Running gear - AnnaTheApple

November 7, 2014November 12, 2014

JoggBox Review

I have quite an interesting review for you guys today. JoggBox is a monthly subscription box which delivers a range of different running and fitness specific products to you. This is quite a hefty review as there are a lot of products to get through!

JoggBox is a great concept because it gives you the opportunity to try a range of different products and brands that you might not have heard of or seen but never tried. And there’s a range of brands that JoggBox use so it’s quite exciting to see what you’ll get each month. I must say I quite like that element of surprise. There are so many brands (you can check them all out HERE), like Beet It, nuun, chia charge, High5 etc. Basically lots of brands I like!

When you sign up you put in a few details of yourself, such as shoe size, gender, age etc. and any food constraints so the box is more customised to you which is always good. You also get a little ‘crib sheet’ of what you’ve received and how to use them. Sooo what did I get?

I’m not going to lie, it was like Christmas morning opening this box for me!

Pulsin Snack Bars (website HERE; RRP £1.60)

In my box I received one vanilla choc chip protein Pulsin bar. These snacks bars in general are low in fat, have a low GI and are high in protein.

Calories per serving (50g): 225kcal
Fat: 13.1g
Of which saturates: 3.2g
Carbohydrate: 14.5g
Of which sugars: 6.2g
Sodium: 57mg
Protein: 12g
Fibre: 4.6g

There’s no added sugar, they’re vegan, dairy and gluten free. Ben loves these sorts of snacks so I (reluctantly) let him have this to take to work as his breakfast. He said it had a very crumbly texture with lots of nuts and chocolate but wasn’t particularly sweet. Though he admitted that he has a high sweet threshold 😉 As the bars are quite hefty they’re ideal for a quick breakfast option if you don’t have time one morning or a beasty snack if you’ve particularly been affected by runger one day.

Body Glide (website HERE; RRP £7.99)

Ahh this couldn’t be more perfect for me. I chafe when I wear certain vests under my arms and also my HR monitor savages my chest. It’s a nightmare. Showering afterwards is no joke. This stuff is brilliant. It acts as a barrier to prevent chafing and rubbing, ultimately reducing those painful rashes or blisters. It’s sweat and water resistant (you can even use it when swimming!) It’s very easy to apply (like deodorant), it doesn’t smell and it doesn’t leave a nasty residue on your skin. I was very pleased with this product.

Frank Snack Bars (website HERE; RRP £1.00)

I really like the name of these bars, I think it’s quite quirky. Interestingly, the Frank Food Company was founded by a former Everton footballer, Neil Robinson who was keen to create a snack that was genuinely healthy and not an “imposter”. They contain 100% natural ingredients. In my box I had two Frank bars: an oat chocolate one and blueberry chocolate one.

Nutrition for Blueberry and Chocolate:

Calories per serving: 117kcal
Fat: 1.71g
Of which saturates: 1.06g
Carbohydrate: 22.88g
Of which sugars: 14.36g
Sodium: 0.03g
Protein: 3.89g
Fibre: 8.89g

I really enjoyed these. They had a nice cakey, dense texture and had the right amount of sweetness. Good little pick-me-ups in an afternoon.

KT Tape (website HERE; RRP £5.99)

KT stands for kinesiology tape and is a handy tool if you’re injured or maybe feeling a bit of pain when working out. It’s not just for running, the tape can be used for lots of different sports and not just on your legs but all over your body (the mind boggles…).

Essentially it’s tape that you stick on to your body and can help provide a bit of a relief for so many common injuries such as knee pain, shin splints, tennis elbow and many many more. It stays on for a good few days as you can even shower in it. The tape stretches with the movement of your body. There are loads of guides online of how to apply the tape for certain body parts and injuries and it’s really quite easy and simple.

In my JoggBox I got several strips of KT tape which is enough for most different injuries. Obviously the supply won’t last that long but it’s good for a few usages. I’m not actually injured (HALLALEUIGH) but I’ve felt my shin ever so slightly with my increased running so thought it would be an ideal time to test it out for shin splints.

It came in an orange (nude for my skin) colour so it’s really not that noticeable. I went for a run the next morning and it was fine – I didn’t actually feel it on my leg to be honest and it stayed on in the shower fine. Though it was a little moist for a while afterwards. My shin hasn’t been bothering me too much so it’s hard to tell if it would help with a full-on injury but quite a few people have expressed their love for it so it can’t be bad eh!

Push Gels (website HERE; RRP £1.65)

Though I have tried to get away from using gels I haven’t found a good alternate (or rather, I’m too much of a wuss to attempt something new on a long run). I’m not a huge fan of the chemical taste or indeed the chemicals themselves in the gels. So this peaked my interested a lot. They contain no artificial sweeteners, colours, flavours or preservatives but they still have the necessary carbohydrates (maltodextrin, fructose, waxy maize starch – apparently derived from corn but still sounds a little scary) and electrolytes. They’re favoured with natural fruit juice and are suitable for vegetarians, vegans and are gluten free. Sadly no caffeine, though they do a caffeine version.

They advise you to take these gels with 150ml of water and 1-2 per hour during intense exercise. I received two Passion Fruit gels in my box. I used one during my long cycle the other week and, as gels go, it didn’t taste too bad. The texture was slightly grainy but not horrendous and the flavour was quite nice. I quite like these as ‘cleaner’ alternates to normal gels. The other flavours are Blackcurrant (with caffeine) and Cherry.

Elivar (website HERE; RRP £1.95)

Right OK. I will let JoggBox off for this one as these are meant to be for athletes over 35 years old and I’m 26! But to be fair, I didn’t tell them my age when I agreed to do the review so hey ho.

Basically it’s a mix of carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals specifically tailored for the athletes over 35. The blend of ingredients are to help avoid sharp rises in blood sugar and then the inevitable crash, but still keeping you fuelled efficiently for your activity.

Calories per serving (45g): 165kcal
Fat: 0.4g
Of which saturates: 0.3g
Carbohydrate: 32g
Of which sugars: 13g
Sodium: 43g
Protein: 8g
Fibre: 0.9gIt contains a whole host of vitamins and minerals, such as calcium, vitamin C, vitamin B12 etc. and branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) – which are great for muscle repair. It’s jam-packed! Good for providing energy, helping with muscle repair and keeping your bones healthy. You add water and drink during activities. There are other varieties for pre-workouts and post-workouts too. Brilliant idea for the ‘ageing athlete’ (sorry, terrible term I know. I don’t mean to patronise – I can only hope I’ll still be running past 35). It didn’t taste hugely sweet but I didn’t mind the taste. It jazzed up my water.
Clearspring Miso Soup (website HERE; RRP £1.29)

I love miso soup! I actually occasionally buy packs of miso soup to have at work as a nice warming snack (albeit a low calorie one at that). Miso is a nourishing and high energy whole food so perfect for a hot drink in the afternoon, especially with how cold it is right now. Miso is great for digestion as it’s a natural probiotic food.

Each serving is a good source of B vitamins, calcium and iron and is high in antioxidants, and though it tastes salty is has less salt than table salt. I disagree that these would, as the website states, be “perfect for a quick lunch” but rather would be a good addition to a more sustaining lunch or a light snack.
Calories per serving (8g): 29kcal
Fat: 0.8g
Carbohydrate: 3.9g
Salt: 1.5g
Protein: 1.4g

Armband (RRP £7.99)

This product is made by JoggBox themselves. It’s a phone/mp3 player holder that straps around your arm when you’re running or cycling.

You can also put your house/car key in a little compartment as well which is very handy. When I first attempted to put my phone in the armband it didn’t fit (I have an iPhone 5s) but realised in order for it to fit I’d need to take off my phone case first. Then it fits quite snugly and has a little hole so you can still attach earphones.

You can still use your phone once it’s in the holder and it fits quite comfortably on my arm and feels very secure. Though it’s a pain to remove my phone case I really liked this and will be upgraded my old armband for it. I’m not sure how other phones would fit however as we only have iPhones.

My thoughts on JoggBox:

I really like the concept of JoggBox. I liked that I could try out different products without committing to buying a large number of them and potentially wasting them if I didn’t like them. For a monthly subscription it’s £15 (plus £3 P&P), but there are other options if you want to do 3 month’s or a year’s subscription which are cheaper in the long run. The subscription can be suspended and re-activated (or cancelled) at anytime as well so you’re not locked into a contract. You can also just buy one box (or 3, 6, or 12) as a one-off – like a gift for someone. Personally I’d probably buy a few one off boxes from time to time to see what’s out there and try new things. And like I said, I love the idea that you don’t know what’s you’re going to get 🙂 I was really chuffed with everything I go. The Elivar probably the only thing that I didn’t find particularly useful to me.

Have you ever tried JoggBox?

Do you have any monthly subscriptions you’re signed up to, such as organic food boxes?

Are there any products here that you’ve tried or like the sound of?

[Disclosure: I was sent the JoggBox for free to review. However all opinions are my own.]

October 13, 2014

Boosts, London and Africa

I used to love thunderstorms. The sound of the rumbling and crashing and the flashes of lightening was always quite exciting. Alfie, however, does not like thunderstorms and as he sleeps in our room, we are fully aware of this. He starts barking at the thunder or running around the room in a panic. Or sitting on our pillows trying to get as close as possible to us. He’s frightened by it I think which is all very sweet. But seriously, Alfie, MAN UP. I need my sleep!!

This weekend, thunderstorms aside, was great. It started Friday night with a great run. I got my new Adidas Boosts delivered to work and was desperate to give them a little trial run (ha!)

I text Ben saying I might go for a run after work in Basingstoke and might be home a little later than usual. He was uber happy about this as he was planning a surprise for me and needed a bit more time. He had told me the night before he was going to put his Friday afternoon off to good use and do something special for me. Well, my curiosity was definitely spiked!

I wore my new Berlin marathon finisher t-shirt and obviously my new Boosts.

Unintentionally colour coordinated!

Having not run for 10 days I was thinking it might feel a bit sluggish. But actually I felt like I was flying. The Boosts felt amazing and my legs felt very fresh. The first mile was downhill but I was very surprised to see a 6.42min/mile! In the end I did 5k in 22.02 minutes. Not too shabby. I probably shouldn’t have gone so fast on my first run but I just felt good and went with it.

When I got home I was welcomed by a very pleased looking Ben and my surprise.

Yep still looking sweaty

A three-layered red velvet cake – all made from scratch. *Swoons*

I was over the moon! What a guy, eh!? And let me tell you, it tastes AMAZING. Cream cheese frosting heaven! He was a bit miffed the sponge didn’t come out that red though, despite using food colouring gel rather than liquid. Bakers, is there a special way to do this?

Saturday morning we got up early to go to London. Ben needed a quick passport change as he’s going to China with work (oooh er!) so we decided to make a day of it.

We did a lot of walking around and saw the classic tourist bits, like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye, Houses of Parliament etc. I’ve seen them before but never actually done this with Ben so it was nice.

Also saw some of the roads I’ll be running along come April next year…how exciting! (Providing I’m not injured – I feel like I have to say this as you know how injury-prone I am)

After getting the passport sorted we went to find some lunch. I tried to tempt Ben into going to Wholefoods for their salad bar but that really didn’t go down well…but he did say we could go and have a look 😉

Before that, we found a lovely South African restaurant called Bbar which took our fancy. There were animal prints and animal pictures everywhere and the waiters were lovely. We went for a pitta and dip board to begin which was a little smaller than I had imagined but all very nice (taramasalata, hummus and baba ganoush dips). And for main I went crazy and had a salad. It’s funny because I didn’t even realise there was avocado in it before I went for a big chunk of what I thought was lettuce – it was so camouflaged! Ben went for an amazing burger which looked huge. There were so many burger options, even buffalo and boar.

After a relaxed lunch we walked to Wholefoods and checked out more sights along the way. We didn’t do much shopping or anything that exciting, it was just nice to walk around London together without any real aim.

Wholefoods was just full of young adults – possibly students and, I guess, people like me.

The cakes looked out of this world

It was just rammed. The salad bar looked good but I’m glad we hadn’t gone for it – the queues were huge and it felt a bit claustrophobic. I know Wholefoods is held on a pedestal for healthy and unusual ingredients but some of the things did make me laugh. A cupcake that was gluten free, diary free, egg free and low fat had the ingredients list that would make a Pop Tart tremble. Seriously, so many chemicals with long and scary names. Fairly ironic.

As we slowly ambled back to Waterlook, fairly pooped now, I kept seeing people with whole coconuts drinking out of them with straws. Then a few minutes later we got to Trafalgar Square and we passed a huge area of tents and festivities. It was called Africa on the Square – which fitted into our theme of the day perfectly 😉 We had a wander around (so many amazing smelling foods and cool music) and I found the coconut tent. For the fairly pricey £4.50 the guy chopped off the end of a coconut, popped some straws in and handed it to me.

It tasted divine. Fresh coconut water! Yum. It disappeared rather quickly! Then we decided to head back to the train before our legs fell off. We both fell asleep on the train we were that tired. And embarrassingly I woke up with my mouth open…classy girl right here 😉

Sunday was supposed to be fairly relaxed until we decided to clear out the Cupboard of Death (under stairs cupboard…*shudders*) and some kitchen cupboards to make space for Ben’s new plaything – a Kmix. He’s really getting into this baking lark and with having Friday afternoons off I think I’m going to be seeing a lot more cakes. Can’t be bad, right? 😀

What are your favourite things to do in London?

Have you ever had a real coconut before?

What trainers do you wear?

September 3, 2014

nuun revisited

So a while ago I did a post on comparing High5 electrolyte tablets and nuun electrolyte tablets. I came to the conclusion that I preferred the High5 tablets because they had the added caffeine, which I always found helped me.

I like to have a coffee before a race as I find it wakes me up and I’m motivated to run fast. But if I have a regular run in the morning (oh I wish…) then I wouldn’t have time for this coffee as I just want to get out and go and having coffee sloshing about isn’t pleasant. If it was a long run (over 10 miles) I usually take two small water bottles (like 300mls each) and hold them in my hands. I’m strange in that I quite like holding things in my hand when I run. For the Paris marathon I held three gels. It’s quite reassuring to me, not sure why. Especially gels as they’re squidgy 🙂

Anyway, I digress. In those two water bottles I’ll put an electrolyte tablet (half in each) to help with the electrolyte balance and the caffeine. After I did my review, nuun contacted me to say actually they do have caffeine versions and would I like to try some? Well of course!

The flavours I was sent sounded a bit quirky but actually I quite liked them: Kona Kola and Cherry Limeade. Exactly as I said in the previous review post, you just pop one tablet into about 500ml of water and let it dissolve.

Each tube contains 12 tablets and each tablet gives 360mg of sodium, 100mg of potassium, 25mg of magnesium and interestingly 13mg of calcium. Really low in carbs and zero sugar (8 calories per tablet). Not too shabby, eh! Also the caffeine hit is 40g so solves my caffeine issue.

For our 41 mile bike ride we did on Sunday, Ben and me each took a 500ml bottle with a nuun tablet in it (I went for the Kona Kola flavour as that’s my favourite out of the two and Ben loves the cherry). It was a rally good way to make sure we stayed hydrated during the ride. Especially as we were quickly dashing out for a walk afterwards and it was quite a warm day. What was good was that because it was caffeinated it helped with not having had any coffee in the morning before we left.

Yes nuun are more expensive than High5 electrolyte tablets but I honestly prefer nuun. And I was SO excited to find out that nuun now do a watermelon flavour. I am currently addicted to watermelon – buying one every week as a treat at the weekend (I say treat only because they’re quite expensive and such a faff to cut). I’d quite like to get one of the nuun water bottles for my bike as well as they just look cool (yeah turning into a weird nuun fan I guess). Anyway, if you like the sound of nuun you can buy from their website HERE or other online sports shops like Wiggle or ProBikeKit. Happy drinking!

Do you use electrolyte tablets?

Which is your favourite sports nutrition brand?

Have you tried nuun products before?

***Full Disclosure: I was sent these products for free to review. The links in this post are no affiliated links. All opinions are my own***

August 20, 2014August 20, 2014

Foods and Alfie lately

It’s Wednesday and amazingly I’ve just got today left at work and then Ben and me have five days off. We’re heading to North Wales tomorrow to visit my grandparents again and (hopefully, weather dependent) do lots of hiking and walking.

I’ve had to shift a few runs around but I’m hoping to get my long run done tomorrow morning before we go. It’s a four hour car journey so it’ll be nice to sit and nap chill (Ben loves driving) after completing a long run. I’m hoping to do between 10-13 miles just to keep my body getting used to that distance before going any higher. Caution is my best friend right now.

I was recently giving the opportunity to review some Beet It sport products: the Pro-Elite Bar and the concentrated beetroot shot.

I haven’t used them yet as I want to save them for Berlin. Though I will test drive a few shots before my next half marathon (7th September – Pharmalink in Maidenhead). I’ve heard some really good things about the product so I’m really excited to try it out. And I love beetroot…The goodness in these products is all down to the nitrates from the beetroot which have been shown to help with stamina and performance (source; source).

I’m considering having one of the bars as breakfast before the Berlin marathon (obviously I’ll trial this first! I’m not crazy). For the Paris marathon I took the little oat pots and made it up in our hotel room with hot water…but I’m wondering if one of these bars and a banana might be more beneficial? I think I’ll test it for the Maidenhead half. I’m just worried it might not fill me up. It’s 235 calories which seems a little low for breakfast – but with a banana as well? Any advice would be welcome!

On the topic of food, I’ve been enjoying some really random but tasty meals lately.

Sausage and Sweet Potato Hash (serves one)

Small sweet potato, grated (I leave skin on)
Half white onion, diced
Couple of mushrooms, chopped
Half a small courgette, chopped
Good handful of kale
Two sausages, chopped into chunks
Large tablespoon of cream cheese
Spices (I used a Cajun spice mix which had a nice kick)

(I think I might have had the scrag ends of a stir fry mix in there as well – basically any sort of veg goes!)

– Fry the onion in oil (my favourite is coconut oil), then add sweet potato (add a bit of water if it starts to stick to pan) and allow to soften for about 5 minutes with occasional stirring. Then add courgettes, mushrooms and kale.

– Add the spices along with the sausages.

– When the sausages are cooked add the cream cheese, heat through and then serve!

Everything Salad (serves one hungry Anna)

I won’t patronise you with a recipe as it’s fairly self-explanatory. In the mix is a whole lot of veg (carrots, courgette, salad leaves, beetroot, mushrooms, roasted sweet potato) and in that mound hidden away are chickpeas. And then covered in my favourite Caesar dressing of course 😉

Feta Chicken

Feta chicken is always a normal meal during the week at ours. Sometimes done in the slow cooker, sometimes just the normal oven. I’ve written the recipe before (find it HERE).

And here is Ben’s dream meal which he’d eat every night if he had the chance…

This is actually leftovers from his pizza meal the night before. To be fair to him, he had run 18.5 miles (this was a few weeks ago…pre-injury). He ordered a large pizza, chicken dippers, garlic bread…and then consumed the leftovers (with toast of course) the next day. Jeeze. Who said runners were healthy, eh?

So like I said, we’re off to North Wales tomorrow. I’ll be saying good bye to this furry chappy tonight as he’ll be holidaying at my parent’s house while we’re away.

Alfie selfie

I’ll miss him so much. Gives me hope that when I eventually have a baby it’ll be similar feeling – finger’s crossed, eh?? 😉

Ben’s Alfie Snapchat he sent me while I was upstairs

Hopefully my parents will send some Alfie Snapchats as he loves them so… 😉

If you get the Bank Holiday off, how are you spending long weekend?

Have you ever tried the Beet It products? Or heard about beetroot as a sports supplement?

What’s your dream meal you’d eat all the time if health didn’t matter? BBQ ribs, sweet potato fries and a whole lotta cake.

August 18, 2014August 18, 2014

A busy weekend of all the things I love

Happy Monday lovely people. I hope you all had a great weekend.

Mine was bittersweet. Ben is sadly injured. He’s marathon training like me for Berlin (end of September, less than six weeks- PANIC). And, like I mentioned a few posts ago, he went to the Ultra 12 event and ran 4 laps of 5 miles over 12 hours. He was already slightly injured before going into it (although he hadn’t told me this – he’d only said he had a small niggle) and Ultra just pushed him over the edge. He’s seen our physio and the outcome is he’s sprained his knee and can’t run for a week and then see how it is.

This meant all plans for him running at the weekend dissolved and he was in a Dark and Shady mind space. I feel so sorry for him as I know exactly what this is like, being injured while marathon training. But he’s got so many miles in the bag already and if it’s only a week (even if it’s two or three weeks) he’ll be absolutely fine. Ben is determined and strong willed, even if he doesn’t get the training he wants he’ll still do Berlin.

But it meant Saturday I was off to parkrun on my own.

Ben decided to have a lie-in instead which I could totally understand and I went down early to help set up.

It’s always a nice crew of people who volunteer setting up so there’s always a bit of banter and good conversation which helped with me being Ben-less.

Ben and me recently got Steve Way t-shirts so I wore mine to test it out.

My not-so-pregnant-anymore running friend was at parkrun which was lovely. Ages ago I posted about how she was still running while pregnant and doing amazingly (find it HERE). Well she had her baby boy about 10 weeks ago and has been getting back into running. So when we started parkrun and she was running a good clip I decided to hang on to her a bit – it’s always easier following someone doing a good pace than doing it on your own.Karen, my not-so-pregnant-anymore friend, running next to me

I felt good on the last lap so decided to speed up a little bit and managed to get 22:08 and third female which I was chuffed about. Nice tempo run!

Then, after clearing down, it was back to the Wounded Soldier. I let him off housework duties so he could mope a bit more and then we had to dash for some coffee with Ben’s mum.

Alfie loves Ben’s mum as she always gives him doggie chocolates

Then I managed to persuade Ben to go for dinner at Nando’s for our friend, Nathan’s, birthday.

Whole chicken and double salad = perfection

Chicken and beer, what more could you need? While chomping away on chicken Ben and Nathan planned to do a swim in the morning and then a cycle. I was planning a long run so decided to join the cycle afterwards.

The next morning I got up early and did 13.1 miles. It did feel like a hard slog for the first half and from mile four onwards I started getting very thirsty. I foolishly hadn’t brought any water thinking the temperature was cool enough. I started fantasying about drinks and wondered if I could beg for water from a shop as I had no money. At 7.5 miles I realised I was quite close to Ben’s mum’s house and as it was 9.15am it wasn’t too early…I rang her and she was more than happy with me dropping by to grab some water. Bliss! Bit of a strange experience to talk to someone on the phone mid-run though!

Ignore the fact that the mile numbers don’t make sense – I stopped to stretch after the first mile and randomly stopped my Garmin completely. So annoying! The run took just under 1:50 which I’m pleased with. I felt stronger towards the end so picked up the pace a bit. It’s funny because Saturday’s parkrun the work was all happening in my lungs and heart, whereas Sunday’s run my lungs and heart felt fine, it was all to do with my legs which is how it should be I think.

After getting back and foam rolling a bit I then had breakfast and quickly changed my top to get ready to cycle with the boys.

Straight away my legs felt like lead. It was a good cycle but it was tough. Usually our 15 mile route is fine and I can speed off along the straights but honestly I felt like an old lady. But it was nice to spin the legs. When we got home it took about 10 minutes for me to take my socks off though as I was so shattered.

As Ben and Nathan went to the pub to watch the football, I showered, reluctantly walked (shuffled?) Alfie round the block and then promptly collapsed onto the sofa with half a watermelon and chilled for a bit. Then Ben returned and we headed to my parent’s for the piece de resistance…afternoon tea.

Awkwardly Ben’s football team had lost and my dad’s football team had won (same match) but they were good sports about it (whew). It also helped Ben was four beers down by the this point and like a hyperactive child.

We went to the same place we went last week (The Tea Rooms in Lee-on-Solent) and it was lovely. Roast chicken sandwiches, a beautifully tasting scone with cream and jam and carrot cake. Ben had coconut and lemon cake and my dad had Victoria sponge (my mum just had cream tea).

As we went for a walk along the seafront Ben spotted an ice cream shop and jokingly (or so I thought) said he really fancied ice cream. I called his bluff and he so he went and bought one!

By this point Ben is both hyped up on alcohol and sugar. Bouncing all around the place, climbing walls and just generally being good fun. I’m glad he was feeling in a better mood (even if it was under the influence…).

Finally a happy chappy with his ice cream 🙂

And then we headed home to crash, both from exertion and sugar, on the sofa. Another weekend complete.

When you’re feeling down, how do you make yourself happy again?

What’s your favourite ice cream? I really can’t stand the Mr Whippy ice creams, I like the proper stuff!

Have you ever cycled after a long run? Triathletes are just amazing! It was very hard.