Running - AnnaTheApple

May 14, 2015September 18, 2020

Yoga, food and a buff review

The day after the Hackney Half Marathon my legs felt surprisingly OK. I had a strong sense of tiredness and runger which followed me through the day but it was no different really than how I’ve felt any Monday morning after doing a long run on the Sunday.

This is good news! I still took Monday off as a complete rest day though. Let’s not risk anything. I gave Alfie a lovely walk in our local field in the morning before work and in the evening too.

It’s lovely to see him racing around while I can just walk around the field and listen to the radio (I feel old because I now listen to BBC5 Live in the morning – I like keeping up to date with the news and opinions). There’re always the regular dog walkers which is nice as well.

That evening I had a really tasty Hello Fresh meal of quinoa, lentils, feta and chorizo. It did take a while to make (about 30 mins) and created a lot of washing up but the results were fantastic.

Basically it involved cooking the quinoa separately in vegetable stock while frying onions, chorizo and diced peppers and tomatoes. Add pre-cooked lentils (from a tin) and the quinoa with chopped coriander and crumbled feta. Done! It’s the prep that’s the laborious part really.

The next morning I got up at 5am for my usual strength training at the gym. All, except the press-ups, I use weights for these moves:

Squats
Romanian deadlifts
Cross body chop with dumbbell
Walking lunges
Single leg deadlifts
Single leg squats
Hot salsa
Russian twists
Press-ups

I go twice a week now and it’s far more manageable (my second session is more plyometric-based – box jumps, lunge jumps, etc.). I still think it’s important I keep maintaining my strength. To be honest I find it so hard to motivate myself to go (it’s not running is it!) but the fear of injury gets me up in the morning. And strength I’ve found is like most things, you have to consistently do otherwise you’ll lose it.

Tuesday evening I went for an easy run with the running club. I haven’t been to training in ages and it felt good to be back. Though I’m still cautious about it as I want to stick to my (vague) training plan. Otherwise I know I’d happily run silly miles at a silly pace if I went every week and I need to be sensible. After the marathon I’ll be back regularly!

I ran with Mike and Mark and a few others who didn’t want to do the planned hill session that the other guys were doing (hills were not going to happen for me!) and it was lovely. We chatted the whole time and just took things slow – though probably not as slow as we should have but my HR was low and the effort was easy so I was happy. In the end we got 5.5 miles in and I barely felt out of breath.

My running club have started running-focused yoga and Pilates sessions so a few weeks ago I booked myself in for a yoga session after the run as I thought after Hackney it would be ideal. I quickly changed into leggings and got my mat and was good to go. I’ve done yoga before so it was very familiar to me and I felt (for once!) one of the most experience yogis in the room as the majority were all beginners.

In my other yoga classes I’ve been to I was always one of the newbies so this was a nice change for the books! It felt blissful after running as well.

But it did mean that it was past 9pm when I got home and I hadn’t had dinner yet – no chance of that before running when I get home at 6pm, have to walk Alfie and be ready to run at 6.45pm. I inhaled my dinner and wasn’t in bed until 11pm. This is a seriously late night for me considering I’m normally asleep by 10pm!! Luckily dinner was already cooked as I had made two portions of the quinoa meal the day before. It was just a case of reheating and shovelling in.

I must say that as good as I felt after yoga and my run on Tuesday night, I woke up Wednesday with really aching glutes and hamstrings. I’m pretty certain this is from my gym session and not the run! But luckily I’d planned another rest day and some foam rolling in the evening. Then intervals in the morning (which were tough I must say!).

On to a little review…I was kindly sent two buffs from the kind people at Kitshack.com. One buff for me and one buff for Alfie, my dog. Alfie felt very chuffed to be included in a review for once 😉

High UV Protection BUFF® (find HERE)

My buff was from the High UV Protection range that they have. It’s interesting because my first thoughts about wearing buffs are that they are just for winter and to keep you warm. But these buffs are more to protect you from the sun, which is fantastic.

It’s made with a wicking fabric which helps suck the moisture away from your skin quickly. It can be worn as a neckerchief, headband, wristband, mask, hair-band, balaclava, scarf, scrunchie, saharaine, pirate cap, beanie or bandana…personally I like the sound of the pirate cap 😉 It’s also treated with Polygiene so will remain fresh as the silver ions prevent the build up of bacteria in the fabric. There are also no seams or hems to irritate your skin. And it has the UV protection obviously.

Thoughts? I love the colour! They have a whole range of different patterns and colours which is great if you like matching things, like me. Initially I was confused what to do with it and how to wear it but it was fun to experiment. The video HERE’s is definitely worth a watch as honestly I wouldn’t have had a clue otherwise and there are so many different ways to wear it – it’s very multi-functional. For example…

Cycling – use over your mouth if it’s cold or there’s lots of pollution, or under your helmet.
Running – use it like a scarf it’s cold or as a sweat band.
Long walks – protects my scalp from burning.

It’s very soft and comfy to wear and I quite like wearing it as a headband to keep my hair out of my eyes. I’d probably wear it more often in the winter for running and more as a headband when walking or going to the gym.

Terrible photo but it was the best angle I could do I’m afraid!

Don’t wear it like this though unless you’re hiding from someone:

Having fun while trying the different ways to wear it

Dog BUFF®

I’m sorry but this just tickled me that Alfie could wear one of these too – how cute. They have a range of coloured patterns and are available in two sizes: standard (which fits most medium to larger breeds) and small (for terriers and smaller dogs like Alfie).

It has a handy Scotchlight reflective strip which offers retro-reflective visibility from a distance of 150 metres and is made from the same stretchy material as the, er, human buffs.

As happy as Alfie was to be part of this review, he’s not very good at staying still for a photo!!

Thoughts? Alfie thought he looked cool in it 😉 I quite like that it has the reflective bit so in dark evenings or mornings he’d be easier to spot – and to be honest the colour makes him easier to spot as well when he’s off his lead. I’m not sure how comfortable he’d be with it over his head though like in the picture below.

All in all I am a fan of the buffs! They look cool, they’re multi-functional and Alfie and me can match 😉

Have you ever worn a buff to run/walk/cycle in?

Do you do yoga or Pilates?

How much effort do you spend on your evening meal?

**Full Disclosure: I was sent the buffs for free to review. All opinions are Alfie’s and my own.**

April 29, 2015April 29, 2015

Southampton Half Marathon recap

Originally I had planned to race this and attempt to come somewhere near my half marathon PB, but after speaking to a few people I realised this probably was going to be harder than I wanted it to be as I didn’t realise quite how undulating the course would be.

So I re-planned what I was going to do. Before the Liverpool marathon in June I want a half marathon that I can let myself go a bit on…but I’d quite like to give myself the opportunity to do well (yes, yes cherry picking courses for PB potential purposes I know). I haven’t actually been able to test myself out on any sort of flat course yet as my local parkrun has a hill you do three times and other runs are either intentionally hilly or are my long slower runs.

I heard about the Hackney Half Marathon (two weeks time) and found it was flat and fast so signed myself up. This meant that I could use the Southampton half as a training run, and with running there I could make it up to 18.5 miles. There would be a time gap between the 5.5 mile run there and the start but as my first 18ish miler I was happy.

I had a High5 Energy Bar after my run there to tide me over and some water with nuun in it. I was also able to put some fresh running clothes on too. I met up with some running club friends and we headed over to watch the 10k start. We cheered them on and then headed to the race village. It was lovely and organised and honestly didn’t feel like the first ever event.

You could pick up your finisher’s technical T-shirt before the race but I decided to leave getting mine until after I had finished as the queue was massive (though this did stress me out a little as I was worried they would run out of Smalls – they didn’t thankfully). There were so many of my running club, Hedge End RC, doing this race that I was just surrounded with red, white and blue vests everywhere which was fantastic. The atmosphere was brilliant as well, but it was COLD.

Eventually we all had to reluctantly peel our layers off and head to the bag drop (nice and well organised). I realised in my bag I handily had my poncho that I’d kept from the Paris marathon (last year!) so while everyone else was donning their black bags I had this huge, quite posh green ponch (with a hood!) to wear. And as we walked to the starting pens I saw someone else had the same poncho so I tapped her on her shoulder and said “snap!”. She smiled and replied “yes but mine is last year’s” and I said “yes mine too!” and we chatted about how much we enjoyed that race which was lovely.

After the standard pre-race selfie with the guys I was going to be running with and hopping around trying to keep warm for a bit we were soon off. I was running with a lovely bunch of running club guys, some of whom were after a PB or was their first half. We’d discussed beforehand a range of paces to stay at and we started nice and relaxed.

In fact, I’ve never run so many miles so easily and with so much enjoyment before on a training run. The miles just flew by! We chatted, we joked, we waved and shouted. It was brilliant! We pushed each other and got pushed on by the brilliant spectators (and swarms of our own club mates who weren’t running).

Not the whole gang, but looking quite focused

We pushed each other on when we got to Itchen Bridge, which was a slow long incline up and down and then back over it again. We enjoyed the scenic (sort of?) sights of the Southampton football club. We encouraged each other up the steep Burgess Road hill. We even sung to Matt Le Tissier (old Southampton football player) whom we caught up with. In fact, we got everyone around him singing and he looked quite pleased (though very knackered).

Photo credit: Stephen McPhillips – thank you!

The support from our club was amazing and from the people of Southampton who came out in droves to support us. OK so Southampton isn’t London or the most scenic of places, but it was an interesting course with lots of variation in terms of sights and elevation. A good number of water and gel stops too.

Sadly though the fun times ended somewhat at mile 10 when Mike experienced some horrible cramp in his calves. He had to slow down and stop a few times to try and alleviate the tightness and pain. It’s happened to him quite a few times during races and he doesn’t know how to prevent it or cure it when it occurs. Any ideas or advice would be appreciated! He’s going to try calf shields while running and taking magnesium tablets to see if that helps.

The others carried on but I stayed with him as my time didn’t matter as I was just looking for the miles on my feet. I just wish I could have helped but there was nothing really I could do but try and take his mind off it and encourage him round. He was on for such a good time which was clearly very frustrating to him. But that being said, he still got a good time despite stopping and slowing down (and the course being hilly!) so he shouldn’t be too disappointed at all.

I don’t regret staying with Mike at all as it would have been awful for him to have suffered alone and if anything keeping the pace slower meant my legs felt really good the next day! I wasn’t as tired as I normally am after a long run as well. My official time was 1:54:58.

As we headed to the finish the crazy thought did cross my mind that I felt I could run home but realised that would be tempting fat far too much. Let’s not get carried away! I did feel very good running though and it’s given me a great confidence boost for the marathon. I just need to survive the coming weeks. I have two more 18 milers, but without a break as I realise having an hour and half between the runs wasn’t a good emulation of a marathon experience!

The medal is quite chunky and hefty and the post race goodie bag was a real drawstring bag with crisps and water…and they tried to give me some weird pink protein drink which I managed to duck away from – looked suspect to me 😉

All in all an absolutely fantastic race. The company I ran with was brilliant and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I just wish Mike’s calves had behaved so he could have had a better race, but (perhaps selfishly) it showed me that being sensible during a long run in terms of my pace could mean quicker recover for me afterwards. I even did intervals on Tuesday morning they felt that good!

Have you ever done a race as a training run or part of a training run? It’s brilliant. It’s catered, you get a medal and you’re with loads of other runners.

How do you deal with cramp?

What do you like to see in a race goodie bag? Generally I like food, but decent food not a Mars Bar or some sugar-filled drink.

April 22, 2015

Don’t fear the fear

It’s funny, I’ve run two marathons but I still don’t really feel part of the elusive marathon club. I know that sounds silly, but it’s true.

I just don’t feel like I went through the same process that other marathoners went through. The long training runs, the high mileage, the aching legs, the insatiable runger…I didn’t really have that. With both marathons I’d been hit with injuries and my mileage had to drop consequently. I did lots of cross-training for Paris with intermittent running (and failed runs plagued with niggles), and for Berlin I did lots of cycling and some pool running but it wasn’t the same.

Now obviously I’m over the moon that both marathons went well (beyond my expectation and I’m in no way unhappy with my times). But it meant lining up at the start I felt a little but like a fraud compared to the runners around me and I had huge doubts that I’d survive the whole 26.2 miles. In fact I seriously doubted I’d get past 10 miles for Paris.

Oddly it does mean that this time around I’m feeling a little bit more pressure because my training is actually going well (*TOUCH WOOD*) so surely that means I’ll do better? Well, I don’t know about that! There’s a huge danger of self-sabotage here: “Oh I’m far better trained this time so I’ll just take off like a rocket at the start and be fine”.

I think what really helped me in my previous marathons was the fact that I had so much uncertainty and fear. It kept me cautious all the way to 20 miles, and even then when I got past the “half way” point I still kept reminding myself I wasn’t out of the woods yet and still thought I could fail. I literally monitored my watch and pace the entire time, never letting myself go too much faster than I had planned.

If anything this fear is the most important thing I learnt and as good as my training seems to be going (*touch wood again*) I mustn’t forget that. Start slow, keep slow, and constantly reassess how I feel. The only difference is that “slow” has a different meaning this time around as I’m better trained.

For Liverpool I’ll do exactly as I did for my previous marathons. I’ll have a pacing band that will have my paces dictated for each mile. I’ll make sure I keep close to those times as much as possible (meaning no “oh mile one feels great, I’ll just run 30 seconds faster”), but let myself go a bit if I feel confident at the end. I’m a control freak perfectionist so find this strategy works perfectly. I just need to work out the correct pacing beforehand and I can’t really do that until closer to the time (hey, I’ve also got enough time to get injured and go back to square one!)

For anyone training for a marathon or about to do their first marathon, my biggest piece of advice is keep the fear. Don’t let it consume you or hinder you obviously, but let it hold you back a bit and keep you squarely on the path you’ve been training for. You cannot bank time but you can bank energy. Start slow and you’ll be surprised at how much oomph you have in the end. There’s nothing better than finishing a marathon strong.

What would be your most important marathon advice?

How do you conquer your nerves before a big event?

Do you depend a lot upon your watch/running app when racing? One day I want to run a marathon WITHOUT my Garmin (or at least keep it hidden from me). That would be a true test of pacing.

April 9, 2015

Paranoid, insecure runner alert

I won’t lie, I’m nervous about how comparatively little I’m running. I’m training for a marathon which is about nine and a half weeks away and I feel…calm.

(Apologies, this post is a bit of a brain dump!)

I don’t feel like my training is that difficult. OK I know the mega long runs haven’t happened yet but I can’t help feeling I’m cheating the system by not feeling exhausted all the time or sick with fear for the upcoming long runs. Everything is just kind of ticking along without issue (OK now I’m really tempting fate). I’m not saying that I should feel awful or exhausted, but I just don’t feel like I’m training for a marathon.

What I am finding is still having the same enthusiasm for my gym visits. So far I’m keeping my heart rate up by jumping on the cross-trainer for a three minute burst, then running back to do my strength routines, repeating that three times and then doing some focused single-leg and core strength work. All in all totalling an hour and getting a good sweaty workout. Now I’m wondering if I should lessen the gym visits – or at least condense them into something more efficient (i.e. no more cross-trainer and superfluous strength moves), and run a bit more.

This is dangerous territory.

Currently I do three or four gym sessions a week (one of those is either entirely steady state cardio on the rowing machine, or 30 minutes on the rowing machine and 30 minutes strength). I’m considering changing this to two full strength routines (hitting all the strength moves that I think are a priority to maintain injury-free running) and four running sessions. So dropping the rowing and making the strength training just about the strength.

But I don’t know if this is sensible. Running four times? I need my long run, I like parkrun for a short social speed session and I really like my hill session (not at the time mind you!) – do I need anything else in terms of running??

And if I run four times, where do I place my runs and gym visits? Here’s what I was considering:

Monday: Strength training
Tuesday: Recovery run/short hill session?
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Medium length tempo/hilly run?
Friday: Strength training
Saturday: parkrun
Sunday: Long run

As you can see the runs and strength training might not complement each other at all. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated – I’m just a bit confused right now. It doesn’t help having everyone around me suffering (enjoying?) marathon fever right now and talking about their training!

While we’re on the subject of running, I ran last night and it was a brilliant run. The weather is fantastic so the guns were out!

Pre-run selfie in the bathrooms because I’m weird

I didn’t fancy doing my usual 10k speedy hilly run as I felt an immense amount of pressure (from myself) to maintain my trend of running this same route consistently faster each week. I decided instead to do a longer run, but more of a relaxed tempo than an aggressive speedy run. I ran a one mile warm-up to get my legs going, then did the usual 10k route, then enjoyed a two mile cool down. Interestingly it didn’t feel like nine miles as I had split it up in my mind exactly as that: warm-up, 10k, cool down. It was a great longer hill run.

(7.38mins/mile average)

I removed my gloves on the second mile (my route loops back a lot because the amazingly beasty hill sits right next to my office) and threw them off the path. My faith in humanity was boosted when I finished the run and went back to retrieve them to find them still there.

To be fair though they don’t look like anything you’d want really

Annoyingly though I had slightly misjudged the distance and had to run a few loops round my office car park. Luckily most people had gone home…I say most. One man looked at me like I was mental as he headed to his car. I looked meaningfully at my watch a few times though to sort of demonstrate what I was doing (though this was probably lost on him…non-runner!).

Post-run selfie – feeling very happy

Annnnd my mind goes back to my training…Do I just run three times a week and make the third run a hilly longer run?? Keep my rowing??

Nothing like being a paranoid, insecure runner surrounded by other runners doing so many different things!

Any tips to give?

What do you think is important in marathon training?

What strength workouts do you do, if you do any?

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.***