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.

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!