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

October 26, 2012May 25, 2016

Refreshing my routine

I thought I’d do a short and snappy post on my new workout routine.

A few months back I used to do lots of longer runs every week (5 miles – which is quite long for me!) but then decided it would be better to vary things a bit more by doing shorter runs and more strength training (check this post out for a recap). I’ve been really enjoying this because it means I don’t get as bored. I do love running but I was finding that my runs were becoming very prescriptive and wearing. Same miles, same route, snorrrre.

Now I run no more than 3 miles and ensure I’m doing bursts of speeds and then recoveries throughout the run. This has been increasing my pace amazingly! I can now run 3 miles in under 23 mins.

I’m so chuffed! And running mainly at lunch-time rather than stupid o’clock in the morning is making me enjoy the runs more and push myself harder. I no longer think “I can’t run faster, I only woke up 10 minutes ago”. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to get my run done in the morning as it’s done and dusted, but I much prefer running in actual day-light (granted, it’s grey, drizzly and cold daylight, but I’ll take what I can in Britain!)

I still do my strength training in the morning but I get to do this in the pleasure of my warm home, usually in my pyjamas. Alfie looks at me like I’ve gone mad when I do my routines in the living room. But as I said in a previous post, this means I get 30 minutes more sleep and can still do the workouts I want. It’s a win-win situation!

Previously my strength routines have been vary random. I would find a routine on YouTube, or whatever I could remember from various sources (years ago Pump classes, Internet, other blogs). Not very structured. Now I’m getting serious.

I devised three workout routines: core, upper body and lower body. They each pretty much take 30mins to complete. In about 6 weeks I’ll change the moves to continue challenging my body. Both Jemma and Laura do this and I thought I’d follow suit as it seems like a very good idea. Also it requires less brain power in a morning to work out what I’m doing – very important!

CORE ROUTINE:

Core Workout
Plank	2.30-3mins
Side plank	1 min
Sit-ups	60-70
Bicycle sit-ups	60-70
Reverse crunches (instruction)	30-40
Vertical leg-crunch (instruction)	30-40
Seated Russian twist (instruction)	45
Wiper Plank (instruction)	46

UPPER BODY ROUTINE:

Upper Body Workout Routine (instructions)
Three sets of 12-14:
Press ups	Chest
Flat chest flies	Chest
Triceps push	Triceps
French presses	Triceps
Lateral raises	Shoulders
Upright rows	Shoulders
Hammer curls	Biceps
Single arm row	Back

LOWER BODY ROUTINE:

Lower Body Workout Routine
Three sets of 12-14:
Dumbbell squats	Legs
Dumbbell sumo squat	Legs
Lunges	Legs
Side leg raise (instruction)	Thighs
Hip-lift progression (instruction)	Butt
Toe-Taps (1-2 minutes) (Instruction)	Butt
Single-Leg, Single-Arm Reach (instruction)	Butt & core

[For the lower body squats and upper body moves I use dumbbells.]

So far these have been great. The upper body one absolutely kicked my butt. Well, it kicked my arms, shoulders, chest and back! Just opening doors was painful put it that way. As the weeks progress I’ll be upping my weights and/or repetitions to keep pushing myself.

So with running three times a week, these three routines every week and Pilates on Saturday I think I’m all set. Maybe this sounds a lot but I’m really enjoying it. I can’t not run, I know that much is true. But running alone didn’t give me a balanced workout. I’m a perfectionist, what can I say?

Soon this will all change though and I will be sticking to a training plan for the Reading Half Marathon. But this won’t be until after Christmas. Enough time for me to get bored of this routine!

And HERE’S a great site for lots of “booty-focused” exercises too. Glute strength is something that tends to get forgotten about with runners and cyclists alike so it’s quite a handy list.

How do you keep in shape?

October 24, 2012October 24, 2012

Pumpkin mad – WIAW

Hi guys! Hope your week is going well. Mine is sailing along. Work is good, home is good, Ben is great and Alfie still needs a hair cut. Well, you can’t have everything. He’s a lucky pooch at the moment for escaping this particular event. But soon…just wait, he will be smartened up whether he likes it or not!

Why I do believe it’s Wednesday! Soooo another WIAW post if you don’t mind. And I’m finally matching the Halloween theme for this month!

I love getting involved in this because it really makes me conscious that I need to eat less boring food and make things exciting, for fear of boring the hell out of you. Well, you might still find it boring but I’ve put some effort into my eats this week…so prepare yourself.

This is what I ate Sunday.

Breakfast: I thought I’d throw something new out there (new for me, not for the nine billion other bloggers who have done and dusted this a million times before).

Pumpkin pancakes! These were undeniably delicious. Ben looked at me in disgust when I told him what I was having for breakfast. I ignored him; he just doesn’t understand the pumpkin craze. I used this recipe from Ashley’s blog. OK it’s meant to be a waffle but I don’t have a waffle maker…yet. [Mother, if you are reading this –> IDEAL CHRISTMAS PRESENT]. I also didn’t have any chocolate chips but didn’t really fancy any so it worked out nicely.

I then jazzed them up with some raspberries and peanut butter sauce.

I was stuffed. I wasn’t hungry for hours! And they were so simple to make.

For lunch I wanted to use my little munchkin to make a quick soup. I roasted up the chopped munchkin (sounds a bit harsh doesn’t it?) and a couple of carrots while slowly sweating some diced onion in a pan with some garlic. Then I threw the roasted veg in with the onion.

I added some vegetable stock and some spices (cumin, a touch of cinnamon and nutmeg, lots of pepper). I simmered until it all smelt yummy and the veg was completely soft. Then I whizzed it up with a hand-held blender.

I sprinkled some pumpkin seeds on top but I hadn’t roasted them yet so they look a bit feeble to be honest. But the soup was very tasty. Warm and filling! Ideally I would have liked to have had a chunky slice of rye bread alongside but realised I didn’t have any (bad planning) so had to do with three rice cakes but added some Philadelphia to make them taste less like cardboard.

Not nearly as exciting but not too shabby actually. Dipped in the soup it worked out quite well. So a bit excessive on the pumpkin front, but tasty none-the-less.

Dinner: I decided to try a new recipe that I’d found here. Such an easy recipe with ingredients that I adore (hello goat’s cheese obsession).

Basically it’s sliced cherry tomatoes, fresh thyme, chicken, goat’s cheese and a splash of olive oil. In the oven for 30mins (or until the chicken is cooked through).

I served mine up with a corn on the cob that I got from the farm shop.

And for Ben I made some garlic bread (as we’d run out of our usual stash from the freezer).

Granted, it does just look like dry toast with bits on it. But I soaked the bread in some butter that I’d ‘infused’ with garlic and then oven baked. He said it tasted amazing and that’s all I care about!

Snack-wise was usual. An apple, a banana, another apple, Snack a Jacks, maybe another apple (who’s counting anyway??).

For my fitness I’ve changed my routine. Shocking news, I know. It’s just too damn difficult to get up half-way through the night at 5.30am. I’ve moved my runs to lunchtime. This actually came about because a woman at work who knows I run and wanted to start running at lunchtime and invited me along. I wasn’t too sure but thought I’d give it a try. I still do my strength training in the morning (three times a week) but I can start half an hour later because I’m not running the morning. Woohoo! And believe me, there is a BIG difference between getting up at 5.30am and getting up at 6am.

Anyway I was ready to run but unfortunately she was suffering from a cold. So I thought I’d still go and ‘check the scene’ you know – the lay of the land and find a route and see how it went. It went amazingly! I got a personal best time for 3 miles – 22mins 30secs!! Despite the fact that the hills around where I work are a NIGHTMARE.

OK, it doesn’t look so bad in the photo. But let me tell you, IT KILLED ME. Anyway, the next day I was aching like crazy – which I haven’t done after a run in ages.

The shower at work is, er, adequate…

Not too bad I suppose! So the verdict is, I prefer now to run during work. It’s so nice to get out in the fresh air at lunch time. It makes me feel less bitter and grumpy at the world in the morning – I’m in a less dark and twisty place And gone are my slug dodging mornings.

The change in routine is working out really well. I do three sets of strength training a week (more to come on that in another post), two runs a week at work, one at home (so I can push Ben out of bed and come with me) and then Pilates at the weekend. Whew.

So good food, good runs, happy Anna!

When do you work out? Morning? Evening? During work?

What have you been eating and loving recently?

October 22, 2012

Pumpkins, Pilates and Cinderella

And it’s Monday again! One week closer to Christmas…

This weekend was great. We didn’t really ‘do’ anything but we got a lot done, if that makes sense. Basically, we had no plans to go anywhere but we had a lot of chores to get on with. Mundane things like getting the car washed, then cleaning and vacuuming the inside, putting things up the loft, taking clothes to the Army and Navy… Yep, exciting stuff. I’m a married lady now, this is my life now! And I love it! It’s just nice to get all those niggling jobs done that have been driving me mad. I’m a bit of an obsessive cleaner so I’m in my element.

I saw my sister, brother-in-law and their little girl, Ellie. We gave her her present from Disney World (a Barbie Cinderella) and she was over the moon. Though I ended up having to speak for the Barbie in a ‘princess voice’ for longer than comfortable period of time. Though I think I got off lightly, Ben was her human climbing frame haha.

I also went to a local farm shop to buy a pumpkin. I could have bought so much veg but I refrained as I’m pretty sure Ben would get fed up eating squashes every night…

So I just bought a large pumpkin, a mini pumpkin (a munchkin!) and a corn on the cob. All for under a fiver. Bargain!

How cute is that little thing?? I just had to buy it. For 30p you can hardly not, right? I made a delicious soup with that little guy – which I will share for WIAW soon.

Last week we decided to have a bit of a different meal for Friday night. We tend to have more exciting meals on Friday and Saturday just because it’s the weekend. So I bought some chunky pork ribs from the butchers and a jar of BBQ sauce (I was feeling lazy – I know I could have easily made one myself…next time). So Friday morning I marinated the ribs in the sauce and put it in the fridge. I wasn’t too sure how to cook ribs to be honest so I Googled it as work. FIVE HOURS they said to cook it. Well, that isn’t going to happen for sure! So I found a ‘quick’ recipe for an hour and a half. OK, fair enough, ribs are probably better slow roasted but I’m a busy hungry girl and I really wanted them Friday night. You know when you just really fancy something? Anyway, that evening after roasting them for a ridiculously long time in the oven (almost 2 hours) they were done (or if they weren’t, I didn’t care by this point. It was either uncooked ribs or my own arm that I would have eaten at this point).

They were pretty yummy I have to say. We had one and a half ribs each. I had some veg on the side while Ben had some garlic bread. Thumbs up.

On a food-related side-tangent…I’ve been really enjoying my salads as of late as well. I tend to throw in whatever really, and usually a bit of fruit. Recently it’s plums or mainly figs but I’ve just bought a mango so I’m really looking forward to that.

Salads left-to-right: flaked tinned salmon, goat’s cheese with fig, fried egg, more figs and mozzarella, & homemade paprika hummus and two hard-boiled eggs.

On Saturday I went to my first Pilates class. It was a one-on-one so I get the basics before actually starting a class. It was brilliant. The instructor was very good. Really good at giving direction and clearly knew her stuff! We used the reformer machine [see below picture] as well, which I was so excited about.

My legs were in the air and everything. It was crazy. The hour whizzed by. I’m going again next Saturday and I’m so excited. I wanted a less intense exercise to strengthen and stretch my muscles, and this was perfect. The only tricky part was how technical it all was. Imprinting your spine, inhaling here, exhaling there, neutral position…a lot of technical jargon that I need to master. But it’ll come I guess.

So that was pretty much it! Here’s what I’m wearing.

Blazer and belt from New Look, top from Warehouse, jeans from Top Shop.

I’m loving the blazer look – stylish while warm! The best kind of outfits in my opinion.

What did you get up to over the weekend?

Have you done Pilates before?

October 19, 2012October 19, 2012

Honeymoon–Part 2 (Colorado)

Hi guys! If you missed the first part of my recent honeymoon, please go have a read. It was a great week in Orlando Now to carry on to part two…

After Orlando, we caught a flight to Houston (random I know) and then to Colorado Springs. We spent enough time in Houston airport to need to grab some lunch. We went to Cat Cora’s Kitchen. It was very good – sweet potato fries, where have you been all my life?

[Beetroot and rocket salad with goat’s cheese on bread & fish burger with salsa and sweet potato fries]

And after checking out every single damn shop in Houston airport while we waited (for FOUR hours) we caught our fight to Colorado Springs.

For our first day we decided to go horse riding in Garden of the Gods. We felt very cowboy-esque. My horse was super speedy, while Ben’s took his sweet time.

It was an amazing day! And baking hot! I thought it’d be cold but it was so warm. It was so much fun horse riding through this beautiful scenery. Such a difference from Orlando!

We also went mountain biking twice as well. The first time it was still so hot. I got badly sunburnt (whoops). We cycled some crazy routes through the Red Rock Canyon for about 2.5 hours. We were shattered.

Check out my cool helmet!

It was quite scary at times but definitely exhilarating. We had to get off the bikes at times and walk because it got a bit precarious. I could just hear my mother’s voice in my ear telling me to go back to safety…

And the second day of biking it was freezing. It was crazy hot one day and then the temperature dropped so quickly.

[Ben was clearly too cool to wear his helmet. Safety first!]

We cycled to keep warm! We saw an elk as we were cycling along as well which was really cool. We were one with nature…careening through the wilderness.

We were intending on driving up Pikes Peaks (the main peak in Colorado) but it would have taken two hours apparently to drive it and so this is why we decided to do the biking again as we enjoyed it so much

And we did lots of walking. It was just so beautiful. Towards the end of our time there it just got so cold it was unbelievable. Really biting wind.

[That’s my ‘hurry up and take the damn photo I’m cold’ face]

We made a road trip out to the Royal Gorge Bridge as well one day. Absolute fantastic views. Though pretty much everything was closed – apparently out of season. No white-water rafting for us! We were sad but it was so cold we were quite relieved.

Food-wise was a culinary delight in Colorado. IHOP for breakfast every day, yes please!

I’d like to point out that the left-hand side are mine and the right are Ben. Don’t get me wrong, pancakes and sweet things like that are yummy for breakfast but all that cream and sauce…my stomach just turns.

The meals in Colorado were really good. For lunch one day we went to a Black-Eyed Pea for something a bit more relaxed and ‘lunchy’. I got a turkey meal with two added vegetable sides (my kinda sides!)

It looks like a crazy roast dinner! And a little portion of cranberry sauce on the side. I think the bready thing in the corner was cornbread. It didn’t taste very healthy but it was very good!

For dinner one night we went to a Mexican restaurant and, unsurprisingly, the meal was HUGE, but very yummy.

Spiced pork with pineapple, rice, black beans, guacamole, sour green, salsa and a rolled tortilla in the foil. I just don’t understand how someone can eat all of that?? I gave it my best effort.

[Thought I’d do a little before and after!]

I didn’t even make a stab at the tortilla. Poor effort maybe, but I think I did pretty well!

I’ve shown quite a few of the meals I’ve had on the honeymoon and most of them probably weren’t that healthy (hello, turkey leg). But I think it’s important to relax a bit on holiday and try things you might not have normally. We were fairly active and we didn’t go absolutely mad so I think the ‘damage’ is fairly minimal. My jeans still fit and that’s all that matters! I can’t be one of those people who goes on holiday and worries and frets and not enjoy myself. I know I eat healthily at home and I exercise so I knew when I got home things would balance out. That’s not to say that if Pinkberry became available in Southampton I wouldn’t have it every ~~day~~ week…

Other than lots more sight-seeing, walking, eating and just having fun, that’s pretty much it! And the perfect end to the holiday was on the flight home:

I slept well on that flight

So that’s my recap! We had an amazing time. We really had fun together, a little adventure if you like. And we’re so excited about the future and our life together (sorry, a bit sappy).

I hope you enjoyed it! Has anyone else been to Colorado?

October 17, 2012January 5, 2017

Holiday best eats

Happy Wednesday! Are we there already? I don’t know why but I feel in quite a happy place.

I like being back in my routine as well. Sad I know but that’s me I guess!

So for this WIAW I thought I’d do a What I ate Wednesday on our holiday that I really enjoyed (and mourn over not being able to have any more). [Check out Jenn’s blog for more info on WIAW!]

Breakfast: Though I love my porridge, IHOP breakfasts in Colorado were amazing. We went there every day for breakfast. The staff were so friendly and lovely. After the first day of us saying we were on our honeymoon they remembered us and asked each day what we were up to and divulged some inside tips.

Most mornings I’d have whole-wheat toast, scrambled egg, turkey bacon and fruit. Obviously with the amazingness that is sugar-free syrup.

But then on a day when I knew we wouldn’t be having lunch until a lot later, I went for something a bit more extravagant.

Waffles with blueberries!! Oh these were so good. I want a waffle-maker now. I don’t care that we don’t have the space in our teeny tiny kitchen. I want one.

So breakfast was pretty damn tasty. And refills on coffee. Heaven. Now, I think it’s only right that I share what Ben ate as well…purely for comparison purposes…

Yep, both those plates are his. He loved it. Apparently the crêpes were his pudding.

For lunch one day we went to a great Mediterranean restaurant (also in Colorado) called Café Caspian. Normally once a day we’d have a big meal where we’d have a starter and a main and usually that was dinner, but when we checked the menu out we knew we just had to have the sharing meze platter to start.

[Sorry for the bad photo. The lighting wasn’t the best!]

Honestly, this was epic. Hummus, sundried tomatoes, vine leaves stuffed with some crazily yummy rice concoction, olives, falafels… The only problem was that it was huge and I still had a main course to go. So we had to be selective and couldn’t possibly eat it all. So good though.

Then for main I’d gone for a salad (which after that beast of a starter I was quite relieved).

But still it was a monster! Avocado, chicken, feta, almonds, olives…all my protein in one meal basically. Honestly, I wish I could eat this every day.

Dinner: But the absolute best place we ate was in Orlando – so good we went there twice. Seasons 52.

When they seated us they asked us where we were from because of our accents and if it was a special occasion. We said it was our honeymoon. Then the waiter brought us champagne!!

So lovely (notice how quickly Ben’s disappeared haha). And the menu was fantastic. I literally could have had anything off of it. The specials change every week due to the changing seasons (hence the name), which is brilliant! For starter I had a chicken skewer with apple slaw:

It was huge though – honestly, is that a starter?? I was full when I’d finished that (too good to leave any).

For main I’d chosen a vegetarian selection platter:

How amazing does that look? There were roasted sprouts, a stuffed pepper, marinated tofu, roasted butternut squash, a wholemeal tortilla with black beans and guacamole…etc. Presentation alone ranks this high up on my list of amazing dinners. I almost (almost) regretted having a starter. I tried to eat as much of everything as I could but I’m sad to say I couldn’t eat it all – honestly, I’d give a prize to anyone who could eat both that starter and the main with no issues!

And how can you say no to pudding when the waiter brings out a selection tray to show you, despite saying “Oh no I’m waaay too full”??

And they’re only ever so tiny… This delectable delight was pumpkin pie with a ginger snap crust. Perfectly in season, wouldn’t you agree?

Needless to say I was STUFFED. Alongside my meal I’d decided to treat myself to a cocktail (because I had all that spare space to fill, you know). I went for a Superfruit Martini (Veev Açai Spirit, Pom pomegranate-blueberry juice with organic agave nectar). Seriously, that sounds like an Anna drink.

The waiter even left the cocktail shaker for me to top it up with the ‘left-overs’. I was so excited. I took a sip and almost died. I have literally never tasted anything worse in my life. It was like nail polish remover. I tried to get Ben to drink it but even he wouldn’t have it. I started to panic. The waiter had made such a song and dance about it and I had acted so excited. I just couldn’t drink it though. I thought about pouring it inconspicuously into my water but Ben forbade me (yep, forbade). So after panicking and faffing I thought I’d just tell the waiter it wasn’t my thing and apologise (I know this sounds ridiculous but the waiter had just been so lovely the whole night and was so pleased with my selection). Anyway while I was faffing, the waiter popped over quickly and said “How’s the cocktail?” and I just automatically said “Oh yes it’s lovely, thank you.” Ben just stared at me as if I’d gone mad. “Well there goes your plan”. Damn.

Well in the end I decided just to leave it and SAY NOTHING. I’m such a numpty! Looking back it’s funny now how much I panicked. The waiter probably wouldn’t have cared. But I didn’t want to look like an idiot and also have the risk of him saying he’d take it off the bill and get in trouble or something. It was my foolish mistake for choosing a martini. It’s not like it was going to taste like a smoothie, duh Anna.

So as you can see, the honeymoon was filled with massive amounts of food so many yummy foods. It’s definitely given me some inspiration to make some crazy recipes. Also made me realise I have irrational urge to eat waffles. All. The. Time. That’s normal right?

Fitness-wise…it’s been tough, I’m not gonna lie. 5.30am is not an Anna-friendly time to get up and run after being on a break for two weeks – though I haven’t slacked. But I have some plans on jazzing things up a bit so stay-tuned for a post coming up where I go into a bit more detail (including my up and coming half-marathon training plan).

Hope you enjoyed my holiday eats – I sure did!