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Howdy! Right seriously, is was like winter the other day. Hello mist, hello bitter cold mornings! And to think this time (bar a few days) two years ago it was beautifully sunny and I was almost a little too warm in my wedding dress…

Yep on Monday it was Ben an my second wedding anniversary – how quick the time flies (read my recap of that day HERE). We’ll be celebrating properly in Berlin (post marathon!). Though I did indulge in a fair few salted caramel truffles and chocolate Monday night. Well, you’ve got to really, right?

Dare I say it…I’m actually looking forward to the marathon? I just want to get it done. I just pray and hope I enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the Paris marathon. Don’t get me wrong, I know it will be stupidly hard work and so tiring but I just feel mentally ready, though maybe not physically with my mediocre training!

A post run selfie after a really good feeling run – hurrah! 

Anyway, a few weeks ago I got so fed up with running (did you notice??). This year has been dreadful. One injury after another – and not one PB to show for it. Some of the injuries may be down to bad luck and some may be down to bad running form…but I’m pretty sure I don’t help myself with how I train. I convince myself that I’m running easy when I probably should be running a lot slower on recovery days. Then I race too many races. And I didn’t take a proper break after Paris.

I decided that something needs to be done. Clearly I’m not doing something right. I need someone to point me in the right direction and take the mental complexity out of running. Frankly I need someone to just tell me what to do.

I mention Kyle quite a bit on the blog. He’s a friend of Ben and mine, an amazing runner, a good sports massage therapist and…a coach. He actually coaches two others in my running club at the moment and they’re doing amazingly (dropping minutes off of PBs and flying along). Now I don’t particularly care about speed at this point. All I care about is consistent SMART running without getting injured.

I sat down with him and had a lengthy chat about my goals and future races and as of two weeks after Berlin (provided I don’t get injured at Berlin…PLEASE god no) then I will be following his direction completely. His plan is to gradually build me up again slowly. In fact I won’t be racing any races this year, despite having a few in the plan. They’ll all be training runs as, in his words, I won’t be ready yet. Even to have someone say that to me is eye opening as I thought by November I’d be back in the game again ready to race a half marathon I have planned.

They’ll be more structured sessions: proper tempo runs, interval sessions and recovery runs. I will no longer plan my week – it’s out of my hands! This makes me so happy as I can relax my brain. It takes the stress out of running; the constant wondering if what I’m doing is right. And what’s more is that my training we’ll be specifically geared to my goal, which is actually having a good go at a marathon next year (either London or Brighton). No longer will I haphazardly create my own training plan and hope for the best, and probably get injured several times along the way.

Huge sigh of relief!

Have you ever had a coach (in any sport)?

If you have a partner, how do you celebrate your anniversary?

Do you like getting flowers? I rarely ever buy flowers as they just don’t last that long, so it;s a nice treat to have them bought for me.

[Check out Kyle’s website if you’re interested in being coached by him; you don’t have to be in the area! – This post wasn’t sponsored, I’m just a fan and a friend of Kyle’s :-)]

Happy Monday. I’m feeling like summer is definitely over. Now the kids are back at school in the UK my joyous commute to work is like 20-30 minutes longer, and it’s dark, it’s cooler…but then I do love autumn and who doesn’t love Christmas?

Considering how low I was feeling last week, my weekend was actually pretty awesome. It started with a three mile run on Saturday. Cue dramatic tense music. The run went OK. It actually felt pretty good. My shin was only mildly uncomfortably at odd points during the run, not continuously. And afterwards it felt pretty good. Walking as well was fine. But I’ll talk more about running and my Berlin plans in another post.

After running, Ben and I drove up to Cardiff to meet up with my university friends and their respective husbands/partners. Obviously stopping for a quick coffee break. It has to be done!
Then we arrived at Cardiff, caught up and went for a walk. Though the boys got grumpy about walking and went straight to the pub!

The pub was so lovely. It’s called The Old Cottage. For starters Ben and me shared a mahoosive sharing platter which rocked my world. I’m all about sharing platters, which is odd as usually I don’t share food. But I know I’m on a safe ground with Ben as he never eats as much as me anyway.

It consisted of flatbreads, ribs, chicken skewers, lamb koftas, a sweet chilli dip, tzatziki, watermelon and salad. Oh my life it was good. Ben loved it because of the flatbreads and tzatziki and I loved it because of all the meat and salad. We work well as a pair 😉

For main I had a superfood salad with chicken which was divine and then Ben and me shared a pudding platter. A PUDDING PLATTER. It contained a salted caramel chocolate pot, a gypsy tart (basically a treacle tart), a crème brûlée and a cookie ice cream sandwich. Sadly the chocolate pot was a disappointment as it was so rich and bitter but everything else was amazing.

After more catching up and playing the funniest game in the world – Cards Against Humanity (hilariously so un-PC), we headed back home. Mid-stop I finally found an Anna!

Didn’t find a Ben though… 🙁

When we got back it was a relaxed evening with no dinner required – we were still so full!!

The next morning we had a nice lie-in and then met up with our friend, Nathan, to go for a bike ride at 10ish. We wanted to go a little later so we could stop for lunch somewhere half way through. We cycled 20 miles through lovely countryside and then up the most GOD AWFUL hill known to man (or at least known to me in terms of cycling).

The hill was so tough. It went on and on, right up Portsdown Hill in Portsmouth. We cycled along the hill and then had the cool experience of cycling down it, fun times!

We eventually got to Portsolent, locked the bikes up and then headed for food. We chose Zippers which was amazing. What was cool was that we sat outside and could see the hill we’d just conquered.

Past the houses is Portsdown Hill 

I went for an epic line-up (epic in Anna-terms I hasten to add). I had the salad bar to start – you get one trip for a starter so I made sure to strategically load my plate up with lettuce, peppers, feta, chickpeas, roasted butternut squash, broad beans and roasted vegetables.

Then for main I had, but of course, Caesar salad with a side portion of sweet potato fries. HEAVEN. For pudding I had the chocolate fudge cake with vanilla ice cream. Ben had apple pie and Nathan had the cheesecake but seriously I think mine won. It was immense.

We had to have a bit of time walking around before getting back on the bike though…still haven’t mastered the self-restraint thing when eating on a cycling break. Especially when you have to cycle back up Portsdown Hill again afterwards. It was tough, but surprisingly I felt more alive on the way back than the way there.

It was a very hilly ride! In total we rode just over 38 miles but when we stopped at 33 miles I stopped my Garmin like normal and then promptly fell off my bike. Annoyingly I somehow then managed to save the cycle data which means it ended the ride!! So I had to restart my Garmin for the last 5 miles home. I think I was more annoyed about my Garmin than falling off, which was actually quite painful but luckily I landed on my hand rather than any useful marathon running body-parts.

I felt much better after this cycle than last week. I wasn’t crawling to the end. This is probably because we had a longer break in the middle than before I guess. After getting back I took Alfie for a lovely long walk as I felt bad for leaving Alfie for so long for the second day running and listened to a Marathon Talk podcast (I got to hear Maria’s ‘subtract 60 streak’ mention!).

Then I was pooped. No need for dinner again! Hurrah for a weekend of no cooking 😉

How was your weekend?

Do you enjoy hilly rides? I quite like the feeling of conquering a big hill. You feel amazing.

Do you enjoy sharing platters?

When I’m not eating cake I do try and eat quite healthily (this is trying to balance with my previous post). I’m a big lover of vegetables and fruit (hello apple obsession). I try to eat wholegrain foods and now I’m eating organic or free range meat only.

I’m also not a fan of fast food or takeaways (the only takeaway I really enjoy is an Indian one). Poor Ben probably hasn’t set foot inside a McDonalds for a fair while…well that he’s told me! I don’t judge people for eating there or any other fast food really. I just prefer to have other things. If we go out for dinner but want something cheap and cheerful it’s likely we’ll hit up Nando’s. I love me some chicken. But a good pub meal is always a winner too.

Maybe this all sounds quite boring and ‘holier-than-thou’ but it’s just what I like and I feel good eating it. It also helps to balance the sheer amount of cake I eat! Some of my favourite meals are salads and stir-fries (see below) where I can cram just about every single vegetable in a meal. I’m all about volume. You might have noticed I have quite a large appetite. It’s actually something that does concern me a little – afternoon teas are easy peasy and going to the all-you-can-eat Brazilian restaurant and sampling every single thing available is not really a challenge.

One of my current favourite meals is a medley of different vegetables fried in coconut oil with smoked river cobbler fish and loads of creamy cream cheese.

Carrot, courgette, mushroom, onion, kale, peas, courgette noodles

Now I know I’m so behind on the coconut oil trend but I’ve only just started using it. It sat unloved in my cupboard for ages as I preferred to use the spray oil. But on a whim I thought why not see what it’s like (I paid a bloody fortune for it!). I can’t believe I’ve been missing out! The very subtle undertones of coconut are a great addition to fried or roasted vegetables. No more spray oil for me.

For more info on coconut oil check these links out:

• Benefits
• Uses

A more simple meal I’ve been enjoying is marinating organic pork steak with sweet potato wedges and veg.

I marinated the pork for half a day in the fridge in 1 tbs. honey, 1 tbs. lemon juice, 2 tbs. soy sauce, minced garlic and seasoning (for two pork steaks). Then I oven roasted them. I could have fried them but the sweet potato was already in the oven so saved some energy.

A problem I’ve found with turning to organic and free-range meat is that chicken is very expensive. I was previously buying frozen chicken breasts (not a value brand but a vague “Class A” which I’m sure isn’t great). The price of 1kg of frozen chicken compared to fresh organic or free range chicken breasts is crazy. Previously we’d eat a lot of chicken throughout the week – it was my go-to protein. But it just means eating a bit more pork and less meat in the week.

At work my popcorn obsession continues…and lately I’ve found a great flavour: red Thai curry flavour (Tesco’s own brand). So good. And this might sound gross but a load of the flavour dust (technical term) falls to the bottom so you can save it for the end 😉

With my lunch (which is invariably a tuna salad most days) I also have plain yogurt with my new favourite frozen fruit selections.

Frozen summer fruits and frozen blueberries (from Sainsbury’s). I add them in the morning and by lunch they’ve just about defrosted and left the yogurt lovely and cold and all berry-juicified (another technical term). Yum.

Do you eat organic or free range meat?

Do you prefer frozen or fresh fruit?

What’s your favourite popcorn flavour? Mine is maple bacon flavour *drools* so good.

Hello lovely people. I hope you had a lovely weekend. Mine was great. Full of good food (of the cake variety, of course) and some killer workouts.

I went to the gym as usual on Saturday morning to go to the spin class. I’ve been going to spin three times a week now for a few weeks and each session is run by someone different, which is great because it makes it very varied. Sprints and hill climbs are always going to happen but sometimes the sprints are short and sharp, sometimes long and YOU WANT TO CRY, sometimes you do hovers for endless minutes (where you’re hovering just below the saddle keeping your upper body still – a killer for your quads) and sometimes you use weights and hold them above your head of do a little shoulder routine. At least it’s varied, whether or not I enjoy it is another story!

After spin I did an hour long leg and core workout. I found a little corner of the gym and got myself a bunch of bits of pieces.

I really pushed myself and worked hard. I did the following three times:

• Crab walk with resistance band around ankles (10 steps each side x3)
• Plank on bosu ball (the ball side down so it was unbalanced) 1minute
• Squats with resistance band just above knee (helps keep my knees aligned) 25, then 15 pulses
• Russian twists (30 with 8kg weight)
• Wall sits (3-4mins…4 mins is a new PB for me!)
• Side-lying clams (30 per leg)
• Wide squats with 8kg weight (25)

 

From a different day, this was me about to do the resistant squat

Honestly, after the workout my bum and quads were SO sore. I literally spent the rest of the day hobbling around at home.

Obviously not the best idea the day before my first proper come-back run! What an idiot. I’m not sure how I felt this was a good idea??

I was exhausted for the rest of the day, which was quite nice as we had nothing planned and I felt quite happy to lie on the sofa watching TV with Ben or reading my Runners World magazine.

Sunday morning (drum roll please) I went for my first ‘proper’ run in over 6 weeks. I was allowed to run 3-4miles so obviously I went for 4 😉 I put my Garmin on, did a zillion dynamic stretches and got out there.

How did it go? Absolutely fine. No knee issues or anything. In fact, it felt pretty normal. The only thing that sucked was how flipping hard it was. I got the Garmin HR monitor for Christmas and this was my first time trying it out. My heart rate (and how it actually felt) was telling me I was at a ‘tempo’ sort of speed – a sustained effort but not flat out. But I was between 8-8.30mins/mile. Tempo pace used to be 7.30mins/mile for me.

I clearly have a long way to go! Though I’m secretly hoping it was my super tough leg routine that didn’t help things…though I have to say, it felt more like my breathing was holding me back than my legs. But then I realised – I AM RUNNING WITH NO ISSUES. I had no issues post-run. I ran 4 miles and it felt fine. Who cares about speed? Speed will return. I am just over the moon that things seem to be back to normal. TOUCH WOOD!!!

After the run and shower, my mum popped over for coffee and we had a nice catch up. Her and my dad had been to Chichester the day before and I had made a cheeky request for them to pick Ben and me some cupcakes up from the a lovely bakery called the Swallow Bakery.

 I adore their cupcakes. So pretty and SO tasty. I had a red velvet (left) and Ben had a bannoffee (right).

 

I put mine on my very selfish cake stand – it can only fit one cupcake on it! Hehe. And then promptly ate it obviously 😉

Cupcakes, running, and lovely times with my family and husband. THIS is what weekends are about.

Do you prefer cupcakes or cakes? I prefer cake (you can cut bigger slices)…but you can’t beat a good cupcake now and again.

Have you ever lost your fitness or speed? How hard was it to get it back?

Do you do spin? Is it quite varied in the routine?

Woah, where have I been?? It was never my intention to take such a long break from blogging over the Christmas holiday. After Ben’s marathon (he survived! – more on that in another post) it just seemed Christmas crept up and I enjoyed taking the break from the blogging world to just be lazy and enjoy the family and festive time.

Then after Boxing Day both Ben and me were struck down by the plague…or at least some horrible virus. It was awful. The first day we were really sick. I spent the entire day in bed just sleeping or reading. Food was just not happening. The next few days we gradually improved. Lots of watching films under blankets all day. We watched so many films (Django Unchained, Shawshank Redemption, The Hobbit, Now You See Me, Despicable Me 2, all three old Star Wars). In a weird way it was quite nice. But food was a real issue. Food made me so full so I’d have one or one and a half meals a day – which is just unheard of for me! Lots of leftovers from Christmas had to be thrown 🙁

Then my laptop stopped working. To me it was just fate saying I needed some time away. And it’s done me good as I’m now feeling all fresh and ready to jump back into things!

Also I unintentionally took the Christmas/New Year period off of the gym. After standing around watching the marathon in the cold my knee felt really niggly – like it had regressed a bit. I went to the physio and she said it was inflamed a little probably from me bouncing a lot to keep warm while standing around waiting for Ben – it was such a long, cold day. So the time off from the gym was probably quite good. I did lots of walks though with Alfie to keep me sane.

Just before Christmas I felt very low. The whole knee and not running thing was wearing my spirits down. And the run up to Ben’s marathon, as excited as I was for him, was just a big reminder that I wasn’t doing one. 2013 was ending in a way I hadn’t imagined. December was feeling like a pretty rubbish month. I also (naively?) thought that I’d be ‘fixed’ by now.

My physio is my absolute saviour. Starting next week she is going to get me in for 10 minute ultrasound sessions three times a week to really go to town on my knee and heal it – without charge! She’s just down the corridor from my office so it’s very easy to pop down. She definitely understands my despair and is going above and beyond to help me. I can’t praise her enough.

Anyway, stay tuned as I have a (late – sorry) recap post of my Christmas and also some updates on my personal training sessions which have been on my to-do list and my goals for 2014.

How were your holidays?

How do you cope with being ill? I always seem to get ill over Christmas. I’m so annoyed because I had a flu jab to stop this! But it was more of a sickness/stomach thing than a flu thing *sighs*

What films did you watch over Christmas? I love watching a good movie. With lots of snacks!