running gear - AnnaTheApple

July 8, 2015September 18, 2020

Rants and Raves #15

How the weeks are flying by! I know it’s such a cliché but everything is just moving so quickly. And with another week I have another set of rants and raves…

Rave: I entered a competition with Brooks a while ago and forgot about it. If I remember correctly you had to talk about why running makes you happy and upload a photo of yourself “running happy”. I didn’t win but they did send me a consolation prize.

A very nice Brooks t-shirt. It’s made from wicking material but it’s not a ‘proper’ technical t-shirt if that makes sense but it’s still good for short runs, gym visits or just general wear. It’s lovely and soft and fits nicely.

Rant: My gym has been renovated which has just been *so* much fun trying to find an area to work out in that wasn’t a building site. Though I can understand their issue as it’s open 24/7 so it must be hard to do any sorts of improvements without closing the gym.

But anyway, they’ve created a new door system to get in and out. Before it was like a caged turnstile. Now it’s like something out of Star Trek.

You type in your code, one part of it opens, you step in, it closes before opening the next part. There is about two very long seconds where you fear you’ll never be let out. What a way to spend the rest of your life…locked in a glass cage with only your own sweat smell to comfort you.

Rave: Speaking of the new gym renovations, it has meant that we’ve had loads of new equipment and weights. Including a proper stepper machine! I was quite excited as previously we’d only had that annoying step machine that when you put your foot on each step it sinks down. I tried it once and it was awful. I just didn’t get on with it as I couldn’t work out if I was meant to do shallow little steps or big deep steps. The real step machine however is far better.

It’s actually like climbing stairs and you can get a good rhythm. Great for the glutes and legs! And for towering over the gym and people watching 😉

But I honestly have no idea what this new machine is…

On closer inspection it looked like a rowing machine, but upright…very strange.

Rant: Hot running! Though it is nice to be warm when you’re doing your warm-up…oh those days not so long ago I was standing in the car park in my tiny shorts absolutely freezing doing my leg swings while people were coming out to their cars wrapped up in coats and scarves looking at me like I was mental. But it does make for harder running.

Sweaty, uncomfortable and harder efforts for the same speeds…it’s tough! And even more so when you come back to the office and find…

NO cups for the water machine. I did consider putting my head under the water release bit and drinking that way but I thought perhaps this wasn’t proper office etiquette, even if it was past normal working hours 😉 Luckily they had another one in another corridor that I had to hunt for in my heat-induced delirium.

Rave: Pretty purple Nike capris! I’m clearly a bit obsessed with capris right now. I don’t tend to wear them running as it’s too hot but I love wearing them to the gym.

These are really comfortable and nice fitting. Normally I’m not one for crazy patterns but I just love the colour! I can’t remember where I got them from, otherwise I’d post the link as well.

Rant: Dropping your hair dryer on yourself while blow drying your hair is painful. And further proof of the accident prone idiot I am.

And also gives the impression that you’ve been mauled by a small animal. Very painful burns from the grating in the hair dryer!

Rave: Alfie just makes me smile every single day. This is him not wanting to get up one morning.

I reckon he thinks he’s invisible if he can’t see me 😉

Rave: I’m very excited about being sent these 33Shake products. I haven’t tried them yet as I’m waiting for a good time to test them out on (I have the perfect event in a week or so to give them a good testing – but more on that soon). I was sent three All-in-One Shake blend which are ideal after hard sessions as they contain great ingredients like hemp seeds and flaxseeds, natural antioxidants (which I’ve found I really need after hard sessions!), protein, and anti-inflammatories like turmeric and green coffee (oooh er!). They’re 100% natural, meaning no additives, no preservatives, and nothing manmade.

I was also sent Chia Energy Gels which will provide energy during a hard workout. And again contain all natural with a blend of carbs, proteins, Omega-3s and antioxidants.

So I’m fairly excited about testing these bad boys out!

What are your rants and raves this week?

What do you look for in sports nutrition, whether that’s before, during or after?

Where do you buy your workout gear from?

June 10, 2015September 18, 2020

What I’m loving lately…

Today I have a bit of a random post with some bits and pieces that I’m loving lately.

(FYI none of the products mentioned below were sent to be reviewed or that I got anything in return for – I’m just giving general opinions on things I’m loving!)

Hello Fresh: I know I keep harping on about it, but I’m still going strong with Hello Fresh. Only cooking for one now (start the violins…) means I can plate up two meals and not worry the next day. I try and plan it so I always have that spare meal when I’m going running or know I’m going to be late home for some reason. Very handy to then just get in and microwave my already prepared dinner.

A really tasty meal I had recently was a risotto with prawns and asparagus. SO good.

I never normally buy prawns as they’re quite expensive and I never think to make risottos so this was quite the fancy meal for me! I also like how it uses seasonal ingredients.

Another noteworthy meal was a chickpea and butternut squash curry made with coconut milk.

The portion was massive but perfect for my hungry appetite! What was good about this meal was I could easily freeze the second meal so didn’t need to panic about eating the other portion in a certain amount of time.

Birthday present to me: As it’s my birthday in a couple of weeks my parents asked what I would like…so I said money towards a DNA test. Yes, you read that right. My parents were a little shocked…But keep reading, it’s not like that! 😉

I first heard about it in the RunnersWorld magazine and my interest was instantly peaked. It’s basically a DNA test which tells you your fitness genetic profile: DNAFit.

My swab that I sent away

Yes, yes I know, sounds a load of hogwash but it’s a genuine thing. I went for the slightly less expensive test which would tell me:

Power and endurance potential
Post-exercise recovery speed
Injury risk profile
Recovery nutrition needs

I’m not expecting any real eye-opening discoveries here because, let’s be honest, I know my own body pretty well. But I’m intrigued as to what my genes really say about me. I’m pretty much expecting a high injury risk result and more of an aptitude towards endurance than power…but we shall see I guess. What it will give me is an idea of really how best I should train and how many recovery days I really need. Or at least confirm what I already know. Perhaps a waste of money but frankly there was nothing else I wanted for my birthday. I’ll share my results when I get them through.

New foam rollers: Check out these bad boys!!

No these are not props from Fifty Shades of Grey as someone in my running club said 😉 They are foam rollers! The ball is about the size of a tennis ball so the cylindrical one in comparison is also very small. Handy travel sized. I’m a big fan of foam rolling and I’m sort of deflating my usual tennis ball by using it too much (and this makes Alfie sad…) so I thought I would splash out for something a bit more exciting and, er, aggressive. I’m using with caution though. They’re great for my calves and bum.

Bargain fitness gear: Fitness clothes from Tesco (UK supermarket)! These leggings were a bargain (£8!) and fit SO well. They are very comfortable and I think quite flattering. I’m all over cheap and good quality gym/running gear!

Random 5: And on the subject of running gear…I won a competition at the Hackney Half Marathon! In the race village Brook’s had a chalk board which was about why you’re thankful for running and the most inspiring ones (or interesting) would win some Brook’s goodies. Always keen to win free stuff I put my message on there…and, amongst a few others, won!

Mine says “Thank you running for all the cake”…seemed fitting, you know? 😉 My friend, Karen, from the running club also won (hers said that running helps her “escape from the nappies” as she’s a mum of two youngsters).

The prizes arrived this week. I didn’t really know what I’d won beforehand but we had to give our clothing and shoe size so I hoped for the best. In the package there were a pair of trainers, capris and a T-shirt. Not too shabby, eh!

Ravenna Trainers:Infiniti capris:

Short-sleeved running top:

The top is a little big on me though which is annoying but the capris are WONDERFUL. The trainers are also very cool looking. I love the colours!

Standing desk: And my standing desk is still going strong. I’m on a new project so had to switch to a different office but my set-up is still pretty good.

It’s nice because I can look out of the windows easily as they’re quite high if you’re sat down. My chair comes in handy as a shopping bag holder as well (and so no one pinches it as I sit down for lunch!).

And that’s all for now! For tomorrow’s post I hope to do a sort of summary of my marathon training, what I’ve learnt and the good and bad things. I guess I won’t know really how well my training has gone until the Big Day though…

Do you foam roll?

Where do you usually buy your fitness gear from?

Would you take a DNA test to find out more about yourself?

June 3, 2015

Rants and Raves #13

My raves are far outweighing my rants at the moment, which is obviously very good! I just hope life continues along this pattern…

Rave: A while ago at parkrun there was a guy who noticed I was wearing a hairband to keep the hair off my face. He asked if I was a fan of the hairbands, I said I was (obviously) and he said he had a load he could give me for free if I wanted them. He’d bought them for himself to keep his hair out of his face but discovered they probably weren’t his style. Considering I spent around £7 for six I was quite keen to have some for free! OK they’re not the most expensive things in the world but they’re not cheap and I have limited colours.

Anyway that was a while ago and I sort of forgot about it. A couple of parkruns ago he tapped me on the shoulder and said “remember me? The hairband guy!” and he gave me the unwanted hairbands.

Amazing! Now I have more colours to choose from – hurrah! I like wearing the hairbands to the gym and running because I get wispy hair stuck on my face and it can be very annoying. I’m not sure yet if I’ll wear one at the marathon though as they can slip down from time to time (I think I have a small head) and I can’t bear to be adjusting it for miles on end.

Rant: After the Cakeathon and driving home I had some serious runger, as you can imagine. My parents thankfully had looked after Alfie over the weekend but had dropped him off a few hours before so when I got in I needed to walk him…food had to wait a few more minutes. By the time I got back and started preparing said food I was really hungry and rushing around to make myself something. I went into the freezer and picked up a bag of mini veg and didn’t realise it was upside down.

Oh how I wish it had been sprouts or big bits of broccoli, not teeny tiny bits of veg. It was then a race between Alfie and me to see who could pick up the most veg. What it is about frozen vegetables that appeals to my dog I’m not entirely sure. This was not a fun process I can assure you, especially in the raging stages of runger.

[Edit to add: this morning I had a similar incident with frozen berries. It’s amazing I can get through life so well…]

Rave: OK this is quite old news now but I had a bit of fun (and torture) seeing how old the Internet thought I was.

Obviously I’ve cherry picked a ‘good’ photo here haha! I tried a few photos and let’s just say it can make your day or ruin it 😉 But seriously though, I wouldn’t want to be 19 again. I’m actually quite happy being almost 27, despite my life taking a huge twist of events recently.

Rant: Back to the little furry monster, he’s so similar to me in that he has his own ingrained habits and routine in an evening. As soon as I’ve finished dinner and washing up I’ll hear the dreaded sound of a tennis ball dropping at my feet. I turn around and this little face is looking up at me.

“Oh have you finished, can we play now please?” is what that face is saying. Every single night. So I stand on one side of the house and throw the ball to the other side of the house until he is panting and I’m bored. I just can’t say no to that face.

Rave: It’s arrived! My bib for my impending marathon has arrived. It’s funny because this whole marathon process is so different from my other two in every way.

Unlike Paris and Berlin, I don’t have to go to the expo the day before, I don’t have to worry about what I’ll be eating for my pre-race dinner or breakfast and most people will speak English in and around the race! And obviously the whole training process has been so different. I plan on writing a marathon training recap post soon. I just don’t want to jinx anything just yet!!

Rant: OK not a real rant… The Cakeathon for next year has sold out already! I know a few of my club wanted to do it but didn’t get round to entering in time and some other people expressed interest as well who have now missed out. But the race only has 100 or so spaces and it is clearly a big hit. I’m so thankful that I entered straight away. There is a waiting list and I think they host the event twice a year (as I know there’s one in August this year – also sold out) so there could still be a chance for anyone keen.

Rave: Alpro’s new Coconut Almond milk. It tastes really good. Though it is definitely sweeter than the almond milk (though conversely slightly less calories per 100ml than the unsweetened almond milk). It’s a nice change I must say! I bought mine in Tesco.

Have you missed out on entering a race before?

What are you latest rants and raves?

How do you keep your hair back when you’re exercising?

May 12, 2015October 28, 2016

Hackney mini-break

I am buzzing. I had such a fantastic weekend full of lovely people, good food and my first (non-marathon) PB since 2013. To say I’m pleased is an understatement!

So the weekend started, as normal, with parkrun at Netley Abbey. For the first time in the year we were on the faster course, which is five laps of a cricket pitch. Fairly boring and repetitive but, crucially, flat. It’s called the “marmite course” as you can imagine.

Annoyingly I couldn’t attempt to blast it as I had the Hackney Half Marathon the next day that I needed to save my legs for. However I did go faster than I should have. I remember looking at my watch and seeing 7.30min/mile and thinking it felt comfortable enough that I could chat to Mark, my running club friend who was running with me, but wondering if I maintain it (and faster) for so many more miles? I started to doubt myself a little bit. It was a good run nonetheless (22:25) though it did start raining at the end.

I had such good intentions of getting all my housework done before leaving for Hackney later that day but time just flew away. I got home, showered, breakfasted, picked up a parcel and packed and saw my parents as they picked up Alfie and suddenly it was only an hour from when I was to be picked up by Mike who was driving Karen, Mark (different to the previous Mark) and me to our hotel in Hackney. I hadn’t done any of my normal jobs! This did plague me a little as I hate leaving the house with chores left to do, knowing I’d need to do them the next day post-race…

I’ve never been to Hackney before so it was all very new and strange to me when we got there. I’ve been to London a few times but obviously London is a big place and there are so many different areas. Hackney is very culturally and ethnically diverse. There were so many shops selling food and bits and bobs I’d never heard of. Our hotel wasn’t in the most affluent area so it was a bit of an eye opener to me (I fully admit I live in a middle class bubble – it’s just how I’ve grown up and I know I am very, very lucky).

Despite our hotel (Ibis Style) being very cheap and not being in the safest area, our rooms were lovely. Karen and I were sharing one, and Mark and Mike shared another. They were James Bond themed which was quite cool.

But what does the top right stencil mean??

It was very clean and modern – though it was a little loud in the evening with a few boy racers and police sirens. And most importantly, it wasn’t too far from the race start in Hackney Marshes.

After checking in and dumping our stuff we decided to head to the nearby Westfield shopping centre for a little mosey about the shops and some food. The last time I was there was in 2013 when I did the National Lottery 5 mile run around the Olympic park and Olympic Stadium (also with Karen funnily enough). It felt surreal being back for another race.

It’s massive. So many shops! And shops that aren’t on normal UK high streets either, like Victoria’s Secret, Forever 21, American Eagle…Karen and I were in heaven. The boys not so much 😉 We also depressed ourselves by looking in Nike. So many beautiful things but so expensive. I did get these shorts in Forever 21 though:

I’m really chuffed with them because I found them online last week and really wanted to buy them but didn’t want to pay P&P for just one pair of £12 shorts. They also have a zip at the back which is so handy as my other shorts don’t. I was tempted to wear them for the race the next day but thought it best not trial a new pair of shorts for the first time during a half marathon.

We then found a brilliant restaurant called Cabana Brasil which just sounded right up my street. I was secretly quite glad we weren’t going for the (in my opinion) boring option of just pizza or pasta but it hurt my soul not to be able to order the full rack of ribs. Especially when I saw someone else enjoying them. Major food envy!

Instead I went for nachos with guacamole to start and then a garlic marinating chicken skewer with sweet potato fries for my main – safe food. Although it was all very tasty, I was a bit disappointed with the size of the main, especially as I had to add in the sweet potato fries. For my monster appetite it wasn’t really enough! I couldn’t help but steal some fries from Karen who has a far more lady-like appetite and was feeling full with the same meal.

We all went for pudding though and honestly it rocked my world. The boys had a delicious looking cheesecake, Karen went for a frozen yogurt with toppings and I had a frozen yogurt sundae (with brownie chunks and chocolate sauce).

Frozen yogurt sundae?! Good lord, it was good.

The boys had a cheeky Starbucks before we left and we got to admire the cool London 2012 Olympics display they’d created.

Different Olympic athletes had signed a cup! It was fascinating to read what they wrote and who they were. Admittedly there were a lot from Team USA…what? Americans liking Starbucks coffee – surely not! Hehe 😉

Then we headed back to the hotel and had a master plan meeting for the next day: what time to get up, breakfast, leave, etc. Then we headed to bed. I wasn’t nervous and fell asleep quite easily surprisingly.

But then the stress began when the alarm went off the next morning at 6.20am. Not my alarm, but Karen’s alarm because my phone had decided to turn off and not turn back on at all. PANIC. I went into Full Anna Melt Down. No phone means no contact with anyone (what if I got lost on my own in Hackney!?), no music during the race and no photos. My phone has been playing up recently with the touch pad going crazy and either not working or just randomly typing so I did a full restore on Friday but now I had no idea what was going on.

Mike came to the rescue with his excellent Googling abilities while my dad (on Karen’s phone) calmed me down. I managed to wolf down some instant porridge and a shot of Beet It with a black coffee through my pathetic drama thankfully. I chose not to have the breakfast that came with our rooms as I wasn’t sure they’d have porridge (they didn’t) so I brought my own.

I strangely enjoy the Beet It shots. I love beetroot so maybe that’s it? The shot is very earthy but also sweet with a hint of lemon they add to make it a bit more palatable.

Karen and I made the executive decision to wear crop tops instead of our Hedge End Running Club vests because it was already warm despite not even being 7.30am and the forecast said it would be hot and sunny later. I was quite nervous about wearing a crop top as I’ve never run in one before and I was worried people would think I thought I was some sort of elite or I thought a lot of myself. I was glad Karen was with me as I’m not sure I’d have had the courage to have worn it without her! But honestly it was the best decision I made – I felt very streamlined and cool (temperature wise!) wearing it while running and was grateful to not have a vest flapping about me.

I applied sun tan lotion all over me as I knew I’d burn or risk overheating (despite wearing next to nothing!) and wore a long-sleeved top and leggings to walk down to the start that I could put in my bag for the bag-drop.

Our walk took us along a pretty canal

The walk was about three miles and it helped calm my nerves and loosen us up.

As we got closer we saw more and more runners and began hearing the music. It was all very exciting!

There were loads of food stalls in the race village and I instantly zoned in on the rib stand! I mean, come on, how mean is this?? I can’t have them before and undoubtedly I wouldn’t fancy them afterwards *sighs*.

The place was buzzing with people stretching, warming-up and milling around. We headed straight to the portable loos as we knew they’d get very busy closer to the start (we got there about 45 minutes before the 9am start). Then we peeled our layers off and headed to the bag drop. It was very well organised so no complaints!

We wrote a message on the Brooks chalk board (“Come on Hedgies #HERC”) and had a standard pre-race photo. I still felt very nervous about wearing pretty much nothing but saw quite a few other ladies wearing similar tops so this helped. As did this…

Very amusing!

Karen and I parted ways with the boys so we could visit the loos once more and then go to our pens. The guys were aiming for 1:45-1:50 and Karen was aiming for sub 1:30 (yep, she is that fast) and I was aiming for anywhere near 1:36 (my PB being 1:36:10).

The loo queues were massive and we wouldn’t have had time to queue as our pen was going off first (I say our pen but really I mean Karen’s pen as it was the 1:15-1:30 but we wanted to start together, though, crucially, not run together for my sake!!) Anyway, we decided to find a bush instead and as we went round the back of the loos we saw a lone portable loo sat on a trailer. No one was near it and on closer inspection it looked perfectly fine. What a find, eh! Though it did slightly rock when you were in there as it was on a trailer – we just made sure not to lock the door in case it fell over or something. Could you imagine?!

And then the race happened 😉 I’ll recap that fully in another post. Stay tuned (or something as equally as cheesy…).

Are you calm or stressed on the morning of a race?

What’s your usual go-to pre-race meal? (Breakfast or dinner!)

Have you seen a lot of London?

April 2, 2015March 30, 2017

Jabra Sport Rox Ear Buds Review

I first heard about the Jabra ear bud range on the MarathonTalk podcast. I was instantly intrigued. They sounded amazing (especially the heart rate monitoring ones). So naturally I was over the moon to get to test out a pair from their range for a review. Sadly not the heart rate ones, but sport-focused ones nonetheless: the Jabra Sport Rox Wireless ones.

Perhaps I’m not a ‘proper’ runner because I like to listen to music during races or speedy training runs and podcasts during my long runs. For me the two go hand in hand. That’s not to say I can’t run if I’m not listening to something as I often do races where ear phones are not allowed or sometimes just fancy a run where I just hear the world around me. It’s just I prefer to have something going on. In hard races it can take the pain away, when I’m de-motivated a good song can power me back up again, and on long runs I can get lost in a funny anecdote and I’m entertained.

They come in a very nifty, minimalistic little box

In the pack you get the ear buds (obviously), an instruction manual, a charging cable, an armband for your mp3 device of choice, and several choices for the actual buds (“ear gels”) that go into your ear and ‘wings’ that help with stability of the buds.

I won’t lie, it took me a good while to work out which buds fitted my ears best. When I thought I had it figured out one fell out just as I started to run, which was frustrating. What I will say is take your time when choosing and working out what works best. One of my ears is clearly different to the other so required a different ‘setting’ and the wings took a bit of fiddling with to see out how they worked. There’s a video online you can watch which is referenced in the instruction manual. It’s funny because when I read that before I had attempted wearing them I laughed and thought “who the hell needs help with putting in ear phones??”…yes that would be me it turned out.

But when you have the correct fit, those bad boys aren’t going anywhere. I’ve run in them for fast 5k parkruns and steady long miles over an hour and a half long. I forget they’re there.

The short cable just sits nicely behind your head

What’s very handy is they’re Bluetooth so they connect wirelessly to your device, in my case my iPhone. It is very easy to connect (take it from me, a technologically challenged individual). The short cable just sits behind your head nicely (there’s a little grip thing that can shorten the length of the cable to keep things tidy and stops cable flapping).

On the cable there’s a handy control where you can increase/decrease volume, skip songs and even answer phone calls. This is so much easier for me than faffing about with my iPhone in it’s armband when I’m running!

Handily as well the two ear buds are magnetic so if you want to take them out and let them hang round your neck, they’ll connect together creating a loop. This also pauses the music! I always rip my ear phones out as soon as I finish parkrun so this is great.

Charging the earphones is very easy as you just connect one of the ear buds to charging cable and then connect that to a USB port, like you PC or a corresponding plug.

My PC is resting on my make-shift standing desk

They’re built with solid steel and are waterproof (apparently built to US Military rain, shock, sand, and dust standards!), which was fairly handy for my windy and wet 13 miler last Sunday. The sound quality is brilliant. Very clear and immersive. My only sadness is that to enhance the sound quality with Dolby you must install the Jabra app (this is fine, it’s very easy and comes with the product so it’s free). But this will only work with music on your phone/device, not music you’re streaming. I use Spotify for my music and it doesn’t support this 🙁 That being said, I actually didn’t realise this until recently and I honestly think the quality is fabulous without the app anyway.

Thoughts? I love them. The ease of wearing them and not having a long cable flying about my arms and body is such a relief. Not having to faff with my phone to skip a song or pause is also brilliant. The quality is great and though I had a few bumps wearing them at the start, they now they fit like a glove (in my ear? Weird).

On the website (find them HERE) they cost £129. Yes that’s expensive but it’s an investment in a good, durable product. For me as a runner who loves music and podcasts (and not just running, walking and going to the gym – especially on the rower!!), these are perfect.

Now I’m just desperate to try the Sport Pulse Wireless earbuds… heart rate monitoring without a horrible strap!!! I mean these guys are good!

Do you listen to music when you workout?

Have you ever tried wireless earphones?

Gadget junkies, if you had to run without a watch or music what would you choose?

***Full Disclosure: I was sent the Jabra ear buds for free to review. All opinions are my own honest ones.***