Week 7 Round Up

Tuesday:  Training Plan - 40 minutes easy
Time: 43:45
Distance: 7.93km

Thursday: Training Plan - 5 min easy, 5 min HM pace x 4 (40 Minutes Total)

Time: 42:42
Distance: 7.83km

Not very happy with Thursdays effort, seeing as I was running 20 mins of that at a faster pace I should have covered more distance than I did on Tuesday!  Thursdays run was tough, I left my water bottle in the office and it was so warm out I immediately was in a mood with myself. 

The run wasn't a total waste of time though, as I learnt a valuable lesson.  DONT eat ryvita for lunch on days where I'm running!  I had such bad stomach cramp after about 20 minutes and that was all I could focus on my head really wasn't in it and I've never wanted to give up so much as I did then.

On Friday I moved house so I decided I'd use that as my cross training for the week as the programme includes "light weights" as an option.  In the end I'm not sure that lifting sofas, beds, mattresses and the rest of our possessions up and down stairs in 2 houses for a total of 4 + hours necessarily counts as "light" weights but never mind.

I didn't run on Saturday like I have done for the last few weeks I was totally wiped from the move and my parents were staying so Mr D and I went out yesterday instead.

Sunday: Training Plan - 75 Mins easy with middle 20 at HM pace

Time: 1:18:10
Distance: 13:31

My first run from the new house, so that meant a new route! I planned the bulk of it on MapMyRun and decided to take a road I barely even knew about into a wood that I'd never been in either.  As I'd not driven up the road before I decided to look on google maps to get a feel for where I needed to go.  Something I have learnt from this is that there is no sense of elevation on google maps so it was a bit of a surprise when we came round a corner and in front of us was a terrifying hill!  Luckily that was about 20 minutes into the run and I was still running at easy pace otherwise I'd have died - for sure.

Despite the hills of death the route was amazing. As we were going up that steep road you could see the Grove Country Club and Golf Course across the fields.  I can't believe we've lived here nearly 3 years and we'd never been in the wood, it was gorgeous (was also glad of some shade by that point too!):

Just beyond that trail above it opens out onto... a golf course?!  I sped up a bit there to make sure I got well out of the way of the people on the tee, didn't want to get knocked out or anything.  Whilst I was looking for a picture to pop on the blog I have found out that some of Star Wars - The Phantom Menace was filmed in that wood - who knew?

When we got to the edge of the wood we decided we'd run the canal like we normally do as Mr D really loves it along there.  After that we ran up the road past where we used to live which is quite a long slow incline and thankfully that's where the 20 minutes of faster pace finished - I couldn't have gone on at that speed much longer.  From there we went through town, along the road we both work on and then up the main road all the way home.  I don't think I've ever been so glad to hear the voice in my earphones telling me time was up!

Here's the graph for the run:

I'm pretty pleased with that.  You can see where the big hill was (just after 4km) when I really slowed down and you can see a difference in the pace for the middle 20 minutes at HM pace.

You can also see at the top that this was another run that ended with some PB's.  As the run was so long I wasn't expecting it to be particularly fast so that was a nice bit of motivation - here's the stats:

According to the Nike+ app I burned 796 calories which will have come in useful seeing as this week's eating has been so poor.

I did a huge shop on Saturday and all of our kitchen is sorted now so normal service should resume, and it can't come soon enough, I feel bloated and tired and generally rubbish after having so much takeaway and easy food.  Bleurgh.

So that was last week, today is Monday and its time to see how training will look this week:

Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 30 min easy
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - 40 min easy
Friday - Rest
Saturday - X train
Sunday - 50 min easy with middle 25 at HM pace

Week 8 looks ace to me, only trouble might be my shin.  I haven't worn my compression bandage or taped my shin for the last week or so when maybe I should have as after yesterdays long run I have some serious pain going on.  I spent last night icing with frozen peas and elevating and today its still pretty painful so I'm wearing the bandage at work.  I'm hoping that tomorrow its stopped hurting enough to have my 30 minute run in the morning.  If not I'm not sure what to do???  I really don't want to miss any training sessions but I don't want to make this worse either - guess I'll have to wait and see what tomorrow brings???

A Little Inspiration Goes A Long Way

I mostly seem to be blogging week round ups at the moment which is good from a training plan point of view but not helping me keep accountable for my food choices.  The last few days over lunch I've been mooching about on a few blogs and its really made me miss being organised and eating clean and lean.

A new favourite blog of mine is Francesca's Fitness Kitchen I found this blog through @beatthebinge on twitter.  Incidentally if you do use twitter and are into all things clean and lean she is well worth a follow!  Anyway this is a great blog for C&L recipes, workouts and beauty tips, I haven't nearly finished reading back through all her posts but so far from the ones I've read I can't wait to move into the new house and get in the kitchen.

There's quite a long list of things I want to make once we're in, first of all I'm going to have a go at making my own bounce balls.  After my runs I usually have a protein shake but recently I bought some bounce balls to try and it was nice to eat something rather than glug down a shake.  I can't seem to get hold of their coconut and macadamia flavour so that's what I'll attempt to make - will let you know if they turn out anything like the real thing and blog recipe too.

Another blog I've been enjoying recently is Chocolate and Raspberries, and a week ago the lovely Ffion posted a recipe for date and nut balls which taste like Nakd Bars....mmmmmm

If I could make these myself I think my life would be complete!

The food over the next couple of days is going to be poor, take away tonight as we've packed everything in the kitchen except for plastic forks, will have to get lunch on the go tomorrow whilst we are mid move and then dinner out on Friday with my parents to say thanks for help moving.

The move obviously means that I won't be able to blog for the next few days but I'll definitely be around on Monday to let you know how my long run goes.

Have a great weekend! 

Week 6 Round Up



Six weeks done already?  I can't believe I'm half way through this training plan, on one hand I'm so pleased that I've made it this far but I'm a bit apprehensive as to what the next few weeks will bring.  Anyway I'll get to what's planned this week later, for now lets talk about week 6.

Monday
Time: 32.32 Distance: 5.71km

Thursday
Time: 47.47 Distance: 8.75km

Sunday
Time: 1.04.03 Distance: 11.53km

Here's the graph for Sunday's run:

Not quite as smooth as some runs, this week's longer run was hard work!  About a year ago me and Mr D were walking along the canal and saw a sign that said Rickmansworth 3 miles and I said that one day I'd run there so that's what I decided to do.

Ian came with me again and so we ran along the main road to Rickmansworth, it all started out nicely, down the hill from home to the roundabout and then it went wrong, you can probably see how slow I was from 1-2km that was all uphill and painful.  There is a nice downhill bit just before you come to Rickmansworth which I was grateful for but a bit worried about slipping over as it was rainy and the pavement is covered by trees so the surface is pretty mossy.  Thankfully I didn't fall on my bum.

Running through the town was nice, it was quite busy for 9:30 but all the people were so polite and let us run past without us having to jump into the road or anything scary.  I was quite worried we'd get lost trying to find the canal path or that we'd go the wrong way but Ian ran ahead and spoke to the lock keeper and we were fine.

I've never been along that part of the canal before and I wish I'd thought it through a bit more because boy was it muddy!!  Most bits you could dodge around pretty easily but there was one patch were you either just had to run through so I went for the edge where I thought it would be less sticky.  Instead it was just mega slippery, I skidded a bit, made a weird loud noise (embarrassing) and as my ankle slipped under me I managed to kick it with my other foot which really hurt.  We weren't too far from home then, probably 2 miles so I decided to just keep going.  It's not too painful now so I should be right by tomorrow's run.

I also had a bit of an incident with a goose.  I'm really scared of birds, and it was a bit of a shock when I came round the corner and there was a great big goose in the middle of the canal bridge.  Ian had run ahead so he wasn't there to shoo it away so I had to keep running and sort of coax it away, I went past and thought it had gone in the canal but it hadn't it was running along after me so I did the only logical thing and sped up.  So that was terrifying but worse was that a very fast proper runner came past me laughing, he'd seen my sad run/arm wave over the bridge to scare the goose.  The Shame.

We're moving on Friday so this weekend was mostly spent packing and didn't leave a lot of room for my cross train session.  Last night I decided I'd do a runners stability session from the book "Real Women Run" by Sam Murphy.  It wasn't very long, just over 30 minutes but anything that will help has to count right?

Well here we are - week 7!!  This is what's in store for me this week:

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: Easy 40 minutes

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 5 min easy, 5 min HM pace/threshold x 4 (total 40 mins)

Friday: Rest (move!)

Saturday: X train

Sunday: 75 min easy with middle 20 min at HM pace.

What a totally brutal week.

I've done some pinning on Pinterest this week for a bit of motivation and came across these:

Must try harder to remember this, food lately has been pretty terrible.

And this one which I love:

This is my new mantra for when I'm out running and I get overtaken by faster runners it doesn't matter, I'll probably never see that person again and at least I'm out there doing it, the only thing that matters is that I'm improving and sticking to my plan, not anything anyone else is doing.

PB

For once I'm not talking about Peanut Butter - but I'll get to that later.

Monday's run was 30 mins with last 10 minutes at threshold/HM pace.  Now I don't have GPS and even if I did I put my iPod in my back pocket so I wouldn't be able to look at it to know how fast I was going so when its time to do HM pace I just make sure I speed up and try and stay at that pace.

Time: 32:32
Distance: 5.7km

Yesterday the training plan called for a 45 minute run with the first and last 15 mins at east pace and the middle 15 at threshold/HM pace.  I mapped a 5 mile route at lunch going a way that I hadn't been before for a bit of variety - good idea I thought... WRONG.  The 30 seconds or so was downhill which meant I spent the next few minutes climbing, a little drop down then onto the  flat, which was great until I came to another climb to get into town, worse still that was when the first 15 minutes was up and it was time to pick up the pace.

It was raining which I've realised I don't really mind too much when I'm running it keeps you cool and people can't really tell what's rain and what's sweat so that's a bonus!  Also as it was raining there were less people around town which made life a bit easier, less people to dodge and no-one shouted anything out so I'd say that's good news.  I'm not sure if it was because of the rain or sweat or because I just hadn't put it on properly but all of my zinc oxide tape on my legs came off really quickly so I was a bit worried about my calves and shins/

I ran out of town and towards home and started to realise I'd get home sooner than I thought so I went off the main road and up and down some of the side streets to make up distance and finally my iPod told me I'd done 30 minutes and I could slow down.  Some tightness in my calves but other than that everything was fine.  I just kept thinking of that saying " its not your legs giving out its your mind giving up" and that seemed to help.

I did get to home much sooner than I thought so I ran down to the end of the road and back up the big hill and then back round and then I walked up the alleyway to home to stretch out my legs.

Time: 47:47
Distance: 8.7km

I'm pretty pleased with that but when I logged into my Nike + account last night I had a few pop ups which were a nice surprise:

A run full of PBs.  I really love the Nike app when you see things like that it makes it seem like I am getting better at this running lark and I'm feeling pretty positive for this weekends longer run now.

Recipe: Pea and Lettuce Soup

Ok so I know it doesn't exactly sound mind blowing but I promise this soup is delish!

Serves 4
Ingredients:

425g frozen peas (I use petit pois but I don't think it matters what you use)
2 baby gem lettuces
One medium white onion
25g butter
1 litre stock (I use chicken but veg stock would work too)
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and Pepper
Crispy bacon (optional)

Firstly dice the onion, melt the butter and then add the onion to the pan:

Whilst the onion is softening (try to make sure it doesn't colour) chop up the lettuce and measure out your other ingredients - I've found that a half litre pyrex jug filled to the top with peas is almost exactly 425g and loads easier than measuring.

Once the onions are soft add the lettuce to the pan followed by the lemon juice.  I didn't have any fresh lemons so I used some lemon juice in a bottle.  Then add the frozen peas and stock, stir, season and bring to the boil.

Once the soup has boiled turn down to a simmer and put the lid on the pan and let that cook gently for about 20 minutes until everything is soft.  I use a hand blender to whizz up my soups but if you are using a food processor or proper blender allow the soup to cool first before blending.  Taste the soup to see if it needs any more salt and pepper.

If you are going to add bacon then whilst the soup is simmering pop it under the grill until its really crispy, then once cool break up into small chunks:

Sprinkle on top or stir into the soup and serve:

Week 5 Round Up

I can't believe 5 weeks have gone by so quickly.  This week's runs have been mixed Tuesday was a 30-40 min easy run and I did 40 minutes and then walked for a few minutes after to cool down and stretch out my legs.

Total time 43:43 Distance: 7.20km

Thursday was another 30-40 minute easy run so I decided to run a new route through the posh bit of town then joining up to the park later, I really enjoyed the new part of the run and felt pretty good so I extended the loop so I would get into the park right at the top.  Now I don't know what it is but as soon as I get into the park now I don't seem to enjoy it as much.  Its all in my head no doubt but its bothering me.

Total time: 38:38 Distance: 6.85km

Now seeing as I'd struggled on Thursday I wasn't looking forward to my first hour long run.  I decided to run on Saturday morning, we didn't do park run but I mapped a route before we left Mr D's parents that was just over 5 miles, I thought that would be about right and if we were back home before the 60 minutes was up was could run around the block a few times.

I asked Mr D if he knew the route as it involved a few paths through Bushy Park but he said he knew where he was going.... he didn't.  In the end it was just as well, we ended up popping out of the park at Hampton gate and running down the road to Hampton Court.  That's when the heavy rain started which actually was quite refreshing at 40 or so minutes!  I did panic a bit when I realised we'd only have 20 minutes to get back from where we were but carried on anyway into the park and out the other side, there was still time left so we ran over the railway bridge and we were a minute or two from home when my timer finished.

Here's the graph from my Nike+

Total Time: 1:01:00 Distance: 10.92km

My longest and furthest run!  When I synced my run I had this pop up:

I know it's my first 10k and by default my fastest but I am really pleased with how the training is going at the moment.

I didn't manage any extra yoga sessions like I'd hoped but I did manage to do 40 minutes yesterday as my X train, I'd like to think I'd get some more done this week but that doesn't look likely as we exchanged on our new house on Friday and now all my free time will be spent sorting our things and packing (does that count as exercise??)

This week I've had to change some things around to fit in work etc so here's how its looking:

Monday: 30 minutes (last 10 HM pace)
Tuesday: Rest (I've swapped Monday and Tuesday)
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 15 min easy, 15 min HM pace/threshold, 15 min easy (total 45 mins)
Friday: Rest
Saturday: X train
Sunday: 60 min easy

Quite looking forward to moving now not just so that we can be in the new house but for a bit of variety in the runs, as the time increases I'll still be able to go along the canal I'll just have to brace myself for a hill run all the way back!

Food is going to be a bit weird this week.  We're trying to eat up everything in the freezer so the meal plan is:

Monday Lunch - Pea and Lettuce Soup with crispy smoked bacon (will do the recipe for this later because its delicious)
Monday Dinner: Cottage Pie
Tuesday Lunch: Cottage Pie leftovers
Tuesday Dinner: At my parents house in Wales so probably a stir fry
Wednesday Lunch: Ham and Cream Cheese Bagel with salad and crudites
Wednesday Dinner:  Cheese and Bacon Stuffed Pasta Shells
Thursday Lunch: Pasta Shell leftovers
Thursday Dinner: Pea and Lettuce Soup (Mr D is at rugby so I can't be bothered to cook for myself)
Friday Lunch:  Ham and cream cheese bagel
Friday Dinner: Grilled Venison Burgers and homemade paprika wedges

Alot of that isn't as clean and lean as I'd like but needs must this week!

Recipe: Cheese and Bacon Stuffed Pasta Shells

Here's the recipe for what I had for dinner tonight - bacon and cheese stuffed pasta shells.  I blogged about these once before and was asked a couple of times for the recipe then so tonight when I made them I took some step by step pictures so here it all is!

Ingredients: (serves 4)

200g large pasta shells (about 24 - I normally do 26 in case some break/stick whilst cooking)
700g jar or carton of tomato passata
300g soft cheese
50g breadcrumbs (I use panko)
1 onion
12 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
125g ball of fresh buffalo mozzarella

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees (fan oven).  Put a pan of water on to boil and once boiling add salt and the pasta shells and cook for about 8-10 minutes until tender but not overcooked.  Whilst the shells are cooking chop up the bacon and onion and fry together until the bacon is cooked and the onion is soft. 

Drain the pasta shells, rinse under the cold tap and leave to cool (if you pour a little olive oil over the shells after you have rinsed them it will help to stop them sticking together):

Mix together the bacon and onion with the cream cheese and panko breadcrumbs, taste and season:

Poor the passata into a large rectangular oven proof dish and then using a teaspoon take one cooled shell and spoon the filling into the shell:

Place the shell into the tomato sauce and continue to fill all of the shells in the same way until you have filled the whole dish:

Once the dish is filled slice or tear up the mozzarella:

Top the shells evenly with the mozzarella:

Put into the hot oven and bake for around 20 minutes until the cheese is melted and golden and the passata is bubbling.

ENJOY!



Week 4 Round Up

Sorry this is late, Monday I was at Wimbledon and my Mum has being staying since Sunday so now I've finally got time to tell you how the training is going.

Thursday I did manage to get my threshold run done in the hotel gym where I was staying.  I did the first 8 min easy then 8 minutes at half marathon pace but once that finished I did have to walk for 2 minutes because of the tightness in my calf and some pain where my leg was taped up, then I ran for 6 minutes easy pace and then 10 minutes half marathon pace (did an extra 2 minutes to make up for having to walk). 

Afterwards my leg was a bit sore but the tape and bandage seemed to do a job - god bless www.sportsinjuryclinic.net for their taping tutorial, without it I never would have been able to run.  (tutorial here if you need it: http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/sport-injuries/ankle-achilles-shin-pain/shin-splints/shin-splints-taping )

On Friday I was taking pictures for a Charity even but once those were taken and developed I had a little time to get a run in so I went back to the gym for my 50 minute run which was meant to be on Sunday.  I wasn't very hopeful for two reasons really, one I don't run that well on treadmills, I find it quite boring and two I was a bit worried about running for that amount of time on my leg so soon after running the day before.

I said to Mr D that I would just try to run for 30 minutes and see how I did after that. There were tv's right in front of the dreadmills and just as I started a new Wimbledon tennis match had started so that seemed like perfect viewing.  At 20 minutes my Nike + running app told me how long and far I'd run and I felt like I wouldn't even make ti to 30 minutes let alone much longer but I just tried to zone out a bit. At 35 minutes I had to pause to stick my tape back down, the sweat on my legs had stopped it sticking - gross.  From there I got to 40 and when you think "oh I've only got 10 minutes left" it feels like nothing and I was so happy when I finished.  I've never run for that long before and when i first looked at the training plan I didn't think I'd be able to do that after only 4 weeks.

So here's the stats for the run:

I'm really pleased with that, I know that's not very fast or anything but I still did it and that's a big achievement for me. 

My X train was weights and some resistance training that I saw in my "Real Women Run" book as I couldn't take my yoga dvd with me.  I really miss yoga feels like ages since I've done any so I might try and fit an extra session in this week.

Speaking of this week here is what the training plan says:

Monday: Rest or v easy 30 minute run ( As always I went for rest).
Tuesday: Easy 30-40 minute run
Wednesday: Rest (might do an hour or so of yoga)
Thursday: 30 - 40 minute easy run (no tempo/threshold run this week?)
Friday: Rest
Saturday: X train
Sunday: 60 minute run

I'm off to my In Law's this weekend so I've signed me and Mr D up for park run.  I know that's only 5k so I'm going to scan in through the start and finish and however long that takes me carry on until I get to one hour.  The other issue is that park run is on a Saturday so my long run will have to be then and I'll  try and X train on Sunday instead.

Sometimes when I'm running and talking about this half marathon its easy to forget the reasons that I'm doing it.  One is to help a friend who wanted to run one before she's 30, the other is charity.  The nominated charity for Run to the Beat is Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, I'm really pleased to be able to tell you all that on Friday at the dinner of the Charity event I'd be working at I was told that £1000.00 of the money raised that day would be donated to my charity for the half marathon!  The proviso is that I won't get the cheque until I finish the 13.1 miles so that's really helping to spur me on.

Someone who had been at the event that day also gave me £20.00 as his brother had suffered from Leukaemia and he was grateful that I was fundraising for them.  That nearly made me cry a bit!  Nearer the time I'll set up a just giving page but until then if I get any more sponsorship I'll keep you updated.