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

October 9, 2013October 9, 2013

What I Ate in Mexico

Hello! So for this post I thought I’d show some of my very tasty eats from my Mexican holiday.

And as it’s Wednesday, I’m linking up with Jenn’s WIAW post:

Thanks Jenn!

Ben and me stayed in a fabulous all-inclusive hotel. I’d never been to one before! I was a little worried that the food would be rubbish, bulk-made and the options would be limited. But I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, I was hugely surprised at the sheer volume of food and the amount of choice there was. There were several restaurants; some of them you had to book for, some you could just rock up to. We often went to the more casual one where we didn’t have to book. This was because it had the most choice and was a buffet rather than ordering off a menu.

Breakfast: I always get a bit worried about breakfast because I’m so particular about what I normally eat for breakfast (have you noticed??). I eat porridge (oatmeal) pretty much every single day. (Yes I know: snore!)

But on holiday I decided to push the boat out and go for something different. Seriously, I could have had anything. We’re talking cereals, yogurt, fruit, toast (huge variety of different breads!), crêpes, pancakes, doughnuts, smoothies, eggs in every way humanly possible, sausages, bacon, burritos, tortillas, guacamole, salad, cheese…honestly, it was quite overwhelming.

I often went for an onion omelette (you basically requested whatever flavour you wanted and the chef made it in front of you), with different ham, tomatoes and guacamole.

Some mornings though the lure would be too hard to stay away…

Not quite to my strict requirements of stodginess but good nonetheless!

And one morning Ben and me got up early, took a walk along the beach (40 minutes in the sun – this was quite hard work even at 7am!) and had breakfast at a lovely little restaurant called 100% Natural in the town.

It was amazing. They had all fresh ingredients and organic options. And on the menu they gave you the nutritional benefits of the different meals. I went for a spinach, beetroot, carrot and celery smoothie. Maybe a crazy choice but it was very refreshing.

For breakfast I chose oats with chopped banana, raisins, nuts and amaranth. Deeelicious!

And we may have gone back there for more smoothies another day…

This was apple, carrot and beetroot (I like my beetroot!).

Lunch: Lunch tended to be a less of an elaborate affair than dinner. Usually it involved taking a break from sunbathing and going into the nearby restaurant for some quick food from the different buffets.

Fish paella

Towards the end we preferred going to the Italian restaurant for lunch as it was a bit cooler (the other place was more open and not air conditioned as it was right next to the pool).

The Italian restaurant had a great salad selection.

Roasted vegetables, tomatoes with mozzarella, beef Carpaccio, smoked salmon, bruschettas, antipasti selections…and steak, buttered fish, chicken, meatloaf, pizza, pasta, soup… and you could still order of a menu as well for ‘mains’. We stuck to several trips to the salad bar as that was enough!

Dinner: This was by far my favourite meal of the day. The selection was phenomenal and some days they’d have themes. One night it was Japanese-inspired.

This was one part of the salad bar. Sushi! Honestly, this was like 1/10th of the options. They’d always have a range of salads, roast meat, Mexican selections (quesadillas, tortillas, fajitas, bean stews, guacamole, salsa…), fish, actual meals like curries and casseroles, pizza, chips, burgers, pasta… literally everything.

Basically I’d pile my plate high with salads and vegetables and then choose a few different ‘main’ pieces that I liked the look of. Mainly I’d go for one serving of many different things, work out what I really liked, then go back for more of that.

So much tasty food…fish casserole, fish fillet, ribs, chicken skewers, ham and pineapple cocktail sticks…loads of fresh vegetables and salad.

For our anniversary dinner we booked to go to the Steakhouse.

For starters I had prawn cocktail. This was very tasty. In fact I loved being able to eat so many prawns (shrimps?) during the holiday. For main I had spiced chicken with corn on the cob, broccoli and roasted wedges. So good. For pudding I went for mango ice cream (this was almost like mango soft serve or sorbet – so fresh tasting) and fruit salad.

After finishing this I still had a bit of space (I know, as Ben says, I’m a machine) and because it was a special occasion I persuaded Ben to go to the main restaurant and have a ~~second~~ few more puddings…just because we could!

I mean, seriously, check out the selections! Mini puddings!

It was different every night

So I went for a mini selection

I have no idea what I ate (I’m pretty sure the right-hand square was a brownie?) but it all tasted good! Hey, if you can’t be indulgent on holiday when can you be!?

Other puddings that were enjoyed…

That is a carrot on top of the cake!! Phallic-shaped puddings ahoy!

I had two of those churros in chocolate one night. I would have had three but Ben managed to drag me out in time. It was touch and go though. SO GOOD.

They always had a chocolate fondue with fruit and marshmallows to dip. AND an ice cream bar. Oh I miss Mexico!! The first night I felt very saintly just having fruit for pudding…then the floodgates opened when I tried my first marshmallow with chocolate. Every night then involved melted chocolate and mini puddings haha.

Though the fruit selection was excellent. I ate a lot of fresh watermelon and pineapple!

I enjoyed some other tasty treats and drinks as well throughout.

From left to right: my first ever snow cone (lemon flavoured – I loved this), a Baileys coffee, first ever pina colada, blue lagoon cocktail and ice coffee.

So I definitely had my culinary treats this holiday! These all fuelled some hot and taxing runs (OK, the cocktails didn’t obviously…).

I tried not to get despondent when I was running at least one minute slower than normal and still finding it really tough. Here’s a typical run:

[Please don’t be offended by me getting a bit miffed about these times – this is purely comparing against my normal times. It’s all relative. I’m not saying that people are ‘slow’ if they run this speed!]

Sweaty, mid-run selfie

Despite finding it hard and typically running an average of 9 mins/mile, I enjoyed getting out there and being active. I can’t lie on a beach all day. That’s not me. I ran a few 7 miles as there was a perfect 7 mile route, one day I did a 4 mile with Ben and the first day I ran 10 miles because I got lost!! (This involved a panicked text to Ben and several awkward conversations with locals who had no idea what I was saying).

What I’m most pleased about is that I maintained my usual 30ish miles/week. I didn’t want to lose that on holiday. But speed was a different story!

Seriously, with views like that in the morning, it was so worth it.

I could go on… but I’ll stop! Basically, the food was amazing. The puddings were outstanding. And the running was sweaty.

Buffets or ‘proper’ restaurants on holiday? I would never normally say buffets, but when the selections are that good I’m definitely swayed!

On holiday do you usually stick to your usual breakfast or do you try something new?

What’s your favourite holiday treat? I loved the puddings. I dream about churros at night. It’s that crunch and the soft doughy insides…and the sugar

October 6, 2013October 7, 2013

I’m back! Mexico recap–part 1

Hello! Wow it seems ages since I last blogged. Yep sadly, my holiday is over.

I am back in the UK. Well, I’ve been back since last Wednesday but needed a bit more time to normalise back into reality. You know what it’s like. Blissful time in the beautiful sunshine…then bam back to the real world.

Honestly, the holiday was amazing. And do you know what? We had half a day of rain. The rest of the time it was HOT, HUMID and sunny, sunny, sunny. So my fears of rubbish weather were unfounded. Hurrah!

Gosh, I don’t even know where to begin with my recap. I will save all the food yumminess until Wednesday and focus on what we did instead for this post. Though I will say, the food…oh wow, it was so good. So much, so good, so yummy.

We left at 5am on Friday morning to get to the airport and have some breakfast.

Very excited, but a bit tired and dishevelled looking

OK, OK I will show one meal! If you’ve been a long-time reader (kudos to you ) then you know how I adore Jamie Oliver restaurants. So we had to go to the Jamie’s Italian for breakfast. It’s just a holiday essential in my eyes. And believe me, you cannot start a holiday in any better way.

I umm’ed and arr-ed for about five seconds before thinking “sod it” and ordering this beast of a meal. Go big of go home And how I love my husband. He got the same but he hates black pudding so I got his. Amazing. I’m not ashamed to say I cleared this plate all except a few spoonful’s of beans and a couple of fried potatoes. Embarrassingly I wasn’t hungry at all for our in-flight meal (how unsurprising) and had to have it in sat front of me on my little table for so long a flight attendant thought I didn’t want it! I was like “hold up lady, I will eat this. But give me a little time!”.

The flight was fine (movie watching makes everything good in my book) and then we got a coach from Cancun airport to Playa Del Carmen. Instantly the heat hit us. It was unreal.

The hotel was beautiful. It was just amazing. We went to bed quite early Mexico time as it was six hours behind British time so we were pooped! Then we got up early (5am!! Thank you jet lag) and decided to go for a run. Might as well!

This was the hotel lobby at 6am. It was still really hot but the sun wasn’t out yet so it was much ‘easier’ to run in the morning. Plus the beautiful sunrise along the beach definitely helps!

We didn’t do any actual beach running. It’s really not my thing. Sand in trainers and way too much hard work…so we stuck to the roads. We weren’t alone in our running – there were a fair few locals and other tourists out and about so it didn’t feel strange at all. But the heat. Wow it was oppression. Within one minute of running I was sweating and tired. It added at least one minute on to my usual running times. There was just no way I could go faster. Plus it was nice to just run at a slower pace.

You might think I’m mad running on holiday but I loved it! I feel weird not running and it’s such a big part of who I am that I couldn’t not run. At times it was tough (when is running not??) but it felt great being out so early and seeing Mexico wake up. Getting back all invigorated for the day as well was brilliant.

Ben and me enjoyed a lot of chilling by the pool time…

Chilling by the beach time…

And chilling by the bar time…

The bar was right next to the pool and a great place to take a break from the sun. I’m not a big drinker so I stuck to tomato juice (where have you been all my life??), iced coffee and diet coke (my absolute addiction). Ben enjoyed the local beer

I quite enjoyed putting a podcast on and walking along the beach as well (I’m not overly good at sitting and doing nothing for long periods of time), which I didn’t realise would be quite a work out for my calves!

And lots of swimming in the sea!

Ben and me were so cool, we had goggles (damn you contact lenses)

The sea was perfectly refreshing, not cold but not warm. And so, so clear.

We also did a few excursions. One day we went to Chichen Itza which is a city that was originally built by the ancient Mayans where we saw the Temple of Kukulkan – a seventh wonder of the world!

We had an hour long tour and found out so much interesting information – there’s a smaller pyramid inside that one! And the Mayans used to sacrifice people at the top of the temple (if you’ve seen Apocalypto it’s similar to that).

We had such a hilarious day. Our tour guide was a hoot. He wasn’t even meaning to be. He was just was hilarious. We still do impressions of him now. Yep, we’re that couple.

From there we then went to the ‘Sacred Blue Cenote’. Here we got to swim in a crazy underground pool of fresh water (there’s a small hole in the ‘roof’ and that’s it). It was freezing but so refreshing considering the humid heat.

Another day we went speedboating. We had our own little speedboat and there were about 4 others and we followed the speedboat in front but we could speed up and zig-zag which was quite terrifying. Then when we got so far out we stopped and the instructor gave us snorkels and we went snorkelling and saw some amazing coral reef and fish.

Terrible photo sorry – it’s a photo of a photo we bought

Unfortunately the afternoon of our anniversary saw a major downpour of rain. But we didn’t really mind – it was quite a nice break from the intense sun. And we had prime positions at the bar.

For our anniversary meal we chose to go to one of the restaurants that you had to book for in the morning. We chose the Steakhouse.

I enjoyed a lovely glass of Sangria with fresh fruit!

It was perfect. Not to get too mushy, but I do love my husband and it’s been such a truly amazing first year

Right, I will leave it there. I have a few more excursions to talk about which I’ll save for another post. Wednesday will all be about FOOD (and a bit more about my running). And as an all-inclusive holiday, there was a lot of food. And puddings.

Have you ever been to Mexico before?

Have you ever been to an all-inclusive? I had never been to one before and I was just amazed (and a little shocked) at how much food was available ALL THE TIME.

Running/working out on holiday – do you take it easy or carry on as normal? Or have a break entirely?

September 19, 2013January 5, 2017

Adios!

**Finally my blog is back to working normally – apologies to anyone having difficulties accessing the site before**

Hi guys! This week has been crazy. I feel like every second I’m doing something. The week before going on holiday is always a bit mental I think.

Every night getting in I’ve been packing a little bit more, doing clothes washing like crazy, sorting things, cleaning things…been a bit manic. But we’re almost there.

I’ve managed to squeeze in two spin sessions (Tuesday night and Wednesday night) as well. I kept Monday as a complete day off as I was shattered after Sunday’s half marathon. The way Ben and me were walking would have been quite funny if it hadn’t ached as much as it did. We were both fairly broken.

Tonight I hope to go to running club but I’m not sure if I’m going to make it as I still have a fair bit to get organised and cleaned (I’m a compulsive cleaner – I have to have everything clean and tidy before we leave). We’ll see!

Checking the weather for Mexico every five minutes is a little depressing:

Unbelievable! But we’re not too bothered because we’re not ‘lying on the beach all day’ people. I fully intend to go off and do some shopping exploring and things like that. And the all-inclusive food and drink might help distract me too

I really want to do some running when I’m away as well. Lots of easy, long, slow runs where pace is inconsequential and just enjoying the rain scenery. I can’t wait. I’m genuinely excited about this. The only thing that will stop me is if I feel at any time my groin/hip/whatever doesn’t feel right. It’s felt a bit achy since Sunday so I haven’t run on it at all this week so tonight will be a good test! I won’t be too annoyed if it doesn’t happen though – I’m so relaxed about this holiday. I just can’t wait to get away from it all (as they say) and chill!

I just wish I could take my foam roller with me…

It’s a bit big though. Could you imagine what airport security would say? Haha.

I’m sure I can rest my ice cold cocktails on my legs and it’ll be fine

In terms of packing, I’ve got all my new clothes ready in the suitcase:

From left to right, long dresses from New Look, skirt from H&M (sales! Bargain!), black dress from Dorothy Perkins, floral-print dress from New Look, shorts Dorothy Perkins (sale!) and flip-flops from the only shops in the world that still sold flip-flops this time of year Accessorize.

Luckily I’ve also borrowed two pairs of my mum’s flip-flops as well (we have the same size feet and has similar flip-flop preferences, i.e. pretty gemmed ones). You can never have enough flip-flops and they’re so easy to pack!

I’ve created so many lists it’s unbelievable!

To do list (clean bathrooms, hoover, wash bedding…), don’t forget list (charge Kindle, charge camera, remind Dad to pick up Alfie), and pack list (bikinis, hair straighteners, Garmin…), last check list (heating off, empty kettle – is that just me? – taps off, windows locked…).

Whew.

I’m not going to be blogging when I’m on holiday. I’m just going to take a blog-vacation I hope you don’t mind. I will fill you in on all the cocktails I drank amazing things I hope to have done though (fingers crossed!). I’ll be reading blogs though

See you in two weeks!

Do you make lists? I make lists for everything: meal plans, chores, shopping…

What do you look for in a holiday? Hot weather? Scenic views? City sites? Culturally interesting? I love getting on and doing stuff in a holiday. Whether that’s water sports, mountain biking, shopping or looking round historic sites, I love it! I can spend half a day on the beach doing nothing until I get bored.

Do you run/work out when you go on holiday? I’ve never run before but I really like the idea of running round a foreign country! Sounds exciting.

September 18, 2013October 28, 2016

Bristol Half Marathon (1:36:10)

Happy Wednesday! It’s very chilly here down the South of the UK. I imagine it’s a lot colder up north as well. Brrr.

So Sunday Ben and me ran the Bristol Half Marathon (which has been going for twenty-five years – wow). Like I said in my last post, we stayed with friends so we wouldn’t have to get up at ridiculous O’clock and drive an hour and a half to get there. And, more importantly, we got to see our friends which was lovely.

We got up at 6.30am, had breakfast and then drove to the park and ride. We got the bus into the race village and it was perfectly un-stressful.

The race village was set in the heart of this lovely area with lots of cafés and restaurants and cool water things.

The only annoying thing was that Ben was starting in a wave 30 minutes after me (10am) so he had a bit more hanging around to do than I did.

Bit of fun photo taking with the massive reflective sphere

We said our goodbyes and I headed to my wave 15 minutes before the start.

It was cold. I wore my capris rather than shorts but I was still only wearing a vest. I looked longingly at the bin bags some people has ingeniously thought to bring. The elites and white wave went off first and then we followed soon after.

Mile one (7.28): Always feels fine. The tide of people just keeps you sailing along. I was going a bit faster than I’d planned but I didn’t worry too much as it was by 10-15 seconds. However, I suddenly needed to pee.

Mile two (7.25): We were able to see Clifton Suspension Bridge in the distance, which we were heading under.

I had my phone in my arm band for music and just had to take a photo so this required a bit of jiggling about while running which is never easy. But I’m glad I got the photo! Annoyingly a few metres on was a much better photo in terms of scenery. Ah well.

Mile three (7.20): The feeling of needing to pee was still there. I had peed before the race so I tried to convince myself I didn’t need to go. I saw men dash off to the sides of the race to pee and looked at them enviously.

At this point I knew I couldn’t not go to the loo. The deciding factor was that I couldn’t think about needing to pee for next 10 miles. So I made a game plan. I could see way ahead a portable loo so I sprinted like a stupid person, peed in record breaking time and got back out there and sprinted a little to gain back time. I ended up back next to the same person I was running next to before. Hurrah. Anna 1 bladder 0.

Mile four (7.24): This was a turnaround point so we headed back along the same road but from the other side. I didn’t actually mind this as the scenery was nice and the road was so flat. It also meant I could amuse myself by looking at the runners on the other side. I was desperately scanning the crowds to see if I could find Ben.

Miles five (7.21) to six (7.25): I was now consistently running 10 seconds faster than I hoped and was feeling really good. It didn’t feel like too much of an effort so I held that pace. Around this point I was still scanning for Ben when I saw Mary on the other side. It was so quick but it was nice to see another blogger (she did 90 minutes of running before the half as preparation for her upcoming ultra <- epic).

Then just before going under the bridge again I saw Ben. He looked so happy and strong it really made me smile. I was just so chuffed! We shouted to each other and carried on.

When we went under a tunnel I found myself near the 1:40 pacers which panicked me a bit as I was aiming for a bit below that. As we went through the tunnel one of the pacers shouted “Oggie oggie oggie!” and everyone responded “Oi! oi! oi!”. It was brilliant.

Miles 8 (7.34) to 9 (7.20): Still feeling happy and enjoying it. I had picked up a gel from one of the stations a few miles ago (hello, freebie!) and it was nice to hold on to in a weird way. I picked up another one as we passed the next station as well. I thought to myself “I definitely want to take one of these home. But the other one will be if I feel I need it”. It was nice to have that safety net. It was also chilled which was a lovely touch from the marshals.

Mile 10 (7.10) to 11 (7.12): I took one of the gels as I wanted to increase my speed further and whether psychologically or physically, I needed to have that gel. It was a tasty one and a nice thin consistency – a High5 gel. I recommend!

Miles 12 (7.14) to 13 (6.56): I don’t remember mile 12 but mile 13 is where I picked it up as much as I could. This was the only part of the race I didn’t enjoy.

Last stretch I put my all in

It was painful and it felt like 5k effort.

My official time was 1:36:10. This is a five minute PB for me! I am SO pleased. And I loved the whole race (bar the last mile). It just felt comfortable and I felt in the zone.

As soon as I finished and picked up my goodie bag and medal. People were thrusting leaflets into my hands and then a lady told me there were free physio massages. I went straight there and got in the queue. Hell yes.

The physio said my hips were unbelievably tight and that no wonder I’d been having IT band issues and groin pain. Whoops. She gave me some great advice though while torturing the hell out of my lower back and upper bum (technical term).

Then I got our bag from the bagging area and a cup of tea and did some stretching while I waiting for Ben. When I saw him he had a big grin on his face. He’d smashed his ‘conservative’ target of 2:10 and pipped his ‘dream’ target of 1:57 and got 1:56:21. Nice work!

Then we headed back to the bus and car and did a quick ‘let’s get naked in the middle of car park in the freezing cold’ to get out of our sweaty stuff and into our spare clothes. We have all the fun.

We started our drive back with the intention of finding a restaurant mid-way home and found a lovely pub called the Bird in Hand.

I chose the Caesar salad and granary baguette with a side order of fresh veg. I just really fancied it.

That Caesar salad…oh it was HEAVENLY.

I inhaled it I was so hungry. Perfect post-race food.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Bristol Half Marathon. It’s probably my second favourite race. Cheddar Gorge half is still my top as it was such an adventure. But Bristol was brilliant as it was so flat, the crowds were great, I felt in the zone and Ben enjoyed it too.

From this experience I just know that half marathons are my favourite distance (so far). During a 5k and a 10k I am holding on and pushing the entire time. This didn’t feel painful. It felt refreshing and I loved it.

What’s your favourite race distance?

What’s the last race or next race you’re doing? Mine is the Great South Run in October.

Do you plan your pacing before the race? In my mind I wanted to run 7.30min/miles with a push at the end.

September 16, 2013September 16, 2013

Burgers all round

I think it should be a law somewhere that after running a half marathon (or any race really) you should get the next day off from work. I’m going to save my race recap for my next post purely because this post will just be huge otherwise.

On Saturday morning I woke up at 6am (whhhhhy??) but decided to just stay all snug and warm and doze a little rather than get up out of bed. I ended up laying in bed just thinking for an hour. Planning what I needed to do, obsessing over the race the next day…stupid stuff you really don’t need to ponder over for that long. Anyway I then fell asleep at 7 until my alarm went off at 7.30am for Parkrun. Ben and me headed there with a friend and the weather was chilly but not raining so that was good. Perfect race conditions.

I was happy with this! The first mile felt OK, then the next two just felt like a hard slog. My intention had been a negative split. Yeah that clearly didn’t work out haha.

Then we headed home, had breakfast, got all the house work done, had lunch…then drove up to Bristol. I was shattered!!

We were staying with one of my uni friends and her fiancé (and their adorable pug, Doug).

Look at that face. How cute is he??

When we arranged it ages ago my friend, Kate, suggested we go to the local pub for dinner. Perfect! When we driving up I asked Ben what he’d fancy tonight to eat (am I the only person that does this? Start looking forward to a meal hours in advance??) He wasn’t bothered (typical Ben – he doesn’t get excited about these things). I said I just really fancied a chunky beef burger.

Anyway, when we’re there Kate said they’ve had a change of mind about dinner. They wanted to take us somewhere else. I was intrigued. They wanted to take us to a place called Atomic Burger. How weird is that?? I hadn’t told them my burger desire. Very strange. I was clearly very up for it.

Unfortunately Atomic Burger was fully booked (*shakes fist at better organised people who pre-book*). But we found a lovely little pub and we all ordered burgers as that’s all we could think about.

It was amazing. I had mine with bacon and it rocked my world. But the chips (fries) were served in a ramekin. A RAMEKIN of chips. That’s what you serve a handful of nuts in. Not chips. We were all quite disgruntled so I ordered a side of chips (“can I get a side of chips with my, er, chips?”) and it came out in a bowl. So we were all suitably full and Ben and me fuelled for the next day.

We ended up chatting for ages after the meal. So nice to catch up with them! And the funny thing was that Kate’s fiancé, Jamie, is exactly like me with food. He gets really excited about cooking and eating. We both could talk for hours about our favourite meals. Whereas Kate and Ben were just indifferent. We concluded that if Ben and Kate lived together they’d probably starve or be malnourished, whereas Jamie and me would be massively obese haha.

They then pumped up the world’s largest air bed. When I say they pumped it up, by that I mean they turned it out and it self inflated. Genius.

It took over their lounge pretty much.

It was very comfortable! Exactly what you need the night before a race.

The next morning we got up at 6.30am and had breakfast with them (they’re strange people who get up ridiculously early at the weekend) and then headed to the Park and Ride to get to the race start.

Now it’s back to work and back to reality…for four days. Then Mexico – which looks crazy with all the storms. Uh oh!

Do you have a pre-race ritual you always do? It’s always harder when you’re not at home so you can’t eat exactly what you want, go to bed at a perfect time or sleep in your own bed, but it was so lovely to see our friends that it just made us less nervous and we really relaxed.

Do you get really excited about food or are you not that bothered? Jamie and I got really into a conversation where we were discussing our ‘last day on Earth’ meal. BBQ ribs. Yes.

What’s your perfect burger? Mine is a big home-made beef burger with lots of toppings, like bacon, ketchup, lettuce, tomatoes…goat’s cheese. Anything goes really Though I do like chunky veggie burgers.