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

August 24, 2015August 24, 2015

Batgirl, long runs and pulled pork

First and foremost, thanks for your kind words and support regarding my last post. It was a hard post to write and even harder to click ‘Publish’. Part 2 will be up this week and will be talking about similar issues.

Anyway, back to more light-hearted and easier topics. This weekend I think pretty much epitomises British weather to a ‘T’. Searing heat and sunshine Saturday and then torrential rain Sunday.

Saturday’s parkrun was amazing. Netley Abbey had a “Superheroes and Villains” fancy dress theme. I know some people can’t stand fancy dress but I really love it. I don’t know why, but I just find it fun. I found a very cheap cape and mask set on Amazon and an even cheaper Batman tank top and that was perfect. The Southampton Echo also sent a photographer down to take some photos which just made it so much cooler. Though we had to do some rather comical and staged running towards the camera beforehand…

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What I didn’t quite anticipate was how hot it would be to run all in black, in a cape with a mask on.

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I set off with the intention to give this parkrun some welly and found myself fading by the second lap. A fantastic ~~negative~~ positive split!

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The last mile was tortuous. I was over-heating, could feel myself dramatically fading and my mask had become a little hot house where the only escape for sweat was down my nose. Delightful.

In the end I got 21:10 and second female. I’d hoped to at least break 21 minutes but it just wasn’t happening. As the first fancy dress person in though I’m happy 😉 I have to say though, huge kudos goes to the guy dressed as a full-on centurion.

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Puts my Bat cape to shame. Not only that but it was his first ever 5k. Wow. Hugely impressive!

Later on I was back at Netley Abbey country park for a picnic and games afternoon with a bunch of the parkrun and running club guys and their families. It was lovely. I took Alfie and he fully enjoyed himself running around like a mad thing. When we played rounders it was a race against time to get to the ball before he did (though he was an appalling fielder, catching nothing, running off with the ball, getting under people’s feet as they tried to get rounders…).

The weather was fantastic and I had such a fun and chilled afternoon. I was sad about only two things: one) being stumped out on my first batting and b) Alfie not letting me play volleyball as the bigger ball caused him to bark (it confused him I think) and then he wouldn’t let me leave him when I tied him to a bench *sighs*. But it was fun regardless. And he was shattered!

Sleeping off a hard day’s play

That evening I had a girlie evening with my girlfriends and we ordered a takeaway. With a long(ish) run the next day I kept to my very standard Indian – one that I have tried and tested on many night’s before long runs. Don’t want any repeats of Cheddar Gorge!

There are quite a lot of people from my running club doing the Bournemouth marathon and so it’s very much marathon training central going on and a bunch of them had arranged a 20 miler for the Sunday. Twenty miles would be far too much for me the week after a marathon so I sensibly decided to only join them for half of it. As they were doing an out and back I found out where there turnaround point was and parked there.

This worked marvellously as they were setting out at 7am so this meant I could meet them at the far nicer time of 8.30am – meaning I could have a bit of a lie-in! I was a bit worried when I parked that I’d gotten it wrong or messed up somehow because the route they’d chosen were all country roads and little lanes and it was tricky finding a safe spot to park. But just after 8.30am I saw the crowd of them heading towards me down the road. Whew. I did feel like an absolute fraud though as I was all fresh while they had 10 miles on their legs.

The route was beautiful and had lovely views. Our long run guru, Matt, always does so well with good routes!

The pace was easy (between 8-9min/miles) and I was happy to just chat away and relax into the run. But I won’t lie, I did find it tough. I was tired and could feel that I had run a marathon the week before. I knew if I’d have gone out on my own I would never have run as far (11 miles in the end). It was very warm and people were running out of water. I hadn’t even thought to take any with me as I was ‘only’ running 10 but was starting to get thirsty. A few of us stopped in a pub and begged them for water which they thankfully gave us.

Photobomb-tastic

Towards the end the guys were obviously feeling quite tired as they got closer to 20 miles, but so was I. Marathons are no joke and take time to recover from – regardless of how fast/slow you do them.

One of the guys, Mark, offered to drive me back to my car (now 10 miles away) which I was so grateful for. Originally I was going to run five miles with them then turn around and run back to my car but Mark had said he was happy to drive me back if I wanted to run the entire thing with them. This was brilliant as I enjoyed the run so much running with them. On my own it would have been such a slog. I do enjoy running on my own but nothing quite beats a lovely social run.

*** WARNING VEGGIES –> MEAT AHEAD ***

The rest of the day was boring sorting, cleaning etc. but I also put a join of pork on to slow cook so I could have pulled pork for dinner. I loosely followed THIS recipe. I seared the joint quickly, then rubbed mustard powder, paprika, salt and pepper all over it. Then popped it in the oven (on a baking tray with a cup of water, then wrapped the tray tightly in foil) for 4.5 hours and let the house fill with delicious smells all day. I then pulled the pork apart with forks while simmering a sauce. The sauce contained cider vinegar, mustard powder, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, BBQ sauce and salt (THIS recipe but I was limited with ingredients). It simmered down to a thick sauce which I poured over the meat.

The willpower to not eat the entire lot was sketchy. I ate half and froze the other half before I could go back for more. It was AMAZING.

I finished the evening with a slice of red velvet (freezer stock) and an old soppy film, The Way We Were. Perfect.

After doing a marathon, what’s your next longest run? Mine wouldn’t normally be that high but I’m still training for Bournemouth.

What superhero or villain would you have chosen?

What’s your picnic essential? Or favourite game? I love rounders!

August 20, 2015

Who I used to be (part 1)

I never intended to write this post. It’s horribly embarrassing and I cringe thinking about. I never talk about it and very few people who know me know about this (or if they do, the details), which is why I’m so reluctant. But there’s an important part 2 which in order to get to I need to talk about this first. Furthermore, in the interest of honesty and the integrity of my blog, I wanted to just ‘get it out there’.

I will quickly start off, however, by saying that the title is entirely accurate. I’m not the person I’m about to describe anymore and nor have I been for a a good long while. (I’m probably overdramatising this sorry, it’s just a really awkward thing for me to ‘discuss’).

In a nutshell this is going to be talking about my relationship with food. It’ll also talk about periods so if this isn’t your cup of tea I suggest you click the close button – I won’t be offended!

When I was at school I never had any issues with food or what I looked like. I played a lot of sport, walked to school and ate crap (ahh turkey twizzlers…). I was slim and healthy. When I went to college I took the bus, I stopped playing sport and still ate crap. I noticed that I had put on a bit of weight. My jeans felt a bit more snug. So I started cycling to college (about eight miles each way) and took a bit more care with what I was eating. I also began weighing myself.

Over a few weeks I noticed my weight was going down. It felt great! Suddenly my jeans fit again. But it quickly became a bit like a drug to see my weight dropping – it was so addictive. I stopped having the same meals as my parents and cooked my own ‘healthy’ meals. Snacks were no longer chocolate bars or crisps. I became more controlling over what I was eating and found myself getting worried if I lost that control. Going out for meals or going to friend’s houses became stressful as I couldn’t eat what I wanted to. I suddenly became fixated with what I was seeing on the scale and how my body was ‘streamlining’.

My period stopped. I panicked but told no one, but I went to the doctors. In my head it wasn’t because I’d lost weight – weight I didn’t need to lose – it was something else I was certain. I’ll never forget that doctor’s trip. She said “maybe you’re cycling a bit too much. Just eat a chocolate bar now and again.” And that was it. Looking back, I needed that doctor to say to me “You’re not healthy” and shake some sense into me. I needed her to say: your bone health is in danger, your future fertility is at risk, your body is in shock.

I was living in a sea of denial and the doctor’s lack of concern validated what I was doing. If she’s not worried, why should I be? Ultimately though it was no one’s fault or responsibility but my own. I remember seeing a friend that I hadn’t seen for a couple of years and she commented how much weight I’d lost. It wasn’t a compliment but I felt buoyed by it. Nothing anyone said, any concern they gave, helped. So perhaps any doctor advice wouldn’t have helped anyway.

Then something snapped. I stepped on the scales, looked at the number and thought “what the hell am I doing?”. I didn’t feel healthy, I didn’t look healthy. I was cold all the time, my skin and hair were lacklustre. I felt crap. Was I any happier at that weight than I had been the last time I got on the scales? No.What exactly was I trying to achieve?

I was never a dangerously low weight and I don’t believe I had an eating disorder, but I do believe I could have gotten myself into a really nasty position had I not woken up from whatever fantasy world I was living in. I was addicted to the weight-loss and thrived on the control I could have over something as simple as food.

I finally opened up to my parents. They were understandably relieved. I remember my sister saying to me that they were so worried about me going to university on my own and that no one seemed to be able to get through to me or talk to me about what was going on.

The summer before going to university my head was in the right place and I got back on track with being healthy and sensible again. I learnt how to cook with my dad so I would go to university with healthy, sustaining recipes. I started eating foods I had been avoiding.

Throughout the first few years of university gradually the weight went back on. I won’t lie, it was a tough process, especially during a time of such change and independence. The fear of suddenly putting weight on and feeling and looking fat was hard to overcome. But eventually the barriers came down, the control was lost and I started to love food rather than fear it. I realised that nothing bad would happen to me by losing that control. In fact, I started feeling miles better: I had more energy, my skin, hair, body all looked better. It did take time but my weight increased and my period started again. You can’t imagine how happy I was!

That was about ten years ago. I’m a vastly different person to that girl in the past. I adore food now. I look forward to every meal. I love trying new restaurants and eating with friends and family. I eat cake with abundance (as you well know). Food is not fuel to me, it is happiness and good times.

This is part 1, I have a part 2 to come to talk a bit more in detail of where I am today.

It was a growing process for me and only one that I could do on my own in my own head. If you’ve never been in that situation or similar then it’s tough to understand something seemingly pathetic and vain, but it does consume you and you do become blinkered. It becomes a mindset and you can’t seem to escape it. I’m obviously thankful I did.

I hope you don’t think I’ve been dishonest in my blog or that I’ve ‘covered’ things up. This is just not a particularly comfortable subject for me as I don’t feel like I have any affiliation with that girl who was so controlling with what she ate. I’m embarrassed how I let it spiral to the point it got to and it’s just not something I like to talk about. But it is important to talk about it and I’m not ashamed of how I’ve grown to be who I am today.

If you are going through something similar or worse and need some advice then email me (annatheappleblog@gmail.com), I’m happy to talk about it further there. Alternatively, Laura’s blog has so much fantastic information and support around this area. She’s brilliant.

If you’re comfortable to answer, have you ever had a difficult relationship with food?

Is food pleasure or fuel for you?

How has your eating habits changed from when you were younger?

August 19, 2015October 28, 2016

Cheddar Gorge Marathon

It’s long, I’m sorry, I just really had a lot to say!

This marathon was so vastly different to my previous ones. It’s off-road, technical trail, sharp inclines, long inclines, sharp declines, slow declines, jumping over rivers, stiles, rocks and logs.

The marathon is two laps of this course

I’ve done the half marathon so knew roughly what to expect. It had taken me just under two hours so I was aiming for 4.5-5 hours, but I wanted no pressures so didn’t mind how longit took as long as I remained injury-free.

My dad and me set off at 7.30am in the morning. It takes about two hours to get there and I would need a coffee and loo stop en route. The start time was 11am (or so I thought) so we had enough contingency time. I ate my porridge in the car and felt rather relaxed.

I had a coffee and a Beet It shot. I noticed the Beet It shot went off at the end of June but it tasted fine. Bottoms up and finger’s crossed! I had planned to take four gels en route: one was a Mule Bar brand (Lemon Zinger with caffeine) and the other three were the 33Shake Chia Energy Gels (which you add coconut water/water to and I’d done the previous night). I knew for this marathon I needed to take on more fuel because I would be running at least over an hour more than a normal marathon.

We arrived at Cheddar Gorge and then did a reckie of where my dad planned on standing. We’d Google mapped it the night before and found an ideal spot between mile 11 and 12.

The course is a bit of a nightmare for spectators (there are barely any on the course) but this is a good point when the runners come near the road before heading up off the stairs of hell. In the above photo you can see where the course goes behind my dad and up that hill (which are large steps).

They go on further than you can see in the photos! We then needed to find registration. We headed off to where we thought it was and found it was just more parking. Now it was 10.30am and I started to panic (panicked so much I didn’t even wait for the ladies public toilet, I just jumped straight into the men’s).

I then found out it was at the start – which is at the top of a very steep hill. So I quickly got my gear together: hydration belt, one gel – my dad would have the rest – sun tan lotion slapped on and visor. I said a quick goodbye and headed off up. He wasn’t going to climb the massive hill because it was HUGE and, bless him, it might kill him. He went instead to find breakfast.

Up and up it went

It took me about 10 minutes or so to climb that hill and I was panting by the time I got to the start. Good warm-up! It was now 10:45 and I leisurely took some photos and looked around before heading to registration.

“Oh the marathon started at 10:40. It’s only the half that’s at 11” said the volunteer. Now I don’t really swear that much or that aggressively but my immediate reaction wasn’t PG friendly. I instantly panicked. What do I do!? They told me it was OK I could start now if I wanted. I HADN’T EVEN GOT MY BIB ON. This is my worst nightmare. I’m struggling to get the bib on as I keep swearing and my heart is going a million miles an hour. Then someone behind me, also putting their bib on, says they did the same. So the marshal said we could start together at a set time and they would adjust our times at the end according to when the marathoners started. They suggested starting at exactly 10:55 so we quickly headed over to the start line after they took our bib numbers. We had our own private start!

Needless to say my first mile was STRESSFUL. I had to keep telling myself not to try and catch up because it would ruin the race for me. My heart was still going and I tried to calm down and ease into a nice pace. I’d printed out and laminated my half marathon split times and had it with me to refer to so I could ensure each mile was slower – hopefully meaning I wouldn’t go off too quickly. Because of the crazy terrain you just couldn’t have a consistent pace, so this was a good way for me to not be stupid.

Elevation chart of the entire marathon

Sometime towards the end of mile one the half marathoners started overtaking me. I willed myself not to go with them and keep to my own race. They only had to do the course once, whereas I was down for two laps.

The first few miles flew by. I couldn’t even tell you what was going through my head. I was probably too focused on not falling over and where to put my feet. I had my phone with me take photos and listen to a podcast and music later but I was fine just plodding along.

The scenery was beautiful but the course was unsteady under food, very technical at times, and lots of inclines and declines to negotiate with. I was happy to walk as soon as I got to a hill that required significant effort to run up. There was no point beasting it up a hill and knackering myself so early in the game.

My hydration belt contained coconut water (brilliant idea from Lauren) and I made sure to keep drinking. I got to a feed station at around mile six after a fabulous downhill stretch and the marshals wonderfully filled up my bottles while I drank the nuun that they had on the table – nuun!! They had a great spread of food and drink. I took a couple of sliced oranges (another great tip from Mary) and headed off again.

Around mile seven we hit one of the worst hills. I was fully prepared having prior course knowledge and watched as people optimistically attempted to run it and quickly stopped. I used this time wisely to have my first gel.

After that hill I knew it was relatively easy going until we got to those steps around mile 12. I was keen to get my dad and tell him about my disaster start and to make sure he wasn’t worried that I wasn’t among the marathoners. Though by this point I had caught up to the slower runners and was easing past them.

There’s an out and back section up to another feed station which is fairly narrow and a bit of a nightmare, especially with the half marathoners and marathoners there at the same time but I caught up to a girl running the half and started chatting with her. We swapped running stories and she told me her PB for a marathon was around 3:44. She (her name is Jilly) looked about my age so I told her she must be pleased with a London GFA. She had no idea what it was! I was pleased to explain it to her and she seemed quite chuffed.

I was feeling great and was enjoying myself. Talking would also help me stick to a sensible pace and Jilly was lovely to chat to. Disturbingly I started to feel my tummy doing some crazy bubbling and cramping. I continued to chat but in the back of my mind I started to panic that my stomach was getting worse. The race is fairly low key and there are very few portable loos on the course (I think there is one at the feed station around mile six) but I knew there were portable loos at the start/finish area (which would be halfway for me) so I just kept pushing on and hoping for the best…!

I saw my dad and he gave me my gels, and I ate one going up those ridiculous steps. I knew I needed to keep fuelling despite my dodgy tummy.

Jilly and I eventually parted ways as she went to finish the half and I continued on. As the marathon course does a sweep around the start/finish area I had to wait a bit longer before I could actually get to the loos. Eventually I was able to run off the course towards the loos. This has never happened to me before. It was probably the Indian food the day before (not my ‘normal’ Indian takeaway – lots of sauces I don’t normally have) or it could have been the gone-off Beet It. Either way, my body was not happy.

Annnnnnnway, I got back to the race and felt much better. The course then goes all the way to the bottom of the gorge to then climb that bastard hill we had to climb to get to the start/registration area.

This was TOUGH. No running involved (this is mile 14 which also includes my bathroom stop – I didn’t stop my watch). The half marathoners were now coming down after finishing, all wearing their medals and looking happy. They were all lovely and supportive to us though and one even gave me his water as mine had run out. There was a feed station just along from the top so I could refill again with nuun water but it was just at that point I needed water.

What was great now was that you knew it was just one more lap. Mentally this was easy in my head. I still felt good and still didn’t fancy listening to anything. I was ‘at one’ with the race if you like. I was having a great time!

Unfortunately as I got a few miles into the second lap my stomach started whirling again. I overtook a guy who was having a wee stop and started frantically looking for the ideal area to hide myself away in. I found a spot that was sort of hidden away from the course trail. I was mildly amused that I could see the man run past and if he just looked up the hill near him he’d see me nestled into a bush doing my business. THANKFULLY he didn’t. Again, I felt so much better and, I’m sure you’ll all be glad to know (as my bathroom habits are clearly a highlight of this race recap) that my stomach for the rest of the race was fine. As I saw the guy ahead he turned round and asked if I’d got lost. I had to shout across at him “no, just a call of nature!”. Mortification complete.

We ran together for quite a few miles, chatting about this and that and it was lovely. We walked the hills together and then picked up the pace again on the flats and the time flew by. I couldn’t believe it when I checked my watch to see we were at 19 miles!

We got to the flatter, downhill trail again and I broke off from him as I found a new lease of life and energy. I managed to take a more photos as well.

As it got to about mile 23 I decided to put some music on which was a nice change. But Apple Music kept cutting out (I’ll soon be switching back to Spotify) so it didn’t really work. I wasn’t bothered though.

The temperature was warm and I sweated a lot but thankfully there was no searing sunshine. I felt like I was keeping well hydrated. At each feed station I’d refill my bottles, drink a few gulps of nuun and take either an orange slice or some jelly beans.

I saw my dad at the same spot before those steps at around mile 24 and knew I just had to get up them and I was home-free. This last mile was tough as I knew I was almost there but my legs were now feeling very fatigued. Whereas for the first lap when I got to this point I still felt like I was fresh and fine to carry on, but now I was feeling the hills and was very tired. I had an agonising moment where I kicked a rock as well. I guess because my feet weren’t picking up enough and it was like a dagger in my toe. But I was almost there! Genuinely this was the only mile where I seriously thought “OK I’m ready to finish now”.

With one final little incline that I had to walk, then a sprint to the finish and I was DONE.

And now it gets a bit awkward. I saw the main race organiser and headed over to him after I finished and said to him about my start time mix-up and how I’d been reassured I would have my time readjusted. The marshal from the start was there to corroborate my story and the other late man’s wife as well. It was clear I wasn’t lying and had my watch time to prove it anyway.

The organiser looked really awkward and said it would mean I would ‘bump’ a girl to third place as her time was 4:38:33, and mine was 4:31:26 on my watch (and 10:46 marathon start and 10:55 my start difference = 9ish minutes off my gun time of 4:40:12). He said that he would sort it though and took down my details again. Reassured I headed off, grabbed my medal and then had to walk down that bastard epic hill to find my dad.

That hill…walking down it was a nightmare. Bless my dad he had made a good effort to work his way up and find me and had gotten about 1/3 of the way up. We finally got to the bottom, took the standard post-race photo and headed to the car.

Unfortunately when the results were released I saw my time hadn’t changed. It still said 4:40:12 (third female). I emailed the organiser. He came back and said in the end it was too awkward to bump the current second place female into third and that the results would remain as they were. He further added that how were we to know that if the lady knew she was third not second she wouldn’t have pushed harder (she would have needed almost seven minutes…). So I’m third female in the results. I won’t lie, I’m sad about this. I wish they had told me this at the time as they led me to believe the results would be adjusted. BUT I know this is my own fault for being late and not reading the race information properly so really I only have myself to blame.

What does make it a little bit harder to take is that the difference between our gun times was only around 1 minute 40 seconds… perhaps the equivalent to two bathroom stops. GARGHHH!!! That said, I never expected to get on the podium anyway so I’ll take it!

In the end I was 3rd female (4:40:12 official time *grumble grumble*), 2nd in my age category and 14th overall (men & women – incidentally my ‘chip’ time would have gotten me 9th overall).

Despite my idiocy and the annoyance I feel about the results, I fully enjoyed the marathon. Though it was such hard work surprisingly it felt easier than Liverpool. I guess because I knew I could walk at any time and I was just ‘taking my time’. In my heart (and on my watch) I know the time I got. But it does remind me that no matter how much pressure I take off myself from a race I still need to READ THE RACE INFORMATION PROPERLY.

Oh, and don’t eat stupid food the day before a marathon 😉

Have you ever started a race late?

What is your preferred race: road or trails? I can’t decide!

Have you ever had tummy issues during a race?

August 17, 2015

The day before the Cheddar Gorge Marathon

Well I survived the Cheddar Gorge Marathon! I am so glad I did it, it was truly a fantastic race. I’ll do a full recap of it in another post but I’ll just say that it was tough, hilly but good fun. Marathon number four done!

Saturday I was quite chilled out. It’s funny because I’ve never felt this way the day before a marathon. I was nervous, yes, but more excited and strangely looking forward to it. With a vague finishing time of 4.30-5 hours in mind there was a lot of give so no pressures. I knew the terrain would be technical, hilly and generally tough. But while this was psychologically good to be fairly relaxed, this meant I was probably a bit too blasé when it came to proper preparation.

I felt I had the miles on my legs (though perhaps not enough trail running experience but I have been doing lots of hill work). What I mean by preparation is the food the day before. But I’ll roll back to the start of Saturday first.

I headed to parkrun in the morning to help set-up. It was a bit rushed and stressful as the guy who had the key to the shed where we keep all the parkrun paraphernalia was 20 minutes late. This meant we really had to get a move on to set the course up in time. Surprisingly though we did and it made us wonder what takes us so long normally – all the chatting probably!

Obviously with the marathon the next day I wanted to keep the pace fairly easy. Some people don’t like running the day before a race but I prefer it. I like to give my legs a good shake out, especially as the last time I ran was Thursday. My running club friend, Mark, and me ran together and pretty much chatted the entire way round. I always love parkruns the day before races because I know I shouldn’t push it and feel justified in taking it easy.

After packing things away I had to dash off to get home and sorted as my friend, Bhuvana, was hosting a garden party. She’s a (very close) friend from work so my mum and dad were invited too (my dad works at the same company as me) so they were pleased they could have a couple of drinks and get a lift there and back. I don’t normally drink anyway and it was hardly likely I would before a marathon anyway!

I got to wear my new skirt again

There was a fantastic spread of Indian food (one of my favourite cuisines). Bhuvana knew I had a marathon the next day and was worried how the food would affect me so had made sure it wasn’t hugely spicy, bless her. I practically boasted that I had a stomach of steel and often had Indian takeaways the night before long runs. I’d be fine…!

There was chicken tikka (my favourite), chicken tikka masala, a chickpea curry, samosas, rice, naan bread, poppadoms, salad and dips. Well, I was in my element as you can imagine and went for pretty much everything.

I’m not a rice fan but knew I needed something a bit more carby so I had a naan bread, which I’m usually not a fan of either but the sauce required something to dip in so you gotta do what you gotta do 😉

I had another plate and a half and was lovely and full. Pudding was an Indian ice cream but I gave it a miss as I knew it’d push me over the edge and I can always give or take ice cream (unless it’s with a chocolate brownie).

And what do you do after eating a large load of Indian food? Jump on a trampoline of course!

I love trampolines! I used to be in the trampoline club at school. It was brilliant. Though my tummy didn’t quite agree afterwards.

I had the usual conversations with a few non-runners when I mentioned about the marathon the next day. One said “how far is that? 25 miles?” and another “Is that in London?” which is always amusing. One woman said “I’m just happy to do 20 minute son the cross trainer every day and stay fit that way”. Absolutely fair enough – but to me that sounds unbelievably dull!

Bhuvana’s adorable little dog, Rain, who shakes her foot when she’s scratched

After the party we headed back to my parent’s where I was spending the night. My mum and dad were coming to the marathon to support me so it made sense. [In the end my mum decided she would give it a miss as she wanted to stay with the dogs (three of theirs and my Alfie) so they wouldn’t be cooped up again all day and her back is still not 100% 🙁 I do jokingly call her a part-time supporter…anything more than 10k and she’ll flake on me (I am of course joking).]

As the evening drew in I knew I needed to eat something else, despite not feeling that hungry. I went for the safe option of porridge. We watched Still Alice (such a good film but prepare to cry for 80% of it) and then went to bed…

Do you run the day before a race?

What’s your favourite cuisine?

What’s your favourite curry?

August 13, 2015September 18, 2020

One Year to Go – Fitness First #EverydayWinners

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to an event in London to celebrate that August 4th was one year until the start of the 2016 Rio Olympics. The event last week was hosted by Fitness First, the official fitness partner of Team GB.

The event was at a Fitness First gym in Bishopsgate in London with workshops run by Team GB coaches.

This sounded amazing and I was keen to get involved. The workshops including Strength and Conditioning, Nutrition, and Psychology. And there would be Olympians just casually strolling about as well, such as Jason Kenny and Keri-Anne Payne.

I was also pleased that someone else I knew had been invited too, Mary (the ultra running superwoman – she’s just smashed a 70 mile trail race. Yep.). Going to London for me is always a bit of a faff so it was nice knowing Mary was going too.

Anyway the morning started quite badly when, as per standard procedure in my life, I only gave myself just enough time to get to the station within minutes of the train arriving. No contingency time for a) paying for parking and b) getting my ticket from the machine. I didn’t think I had any change for the parking machine so I automatically rang the number on the side of the machine to pay that way (I’ve done this before, it’s very handy). Like the genius I am not, I decided it would be quicker to multi-task and do the train ticket at the same time. This involved me managing somehow to crash the ticket machine and mess up my parking on the phone. So I had to go into the station and get my ticket that way. Then run like a mad person to get onto the train, while still trying to sort my parking out.

In the end it took about five phone calls (let’s not forget how intermittent signal is on the train – another genius Anna move) and two car parking payments as I got the registration number of my own car wrong the first time. I was sweating with nerves and stress by the time I finally sat down on the train. As I put my payment card away I noticed I did indeed have the three sodding pounds to pay for the parking. GARGHH.

Thankfully I got to London and successfully met Mary at Liverpool Street station. There ensued a rather comical amount of time for us attempting to find the gym. We walked up and down one road about four times trying to follow Mary’s printed map (very organised, you can tell she’s a teacher) and Google Maps on my phone. We asked random passerby’s as we started to get desperate and each person told us a completely different direction. Finally we found where we were meant to go. Only about a five minute walk from the station we started at. *Sighs* Mary and me are clearly not natural Londoners!

When we arrived we met up with other fellow bloggers, Helen, Emma and Christine, and a few others I didn’t know.

Our first workshop was run by Dr. Duncan French, a leading strength and conditioning expert with 11 year’s experience as a coach. He’s looked after Olympic, World Championship and Commonwealth Games medal holding athletes and a current world record holder.

This session involved Duncan going through several fairly complicated strength moves using a light bar. It wasn’t about the weight of the bar nor our personal strength. It was about our coordination and form.

We started with a fairly simple move of a squat, which then progressed further and further into a jump, snatch, squat routine which really did involve my head more than my body as you had to get the order of it all correct as well as the form perfect.

It was like I was back at school because I found myself glowing with pride when Duncan complimented my “hip mobility”. Though he did point out an improvement I could make and then made me repeat it with everyone watching. Oh the pressure… 😉

The next session was led by James Collins, a leading expert sports and exercise nutritionist, who was heavily involved in advising Team GB Olympic teams and individuals in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic Games, and now towards Rio 2016.

This was probably the weakest of the workshops. Understandably nutrition is such a vast area and the amount of time he was given to go talk to us was short and I think he tried to cover too many areas as it was a bit vague and textbook.

It was interesting though. He talked about how different athletes need different and specific diets because they have very different needs. And that this also changed throughout the year as their individual training peaks and declines depending on what they have going on. He also mentioned how he helps coach athletes with regards to living in the Olympic Village because the sheer amount of food available to them is vast. They need strategies to ‘cope’ and to make the sensible options for their bodies in order to perform at their best. This is especially true for those athletes that need to carefully monitor their weight, such as judo players and boxers.

The third workshop was led by Sarah Cecil, a technical lead sport psychologist at the English Institute of Sport. She has over 10 years of experience working with a vast variety of different athletes and worked with Team GB athletes across both the Olympic and Paralympic Programmes in London 2012.

Her session was by far the most interesting and enlightening. She talked about how she helps athletes cope with the pressures of the ‘big day’ and facing crowds of thousands of spectators. She went through a psychological theory (which I believe is the Triune Brain Theory though she never said – but I’ve since Googled) that our brains are broken into three areas: one being very primal focused purely on survival, the second area more emotional and to do with innate motivations, and the third is where reason, knowledge and rationalisation comes into play.

I’ll probably do a poor job of explaining it here, apologies, but the theory is that if we we overload our more rational side, then the less rational and more emotional side with take over and see a situation in terms of it being a threat rather than an opportunity. This can easily be extrapolated to Olympians just about to compete. They over-think the situation and then panic. She works with them to make sure that they see the situation in terms of an opportunity, and that nothing has changed from when they were training. Basically it’s a choice you can make to take a sep back, breathe, and then take charge of your emotions and perform better.

It’s funny because when preparing for smaller events she says she always tells her athletes she hopes everything will go wrong, so then they can deal with it and then for the more important events they know they can cope.

I found this so interesting! And Sarah was very personable, friendly and knowledgeable. All three workshops were interesting, but they could have been longer to be honest, but I think this was more the style of the event.

The Fitness First gym was fantastic and we were allowed to use it after the event. As I wasn’t really in the mood and I had intervals planned for the evening I declined. But there was a cool running strip, loads of amazing looking machines, weights and other cross-fit style equipment. There was also a huge TV screen on the wall demonstrating loads of different exercises (I got distracted by this several times).

After the event, Mary, Helen and I headed to find some lunch. Thankfully Helen is more London-savvy and took us to a great little spot called O-Food, a Nordic sandwich bar.

The menu was really good and I could have had anything to be honest. I went for a smoked mackerel salad with a side of roasted potato wedges with a sour cream dip. Oh it was divine!

They also served water with cucumber slices in it for free which was fantastic too.

It was lovely chatting to Mary and Helen, discussing racing (Helen was a fellow Cakeathonner!), bogging and what we’ve reviewed on our blogs in the past. Perhaps the event wasn’t as long as it could have been (and the goodie bag could have been better!!) but I did enjoy the day, especially the lunch and chatting 😉

How do you find getting to and being in London?

What great little food places have you found in London?

And just for fun, Team GB have created a questionnaire you can fill in to see what sport your most suited to HERE. I’m a footballer apparently!

**Full Disclaimer: I was invited to the event for free but paid for all my own transport and food. All opinions are my own honest ones.**