AnnaTheApple - The life of a girl who loves apples and running

October 29, 2015

Eco-Friendly Choices

Hello! Today I have a really interesting post written by freelance writer Emma Holm on being more energy-efficient and environmental-friendly, something I’m quite passionate about.

Technology is slowly becoming more energy-efficient in the home, however the differing amount of technology that we all possess is actually maintaining and increasing the energy we use. Energy companies have tried to facilitate the process of switching to more environment-friendly options, for example by providing customers with free smart meters as the switch from analogue to digital equipment gathers pace. Smart meters in British homes have been commonplace, and I have also noticed apps such as Nest mobile that allow you to manage your energy use away from the home become more popular. Attractive, mobile and easy to use interfaces have made saving energy more interesting and accessible. There are also more unusual inventions that help you monitor your ways, such as bags you drop in your toilet that reduce the amount of water you use. It goes in the watery section of the toilet where that big orange ball bobs up and down.

I am also looking to be economical with energy at home and thinking of the high usage technology that I use. This can range from energy saving kettles and choosing to pay a monthly fee for boiler maintenance and upkeep. Every time I brew up it costs something like 5p – I might put an honesty jar next to the kettle for friends and family!

I am currently pondering my energy choices at home as I try to live a simple life so any financial savings I can make will be beneficial. Heating takes up a lot of energy in the house, and switching to environment-friendly heating is one of the best things you can do, even on a low budget. Electric radiators like ones from Verismart Heating are easy to install and allow you to only use the amount of energy that you really need, saving you money in addition to being environment-friendly. Lighting is another key factor in monthly energy usage and the slow removal of traditional lightbulbs by the European Union has slowly me into using LED and other energy efficient lighting options. A clever mix of education and regulation is making us all more energy conscious and I do try and do my bit to help the environment.

One of the biggest changes you can make in terms of becoming environment-friendly is buying eco-friendly food products. From packaging to production, food damages the environment in a number of ways. Organic food is still popular in 2015 and one look at the Tesco website will demonstrate the continuing importance of organic and eco-friendly food in the marketplace. There has also been a movement to buy local as this reduces the amount of air miles that is involved with keeping unseasonal food on the shelves all year round. Bananas are one of the highest selling foods in volume due to their versatility but the average banana travels around 4,500 miles from countries such as Costa Rica, Ecuador and Brazil but often retails at a minimal cost. A mango would have once been a seasonal fruit but it takes around 4,600 miles to travel from India to the UK! Buying local and organic ensure the consumer makes an ethical choice and ploughs money back into local economies.

Eco-friendly living is getting easier and cheaper, and it’s a step everyone should take – that’s the only way we can have a lasting positive impact on the environment and still be able to enjoy our four seasons and beautiful nature and wildlife. Besides, it makes you feel better about yourself too, knowing that you are doing your part.

Does environmental factors influence the choices you make when it comes to your home?

Does where a product come from in a supermarket affect whether you’ll buy it or not?

What steps have you taken to be more environmentally friendly? For my current house I request a compost bin so I could get rid of food waste in a better way than it just ending up on a landfill site. I also recycle everything I can.

October 28, 2015

Rants and Raves #22

I can’t believe how quickly October is flying by! It’s almost Halloween – I thought that was ages away until I realised I had a Halloween party this weekend and didn’t have a costume… Anyway, here are my latest rants and raves.

Rave: I forgot to mention in my post about my trip to Wales that I got ID’ed for entering one of the beer tents at the Food Festival!! This made my day. I’m only 27 so really this ins’t that big a feat but in my head I believe she thought I was under 18 😉 Bahaha!

Rant: Since realising how close Halloween actually is I’ve just bought a costume for parkrun. I have no idea if I will be able to actually wear it to run in though and I’m thinking it will be too cold to stand and marshal in. *Sighs* Well it’ll do for the Halloween party anyway on Saturday night so it’s not a complete waste… I also bought a (very cheap) costume for Alfie as well. “Costume” sounds quite elaborate, but it’s really more of a jumper. If I can’t run and wear my outfit then Alfie will be coming to parkrun again and will be wearing his. He doesn’t know it yet 😉 I reeeeeaaaalllllly wanted this one but they didn’t do his small doggie size.

Plus I’m pretty sure he’d pack his little bags and leave if I attempted to put him in that (but how cute, seriously??).

Rave: These little chocolate cupcakes are so scrummy!

I wish I’d bought more from the sweet shop in Wales. The salted caramel one was to die for.

Rant: DNS’ing the same races I’ve DNS’ed for the past two years. How weird is that? I’ve now been injured at this point in the year three years in a row. It’s getting a little silly now. I wouldn’t have signed up so far in advance but these are really popular local (and cheap) races. Who was I to know Bournemouth would cause me such an issue? (Probably every other sensible runner in the world who suspected I was running too many marathons too close together…).

I’m desperate to run the Gosport Half marathon (in a few weeks time) as it’s literally where my parents live and where I’ve done so many long runs before. It goes along the coast and has the view of the Isle of Wight, which is rather nice. But it seems this one, as with the Lordshill 10 mile this weekend, it’s not meant to be.

Rave: I’ve entered the Chester marathon for next autumn. I know, I know. So far away but it was cheaper to enter now than to wait and I like having things down in the diary.

I was tempted to do Bournemouth again as it was such a disaster for me this year, but marathons aren’t like 5ks or 10ks that can just do at a drop of a hat and I want to do lots of different ones rather than revisit the same ones. Chester was voted as the UK’s number one road marathon by Runners’ World in 2012 and 2013 so should be good. I can also time it nicely with a trip to Shropshire with my grandparents and parents (that also means more parkrun tourism, wheee!).

But next year I will not cluster marathons together either and ensure I have proper breaks afterwards. Oh the wise words of an injured runner…

Rave: I signed up to Tribe Pack to test out their snack boxes.

The concept is like graze where you get a box of snacks delivered weekly/monthly/etc. and it’s a surprise what you get. The range of snacks include things like seeds, dried fruit, cereal/protein bars, etc. all made by Tribe. In a box you get two bars, two trail mixes, a ‘discover’ snack and a Tribe Life magazine. My box contained Tamari Seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, hulled hemp and chia seeds and tamari), Tumba trail mix (pumpkin seeds, almonds, organic goji, toasted coconut), Organic Mountain Berries (sour cherry, raisin, goldenberry, goji, aronia, barberry & wild blueberry) and a Baobab bar (superfruit energy bar) and a Wild Apricot, Pecan & Lucuma bar.

Use the referral code TRIBE42383 which will get you a pack like I got for £1 (I would also get my next Tribe Pack for free).

Rant: Still no running. I could go on and on (as you can imagine). I had an extremely deep and painful massage on Monday though which I’m still feeling the effects of so I really can’t judge. The person I saw said try in a week but I won’t unless it feels absolutely fine walking, which at the moment it (intermittently) doesn’t.

Rave: I’m hoping to see Spectre tonight. And I have six free cinema tickets from my bank as part of the bonuses I get with my account. I foresee lots of film trips happening… I’m actually not a huge James Bond fan but the film does look good and I feel like I need to see it because I’ve seen so many of the others. Plus, Daniel Craig. And Nandos.

Rave: When I was in Wales I bought myself a pack of four pastry forks.

Basically they’re little forks with a sharp edge that you use to eat cake. As a regular cake eater I thought it would be nice to have the proper utensils to fully enjoy the experience. I’ll be keeping one in my handbag at all times of course.

What are your rants and raves of late?

James Bond: yes or no? Who was the best Bond? I like Daniel Craig. Less cheese but still a lot of smooth moves.

Are you doing anything for Halloween? Any costumes?

October 27, 2015

My little holiday in Wales

I’m back from North Wales where I spent a lovely few days with my family. It just goes too quickly though, doesn’t it?

On Thursday afternoon I hopped into my dad’s car, with Alfie, and headed up the motorway to Stoke-on-Trent. My granddad lives there with his two dogs and had kindly agreed to look after Alfie and my parent’s three dogs while we were in Wales. My other granddad, who we were going to be staying with, is allergic to dogs so we sadly couldn’t bring them along.

It was nice to see my granddad in Stoke, albeit briefly. He makes awesome cups of tea and always has some funny stories. He’s also reindeer obsessed and every year he goes to Scotland to spend several weeks helping out with a reindeer sanctuary up there. He used to be a joiner before he retired and is always carving and making crazy creations from reindeer antlers that they’ve naturally dropped.

On his garage he painted a beautiful silhouette of reindeer too.

We then hopped back in the car for the last part of our journey to Llandudno. We left Southampton at 2pm and arrived at 9pm! I was definitely feeling a bit cabin feverish.

Friday morning we had a lovely walk in Conwy.

The weather thankfully was good and we enjoyed a nice coffee sat outside a quaint cafe.

In Conwy they have an interactive Alice and Wonderland trail for children to follow. There are wooden statues of different characters all over the town.

I saw Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and the Rabbit. I’ve previously seen the Red Queen but that’s all I’ve found so far.

We also did a little bit of shopping and I found an amazing sweet shop where I just couldn’t help buying a few chocolates and marzipan fruit.

I had a little mosey in Dorothy Perkins and bought a new top as well…the first non-fitnessitem of clothing I’ve bought in a while!!

My grandparents are keen golfers (and despite my granddad being 82 he’s still a very keen walker and cyclist!) so for dinner they took us to their golf club’s restaurant. I had a delicious gammon steak with fried egg and new potatoes. And for pudding a blueberry Bakewell slice with ice cream. Heavenly!

Before getting injured I’d hoped to be able to run the Conwy parkrun on the Saturday but sadly this wasn’t possible. Every part of me desperately wanted to go but I stuck to my initial decision. I’d rather keep on recovering rather than attempt something foolish and delay it longer. It was tipping down with rain in the morning which was some consolation to not running, but I was still grumpy.

Luckily there was the Convwy Taste Festival going on over the weekend so I could take my mind off things by enjoying stupid amounts of food. The festival was just next to the water and down from the Conwy Castle – only a few minutes drive from my grandparent’s house handily!

Despite the poor weather, the place was packed! You paid £8.50 for access to the large tents, where inside were loads of food and drink merchants selling their wares. And, importantly, letting you try them!!

I tried everything, as you can imagine. From chilli jams to sweet chutneys, from Welsh cakes to shortbread… balsamic vinegars, oils, hand-made marshmallows (the choc mint flavour was incredible), curry sauces, BBQ sauces, dried meats, pasties, pies, bread, waffles (best taster ever – a chunk of waffle dipped in caramel sauce…I considered sneaking back to that one to try it again), yogurts, fudge, sausages, meat and, of course, cakes!

I couldn’t not buy a slice of the rocky road…or the peanut butter millionaire shortbread style cake. And then later a large slice of blondie. It took all the effort in the world to not gobble them all up quickly.

After we had all enjoyed so many different foods we decided to head outside of the main tent to look for lunch (I know, because at this point we were soooo hungry ;-)). There were so many different street food options it was quite overwhelming.

Thai, Mexican, Italian, Indian, Chinese, English (bangers & mash, fish & chips), pulled pork and BBQ, Caribbean, Moroccan, mussels… I literally walked up and down the street for a good ten minutes having no idea what to have. I did really fancy a large skewer of tandoori chicken but seen as how we were out for an Indian that evening I knew I needed to go safe and not have anything spicy or similar to what I’d eat that evening.

In the end I went for a lobster roll and fries. I saw it being made and it looked amazing. And it tasted so good. Not the cheapest street food I’d ever had at £10 (compared to the £3.50 hot dog my dad had!) but it was fully worth it. My mum got a sausage roll from a different place to my dad and for the same price as my dad’s they packed in pretty much an entire pack of sausages!! Helpfully, we were all there to assist her 😉

After a quick warm-up coffee we carried on walking around looking at the other food stalls (a few more tasters…) and some of the craft stalls as well. My day was made when I saw a dinosaur walking about – with a fully functioning roar.

Such a great day. I loved it! We all agreed we definitely wanted to come back next year. It was a lot of fun. I came away with three cakes and a meat pack containing a zebra sausage (!!), a boar burger, pigeon breast, pheasant breast, venison steak, black pudding and a slice of bacon. Amazing.

That evening we went to a local Indian and had lots more food…

I had a mixed Asian BBQ started followed by my favourite, tandoori chicken with onion salad. Yum.

I had a great long weekend with my family and it was sad to leave on the Sunday. It was nice to not be at home looking at my empty house still not moving and still not running *sighs*. I would have loved to have done some running while I was away, in such beautiful scenery (and apparently my granddad was going to bike alongside me) but it wasn’t to be. There’s always next time I suppose!

How was your weekend?

Would you have enjoyed the Taste Festival?

Do you like street food? What would you have chosen?

October 22, 2015

Nathan Sports and Feetures! socks review #FireUpYourRun

Hello, hello. Well we might as well just wrap ourselves in a huge duvet, stock up on comforting food and hibernate now until May. Winter is most certainly coming. As our shorter days with depressingly dark mornings and dark evenings. Like last year I’ve been reviewing some of Nathan Sports visibility gear, designed to help runners and early-morning exercisers to stay visible during the these dark, dark times.Just because it’s dark, cold and, let’s be honest, quite miserable out there early in the morning or later in the evening, this doesn’t mean you should just hang up your trainers and give up. There are loads of ways to keep safe and stay visible to traffic and other pedestrians. Avoid the ninja runner syndrome!

Bandolier Vest

This is a very simple but effective piece of kit. It’s a reflective vest that you just pop over your normal running gear. I like it because it’s not like other reflective vests I’ve had that have been a bit restrictive and, well, cumbersome. This is slim and allows your arms to swing normally. There are adjustable straps on both sides to make it as loose or tight as you want it.

Handily there’s a zip pocket to store keys etc. It’s available in yellow or pink.

Zephyr Fire 100 Hand Torch

This is a rechargeable (via a USB – hugely handy) hand-torch that you can strap to your wrist and use while you run. It has 108 lumens (I won’t pretend to fully understand what this means – I think it means ‘how’ light it is) with 3 lighting modes. The angle of the beam points downwards meaning you can easily see where you’re going as you run, similar to a head-torch. There’s also a built-in siren function so if you are in danger you can sound it off (it’s rather loud so use wisely). And, essential for Britain, it’s weather-resistant.

I don’t mind carrying things while I run so this wouldn’t bother me to use, though I know some people dislike it. But you don’t have to consciously hold on to it which is good. I like to use it when I’m walking Alfie as well as it can be hard to see where he does his business in the morning… (TMI?).

LED lights

Light Spur

This LED light attaches easily onto the heel of your trainer. Again, it’s water-resistant and has two settings (normal strobe and flashing).

I’m a big fan of the Light Spur. You can’t feel it at all when you run and there’s no risk of it flying off. It’s such an effective and easy piece of visibility kit.

Strobe Light

This is a strobe light that attaches on to a belt or your clothing using a secure clip. The LED has is 8+ lumens.

Though I prefer the light spur just for the ease of attaching to my trainer, the light spur is very good for making yourself seen. It’s just awkward finding the appropriate place for it to attach to without it being at risk of flying off.

Pulsar Strobe

This is similar to the Strobe Light, but it is a lot smaller and has a 6 lumen light. So quite a lot of brightness for something so small. It attaches really nicely to the front of your trainer.

It has three different strobe modes as well (different speeds of pulsing basically).

HyperBrite Strobe

This is another LED light you c an attach to yourself that lights up. It has four modes and is available in three different colours (blue, red and purple).

I actually attached to this to Alfie’s dog harness so when I took him for a walk early in the morning or in the evening I could see where he was, and he was also visible to others. My biggest fear is of him being run over or running away and not coming back so having a light attached to him made me worry a lot less. OK this isn’t exactly how these lights were aimed to be used but it is very handy in this respect. A few other dog owners commented on what a good idea it was. But again it would be very handy to attach to yourself when you go running or cycling. It’s very bright – I could see Alfie from a long distance away when I let him off his lead in my nearby field, something I’ve been less inclined to do now it’s getting darker.

Orion Strobe

This is a 30 lumen LED light that comes with its own belt for easy wearing. The white light provides visibility for your path as well as making you visible to others with a red strobe. It is USB rechargeable as well. You can detach it from the belt as well and attach elsewhere.

In the left picture I’m wearing the belt and strobe light

I like the fact it comes with a belt as I don’t always wear running gear that has an easy place to attach a clip. I like that it’s a hands-free way to see what’s ahead of you. I’m not sure it would entirely replace a head torch though when I’m running through really dark areas, but definitely a good little gadget for when running along streets in the morning or evening that are slightly lit.

Fire and Ice Bottle

This is a double-walled BPA-free hydration bottle. It’s got a reinforced leak-free, easy-squeeze design and is dishwasher safe. It’s got a reflective fabric within it, helping increase its visibility. I wouldn’t run with a bottle this size but it would be perfect on the bike, which helps make the bike more visible to traffic.

Thoughts? I love all this gear. I think if you’re running in the dark then you need to wear something that lights up at least. You don’t have to wear all the items above and look like a Christmas tree, but one light is enough to make yourself at least somewhat visible. I personally love the Light Spur for the trainer just because it’s so easy and so effective, but any of the items are a great idea.

Feetures! Running Socks

I was also sent two pairs of Feetures! Socks. I’ll start by saying I’m a huge fan of these socks. I have a pair from a previous review and honestly it’s my go-to race sock. I only wear it for running for fear of their ‘magic’ wearing out.

I was sent a pair of the Elite low-rise socks and a pair of the Elite Meriono+ Blend.

Elite Merino+ Blend

So called because it contains Merino wool which gives it a very soft feel and keeps your feet dry and warm due to the moisture wicking properties. It has targeted compression and cushioning with an anatomical design to ensure it’s comfy and wards off blisters.

They’re so comfy. My only qualm is that I prefer the lower rise ones only because I like to keep my socks a secret from everyone… 😉

Elite

These are similar to above but don’t have the Merino blend. It still feels lovely and soft though and still has wicking properties to keep away moisture and blisters

Thoughts? I love both pairs of socks and can’t recommend them enough.

Do you continue with running/cycling during winter?

How do you stay visible in the morning/evening?

What type of socks do you wear to run/work out in?

**Full Disclosure: I was sent all these items for free in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own honest ones.**

October 21, 2015

Current injury status

Yep so I’m still injured. I really only have myself to blame for this as I consciously made the decision to finish the Bournemouth marathon, despite being in pain.

At around 16 miles I chose to carry on despite my race now becoming a run, stop, stretch, walk repeat affair. I was in pain – not a niggle, not a discomfort – genuine pain, to the point that I had to stop running and walk the entire last two miles as the pain was far too much.

Having suffered with the dreaded IT band injury before I’m well aware of the timelines of these sort of things. Last year I took off a total of six weeks – though not all of those weeks were because of the injury. I decided to not start running again until I was mentally ready, not just physically ready, because I was fed up of the continuous injury cycle. I’m pretty sure it was four weeks though before I was entirely pain-free and discomfort-free.

My current injury is pretty much following the same pattern. I remember feeling the same pain, even two weeks later. What’s frustrating is that towards the beginning and middle of last week it was really improving, but then a sharp trapped-nerve like pain began sporadically when I walked (I remember this pain as similar to last year around the same time as well). I haven’t tried running and I’ve kept away from cardio apart from a few bursts on the bike… I wonder if that might have niggled it further but it genuinely felt fine during and after. So I’m just holding my nerve and not panicking as I know I could be in for two more weeks of not running.

I had some swelling after the marathon which has gone down a lot, but there’s still a slight puffiness to the area where the IT band joins in the knee. Basically I just need to get rid of the last inflammation and keep stretching it.

Gym-wise I can carry on with what I was doing which I’m glad about. Squats and deadlifts feel absolutely fine, though I’ve gone down a few Kgs in weight for the squats to be cautious. And I’m avoiding anything like the elliptical machine or stepper to avoid unnecessarily aggregating things.

I know I’m going to lose running fitness but I’m not bothered. Yep that’s 100% truthful. This year I achieved more than I thought I would and I had no real goals for after Bournemouth anyway (until next year anyway). Perhaps my only annoyance is that there’s a 10 mile in a few weeks time that I would have liked to have raced as I’ve never had a good 10 miler but I’ve conceded defeat. Taking that out of the equation also takes off any pressure to try and start running too soon.

Really though it’s the mental side of things I’m struggling with. The need to get outside and just run. To feel the freedom of outside, the fresh air and the mental freshness I get when I run. And I miss the social side of training runs with my club and running at parkrun. Of course I can still volunteer at parkrun but it’s not the same. You’re on the sidelines watching everyone do what you’d love to be doing. But the weeks will pass and my leg will heal.

What went wrong? Well, I don’t think you can ever know for sure but it was probably down to not following simple injury-prevention strategies. I’m so angry at myself. I was so smug about going to the gym and strength training that I forgot the other side of things as well. I’m an injury-prone runner and can’t neglect the basics of stretching and foam rolling.

I can’t remember the last time I foam rolled before the injury. I used to be really good at it. Sure for some people they don’t need to do it, but for me I know I do. I need to do everything I can to lessen the impact of running on my body. And going to the gym and lifting heavy weights and then running on tight and sore muscles is stupid for me. Other people can get away with these things, but I certainly can’t.

It’s funny because though I’ve been running properly (I don’t count my treadmill years) for over three years now and I’m still learning lessons. I just hope that I can stop making such simple mistakes in the future. For now though I’ll continue to go to the gym and enjoying my strength training, trying not to focus on how much I’d just love to run right now.

Do you foam roll regularly?

What exercise mistakes have you made in the past?

What injuries have you suffered?