just didn’t fancy it. Who even am I, right?? I didn’t want to spoil the meal by feeling overly full so I decided to give it a miss (and hopefully find something sweet a bit later).

Then we headed to Covent Garden for a bit more shopping. Can we just talk about those stairs though at the Covent Garden tube station?! I saw a big queue at the lifts and then saw the sign for the stairs and thought that’d be quicker. I didn’t actually see the warning that there were 192 stairs (!!!). It just kept going and going and I thought I was in some weird tube station nightmare. Everyone around me was puffing and panting (as I was) and I was like “will this ever end!?”. There were two guys behind me and I kept thinking, don’t let them overtake you!

As I got to the top the security guard was congratulating everyone saying we were champions which was amusing. I assumed my parents had taken the lift. I waited for ages, seeing the people who had taken the lift all fresh faced and happy and the people who had taken the stairs on the brink of collapse.

Finally I saw my parents and they fell into the latter category. They looked like they were about to die. My mum, bless her, couldn’t even talk. I couldn’t stop laughing (I know, I’m very mean). I mean I was very proud of them of course but I couldn’t believe it – I’d found the stairs tough and I’m fairly fit!

I only had one shop I wanted to go into… Lululemon. Walking round that shop is DANGEROUS. Honestly I could have bought everything. I do find the whole Lululemon experience a bit odd though as all the staff are very American. NOTHING against them but American retail sales people are a lot different to British. They’re very chatty whereas Brits kind of leave you alone and don’t engage much in random conversation. But anyway, they were very helpful and in the end I bought a tank top, a gorgeous pair of leggings and a long-sleeved top. My credit card needed resuscitating thought afterwards!

Me in my leggings and top at the beach walking the dogs when we got back to my parent’s

Then I topped off my happiness quota by getting a giant tub of fro-yo with strawberries, raspberries and brownie pieces.

It was delicious and perfect to finish the day with!

It was such a good day but it was a very tiring day. I was exhausted when I got to bed that evening and fully dreading my 17 miler planned for the next day…

What do you like to do in London?

What’s been your favourite blogging event if you’ve done one?

Have you done any parkruns in London? I’d have loved to have done Bushy parkrun but it was just too far away to have been feasible.

August 11, 2016

Marathon Training and Reigate Half

So my next marathon is the Chester marathon. Obviously nothing is a given with my track record for injuries, but I’m hopeful as ever

Ideally I was going to really go for it and aim to get near my PB from Liverpool marathon (3:24:06) but after the hamstring debacle and only recently getting back into some normal running I think it might be wise to just give it my best with no pressures (I think this is my mantra for most races if I’m honest). I don’t want to plod around it easily but I don’t want to kill myself in training or in the race. So we’ll see.

In terms of the details of my training… Well, nothing much will really change compared to previous marathon cycles. Four days of running: one speed session (hills/fartleks/tempos/intervals), one easy run (for mental sanity), parkrun and a long run. Ideally I want to get to 18 miles and do that distance twice.

I also only have one race in the lead-up to the marathon, a half marathon (my second favourite distance to run). A half marathon race is usually quite standard in the lead-up to a marathon so I’m always happy to schedule one in. I’m taking part in the Reigate Half Marathon which is two weeks before Chester (18th September). So, depending on how my training is going, it will be a nice one to blast out some speed or test out my marathon pacing.

Source

The course is a good one in that it’s one lap of a fully closed route that goes through some nice rural countryside and picturesque country lanes and it’s relatively flat. It’s chip-timed with a technical t-shirt and medal. Yep, sounds good to me!

Intersport Run Reigate organise both a 10k and a half marathon and has raised over £150,000 for charity since 2014 which is pretty fantastic, right? It’s also achieved silver in the UK’s best half marathon category in The 2015 Running Awards. Pretty cool.

I’ll be running as part of the Run Reigate blogger team, which is fairly exciting as you can imagine. The half is about five weeks away which is nice as it means I can continue to get in some good solid training and be more than ready. As part of the blogger team I get a very nice goodie bag to help me with my training which includes:

A Fitbit Surge (super excited about this as I’ve previously had a Fitbit but they’ve since hugely upgraded them. I love that it has an in-built HR monitor and gives phone notifications)
Brooks running top and shorts
Brooks trainers
A spa day at Nutfield Priory (including spa treatment, use of facilities / gym / pool / sauna and lunch) – because that’d be very much needed during marathon training!

I also get to write a few blogs over on their blogging page.

This is obviously all amazing in itself but I’m actually really excited to have a half marathon in my diary as I haven’t done one in a while now, and especially one I’ve never done before. I’ll be about three weeks out from Chester so it’ll be really good to see where I’m at with my training and test out things like nutritional decisions (number of gels) and what I’m going to wear (i.e. avoid the dreaded chafe or over-heating).

I’ll continue to keep you guys updated with my training as always and also if you fancy reading my posts over at Run Reigate I’ll let you know when they’re up

What’s your favourite distance to race?

Do you like to plan in certain races as part of your training?

Do you use a fitness tracker?

**Full disclosure: Run Reigate have offered me free entry into the race with the goodie bag in exchange for writing about my training on my blog and their blog. All opinions and training decisions are my own.**