Running - AnnaTheApple

February 18, 2015February 18, 2015

Dallas Holiday Recap

I started my holiday (‘vacation’) recap with Orlando (find it HERE), the second half (or at least the last five days) we spent in Dallas. OK so Dallas was a very random choice, we are aware don’t worry.

We didn’t want to spend the entire holiday in Orlando (far too intense and crazy) and wanted to see another part of America. The flights from Orlando were fairly limited. We did ‘um’ and ‘ar’ about going to New York again (good job we didn’t – those flights got cancelled!) or going to LA. But LA meant a five hour plane journey, giving us a whopping flight time back to the UK at the end and an even worse time difference.

We enjoy having our own little adventures; walking, exploring, shopping and just generally chilling and Dallas fitted that criteria. Yeeehaaa! (OK I promise that will be the only ‘yeeehaaa’ I do).

Our hotel (Hotel Indigo) was lovely but very different from the Orlando resort. Far smaller as it was a city hotel, but it was very comfortable, had a gym and was ideally located. The bed…omg was so comfy too.

For our first day we’d planned to do lots of walking from our hotel to explore the area. I’d done a lot of research on good restaurants nearby and things to do so we were set. We stepped outside and good lord it was cold. We knew it wouldn’t be warm so we had packed accordingly but this was an unseasonably cold day for Dallas and our light jackets weren’t cutting it. After walking around for a bit it quickly became apparent we needed to be indoors.

In the end we got in the car and did some exploring that way and decided to spend the morning doing some serious shopping. We went to the Dallas Galleria shopping centre and it was brilliant. The first thing I bought was a warm long winter coat from Hollister in the sale – half price!

The best photo I could find of me wearing the new coat

Being warm is an essential Anna requirement so this instantly made me happy. As did shops with whole work out clothing sections!

Old Navy shop

You don’t really get this in the UK (that I’m aware). You just get sport focused shops instead. I had a field day I can tell you! Ben…not so much 😉

After shopping to our heart’s content we grabbed some lunch and then headed to the Dallas Aquarium.

Now normally this is not something I’d be a huge fan of doing at home. Sounds a bit dull to me…However we really enjoyed it!

There weren’t just fish, but monkeys, alligators, penguins, birds, insects and a leopard. The leopard was quite scary as it was stalking up and down its enclosure staring at a young child. The young child walked around the enclosure and the leopard followed it, menacingly. It looked like it was hunting the child!

Leopard selfie

Unfortunately the next day I woke up at 4am in the morning feeling incredibly sick. I had planned to go to the gym that morning but I wisely decided not to. I didn’t feel any better later and so Ben and I stayed in bed until 10am. Ben loved this as normally we never lie in, especially on holiday.

We ventured out for breakfast but I couldn’t eat anything but porridge. We’d planned a long walk in a beautiful scenic park outside the city but after 10 minutes of walking I told Ben I needed to go back to the hotel as I felt so ill. I wasn’t actually sick or anything thankfully though. On getting back I literally fell asleep straight away while Ben watched some TV. I felt so sorry for him, what a rubbish day! When it got to about 4pm and it was clear I wasn’t feeling better, Ben went to a local sports bar to enjoy some ‘man time’ with a few beers and sustenance. He said he really enjoyed it as he had wifi, sports on TV, beer and was just chilling (though obviously missing me and feeling worried…).

The next day I woke up and literally felt like another person. The sickness had fully gone. I was so relieved. The weather was beautiful as well – like a spring day in Britain. We decided to walk around Dallas that morning and see some sights.

I’d describe Dallas like a very small New York. It’s very cosmopolitan and has huge high rise buildings. But it’s a lot smaller and the accents are crazy. The funny thing is, people didn’t seem to understand us either. They also seemed genuinely shocked we were from the UK.

We saw the JFK memorial monument, the Texas School Book Depository (where Lee Harvey Oswald apparently shot the president – I say apparently as I know there are a lot of conspiracy theories out there!) Though JFK’s assassination isn’t an integral part of our British history, it’s still something we were interested in. I know how much he was loved as a president and how shocking his death was.

In the afternoon we went for a lovely run together in the park that we’d attempted to walk round before I got sick.

Post run selfie – looking fairly done in!

For once we actually ran together as well and it was a nice romantic way to spend the afternoon – sweating, panting and grimacing 😉

We did some other random bits and bobs in Dallas, like going to a butterfly house (they did this in the movie Boyhood that I saw on the plane and I was very pleased we could do it in Dallas!). It was very cool seeing all these butterflies flying around the place and, with butterfly chart, we tried to work out which were which (yes we’re geeks).

We also saw some more beautiful and interesting sights and went on lots of lovely walks. Ben and me are big fans of walking on holiday (especially if we have Vivofits… ;-)).

The cattle sculptures were amazing – it was literally a herd of life-size cattle running down a hill

I think it’s safe to assume we had a quieter and more chilled time (albeit with lots of walking) in Dallas. It complimented well with the craziness of Orlando! It was definitely a cultural change as well. It felt very small-town America but in a city, which I know sounds odd. We definitely got our fill of cowboy-ness as well!

We visited Forth Worth and the Fort Worth Stockyards (which is basically just cowboy central!). It was so much fun. I’m not sure I’d want to live in Texas though – it seemed very ‘out there’. I’m sure this is just my tourist superficial impression though.

And as a final note…we dropped by to both Hooters and Twin Peaks (Ben explains Hooters as a good spot for “butt men” and Twin Peaks for “boob men” – a fair assessment). We just don’t have this in the UK! As you can imagine Ben loved it but he was too embarrassed to get a selfie with a waitress haha.

“Enjoy the scenery”

And dinner there rocked my world. It’s something I’d never normally eat – just a load of fried goodness and dips (chicken, mozzarella, pickles…).

You can’t beat a good load of dirty fried food sometimes

Well, if you can’t splurge on holiday when can you!

Have you ever been to Texas?

Have you ever been ill on holiday?

Do you enjoy visiting aquariums or zoos?

February 16, 2015

A good normal weekend

Hello Monday! Hope you all had a lovely weekend, ours felt like old times again. The holiday is a distant memory sadly (one week of work pretty much wipes away all that joy away…).

This weekend started with a delicious meal of ribs. I’d love to say I marinated them myself but I didn’t. I just saw them in Tesco and spontaneously bought them. Though I have ribs on my recipe to do list for definite.

Both Ben and I agreed that though it said it was for two, you could have easily eaten one pack on your own. The portion size was a bit measly (though I might still be distorted by my holiday…). With the sweet potato fries though it worked OK, it was just slightly disappointing.

Saturday morning both Ben and I got ready for parkrun. I’ll do a post on my running (and Ben’s injury update) soon I promise (if you’re even interested!). As a cliff notes version, my running is going very well. I’m running three times a week while also going to the gym three times a week doing lots of bootcamp/strength and conditioning style routines. I feel less pressure and more love for running than I have in ages. It helps that I’m loving the gym and get a real sweat on there that I don’t feel the need to run as often as I used to as I know I’m getting stronger in other areas that will help my running. I’m still happy with my decision of deferring London as it would immediately panic me and pressure me to hit certain mileage as it’s so soon…but I do have races in the future lined up.

So parkrun. We helped set-up and there was much love for Ben returning which is always nice. I decided to push it as all my other runs have been easy. The course is the hardest one (the winter course) where, because it’s three laps, there are a total of six hills you need to get through (over?). I’m not really in a good running shape but felt like it was a sustained effort and a great workout to help get back to where I used to be. Third lady and 22:35 which I was over the moon with.

I also got my hair cut. This is monumental news as the last time I got it cut was April 2013 (THIS post). I tend to notice when it needs a cut because my arms start severely aching when I’m blow-drying. I was rather apologetic to the hairdresser but she said it actually didn’t look that bad for the length of time I’ve left it. I suppose there’s a compliment there? Anyway instead of being a cheapskate I actually paid for a quality cut rather than the cheaper place I usually go for…hairdressers were called technicians and the power doesn’t cut half way through a blow-dry!!

That being said, it still looks pretty much the same just a bit shorter! At least my arms will be happy…

Ah yes it was Valentine’s Day as well wasn’t it? Ben and me aren’t romantic and lovey-dovey so this passed us by. It’s also my dad’s birthday so we popped over to see my parent’s and treat them to a nice coffee in a lovely little tea room in Lee-on-Solent called The Tea Party.

We decided to forgo afternoon tea as we’ve all got back from a holiday and Ben and me have said February is a more ‘sensible’ (read: boring) month. I can assure you though, I found it hard to stop staring at the BEAUTIFUL cakes and it’s definitely an afternoon tea location to be trialled soon!

They serve alcohol as well so my mum had a lovely little glass of Prosecco in a baby sham glass as well as her tea, as you do. I stuck with a latte.

It was a lovely catch up and mourning of our respective holidays!

Sunday I went for a really good six mile run. It was one of those runs that just felt good. I felt strong, in the zone and found myself going faster than I had intended. I let myself off for it as six miles isn’t that far, but for my future Sunday runs I will really ensure to run slow – probably a good 40-50 seconds slower than I ran. I will take no chances this time around! I’m trying not to make the same stupid mistakes I always seem to make. I’m always climbing the mileage v.e.r.y. slowly; next week is seven miles for my long run, for example, while keeping the other runs the same.

I got back, wolfed down breakfast, chilled for a bit and then met up with Nathan for a 17 mile bike ride.

Hideous selfie

Ay, ay, ay! When you haven’t ridden in so long it is tough. We did our usual route and we both slower (as you can expect) than previously. It was a tough ride but I really enjoyed it. I felt shattered when I got in. But a good NON-BROKEN shattered. I won’t be cycling every week but once in a while it’s nice to get out there.

Then obviously we all went to Nando’s…kind of standard I suppose. I forgot how filling a whole chicken is, but I was not defeated!

Then the afternoon involved ironing and watching Belle (very good film) and going to be stupidly early as I was pooped. Good weekend 🙂 All that was missing was cake…

How was your weekend?

Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day?

How do you celebrate family member’s birthdays?

January 19, 2015January 19, 2015

Am I mad??

I’m trying not to get ahead of myself just yet and go into full on holiday mode. I still have four days left. But that sounds pretty good to me!

This weekend was a busy one as we had a lot to get done, being the last weekend before we go to the States. Friday night I was a lonely spinster while Ben went off with some friends to our local pub for a ‘boy’s night’. I stayed in watching trashy telly and going to bed at 9pm. What a rock and roll lifestyle I have! I was just so tired. I’d been to the gym four times that week (getting up at 5am each time) so I was worn out.

Saturday morning, after a blissful night’s sleep, I was up ready to go help set up parkrun and also run it. This wasn’t my first run back. I’ve been gently getting back into running with some Garmin-less runs, all kept nice and easy (well it felt easy, I have no idea of pace) and short. I’m not going to blog too much about this running as at the moment it’s all very relaxed, no pressures, no goals, just running when I fancy. And I fancied parkrun so decided to make an appearance.

It was very chilly setting up in the morning (about 8am) and we noticed some black ice on the course as we were putting the markers out so we diverted the route slightly onto the grass (which later turned into an absolute mud bath). And then it started to rain icy rain!! I didn’t mind the crisp, dry coldness but icy rain is awful. After setting everything up I did a warm up as I was just SO cold. I didn’t even take my ski jacket off until the last minute!

The run went fine. I won’t lie, I’ve lost a lot of endurance and speed since not running for so many weeks so my easy pace is not what my easy pace used to. But it was just nice to be out in the fresh air seeing familiar, friendly faces. Without any real running goals it means I’m not panicking about hitting paces or mileage. At the moment it’s purely supplementary to my gym goings. I finished in just under 24 minutes which I was happy with and managed to negative split the miles with a nice push of 7.38 on the last mile. I’ll take that!

After clearing everything away and catching up with people, I headed home to Ben. He was somewhat hung over bless him. We got the housework done and then he headed out for bike ride with a friend. The first bike ride since being told to stop all exercise (all OK’ed with the physio). I think it went well and he was happy to feel the rush of endorphins again.

In the evening we headed to Brasserie Blanc in Gunwharf Quays with Ben’s mum to have a superb meal. We were celebrating her birthday and decided to splash out on a rather posh meal. It’s not the most expensive restaurant in the world but it’s fairly pricy!

I had a selection of salads to start, a coquelet for my main and an amazing chocolate soufflé for pudding.

It was so good! Definitely a winner. The soufflé was unbelievably light (not as in less calories as hello it’s pudding, but as in the texture). It wasn’t a heavy chocolate pudding and the pistachio ice cream it came with balanced it perfectly.

Sunday was all about chilling for me. No gym, no running, just nice Alfie walks and a trip into Southampton to take back clothes that we’d ordered online that either looked awful or didn’t fit. I got annoyed in Top Shop as all the jeans that they were selling were either skinny, high-waisted skinny or ‘mom’ jeans. They had so many pairs of bloody skinny jeans. *sighs* So annoying as Top Shop is normally a perfect place for me to get jeans but skinny jeans are not my thing (wrong for my body shape and bloody uncomfortable). But we did managed to exchange a few items for both Ben and me so it was a success.

And now back to the grind. Got some gym visits planned for this week and perhaps a couple of runs. I’m considering running very early on Friday before we get picked up by the taxi at 6.30am as I know I’ll feel crazy antsy on the plane for ten hours otherwise! Am I mad???

Would you run really early when you’re going to fly on a plane later? It’s just such a long time to be sat not moving much…

Do you enjoy going to slightly more posh restaurants occasionally and spending a bit more on a meal that you might do normally?

Did you do any workouts this weekend? Any parkruns?

December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

Christmas Stollen and Body Glide

Woohooo it’s almost Christmas!

Tomorrow Ben and me (with Alfie in tow) will be picking up Ben’s mum and driving the 15 minutes to my parent’s house mid-morning to celebrate the day-long eating extravaganza otherwise known as Christmas. I’ve been put in charge of vegetables (clearly my speciality) so I’ll be carting honey-marinating carrots and parsnips as well as Brussels’ sprouts, broad beans (OK, not entirely a Christmas thing but they’re my favourite veg and I’m in charge sooo…) and some vegetarian stuffing (Ben’s mum and me prefer the non-sausage mix stuff). All good in the hood.

We’ll also be taking the freshly iced Christmas cake…da da!

We used royal icing and just kind of swirled it on. We bought the snowmen to decorate. We’re not brilliant at decorating as you can probably tell…

And the stollen was made pretty much by Ben while I hovered about sneaking samples.

My German friend’s mum’s kindly gave me her stollen recipe as we had some of hers freshly baked when we were over in Berlin recently and it rocked my world. Well anything does that has marzipan in to be fair but this was especially good. We wanted a fruitless stollen to bring as my dad can’t have the Christmas cake because he can’t eat dried fruit (or rather, as he so delightfully puts it, it “goes straight through him”).

Here’s the Stollen recipe (all credit to Charlotte’s mum) if you’re interested:

Stollen

500g plain flour (we had to sub for wholemeal as we didn’t have plain, whoops)
2 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
150g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
150g soft margarine
250g quark
100g chopped almonds
200g marzipan (we might have significantly increased this to twice the amount)
To Dust: 30g margarine; 2 tbs. icing sugar

– Sieve flour and baking power into a bowl, add eggs, sugar, salt, margarine, almonds and quark. Knead into a soft dough and wrap in foil. Leave in fridge for 30 minutes.

– Roll out dough into a square (approx 30 x 40cm) on a sheet of lightly dusted baking paper.

– Thinly slice marzipan and lay out on the dough (alternatively sit the fat sausage-like wodge of marzipan on the dough depending how generous you were with the marzipan). Wrap the dough up from the sides to the middle and press together. Bake for 45 minutes at 175 degrees.

– Melt margarine and spread on warm Stollen and dust with icing sugar.

You can add different dried fruit or peel to the Stollen as well beforehand but like I said, we wanted ours to be more simplistic. Serve with jam, butter or cream cheese (highly recommended) or just eat plain! I think ours cracked quite a bit during baking because we used the stupid wholemeal flour but normal plain flour should be a lot better.

And lastly I have one more quick review for you. I was sent a Body Glide product from the company to test out. Sadly I haven’t been able to test the specific product I was sent out with running but I have previously used this brand before when doing races or when it’s been particularly warm. And I have trialled out the product they sent with my new gym activities.

I’ve suffered many times with chafage and honest to god it’s no joke. Like blisters they are savage and can really affect how your run is going. When I wear sleeveless tops to run I really felt the chafe under my arms. Getting into the shower afterwards was beyond painful.

A slightly old photo of when I suffered from the dreaded chaffage

Body Glide is a company specialising in a range of anti-chafe balms to help athletes keep comfortable and avoid irritation. These particular balms are quite popular because they are non-greasy and very reliable as they can apparently survive all weather conditions. I can attest that it reliably survives a hot sunny day!

The Body Glide have a new range being introduced to the UK:

Original Body Glide – the standard anti-chafe and blister balm
For Her – anti-chafing balm with effective skin moisturiser
Chamois Glide – balm for cyclists
Foot Glide – blister resister specifically for feet.

And they do different sizes as well so you can take a little travel-sized one with you to use just before a race. I was sent the For Her product.

It was great – very easy to apply (like deodorant) and it wasn’t sticky or greasy. It didn’t smell of anything in particular either. It was also nice that it had a nice moisturising element to it. To be honest though, I wasn’t overly fussed about this and happily would have used the original. As long as I don’t chafe I don’t mind!

I’ve used the original body glide product before when running. I all but bathed in it before my marathons and happily had no rubbing issues during. Although I failed to realise I’d chafe on my lower back! Who’d have thought to have applied the glide there!?

So a big thumbs up! Anything to stop that dread burn in the shower or that horrible chaffing feeling while you’re running (and then end up running like a chicken as I had to do one race as the rubbing was so painful).

Anyway, a big merry Christmas to you all! Have a lovely day and eat lots of yummy food. I know I will be!

Do you do any Christmas-specific baking?

Do you chafe when you run? Or are prone to blisters? Nasty little buggers.

***Full Disclosure: I was sent the Body Glide product for free to review. All opinions are my own as always.***

December 1, 2014

So much food and a re-think

And we have a full house once again! Ben is back from his adventures to Hong Kong and China. He got back Saturday morning and I was more than happy to be woken up! As was Alfie who just went mental.

Poor Ben though suffered so badly from jet lag, as you can imagine. He didn’t feel well and he was exhausted (he had started his journey home on Thursday at 11pm London time and arrived home on Saturday 7am-ish!).

And oh the washing…So much washing. Joy. But anyway we decided to go to Nando’s for lunch (well, what do you expect?) with my dad as my mum was in London with Ben’s mum for a girlie trip. I was amused when the waiter tried to give my whole chicken to my dad though assuming he was having it and not me. He seemed a bit bemused that I could eat it. How very dare him. I’m a chicken eating machine!

By the end of the meal though (2pm?) Ben was really starting to fade (his body was thinking it was 10pm). We didn’t do much else for the day and I had to keep waking Ben up. I felt like a horrible person but we’d agreed he needed to stay awake at least until 8pm so he would be getting back, sort of, into the swing of UK times.

Sunday was spent getting bits and pieces done and then we were off for a lovely Christmas meal lunch at Jamie’s Italian with my parents and Ben’s mum. A three-course meal with a glass of Prosecco! I’d seen an offer online (I think it was £27.95 per person?) and had arranged it a while ago. It was quite good for everyone to get together to catch up with Ben.

Ben and the mums

My dad and me

The amount of food though! Oh my life. The started was MASSIVE. Two huge planks of antipasti bits and pieces (meats, cheese, roasted vegetables, olives, bread), cheese balls covered in breadcrumb and deep-fried gnocchi. There was just too much I think for all of us. We were all feeling a bit full afterwards and dubious about two more courses to come.

For mains, I had a Venetian fish stew (as did Ben’s mum), my parents had steak and Ben had turkey. There were polenta chips and roasted vegetables as sides as well. It was absolutely delicious. I thought I’d taken a photo but alas I had not. It was basically a tomato stew with lots of clams, mussels and fish and a piece of toasted bread with a delicious cream cheese spread. I could have easily gobbled up all the roasted vegetables and polenta chips as well but I had limited capacity in my stomach by now! This does not happen often.

For pudding it was a brownie with salted caramel ice cream.

Ohhhh it was so good. Pretty much the same as I’d had the other time I went to Jamie’s a few weeks ago. But honestly, just as tasty. Stomach space was not a problem now.

I did require a long walk with Alfie when I got home as the food was sitting rather uncomfortably in my tummy. Sometimes I find a good walk can help digestion!!

And then it was another evening of me poking and prodding Ben to keep him awake, bless him. One day at a time!

Sadly I’m still not running. I won’t lie, I do feel down about it. I don’t mind about speed or PBs or anything like that, I just want to run. I’m so glad Ben is home as it makes things so much better though! Like I said before, I don’t need to panic just yet as London is so far away. I just wish I understood why I always seem to get injured.

I’m pretty sure running six days a week wasn’t good for me. When my coach gave me that plan I should have spoken up and said no this isn’t going to work. I just got excited about running so much and convinced myself that it was fine because I was running slowly and not very far each time. And at the time everything felt fine during each run. I suppose it just topped out on that 11 miler.

I think my body at the moment needs more rest days in between, regardless of how far or how fast I run. And incorporating more specific strength training. I do do strength training but I guess I need to challenge my body in other ways than what I’ve been doing and Kyle’s going to help with that which is brilliant.

So he’s readdressed the plan going forward so things won’t be so full-on and more strength training…but first I have to get back into running again! Oh the ever cycle of running and me…

Have you got any Christmas meals planned other than the big day?

What’s the worst jetlag you’ve had? How do you recover ?

Do you enjoy a ‘proper’ starter or a sharing starter with lots of little things?