Nandos - AnnaTheApple

February 16, 2015

A good normal weekend

Hello Monday! Hope you all had a lovely weekend, ours felt like old times again. The holiday is a distant memory sadly (one week of work pretty much wipes away all that joy away…).

This weekend started with a delicious meal of ribs. I’d love to say I marinated them myself but I didn’t. I just saw them in Tesco and spontaneously bought them. Though I have ribs on my recipe to do list for definite.

Both Ben and I agreed that though it said it was for two, you could have easily eaten one pack on your own. The portion size was a bit measly (though I might still be distorted by my holiday…). With the sweet potato fries though it worked OK, it was just slightly disappointing.

Saturday morning both Ben and I got ready for parkrun. I’ll do a post on my running (and Ben’s injury update) soon I promise (if you’re even interested!). As a cliff notes version, my running is going very well. I’m running three times a week while also going to the gym three times a week doing lots of bootcamp/strength and conditioning style routines. I feel less pressure and more love for running than I have in ages. It helps that I’m loving the gym and get a real sweat on there that I don’t feel the need to run as often as I used to as I know I’m getting stronger in other areas that will help my running. I’m still happy with my decision of deferring London as it would immediately panic me and pressure me to hit certain mileage as it’s so soon…but I do have races in the future lined up.

So parkrun. We helped set-up and there was much love for Ben returning which is always nice. I decided to push it as all my other runs have been easy. The course is the hardest one (the winter course) where, because it’s three laps, there are a total of six hills you need to get through (over?). I’m not really in a good running shape but felt like it was a sustained effort and a great workout to help get back to where I used to be. Third lady and 22:35 which I was over the moon with.

I also got my hair cut. This is monumental news as the last time I got it cut was April 2013 (THIS post). I tend to notice when it needs a cut because my arms start severely aching when I’m blow-drying. I was rather apologetic to the hairdresser but she said it actually didn’t look that bad for the length of time I’ve left it. I suppose there’s a compliment there? Anyway instead of being a cheapskate I actually paid for a quality cut rather than the cheaper place I usually go for…hairdressers were called technicians and the power doesn’t cut half way through a blow-dry!!

That being said, it still looks pretty much the same just a bit shorter! At least my arms will be happy…

Ah yes it was Valentine’s Day as well wasn’t it? Ben and me aren’t romantic and lovey-dovey so this passed us by. It’s also my dad’s birthday so we popped over to see my parent’s and treat them to a nice coffee in a lovely little tea room in Lee-on-Solent called The Tea Party.

We decided to forgo afternoon tea as we’ve all got back from a holiday and Ben and me have said February is a more ‘sensible’ (read: boring) month. I can assure you though, I found it hard to stop staring at the BEAUTIFUL cakes and it’s definitely an afternoon tea location to be trialled soon!

They serve alcohol as well so my mum had a lovely little glass of Prosecco in a baby sham glass as well as her tea, as you do. I stuck with a latte.

It was a lovely catch up and mourning of our respective holidays!

Sunday I went for a really good six mile run. It was one of those runs that just felt good. I felt strong, in the zone and found myself going faster than I had intended. I let myself off for it as six miles isn’t that far, but for my future Sunday runs I will really ensure to run slow – probably a good 40-50 seconds slower than I ran. I will take no chances this time around! I’m trying not to make the same stupid mistakes I always seem to make. I’m always climbing the mileage v.e.r.y. slowly; next week is seven miles for my long run, for example, while keeping the other runs the same.

I got back, wolfed down breakfast, chilled for a bit and then met up with Nathan for a 17 mile bike ride.

Hideous selfie

Ay, ay, ay! When you haven’t ridden in so long it is tough. We did our usual route and we both slower (as you can expect) than previously. It was a tough ride but I really enjoyed it. I felt shattered when I got in. But a good NON-BROKEN shattered. I won’t be cycling every week but once in a while it’s nice to get out there.

Then obviously we all went to Nando’s…kind of standard I suppose. I forgot how filling a whole chicken is, but I was not defeated!

Then the afternoon involved ironing and watching Belle (very good film) and going to be stupidly early as I was pooped. Good weekend 🙂 All that was missing was cake…

How was your weekend?

Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day?

How do you celebrate family member’s birthdays?

January 12, 2015

Being ill sucks and {giveaway winners}

Happy Monday everyone. I’m glad we got that rather nasty little week out of the way. The week where you just resent that you suddenly have to work again after eating mince pies and doing whatever you fancy 😉 The routine is back and we’re go go go again.

After my optimistic post on Thursday about all my lovely workouts planned for Friday and the weekend I promptly became ill. Sod’s law. Throughout Thursday I started feeling worse for wear: achy, tired and just not right. Then after a terribly night’s sleep and a failed attempt at the gym Friday morning (I ended up doing 15 minutes before realising I shouldn’t be aching and sweating as much as I was) before going home and back to bed. I was supposed to be working from home but I just called in sick instead and spent the rest of the day comatose on the sofa under a blanket watching crappy TV and films. How depressing!

Saturday I wasn’t much better (despite sleeping for 12 hours solid!) so Spin was definitely out of the question but I refused to let it ruin the whole day. We’d planned to go to Nando’s and then see The Hobbit with our friend, Nathan (who’s just returned from an epic month-long trip to Indian and Thailand). I wasn’t up for sitting in a cinema for hours so we just did Nando’s instead.

First Nando’s of 2015! It went down very nicely. The waitress laughed at me and my whole chicken but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We watched two films at home instead: Guardians of the Galaxy (very funny) and XMen: Days of Future Past (love the XMen films and really enjoyed this one). But I struggle with sitting down and not doing much else so I made sure I dragged Ben on lots of walks with Alfie despite not being 100%. I found the fresh air helped a bit, though it did shatter me more than usual. It’s funny because Ben and me are so different in that respect. He can spend the entire day just watching movies or playing the Xbox whereas I can only sit about for a while before I need to get up and do something. I drive Ben mad at times because I’ll get him to a pause something while I go off and do something to stretch my legs. I’m just an antsy person I think.

Sunday I managed to get a workout in the morning as I started feeling better. We had another lazy day (with housework of course…) which basically sums up our weekend! Next weekend will be busier with Ben’s mum’s birthday meal on Saturday evening and also we’ll probably going to the shops. We’ve done a bit of online clothes shopping before our holiday and I imagine we’ll need to take some items back or exchange for different sizes. But I much prefer to do to it this way than go to the shops hunting for clothes. I am not a natural shopper as I get fed up and frustrated. At least online you can just flick through stuff quickly and they usually have your size.

Well I really wish I had more exciting stuff to say but being ill doesn’t really give me much! I’m feeling much better this morning thankfully. Annoyingly I woke up at 4am (whhhhhhhy??) thinking it was almost time to get up (my alarm was set for 5am) and was in that weird hazy dreamy state for an hour so when my alarm did go off it wasn’t hard to get up thankfully. I got in a good hour’s workout and worked up a good sweat (I did a slight variation of my Strength Routine A and my running strength stuff).

And lastly, the two winners of the Nathan hand-held torch light giveaway are *drum roll*:…

Ken C and Liz!

Please can you send me your address to my email annatheappleblog@gmail.com and I will have the torches sent to you.

[Full disclosure: I gave each competition entrant a number and then used an online random number selector to determine the winner so it would be a fair selection]

How do you cope being ill? I hate it. I hate not being able to do anything and being useless. I tend to drink lots of squash as well as I find it quite easy on the stomach and comforting!

What restaurants do you always go back to? Nando’s is one of those easy restaurants where it’s close, it’s easy and it’s relatively inexpensive – and they do tasty whole chickens!

What films have you seen lately? I can’t wait to watch some good movies on the plane.

November 17, 2014November 17, 2014

What did you expect?

So Ben left for Hong Kong on Friday. It’s very strange without him. Mind you, it’s very tidy though 😉 He spent the weekend in Hong Kong and today he goes to China (actually he’s just arrived as I’m posting this!). I am beyond jealous and hope to be able to go out with him next time – or for us to continue a holiday on after he does his work stuff. We’ll see!

On Friday I worked from home which is always nice – especially as I got to spend the last few hours with Ben before he left. OK we were both working away on laptops but it was nice to be there with him anyway. Then I had a meeting with Kyle my running coach to discuss my training plan for London, my current running and good advice on running in general. All good stuff. And then Nando’s in the evening with some guys from the running club. I know, I know. I’m fully addicted. Anyway, it kept my mind off the fact I was now Ben-less.

Saturday morning was all the usual stuff of helping set up and doing parkrun. It was all very squelchy and wet so very tricky to get round corners. Again I wasn’t blasting it, just ‘plodding’ it. Though saying that I ran with a lovely girl from the running club whose first parkrun it was and we had decided beforehand on a pace 8-8.30mins/mile which was nice and comfortable. However on the third lap I felt us speeding up and we did the last mile in 7.20!!! I haven’t run a 7.20 in sooo long. I just don’t do any speed work or races at the moment and before Berlin I was trying to be really cautious. Needless to say it was tough. I’m very much out of racing shape at the moment, but that’s OK because I’m just base building. I want to do well at London (OK, I want to not get injured first and foremost) so taking things easy at the moment is paramount. There’s no point burning out before I’ve even got into my training.

After clearing down the parkrun bits and pieces I headed to the cafe where lots of the guys from the club were. They were doing the ballot selection for the London marathon places we’ve been allocated as a running club. I already have my place but I was there representing Ben. In the end Ben got a reserve place, which means if someone gets injured or doesn’t fancy it anymore he gets the place. He has a places at Brighton anyway so it’s not catastrophic, but it would be nice to run Lodnon together (providing Ben isn’t still injured…).

On the way back to the car I saw this little bird having a bath in a puddle which I thought was quite sweet.

One good thing about puddles I suppose!

Later on after all the usual guff of showering and housework I headed to my parent’s for a spot of afternoon tea down the beach. We’ve been to this cafe before and it’s lovely (the Tea Room in Lee-on-Solent) and very good value.

The sandwiches are delicious (I had roast chicken on granary) and the scones are the best I’ve ever had. They’re GINORMOUS and lovely and warm. Deliciously soft in the middle with good chunky raisins (sultanas?) in. And a pot of clotted cream and strawberry jam.

I immediately knew which cake I wanted as it just looked fantastic. I am a small child at heart 😉 I went for the angel cake which is a vanilla sponge with jam and butter cream and butter cream icing with hundreds and thousands all over it. I mean come on, it looks amazing, right? My parents sensibly got their cakes to take home (a slice of chocolate orange and a slice of lemon cake). But I was not to be defeated. I did however find myself in quite an intoxicating sugar coma afterwards. It was a good job we’d parked the car so far away that it meant I could have a decent walk in the fresh air to help digest!

I soon went back home to my quiet house and watched lots of easy trashy telly. I also started watching the OC again. I will happily admit I love that programme. No judgement please 😉

Sunday morning, after walking Alfie, I headed out into the lovely rain and ran 10 miles.

Happily I feel my easy pace is getting faster naturally which is always nice. My week this week was exactly the same as last week in terms of running:

Monday: 30 mins easy (3.8 miles) and strength training in gym
Tuesday: 30 mins easy (3.8 miles)
Wednesday: 30 mins easy (3.8 miles) and strength training in gym
Thursday: 30 mins easy (3.8 miles)
Friday: Off
Saturday: parkrun (3.1 miles)
Sunday: 10 miles

A total of just over 28 miles. However I do get worried when I hover around this level of mileage (I know it’s not high in comparison to a lot of other runners). I’m always terrified of injuries. So far things are OK and I think the consistency is helping rather than pushing up higher just yet. And also all my miles are easy paced which, depending how I feel that day in terms of tiredness etc., means a pace of 7.50-8.30mins/miles. My shin is still a bit grumpy from time to time but I’m hoping I’m managing it with some extra strength training, stretching, foam rolling and being sensible. FINGERS CROSSED.

So with Ben being away it was basically chicken, cake and running – what else did you expect? 😉

What do you do when your partner or family goes away?

What mileage do you think your body is naturally comfortable with?

What programmes do you love to watch?

November 3, 2014

Blisters suck (don’t worry, no photos!)

My post title’s rather grim sorry but I thought I’d give a good warning that I wasn’t going to have any actual blister photos.. I hate it when people upload war wounds on Facebook or social media without warnings.I’m quite squeamish.

Anyway before the blister talk…this weekend started off with some fun shenanigans with a bunch of friends for one of their birthdays. We started off in Pizza Express and despite my very best intentions the pudding menu lured me in…chocolate fudge cake again. Not nearly as good as Zippers I must say but I persevered. Tough times 😉

One of the guys that came out had just had DOUBLE knee surgery a couple of days ago and was walking on crutches (though he said he had been told to be in a wheelchair!) and our table was downstairs which was just ridiculous. But like a soldier he got down (and later, up) those stairs! Incredible. I couldn’t even imagine getting off the sofa let alone going on a night out.

Lots of drinking (well, a little bit of drinking for me being the biggest lightweight in the world) and dancing and I was ready for bed. It’s been quite a while since I last saw 2am! Having been up since 5.20am I was absolutely pooped.

The 5.20am wake-ups have been due to getting in my runs before work. I don’t actually mind it – I much prefer waking up early and getting it done than having it hanging over me all day. But all this running is making me tired! I was supposed to run parkrun on Saturday but that was never going to happen after a 2am night out and feeling slightly delicate meant running was totally off the agenda. Wise decision I think!

So I’ve been acquiring some rather horrendous blisters due to buying slightly more firm insoles for my trainers. They’ve absolutely savaged my feet. The problem is I keep running on them which doesn’t really help heal them…Compeed blister plasters have been a lifesaver (though ridiculously expensive!!) and I’ve even gone so far as to tape my feet up using zinc oxide tape (which I got from Amazon if you’re interested).

Lifesavers

The problem is I really need those insoles because I’m so flat footed, but getting used to them is just hell. But they are getting better thankfully.

Compeed plaster on the right, and taped up on the left

Tape does help, but honest to God it is an absolute bitch to remove afterwards, as you can imagine.

I had planned to do a local 10 mile race on the Sunday and was all but raring to go on Saturday but with my blisters still not feeling amazing and having not run further than 6 miles since the marathon I thought it would be best to give it a miss (incidentally my coach had said this to me but I had chosen to ignore him…whoops). Sensibly instead I ran 7 miles at home, knowing that if I had any issues I could get Ben to pick me up rather than embarrassingly DNFing in a race with the lame excuse of bad blisters.

The 7 miles went well, nice and relaxed running and no blister issues, but it was tough. My endurance has just plummeted. I think it was a good shout about not doing the 10 miler but I did miss the fun.

Later in the afternoon we went to Nando’s and ate lots of chicken which is always good. After getting home and walking Alfie, I was absolutely pooped. Really makes me concerned about a half marathon I’m meant to be running (not racing) in a couple of weeks. Not really sure about that anymore! If 7 miles is tough 13.1 miles isn’t going to be a walk in the park. Need to mull this over…

How was your weekend?

Have you ever had issues with blisters? What are you failsafe ways to recover from them?

Is it silly for me to do the half marathon? It’s usually a distance I’m OK with and I could get a 10 miler in this weekend…

August 18, 2014August 18, 2014

A busy weekend of all the things I love

Happy Monday lovely people. I hope you all had a great weekend.

Mine was bittersweet. Ben is sadly injured. He’s marathon training like me for Berlin (end of September, less than six weeks- PANIC). And, like I mentioned a few posts ago, he went to the Ultra 12 event and ran 4 laps of 5 miles over 12 hours. He was already slightly injured before going into it (although he hadn’t told me this – he’d only said he had a small niggle) and Ultra just pushed him over the edge. He’s seen our physio and the outcome is he’s sprained his knee and can’t run for a week and then see how it is.

This meant all plans for him running at the weekend dissolved and he was in a Dark and Shady mind space. I feel so sorry for him as I know exactly what this is like, being injured while marathon training. But he’s got so many miles in the bag already and if it’s only a week (even if it’s two or three weeks) he’ll be absolutely fine. Ben is determined and strong willed, even if he doesn’t get the training he wants he’ll still do Berlin.

But it meant Saturday I was off to parkrun on my own.

Ben decided to have a lie-in instead which I could totally understand and I went down early to help set up.

It’s always a nice crew of people who volunteer setting up so there’s always a bit of banter and good conversation which helped with me being Ben-less.

Ben and me recently got Steve Way t-shirts so I wore mine to test it out.

My not-so-pregnant-anymore running friend was at parkrun which was lovely. Ages ago I posted about how she was still running while pregnant and doing amazingly (find it HERE). Well she had her baby boy about 10 weeks ago and has been getting back into running. So when we started parkrun and she was running a good clip I decided to hang on to her a bit – it’s always easier following someone doing a good pace than doing it on your own.Karen, my not-so-pregnant-anymore friend, running next to me

I felt good on the last lap so decided to speed up a little bit and managed to get 22:08 and third female which I was chuffed about. Nice tempo run!

Then, after clearing down, it was back to the Wounded Soldier. I let him off housework duties so he could mope a bit more and then we had to dash for some coffee with Ben’s mum.

Alfie loves Ben’s mum as she always gives him doggie chocolates

Then I managed to persuade Ben to go for dinner at Nando’s for our friend, Nathan’s, birthday.

Whole chicken and double salad = perfection

Chicken and beer, what more could you need? While chomping away on chicken Ben and Nathan planned to do a swim in the morning and then a cycle. I was planning a long run so decided to join the cycle afterwards.

The next morning I got up early and did 13.1 miles. It did feel like a hard slog for the first half and from mile four onwards I started getting very thirsty. I foolishly hadn’t brought any water thinking the temperature was cool enough. I started fantasying about drinks and wondered if I could beg for water from a shop as I had no money. At 7.5 miles I realised I was quite close to Ben’s mum’s house and as it was 9.15am it wasn’t too early…I rang her and she was more than happy with me dropping by to grab some water. Bliss! Bit of a strange experience to talk to someone on the phone mid-run though!

Ignore the fact that the mile numbers don’t make sense – I stopped to stretch after the first mile and randomly stopped my Garmin completely. So annoying! The run took just under 1:50 which I’m pleased with. I felt stronger towards the end so picked up the pace a bit. It’s funny because Saturday’s parkrun the work was all happening in my lungs and heart, whereas Sunday’s run my lungs and heart felt fine, it was all to do with my legs which is how it should be I think.

After getting back and foam rolling a bit I then had breakfast and quickly changed my top to get ready to cycle with the boys.

Straight away my legs felt like lead. It was a good cycle but it was tough. Usually our 15 mile route is fine and I can speed off along the straights but honestly I felt like an old lady. But it was nice to spin the legs. When we got home it took about 10 minutes for me to take my socks off though as I was so shattered.

As Ben and Nathan went to the pub to watch the football, I showered, reluctantly walked (shuffled?) Alfie round the block and then promptly collapsed onto the sofa with half a watermelon and chilled for a bit. Then Ben returned and we headed to my parent’s for the piece de resistance…afternoon tea.

Awkwardly Ben’s football team had lost and my dad’s football team had won (same match) but they were good sports about it (whew). It also helped Ben was four beers down by the this point and like a hyperactive child.

We went to the same place we went last week (The Tea Rooms in Lee-on-Solent) and it was lovely. Roast chicken sandwiches, a beautifully tasting scone with cream and jam and carrot cake. Ben had coconut and lemon cake and my dad had Victoria sponge (my mum just had cream tea).

As we went for a walk along the seafront Ben spotted an ice cream shop and jokingly (or so I thought) said he really fancied ice cream. I called his bluff and he so he went and bought one!

By this point Ben is both hyped up on alcohol and sugar. Bouncing all around the place, climbing walls and just generally being good fun. I’m glad he was feeling in a better mood (even if it was under the influence…).

Finally a happy chappy with his ice cream 🙂

And then we headed home to crash, both from exertion and sugar, on the sofa. Another weekend complete.

When you’re feeling down, how do you make yourself happy again?

What’s your favourite ice cream? I really can’t stand the Mr Whippy ice creams, I like the proper stuff!

Have you ever cycled after a long run? Triathletes are just amazing! It was very hard.