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

March 14, 2014

What have I done wrong?

I’ve been a little quiet this week. I’m embarrassed to write this post. I absolutely cannot believe it. You can see what’s coming can’t you?

After Reading half marathon I had a bit of pain in my foot which I thought would just go away. I tried running a few days after and it felt sore and stiff. But I thought it was just the aftermath from the race. Anyway I became ill over the weekend and couldn’t run anyway. So my next run was Tuesday night. I got 1.9miles and my ankle was in a lot of pain.

I walked back, falling quickly into a pit of despair. Are you joking? Is this really happening to me again?

Did I do something in a former life to piss someone off? Seriously? Do I deserve this? I’ve done everything I can to ramp things up slowly and to be sensible.

Anyway I just couldn’t blog about it, or talk about it really. I was really really sad. Talk about déjà vu right? I mean in terms of blog content this is getting a bit repetitive.

I saw my physio this morning and he thinks it’s a sprained ligament in my ankle that happened at Reading and with all the adrenaline I wouldn’t have noticed. He’s actually quite positive about it. He said it’s an acute injury that has come on very suddenly and should disappear as quickly.

But ‘quickly’ is all very relative when you have an impending marathon in just over three weeks time. Obviously I won’t be able to run 18 miles this weekend. In fact, I can’t run until next weekend (two weeks before the marathon) – provided that the treatment I had today and next week goes well.

To say I’m panicking and upset is an understatement. But I can’t give up just yet. If I’m running by next weekend – properly with no pain, no discomfort, no issues – then I’m still going to do Paris.

This might be madness. Believe me, I am fully aware of how very undertrained I am at the moment. Not only did I start my training just recovering from an injury, I also missed a significant long run and going forward I will have lost almost three weeks worth of running from another injury.

But if I can run by next weekend I will still have two weeks left (when people normally start tapering, ha!). Obviously I can’t do any sort of significant long run. I can however, get some consistent running in.

I am fully aware that I will not be able to hit any of the time targets I had dreamed of. I have completely stepped down my expectations for Paris now. This race will just be about enjoying the day, the sights, the crowds and finishing. I know I can run a half marathon at 8-8.30mins/mile chatting away without issue. Perhaps I can run a marathon slowly? Yes I might need to walk, yes it will be so very hard but better to do it and get rid of my marathon demons then just give up?

Is this madness?

March 10, 2014March 11, 2014

Highs and Lows

Hello! Well that was a fairly rubbish weekend. OK, not all of it was rubbish but pretty much 70%. I was not a well bunny 🙁

Friday Ben and me had the day off. We both slept in which was just divine (for us this is just before 9am – normally we’re up 7.30am-8am if we don’t have anything going on ). I then had my final running school session. I started this ages ago in November but had to stop going because I got injured (ironic really – I started doing the running school to stop getting injured).

Anyway, in my first session the coach filmed my running to see where my problem areas were. I dropped my hip, I bounced up and down unnecessarily, my leg flicked out…not great. Though I haven’t been to the running school in months I have been doing lots of specifically running-focused strength work to target my weakness: my glutes and hamstrings. Lots of bridges, single leg squats, clams…twice a week at least.

He videoed me against this time to see if I’d improved. Thankfully I had! He put both videos next to each other and the improvement was clear. I no longer bounce but use that energy to propel forward. My leg doesn’t flick out excessively. My pelvis and hips are more level. And the whole running motion just looks like a smooth and natural forward propulsion. I was very pleased.

Unfortunately after the appointment I started feeling a bit dodge. My tummy didn’t feel great but I could ignore it. Anyway Ben and me had a nice meal to go to that I was excited about.

We went to a lovely rustic pub in Basingstoke called The Purefoy Arms. And it was lovely. The service was impeccable; our waiter knew the menu inside out and everything was sustainable, local and fresh.

We both decided to have scallops to start, and, unusually for both of us, the butcher’s steak (rare) with a duck’s eggs and dripping cooked chips. For pudding I had a brownie with a scoop of ice cream.

The brownie was dark chocolate with crumble crumbs and chocolate covered nuts alongside. The ice cream is in the jar.

Ben enjoyed a rhubarb panacotta with a side of rhubarb infused gin!

We were pleasantly full afterwards as the portion sizes weren’t huge.

Sadly though I just felt worse after the meal and basically just had to go to bed when I got in. I really enjoyed the meal but my stomach was just not happy.

I had a fairly rough evening and didn’t sleep a huge amount, so Saturday’s Parkrun was off the cards for me. Instead I slept in and read my book. I was quite depressed by this point. And sadly I had to call off going to Karen’s 30th birthday afternoon tea celebration in the afternoon (*sobs*). Not great to be ill around a pregnant lady! Ben stayed at home and played on the Xbox looked after me. On the plus side, we did watch a lot of Game of Thrones.

Sunday, thankfully, I was feeling better but still shattered. And not well enough to run my planned 18 miler. CUE PANIC. Postponed until next weekend now. Let’s just not talk about my marathon rubbish training shall we??

But we had a meal planned for 2pm to celebrate Ben’s birthday. So I actually got dressed and looked presentable for the first time of the weekend.

The meal unfortunately didn’t go as planned. We were slightly late (*cough* parent’s fault) and we rung the restaurant to tell them we’d be 10 minutes late. They were quite rude on the phone and told us to get there ASAP as they stop serving food at 2.30pm.

When we did arrive at 2.15pm no one served us and when we hurriedly tried to get notice of someone (because we were running out of time!) they either ignored us or said rather tersely “I’m with a customer”. Finally we managed to get the attention of a waiter and he vaguely pointed at a table and told us “well, there’s your table” and then said “you have nine minutes to order”. Oh right. Well we told them no thank you and left. It was just terrible. Yes we were late, but we had rung and if it was so much of an issue they should have told us on the phone. And then to be treated really rudely and in an off-hand way. Hello, we’re paying customers.

FYI, that’s The Plough in Winchester. I’d walk on by that one in future.

Well, in the end we found a lovely restaurant called The White Horse in Otterbourne. Lovely service, lovely food.

I had an orange, chicory and goat’s cheese salad to start and then my favourite, Caesar Salad with a side portion of braised red cabbage (yep I am that strange).

Absolutely delicious! Ben forced me to order a pudding at the end. Not for me, I’ll hasten to add as I was quite full, but so he wouldn’t look greedy as he wanted two. Yep that’s Mr Two Puddings Smith.

Ginger cake with caramelised bananas followed by pear and apple crumble with salted caramel ice cream. He had run 16.5miles in the morning so I’ll let him off 😉

And then we got home where I promptly collapsed on the sofa exhausted.

So a strange weekend of lovely peaks (good food, family time) and depressing troughs (sickness, no running and no cake).

What are your highs and lows of this weekend?

Have you ever ordered two puddings at a restaurant?

What’s the worst service you’ve ever had?

March 6, 2014January 5, 2017

All those random things

Hello! Today feels like Friday for me today because Ben and me have a day off tomorrow. Hurrah!

This post is about the random things that have been happening that I wanted to put in the blog but it never seemed ideal.

Rain. So much rain. And the delightful experience of parking your car at work and coming back to see the river blocking your route back to it.

This was great. I really enjoyed wading through this massive puddle to get back to my car after work.
Alfie, I love him dearly (he’s our little dog if you weren’t aware). But when I get home, walk him, make our dinner, then attempt to make my way to the sofa to relax he picks up his ball and runs over to me with it and drops it right in front of me…playing ball is the last thing I want to do. He then looks up at me with the most expectant face. Oh Alfie, how can I refuse?
However, I have found a way to keep him entertained if I just want to do nothing (read or chill):Put the Animal Planet channel on! He loves the big cats programme and the cat-specific one (surprise surprise).
The gym…ahh the gym. The things you see at the gym:Can you see the girl in the pink jogging bottoms? That white thing on her head is a huge furry hat. Sometimes it can be a bit chilly at the gym…but not that chilly! And yes she was there to workout. Seeing her on the treadmill was an experience in itself.
Crazy shoe guy running on the treadmill: They’re barefoot trainers (I guess). They just looked very odd. I saw someone running in barefoot trainers at the Reading half as well. I’ve never been tempted to try it…You basically have to go back to basics with running to ‘re-learn’ how to run – like mile by mile. The guy in the race though was doing some hard heel-striking so I don’t know if his have helped him. I’d probably get injured in all new areas if I tried it.
Apparently I’ve been saying “grimace” wrong my whole life. I thought it was “grimance” with an ‘n’ in there. Quite embarrassing really.
And I’ve finally taken a photo of my medal holder (which isn’t actually on the wall yet). My granddad made it for me. He goes up to Scotland every winter to help out look after reindeers at this reindeer centre. The male reindeers ‘drop’ their antlers and he collects the ones in good conditions and makes things out of them (he was a carpenter).

Ben held it up for me and I put some of my medals on it to give it it’s full effect. I think it’s amazing!

So this weekend is going to be a busy one. With the meal tomorrow, then Karen’s (pregnant amazing runner) 30th birthday party on Saturday (afternoon tea – YES She very much shares my love of cake!) and then a meal out on Sunday for Ben’s birthday (which was on Tuesday). Lots of food…the best kind of weekends 😉

What do you do with your medals?

What kind of trainers do you wear to run?

Do you have any pets?

March 5, 2014

Inspiring runners and lots of food

Good morning! Well I’m nice and recovered from Sunday’s half marathon and feeling strong thankfully.

This past weekend was all of a bit of a whirlwind. I do love weekends where lots goes on, but it can be a bit stressful because you have to cram everything you need to do around everything you want to do.

On the Saturday Ben and me got up less early than usual as we weren’t helping set up Parkrun. My plan for the run was to just run a nice easy run without pushing it so I would be fresh for Sunday. Because it was the five laps around the cricket pitch again, they’d decided to do it in reverse to mix things up a bit. This blew my mind a bit 😉

Anyway it was nice to just take it easy and not worry about paces and times. Though I did get a little bored with the five laps. But I was running near one of the younger guys at our running club who was desperate for a PB so we were all encouraging him and pushing him on as we ran so that was nice. He got his PB in the end which was brilliant – and with such a great sprint finish.

A few posts ago I mentioned that my lovely pregnant running friend (Karen) was still running. She really is an inspiration.

Twenty-six weeks pregnant (I think – I’m not very good at remembering these sorts of things, sorry Karen if I’m wrong!!) and smashing out very respectable times.

I was very cheeky and got her to stand sideways because in the above photo (^^) she doesn’t look pregnant at all!

Honestly, when I’m pregnant (not for a few years) then I really hope I can follow her example. She has a very healthy attitude towards running as well in that she is listening to her body and will only continue running if she feels she can without causing herself or her baby issues.

After getting home and doing the boring housework bits and pieces I then headed off to see another pregnant friend. It was her baby shower. She had no idea about it and we were all at her sister’s house ready to surprise her. Her sister got her over and honestly her face was a picture. She was so shocked.

We played lots of games (like guess how many sweets in the bottle) and ate lots of cake. I really wish I hadn’t but you know what my will power is like around cake. In retrospect I probably shouldn’t have eaten two cupcakes, a slice of lemon meringue and a lot of chocolate fondue. I don’t think this helped particularly well for the next day’s race. Duly noted for Paris 😉

Then I had to eat a pizza in the evening before the race. Jeeze I did not fancy it.

Hey ho. I ate it regardless.

Anyway so the race happened on Sunday. Check my recap out HERE.

After running the half marathon, Ben, my parents, Ben’s mum and me stumbled back to car in that ‘post-race walk’ (the parents were stiff themselves from walking out a few miles and then standing in the cold). After getting changed we headed off to Jamie’s Italian – exactly the same thing we did last year.

It was a little bit of a nightmare as I have a Gold members card for Jamie’s (I go there so often…) and as a Gold member I get certain benefits. I once got £10 off the bill! However, I’d left my card in the car and the waitress needed the number on it in order for us to qualify for the perks.

So I had to trek back to the car to get it. To be fair, everyone did offer to go for me but it was my fault I left it so I felt I was the one to retrieve it. The multi-storey car park was very close but the car was on floor three and I optimistically took the stairs. After getting to the first level I then waited for the lift. My legs basically just said “no, Anna. Just no”.

Finally after getting back to Jamie’s I fully enjoyed my peppermint tea as I was so cold and tired by this point. For my Gold membership, we each got a free little courgette thing that had been rolled in some tasty breadcrumb thing with a zesty dip (top right-hand picture).

We also got a cocktail each – Prosecco and some berry fizz thing. I opted for a non-alcoholic one as my stomach wasn’t feeling great. Obviously I got my Turkey Milanese meal which was HUGE. I swear it was never that big before. And I got a side of cabbage with prosciutto and parmesan breadcrumbs. Like I said, my stomach didn’t feel good though. I ate the turkey but Ben got my egg and I took the cabbage home with me.

I think the cakes the day before really didn’t do good things to me. I felt rough when we got home. I was fine the next day thankfully. I just think sometimes a race can hit you badly and mess things up a bit.

But there we go, apart from the dodgy tummy, it was a great weekend! Next race for me is the Paris marathon…

Have you ever felt a bit ‘off’ after a race?

Do you know any inspiring runners?

If you’re female and considering (or have had) children, will you/did you exercise during pregnancy?

March 3, 2014March 4, 2014

Reading Half Marathon

Hello lovelies. Well, I am shattered! Ben and me completed the Reading half marathon yesterday and it was great. We survived! Hurrah! Here’s my recap of the race.

It feels crazy that it was only last year I ran this half marathon and it was my first proper race. I trained for like 12 weeks for it. Now it’s part of my marathon training. Honestly, I would never have believed you a year ago if you’d told me that.

Saturday evening we both had a pizza to carb it up and had a nice early night.

My standard chicken, veg and BBQ sauce – hold the cheese

The alarm went off at 6.15am. I quickly walked Alfie, got ready, had breakfast (porridge) and a coffee. My parents and Ben’s mum arrived and we were off to Reading.

I decided to go with my shorts and compression socks again as I felt so comfortable in them and liked the extra support that I find the socks give. But I was a bit chilly and thankful for my parents so I could wear my jacket and then hand it over to them at the last minute.

The race village was cool with a huge inflatable shoe. It was very busy. We saw Tony the Fridge (top right picture) who was running the half marathon with a fridge on his back for charity. What an inspiration!

Then we said goodbye to the parents and headed to our waves. By this point I had had three pees and I would then queue up for another pee in our wave (we had a lot of time). That’s got to be a record for me.

Oh we were so cold waiting to start. It was also fairly late starting. We did the group warm-up and then we waited for another five or so minutes, by which time we were cold again.

Then we were off. I have to say mile one to mile three weren’t great for me. I felt they were a slog. It was very busy with the amount of people but this kept my speed down so I didn’t shoot off which I was pleased about. There’s a huge temptation in the big races to let the excitement get to you but luckily this was not the case. There were a few inclines and I just felt that it was a lot of hard work so soon.

We got into Reading University and I started to get into it. My paces were coming down and I felt comfortable and strong. I grabbed a water from the water station. It might be because I’m a bit slow but I serious issues with these water things. I say ‘things’ because they’re not bottles, they’re like pouches of water. I didn’t really know how to get the water out so squeezed it in my mouth and then got choked by a gush of water. I spent the next 30 seconds almost dying.

I’d say miles four to eight I was happy. I was enjoying the crowds, my music, the bands, the atmosphere. It felt comfortably hard but I was in the racing zone.

I saw the parents at mile seven which was lovely.

Miles nine to the end were when I had to put my head down and push on. I had had a gel at mile eight and was now counting down the miles.

The stretch at mile 11 down the dual carriageway was hard going. The wind was in our faces.

Hilarious side story: a man (I say man because he was at youngest 18, but potentially early twenties) was running alongside me. His family were ahead and cheered him on. His mother (probably in her late 50s) starts running alongside him yelling encouragement at him. This continues for about 30 seconds to a minute. The guy just looks like he wants to die. It was hilarious. I think everyone around thought it was somewhat amusing.

Then that horrible incline into the Madejski Stadium and a great finish into the crowds cheering.

My official time was 1:39:35, 2275th. I’m quite happy with that. My two goals were to beat last year’s time and hopefully to get a sub 1:40. There was no way I could get a PB at my current fitness level and also Reading was never a goal race.

Ben got 1:46:12, 3847th – a PB by six minutes. That boy is on fire!

We went to the lovely Jamie’s Italian for lunch (more on that in another post) after getting changed. Ahh the great joy of getting changed in the back of a car…

Then when we got home I had a lovely hot shower (nothing quite like it after a hard race where you’re freezing afterwards). And then a horrific ice bath.

But with a cup of tea and good reading material it wasn’t so bad…ha.

I think I’m done with Reading now. I’d like to do Silverstone or Bath next year I think. I’ve enjoyed running Reading but it’s not that scenic and when you’ve done it a couple of times it’s sort of done and dusted. I’d definitely recommend it though: great crowd support pretty much all round, very popular so you’re never running alone, brilliant finish in the stadium, nice goodie bag (snacks and cotton T-shirt) and the best medal I’ve had in a while!

Thank you Reading, it’s been great 😉

What did you get up to this weekend?

What’s your favourite half marathon (or race)?

How do you recover from a race? It’s all about food for me, then showering, then ice bathing. Then NOTHING.