Thoughts - AnnaTheApple

November 5, 2014January 14, 2015

Rants and Raves

I thought I’d do a little ranting and raving in this post of some of the thing going on around here lately.

Rant: walking Alfie at 5.30am when the weather is freezing. The weather has definitely realised it’s November now and it is COLD. I walk Alfie before I go running and whereas I have no issues with running in the cold (because really it’s only cold for 5 minutes) the pre-walk is horrendous. I’m half asleep, freezing cold and feeling really grumpy. During that 10 minutes of walking all those annoying voices in my head are having a field day persuading me to just go back to bed. So far I’ve been able to ignore them…

Rave: having friends who bring back treats from India!

I’d love to pretend I know what each of these delights are but needless to say they taste amazing. They’re all sweet treats – some a bit like fudge, others just condensed sugary cakey things. The smell of them is incredible and I’m pretty sure each sniff is about 500 calories each 😉 Those bad boys won’t last long at all.

Rant: As I’ve been running on consecutive days in the morning things have become quite stressful to ensure I’m not late for work. This means getting up at stupid o’clock (aka 5.10am). I get dressed and ready, take Alfie for a walk and then run at about 5.50am. But do you know what’s most exhausting? Washing my hair after every run. So that’s shampooing, rinsing, conditioning, rinsing, towel drying, combing, blow-drying, combing and finally a quick straighten to tidy things up. Effectively my life is wasting before me because of my hair. In desperation I have sought another option.

Dry shampoo! Obviously I still shower, but not washing my hair after every single run means I actually gain back about 15-20 minutes of my morning (all important porridge eating time).

I’ve only used dry shampoo once before and it was ages ago when they were pretty much just white powder. Perfect for blondes but a disaster for any dark haired people like myself. If you don’t manage to comb it all out it can look suspiciously like dandruff. So I was chuffed to find a brunette-specific one.

After finishing a fairly easy run I forwent the hair wash and decided optimistically to just spray this stuff all over my hair. Big mistake. I probably should have been a bit more careful and less liberal because it took quite a long time to not look like my forehead and neck had been beaten up. And it sprinkled lovely dark dust all over our white sink. ARGH. So the time I saved from not washing my hair was spent washing my face and neck again and then cleaning the bathroom sink. I’m sensing I need more practice at this…

Rave: coconut water. Yes I know I’m so far behind the times and trends of the healthy living world but I am fully on board after winning a whole set of Naked coconut waters from Maria’s giveaway.

I pretty much keep one in the fridge at all times so when I get back from my run I have an ice cold coconut water to guzzle.

Rant: I subscribe to RunnersWorld magazine and really enjoy reading it. I often go on the website as well. Sadly the UK version of the site is far less comprehensive than the US version, hey ho, but that’s a rant for another day I think. No my rant for this is when I’m clicking on different articles suddenly a huge subscription advert will occasionally pop up.

And to escape from it you have to click “No thanks, Marathons are easy”. This annoys me. It’s similar to that subscription advert for one of the women’s fitness websites too but that was about getting the a “bikini body diet plan” or something similarly pathetic and you had to click “no thanks, I already have a perfect body”. Awful.

I’m already hacked off that you interrupted my reading pleasure, RunnersWorld, but don’t get all cocky with me with you cheap digs. And speaking of annoying, RunnersWorld is also notorious for having adverts at the top of the page so if you ACCIDENTALLY scroll briefly over it your screen becomes submerged once again with guff you didn’t choose to see. Way to go at annoying your readers!

Whew always feel a bit better after a good rant 😀

What are you rants and raves lately? I might do these posts more as they’re quite fun. There’s always something to moan about 😉

Do you spend a lot of time on getting ready in a morning? I don’t wear make-up but my hair takes ages mainly because it’s so damn long.

What’s your favourite coconut-based product? Coconut oil is still high on my list for frying vegetables in.

October 30, 2014

It’s all about that pace

Another post title that almost made the cut: “your pace or mine?” Annnnyway… Generally speaking there seems to be two groups of runners in terms of pacing. Those who watch their Garmins like a hawk and those who don’t.

Ahh my old Garmin. I’m now using the Garmin 220 (love it)

I’m part of the former group. I love wearing my Garmin, tracking my pace when I run, keeping to a certain target pace and then having those stats to upload for later nerding. If I don’t log it on my watch, the run didn’t happen.

The first speed work I’ve done in a while! 40mins steady running

OK I’m joking, I’m not that extreme. I’m not adverse to going for a run without my watch, but it’s definitely not my preference.

Perhaps this is due to not trusting myself (will I run too fast? Will I run too slow?). Or perhaps it’s due to feeling like I’m not in control. If I don’t know what pace I’m running at then how do I know if I’m going too fast or not working hard enough? On my first mile I might be absolutely blasting it feeling great…because it’s my first mile. I might still have 9 to go and the wheels will undoubtedly fly off later.

Some people are so much more in tune with their pace that they can run without keeping check on their watch and they run perfectly well. Perhaps I’m one of those people, but I’ll never let myself know. When I first started running I just had an app on my phone to track my pace so I couldn’t look at it all the time. It would tell me every mile my pace (in an annoying woman’s voice) but that was it. Just once a mile. Not like now where I can look down at my watch every second and see my current pace, my average pace, the miles I’ve run and the time I’m doing it in. And I love it!

SStats from the Berlin marathon

For the Berlin marathon I would literally check my watch every minute. I had a strict pace schedule I was trying to stick to. My intention was that the first 10 miles should feel relatively easy, so the temptation to run that little bit faster without realising was a risk. I needed that feedback from my watch to keep me in line. I really didn’t have the training behind me to risk anything. And I managed to do a nice negative split and felt comfortable all for but the last mile. I’m pretty sure I’ll do the same for my next marathon or any race in fact. I just like being in control.

For my first half marathon I wrote my splits on my hand to make sure I kept to them

There also tends to be a bit of (and I use this word very loosely) snobbery. The idea of being a “slave to your watch” or not listening to your body. I can understand that but I don’t necessarily agree with it. Of course you can train on feel. Run a tempo run at a speed where you can’t really say more than a few words. You don’t need your watch to tell you that. Or run flat out 100% for 400m – you won’t have time to look at your watch. But even if you’re not looking at your watch at the time, how can you mark progress without this data saved from those sessions at a later date?

I’m absolutely not saying one way is better than the other – or that they’re mutually exclusive. I admire people who just go out and run without a watch and have no idea about their pace or just run on feel. But for every run? I definitely couldn’t do it. Personally for me my Garmin is there to keep me honest, track my progress (or mistakes) and it makes me happy. Perhaps it’s also my tendency to favour long distance where your pace, I strongly believe, is so important to keep under control because you’ve got a long way ahead of you. Whereas for a 5k perhaps it’s just a case of blast it like hell and hold on for as long as you can.

Sure maybe one day I’ll go out without the watch to just “run free”, but then I’ll probably just cover up my watch so I can still have a sneaky look at the stats later 😉

What do you prefer: running with a watch or without?

Do you like ‘geeking’ out with your running stats? There’s nothing better for me than looking at my splits after a race, I’m that sad.

If you’re not a runner, do you use other trackers for your exercise (e.g. HR monitors, gym machine stats, etc.)?

August 13, 2014August 14, 2014

How much should you run?

Happy hump day everyone. I had Monday off this week so this week feels a bit odd (but the weekend still can’t come quick enough, am I right?)

Monday was a funny day because I had originally planned to be doing the Ultra 12 event Saturday night so had taken the day after off to recover. However I didn’t go so obviously didn’t need to do much recovering Monday. Unlike my poor husband who didn’t have Monday off and did run Ultra 12. Funny how that worked out really…

I had nothing planned for Monday as I did manage to get my long run in on Sunday (despite the weather being appalling in the morning). I’m glad I got it done because it meant on Monday I could do a quick strength routine in the morning at home and then just do lots of walking instead.

Because I’d taken bit of time off running recently I felt it was stupid to jump straight into a really long run, so kept it to 10 miles. My average heart rate was 162 which was perfect for this run, meaning I was running nice and easy. Not that I really need my HR monitor to tell me that as I can usually feel how things are going. The run felt relaxed and easy. Though I’d stupidly put on a long top because I thought the weather would turn again. It didn’t until 5 minutes after arriving home. *Sighs* During the run I was actually praying for torrential rain I was that hot.

I did manage to get some nice walks in with Alfie, but when out running some errands I badly misjudged the clouds and got caught in a downpour!

Think the shorts might retire soon…

Recently I’ve read a few interesting articles that one of my running friends tweeted. A series of articles caught my eye: How much should you run? There are five parts to it (I’ve linked to the final part with the conclusions). Spoiler alert: it seems that mileage is unimportant in improving marathon times, running higher volumes of miles a week will lead to injuries (40 miles a week apparently leads to a 50% increase in injury rate) and elites are just genetically gifted supernatural beings (sort of).

Further articles talk about how easy runs are rubbish and you’ll still get injured (I am of course paraphrasing a little). By the end of reading a few of these articles I was ready to throw either my trainers or myself out the window. My scientifically-minded running friend (Kate – hello!) however assured me that these studies were very old and the research is therefore limited. But it did make me a little bitter and depressed, I won’t lie. I always feel with running I get so far and then get knocked down again with injury. I am hugely jealous of people who can do stupidly high mileage and remain uninjured.

I’m pretty sure I have a terrible running style but I am improving little by little with strength training and drills (I truly believe with each new injury I learn a little more and work harder to never repeat the same mistake). But I think I’m one of those runners who can’t run every day and trot along without issue. I’m hoping as the years go by I will get stronger but who knows? I’m trying to cycle more than I did before as an effort to maintain fitness but reduce injury with running.

I do think these articles are to be taken with a pinch of salt and that it really depends on the person, their biomechanics, their training, their genes…etc. etc. so I shouldn’t just dive head first into a Dark and Shady place.

Runners, how often do you run? Do you know where your ‘tipping point’ is with injuries?

What do you do to prevent getting injured (in any sport really)?

How often do you get injured (if ever – you lucky sod)?

July 9, 2014July 9, 2014

Am I healthy?

This is a question I’ve been asking myself recently.

I like to think I’m fairly healthy. I do lots of cardio-busting exercise running 4-5 times a week. I do some strength work to try and smooth out biomechanical imbalances. I always hit my ‘5 a day’ fruit count (no, not just with apples ;))I eat stupid amounts of vegetables. We’ve swapped to organic or free range meat and I try and buy organic vegetables and fruit where it ‘matters’. I’m at a healthy weight, everything functioning like it should (or I hope at least!)…no major spot break-outs or lack lustre hair. Perfect, right?

Hmmm. There is something that I never really mention on the blog. Most people would probably say it’s not a big deal. But I’ve started to wonder about my consumption of artificial sweeteners.

It’s no secret of my love for sweet stuff. I could eat cake every single day if I let myself. I don’t because I want to be healthy. I’ve often had comments from people like “where do you put it?” or “I wish I could eat like that and remain so slim”. Well my secret is I don’t eat it every single day. Obviously it appears on my blog a lot because I love cake and it’s a whole lot more interesting than “here’s another apple…”. But if I’ve eaten a lot of cake or chocolate one day I’ll balance it the next day or the next meal. I do love healthy food and eating salad for a meal is my kind of thing.

However, like I said I love sweet things but I can’t eat calorific sweet things all day long. So I’ve found ways around this. And now I’m starting to wonder if my ‘work arounds’ aren’t much better.

‘Sugar-free’, ‘no added sugar’…these are words I’ll look for. I’m not interested in ‘fat free’ or ‘low fat’. It’s all about reducing the sugar for me. However I’m not all about reducing the sweet taste. And here lies my issue.

Am I consuming too many sweeteners every day? What are the risks with eating too many sweeteners? What is this doing to my health in the long-term?

To put this into perspective this is what I consume every single day:

No Added Sugar Squash

I drink squash by the bucket load. At work I have a 500ml glass and I probably drink at least three of these with squash every single day at work. Sometimes more. It’s very rare that I’m actually thirsty. I drink squash because I get bored at work and it stops me from mindless snacking…so instead I’m mindlessly drinking. I’m also constantly going to the loo. Good for getting my daily steps! I have to buy a 1.5 litre double concentrate squash every week for work. Less than 10 calories per 250ml? Perfect! Let’s ignore that long list of chemical-sounding ingredients shall we? Hmm.

Low Calorie Mint Hot Chocolate

I will have a large mug of this every night.

I take this hot chocolate with me if I go on holiday, to friend’s, I took it with me to Endure and when I stay with relative’s. It’s the last thing I have at night and I love it. Alfie loves it too, he gets to lick the mug afterwards (shh, this isn’t disgusting at all. You’re wrong). Also probably the one reason I have to get up every single night to pee. But less than 40 calories for a mug! It tastes delicious. I can’t even touch Starbucks hot chocolate in comparison to this chemically formulated brand. I’m well and truly hooked. But again, those ingredients look so dubious. Sure once in a while it’s fine…but every single night?

Low Calorie Jelly

Like my hot chocolate, I’ll have a pot of sugar free jelly every evening. We used to buy the ready-made pots but it would cost us a fortune the rate I was getting through them (like 70p per pot). Now we buy the sachets that make four pots a time (we kept the old pots and make the jelly in them) for the same price. I actually found out my lovely running friend does this too!Sorry for appalling photo which you probably can’t read!

She probably doesn’t have one every single day though…and on bad days I might have two (‘bad’ days like “I fancy chocolate but I ate cake earlier so maybe I’ll have another jelly instead”).

Sugar free chewing gum

A bit like my squash obsession, I’ll chew a lot of chewing gum at work. Mint gum after my morning coffee, maybe a fruit-flavoured one before lunch, one after lunch, one after my other coffee, one because I’m bored…I get through a lot. I’ve heard horror stories about what it does to your insides. I don’t even want to know.

I reach for these sugar-free alternatives to keep myself in check and not over-do the sugar-rich things I love. But is this any better? Recent research has shown that diet drinks actually don’t work as the body is tricked into thinking that calories are going to be arriving and they never do – so you crave more sweet things. And what’s the story on sweeteners and whether they’re bad for our body or not? Do we really know in terms of long-term consequences? Do I want to know?

I want to cut down or cut out completely…but the sad fact is I know I can’t give up my hot chocolate. I love it too much. And my one jelly…that can’t be that bad can it? But I can reduce my squash intake. Yesterday I’m proud to say I drank one 250ml of squash (to keep me sane…) and the rest was plain water or this:

Water with lemon slices. Boring as hell I assure you and doesn’t quite hit the spot, but it’s a change I’m willing to make.

Small steps right?

Do you think you’re healthy?

What is the one thing you do that you know is not healthy?

What do you think of artificial sweeteners?

July 3, 2014

Endure 24 – part 2

Here’s part 2 of my recap of the Endure 24 weekend.

[To catch up check out part 1]

I’d just had a lovely shower. The weather had improved. Things were looking up. I decided to not eat anything before my next run (which at this point was around four hours away, roughly 9.30pm). I was still so full from the chicken and I really didn’t fancy anything. Not even cake <—NOT EVEN CAKE.

Those bastard leggings took so much effort to put on

We cheered on other runners, including Ben, and chilled out for a bit.

The final mile coming round the corner to a windy grassy/muddy stretch

Our running club had a prime location of tents just in front of the change-over point so we could see the clock ticking away at the 24 hours.

Then the weather took a real turn for the worst. Thirty or so minutes before I was due to run the heavens just opened up.

I felt so sorry for my fellow team mate Kate who was running and due to be handing over to me. The downpour happened as she was out on the course and it was relentless.

I reluctantly got into my running shorts, compression socks and vest (lovely and sweaty from my previous run) and got myself ready to go again. I decided to keep my long running leggings for my 3-4am run knowing to keep the real warm stuff for later. Head torches were now required 8pm onwards until 6am.

Bless Ben, he stood waiting with me at the changeover point holding an umbrella and ready to take my coat, despite the fact that he was getting soaked and cold. It was suddenly very dark, very cold and absolutely chucking it down. I was dreading the run now. I was so cold. I got myself into a bit of state of nervousness. Ben calmed me down and said some wise words about how I’ve run in rain before etc. and how I’d be warm within the first mile.

One of my fellow running club friends, Sheryl, was stood there too and I remember her saying “this isn’t fun anymore”. Then her changeover runner came and off she ran for her lap. I stood waiting getting more and more nervous and cold. Then I saw Kate, ripped off my coat and got ready to go.

The first section was fine: all on tarmac. I pumped my arms and tried to get warm ASAP as I got soaked. Finally I stopped feeling the cold. Then I got into the off-road section. It was like a bog. I actually passed a runner holding a large umbrella! I had to shout at him (as politely as I could) to move over so I could overtake.

This was the course and how the rain affected it – from Endure 24 Facebook page

As it became more and more sticky to run and uneven I felt my hip start to niggle. I tried to keep the mantra “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger” in my head. But I saw my pace dropping as I struggled to run fast through the thick mud. All I could think in my head was “I can’t let my pace drop, everyone else’s second runs have been a minute or less out from their first runs”.

Darkness had now fully descended and all I had was my head torch to lead the way. As I got into the woods I couldn’t run – the mud was so thick and my hip so painful. I was glad to see others walking as well and not just me but I saw my watch flash my pace and internally I broke. “You’re weak, Anna”. Every step seemed like agony in my hip as my feet slid around. I desperately wanted to catch up with Sheryl so I could run with her as I felt so alone and broken. A 12 minute mile popped up on my watch. I started to cry as I ran/walked the course. The last mile is out of the woods and I tried to speed up. As I finished I saw Ben and I threw myself into his arms in tears.

I’ll briefly pause here. I know this all sounds so very ridiculous (and it only gets worse). Sitting here feeling dry, warm and clean, it seems pathetic. I don’t know why I reacted as I did. Maybe it was because of the pressure I put on myself to achieve a time similar to what my fellow team mates had achieved in the drier, lighter conditions…maybe the fact my hip was so painful again and it had been fine for a while now…the darkness…the feelings of being alone out on a trail…my rapidly declining pace.

Ben asked if I was OK and what was wrong. I suddenly felt so very overwhelmed. I couldn’t get my breath as I tried to tell him. I suddenly couldn’t breathe. I was sobbing but struggling to breathe. I started to panic. I couldn’t breathe. My panic increased. A lovely lady from my club ran to get a paramedic. Finally I calmed down and could breathe again.

I’m not proud of this. In fact I’m deeply ashamed. A panic attack? Seriously? Over what, a rubbish run in a bit of mud? I can’t believe how I reacted. When I got back to my team they asked how it went and I started to cry again. But they were all lovely. When they found out that my hip was hurting they decided (and I reluctantly agreed) that another lap, especially in the middle of the night, would be a bad idea.

I went for another shower only to find the showers were either cold, flooded or the light wasn’t working. In the end Ben helped me douse down my legs with water and dry them with a towel so I could get back into my running leggings and head to bed as it was now past midnight.

Ben had a 1am-ish run and I wished him luck. Unfortunately he turned his ankle on the course (aren’t we pair??) and he came to bed in a lot of pain 🙁 Bad times.

I woke early and cheered on the other runners. I felt like a failure but I was so chuffed for the other runners who ran at ridiculous times during the night. Pretty much everyone ran at least three laps. I ran two. I couldn’t have felt more rubbish.

Ben woke up a bit later and was told by his teammates he couldn’t do his last fourth lap because of his ankle (he wouldn’t have listened to me if I’d have told him not to run). Another lady had torn a ligament in her ankle and Mike had a calf issue. Injuries left, right and centre!

As fellow runners completed their final laps they then went off to collect their medal. This meant they couldn’t do anymore laps as they’d hand in their chip. I didn’t want to get my medal. Part of me was still convinced I could run one more lap. My hip felt OK in the morning…but people still said the course was muddy despite the rain having finally stopped. And part of me didn’t feel like I deserved a medal. I know this is silly, but I felt like I’d let my team down and myself. Just two laps? And a panic attack? Pathetic. The demons in my head were having a field day with me.

Ben, as always, snapped me out of it and told me not to be so ridiculous and go get my medal. He told me I’d run 10 miles and those 10 miles would have helped my team regardless. So I got my medal.

A bittersweet end

Despite my terrible, terrible run and post-run experience I did love Endure 24. I loved the atmosphere with my club, the camping and the experience. I wish so badly my run could have gone better, that I could have done a third lap, but it didn’t pan out that way unfortunately.

Instead I enjoyed cheering the others on and seeing them achieve things they’d never thought they could achieve. Our team did a total of 32 laps between us. The solo runner ran an epic 15 laps (75 miles); how amazing is that? He ended his final lap holding his baby and little girls hand as he crossed the finish line with the club’s flag draped like a cape round his neck. Truly inspiring.

So I’ll be there next year. Endure 24 and me have unfinished business.

Have you ever had a truly terrible race or run?

Have you ever had a panic attack?

Do you put pressure on yourself to perform a certain way? Do you set yourself unrealistic targets?