Running - 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.**

February 19, 2014

Where I’m currently at

I don’t like talking to other marathon trainees at the moment as it stresses me out. I’m not where I’d ideally like to be in my ‘perfect’ marathon training, but in this sensible world I’m currently trying to live in (i.e. avoiding re-injury) it’s just how it has to be.

There are quite a few people in my running club and bloggers training for spring marathons and every weekend they say how far they’ve run for their long run…18, 20, 22miles. It really concerns me. I’m currently at 13. But it just has to be this way as I really need to take my build up slowly. My knee is still delicate. I don’t want to make it angry and flake out on me again And, as I keep berating myself, it’s my training plan and my marathon I’m working towards. It is pointless to compare to others.

But, on a positive note, I do things are going well. Last week I had my highest mileage in ages.

Monday: off
Tuesday: recovery 4 miles (ave. 9mins/mile) // leg strength workout in evening
Wednesday: Core strength workout
Thursday: Personal trainer session (lots of back and shoulders) // 6 miles (1 mile warm-up, 6x 6min tempo with 1 min recoveries) in evening
Friday: Leg strength and Pilates
Saturday: Parkrun (22:30)
Sunday: Brighton half marathon

I’m loving me some recovery runs at the moment. I never used to do them; every run had to be about proving my speed and I felt I failed if the run was too slow. But it just meant all my runs were ‘sub par’ because I’d never really be recovered to then take on a hard run at 100%. So Tuesday’s run was just perfect after my previous tough long run on the Sunday.

I’ve also been focusing a lot on my strength. I want to do one core session a week (planks, side planks, supermans, etc.) and at least one leg strength session (though ideally two) a week. We’re not talking anything crazy here. Just under an hour focusing on what I know are my weakness (hips, bum, hamstrings).

Thursday tempo run was tough, I’m not gonna lie. I was chuffed to maintain speedy paces throughout the 6minutes but it became increasingly more difficult. Also I chose a rubbish route that I looped around twice: two sets of stairs and a nasty hill!

So I might not be hitting the big miles but I’m consistent with my running at the moment and feeling somewhat happy with how it’s going. My knee is still not 100% and it can niggle the day after a run if I’ve been sat down for too long but it’s manageable and getting increasingly better. Fingers crossed it will eventually just bugger off!!

I’ve got a 15 miler planned for this weekend. It’s a bit of a tough call on what to run as it’s the week before Reading half. But I know for a fact that I won’t be getting a PB, or anywhere close, even if I tapered appropriately. My fitness is just not where it was last year. Ideally I’d love to beat what I got in Reading last year (1:41:19) but anything close would make me happy 🙂 So I will push myself but I won’t kill myself. It will be a faster long run.

If you’re training for a marathon, where are you at with your long runs?

What long runs do you like to get in before a marathon?

What was your favourite workout last week?

February 17, 2014April 12, 2017

Brighton Half Marathon Recap

Hey everyone! This weekend was almost a perfect weekend. Parkrun, cake, a race, seeing friends, good food and lots of chilling.

Saturday we went to Parkrun. It was a bit chilly, very windy but the rain held off…for a little bit. We were on the cricket pitch course which is very flat but very boring (5 laps!). Also a bit precarious underfoot at the moment as it’s quite wet and muddy. In the summer it’s excellent for PB potential. At the moment it’s better than the other more hilly course but you still need to mind your step a fair bit, especially round the corners!

I decided just to see how I felt for this run. In the end one of my running friends from a different run club ran with me. At first I felt a bit pressured as he’s normally quite speedy (we used to be fairly evenly matched but since my injury I’m definitely slower than him) but it was nice as it pushed me harder. I didn’t want to hold him up too much! 2nd female with 22:30. I just couldn’t catch the first female!

Then we rushed home, did the housework, showered and headed out for…yep, afternoon tea – again!

That’s Ben’s “I hate you taking photos” face

It was, as always, lovely. Ham and mustard sandwiches, fruit scones (with ginger and rhubarb jam) and butterscotch banana cake with chocolate chips.

If you’re ever in Botley check out Elsie’s Tea Rooms – it’s lovely and very reasonably priced.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing after a drizzly walk with Alfie. And in bed fairly early because we had a delightful 5.20am start the next day.

Ah yes…I may not have mentioned this on the blog. I had a bit of a change of mind. Ben and me decided to do the Brighton Half (despite deciding against it a few weeks ago). We reasoned that if we survived the very tough 11 miler the weekend before without issue, 13 very flat miles would be OK. I promised myself I wouldn’t go faster than 8-8.30mins/mile and would see it as a training run – a lovely route with thousands of other people.

So we left at 6am. Ouch. On route to Brighton

I ate my porridge and drank a coffee as we drove over. It was about an hour and some to get there. We parked in the Park and Ride and then got the bus down to the race village. Feeling lovely and warm in the bus, but dreading standing the cold!

Through Twitter I managed to find someone to run with who was in a similar situation. Cathy (check her blog out HERE) kindly offered to run with me and we agreed it’d be way more fun to run together slowly than on our own!

So we met up in our optimistically fast pen. The race was like no other half marathon I’ve ever done in that I was quite relaxed, didn’t care about pace and was able to chat someone the whole time.

The weather was fantastic. Cold, but clear, sunny and no wind! Perfect running conditions.

It was a fairly flat course (though there were some minor sneaky gradual inclines). The views were great of the seafront and surroundings. But I just found it a little dull running all the way up the seafront and then running all the way back.

But the company was lovely. We chatted about races, running and life in general. It was great! We both were a bit miffed at not being anywhere near a PB but reflected it was for the best at the moment.

The pace felt very comfortable and chatting was easy so I feel in a good place about that 🙂 We had a little sprint finish (to pick off some females…just couldn’t help it) and then finished. 1:49:01 official time, 2,126th.

Thank you Cathy!

My knee was OK during the run. At times it felt slightly uncomfortable in that it felt tired. Not painful, nothing like before…just hard done by. But this was intermittent and nothing I’m worried about. No pain on finishing and afterwards either. Well, my whole body ached but that’s to be expected!

Ben got himself a cheeky PB as well, despite saying he was going to take it easy (1:52:30).

We then met up with some friends who live in Brighton for a lovely roast.

I had roast venison with the largest Yorkshire pudding known to man and lots of veggies and roast potatoes. Food never tasted so good.

Then we headed home and I fell asleep in the car! I did lots of stretching, foam rolling and icing while just chilling on the sofa, before promptly heading to bed at 9pm shattered.

Brighton Half was a great race, definitely PB potential, well organised, beautiful scenery and great crowd support. The goodie bag not too shabby either.

Ben picked up quite a few Lucozade drinks as he loves them

So that, my friends, is what a great weekend in my eyes looks like. I wish I could have smashed a PB out to make things perfect but I have a bigger goal in mind to jeopardise anything at the moment. Slowly, gradually, I’ll hopefully get there.

How was your weekend?

Did anyone run any races? Eat cake?

Has anyone done Brighton half/marathon before? Thoughts?

February 12, 2014

Marathon Talk Weekend – Part 2

Hello! Hmmm I did say I wouldn’t focus solely on Marathon Talk for a post…but I kind of did sorry. I won’t be offended if you skip this if you’re not interested!

To catch up, check out Part 1

So after breakfast/brunch and getting showered and sorted we headed to meet up with everyone for 1pm.

I tried to discreetly take a photo of Martin talking

They did a little “hello” sort of welcome chat (some people had only just arrived as they couldn’t make the Friday night or Parkrun). I have to say that Tom and Martin are so friendly and so lovely. There was lots of banter and they were exactly like they were on the show. It wasn’t like an “us” and “them” experience – it felt very relaxed and they were very easy-going and ‘normal’.

Then there was the Marathon Talk quiz. We were split into teams (by our birth month). Tom ended up in my team. The quiz was solely focused on Marathon Talk. It was great – Tom knew a lot of the answers which helped, but I was surprised at how much the rest of the team and I knew and that he couldn’t remember!

Tony was the quiz master and he was brilliant. He’s exactly like he is on the show – hilarious, witty and fun. The quiz was such a laugh.

And we won!

In true runner’s style, we won cakes

Everyone on the weekend also got given (for free) a very swanky running T-shirt with “Run Camp 2014” printed on it. These were from Adidas (who sponsor the show) so they were of very good quality, and in a range of sizes. My T-shirt actually fits for once.

We’re on the far left (as our Tom and Martin, Tony is hiding at the back)

Then we were told the next part was an interval session. 6x3minutes with 3 minutes recovery. As jubilant as my Parkrun was and as desperate as I was to take part in this I didn’t think it would be sensible. I’m trying to be gradually get back into things and a hard Parkrun in the morning followed by a hard interval session (because let’s be honest, I’d never do it half-hearted) and then a long run the next day…probably not sensible for me.

Ben and our running club friend decided the same. Ben is only just getting back into running after his hip issues (marathon recap will happen – I am still pestering him). So we wandered over to Tom and asked if we could help out. He was more than happy for us to help him keep the timings as the entire group would be split into two (the speedsters and the not so speedsters). Another lady who had hurt her ankle also wanted to help out.

Everyone got ready and then ran to the interval location (about two miles away). Whereas we followed Tom’s car in our own car. Hilariously Tom took us the wrong way and then had to do a crazy dodgy 7 point turn on some steep dirt hill track. It was so funny (and quite scary…). Ben had a lot of jokes with him about that haha.

After some explaining of the time-keeping and lapping of stop watches (my god my tiny little brain really struggled) we each headed out to a certain distance away from the start.

This is us heading out to our spots – Tom in the bright cap, Martin next to him//There’s the log I stood on to watch the runners pass

I’m glad I’m not great at maths as I didn’t realise I’d be stood there for 40 minutes in the cold!! Every three minutes the speedsters would zoom past me and then back.

The lead runner is Steve Way – stupidly fast!

Then three minutes I’d be on my own again so I did a lot of pacing to keep warm!

Then we were done. Everyone ran back and we followed Tom back again. He seemed really grateful we helped so I felt chuffed despite how cold and wet I was.

After getting back and sorted we then headed to the meeting spot again for a buffet meal. It was quite funny because I was chatting to one of the other runners and we were wondering what we’d get. I jokingly said “probably sandwiches and pasties”. The other runner laughed and said “nah it’ll be a hot buffet of course.” Famous last words. Everything was cold. I hadn’t eaten since my brunch in the morning (11am) so I was absolutely starving (it was now 6.30pm). As you can see, I had everything and lots of it.

After our very cold but filling dinner, Martin did a sort of interview with Steve Way (an 100km ultra champion). I had no idea who Steve Way was before the interview began. But I can now say I’m a big fan. He started running at 33 – going from an overweight smoker to an almost elite athlete; just seconds from qualifying in the elite category for a marathon. He “dabbled” with training for his first marathon and ran a 3:06. This blows my mind. Then after putting in some ‘proper’ training he got down to 2:19. Jesus.

I could say a huge amount about this interview – a lot of useful and interesting information –but it would take up a lot of the post. Unless people are very interested I’ll leave you with just a few tidbits:

He said though he gave up smoking, he is still a smoker. He just doesn’t smoke because it would “affect his running”. He has a cigar after every marathon to celebrate though.
He can run up to around 150miles a week.
The average pace of all those runs (recoveries to speed sessions) is 6.30mins/mile.
He talked a lot about knowing the limits of his body – knowing he couldn’t go over 150ish miles a week as he’d start to break down or become over-trained.
He takes his HR every morning. It sits around 30 beats a minute.

It was very inspiring but a little ‘out there’, you know? Like all I kept thinking was “how can I relate this to myself?”. But you sort of can – the focus, perseverance, the drive…though it was beyond most of the people’s ideas of a usual training week we were all nodding along. It was inspirational.

After the interview (which went on for a good hour with us being able to ask any questions), Martin explained what was happening for the long run the next day. He handed out maps and explain that there was an 11 mile route, a 16 mile route and a 19mile route. We needed to decide what distance and what pace we’d like to do so the next day we could get into groups. I already knew I’d be doing the 11 miler. No way would I be attempting more at the moment. Especially considering the terrain was off-road, challenging and the route was, in Martin’s words, “f***ed” with all the rain water. Haha.

Then we headed back to the lodge where I had a lovely hot chocolate in bed and a fairly early night.

We fell asleep fairly quickly. We were shattered!

I will save the next day until another post (another interesting interview, long run, carvery and Q&A session with Martin and Tom).

Do you listen to Marathon Talk? Would you want to go on a trip like this?

Do you know your limits for exercise? Number of days, level of mileage?

Do you do interval sessions? I will be incorporating intervals in my training soon but for now I’m just doing regular runs and tempo runs to not stress my body out too much –> interesting article on exactly this: Returning to running after injury

February 10, 2014

Marathon Talk Weekend – Part 1

Hi guys! I am buzzing. I had such a fantastic weekend. Ben and I went to the Marathon Talk spring weekend over at the New Forest. It really was a brilliant weekend.

You probably know I’m fairly obsessed with running and spending an entire weekend purely focused on running with fellow runners was just heaven. I have so much to say about it so I thought I’d break it down into ‘manageable chunks’. I’ll try to include some non-running stuff as well because I know running isn’t everyone’s cup of tea…

Ben and me headed to the New Forest with one of our running club friends who was also doing the weekend on Friday afternoon. It wasn’t far for us at all – but some people came all the way from Edinburgh! That is dedication. There was an informal meet and greet style thing on Friday evening. I’m terrible. OK I know Martin Yelling and Tom Williams aren’t celebrities and most non-runners haven’t heard of them…but I was so chuffed to meet them and listen to what they said. I think they’re just great and actually see them talking rather than hear them on a podcast was brilliant. I tried not to be that creepy fan girl but I was pretty much smiling the entire time. They were very welcoming and so friendly.

Unpacking the essentials in the lodge

Saturday we got up early and got ready for Parkrun.

Ben loves it when I take random photos – ha!

And we convoyed over with everyone to Brockenhurst. Check out the car we were following.

Of course! Not Martin or Tom’s car though.

It was fairly wet and muddy but when has that ever put off a runner?? It’s funny because Brockenhurst Parkrun hasn’t been running since the beginning of December, but when the Parkrun director (i.e. Tom Williams) comes into town anything is possible. An out and back route was set up that avoided the worst of the flooding/fallen trees etc.

I might have had lofty unrealistic ambitious of having a podium finish…but as soon as we started three ladies just zoomed off. Honestly, even if I was in peak fitness and 5k shape I think I could have caught one of them. Those ladies had some serious speed – major kudos to them!

The course…oh the course. It was off-road so nice and soft underfoot, but it was hilly. We ran down one very steep hill which wasn’t as great as that sounds – tough on the quads! And the ever present thought of “I will have to climb that hill on the way back”. Half way I thought I might have to stop, it was so tough. But I finished! My time was 23:11, 4th female, 24th out of 71.

I am more then happy with that!

Martin Yelling came second (18:55) and Tom William (32:52) pushing his daughter in a pram! There was a great atmosphere and community feel – everyone cheering everyone. I loved it.

Then we convoyed over to a local tea room in Brockenhurst. Can you picture a large number of runners suddenly landing in a tiny quaint tea room? It was rather funny and the staff looked a bit taken back. I kind of wished I hadn’t worn my tiny shorts…I felt a little naked.

I hadn’t had breakfast and I was starting to feel hungry. I checked around with other people and found that others were ordering food. So Ben and me ordered a very satisfactory post-run meal.

Well, it was that or afternoon tea…Martin walked past and said he was fully impressed haha.

Then we headed back to the lodges to get showered and ready for a 1pm meet up for the Marathon Talk quiz.

Right I’ll leave it there as I could waffle for ages. News on my knee (I know – exciting stuff, curb your enthusiasm 😉 I think it’s holding up really well. It still aches from time to time but it felt fine during the runs over the weekend and I feel like I’m running strong. Gradually does it.

One last Marathon Talk weekend point. As we were unpacking Ben goes “Where’s my towel?” (we had to bring our own). I said “well unless it’s in your bag, it’s probably in the airing cupboard at home”. Apparently I was supposed to remember it! Ha! So he had to buy one from the little shops on site.

Beggars can’t be choosers!

How was your weekend? Did you do anything nice?

What kind of Parkrun do you prefer? Challenging? Flat? I like a flat one now and again to see if I’ve made any progress, but challenging helps with training.

If you could have anything, what would you eat after exercise?