running gear - AnnaTheApple

March 26, 2015March 30, 2017

Finding the small things

I don’t know about you but when I get stressed, or angry, or sad sometimes I can find myself wallowing in the emotion. This isn’t good to do for long periods of time obviously. It’s not good for your mind, your health or you spirit.

Pardon my French, but when the shit hits the fan I just want to run away and hide. I want to moan, cry and beat my fists: “why me?”. But what good does this do really? OK sometimes it’s very cathartic and I’m not saying to have a good cry is wrong from time to time. But you still have your life to live and things to get done. So when I’m feeling this way I try and find stuff to keep me smiling and make me happy.

As I’ve mentioned before, I love reading. I’m a self-confessed book worm and I am not ashamed! After the very sad death of Terry Pratchett I realised I hadn’t actually read many of his books (possibly just one, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents which was one of his younger books). My dad is a huge Terry Pratchett fan so I asked his advice about where to start because the Discworld (where most of the books are set) is massive. I was slightly dubious as I’m not that into fantasy but I thought I’d give it a crack. My dad leant me Going Postal and I’m hooked.

Source

It’s exactly what I need right now – a story about a world far enough from reality that I can forget any problems I have and just sink into the story. For me reading is a brilliant escape and perfect to help you relax just before you go to bed (that terrible time when the demons always appear).

And in daily life seeing the hints of spring always makes me feel good. Knowing that better weather is round the corner, lighter evenings, lighter mornings and wearing less layers.

Let’s not think about losing an hour this weekend though! Meaning my 5am gym wake-ups might feel like 4am for a bit. Dear lord.

And spring time means my motivation to walk Alfie is far higher. It’s no longer a trudge through the cold, but sometimes the sun is shining and it’s just perfect. I know I keep going on about them, but the Jabra ear buds are also making walks with Alfie easier.

Having a dog lead and ear phone cables to contend with makes things a bit stressful and occasionally I’ll accidentally catch the cable and yank one from my ear, which is always painful. But as the Jabra ones are wireless it means just one thing to contend with – Alfie…who’s hard enough on his own with chasing birds and pooing in bushes!

Obviously running makes me happy and is a fabulous escape and refresher of the mind. I’ve been running the same very hilly 10k(ish) route every week around Basingstoke where I work before I go home on a Wednesday night. Strava is brilliant because it let’s me compare runs when I do the same route. I’ve now done this route five times and so far I’ve just kept improving slightly.

To be honest though I don’t think I can continue this trend. It is a hard run and I’m not sure how much faster I can do it. But it’s not necessarily just about the speed for the run – it’s about those horrific hills and the strength I’m hoping I’m building up in my legs.

There’s no point just running easy flat routes all the time. Make your training hard to make racing easy is my plan. Though always remember to make it easy when your body tells you to – we’re not superheroes!

As I run from work on a Wednesday night it means I’m not going to get dinner until I get home. So by the time I’m home and dinner is prepared it can be at least an hour and a half later. I do need something to refuel me to make the next day not feel like hell. The people from Upbeat sent me some protein smoothies to review for my blog.

So I’ve been taking them to work and having them post-run on a Wednesday night when I drive back home. Luckily we have a fridge at work so I just grab it as soon as I’ve finished my run and drink while I do some stretching in the mini work gym.

Post run stretch and refuel

Upbeat drinks are dairy protein drinks. They’re high in protein (20g per bottle – and this comes from whey protein from the milk), low in fat and relatively lower in sugar than most smoothies. Each bottle also has less than 150 calories. The available flavours are Strawberry, Blueberry & Raspberry and Mango & Passion Fruit. The ingredients list reads very nicely without any crazy artificial flavourings or chemicals.

My thoughts? I actually really enjoyed these, which I was surprised about as I thought “ooh whey protein and a smoothie? Hmm”. The consistency was fairly thick (like a smoothie) but lovely and, well, smooth. I definitely felt like I was being filled up when I drank it. It didn’t feel like “empty calories”. I never want actual food straight after a run but the length of time between running and dinner is too long to not have something and this fits the bill perfectly.

They also sent me a lovely material bag for life and notepad as well, which just made me smile. Maybe I’m not feeling that upbeat right now, but it helps to have a reminder to at least try!

And if all else fails, just have a bit of what you fancy. I don’t believe you should eat for your moods all the time but I do believe sometimes you just bloody well need chocolate.

How good does that sound?? Salted fudge! It’s currently sat in my fridge just waiting…I’ll crack into it soon (no pun intended…) but just knowing it’s there like an old friend ready to help me when I most need it is just wonderful.

How do you get yourself out of dark moods?

What is making you smile lately?

What is your perfect East egg?

***Full Disclosure: I was sent the Upbeat protein smoothies for free to review. All opinions are my own honest ones.***

March 18, 2015March 30, 2017

Rants and Raves #11

Normally I would recap my weekend but I had a bit of a rubbish one so don’t really want to go through it. So I by-passed Monday’s post altogether.

What I will say is running over 10 miles on Sunday helped. I ran with the mentality of “sod my pace, I literally don’t care. I want to just get out and go.”

Average pace 7.51mins/mile and I happily sped up toward the end. Was this pace sensible for my first 10 miles in a while? No. Did I enjoy it? Definitely. Mentally I needed that run. And it didn’t actually feel that tough – I felt very relaxed and just let go. But my next long run won’t be like this as there’s really no point. I can push it on other shorter runs if I want to.

Onto slightly more lights things…rants and raves.

Rant: Making a tiny error when ordering our food shopping online. So this is more a rant at myself really.

Six lettuces. I’m pretty sure I only want two…how did I manage to order six?! I like salad, don’t get me wrong, but even that’s a bit much for me. Needless to say salads are going to be a big thing this week.

Rave: A while ago I mentioned that I wanted to get more into audio books as I have an hour driving commute to work and then home again. I work at the same place as my dad so occasionally we’ll share lifts but recently I’ve been more on my own and would listen to podcasts. But I’m getting through podcasts very quickly and I like to save a few for running.

So I’ve signed up to the month free trial for Audible (an audio book purchasing site) to try it out (I’m not being compensated or asked to write a review by them, I’m just sharing my experience). After the free month (where you get a free audio book), you then pay a monthly subscription of £7.99 and get one book credit a month which is equivalent to one audio book. This is a lot cheaper than just buying an audio book out-right but it is a subscription service. For me it’s something I’m willing to pay for at the moment as I have a lot of ‘dead’ time and I love books. I can listen to a book and read a book at the same time so there are no issues there (currently I’m reading Stephen King’s ‘Last Stand’ and it’s amazing).

Source

I’ve just finished ‘Still Alice’ and it was incredible. Initially the author’s voice irritated me but then I warmed to it and got quite attached to her accent. The (fictional) story itself was heart-breaking, tragic but beautiful. Completely told from Alice’s perspective and her experiences in being diagnosed and then struggling with early onset Alzheimer’s. It’s recently come out as a film (and Julianne Moore won the best actress Oscar for her role) which is how I heard about it and it was actually nice to imagine her in my head as the character. I really recommend it, though it did leave me in tears during my commute to work! The only problem is I zipped through that book in less than a week…

Rant: I ran parkrun on Saturday at Netley Abbey and it was a ‘naked’ event. This didn’t mean throwing off your running gear with reckless abandon and running free (and cold…and, er, bouncy) but rather not running with a watch or running app. There was also a competition to guess your time.

Initially I thought I’d put down ten seconds faster than the week before (so 21:50ish) as an incentive to run speedy but then I woke up on Saturday morning not really feeling it and getting cold feet. I quickly changed my time to 24 minutes and decided to run an easier pace. But then I warmed up (or at least tried to, it was so cold!) and started regretting my new time – I felt quite good and fresh. This gave me a rubbish head space just before the start and I was neither here nor there on the pace ending up somewhere in the middle with just over 23 minutes as I wasn’t sure whether to push or not. Then on the final lap I got a horrendous stitch in my side which meant I had to completely stop and sort my breathing out. This has never happened to me before. Yes I’ve had stitches but never to the point they’re so painful I have to stop. And insult to injury (or stitch), because I put my watch in my pocket to record the run but still be ‘naked’, the satellites must have ski-whiffed or something because it didn’t get the whole run recorded despite running exactly the same route as always. Ho hum. Just a bit of a pants run really!

Rave: I’m absolutely stoked about being sent a pair of some very cool looking earphones from the technologically gifted guys at Jabra to review for the blog.

Sadly they’re not the heart rate monitoring ones (yes I know how amazing is that??) as they were out of stock but they’re still pretty damn funky. They’re the Sport Rox wireless ear phones. I’m going to be trying them out on my run tonight. The lack of long cable alone makes me happy 😀 A full review will be on its way soon.

Rant: This is minor but at 5.30am in the morning it’s pretty major to me. People who don’t put weights back.

I won’t lie, I’m a bit neurotic and OCD when it comes to my strength training. I have certain weight dumbbells for different things (like single leg squats, Russian twists or whatever). But it really grinds my gears (Family Guy anyone…?) when people just remove them and then leave them all over the gym. My gym is a pretty big place and I hate having to walk all around searching for a single dumbbell. Just use them and then put them back in the same place!?

Rave: Even if he’s thrown up everywhere in the kitchen (*sighs* well that was a fun morning last week) I still can’t get angry at Alfie for long. I’d never get angry at him being sick of course, but tugging my arm out of its socket on a walk when he spies a cat doesn’t make me too happy! It’s that “one up, one down” ear thing that always makes me smile. I like to think it’s his pensive look.

What’s grinding your gears this week?

What’s making you happy?

Do you listen to audio books? Do you read a lot?

March 12, 2015March 30, 2017

My baby T-Rex and fashionable fitness ##HHCatwalk

OK I know, I know, weather introductions are boring and samey – but seriously, yesterday I almost left my coat at home!! This makes me so happy!

I got to wear just a T-shirt and shorts for my run last night and even finished still in the light!

Post-run selfie

What also makes me happy is going out on a school night to go eat stupid amounts of ribs with friends. On Tuesday night we went to a place called Rancho Steak House in Southampton and it was amazing. The whole day I was hungry (in my head I ’m pretty sure) and just couldn’t wait to leave work and get there.

I already knew what I’d be having – especially as I found out that Tuesday night’s were unlimited rib night. Ben and me shared a plate of cheesy nachos to start. The service was dreadful which was such a let down and so our food took ages. This meant I was ravenous so those nachos went down quite nicely, despite their rather unappealing presentation.

You can barely see the nachos under the melted cheese – Ben was in heaven

For mains, I went for the £14.95 unlimited rib meal which came with a side salad and chips which I subbed for corn on the cob (because I’m obsessed and chips would have filled me up – stomach space was all for the ribs).

Smothered in a delicious costa picante glaze

I was in rib heaven. They weren’t the best ribs I’ve ever had but they were pretty good. It was also great to know that I could have more if I wanted…which I did.

Half way through this portion I should have stopped as I was full. But the glutton I am continued and I was uncomfortable by the end. No regrets though – I was fully satisfied. I honestly believe there’s a baby T-rex inside me trying to get out.

I’m also loving that my mum and dad are getting into the whole Hello Fresh scene. They signed up after I raved on about it.

My mum cooking one of the recipes the other night

It’s great because I can compare notes with them on how things went and what he liked or didn’t as we’ll get the same recipes each week (though they get theirs on Tuesdays whereas we get ours Thursdays).

I promise I will do a Hello Fresh post soon, I just have a bit of a backlog at the moment!

As you might know, I run three times a week and go to the gym four times a week. Three of those gym seshes are purely strength focused (deadlifts, single leg stuff, squats, box jumps, core work…etc.) but the other gym sesh is what I call my “good for the soul” cardio. I love the rowing machine (is that weird?). Not as much as running but I just love the rhythm of it and can let my mind wander.

It’s usually the time I catch up on MarathonTalk podcasts as well. Usually I’ll spend 45 minutes on it and just row however I feel. I’m no expert and have no real idea what speeds or distances are good, but I enjoy it and see it as a good way to help my fitness without adding in another running session (which I’m loathe to do right now considering I’m being all gradual in my build up and remaining injury-free).

Speaking of fitness…as I’ve mentioned a couple of times now, the guys at the The Running Bug sent me some really cool Helly Hansen running gear to try out and to help spread the word that working out and looking good does not have to be mutually exclusive.

Leggings and technical fitted T-shirt

As I’ve said so many times, I like looking good when I exercise. So kill me. It’s no different from deciding what to wear to work or what to wear when I go out with friends. I want to look nice. It makes me feel happy and confident. And those two things are so important for when you’re working out. Whatever gets you motivated, confident and in the zone is worth it to me.

The Helly Hansen gear is honestly amazing. The T-shirt (above) is nice and loose fitting. It’s quite thin and slightly see-through so a white sports bra is best. It’s a great top to run in!

The capri leggings fit like a glove. They’re a good thickness, they move with my body and don’t slip down or feel too tight. They’re also great in wet weather!

My only slight sadness is they don’t have a mini pocket for a key.

I also received a technical vest. I love that it has a hole at the back (though this does mean wise sport bra choices). And like the T-shirt it is also slightly see-through.

It’s a mesh material so cool, breathable and quick drying.

I was also sent a hoodie. It’s a strange material – kind of a thicker technical material and is very warm. So ideal for either a very cold run or for just after a race or parkrun.

Appalling posing faces sorry – it’s so very awkward

I love that it had the thumbholes and it also has a fitted waist bit so hugs you at the bottom keeping you warm and doesn’t ride up. My only issue is the head hole is quite small so when I have a pony tail it tends to snag it down when I put it on (#longhairproblems).

And finally, my absolute favourite item (no wait the leggings are my favourite…second favourite), the jacket!

I adore the colour and it goes nicely with the other bits as well. It was brilliant during a very wet and windy run the other week. It’s comfortable and water-proof. The hood was a bit annoying in the wind and there’re no pockets again, but this doesn’t detract my love for it.

Helly Hansen has a great range of funky running gear and fitness apparel. It is expensive, I won’t lie, but unlike some brands that you pay more for you get really good quality. I can see these items lasting me a very long time and they’re already some of the favourite fitness clothes I have.

Also just so you know, if you Tweet pictures of yourself in your favourite fitness gear (tagging @therunningbug and using #HHcatwalk) one lucky person will be selected to win a very exciting Helly Hansen prize!

[Full Disclosure: I was sent the Helly Hansen gear for free as part of the Running Bug’s fashion fitness campaign. All opinions are my own honest ones.]

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 19, 2015February 19, 2015

Running and my new Mizuno trainers

I like to think of Thursday as Friday eve, is that weird? To be honest, I don’t mind my working week. I enjoy my week, work and all (though sometimes my commute can push me beyond insanity – podcasts and audiobooks definitely help!). Though obviously weekends rock.

I thought I’d do a post of where my running’s at and also review a pair of Mizuno trainers that I was kindly sent by Millet Sports.

I actually had no idea Millets sold trainers – or anything running-specific. I thought Millets was purely a camping/back-packing company. I was chuffed they have a sub-section for other sports too (such as running, triathlons, racket sports, hockey and football).

I was allowed to select any pair of Mizuno running trainers so I went for what I know suits me best in terms of my gait (like many runners, I over-pronate): the Mizuno Wave Paradox. I’ve had a similar pair before and I ran the Paris marathon in them.

They’re a supportive trainer and have a high level of stability. From the website: “The Dynamotion Fit uses biomechanic and motion picture technology to design a blueprint and develop a shoe that works with your foot through the gait cycle. Smooth Ride engineering minimises the rapid rates of acceleration and deceleration of the foot during transition, creating as smooth a ride as possible.” [Source]

And as you can see it has more support on the inside of the shoe to help balance the rolling of your foot if you pronate inwards.

Still wearing my shorts!

I like Mizuno and found their trainers comfortable, well fitting and supportive. And I love the colour!

Yes I have been injured a lot and though it’s easy to blame it purely on whatever trainers I was wearing at the time, personally for me, it’s more likely to have stemmed from bad training mistakes (too fast, too much, too soon) and lack of adequate strength training to support my training. Running a lot on those weaknesses exploits them and then boom you’re injured. I started out in Mizunos when I first started running and it was only when I got too into heavy training that I fell into injury. So I’m not a big proponent of trainers causing injuries as an argument.

That being said, you do need to choose a trainer that suits your running gait and the terrain you’re on. I’ve always stuck with stability trainers and think that’s best for me as I have ridiculously flat feet. And let’s not get into the argument of over-cushioned trainers and barefoot running please…

Anyway, thumbs up for Millet Sports. They have a great range of trainers and other sport apparel and accessories. Another website for me to spend ridiculous amounts of time and money on – wahay!

How’s my running going then? Well I’m sad I couldn’t be involved in Jantastic this year (again) but it’s for the best. I’ve been running three times a week and keeping the mileage low and the pace at whatever I’m feeling – whether that’s 7.30 min/miles or 8.30 min/miles. Going forward my long runs will be more to the 8.30min/mile ranges and parkrun will probably be where I attempt any form of speed. I’m so relaxed about it it’s wonderful. My runs feel good – everything is working as it should, so far no issues and I feel like I’m running strong. I am back to loving running!

Box jumps are a killer

I also go to the gym three or four times a week as well. There I do an hour’s worth of full-body strength training and focused running-specific strength work, like single leg squats. I genuinely feel stronger and really enjoy these workouts, despite having to get up at 5am to do them!

Having the gym really helps because it takes the pressure off my running. I get a good sweat on and my heart rate is up and muscles that have been asleep for a while are now back in business. It’s obviously no shocker that I love to exercise, so fuelling this love in a different way has made running become a joy rather than my only form of ‘proper’ exercise.

Future goals? I deferred the London marathon as my training is just not good enough and I want my next marathon to actually have proper marathon training for once! I have Eastleigh 10K in March and Southampton half marathon in April so I feel good about those. I’ve also signed up to another marathon in June (the Liverpool Rock and Roll marathon). It’s about 17 weeks away and I feel like I can continue running nice and easy now, and then gradually creep the mileage up later and be sensible about my training.

But let’s be real here, this is me and injury is one of those things I think will happen regardless. I will continue with the gym though, continue being sensible with my training and pray I dodge the bullet. I also think my standing desk is a big help as well – I’m still going strong!

So that’s me currently. Loving the gym and loving running. How long may this last?? 😉

What trainers did you first start running in?

What brand are you most loyal to in running?

What is your running gait like?

***Full Disclosure: I was sent the Mizuno trainers for free to review. All opinions are my own as always.***