It's Not Supposed To Be Easy!

I did my tempo run today, good news, no soreness from the deadlift... guess that means I should add more weight next time ;-)

Tempo run 4.1 miles in 36.38, average pace 8.58, average heart rate179.

Mile 1 (warm up) 9.41 HR 167
The warm up mile was no fun! It started raining seconds after I left my house and a minute in to the run it started hailing!! Erm where did spring go? A few minutes in and I contemplated going back home to pick up my gloves and hat cause it was cold and those nasty hail stones were stinging my face. Decided this would mess up my planned route so it was easier to stick at it and brave the cold! I ended up running the warm up a bit faster than I intended cause at this point I wanted to get home ASAP!

Mile 2 (tempo @ 8.28) 8.24 HR 183
The first tempo mile I started far too fast, I looked down at the garmin a few minutes in and realised I was running a 7.30 pace. I slowed right down cause I knew I was not keeping that up for two miles. It got tough quickly even with my slowed pace and I just kept repeating to myself, it's not supposed to be easy, it will be worth it in the long run, push through it!

Mile 3 (tempo @ 8.28) 8.28 HR 186
After the first mile it got really tough! I hit a bit of a wall and could not make my legs go faster than an 8.40 pace. This went on for the first few minutes so I tried slowing a little to hopefully get a new burst of energy from somewhere... It worked.. I slowly sped up back to an 8.30 then and 8.24 then finished exactly on my prescribed pace of 8.28. This mile was horrible! I kept thinking you're no runner, it's never going to work, but then I kept saying quit whining it's not supposed to be easy - hence the title! And I just kept repeating that. Once I was back at the right pace I thought come on, only .25 of a mile left you can keep this up for that long, pull yourself together! I was so glad when the mile ended!

Mile 4 (cool down) 9.25 HR 182 (+.1 to get home)
It was soo tempting to stop the watch and let my HR slow a little before I started the cool down but I decided that felt like cheating so I just started off reeeeally slowly, caught my breath a bit and then picked it up to a comfortable pace. Boy was I glad to see my front door! This tempo was tough!

I made Apple and Raspberry Crumble tonight, the recipe isn't as indulgent as conventional versions as I lowered the fat content by quite a lot, I'm going to experiment with it a bit maybe adding part margerine part applesauce to get a better topping but it's pretty good for a healthy version so I thought I'd share the recipe. It tastes better with custard!

Crumble Base
5 Apples chopped into 2cm dice
1 Tbs xylitol or sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 Tbs cornflour mixed with 1 Tbs cold water
Sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg
1 cup of frozen raspberries

Crumble Topping
2/3 cup oats
1 and 1/3 cup wholemeal flour
3/4 cup xylitol or sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup margerine

Directions
Preheat oven to 180c
Cut apples and cook with xylitol, water and spices.

Once the apple has softened add the cornflour and water mixture gradually until the appley liquid is thickened, add raspberries and stir in.

Mix all the dry crumble ingredients then add in the melted margerine, mix with fingers, top apple and raspberry mixture

My kitchen after baking!! eeek! Look at Tia trying to climb up the drawers, I think she likes crumble!

Bake the crumble in the oven for 30 minutes, enjoy with custard.... maybe let your cat try a little custard too... this kitty is spoilt!

Bondi band giveaway here.

Strength Training and Deadlift

I wasn't planning on a strength workout today but after reading this on Ross Enamait's blog with my morning cuppa I decided I really wanted to do one! It's a great story about a 70 year old grandmother who can bench press 188 pounds/85.2 kg and deadlift 288 pounds/130.6kg. I decided to try the deadlift for the first time, I went on the side of caution and lifted light 'cause it's easy to injure yourself deadlifting and I have a tempo run planned for tomorrow which I don't want to be too sore for.

I left out the weighted lungess but did the rest of my strength workout as usual, I've been seeing good results doing this strength routine once a week, proof that you don't have to do masses of sets or lift really frequently to see improvements. I'm going to post the weights I used the first time I did this workout and the weights I used now to show the comparison. It would not be ideal if I were just training for strength but I have to fit it in around boxing and running and make all the types of training I want to do work together, I wouldn't have the time to strength train three times a week and I'm guessing I'm not the only one out there who cannot strength train that frequently so I just want to show people that it's possible to see improvements without huge amounts of time dedicated to strength work.

My first deadlift.

Todays workout 30/03/10
Barbell Deadlift 30kg 2 x 6
Dumbell Clean and Press 10kg 1 x 5, 1 x 4 (last time I could only do 1 x 2 and 1 x 1 with 10kg yay!)

Dumbell Bent Over Row 15kg 2 x 8
Dumbell Bench Press 10kg 2 x 5
Dumbell Curl 7.5kg 1 x 2 then 7kg 2 x 6 (amazing what difference .5kg can make!)
Barbell Wrist Curls 22kg 40 reps (I wondered why I couldn't get to 50 then I realised I'd misread my own handwriting and add 2kg by mistake...didn't feel so bad when I realised that)
Barbell Reverse Wrist Curls 11kg 40 reps
Neck Curls 10kg 40 reps

03/01/10
DB clean and press (2x8) 7.5kg +2.5kg
DB bent over row (1x8, 1x6) 12.5kg +2.5kg
DB bench press (1x6, 1x8) 6kg +4 kg
DB lunges (2x12) 22kg +3kg
DB curls (1x6) 6kg, (1x8) 5kg +2-2.5kg
BB wrist curls (1x10) 20kg, (1x40) 17.5kg +4.5kg
BB reverse wrist curls (1x50) 10kg +1kg

So I've made improvements in every area doing it at best once a week sometimes I don't do a strength workout, I usually don't do one in backoff weeks, for example.

I can't wait to go running tomorrow, even though the weather forecast is awful, spring seems to have disappeared again, come back spring! I really wanted to go running today but I thought it was probably best to give my legs a day off since I'm supposed to be doing the runs on alternate days. Tomorrow I have a tempo run planned, 1 mile easy, 2 miles short tempo and 1 mile easy. Hope I don't regret trying the deadlift out!

Happy Intervals!

I ran intervals today and I'm so glad they went well, my last horrible run knocked my confidence a bit so I needed a strong run to get back in the swing of things! My heart rate managed to stay really low throughout the intervals, my highest average for an interval was 160 which I was really surprised about! I expected it to be a lot higher for intervals but I felt strong today and that seems to be reflected in the lower heart rate. My planned workout today was 10-20 minute warm up then 8 x 400m intervals at 1.52 with 8 x 400m recovery in between ending with a 10 minute cool down, (I didn't time the recovery intervals just did a slow jog round the track) I did;

1 mile warm up in 10.25 (average HR 120)

Repeats
1: 1.51 HR 117
2: 1.50 HR 135
3: 1.50 HR 132
4: 1.52 HR 130
5: 1.53 HR 153
6: 1.47 HR 138
7: 1.46 HR 144
8: 1.38 HR 160

1.1 mile cool down in 12.39 (average HR 117)

Total: 6.1 miles

I was really craving something sweet after my lunch today, a cheese and cucumber sandwhich just didn't cut it after the run! On a side note I think Mike's friend might have thought I was a little odd when I disappeared upstairs with my lunch and a bag of frozen green beans to ice my knees! I've decided to make a more concentrated effort to ice my legs since I do seem a bit injury prone and I don't want to take any more time off this half marathon training! Anyway back on to the sweets! I remembered I had a Trek protein flapjack left from my goody pack, I also had a not too great chocolate yoghurt in the fridge which I thought the flapjack could make taste a bit more interesting. They went really well together and definately hit the spot, I wasn't hungry again for ages! That's really unlike me after running, normally I could eat anything and everything after I've run longer than a few miles.

Nutritional info and ingredients

Crumbled into the yoghurt

Yoghurt mess
I liked this trek flapjack almost as much as the cherry flavour, I think the ingredients were the same except for the cherry raisins. I will get it again it was really nice and filling.

Curry, Tia and weighted exercises

I had to share this picture of Tia our kitty! She will eat anything, she always comes begging when we're cooking or eating, today she decided she liked the toffee yoghurt I was eating and she got it everywhere in her whiskers, eyelashes and on her nose! That's her licking it off Mike's finger after he scraped the tub out for her... she did try and fit her head in but it was a bit big!I didn't get much work done today, my parents were over an hour late coming round so my schedule got all messed up! I should have known really my mum is never on time! Anyway I got a small workout in.

I did some weighted chin-ups, push-ups and ab roll outs, it was the first time I'd done any of these exercises with a weight and it was surprisingly hard! I used a 2.5kg plate in a rucksack and it really made things a lot harder! I enjoyed the added weight for a change though.

1 chin-up
5 push-ups
5 ab roll outs

x 5 rounds

We had a lazy curry night last night, we bought a load of bits from Waitrose, we ate half the breads and half the snacks and most of the curry dishes. It was a lot of food for the money we spent but I have to say takeaway is my favourite still! But this saved some money and was probably marginally healthier.

Breads

I thought this was interesting on the packet!

Our little spread, I could barely snap a picture before Mike dug in!

Masala dal

Bombay potatoes

Pakora, bhaji and samosa
My plate + more bread!
Hope everyone's had a good weekend, how did Monday come around so quick!?

Weekly totals and first barbeque of the year!

I'll get the boring weekly totals out of the way first!

Weekly Totals
Miles - 7.25
Push-ups - 92
Chin-ups - 5
Pull-ups - 14 bar hangs
Neck Exercises - 0
Isometric Punches - 0
Wrist Curls - 0
Core -1

My gran baked apple crumble yesterday while Mike and I were at my mum and dad's for lunch, she brought it round still hot so of course we dug in and had desert first oh yeah!

I had to take some pictures of the garden, there are lots of pretty spring flowers in my mum and dad's garden! Unfortunately I didn't get my mum's gardening ability passed down, plants die if I look at them! I'm still hoping to have a veg patch in the garden but Mike's going to be doing most of the plant care since every house plant I've had has died, I really don't know why I don't forget to water them and I keep them in the places they're supposed to be in.. oh well!

My dad and Mike love having barbeques as soon as there's even vaguely enough sun they're wanting to be in the garden cooking! We had the first one of the year yesterday. We started off by going to choose a new bbq for my mum and dad since their old one was a bit worse for wear. Mum and dad also got Mike and I our own instead of easter eggs since we now have a garden for the first time and will be able to do our own bbqs, exciting! I love having a garden, we're so much freer than we were living in flats when we wouldn't have our own space to enjoy the sunshine in. We've had breakfast in the garden for two days on the run now, it's so nice in the sun - even though we had a ten minute massive hail storm on Friday... where did that come from?!

Anyway I have some bbq pics! Must apologise for the bluriness of some of them, not sure what was going on there!

The salad and bread, bit too cold still to be all set up outside!

Sightly demolished salad station... note to self.. remember to take pictures before eating/plating (!)

Mike's giant bread and salad

The only pic of me... need to give Mike the camera more then there will be more chance of getting a good picture!

We made a smiley face on my dad's plate....

My bread and salad, there are lots of gherkins hiding under the cheese!
Dad on the new barbeque, it's a cool shape isn't it, ours is a more traditional shape

My burger, a mediteranean chickpea burger.

Not sure how it got so big..couldn't get my mouth round it!!
Mike's giant half pounder burger
Mega burger!
NommmSo there is my weekend in pictures, hope everyone's been having lots of fun too!

GPP workout and tabata finisher.

Hope everyone's having a fun Friday! Mike and I don't have much planned for tonight, just going to relax and watch some rubbish on the telly. We watched the Sophie Dahl cooking show on the iplayer, a few people mentioned it on their blogs, I wasn't too impressed, she seemed to be trying to emulate Nigella Lawson. I had high hopes for the program cause I'd heard she was vegetarian so I was looking forward to a veggie cooking show but she eats fish so that was a bit of a let down. Not that I want to be negative towards people who are pescatarian but I was just looking forward to an all veggie affair! Are there any UK people planning on watching Over the Rainbow tonight? I must admit those shows are a guilty pleasure of mine! For my overseas readers who might not know what I'm on about, it's like American Idol for music theatre, this season they're trying to find someone to play Dorothy, I think in a west end version of the Wizard of Oz!

Didn't do loads of training today, Mike was out most of the day and we ended up a bit pushed for time when we could train together. The finisher was tough! My shoulders are still so sore from the neider press the other day but I think it would be a tough one anyway, especially going straight on to the push-ups, my arms felt like jelly!

Chin-ups x 5 from dead hang (done during the morning)

GPP #1 (From Ross Enamait's Infinite Intensity)
30s burpees
30s star jumps
30s high knee dumbbell press
30s shadow boxing

x 5 rounds back to back.

Finisher
Tabata bar hangs x 4
Tabata push-ups x 4 (22)

Nakd Pecan Pie



Nice texture, I've decided I prefer the Nakd's minus the oats as they're a bit softer and chewier.
I liked the taste a lot but it was Mike's least favourite so far, I must admit out of the oatless bars I prefer the cashew cookie and cocoa orange but I would eat this over one of the bars with oats.

Trek Cocoa Brownie




This had a similar taste to a nakd cocoa loco but with the added soy crispies which were a nice texture.
It was nice and filling, I had half for a rare mid morning snack since I ate breakfast two hours earlier than usual and there was no way I was making it to lunch time!
I liked the soy crispies - I wonder if there would be any way of doing a soy free version of the trek bar as Mike's allergic to soy, he did try the peanut one cause he really wanted to and he hoped it would not cause a reaction but unfortunately it did, which is a real shame cause he loved the bar and I think he'd like this one even more, maybe I'll put the idea to Natural balance in case it's a possibility!
The ingredients are similar to the peanut oat and it has ginseng and gingko biloba in which I like.

My worst run ever!

As you might have guessed by the title my run today was not good!! Everything seemed to be wrong!

Lets rewind to last night, 1 glass of Asti with my meal and tirimasu for desert, that was definately enough alcohol for me. I'm quite the lightweight and even though the wine was only 7.5% I could feel it! Anyway after the meal we went back to my granparents house, they don't like it when you don't join in and have a drink, I'm not sure why but they really don't! They weren't impressed with my request for a glass of water so I caved and had a small whisky and coke, well my grandad's small is my very large so this morning I woke up with a stinking hangover! Not my gran and grandad's fault, but I must say the oldies in my family are a bad influence :P

Anyway back to the run from hellll... I had set out to do 9 miles with Mike, we ended up running 7.25, we cut it short due to Mike's blisters bothering him a lot I'm a bit sad we didn't finish it but I didn't want him to hurt his feet.

I wanted to quit so many times during the run, it was a real mental battle to keep on running. I had wanted to try running 9 miles at my goal half marathon pace (9 minute miles), just to see if I could. I couldn't, not even close. My body just wasn't having any of it, my heart rate was sky high, I couldn't control my breathing, I felt so unfit. The hills absolutely killed me, there was one really steep one in the trail section of the run which was so steep and slippy I lost time going down it and getting up it, well, awful! My pace slowed to 12.25 on the way up and I just felt so gutted. We almost stopped completely halfway through the 6th mile, after this killer hill. I'm ashamed to admit why really but I want the blog to be honest, good and bad moments! I got really upset after the hill that I was going so slow and couldn't get my pace back up that I started to cry, and then I couldn't breath at all, we paused the garmin and sat on the floor until I'd sorted myself out. I'm glad no-one saw cause I felt so silly. Mike thought we should stop there but I pursuaded him I was ok to carry on, I really wanted to finish what I'd set out to do, I'm a bit gutted we had to stop for his feet but they were really painful for him so it was the right thing to do.

Right here's the garmin data!
7.25 miles in 1:12:54
Average pace = 10.04
Average heartrate = 182

Mile 1 9.21 HR 169
Mile 2 9.40 HR 183
Mile 3 10.05 HR 185
Mile 4 9.49 HR 185
Mile 5 10.12 HR 184
Mile 6 10.29 HR 183
Mile 7 10.59 HR 181
0.25 (9.29 pace doesn't say the time) HR 180 (this was the longest hill down, so maybe I would have made up a little time)

So, lesson learned, no alcohol before running, ever!!

Here's some cute Tia pictures to cheer up this post!