parkrun - AnnaTheApple

March 23, 2015March 23, 2015

Running and cake

I know this is so damn clichéd and boring to start with but I don’t care – how amazing is the weather right now?? I’m not sure what it’s like elsewhere in the UK (or world in general I suppose) but in the South Coast of England it is SPRING. The weekend’s weather was beautiful. This is my favourite time of year – such hope of things to come and better days.

My weekend started with a fabulous parkrun at Netley Abbey. It was Netley’s third parkrun birthday so it was all very festive and fun with a Hawaiian fancy dress theme.

I was devastated when I couldn’t find my grass skirt – I love a good fancy dress run! I loved how everyone really got into the theme (though I failed miserably).

And it was lovely weather – a little chilly but beautifully sunny.

We were on the same course but a slight variation. Well, I say slight but really this meant instead of having to deal with six hills (two hills three times) we only had to deal with three hills (one hill three times). I decided to see what had to give on a less hilly course.

I wore my new Jabra Sport Rox ear buds on this run and though I do find them a bit fiddly to fit in my ear snugly (it takes a bit of patience, of which I’m not known for!) when they’re in they are IN. It is great to run without having a wire dangling about you and getting caught on your arms. The sound quality is amazing as well (they’re made with Dolby). I’ll do a thorough review of them soon.

Photo credit to Kookie51

I can’t believe how good I felt on this run. Yes it was tough in terms of keeping the legs and breathing going but I felt like I was gliding. I also only looked at my watch three times (once per bleep of the mile) – this is MASSIVE for me. Normally I watch my watch like a hawk. I clung on to a running club friend, Mark, who had overtaken me at the start and I vowed to keep in my sights.

Photo credit to Kookie51

On the last lap I managed to overtake him and speed off but I’d judged it badly and had kicked too soon as he pipped me at the finish when I had nothing left. I might have shouted some abuse at him as he sped past (all good natured of course) but he played it well so kudos to him!

I managed to get first lady (though a lot of people were saving their legs for the Eastleigh 10k the next day) and a time of 21:05 which is the fastest parkrun time since October 2013 according to the parkrun website. Jeeze somewhat depressing but also great to know I’m getting back on track. It’ll be interesting to see how I perform on a flatter parkrun.

After parkrun and usual housework duties, I headed off to my parents to spend some quality time with them. We had a lovely walk down the beach with their three dogs and my Alfie (madness, absolute madness walking four dogs) and enjoyed the fantastic weather.

Lee-On-Solent beach

We enjoyed a nice Indian take-away that evening and I even suffered through The Voice (*sighs*) though I did have my Runner’s World Magazine and my iPad!! I’m not sure I would have survived otherwise.

The next morning I got up and set off on my 12 mile run. I ran along the beach path which was wonderfully quiet with just the odd dog walker and fellow runner. My run just felt fantastic. My legs felt good and my pace felt easy. I’m getting highly confused with how I should be running these runs at the moment – terrified I’m dicing with potential injuries.

Average pace 7.52min/mile with a total time of 1:37:42. I attempted to slow down but when I looked at my watch later on the pace had crept up again. I’m just going with it. I won’t be able to sustain this pace for the longer runs so I might as well enjoy it now. I know this might sound ridiculously stupid but honestly that run felt brilliant and today I don’t feel ruined or exhausted. But I know my main issue is not keeping these runs slower.

After this I got home, stretched and foam rolled and had breakfast. A bit later on I went out with my mum and enjoyed a lovely walk, again down the beach. I feel so bad for my mum at the moment as she had such a painful back. She’s been seeing a physio and he’s had to refer her for an MRI as he thinks she has a bulging disc. She has such bad nerve pain all down her back, hip and leg. She finds sitting down for too long excruciating and has to take strong painkillers. It’s awful to see someone you love in so much pain, and you can’t do anything to help. As she said walking helps a bit, we walked down the beach and then cheered ourselves up with a lovely afternoon tea. Oh it’s been too long!!

The Tea Room in Lee

We umm’ed and arr’ed between the Victoria sponge and red velvet and in the end decided to go for the Victoria sponge. My mum went for a scone and slice of cake as she didn’t fancy the sandwiches but I went for the whole hog, so to speak.

And it was fabulous. The scones are so huge and tasty, they really are the best part I think (slathered in jam and cream). I had delicious chicken sandwiches as well.

Very scrumptious indeed.

So all in all: good running, good cake and lovely time with my family.

How was your weekend?

Have you ever had back pain?

Do you enjoy fancy dress’? Running or otherwise!

March 9, 2015

Feeling strong and an uncomfortable watch

The weather this weekend! It gives me good vibes 🙂 OK it was still a bit nippy, and very windy on Saturday but the dark days are behind us!

Friday morning I had one of those gym seshes that just felt AWESOME. I got in some plié squats, box jumps and scorpions amongst other things. If you’ve never done scorpions they are killers – THIS link is from Runners World and it gives a good demo and also a good list of strength moves.

Rocking the Helly Hansen leggings with my ankle weights – hot stuff 😉

I’m still enjoying the gym and maybe it’s all in my head but I do feel stronger in my running and in general. I’ll need to think carefully about how much gym I do when I get into higher marathon mileage though. But that’s ages away!

Waking up on Saturday morning and looking out the window to decide what to wear for parkrun made me smile. No jacket required! Long-sleeve top yes, but no double layers. Woohoo! Though I was wrapped up fairly warm for helping the guys set up the course.

Let’s not get too optimistic yet. And we’re still on the winter course until the cricket pitch gets drier *sighs*.

8am and the sun is peeping through

My parkrun went well. I put in a good amount of effort but the wind made this feel so much tougher. We run alongside the waterfront for a bit and the wind was just awful. But I felt strong and though I wasn’t that much faster than two weeks ago (my last parkrun effort) I’m starting to feel more confident that I’m going in the right direction. I got 21:57 and first lady (but a many of the speedy girls weren’t there to be fair).

Mentally I feel really good about running at the moment. I’m loving it! Though, as ever, I do feel there is the Sword of Damocles hanging above my head for my next injury but so far I’ve not experience any niggles or issues during or after, bar the usual and normal aches of running. I think I just need to continue thinking positive and keep being sensible.

The rest of Saturday involved looking after (or at least, leaving be) my very hung-over husband who had gone out the night before with work. It was mildly amusing but I did feel bad for him. He remained on the sofa the majority of the day.

For lunch I whipped myself up a stir-fry style meal.

Basically it’s a load of veggies (kale being a big contender here) stir-fried in coconut oil with fish from a frozen fish pie mix (random but gives a nice selection of different fish and something I always have in the freezer). I then added a dollop of cream cheese to give it a delicious creamy sauce. All on a bed of courgette noodles (or at least what I can attempt with a vegetable peeler…). I don’t think the picture does it justice to how huge this portion was! Got my 5 a day in one meal 😉

That evening we watched Nightcrawler which was a really uncomfortable watch.

Source

It was really good, don’t get me wrong. Just very intense and I spent most of the movie cringing and shouting at the telly. I do recommend though. Jack Gyllenhall…I see you very differently now!

Sunday I got up feeing refreshed and ready to hit the road for a nine mile run. I decided to just run whatever the hell pace I wanted (within reason as I did need to finish the run in one peace and not destroyed). More like, I just wanted to run at a pace that felt comfortable and not pushing.

I didn’t feel totalled at the end of the run which was nice, but I was so thirsty. Quite funny considering my post about hydration last week! I think it’s going to be a lot sooner that I’ll need to take water with me. On my last mile I was just visualising a cold glass of water. When I got home I quickly downed about 500ml. It wasn’t a pleasant experience as it hit my stomach quite badly and I felt quite sick (that sloshy full sicky feeling). Too much water too quickly – lesson learnt!

On the subject of long runs, one of my running club friends, Michelle, pointed me to an article (HERE from the Guardian) regarding long run paces when training for a marathon which I found highly interesting. It made me wonder how much I’ll slow down for my longer runs. I will slow down, but not dramatically for the 10-15 mile runs as I know I’m confident in those distances. It’ll be the 16+ runs where I take it nice and gradual…but then I’m hoping by the time I get there I’ll be naturally faster anyway? Well, it’s all a guessing game for me and whether I even do an 18 mile run is a bit of a question mark anyway!

The rest of the day involved the usual: lots of walks with Alfie, housework, seeing my mum and just general chilling! Lovely 🙂

How was your weekend?

What pace do you run for your long runs relative to your shorter runs?

What movies have you seen lately?

March 5, 2015

Fitness on holiday (and a US parkrun)

Again, apologies: dragging out the holiday and also taking so long to recap the US parkrun!

In the blogging world of health and fitness I know I’m in good company, but in the real world going to the gym and/or running on holiday is absurd. Why go on holiday and tire yourself out with a workout? You’re there to relax and get away from it all, right?

To an extent I agree, but keeping fit and running is part of who I am and to not do that out of choice for two weeks actually isn’t something I’d want to do. Plus there’s nothing more satisfying than enjoying all that good food knowing you’ve got some good fitness going on too (though I can hardly imagine my workouts made a dent in what I ate in Orlando!)

I must admit, the friends we went to Orlando at first thought we were mental. They literally didn’t understand. Jamie even joked he’d stand by the gym window with a cheeseburger waving at us. I felt embarrassed going to the gym or admitting I went for a run, but Ben told me not to be so stupid. It’s just who I am and that’s that.

It was tough at times though as I had to get up very early to go to the gym because we wanted to have breakfast and then get to the parks when they opened (usually 9am). But it was something I was happy to do (and actually helped with the jet lag).

The Jack La Lanna Gym

The gym in the Orlando hotel, Cabana Beach Bay Resort, was incredible. It was huge and very well equipped. It was literally heaven!

It’s funny because even the walk to the gym was a bit of an effort itself as the hotel is huge – it definitely helped with my step count!

I went to the gym equipped with a routine of what I’d do so I wouldn’t waste precious holiday time floating around like a lost cloud.

The gym in Dallas was a lot smaller! Just six machines, free weights and a mat area. But it got the job done. Plus it also helped that it was on the second floor and our room was the 12th floor. I would walk up the stairs after a workout and would be absolutely totalled by the end.

I ran four times in Orlando and once in Dallas.

Post run selfie back in the Orlando hotel

Orlando was easier because the area around the hotel was very safe and there were long stretches of safe, lit pavements to run along. But it did mean very boringly straight out and back runs.

Obviously the best run was the Orlando parkrun (Clermont Waterfront parkrun).

Stood the wrong way for our “BenAnna” nickname to work…

It was about 30 minutes from our hotel and it started at 7.30am so we left at 6.30am. I assume it starts earlier because of the heat (in fact they start at 7am in summer). Though the temperature was similar to a British spring morning so very pleasant to Ben and me but not to the natives who were shivering in their long leggings 😉 All tourists (in the real sense of the word) signed their names on a board: name, where they came from and their local parkrun location. There were only 55 runners, but the run director I spoke to said in the peak times of summer they can have up to 80, and a lot of international runners like ourselves on holiday. There were clearly lots of regulars as there was banter and a very strong community vibe. The course was explained clearly and we felt extremely welcome and comfortable (while also making friends with some Welsh runners – what a small word, eh?).

The run itself was a sort of out and back and pancake flat. How I wish I had been in good running shape to really blast it…I did give it my all though and it was probably the fastest I’d run in a good few months!

My time was 22:30, third lady – though I definitely felt it (and easy to place well when there are less runners)! I got a horrendous stitch on the last mile though which made breathing difficult. I very rarely get this so it really annoyed me. Ben had a great comeback run too as one of his first parkruns in a while (24:38 – nicely done!). We were graciously invited to the coffee shop afterwards but unfortunately we had to dash back as this was on the Pig Fest day. This was a brilliant parkrun though!

Another great run was in Dallas. We drove out to a beautiful park called White Rock Lake. We decided to aim for an afternoon run as it was just easier, though this did mean I got a bit of a stitch (again) as we had eaten lunch only an hour or so beforehand.

We ran a route alongside the lake and back again (we couldn’t have run the whole way around as it was huge!) and we saw so many other runners, power walkers and dog walkers. It was lovely. The scenery was beautiful and it was just a lovely four mile run. We chatted away and didn’t care about pace.

So there you have it. We kept ourselves relatively fit on holiday but didn’t get stressed about it. I’ve written down some tips below that I found helpful if you were thinking of exercising on holiday, hope they help!

GYM: Check the hotel has the amenities you want before you book, and see if you can find photos of the gym or reviews from websites like Trip Advisor. I knew that the Dallas gym would be small so I came prepared with lots of workout ideas in case they didn’t have the equipment I needed. I also had a quick look at the gym the evening before I went. I was going to go early the next morning and didn’t want to be surprised by what I found.
GYM: Different countries use different weight metrics. I made sure before I went I knew what my current kilogram weights were in pounds ready for America.
GYM: Bring a water bottle. Luckily both gyms had a purified water cooler so I could top my bottle up when I got in there rather than continually buying lots of bottled water.
GYM: Consider doing some hand-washing in your hotel room. I bought some cheap detergent from a supermarket there and took my ‘smalls’ hanger with me and used the other hangers for bigger items. So I didn’t have to pack a different outfit for every run or gym sesh and I didn’t want sweaty stuff hanging about in my suitcase for days on end.

My very handy smalls hanger (stereotypically pink…)

RUNNING: Do some research of the area of your hotel. Can you safely run around it? Are there any parks? Orlando was fine (albeit SO boring – long straight roads) but Dallas was in the centre of the city and it would have been a nightmare with the number of traffic light crossings.
RUNNING: Alternatively, research for nice parks or trail areas to run (best way to see the sights!)
RUNNING: Bring a charger for your Garmin.
RUNNING: Know what time sunset/sunrise is so you’re not out in the dark unseen – or bring reflective gear with you.
And most important: don’t set things in stone. You are after all on holiday and big meals, late nights and upset tummies are likely to happen. If you want to work out and can then great, but if you can’t then don’t beat yourself up about it!

Do you work out on holiday or do you take a complete break?

Have you had any amazing runs in foreign countries?

Do you use hotel gyms?

March 2, 2015

Sometimes weekends need to be like this…

This weekend was one of those weekends that just ticked all the right boxes. It was so good. I went to Bristol, saw my friends, ate tons of rubbish, did a bit of running and just enjoyed it all. In a very cheesy sentence: let’s start from the top!

I worked from home on Friday and had our meal planned out for that evening. It was going to be one of the Hello Fresh meals and I was looking forward to it. But as the evening drew in I felt myself wanting something a bit ‘naughty’ and Ben’s gym plans fell through…so I might have made the very quiet suggestion that we could just get another Indian take-away as the weekend before’s was so rubbish. Ben heartily agreed. We chose a better Indian restaurant this time and it was PERFECT. And satisfied my primal need for meat…

I had chicken tikka and half a chicken tandorri with lots of onion salad and some poppadoms. It doesn’t look wholly appealing in the photo I grant you, but honestly it hit the spot. Though my tummy did not appreciate such an onslaught of onions.

On a different note, I’m very excited and very grateful to say that I’ve been selected to help promote a campaign that the Running Bug are launching. They’ve teamed up with the stylish fitness brand Helly Hansen to host their first ever ‘Running Bug fashion week’ and have sent me a selection of gear to try out and to spread the message that working out doesn’t have to mean not looking good. Yes it might sound a bit superficial but I’m a big believer that work out gear doesn’t have to be purely functional. Like with everyday clothes, I want to look good doing what I enjoy. I also like to wear crazy bright colours and different prints that I probably couldn’t get away with in normal life!

You wouldn’t believe how long this photo took to take as Alfie kept walking into it bless him

So when the kit arrived on Friday I might have jumped around the living room a little bit and annoyed Ben with all my excessive excitement and trying everything on IMMEDIATELY. And this will sound stupid but I was actually pleased it was raining on Saturday morning as it meant I could try out the jacket and capris combo for my run. I switched my long run from Sunday to Saturday as I was away in Bristol for Saturday night so I ran to parkrun (5 miles) and then did parkrun (3 miles) to make it to eight miles. Perfect.

The weather was appalling. I was absolutely soaked by the time I arrived at parkrun. I only had less than 10 minutes to wait until it began but it was enough to make me a bit nippy! As soon as parkrun began my brain tried to take over and get into parkrun mentality but I held myself back and tried to run slower.

Muddy, slippy and wet but good fun

Though to be fair, by the time the second lap (my 7th mile) came about I was getting tired and would have crashed if I’d have attempted to have gone faster anyway! My average pace for the entire ‘long’ run was 7.56mins/mile which is too fast for a long run (I say this every week I know) but I’m putting this down to parkrun not helping!

Ben was time-keeping and got very soggy and cold indeed and had to warn all the finishers of the muddy ground as it was a slip-and-slide battlefield!

We helped clear down and then dashed to the car quickly. I was so cold by this point! Ben had brought my jacket from home in the car but it was still freezing. I took the longest, hottest shower when I got home which I’m sure ordinarily would have given my third degree burns.

Then I had to dash off to Bristol to see my uni friends (we stayed at Kate and Jamie’s house – our fellow Orlando holiday buddies). We chatted and caught up which is always lovely and then headed off for some food at the Winter Stream Farm. It’s funny because normally at a restaurant I’ll peruse the menu and try and choose something that I really fancy and something not astronomically priced or nutritionally ridiculous. But it was like I slotted back into Orlando mindset and just went straight for a big plate of BBQ ribs, fried chicken and roast potato wedges. I didn’t even see what salads they had on the menu! Who am I??

I only left a single potato and was completely satisfied by that meal. Sometimes you just need a big plate of the good stuff.

There was also an OBSCENE cake selection.

We all decided to get a slice to take away (and for our other halves too – mainly so you then have two different slices to try…). I went for a HUGE slice of carrot cake and got Ben a HUGE slice of toffee waffle cheesecake. I had to keep pinching myself that this wasn’t a dream 😉 It was brilliant as they literally called it a “cakeaway”.

Honestly they are MASSIVE. The sheer weight of them was pretty impressive. I was desperate to gobble them up but stowed them away to take them back to Southampton.

We headed back home and did a lot more chatting and chilling (as girls do) and then decided to do the only thing that makes sense when we get together at someone’s house. Make the World’s Best Brownie of course. This has featured on the blog before…I wouldn’t like to think how many times in reality we’ve made this recipe and devoured it. A lot I suspect.

Sensibly we decided this was dinner. Basically this brownie fulfils every sweet toothed cake-addicted person’s dream. You make a brownie and you eat it literally five minutes from the oven with a spoon. None of this cutting it into pieces and putting it onto a plate to have over several days. Immediate gratification (and subsequent feeling sickness).

It’s the only way to do it properly 😉 The recipe is on my previous post about this brownie (HERE) – and the trick is to leave it slightly underdone so in the middle it’s gooey and the chocolate is all melty. LITERALLY HEAVEN.

But yes, we did feel sick. And I regret nothing. Well, the next morning I might have slightly regretted the sheer amount of rubbish food I’d been eating over the past 24 hours. I planned to do a quick three mile run around where Kate lived (far more socially acceptable to run three miles than eight miles when you’re staying with friends! But yes, they know what I’m like and they do think I’m bonkers).

What concerned me was an onslaught of rain hammering on my window an hour before I was going to get up. I was ready to throw the towel in for the run but then it quickly cleared up and became quite a pleasant and dry morning. Three miles done and dusted before anyone had showered or gotten up! It went OK though it felt like a slog (thank you brownie).

After breakfast we went our separate ways. It only takes an hour and a half for me to get home from Bristol so I was back in no time. I showed Ben the cakes and his eyes just lit up. Dinner was sorted.

I can’t say I felt particularly well after consuming that entire carrot cake slice for dinner (literally for dinner) but I had no regrets. It tasted AMAZING. Ben couldn’t quite finish his beasty cheesecake as it was “overwhelmingly creamy” (I personally don’t see the problem?). Afterwards I laid on the couch in a sugar coma…I was a euphoric gluttonous wreck. Time for a week of healthy nutritious food I think!

What did you get up to this weekend?

Have you bought any new workout gear lately? I can’t seem to stop…

Do you have days when you just think “sod it” and eat what you fancy, whatever the consequences?

February 23, 2015February 23, 2015

A little bit of the good stuff

And there goes another weekend! I feel recharged and ready to do another week. I know recent research says you can’t catch up on sleep you’ve missed in the week by sleeping more at the weekend but it just feels so good to get those extra hours!

I really do try and stay up later at the weekend but by 9pm my body is fully shutting down into sleep mode. I’m not ashamed to say I do love a good early night! I got up at 7am on Saturday to get to parkrun for 8am to help set up the course. I really enjoy doing this as there’s a usual crew of people who I get on really well with and have a natter with. And parkrun itself is always good fun. Ben didn’t join this week as he’s being sensible with his leg. A good plan but I missed his company.

Netley Abbey has been getting quite popular (over 240 people this week) so it’s a bit crowded at the start. I wanted to push it so found a nice spot near the front so I wouldn’t get absorbed into the crush at the beginning. I was pleased to have taken about 30 seconds off of last week’s time so I feel I’m making progress (22:02 – cool time!). I’m not sure how much faster I’ll get on the current course though (two hills you do three times) as my 5k times will never be that speedy (for me) as I don’t really care to focus on short-distance speed. I just use them as a faster run.

After getting home, showered and breakfasted the usual Saturday chores ensued. Then after lunch we met up with our friend Nathan to go for a little walk around a lovely area called Forest Bere.

I love going for walks at the weekend. I find it can be very easy to get stuck inside when the weather isn’t that warm and just watch TV or mope about. It was lovely and fresh. We walked 2.5 miles but had to get back relatively soon as the car park closed at 4.30pm which was a bit annoying. Obviously we took Alfie too.

I how the photo captures Ben mid-stride

We treated ourselves to an Indian take away that evening, which I was really looking forward to, but it was really disappointing. It tasted really nice but the portion sizes were really small. My tandorri chicken starter was pretty much just a drumstick and everything else just kind of looked a bit stingy, you know? And one onion salad when we ordered two (I love me some onion salad). Bit of a let down for a Saturday treat!

Sunday morning I went for my long run. I suppose you could say that my ‘long’ runs at the moment aren’t really that long (especially comparing them to you lot training for impending marathons!) but I’m tying to build things up gradually as I have a while yet until my marathon. While it’s great to have so much time, I’m also terrified it’s too much time to play with and that I’ll injure myself somewhere along the line!

Injury paranoia aside, I got a good seven mile run in (average pace 8:11min/mile).

At first I felt sluggish but then I got really into it and found it really hard to make myself go slower (like I said I would) but I just found myself feeling strong, not out of breath or feeling like it was an effort. My justification is that when I start getting to 10 miles and over then I’ll force myself to take it easier and use it for time on my feet. When I’m around distances that used to be very comfortable for me as a normal run I’m happy to be a bit quicker (let’s remember these fatal words if weeks from now I’m injured…).

The rest of Sunday was fairly miserable with just continuous rain (of which I missed on my run thankfully). This meant a rather unpleasant walk with Alfie.

That face: “Why are we out here??”

I had my wellies on and umbrella and at first Alfie was happy to smell bushes and do his thing, but then he would walk as close to me as possible to get sheltered from the rain. I felt mean being out in the rain with him but he had to go!

I will do a proper post on this but I just have to mention how much I’m absolutely loving this recipe box delivery service called Hello Fresh (I’ve not been contacted to do a review by them, I’m just a very happy paying customer – though I do have a discount code if anyone’s interested!). They deliver a box to your house with three recipes (though you can do five) with all the ingredients you need to make the meals. It’s amazing.

Sunday night’s dinner was sizzling sesame beef. The recipes are very easy to follow and taste SO good. Yes there’s prep and cooking involved, but I love it and I’m learning so much about ‘proper’ cooking. The meals are nutritionally balanced which is a bonus as well. And most importantly, Ben likes it too!

And that’s a wrap. OK not a hugely exciting weekend but it ticked the necessary boxes required 😉 Except cake. There was a distinct lack of cake.

How was your weekend?

Do you like to get outside during the colder months? Or do you snuggle indoors and hibernate?

Have you ever tried Hello Fresh or something similar?