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

January 8, 2015

Stealing ideas from the gym

Wow the heavens have opened up in a big way in the South Coast of England. It’s absolutely tipping it down this morning!

I might have mentioned a few times I’ve been going to the gym a lot rather than running these days. I’m really enjoying it. I don’t tend to slog out numerous minutes on the cardio machines though as I just find this soul destroying. Plus my aim at the gym is not to just focus on cardio but rather strengthen my entire body (arms I’m looking at you) to hopefully reduce any injury chances later on when I get back into running and also to make my body strong and healthy. My body has just been running a lot for so long now and it’s not a great way to get an overall level of strength. Oh sure I could easily run 10 miles or a half marathon no problem but when it came to anything else, it was weak. Since going to the gym I’ve had muscles aching that I never knew I had!

Instead of doing cardio machines I do lots of classes. For example, this is my week:

Monday: Body Blast (a crazy session of HIIT and then a round of several weight moves, like overhead presses and weighted squats, etc., repeated) and Power Core (focusing on strengthening the entire core).

Tuesday: Pump (weights class) and Step (I worked up a sweat but honestly this is not for me. It was laughable how uncoordinated I was and how I was about 5 steps behind everyone else).

Wednesday: yoga

Thursday: an hour session in the gym doing my own thing (more on that below).

Friday: either Spin or the same as Thursday followed by a Tone class (using weights to ‘tone’ your muscles…I loathe the word tone but it is a good class).

Saturday: Spin

Sunday: Spin and Legs, Bums and Tums

Classes are great as you never know what to expect (so can’t dread them). It’s always very varied and you get motivated by the instructor and others around you. However it’s annoying that the only classes in the week I can make are in the evening. This means going to the gym straight from work and not getting back until late, meaning my evening’s are so much shorter.

And because it’s January, the evenings at the gym are PACKED.

The gym I go to is massive so it’s not really a problem but it means that the classes are full of lots of newbies who need lots of demonstrations and explaining. Totally fair enough but this does eat into the class time. I like to get to the gym, do my thing and get the hell out. No time is wasted. I hate to stand around…and not to mention hearing some of the people bitch and moan like they’re at school is just irritating. You’re PAYING for this so get on with it!

So I’ve been stealing ideas from the classes to make my own routines so I can do them whenever I want (which in the week means getting to the gym for 5.30am and getting out by 6.30am – perfect). OK I don’t get the motivational aspect but I’m quite a focused person and if I’ve gone to the gym I damn well will work hard to make it worthwhile. I’m not a social gym goer: I’m not there to make friends.

I always wear my Polar heart rate monitor at the gym as, like with running, I’m a stats geek and like to see numbers. I like to see how hard I’m working and if I’m pushing myself too much or too little.

Anyway, I thought I’d share a few of my routines:

Routine A:

Repeat 3 times:	Make it harder:
2mins cardio at 100% effort
40 mountain climbers	Use stability ball
30 squats	Add weights
20 bridge lifts (per leg)	Raise one leg
10 press ups	Full press up
5 burpees

This routine took about 25 minutes which was perfect. I tried not to stop between exercises. It kept me motivated and entertained because nothing went on for too long to make me bored.

Routine B:

Repeat 3 times:	Make it harder:
2mins cardio at 100% effort
1 minute wall sit	2 minutes
30 Russian twists	Add heavier weight
20 bent over rows	Add heavier weight
10 cleans	Add heavier weight
5 burpees

Basically I’ve been stealing moves from the classes and then trying to create routines that are varied and hard enough to get my muscles aching and my heart racing. You get a good blast of cardio from the HIIT cardio and a good blast on the muscles with the strength moves.

I then add 30 minutes of focused running strength work:

Single leg deadlifts	12 x4 (per leg)
Single leg squats	12 x4 (per leg)
Decline single leg squats	12 x4 (per leg)
Hot salsa	3-4 minutes
Side plank on bosu ball with high knee leg raise	12 x3 (per leg)

**A lot of these moves can be found as videos on the Kinetic Revolution website HERE (anything Mo Farah or Galen Rupp do I am fully on board with!!).**

I did Routine A and the running strength routine this morning (though I missed out the single leg deadlifts) and it took around 50 minutes and I was shocked to find I burnt more calories than a 45 minute spin session! Calories aren’t everything I know but it was an interesting comparison nonetheless. I really enjoyed the workout (unlike Spin) and it zoomed by. I got to work on all the areas of my body I wanted to and got my HR up. And no moaning people or hanging about!

This is probably old hat to lots of you experienced gym goers but to me this is like seeing the light. I’ll still continue with going to the classes (especially at the weekend – there’s no way in hell I could do my routines when it’s absolutely heaving) but certain evening classes I’ll drop in favour of doing my own thing super early. I love that I can switch and change the moves, make it harder, shorter, longer, whatever! And focus on the areas I want to work on rather than what the instructor wants to do.

Basically, I’m a happy ~~annoying~~ gym bunny!

What classes do you enjoy at the gym?

What are some of your favourite strength-focused moves?

Why do you mainly focus on at the gym: strength or cardio, or a balance of both?

January 7, 2015

Don’t be afraid to make a change

Nothing brings you back to reality than Monday traffic and your first day back at work or school. The holidays are done and dusted.

I’m actually OK with going back to work. The cynical among you might think that’s because in less than three weeks until I’m off to Florida and then Dallas with Ben. You would be right. But remember, I then have a long year ahead of me!

Just before Christmas, when very few people were working, I experimented with my desk at work by putting an Amazon box underneath my laptop to give me a standing desk. When I work from home this is standard practice for me. Sitting down all day long is not healthy, even if you’re active (here’s a depressing read on The Guardian if you want to read more).

I wear a Vivofit to monitor my steps and always ensure I’m over 10,000 a day – usually 12,000 is my average. I give Alfie a 30-40 minute walk in the morning sacrificing a bit of sleep time for some peaceful morning walking listening to a podcast or just music. It’s very refreshing and gets me ready for the day, not to mention by the time I get to work I’m on 5,000 steps already. I try to walk a lot during work (lots of drinks and subsequent loo visits help with that) and make sure I go for a 20 minute walk at lunch time. But I still sit from 8am commuting an hour, then 9am until 5pm working, then another hour commute home. Then watching TV or chilling on the sofa at home. That’s over 10 hours of sitting every week day. You can’t deny how unhealthy that sounds.

So I made a change. I made myself a standing desk in the office. There were few people in the office at the time and it was only one day before we went off for Christmas. But I vowed to myself to continue when I got back. On Monday the office was full, I set myself up and started work. I won’t lie, I felt extremely embarrassed stood there with my make-shift desk with everyone else sat down around me. People obviously started to notice. When they asked me what I was doing I explained my reasoning. And you know what? They got it. OK they’re not all creating their own standing desks but they understand why I want to do it and no one thought I was stupid or laughed at me (actually they know what I’m like so it probably came as no surprise).

I now stand at my desk from 9am until lunch when I go out for a walk, then I sit down for an hour to eat (which is so lovely by the way – it’s nice to appreciate being sat down!) and then stand again until 5pm. Originally I was aiming for 4pm but it’s actually not too tough. I take little ‘breathing’ breaks every now and again where I sit down, have a look at my phone then stand up again. The hardest part is not letting myself slouch when I stand.

The benefits? I feel more alert at work. More focused. My posture is so much better. My legs feel loose rather than stiff. In fact my whole body feels better. I enjoy my commute more 😉

My point is, my health is number one priority to me. Work takes up a very large part of my life and I’m conscious that just because I’m at work it doesn’t mean I can’t also look after my health too. Who knows if this is why I’m always injured? This is something I’m doing for me regardless of what people might think. I’m lucky my work is quite casual in this respect as I can understand in certain offices this might not be allowed. But as I can, why shouldn’t I?

Have you ever made a change to your life for health reasons? OK this isn’t a huge change in the great scheme of things but it does improve my health in the long term!

Do you sit a lot during the day? At the weekend I’m always on my feet but in the week it’s so different (or at least it used to be).

January 5, 2015January 5, 2015

Christmas and New Year

Yes I’m so behind on how my Christmas and New Year went… I decided to take a good break from blogging during that time so I could chill a bit.

So here’s a recap of how my Christmas and New Year went. Sadly Ben was ill pretty much from that day before Christmas eve to New Year’s eve. He had lots of fevers and a horrid cough. He had barely any appetite for food or alcohol (which is totally unheard of for Ben) as well so it was a bit of a downer on the festivities. But we still had a good time regardless.

On Christmas day we headed to my parent’s house with Ben’s mum and Alfie. My parents have three dogs of their own and they all get on together really well so it was a fun time for Alfie too, bless him. My dad and me were in charge of cooking so we got down to some preparations and putting things in oven. Thank goodness they have a double oven as the amount we needed to put in there was ridiculous: the turkey, two different sorts of potatoes, two types of stuffing, sausages wrapped in bacon, parsnips and carrots. There was a lot of food!

While that was cooking away we had some buck’s fizz and opened a few presents. This year Ben and me didn’t do big presents for each other because we’re going to the States so soon after Christmas that we thought we’d rather find something out there instead. I received a lot of lovely gifts from my mum and dad and Ben’s mum though.

Then time for lunch!

We had a nice light starter of melon and prosciutto ham. Though I just stuck to melon purely because I wanted to maximise stomach space for the good stuff 😉 For me it’s all about the main course.

Christmas lunch is one of my favourite meals of the year. I adore turkey, cranberry sauce, all the veg, stuffing and gravy. I’m not a potato fan but everything else is fair game.

I pretty much went back for seconds of everything. So good. And because my parents are amazing and they know how much I love this meal, they let me take a good amount of turkey and leftovers home with us so I could enjoy the meal again and again. Heaven.

After lunch we went for a nice walk down the beach with the dogs. I say “we” but I mean the females in the family as Ben wasn’t up for walking and my dad felt he needed to stay behind with Ben and keep him company on the Xbox *sighs*.

The walk was lovely. There were so many people out and about as well. We kept Alfie on his lead purely because he has a tendency to run after anything that takes his interest.

Then when we got home we had some pudding. There were profiteroles, panacotta, Christmas pudding and trifle. I went for trifle which I’d been looking forward to for ages. I was bitterly disappointed to find that I find I really didn’t like it. Apparently I don’t like sherry trifles, only strawberry ones! So I settled for my dependable two apples.

We later played the best board game in the world. The Logo Board Game (not an affiliate link – it’s just to show you how awesome it is). It’s basically asking lots of questions about brands and logos, from Heinz to Fairy Liquid. It’s brilliant and so much fun. While playing that I had some stollen after feeling so cheated from the trifle and it was lovely. The wholemeal flour had made it quite dense though so definitely will keep to white flour next time!

And that was Christmas day. The following days were spent just chilling and really not doing very much. Ben was still ill so we used this quality time to catch up on movies (Edge of Tomorrow – brilliant!, Maleficent, How to Train Your Dragon 2 and some old favourites like The Mummy and the Mummy Returns) while also getting through loads of True Blood (really good, but fairly raunchy and gory).

New Christmas socks and my liquid of choice, Fanta Zero

I made a lot of use of the leftovers as well, recreating the Christmas dinner twice.

And when all the trimmings were used up I made a BBQ turkey stir fry. LITERALLY the best thing I’ve eaten in ages.

So good. I then ran out of turkey. I’m very tempted to buy a turkey crown just to relive the experience again…too much? Maybe so.

We also went to Windsor to see Ben’s dad before New Year as well and had a lovely meal in Bella Italia and caught up with him. Though we had a nightmare journey there; it took three hours in total to drive a one hour fifteen minute journey because of an accident on the motorway and then having a mare finding a parking space. But it was a lovely day regardless.

New Year’s eve we went to my parent’s house for a cheeky Indian take away and another round of the Logo Board Game. We had planned to go to a friend’s house for a party but Ben still felt ill so we felt it best to have a quiet one with the parentals. My granddad was down from Stoke-On-Trent as well so it was lovely seeing him and he really enjoyed the game too (honestly, it’s a game for everyone because it’s all stuff you could know).

New Year’s eve day we met up with Ben’s mum for a lovely 5.5 mile walk through the New Forest. It was a lovely walk. Not too cold but lovely and crisp. Alfie loved all the mud.

When we came home we gave Alfie a good scrub in the bath and dried him off with my hair dryer (he couldn’t work out if he enjoyed it or not I think) and then we headed back to Ben’s mum’s for lunch. Round two!

This time it was a bird in a bird in a bird, which is always very tasty as you get three different types of meat.

One of my favourite vegetables are broad beans and it’s become a funny tradition to have them around Christmas. I could literally eat them forever.

Then we played Rummiekub which is a number game sort of like cards, sort of like scrabble (see HERE for a good explanation). We all decided a games day was needed as we only ever play board games and games like this around Christmas. This needs to change!

Aaaaand that’s it. I really enjoyed our very low-key holiday, though I was sorry Ben was ill. It was nice though to curl down and watch lots of movies and True Blood. I did lots of walking with Alfie (keeping my steps over 12,000 a day) and enjoyed the gym as well so I definitely got a good balance of relaxing and keeping fit. Mentally and physically I feel fresh and ready for the year ahead!

What’s your favourite part of the Christmas meal?

How do you celebrate New Year’s Eve?

Do you do anything on New Year’s Day?

January 2, 2015

New Year – new me? {And a giveaway!}

Happy New Year! I won’t do a “year recap” post as I personally find them a bit dull. Also my year wasn’t the best if I’m honest.

Yes I know I ran two marathons and I’m so proud of myself and pleased that I got through them (especially considering I didn’t do ‘proper’ marathon training for either). And a few other races were good experiences too but on the whole and everything in between, it sucked in terms of my running. One injury to the next, one rubbish run to the next.

But 2015 is going to be better (ahh, haven’t we all heard that before in January, eh??) I don’t really do New Year’s resolutions but I have some rough goals that I’m keen to stick to this year to help make 2015 better than 2014.

What I came to realise (and probably must be quite clear as an outsider I suppose) is that running took over things. I’d almost say it consumed my life. I got very down when I couldn’t run and everything I was looking forward to was to do with running. Every goal I had, every plan in the diary. Having now not run since November I feel (and this is going to sound really stupid and weird) free.

All races planned for this year (including London) have been put to one side and I’ve stopped thinking and worrying about them. Who knows I might run them or not. I frankly don’t care at the moment. Without any pressures on me the need to get back into running has disappeared. I’m satisfying my need for exercise by going to spin (I have a love hate relationship with that brutal class), pump, circuits and all the other crazy classes I’ve tried over this break. I feel stronger and my general fitness is still there and I can go to the gym however many damn times I like in a week without worrying I might break. I’ve even been doing double classes some days – because I can. (Don’t worry, I’m still very much balancing all this exercise with cake).

And this made me realise that I can easily give up running for a bit and still be fit, healthy and more importantly happy. Obviously I do want to run at some point – and though I’m not running right now I am still very much a “runner” in my heart and always will be. But my goal for this year is for it to not be all I do. I want to keep going to the gym, working on the weights and my strength, and going to spin, but running when I fancy. The mistake I made last year was quitting the gym as soon as I was back into running, which doesn’t work for me. So that’s my goal in a nutshell! That and eat less cake. Nahhh scratch that actually, less cake would make 2015 truly rubbish.

On to the giveaway! The lovely people at 9Point9 have sent me two of those very cool Zephyr Fire 100 hand torches (normally £44.99) made by Nathan Sports to give away to TWO of my readers.

I did a review of this product a few weeks ago which you can check out HERE. Basically it’s a hand-held torch so when you go running (or walking!) in the dark you can shine the light in front of you to see. It’s also USB rechargeable which is immensely useful as batteries truly suck. It also has a button on it to sound a siren if you’re in trouble.

To been in for a chance, just leave a comment below saying why the hand-held torch would be useful to you! I’ll announce the winner 12th January. Good luck!

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? What are they for this year?

Did you achieve last year’s resolutions?

How do you achieve a balance with exercise? Is it all one sport or do you vary what you do?

***Full Disclosure: I was sent the two Nathan Zephyr Fire 100 products for free to giveaway to two readers***

December 30, 2014December 31, 2014

Don’t fear the eggs

Hello! Hope you had a lovely, lovely Christmas 🙂 Normal posting will continue soon, I’m just enjoying my time off at the moment. But I do have a quick post on one of my favourite foods (no not apples!)

I’ve many times expressed my love for eggs. I think they’re brilliant. When I’m all stressed out and don’t know what to cook for dinner, it usually ends up being eggs. A perfect source of protein, it goes with everything and anything and it’s easy to keep a pack of eggs in the kitchen at all times.

There’s always a nit of confusion as to whether to keep eggs in the fridge or not. I’m part of the “out of the fridge” group. I haven’t had any nasty food poisoning yet so finger’s crossed!

Keeping eggs out of the fridge is handy considering a friend of ours gave us a huge amounts of eggs the other day that I’m not sure would have fitted in the fridge. He gets a load free of eggs from work apparently and was happy to palm some off to us. Nice!

Whereas I’m more a scrambled egg fan, Ben loves poached eggs. We used this cool egg poacher and, after a few bumps in the road (we forgot to put the lid on so it took AGES), Ben got some perfectly poached eggs to sit quite nicely on his toast.

I’m not a fan of the poached egg texture though which is a bit random I must admit. I much prefer the crispiness of a fried egg or scrambled egg when it has a million other ingredients in it.

Or a meal that has firmly stuck on our weekly rotation is gammon and fried eggs.

And it has to be a runny yolk. It’s devastating if we overdo our fried eggs, or it splits when cooking. Sad times indeed.

It always irks me a little when I hear people are still harbouring a fear of eggs. Specifically the cholesterol in eggs. The British Lion Eggs has a great website which goes over this misconception about cholesterol (amongst other interesting things to know such as egg allergies). People used to think that you shouldn’t eat so many eggs in a day because of the cholesterol the eggs contain, and this would apparently increase the risk of heart disease in healthy people. But recent evidence suggests this isn’t so as the cholesterol they contain doesn’t significantly affect our blood cholesterol. This is great news for egg lovers like me 😀 We get through a lot of eggs in a week!

Do you eat a lot of eggs?

What’s your favourite egg-based recipe?

Poached, fried or scrambled? I love fried egg but I cannot stand ketchup with my eggs. It really doesn’t go in my mind and freaks me out.

***Full disclosure: I was asked to write this post by the British Lion Eggs in return for the egg poacher. All opinions are my own. The links are not affiliate links.***