Thoughts - AnnaTheApple

May 24, 2013

Sleepless Nights and a Special Birthday

There are good times during the day when it is sensible and productive to think about important decisions, tasks at work, and things that you need to do.

I have found that 3.30am is not that time. At 3.30am everything can seem like a complicated problem. Everything gets ruminated and examined from every possible angle. Time gets sucked away and your mind whizzes at ninety miles an hour. Problems are not solved at 3.30am.

That was last night for me. I tossed and turned all through the night with a mixture of a zillion things going through my mind and achy legs from my running club run that evening. Consequentially, I did not sleep well.

Loving that peak from 3-3.30am…not

I didn’t need the Sleep Cycle app to inform me that I had pretty rubbish sleep quality. I was fully aware of that at several points during the night. In fact, I’m sure I ruminated on it at 3.30am.

I love running club but it does mess around with my sleeping after I’ve had a hard run only hours before. And on top of a tough week at work…well I had no chance really. It’s funny because at that time in the middle of the night, you almost want you alarm to go off so you can get up. When you do eventually fall back asleep however, those thoughts are long gone.

Anyway, so this week has been tough at work and tough running. My 10k on Sunday pretty much savaged any energy I had left in my legs and left my runs feeling tough beyond belief. I usually comfortably run between 7.30-7.45mins/mile. On Tuesday I was struggling to hit 9mins/mile. Very humbling! Reminds me that I’m not superwoman and rest is important.

But I enjoyed the run regardless and just ran at a pace that my legs felt comfortable. I think it’s important to get back into it after a tough race but I also think it’s important to that slowly and sensibly. Shake out those achy muscles and get some fresh air.

And importantly – a big happy birthday to my amazing, super mum.

I couldn’t ask for a better mum. She may not be the best cook in the world but she is definitely a great listener, a loving person, kind beyond words and always there whenever I need a mum-daughter chat or coffee.

On to some good food. The other night I tried a new recipe. It’s loosely based on THIS recipe that I had pinned (follow me if you fancy!)

Tomato and Feta Chicken (serves 2)

2 chicken breasts
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
Tin of chopped tomatoes (I used chopped cherry tomatoes)
Herbs (e.g. oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary)
Garlic

– Pre-heat oven to 200C/400F.

– On the hob in a small pan, cook the chopped tomatoes with the herbs and garlic until bubbling.

– Add most of the feta (reserve two heaped teaspoons) and stir so it begins to break down and melt.

– Season the chicken with pepper (no salt as the feta is very salty) and add to a small casserole dish. Cover with sauce, pop in oven and cook for about 15mins.

– Remove then sprinkle over the remaining feta and pop back in for another 5mins (until the chicken is cooked).

The sweetness of the tomatoes and the saltiness of the feta worked so well together. And so easy to make, definitely one to repeat as an easy midweek meal!

So it’s Friday today, hurrah! This weekend is a long weekend with the bank holiday on Monday (a day off in the UK). I plan to enjoy a nice relaxed Parkrun tomorrow – NO PRESSURE allowed. And then Ben and me might have signed up to another 10k for Sunday….um, yes we are obsessed.

Have a lovely weekend!

What are you up to this weekend?

What’s your favourite kind of cheese? Mine is goat’s cheese without a doubt. But I do love cream cheese.

Do you wake up in the middle of the night with thinking-overload?

May 20, 2013

Running Away and Moving Forward

Hi guys, well what a weekend is all I can say. A lot of highs and lows!!

Saturday morning Ben and I got up early and got ourselves ready to head to our first ever Parkrun (informal 5k race that happens all over the UK and the world on Saturdays). It starts at 9am and isn’t very far from us so we could leave at 8.15am and have plenty of time to work out where we needed to be etc. I had breakfast about 8am – absolutely standard oatmeal. Nothing fancy.

I was so nervous I can’t tell you. I know it’s stupid. But at Running Club on Thursday all the people were saying because it was such a flat course this time (it changes occasionally) and that I was a fast runner I was sure to do amazingly. And then when I got there a few people were saying I was going to be high in the table for the females.

I felt under a bit of pressure. Ridiculous I know because if I didn’t do well no one would really care except me and this was just a Parkrun. People were just observing I was a ‘fast’ runner and it was a flat course and they were being polite and flattering me.

I was also a bit caught of guard as it was very informal. I guess I should have expected this. When we all crowded at the start I was mid-conversation when they started counting to go.

Then we were off. I have never felt so sick in my life. I was jolted into a sprint and pegged it as fast as my little legs would go. I knew the 5k would all be about speed and it was just about going for as fast as you can for as long as you can until it’s over.

A mile in and I knew something was wrong. I started panicking in my head. I felt so sick. I knew I had to slow down but I couldn’t. I felt I would fail by slowing down (yes, I realise this is absolutely ridiculous and I am an idiot). But I knew by then I was going to be sick.

So I ran off the race. I literally ran away from the race.

I did what I had to as far away from the race as I could. Then I kept walking and didn’t look back. I was so annoyed with myself you wouldn’t believe. I started crying (I know, I know – so not worth crying about!). I kept walking to get as far away as I could.

I then flopped onto the pavement and let myself be pathetic for a while until I realised I was lost. With no phone. Nothing.

To be fair, I hadn’t walked a great distance from the race. Probably half a mile. But I couldn’t go back. I was convinced people would have seen or wondered what happened. So after about 15 minutes I realised I needed to do something constructive. The only number I knew off by heart was my parents’ house phone. So I asked to borrow a very nice lady’s phone and rang them.

My parents, bless them, drove and picked me up. They were so lovely and comforting with words of “it happens to all runners” but I was just hating myself right then. Why didn’t I just slow down? Why did I put so much pressure on myself? Why did I eat breakfast!!!!

Then we had to find Ben as I knew he’d have finished by then and he wouldn’t have had a clue what had happened. He was obviously very worried when we found him but very sympathetic as well.

Ben did amazingly in the run. He got 25mins30secs. I’m so proud of him. Bless him, he didn’t want to tell me what he got because he worried it would be “rubbing it in”. But I’m so pleased for him – I’m glad one of us had a success!

Sunday morning Ben and I got up early again. It was time to get back on the horse. We had planned a 10k race in a lovely country park (provided we both felt up to after the run on Saturday). Ben was good to go. And so was I.

I was nervous again, but not because of any pressure I’d stupidly put on myself but because I didn’t want to be sick again. But I had breakfast early and I thought to myself “this is just a nice run through a lovely park”. No pressure.

There was less than 350 people running and it was quite informal. We had numbers but we didn’t have chips or anything. Perfect for a no pressure run.

The first mile I was running literally next to another girl the entire time. Psychologically this is quite hard. But eventually I broke off and then managed to keep ahead. But I then had the issue that I needed to keep just slightly faster than her, which was a hard pace to maintain. It literally felt like a proper race in that respect. And then miles 2-4 I kept thinking she was just behind me. Thankfully by mile 4 I realised she was a fair way back and I was running strong. It was tough don’t get me wrong. Hard, fast running. But I wasn’t feeling sick. In fact, though it was bloody hard work, I felt pretty damn good. The competitive element wasn’t causing me any issues like Saturday.

My Garmin says under 10k which annoyed me and the official times haven’t come out yet (well, as official as someone with a stop watch at the end can be). But I’ll take it

And…I came first out of the ladies!! The girl I was up against at the beginning came second.

I got a little trophy for being the first female!

Then I glugged a load of water and waited for Ben. I was quite chuffed I’d get to see him finish and was ready poised with my camera.

He beat his Marwell 10k by around 4 mins by finishing 52mins56secs. Nice work!

I am really chuffed with the both of us. Firstly, Ben got two PBs in one weekend. For a guy that’s just got back into running I’m pretty damn proud of him. Secondly, I’m pleased that I learnt from yesterday. I put pressure on myself when I shouldn’t have – who the hell cares what time I do a run or race in! No one cares but me, and I shouldn’t be too hard on myself! I love running. Full stop. Getting good times is a great extra. I shouldn’t be so focused on it. I loved running months ago when I wasn’t doing races. I should just enjoy the race and let the times be what they will be.

Beautiful scenery near the finishing line

I’ll leave it there for today as I’ve gone on a bit in this post. I’m pleased with this weekend, warts and all. It’s the failures and issues you have in life that make you stronger!

Have you ever pushed yourself too hard?

Have you ever had a similar ‘issue’ when running/exercising?

If you do races, why do you do them? I like challenges and I like pushing myself. But I have to realised that I love running so much more. I cannot let my need to succeed compromise my love for running.

May 17, 2013

The little things

Hello Friday! Wow where did this week go? It went crazily fast. Not that I’m complaining.

I thought I’d do a post on some random thoughts and occurrences of late. It’s the little things in life that keep things interesting!

1. It’s a well known fact that cake on a Friday doesn’t count (FYI this was last Friday’s cake – I didn’t eat cake that went off yesterday. Would I refuse a one-day-stale piece of cake though over no cake? I’d rather not answer that…). Cake is an indulgence I need every week. Without fail.

2. Mini trolleys are AMAZING. This is a tiny trolley from M&S, almost like a basket with wheels which makes me feel like I’m six again. Anyone from the UK: do you remember when they used to do trolleys for children?? So the kids could push a little trolley with their parents as well. I wonder why they disappeared…Oh yes, that’s right because who ever decided to allow young children to push trolleys around a busy supermarket is CRAZY. Hello ankle pain.

3. I can destroy half a melon easily in under 10 minutes. Like a boss. In fact, I have to finish Ben’s off as he is so rubbish at getting all the melon flesh. Take no prisoners.

4. This display on my Garmin annoys me SO MUCH.

The loading bar is full therefore it should be done, right? Oh no. It stays with that full bar for minutes afterwards. While I am stood in the cold just waiting to run. Garmin, stop lying to me!!

5. Why do people leave the teabags in their drinks? Maybe this is a British thing (or a specifically Anna thing) but whenever I see TV programmes (I must say, usually US programmes) and someone is drinking a tea they always leave the teabag in so the little piece of string hangs down the side. It baffles me because doesn’t this over-steep the tea?? Doesn’t the teabag hit your mouth when you drink? It really freaks me out.

Yes, this is not my usual mug. This is my back-up Scooby mug.

6. One of our knives broke the other day when I was chopping vegetables. The knife blade literally pinged past me and hit the wall behind me. It was like the vegetables were fighting back. It would have been funny if I hadn’t been in shock.

7. This photo makes me feel a little sad inside:

He looks so helpless and upset at having being bathed. It needed to happen though. He was getting to one stinky pooch.

8. However this photo brings me right back up to a significantly happy level:

Sea salt Green and Blacks! On offer! Still expensive though. And definitely beaten to the punch by Lindt.

Well, I hope you guys have a great weekend. Ben and me are running a 5k Parkrun tomorrow so I’m quite excited but also nervous. I hate 5ks, they’re just so fast and painful…but we’ll see how it goes! We might be running a 10k run through Moors Valley Country Park on Sunday depending how we feel. I will be taking that one easy if we do go for it. I’m going to take it more of as a nice trail run then a proper race I think as I think I’ll be shattered after tomorrow!

What’s been making you happy this week?

What are your little things in life that keep things interesting for you? Wow there’s a vague question for you

Teabags: in or out?

April 26, 2013

Organic food musings

Hello lovely people. This week has been so much better to last week thankfully. I don’t feel as though I’m clawing myself to the weekend.

Last night (Thursday) I was able to go to running club as I could finish work at a reasonable time. I was umm-ing and arr-ing all day long about whether I did actually want to go. This is the problem I find with not running in the morning. I’m one of those people that when my alarm goes off I’m bang awake. So if I’ve planned to run and set my alarm stupidly early I pretty much need to go otherwise I’m up stupidly early for work. However, if I’m going to run in the evening I’ve got the entire day to compile a list of reasons why not to go.

But the sun was shining and, like I said, I could leave on time. I had no excuse. And I am so glad I went. I really wasn’t up for a 7.30min/mile hill run like the immensely tough run from the other week so I was really chuffed that the faster guys were planning on running 8mins/mile semi-road semi-trail run.

It was one of those runs where you could relax into it, power it at times, but otherwise just find a good rhythm and enjoy it (hence the crazy variation of pace!). The weather was beautiful, not too hot but still light and clear. I didn’t feel pushed to my limits, but just comfortable. A perfect run.

Again the only problem I had was I was buzzing all evening when I got home and when I went to bed I just couldn’t sleep until like 11pm. People, this is crazy for me.

On to an interesting subject that really got me thinking and sort of worried me a little bit. Madison did a great post about organic food and the “dirty dozen”.

The Dirty Dozen are the 12 foods that are really top of the list for the most pesticide-affected foods. Now usually I don’t really care about this sort of thing. I optimistically live in a wonderful world where things like pesticide can’t bother me.

However, for whatever reason it really struck a cord with me. I eat at least three apples a day. Just your bog-standard non-organic apples.

I hadn’t really thought about it before. But suddenly it seemed a bit concerning. Apples are apparently one of the worst!!

I did a bit more research into it myself to find out specifically about the UK. Here’s an interesting website which basically outlines the benefits of eating organically.

Essentially here are the main benefits in very general terms:

Better animal welfare standards
There are some foods which contain more vitamins and minerals (though there is some debate about this)
Reduction in pesticides used
Reduction in additives used
No antibiotics used in animal rearing
No hydrogenated fats
No GM ingredients
Support for the land and wildlife in terms of sustainability

It does worry me about the pesticides building up in my body. I’m not going to lie, I don’t know a huge amount of what this might do to you. But I am usually so careful about what I eat in terms of not wanting tons of sugar or salt and avoiding overly processed stuff (I don’t completely avoid it as where’s the fun in that??) that it seems I’ve become a bit blasé about other issues, such as chemicals sprayed on food or fed to animals.

But, as you’re probably aware, organic food tends to be more expensive unfortunately. Mainly because it’s not so quick to get out there in the shops with long shelf-life’s etc. than non-organic food is and there’s a whole load of regulations involved obviously.

We can’t afford the luxury of buying all organic so I’ve decided to pick a few things and try to stick to organic as much as possible. So apples obviously.

And also things like strawberries and other berries. Maybe I’ll try getting lettuce as well as I do eat a lot of salad…

Basically lots thoughts regarding this have been running through my head lately! Food for thought, you might say

Do you buy organic? Why?

What particular things do you think are important in selecting the food you buy? For me it is general nutrition (sugar and salt levels) and quality of ingredients. But also price does play a part and if it’s from Britain or from miles away. I do worry about how far food has travelled.

On a lighter note, what have you got planned for this weekend?

April 21, 2013

10 o’clock brownies

Hi guys, hope you all had a great weekend. I completely de-stressed myself after my busy week. And the sun came out which was just perfect.

Friday night I had planned to leave work at a reasonable time to get home and have a nice long evening with my two favourite Bens. My husband and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream Obviously though this meant leaving work an hour and a half after intended. *sighs* But the consolation of it being Friday was good enough to not dampen my mood.

We had steak again for dinner which was perfection.

With loads of salad and goat’s cheese. Oh this was heaven. Sticky, sweet goodness.

Then we had Ben and Jerry’s (Vermonster for Ben & chocolate brownie fro-yo for me) while we watched Savages.

It was really good. I was so surprised. There were a couple of scenes I had to run out of the room for (read: torture & nasty deaths) but otherwise really good. Salma Hayek was brilliant in it, though Blake Lively was pretty much Serena from Gossip Girl.

Saturday morning I went for my usual long run.

I took it nice and easy and just enjoyed it. The weather was great so I could wear my capris rather than my long leggings. It felt so refreshing to be out in the sun first thing. I really do love my long weekend run. Yeah OK sometimes it’s tough, but I just slow down a bit and take it easy. It’s not always about speed. This is a run where I try not to care what pace I do, I just love the distance.

The rest of Saturday was the usual chore-doing business and not one but two lovely walks with Alfie and Ben in the beautiful sunshine. We walked Alfie just before lunch and then in the afternoon I was just itching to get outside again and somehow managed to persuade Ben to join me again. Whenever it gets sunny I have this immense need to get out of the house and into the sun. I’m worried it won’t last! Get it while it’s ~~hot~~ shining!

And I got my hair cut.

I wanted quite a bit taken off as it’s just got so long. It’s such a hassle to wash, comb, blow-dry and straighten in the morning. Seriously, I feel my life ebbing away with the amount of time I spend on it.

So I said to the lady to take about three inches off and make it a bit more interesting with some layers. Then as she just began blow-drying it the power went! I had to go home with wet hair, which was a bit of a bummer as I love going to the hairdressers as it’s nice someone else having to deal with my hair rather than just me! Ah well. I did get a discount.

Saturday evening we got dressed up to go out for dinner. OK my hair doesn’t look much different to before I know.

But to me it’s a HUGE change. So much lighter in weight and shorter. I also wore my favourite but most painful pumps. I love them, but they hurt so much But I thought I wouldn’t be doing much walking anyway so it didn’t matter.

We drove to the village where I used to live with my parents, about 20 minutes away, to a beautiful little pub on the seafront.

The pub is just there on the left, but look at that sunshine!!

We had a mezze board to start. I know, I’m so predictable. I just love mezze boards.

I also love my husband. He traded me the falafels for the pitta bread. A definite win in my eyes. And he doesn’t like olives.

For main I was torn beautiful butternut squash with feta cheese or BBQ chicken.

So I went with the BBQ chicken. Seriously I can’t get enough BBQ at the moment. And it came with huge chunky potato wedges. They were so crispy and dunking them in ketchup was just heaven.

We were then going to meet friends for a drink at the same pub but we finished earlier than we expected so we went for a walk along the seafront.

It was a little nippy, but so clear.

Beautiful! Though I massively regretted wearing those damn painful shoes.

Unfortunately, because this is the area I grew up in and went to school, I bumped into a bunch of boys who back in the day were the ‘popular’ guys. I politely said hello, as you do, and they said hello and then a couple of them burst out laughing in my face. Seriously I felt like I was 15 again. My group of friends and I were the ‘boffs’ and weren’t cool back in school. We did our homework and got good grades. We weren’t bullied or anything like that, but we weren’t part of the cool gang. It just felt terrible to feel that small at 24.

Anyway, when I met up with my friends we all laughed about it and thought what idiots they are. We are all quite happy in our careers, with partners or husbands, having moved out and making our way in life. They haven’t. They’re still living the dream that ended quite a few years ago.

It felt great to catch up my friends and a few of us ordered pudding at 10pm. Brownie with honeycomb hash ice cream (no photo I’m afraid, some things don’t last long enough for that sort of thing!).

Friends and brownie. Life’s medicine.

Now it’s Sunday. We had a lazy morning watching the London marathon – so inspiring! The 30 seconds of silence for Boston was really lovely. And wow seriously, those elite athletes were SUPER FAST. And I chuckled to see this picture on Twitter:

Love it!

So now I’m still enjoying a relaxing day of blissful sunshine, chicken with BBQ sauce, and cuddles with this guy:

No matter how many times he’ll spread his kibble over the newly washed kitchen floor, malt all over the just hoovered sofas, drip his wet beard all over the floor after drinking water, bark at every person who walks past our house, I will still love him. Just

What have you been up to this weekend?

Did you watch the London marathon?

Do you ever have moments where you’re brought right back to how it was in school?