The Longest Run...

...Since I ran my first half marathon...

I was nervous for this run! It was windy, I saw several big fallen branches!! Hello winter. Also, I still haven't bought new headphones and I was slightly intimidated by the pace I was supposed to run this at. Never before have I managed 9 miles in under a 9 minute pace, 9.02 per mile for my fastest 9 miles. This was supposed to be at my long tempo pace of 8.53 per mile... I didn't quite make it but I wasn't too far off. Next long run is 10 miles at long tempo... I don't think I'm gonna make it!! I'll give it a good go though!

9 miles 1:20:11 average pace 8.55
Mile 1 - 8.46
Mile 2 - 9.18
Mile 3 - 8.33
Mile 4 - 8.51
Mile 5 - 9.21
Mile 6 - 8.49
Mile 7 - 9.08
Mile 8 - 8.49
Mile 9 - 8.38

I meant to do Lacey's negative splits idea but I totally forgot and set out too fast.. Might give them a go for the terrifying 10 miler! I'm not sure I dare leave all my fast miles to the end of the run but I have two 10 milers in the plan I'm following so if I miss my pace on this one I can (hopefully) rectify it on the next!

Can't believe I ran for 1 hour 20 minutes without music... That was tough! I must buy some new headphones soon as the tempo run this week is also 9 miles, minus music noooooooooooo!

Hope everyone's enjoyed the bank holiday today :-)

Goody Good Stuff Part Two

As promised here's the rest of the Goody Good Stuff review. I'm loving the sweets, I don't think I could have them in the house all the time, far too tempting hehe.. For those who wanted to know where you can get the sweets from currently you can get them online at Planet Organic, I think they are trying to get them into shops though. They're 99p a bag but I'm not sure about postage.

Koala Gummy Bears (vegetarian)

Love the texture and flavour of these, they taste just like I remember as a child which I haven't experienced with any other veggie gummies. They always seem a little off with the flavour and texture whilst these have it just right. It's hard not to eat the whole bag in one sitting ha!

Tropical Fruit Salad (vegetarian)

These are great too, the banana flavour sounds so bizarre but it actually tastes really good, not as good as the green melon flavour though, yum!!

Sour Fruit Salad (vegan)

Great flavours in these too, for me the sour sugar could be tangier, I love it when it's really screw your face up sour! But that's not really a complaint just personal taste.

Cola Breeze (vegan)

Yummy!

Right off for my run... It's not looking good, Mike just got home from his and apparently there's strong wind in every direction... Oh well, there's no more putting it off hehe, hope it doesn't slow me down too much..

Headstands and Boxing

I had planned a run today but I decided to put it off to tomorrow since it's been blowing a gale outside today. I don't mind rain but wind really annoys me and since I can still fit in my three planned runs by putting it off I decided that was best. Now it will probably be just as windy tomorrow knowing my luck hehe! I'm really looking forward to running, I've got loads of nervous energy at the moment and I think a run is just the release I need to get it out!

The other reason I held off the run was because Mike really wanted a gymnastics partner. We did all our usual stuff except instead of handstands I decided to do headstands... I'm still not progressing on the handstands and I'm hoping the headstands will help me get used to being upside down and will help me get the core stregnth I need to stabilise myself... Time will tell!

We did a horrible finisher today!
30s heavy bag - 30s burpees - 30s heavy bag - 30s burpees - 30s rest repeat 3 times.

Ouch! My legs are going to be sore tomorrow! Getting some bag work in was good though, I love doing gymnastics with a boxing finisher, good combo of stregnth and conditioning.

After we'd finished we made some lunch. I had some wholemeal toast with baked beans and nutritional yeast mixed in. It tastes just like cheesy beans but so much healthier, it's high in B vitamins and protein. Perfect with a big dollop of ketchup!


I also finally got round to trying one of Jag's protein frappucinos. I love the idea but I think I need to try it with some better protein powder, I used plain Holland and Barrett soya protein and tried to sweeten it myself and I just couldn't get past the protein aftertaste.
Then I chilled out on the sofa with Roxie :-)
Tia hasn't been on the blog much lately...
So I caught her doing what she does best..
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

What are you doing with that camera??
Hope everyone's had a great weekend! What are your plans for the week?

Three Things Thursday

How has everybody's day been? Almost the weekend! I always intend to do a three things Thursday post, and sometimes on Friday I find a half written one that I forgot to finish and post... Perhaps today you will see this one!!

1. I've been seeing a lot about budgeting on the blogs lately, I'm joining in! Mike and I are planning a budget, and we're sticking to it! We're terrible for popping to the shops for milk or bread and coming out with 4 bags of shopping. Not now! We've budgeted an amount for the week and once that's gone, it's gone... I'm sensing some creative meals while we get used to it haha... These may or may not be shared on the blog, depending on how disgusting they are! We've also vowed off takeaway unless we 'save up' for it by cutting back in other areas, we don't eat it a lot but it does tend to cost a lot of money. It helps that last time I got takeaway there was a piece of chicken in my vegetable curry... don't fancy eating it ever again!
   
2. I have some news which I can't wait to share on the blog but I daren't just yet in case something goes wrong and I jinx us! (we're not having a baby!) I'm almost bursting wanting to tell you all, I hope I can soon!
   
3. The chilly weather is making me think of Christmas already! It doesn't take much at all to get me excited about Christmas, my most favourite time of year! But I must admit, August is early, even for me! Am I the only one out there to be thinking of Christmas already? I am just really hoping I don't have to work, the job I have now means they will be open on Christmas day which means I may have to work, I will be so gutted if I have to work Christmas day but that's life I guess. It will happen when/if I eventually go into nursing so I may as well get used to the possibility now!
   

Well, I almost missed this Thursday too! It's gone 11.30 and I almost got too carried away reading blogs that I forgot to finish writing it!

Goody Good Sweets

Check out the goodies Goody Good Stuff sent me! Vegetarian and vegan gummies!! The one and only thing I miss since going vegetarian is gummy sweets! There are some out there but they aren't that great. When I heard there was a new sweet on the market I was very excited to try it. There are eight varieties, I've tried 4 so far. There are 4 sour varieties which are all vegan and 4 gummy varieties which are vegetarian.

The sours

The gummies

The strawberry cream flavour were yummy, the texture was as close to a gelatine sweet as I've tried!


Loved these! There were different flavours and they really reminded me of haribo tangfastic sweets or sour patch kids, yum!


The peach sweets had a great peach taste, scrummy!



These were what I was waiting for, I never thought I would ever get to eat a cherry sweet again! YUM! Absolutely loved these, they were always my favourite :-)

My little selection, yummy!

I really loved the sweets, they are all natural flavours and colours. Only downside is the sugar in them, I wouldn't want to eat to many for the sake of my teeth! It will be hard not to though!

Disclaimer: Whilst Goody Good Stuff sent me the sweets to try for free I have not been paid for this review and my opinions are honest.

My sore throat did not turn into tonsillitis! Hurrah! It's just a (bad) cold, I've never been happier to have a cold though haha. I would have been worried if it had been tonsillitis again! I've been feeling pretty poorly with a cold and haven't done any training since Sunday :-( So annoying but I'd rather wait until it's clear as otherwise I know I'll be out for even longer.

Given that I haven't been training I didn't really have much interesting to say! We might have some really exciting news soon but I don't want to share it yet in case it all goes wrong! I'm scared to jinx us!

Just before I dash off check out this wonderful, and very generous giveaway over on Anne Marie's blog Goals for the Week! She's giving away a gift certificate for Athleta worth $150!

For Luke at The Super Fatlete, here's my favourite running book!

Density Day

I'm embarrassed to post my weekly totals this week.. I know I was off running but what is up with them..! I hope these dodgy numbers help kick my bum into gear for next week!

Miles - 4
Gymnastics - 1
Boxing - 1
Core - 1

Today I did a bodyweight strength density session, as many reps as possible in 20 minutes, I'm happy to say I wooped my last attempt! Last times numbers in brackets.

Push-ups - 40 (27)
Chin-ups (some reps are negatives) - 10 (6+37s hold)
Frog stand - 65s (36s)
Chair dips - 75 (43)

I'm amazed I even beat my last time's numbers as I'm feeling pretty rubbish today, I feel like I've got yet another throat infection coming along.. If I do it will be the third in less than three months, the last two have put me out of action for almost two weeks a time so I really, really hope this is a false alarm and these itchy sore tonsils are back to normal tomorrow. If not I guess I'm going to have to go to the docs again and see what they say, booo :-( Anyone got any advice on avoiding throat infections? I've heard to change my toothbrush so once this one goes I'm going to use a new one. I hope it's something as simple as that!

We went to my mum and dad's for a barbeque today, I ate inside with Mike though as we brought Roxie who thought it would be fun to try and eat all of mum's prized flowers! Eeeek! I forgot to snap a pic until part way through my plate but I had some tofu and vegetable skewers, a nutburger, salad, coleslaw a couple of quorn goujons and a potato waffle... sooooo full!

Before I go to watch the rest of Anchorman here's a few of Roxie's latest pics :-)
I might be a teensy bit biased but I think she has the prettiest eyes I've ever seen!
See you all tomorrow, hopefully without a nasty throat! Cross your fingers for me please!!

Farm Shop and Cafe

As some of you might have read on twitter my mum took me, mike, my gran and my grandad out to lunch today to celebrate my new job! We went to a farm shop/cafe which boasted locally sourced produce.

This was near our table, looks like someone composed it for the cafe, had to take a pic even though I couldn't get the right angle... well not without climbing on the table and I have a feeling that would have been frowned upon...

I got the mozarella and tomato sandwhich with basil, unfortunately the bread was buttered, I can't stand buttered bread, or buttered anything, I think it stems back to primary school dinners where they spread it on super thick! I didn't ask for it not to be buttered as I didn't expect it to come buttered so I did my best to wipe it off with my napkin... probably looking a little loopy in the process but who cares!
Here's a close up, I wish there had been more basil, I love fresh basil! All the salad andstuff was locally grown and available to buy in the shop which was cool.
Mike had a cheese and mushroom omelette with local free range eggs.
The only picture of me... I don't know why I pull silly faces in front of the camera... I'm drinking scrummy green tea, I love green tea with meals. I liked the cake painting on the wall too however I couldn't snap a pic of it without sitting on someone's knee so that's all I got hehe

The outside was really nice too, they have little holiday lodges for sale, Mike and I both agreed we could easily have lived in one!
Mum, gran and grandad outside the cafe, isn't it cute!
I love wooden buildings!

We had a really nice time! Afterwards we dropped the boys off and had a girly shopping trip, I didn't really buy anything but it was fun!

I ended up taking a rest day today, we had a bit of a stressful night last night, I don't really want to go into details on the blog in case anyone stumbles accross it who I wouldn't want to read it.. Plus I don't want to be all doom and gloom! But anyway we were both a bit tired and stressed and decided to take a rest.

Before I go runners, get yourself over to Teammarcia's blog for a fantastic giveaway!

Fun Run

After being tired and having a slight pulled muscle I had a few days off running. It was good to be back today though! I also enjoyed not having a plan to follow for once, not having a set pace or distance and not having to worry. Don't get me wrong, I love following a plan, and I love the challenge it provides but sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming, especially when things don't work out to plan, as they so often don't! The 10k plan I'm following at the moment is very focussed on speed, which is great as I want to get faster. But today I enjoyed just running, no looking at my pace on the garmin, no feeling crappy that I wasn't running sub 9 min/miles, just running along and enjoying the scenery and the me time. I found a new route too with more hills than usual which is awesome as I want to include more hill work, good all round!

I ended up covering 4 miles in 39.09, average pace of 9.47
Mile 1 - 9.59
Mile 2 - 10.02 (biggest hill)
Mile 3 - 9.28 (longest downhill)
Mile 4 - 9.39

I wanted something sweet today and didn't have anything in the house that I fancied, cue kitchen experiments! Chocolate and vanilla tofu mousse is born! I don't really have a proper recipe cause I just threw it all in and hoped for the best, but I'll give you a rough idea... First blend up some silken tofu.
While your blending your tofu mix up some vanilla custard and try not to do what I did and forget about it while your melting the chocolate.... Ooops!
Melt the chocolate over a bain marie and mix all three together (custard, choc, tofu)
Drizzle with some melted chocolate if you're feeling fancy and then set in the fridge.
They turned out really nice, even Mike liked them, and that's saying something cause his sweet tooth is non-existant!
Ok, off to watch the film we tried to watch the other night.. I fell asleep.. I'm so predictable! Better luck tonight perhaps...

Greek Salad

Tia would much rather wear the feather boa toy I bought her than play with it.... I bought her a new toy as she seemed to like feathers before but since we had her spayed all she wants to do is eat! She is not interested in any of her toys... I try in vain to get her interested in chasing things hehe
I made a yummy lunch today so I had to share it it was a mish-mash of greek salad and a nicoise salad minus the tuna and the eggs.. so mainly a greek salad with new potatoes I guess hehe
It was so dull today I was trying desperately to find some light... The sink was my best option haha

I started with mixed baby leaves, chopped cucumber, local tomatoes (from Mike's auntie's garden), and green stuffed olives.. then I boiled some new potatoes and dressed them in salad cream while they were still warm. I tossed them all together with some crumbled feta cheese. Yummm! I didn't need any dressing as there was so much flavour from the potatoes and cheese :-)

We did some gymnastics today... I still can't do a handstand but I'm still trying haha... one day, one day! We did all the usuals too l-sit progressions, frog stand, back lever progressions. With the gymnastics stuff it's really wierd, sometimes I feel like I'm really progressing and sometimes I feel like my body's completely forgotten what it's supposed to do... Today was one of the latter days... My frog stand was more like a frog flop and don't get me started on the dreaded handstand! I must look so funny when I'm doing all the moves hehe Mike takes to it so naturally and I'm so clumsy.. I will get there though!

I think my leg will be good for a run tomorrow! I can't wait! Not sure what I'm going to do yet, maybe 4-5 miles at an easy pace, more if I feel good, less if I don't!

Hope everyone's had a good day :-)