Almost the weekend

Wow I’m so glad it’s Friday. This week has been fairly hard-going. I’ve been trying not to stress about the wedding and I’ve been doing some delegating so things are better. But getting up for working out has been really hard. I’m usually wake up a bit tired but after giving Alfie, our dog, a quick walk I can snap myself into focus mode. But I’ve been like a zombie walking him. Which isn’t so great when he suddenly sees a cat and I’m not prepared and he almost rips my arm out of its socket.

So my runs this week haven’t been great in terms of how I feel when I’m running. I’ve just felt so tired. But I managed to do some yoga (albeit an attempt). After some good tips from Maria and Becks, I’m going to check out some podcasts and see what they’re like as trying to do it all on my own didn’t work out the best. Anyway, here’s what my week looked like:

Monday – 5 miles (42.38mins)

Tuesday – yoga

Wednesday – 5.2 miles (43.37mins)

Thursday – weights (5 sets of 15 squats 5kg weight, 2min plank, 3 sets of 15 triceps kick backs 2.5kg per arm, 3 sets of 12 ‘cleavage creator’ and 3 sets of 30 sit-ups 5kg weight)

Friday – today I ran 3 miles as I want to improve on my speed.

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Really chuffed with how it went. I woke up today feeling less sleepy and just went as fast as I could. It was really tough, I’m not gonna lie. I couldn’t have maintained my speed for a longer run. It was good though to push myself in a different way as I usually just try and run further. Mentally it went well because I knew it’d be a lot shorter than my usual runs. It just zoomed by. I was surprised by how much it knackered me though at the end. I was pooped!

I won’t do a short and fast run every week as it’s quite tough and doing 5 work-outs during the week days was hard-going, especially as I’ll still do my longer run at the weekend. But I’ll try to do it every other week as it’ll show me any progress and help push myself that bit more.

I’ve been enjoying some good smoothie puddings in the evening as well. I’m calling them smoothie puddings because they’re too thick to be smoothies but not massively indulgent to be a pudding. I don’t have any photos as I was too busy chomping (whoops). But my favourite is low fat yogurt, 1tbs carob powder, 2 tbsp PB2, frozen strawberries and a pinch of xanthan gum. Delicious! PB2 is something I’d come across in blogs but didn’t really know what it was. However, on researching it I found it was powdered peanut butter and 85% less fat and calories than usual peanut butter! Amazing.

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Now, don’t get be wrong. I adore normal peanut butter. You can’t beat it. However, when you just fancy a slightly ‘lighter’ smoothie but still with a yummy PB taste, this is perfect! In an evening I don’t want anything too heavy as I tend to go to bed quite early (yes, I know, I’m like an old lady) so it’s perfect for fullness factor. And with the carob powder it tastes very indulgent but without a heavy feeling on your tummy afterwards.

So addicted to the Olympics right now. I’m currently sneakily streaming the track events at work. I’m just blown away with how amazing they all are. Jessica Ennis is our big British star and I’m just in awe of her. These women (and men, of course) are so inspiring to me to push myself that little extra. I know this sounds cheese, but I just think they’re amazing!

I’m looking forward to this evening as I’m meeting up with my close friend to talk wedding and eat Indian take-away. She’s kindly agreed to make me cupcakes for my wedding and sing during the ceremony, I’m so grateful to her! She’s an amazing singer and an amazing baker, so it’s a win-win situation Smile

Hope you all have a great Friday night and lovely weekend!

Fuelled by go-go juice

I do love Saturdays where you have nothing planned. It’s nice to take a day just to ‘reset’ yourself, you know? Do all those bits and bobs you couldn’t do in the week because you were too busy earning a living. Not to mention a cheeky little lie-in!

The meal out last night was good. Though I was a tad disappointed with the starter I’d chosen. Goat’s cheese crostini:

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Apologies for the blurry picture: I was trying to take a photo quickly before I looked odd in front of Ben’s mum. Also, it’s one third of the way through as I’d forgotten to photograph it. I was hoping for a larger goat’s cheese to bread ratio. And they were a bit heavy-handed on the chutney. That’s not to say I didn’t clean the plate!

I went for something I wouldn’t usually go for for the main course:

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Duck with butternut squash and pomegranate and mango salsa. I never go for duck but I just loved the sound of the salsa. It was very good, but I do prefer chicken or turkey. There is a sneaky chip that found it’s way from Ben’s plate on to my plate as well…no idea how it got there…

Anywho, this morning I was planning to go for a 6 mile run. But I extended it to 9.4miles as I really got in the swing of it.

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Really chuffed with how it went. However, literally as my Garmin beeped to tell me I’d hit the 6mile point the heavens opened up on me and I got absolutely drenched. Not just mildly damp. Full-on soaked through to my undies (sorry, too much information?). It got to the point where I just didn’t bother jumping the puddles. I squelched all the way home. Was I being punished for doing more than 6miles?? Well, there’s nothing like a bit of downpour to get you moving. It really spurred me on to get home.

This is me post-run. Literally, I am soaked. My leggings are usually grey!! Now my best look I have to say…no judgement please.

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I also tried out a new sports drink. Now, I’m more of a purist to be honest. Plain water is just fine. However, I got these water tablets free with a magazine and I thought I’d give them a go.

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Though the taste wasn’t amazing (a bit like watered down squash with a weird after-taste) I really think it helped my run. Whether this is all psychological, I’m not sure. But I’m going to give them a go when I go for my 6mile-plus runs. I don’t take water with me for anything less than that but when I go out longer I always need water (made the mistake of forgetting water on a long run once and had to stop at a pub and beg for water…not my finest hour!).

Right, I thought I might leave you with a photo of our little dog Alfie. After peeling off my sodden socks after the run, the cheeky beggar made a grab for it. He looked so cute I had to take a couple of photos.

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