Time for Twelve (again)

Wow, does marathon training skew your view of what an ‘easy’ run is – all I could think today was ‘aaah I’m only running 12miles, eaaasy’…I mean, wtf!? It’s TWELVE miles! I can’t wait for the day [post marathon] where 4miles is a decent hard workout again Oh well.

Saturday

Rest day! Woo hoo! Some days, I dread rest days, cos I’m..well..restless! But I felt like I needed one today so it was a welcome addition. And heck, I sure made the most of it! I didn’t wake up til 8.25am, then read in bed for 15mins – bliss. Plus, it was a beautiful morning today; cold but sunny. I spent about a half hour whilst I worked up a breakfast appetite snapping Chika/Kovac/Poppy photos outside – I can’t wait to show y’all later in the week

Breakfast – a spinach pear Epic Green Monster, topped with hemp seeds (I didn’t blend them in today), dates, Grape Nuts and cereal:

 

Nooo!! I’ve just realised there’s a tiny little (cat!?) hair on my spoonful in the photo below! Gah. I’ll have hairballs in my stomach now :/

 

Tres delicious. Despite the hair. In fact, I think it was the addition of the hair that made it taste so good.

I had a good schooling session with Chika after breakfast (despite Tig being away at a competition this weekend), and then decided to do something I’ve been meaning to do for the past week – homemade bean burgers!

• 2 cans of beans (butter beans and pinto beans, all I had)
• 1/2 c. salsa
• coriander seeds
• garlic granules
• 4 tbsp vital wheat gluten
• salt
• 1/2 c. oats

 

Blended the beans and salsa and spices roughly:

Tipped it all into a dish, mixed in the oats:

And the VWG:

Shaped into 5 burgers:

Baked for 20mins on 160degrees (fan oven), and then got them out to flip. And flip they did. Onto the floor:

A hand was burnt. A spatula was thrown. A tear (or 10) were shed. It was horrible! Though I thanked The Powers That Be that I’d put the burgers on two trays, so thankfully, two were salvaged. I baked them for another 10mins:

 

Hurrumph.

Sadly, the burger fiasco totally ruined my appetite for lunch but I stormed ahead, cos it was a good ‘un!

Apple and Onion Sauce

I made a ‘sauce’ by cooking (over a medium heat) a small chopped onion and a small chopped apple, with stock (a 1/4c. to start, and I added more water as needed):

Til it was mush:

Meanwhile, I roasted swede, aunt-grown butternut squash, and carrot, and boiled 60g wholewheat pasta. All together:

 

 

 

 

The onion/apple thing? Oh my!! Delish! Sweet yet savoury….LOVED. IT.

A fig (my last one!!) was consumed for dessert

Dinner – I did a tempeh thing, with a cocoa peanut butter sauce and a cocoa-lentil veggie mix

Look at that rich colour….wow!

What can I say – I LOVE THAT MEAL (made better by watching X Factor whilst eating it :p)! I was going to have a burger, but I’m freezing them so my mum and I can have them on Wednesday (when it’s just us two).

Sunday

12 mile day (aka a taper week)! I was sliiiightly dreading today, cos I looked at the weather forecast, and it said rain. ALL morning. Not cool! Howeverrrrz, when I did get up, there was no rain!! Sooo I made a super quick Fitnessista inspired breakfast cookie (but made in the morning and eaten immediately no overnight-hardening for me!):

50g oats

1 banana, mashed

a big forkful of peanut butter, mashed into the banana

I then mashed everything together, and topped it with a spoon of Grape Nuts and dates:

Sooo delicious! Why have I not made these before!? Good gracious. I really recommend you make one if you haven’t

I let that go down for an hour or so, ate a rice cake, then headed out into the grey and miserable glorious cloud.

Splits:

9.01

9.01

8.50

8.46

8.59

8.51

9.02

8.49

8.46

8.50

8.53

9.15 (I decided to take it slow as I was a tiiiny bit wheezy on the last 1/4 mile of mile 11)

= 1hr46 & 12miles

You know what? It was brilliant!!! I felt ACE! My best training run to date The hardest part was actually slowing myself down – I kept looking at my Garmin and seeing 8.00/8.15 splits – good, but bad, cos I didn’t want to burn out!! But yeah, it was a really, really good one. Was it the breakfast cookie? Or the amazing tempeh sauce? Or the super night of sleep on Friday? Or a positive attitude (after all, 12 felt like cake compared to the 18 this Sunday….)? Who knows….

Weirdly, the only fuel I had was 500ml Lucozade Sport, and 2 small dates! I just did not feel the need for anything, and I actually felt better for having a lighter stomach. Very curious.

Anyway, who cares – it was a fabulous run and I felt GREAT!

Brunch was an Epic Green Monster…once again, with a pear instead of spinach

• 1 c. cereal
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 c. yogurt – soya yogurt, so it is vegan I’ve had a lot of questions about that recently…
• 1 tbsp hemp seeds
• a pear
• frozen banana
• toppings: Grape Nuts, homemade jam, almonds, dates

That’s plum jam, made from our very own plums growing in the garden

Fantastique!

I was then a complete fool though – straight after that big meal, I had a lunge lesson on Chika (almost like yoga on a horse – it felt GREAT!), which was fab in itself. My mum gives us such difficult exercises to do, in trot and canter however…1/2 hour of sitting trot does NOT do wonders for a stomach! I felt SOO sick after!!! The whole of my brunch was just being bounced about and it was horrible :p I shan’t make that mistake again…..

I had an afternoon snack of cereal and yogurt:

As well as a small apple, blackberries and large (large) amounts of hummus whilst making my mamma’s lunch for tomorrow

I also got some cuteeee pics of Carter (I put them up mainly for your benefit, Lily :p)

I love this cat SO MUCH.

And so he doesn’t feel left out..here’s Kovac too:)

He’s the supermodel of the family!!

Rightio, I hear the Call of the Cookery right now, so I’m gonna obey it and go cook me some dinner

Have a lovely evening (hopefully watching X Factor, if you’re British )

Oh! – I mentioned it in my last post, but in case you missed it – do you like the new header!? The wonderful Jess made it for me She’s a super star!!

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Question – do you take rest days? How many do you take per week?

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ps – Listen to this song!! it’s only 1.30mins long, and is BEAUTIFUL!

pps – my current squash collection :p

Lol