Restaurant - AnnaTheApple

February 24, 2014

15 miles, chicken and chocolate

Morning you fabulous people. Does anyone else feel like there needs to be a day in between Saturday and Sunday? A day to catch up on all the things you think you’re going to get done over the weekend but actually don’t. How many times has clean the kitchen floor been on my to-do list??

The weekend started off nicely, with a cheeky little trip to Nando’s on Friday night with my parents and Ben for a whole lotta chicken.

So many choices of sauces! I went for mango and lime

I went for half a chicken, corn on the cob and side salad. How very Paleo of me (is that Paleo? Potentially…) 😉 I also got to eat Ben’s leftover chicken as well. Yum.

Saturday morning we were up and at ‘em to help set-up Parkrun at Netley Abbey.

It was the cricket pitch course again (five laps…snore). But I was determined to beat my time from last weekend (22:30). The weather was better and the course a bit drier.

It was quite nippy so I made sure I warmed up a lot – lots of walking lunges, high knees and strides. Then go go go!

There’s me in the pink top and shorts. I felt really strong and just kept pushing. My pace dropped as I went along but I managed to maintain a speedier pace than last week.

In the end I got a time of 21:27 and was first female 🙂 Almost a minute off last week and I beat the lady that beat me last week, which was quite nice. And my lovely pregnant friend who is still running despite being fairly pregnant wasn’t far behind – I mean seriously, how inspiring is that?? I hope that’s me one day!

I foolishly did not prepare well for the next day’s long run. I ate a really big dinner and a lot of fudge the night before and felt very bloated and not too well when I went to bed. How stupid can I be?

Ben and me were planning to join up with our running club’s long run on the Sunday and for various different reasons, we managed to get there too late (by 5 minutes). This was really annoying as I was looking forward to running my long run with company and hadn’t brought my headphones or anything. Ben and me decided to part ways and just run on. I was aiming for 8.30-9min/mile pace and Ben wanted to do 9.30min/mile so we couldn’t really run together.

Anyway I headed off with the vague and optimistic hope that I could catch them knowing that a part of the group would be running Ben’s pace. This kept me entertained for about 8 miles thinking “Keep going, they’re just around this corner”. Happily I had no idea I got their route wrong and was going a completely different way…

I’d say it sort of went OK. I had some serious stomach cramps and moments when I thought I’d have to dive into a bush which wasn’t great. I had also brought only a tiny water bottle which disappeared by mile 10. And my legs felt very heavy and tired from the day before. The last two miles were spent mentally pushing myself and fantasying about a cold glass of water.

Basically I’d say 60% of the reason why the run wasn’t brilliant was because of the day before (hard Parkrun and bad preparation), 20% was my IT band feeling tired and niggling my knee (not major though) and 20% was mental. Not running with any music, podcast or conversation really put the focus on running and the miles counting down. It was nice to have that quiet time and focus but I’m not used to it for such a long run.

When I got home I had a glass of water within seconds. Best drink in the entire world. Then I stretched like a madwoman, had a huge bowl of porridge and then screamed the house down by having an ice bath.

I have to wear socks as my feet get so so cold. It took ages for them to warm up afterwards! Ben had to hug them for about five minutes. That’s love.

Then the rest of the day I somehow managed to get the ironing done, walk Alfie, prepare my lunches for the next few days and make Mars Bar crispie cakes for work! I then promptly collapsed onto the sofa and did nothing. Heaven.

I made the cakes for work to sell in order to raise some money for the charity (Make a Wish) I’m running for on Sunday’s Reading half marathon.

I went for the simplest baking I could. But still, what an arm work out! Stirring up melted chocolate with rice crispies is no small feat.

I made sure to save Ben one though when I cut them up this morning to take to work 😉

So a productive, tiring but brilliant weekend.

Now to relax a bit at work 😉 At least physically!!

What is the easiest thing you bake? I find everything hard to bake 😉

How do you recover after a long run/hard workout? All the foods!!

What’s your sauce of choice: hot, spicy, mild, sweet…? Sweet and spicy is one of my favourite.

**If you did want to sponsor me and my little team for the Reading Half you can find out fundraising page HERE. No donation is too small.**

January 29, 2014January 29, 2014

This needs to stop

Hi folks. No pre-amble, let’s get going.

I had a bit of a breakthrough. I got up Monday morning at 5.45am I put on all my running gear: leggings, running top, running jacket, high-vis vest, flashing armband, hat, gloves, HR monitor, foot pod, trainers…jeeze. Going to the gym requires much less prep!

I did some quick dynamic warm-ups and then got myself out of the door. Into the rain. Lovely. My new running style is run nice and easy for .5 mile and then stop and stretch for 5 or so minutes. My muscles are nice and warm by then so it’s the best time for it. Seriously if you’ve never done this, do it. Running after that feels so much looser, more free, and you feel stronger and faster.

I ran 4 miles. I hung around the 8min/mile mark and it was tough. On my last mile I pushed on a bit and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw 7.20min on my watch! In the end the last mile was 7.30mins/mile. And I definitely felt it (and my HR went 10 beats higher) – I was sweating and panting like no body’s business. But it felt bloody brilliant.

But hang on. That’s not my breakthrough. I couldn’t have sustained that pace for longer than I did so to me it’s a blip of wanting to get home faster. The breakthrough is later. I’d put that lovely Physicool bandage on while I was getting ready and the effects had worn off by the time I got to work.

But my knee felt good. Not niggly or achy as it has done previously after a run. And for the rest of the day it felt (dare I even say it) 98% good. Progress. Definite positive, happy, wonderful progress!

Anyway, moving on to another major passion in my life. Cake. Seriously, this needs to stop. I don’t want to think of how many times I had cake last week (or how much cake).

After Parkrun on Saturday, a few of the ladies from the running club and me went for another round of afternoon tea. We tried a different venue this time – one that’s a five minutes drive from my house (far too close!!)

Elsie’s Tearooms in Botley

I ordered ham and mustard sandwiches, with a warm fruit scone with jam and clotted cream and a slice of carrot cake. The pot of tea was loose-leafed as well which was lovely.

Hands down this was the best carrot cake I’ve had in a while. Moist, flavoursome and a lovely texture. In fact it was all very tasty. It’s become worrying easy to eat afternoon tea. I’ve developed a good tolerance for eating cake. This is not a good sign.

Needless to say the rest of Saturday was spent in a cake coma doing not much else.

I’m a little behind on my Runner’s World magazines…

Sunday my mum popped round for coffee to catch up. She came bearing gifts of the best sort. Cupcakes from my favourite Swallow Bakery in Chichester (again!!).

How could I possibly resist?? It has a marshmallow on if for goodness sake!

So this week is all about not eating cake. I just need a break I think. For now anyway 😉

Have you over-eaten a certain food lately? I like to really appreciate cakes when I have them and I sort of lose that if I eat them every single day…

What’s easier in terms of preparation for you, going to the gym or going out running?

Loose-leaf or tea bags?

January 9, 2014January 16, 2014

World’s Best Sundae and heart rate monitoring

Breathe, it’s almost Friday!! I still feel so behind with everything – it’s crazy how a holiday can do that to you. I’ve been bugging Ben to write his race recap of his marathon so I’m hoping to have that coming up soon, apologies for the delay. Boys, eh!

Anyway, last weekend Ben and me enjoyed two very nice meals. On the Friday night we went to Ben’s mum’s house and had a second turkey dinner. I do love them. And some fruit salad with ice cream to finish. Yum! No photos as I completely forgot, but all the trimmings as standard 😉

On the Saturday we didn’t do a huge amount. I tested out one of my gadgets at the gym for Spin in the morning. My Polar FT7 heart rate monitor watch. I’m obsessed. I love numbers. What with no running and having weekly mileages, pace per mile, distance etc. I don’t have much to get me excited in terms of numbers. But I’ve seen these Polar watches on different blogs (Laura did a great review) and so I was quite keen to get one.

I’ve never tracked my heart rate when exercising. And now suddenly having this number on my wrist, well I was quite excited about it! So I tested it out on Spin.

While I was spinning it was telling me my HR (and it connected to the LiveStrong spin bike as well so I didn’t need to look at my watch at all, just the mini screen on the bike). Then afterwards it told me calories burnt and average HR, max HR and how long I’d spent in ‘Fat Burning’ zone and the ‘Fitness’ zone. I am aiming to stay in the fitness zone as much as possible because this is my goal, not fat or weight loss. The HR strap around my chest was very comfy as well.

It’s also great because I can see when I’m really not trying that hard – there’s no escaping your heart rate!

[**I wasn’t sponsored for this review – I just love it!**]

So the second meal we had was Sunday. We went out for lunch with my parents last minute. We chose a local pub we always go to, The Osborne View.

The sign behind my parent’s say “Impeccable: having immunity to woodpeckers” and “Heroes: what a guy in a boat does” Hehe

I was like a bottomless pit!! We shared a mezze board between the four of us and had starters as well. I got Asian chicken wings. Oh my life these were good. Crispy and sticky. For main I went for a chicken, bacon and avocado salad (I love me some chicken).

But the piece de resistance…the pudding of 2014 (seriously, this has set some high expectations for the rest of the year)…salted caramel popcorn pretzel sundae. You heard me right.

Toffee ice cream, salted caramel sauce, popcorn and pretzels

Ben got it too. It’s funny because he usually struggles with three course so I was a little hopeful I might get some of his sundae as well as my own (hi my name’s Anna, I’m the food MACHINE). But there was no way in hell he wasn’t going to finish. Damn. We both looked at each other afterwards like “that was amazing”. Needless to say I was ready to be rolled home.

Good start to 2014 😀

What’s the best dessert you’ve ever had?

What’s your favourite restaurant? I love a good traditional British pub.

Have you ever tracked your heart rate while exercising before?

October 23, 2013October 23, 2013

A spot of afternoon tea

Hello! It’s Wednesday – half way there! Not that I’m living for the weekend or anything…

This week I’m joining the blogging link-up What I Ate Wednesday and share the delightful treats and meals I’ve been loving lately. Pop over to Jenn’s blog to see what’s going down

So here’s a recap of Saturday’s eats as they were pretty damn good. As I mentioned in my last post, I didn’t run Parkrun on Saturday. This was really hard and sad for me. Without sounding overly dramatic, it sucked. Ben went but I went to spin instead. I could have volunteered but I wanted to get the endorphins going and to be honest I was in a bad mood.

And let me tell you, spin was hard core. The usual person was sick apparently so we had a stand-by person do it. I assumed it would be a cop-out session. Ha. Usually we have little breaks between songs but not this time. It was just non-stop. And then the instructor goes “right, time for a 5 minute sprint”. Seriously?! It was 30 seconds of sprints, with about 10 seconds recovery, over 5 minutes. I was a sweaty mess.

After this I had my usual breakfast:

Same old same old. Porridge (oatmeal), almond milk and chia seeds.

Then after getting ready and usual house stuff, Ben and me headed to my parent’s where I dropped Ben off for some ‘man-time’ with my dad to watch the football and play Xbox. I picked my mum up and we headed off for a lovely spot of afternoon tea for lunch.

Besides from getting immensely stressed out trying to find a car park in the world’s smallest village square and ending up giving up and parking in a ditch, we arrived at Lilly’s Tearoom in Wickham in one piece (not always guaranteed when I drive).

We ordered soup to start because we weren’t sure afternoon tea would be an adequate lunch (rookie error right there).

Delicious pea and ham soup

I loved how beautiful all the crockery was. In fact, the whole tearoom was beautifully decorated and the service was fabulous.

Obviously we had tea

And then our ‘main’…

Heaven! We had the choice of so many different cakes (carrot, chocolate, lemon drizzle, coffee and walnut, rocky road, millionaire shortbread or Victoria sponge). Well, my mum and me both adore Victoria sponge so we both went for a slice of that. It also came with crustless chicken sandwiches and crustless cucumber sandwiches (but of course!) and scones with clotted cream and jam.

Yeah so we clearly did not need that soup!! We were both quite full by the end, only leaving a couple of the sandwiches (choose your battles I say – cakes all the way). It was perfect.

And then we looked round the little square at all the lovely little shops. And lo and behold I found the most amazing chocolate shop.

Because after so much cake, surely this makes sense??

So many beautiful and tasty looking chocolates! Well, I pushed the boat out and went crazy. I bought Ben and me a box to share.

I forgot to take a photo of inside, but I will share soon as it’s pretty impressive

The shopkeeper thought it was hilarious that I was buying this for just Ben and me to eat ourselves. How terribly indulgent, I know

Well, dinner wasn’t needed for quite a long time afterwards! Luckily Ben had had a pub lunch so we were both happy to have a nice late dinner.

I kept it simple and had roasted vegetables and sausages. I threw in a chopped cooking apple as well (because I don’t eat enough apples – it’s something I’m trying to work on ). I threw some herbs on it (rosemary and thyme) and then drizzled it with some oil and balsamic vinegar. LOVED this. Definitely happening again. And so easy – everything just went in a casserole dish and then in the oven for 20ish minutes.

And that’s that!

Last night I went for an easy 8 mile run and it felt pretty good. No pain, no major discomfort. Just a bit of aching but I was more concerned with the raging thunderstorm going around me! But more on that another day.

Have you ever had afternoon tea? I think it’s pretty much the best thing in the world. OK I’m easily swayed by anything cake-related.

What treats do you like to buy? A box of chocolates is fairly extravagant for us, but I just couldn’t help myself. Usually it’s Cadbury’s chocolate or Lindt!

What’s your favourite filling in a sandwich? I am a bit turkey or chicken fan, with loads of salad. And cranberry sauce.

July 22, 2013

A little slice of a great weekend

Ahhh what an amazing weekend! I love weekends where you know the memories will last forever I’ll have to split it into two because honestly this will be a beast of a post otherwise!!

Starting off on Friday, I enjoyed a ‘lovely’ hot and sweaty 10 mile run in the morning. I was so pleased with how this went as it was niggle free! I literally felt normal running; no discomfort, no slight twinges…perfect. The only thing hard about it was the heat. I can live with that! I even randomly decided to make the second to last mile a speedy one. I just felt the urge!

Then I ate a nice big bowl of oatmeal, showered and set out on my bike for a very leisurely 7 mile cycle to a local coffee shop/garden centre/farm shop to meet up with my mum, sister and little niece, Megan for a lovely coffee.

How cool do I look? I am rocking that helmet!

We nattered and caught up and I even got to hold Megan for a little bit.

That, my friends, is the look of sheer panic. I’m not very good with babies or small children…or children in general. Megan is absolutely adorable…but I’m just terrified of doing something wrong. She did fall asleep on me which was lovely.

Anyway we moseyed about and I bought some more kangaroo burgers and also some wild board burgers. Love trying new food!

There were loads of baking, cooking and crockery bits and pieces in the shop and I couldn’t help but take a photo of this cool tea pot.

So true

Then we parted ways and I cycled back a slightly extended route to avoid all the hills I coasted down on the way there. In the end it was a 16.9mile cycle in total! I tell you what, I was pooped.

My lovely sister drove round a bit later and dropped the burgers off (as I had no proper bag on my bike) and she also had made an AMAZING red velvet cake for Ben and me….maybe because I’d pestered her obsessively for ages as she’s strangely got really into baking lately.

Unfortunately I had to wait until Ben got home from work until I could slice and dice that baby. It was tough. A real stretch of willpower I assure you. I can now report though that it was delicious. I’m not even embarrassed to say I went back for seconds.

The next morning, Saturday, we got up early and caught the train to London to meet up with my university friends for a little social gathering.

I love seeing my friends but I’m really not a big fan of London. I find catching trains and tubes really stressful so I was glad Ben was there with me. We even had to buy and work the Oyster card machine. Hard times.

After meeting up with them all and catching up we headed to a lovely quirky pub for a drink and food.

The pub was really vintagey with bunting hanging from the ceiling and random old chairs and ornaments everywhere. It was cool! And the food was pretty darn tasty.

I had chicken with roasted vegetables, couscous and a sour cream dressing. And for pudding? Well, let me just tell you. It was immense. It was a tough decision because there was a semi-freddo honeycomb dessert with ore cookie crumble. I was tide. I had a lengthy discussion with the waiter and in the end deciding on the dark chocolate tart with clotted cream ice cream. What pushed me over? He said the tart was bigger. Haha. What am I like??

Then we chilled out on the grass in a lovely park and just enjoyed each other’s company and the sunshine.

There did end up a massive grass fight as there was all this dried hay-like grass around where we were sat. Luckily I avoided being targeted!

I’m sure there was a lot of grass in unwanted places by the end!! Haha.

Then after another drink in a pub, a few of my friends headed back to their respective train stations to head home. Ben and me were staying over at the flat of one of my friends and her partner as we were off to Stratford the next day for the Olympic Stadium 5 mile race.

We enjoyed a nice easy pizza, watched some Friends, ate some home-made cheesecake (hey, it’s carbo loading!) and went to bed at a reasonable time as we were up early the next morning. More on that in my next post

Such a good weekend – and it’s not even finished yet!

What did you get up to this weekend?

What do you prefer: pubs/bars or cafes/coffee shops? I much prefer cafes or coffee shops as I’m not a big drinker. I like to have a nice cup of coffee of fragrant tea and maybe a sneaky slice of cake. But a pub is nice too when it’s hot and you can sit outside with a nice cold Coke!

Are you a baby person? Or a mum/dad already? I know I want to have a baby at some point but I am so clueless with kids that it really scares me!

What’s your perfect pre-race meal? I like a good pizza with not too much cheese as I find the cheese sits heavy on my tummy.