Uh isn’t Friday night the best feeling ever? Even though I’m working tomorrow and probably the rest of the weekend come to think of it, Friday just feels so good.

Friday night a look forward to cooking, and earlier on in the week I knew I was going to need to be treating myself to something come Friday. It had to be. My one true love. Salmon.

This bad boy was a perfect portion (unsure of actual weight but going by my expertly trained eye) and stung me an astronomical $9.09.

Worth. Every. Cent.

I had even dreamed all week how I was going to have it. Here it goes:

Wrapped in tin foil, a few squirts of lime juice, drizzle of oil, a sprinkling of dill (from the jar) and some chopped up red onion.

And onto the frypan

Roughly 10 minutes each side on a medium heated plate, which is longer than I normally do, but was a thick piece of salmon.

I opened the tin foil……

I knew I had nailed it!

Perfect Running Girl Dinner. Perfect. Now I know what your saying. Um isn’t there something missing? Well, don’t you worry. The homemade fries didn’t make it until dinner time. They were consumed long before salmon was out of the fridge, with a glass of red. Trust me. No meal is complete in this house without some form of potato/pasta/rice/bread and anything else in that family.

Thanks to RunningGirl Mum for the coleslaw! Isn’t she good to me????

Something I am kinda proud of too is that up to even a month ago, if I got to a Friday night and was going to be spending $9 in anyway on food and wanted a lazy meal, it would have been straight to KFC. Please don’t go thinking I was some kind of morbidly overweight fast food binger that had some kind of Burger King/MCd’ kind of ensemble 4 nights a week, but I was an absolute once a week takeout pigger outter. And I mean like I would be getting a meal that would feed probably 3. So this is kind of a big deal for me to take my $9 and spend it elsewhere.

Now. Onto dessert.

What is that, you ask?

That is my new and impoved banana split.

Looks a bit tricky, you say.

Ah, I don’t think so. Follow me.

That one is kinda self explanatory.

Heat frypanb. Coat bananas and frypan with a little cooking spray. Sprinkle over coconut.

Decide at last moment that walnuts could do with a little heating up. Turn bananas over.

Take a handful of chocolate buttons (large handful that is!)

Melt in microwave for 30 seconds and stir. Heat for another 30 seconds and keep repeating this….

Until you have this! Hey! Stop eating the choc until everything is ready!

Oh, this is getting good. Yoplait Greek Yoghurt. I realised after I got home from the super that this is lite. I didn’t get lite on purpose. Im not hugely for “lite” products.

You guessed it. Put banana in bottom of bowl. 3 spoons of Greek Yoghurt. Chocolate drizzled over the top, walnuts on top of that.

Enjoy. And enjoy you will. Yum yum. Not the healthiest of healthy but sure would prob beat a cheesecake or choc mud cake at your nearest eatery. I am happy.

The lowdown on the run. Was a wet one this morning. Rise and (un)shine at 6am. Back to bed until 6.45am. Quick get reayd and shuffle out the door. Hesitation once out the door (again?). The first 20 mins of this run was haaaard. Wet, tired and bored. After that it was fantastic and didn’t really want it to stop. Was very thirsty for most of the run though. 1 hour 15mins altogether and felt pretty good. Had a great great morning after that.

Anyway hope you are enjoying your Friday night. I am hugely looking forward to my long run on Sunday. Half mary is in 2 weeks time and I have only been running 3 -4 times a week, but I am feeling fantastic for all the resting I am doing and truly having quality runs when I do run. I may just have learned something from my  23 years!

Take care,

Running Girl.

Ahhh some days you just don’t win do you? There’s not much a good cup of tea won’t fix though. Seriously, half an ago I was sitting on the floor surrounded by receipts and account books tears close to my eyes, thinking that I wouldn’t be getting to bed anytime tonight…..

And now…calmness resumes

Yes, cookies were also involved (may I add, fresh baked by the way?), but even without I know I would be in a better place.

In my attempt to start trying to branch out of my usual green tea I am with Healtheries Green Tea with Blackcurrent

I have been a bit hooked on green tea with berries lately unsure of the brand, but unfortunately when I get to the tea aisle, I kinda panic at the large array of different fruit flavoured that I always go for what I know is great. Even trying the blackcurrent is kind of playing it unsafe for me! I promise next time I will be more adventurous (seriously, like feijoa or something. I saw it on TV tonight).

On the same good note for all thigns herbal tea, Sunday night I was getting myself in a right panic because I could feel a cold coming on (sore throat, nose, run down). Monday – 6/7 cups of tea later, I was feeling very well, and leapt outta bed Tues! The tea’s on Monday were green+berries and a lemon & ginger (see, I actually do branch out in my own way).

Aaaaanyway. The lowdown on the runs of the past two days: Tuesday morning run (said leapt out of bed morning) turned into a 1hour16min run, distance unknown, and boy, let me tell you I was feeling goood. Legs for the day were achy, but that fantastic achy when  you know you’ve been doing something right. Lunch was kind of an ok protein fix, but really rather bland looking back. I consumed a carrot (yes, one whole raw carrot very boring) with hummus (not huge on hummus flavor but for the chickpea goodness (and another attempt at getting full). Leftover chicken satay heated and piled into a wrap

So, the above picture times by 3. Probably a bit of portion distortion going on there, but needed that gap filled. The wrap was purely satay chicken which I’m not a huge fan of but as there was nothing in fridge to accompany this was all it was, and really at 2.15pm when I finally got around to lunch I was going to start eating whatever was ready in about 3mins. Needed veges, etc.

Couldn’t drag myself outta bed this morning, but did a quick run tonight on my 10km route of 54mins and was also feeling great too. Tonight weariness and more than a touch of grumpiness hit home.  Hence, tea and cookies.

There we go, fulll circle!

Take care, and if you are reading please let me know!

Running Girl

Long time, no post.

I will be increasing the frequency of my posts as I progress with my training, I just need to get into a good routine (I’m allll about routine).

As a recap of the past weeks events – I had one mid length run of about 50mins which was fab.

I also had one HUGE night at a work do. Which in turn made Friday a woe is me day, and also woe is my feet.

Introducing…….my love/hate relationship with heels.

These were actually in much better nick before said night of dancing....

Love the look of heels, what they do for my legs, butt etc, love how gorgeous every single pair of heels are!

Hate the rather large increase of pain in my foot injury the following day. I actually don’t wear heels very much for this very reason, I stopped wearing them a lot when I got the injury. I know that at the start of the night if I put a pair of these bad boys on, exactly what I will be feeling in the morning, so I only blame myself. Truly. One teensy other factor into the hate – as I am tall, I feel like heels make me look like a giant, and sometimes this can be good, sometimes bad.

Anyway, to the running related topics….. I planned my long run for Saturday which I wasn’t extremely happy about, but I had a few parties to go to Sat night and I knew that the Sunday run could easily evaporate before my eyes, so I took the sensible route and got the run out of the way Sat. I honestly start to freak out and get kinda grumpy if I miss my long run.

I set the alarm for 6am Sat morning, and after around 5 re-sets of the alarm got up at 7am. Pre-run usual, PB on toast + black coffee (also gets the system kicked off if you know what I mean). It was a grey day when I woke up, but not windy or raining so made for my perfect running conditions. While I was making my breakfast though it did start raining. I was still determined to go on, but even as I stood outside my front door, I actually debated about going back inside and getting back into bed. It actually took a lot of force to get me out running, but really the main focus was that if I didn’t get it done now, it wasn’t going to happen, and the prospect of that was even worse than the immenent run in the rain.

T’was a pretty steady rain, but only actually lasted for about the first 30 mins of the run, and after that was mint conditions. It was a run when I set out, I didn’t know where at all I was going to go and ended doing a big mixed up route of round the park a few times, a long run down a loooong road, and around some riverbanks. The time was 1hour47mins and turned out to be over 18km, so was pretty happy with that. I was feeling pretty strong out there, the only problem being the sore foot.

After that, was the breakfast I had actually been dreaming about since I started the run (yes, I think of food even while running!). Banana on toast + a fried egg.

I knew at the time that I should have had 2 eggs, because a mere 2 hours later I was totally starving again.

Alongside was my current fave tea

Green tea with berry.

Was still a fab breakfast, just needed the extra egg. I can’t even begin right now (as eyelids are drooping), to tell you just how much a fan of eggs I am. Eggs are such a staple food, if you literally only have eggs in your fridge, there is still a way you can make a meal. More on my egg obssess another time.

Lunch was a meal out with a friend, and as I am trying to move away from my obssession with fast food, burgers and anything that comes with fries, I tried the salmon filo parcels. Yum yum, with cream cheese and capers, but unfortunately not enough to fill this runninggirls tum.

Immediately upon return home I knew what I needed.

Peanut Butter on Granny Smith Apples.

Granny Smith Apples are another huuuuge fav of mine, but often I actually end up hungrier after I have eaten one, than when I began (can you see the trend here that I have trouble with satiety), but honestly, you put Peanut Butter on anything and its gonna help fill that gap.

I had been a bit stiff after the run, but had a few places to go that night and ended up drinking a fair share of wine, which just made me feel absolutely terrible. I haven’t felt that bad after a night in sooo long and my body just ached from the run the day before, so I do foresee that I will really need to cut back and lead a quieter life over the next 5 months of marathon training.  I’m a girl of all is well in moderation, so I gots ta have me some fun as well, but 2 nights within one weekend isn’t going to cut it. I can see many a Sat night in front of the T.V to come. Which actually isn’t too bad at all, they play a different James Bond movie every Sat night on TV1. This past Sat night was actually probably the first time in 2months that I had missed one, and I was actually quite disappointed lol. I hope that shows too, that I don’t actually just go out and drink every weekend. I just can’t handle it when I do anymore lol!

Needless to say, yesterday was a complete waste of time, but did manage to catch the London Marathon on telly. Go NZer Kimberley Smith who got 8th place at 2hours25mins! I mean that time is just completely unbelievable, I think that is so inspiring and amazing!  Good on anyone who ran the marathon, whether it took you 2 hours or 8 hours, what an amazing feat. Hopefully in 5 months time I can join you and say I’m a marathoner!

Sweet dreams,

RunningGirl

Just a short note tonight. Hasn’t been too much to report eats wise, just an update on the run.

My hunger was fierce today! Which I find so confusing because I didn’t run until 5pm, there fore I felt I shouldn’t be as ravenous as I was. Anywho I was. Enjoyed a fantastic chick caesar salad at a cute cafe today whilst long blacking with a friend. Love love love the caesar salad. Love chicken. Love bacon. Love croutons. Love Caesar Dressing. Love Lettuce. Love Egg. Loved it. I make my own pretty good version at home which I have been craving, but the opportunity to go out today called and I had my mind made up on my lunch selection before setting foot in the cafe (ok, it was made up when I got the 8am text to meet for lunch).

Din din was heated up meatloaf from last week (is that too long to hold onto leftovers? It was really good!).

Run was great, I planned to do an hour and ended up 1 hour 7 mins, felt pretty good being later in the day, but I must say that I am def an early morning runner, I really do love it. But this morning when my alarm went of at 6am, the biggest howl of wind happened to be stirring up right outside my window. Which I am gonna have to get over VERY soon, with marathon training. It don’t matter what the weather is doing when I’ll have a 42km run coming up, I can’t be bloody skimping on the training runs.

Sore foot as per usual. Some of the pain may have come on from standing around for 3 hours at a client function (yes, wine glass in hand) in somewhat painful boots. Nothing new in the pain department so feeling pretty good.

I have really been meaning to narrow down my training programme, I have one from the website of the full marathon that i will actually be doing and that looks petty good to me. It is only 15 weeks though and I feel that may be a bit short? I show it to RGFather and he said it looked adequate. RGFather is actually a marathon runner from way back by the way. As in champion. He has won a few marathons in his day. So i feel pretty comfitted with his advice. I feel I really need to make this decision soon, as the 15 week training programme I am looking at starts 31 May, and as the time is getting closer to that, if I want to do a longer training programme I will have be starting soon.

Something that I have decided on for the marathon is my cross training. This was getting me a bit worked up because I just don’t really like the options, but I really want to do a second activity (not often) to compliment the training and aide it, and of course avoid injury. I don’t LOVE biking and I can’t swim (keeping in mind I DO hope to do a triathalon one day lol). I was reading a marathon book the other day and it actually listed about 10 cross training activites that you could do including weight lifting/strength training which is right up my alley. I love the gym, and have decided my cross training will def be 2 sessions in the gym per week. I happen to have the most fab guy that I work with at the gym so will mosey on down there one day soon to have a chat and get some advice, and hopefully have him put together a plan.

That’s all for now. Any advice from own marathon experiences?

Take Care,

Running Girl

This is what my Sundays will possibly look like from here on out:

Rise at 5.45am.

I forget the rest.

It actually went: woken by alarm at 5.30am, set it for another 15 minutes and rise at 5.45am. I have this weird obssession with having to get in one more last bit of sleep from my first alarm. I can not get up on my first alarm. Even if it means only a mere extra 5 minutes, I must reset and put my head back on pillow. Nevermind!

Up and dressed into the carefully laid out gear from the night before along with RunningGirl Father’s biking reflector vest. I’m all about safety, and had decided to go out on a new route this morning around some country roads, so wanted to be highly visible. I was actually disappointed to see that the biggest danger I was in when out running on the roads, was stepping on some of the loads and loads of broken glass. Grrr to that.

Straight into pre-run ritual of one piece of Freya’s toast with Peanut Butter plus 1/2 cup black coffee. Out the door by 6am. Was dark and slightly chilly but hardly any wind and didn’t rain at all during the run. Perfect conditions in my book. I felt fantastic for the first hour or so, then the foot injury kind of kicked in big time. Never mind! I had mapped out last night a route that would take me 15kms from my front door and back again. I ended up tacking a few extra blocks onto the run, because I was nearing home at 1hour 25 mins and really wanted to get in at the very least 1 hour 30 mins. The run ended up being 17.5km’s and 1 hour 39 minutes.

The last 2 km’s that I did really started wearing a bit thin, so  straight to my go to list for pumping up when I am running out, on my I-Pod. At the mo that includes Black Betty (by whom, I’m not sure), Telephone – Lady Gaga & Beyonce, and Notion by Kings of Leon.

The biggest thing I noticed in this run was the lack of water. I have never ever trained with water, as the longest training distances I have done take my 1hr30 – 1hr50ish at the most, but I can see I will need to look at some kind of water carrier soon. I feel I could have extended todays run further with aide of water.

Was back in the house before 8am, and let me tell you, Sunday just looks a whole lot brighter when you have that much time (and sans possible headaches, nausea and de-hydration ya know) . I enjoyed a fantastic 4 egg, cheese and spinach omlette which held me over until lunch time (almost never happens in my book).

I haven’t been totally hungry after the long run today, whereas I normally am starving all day, so I am unsure what that is all about.

No Sunday would be complete without a Sunday roast. Don’t panic, I wouldn’t, and still haven’t attempted any kind of roast myself. This was a roast the RunningGirl Parents place of course. First to get formalities out of the way, three of these of these were poured (not all for me, one for me and each of my parents):

Vodka, cranberry juice and apple juice. The apple juice was RunningGirl Mother’s idea. Definately topped it off. This fab drink was followed by a stellar lamb roast. You cannot beat a fantastic roast at your parents. Go RGMum. I am truly full.

Nevertheless may I present:

Chocolate Chip & Walnut Cookies.

Now, I know with baking you are really supposed to stick to the recipe. I like to stick with/subsitute with what may be in my pantry.

This is the official ingredient list a la Running Girl:

250g margarine (calls for soft butter)

2/3 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup white sugar (called for raw)

1 egg

3 cups wholemeal flour (called for white)

1 teaspoon baking powder

My own measurements of chocolate buttons (heavy handed of course)

This was used because I didn't actually have any white flour.

Mix all together (the recipe had 8 steps to it – butreally, isn’t it all going to end up in the same mixture anyway?). 

2 x half packets of walnuts were added at the last minute (love me some walnuts)

 Bake for 12 minutes at 180 degrees.

Done and Done. Snacking on a few atm, and can recommend to give these babies a whirl!

Happy happy girl here.

If you are out there reading, I would love any comments. I especially would like to know of anyone’s water carrying recommendations for long runs. I would love you to follow my journey to the marathon, and if you do, I promise to make it as entertaining as possible. I appreciate any feedback!

Take care, and keep on running,

Running Girl

Hands up who likes freshly baked bread!

Well there you go then.

I have made this bread a few times now and it super easy and super delish. I promise you, you want to try and make this, its easier than it looks. The recipe is from Healthy Food Guide which is my go to bible for tasty and nutritious eats. Recipe here http://www.healthyfood.co.nz/recipes/2009/august/how-to-cook-classic-bread-loaf

Speaking of Healthy Food Guide, the latest copy arrived in my mailbox today!

This is such a great rag, what a good resource. If you haven’t read one of this, grab a copy pronto. And yes, I get extremely excited about things like this. I am looking forward to getting into reading this baby.

So my night has been consumed with tea drinking (green tea with berry), blog reading and bread baking. What? Isn’t that what all 23 year olds do on a Friday night?

Running Girl

Ah well, doesn’t everything seem so much better after a run? Yes, yes it does. What a flat out 2 days. Yesterday was def supposed to be a run day, but alas work got in the way, and then it was date night (yes, date night) with the boyfriend, which turned into wine night. Wine night as well as a shot or two! Who does that on a Thurs night at home? Anyway, crawling out of bed this morning it was a quick flight through the shower and to work, followed by two appointments and then a quick dash to get a large mocha and two greasy cheese toasties (yes, they were extremely good).

I had in my mind all day that there would be a run about 5pm when I thought I’d be able to knock off work. As the amount of appointments grew during the day, I was starting to get frustrated as I could see the run slipping from my future. I get really bad at this, if I have a run planned and then can’t make it,I like start to panic and can get quite angry. This is why it is def best for me to get the run done in the morning, as I never know where my day is going to take me.

Anyway, roll around 6pm after I dragged myself in the door from work (the slugishness stayed with me all day), I BOUNDED out the door for my run. Did a nice 10k around the park, and at this time the wind had died down and the rain had stopped, so it was perfect timing! Got pretty dark on the way around, but I felt pretty safe. I do need to invest in some reflector gear. The run was 56mins, so about 3 mins quicker than the same route on Tuesday this week. That was a morning run and this was an evening, so I think it goes to show how much easier it is to run after you have been awake more than 15 minutes.

Just to touch on my job and why this can get in the way so much. I hate to hear excuses from people for not being able to exercise, or excuses  for other things in general, so I kind of hate saying this as I think it is an excuse. I am self employed  and most days work from around8.30/9 amish to 8pm and up to 9 or 10pm quite often, and appointments come up at the last minute, so I can’t be like “at 5pm when I clock out I will be going for a run”, as I might have things come up. And I like this, and if I didn’t have this work on I would be out of business, so by no means does make me unhappy, I know I just need to plan my runs better, and working on getting up earlier. I love what I do so much.

The other evening I enjoyed a night of cooking. Wine was in hand and new recipe was to be prepared. Because I work a lot during the evenings, its sooo nice for me to be able to relax and have a glass of wine and slave over the stove! I love it, and would do it every night if I could.

Tonights subject was meatloaf. Meatloaf you say? I found a recipe from New Zealander Sophie Gray (Destitute Gourmet), I think this was actually on the Simple Savings Website, under low cost meals. I hadn’t had meatloaf since I was like 7?? So I thought I would give this one a whirl.

500g beef mince

1 onion chopped

1 cup grated carrot – approx 1 large carrot

1/2 cup rolled oatrs

1 tsp mixed herbs

1/4 cup tomato sauce (I used pasta sauce)

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 egg

salt and pepper to taste

Basically you just add all the ingredients together and mix thoroughly in a bowl or a food processor. I don’t actually have a processor but found that a potato masher actually worked quite well (was quite proud of myself for thinking of that actually).

Press firmly into a greased loaf tin.

Bake ina preheated oven for 35 minutes.

Mine actually didn’t stick together very well, but now that i am reading the recipe again, it says cool for 5 minutes before turning out. Yep, I just don’t take to reading instructions too much do I?

Anyway, the crumbly mess (lol it really did look like a mess once it was out of the pan) was delicious!!!! I imagine this would be a great way to get some veges into kids and is super low cost! I recommend it!  This is a much choice as my fuel than Burger King is. Or KFC. Oh I love KFC.

So I am pretty happy with myself, and am glad it is a Friday night. Happy weekend to all.

Running Girl.

The run fell by the wayside today unfortunately, I was really looking forward to getting out. Which makes me start to get a wee bit nervous as I know I have the half marathon in a months time. I really actually enjoy running half marathons, but as I know that this particular event is a small and lesser known event in a smaller town than usual, my fear is that you really do stand out when there aren’t as many runners! Yes, I know, this is really a vain thought, worrying about people thinking I’m a “slowpoke”, but its a silly little worry that I have always had.

In the marathon later this year I certainly won’t be going for any speed records, and really my motto will be to finish on the same day as I started. I don’t care if I am the last one across that line as long as I am there. They could close the course on me (I think there is around 8 hours to run it before they close the course), but I would literally crawl to the finish line. But I have a good handful of half marathons under my belt now and think I should be a more consistent runner, not just starting and stopping every few months. That said, I am still looking forward to the run.

I also need to keep in mind that my main goal is to run the marathon in September and that the half in a months time is only a training run (and actually run before I start an actual training program for the marathon) and that having breaks in between my runs is still quite a good thing for my body as I am building my mileage up.

So, I am still on the lookout for good marathon training books and plans, and I am so excited to have this challenge ahead of me. I am still getting flutters of excitement and nervousness when I think about the marathon! Shoot, I’ve got quite a long way to go yet.

I would appreciate any comments, advice and suggestions you may have, and I hope to make this an interesting journey that will no doubt also be filled with food, wine, hilarity, sarcasm good days and bad days, a tantrum or two, and I really hope maybe some encouragement.

Yours,

Running Girl

I am a real nighttime snacker – and I am ok with that. I just wish that the nighttime snacking wasn’t perhaps the following:

But boy, it was good.

Anyway, onto this morning’s run. I did find it difficult to get up at 6.45am (I used to be such an early riser!!!What happened?), but I know that as I progress into the Marathon training, the awakening will only get earlier…

I did a 10km run according to MapMyRun, and it was 59min. As per usual with my morning runs (well, most runs really), it took me until about the half and hour mark to feel really good. Was a great run and it just started spitting at the end so that was quite nice to cool off.

Post Run was some creamy banana oatmeal and my first time with chia seeds!

Chia Seeds are high in Omega 3 and fatty acids

My  oatmeal contained:

-1/2 cup oats

-1/2 cup water

– 1/2 cup milk

– 1/2 banana

I mixed in Chia seeds quite near the end of the cooking of the oatmeal (stove-top), so they were crunchy, yum yum! I’m not actually sure how you are supposed to use them.  Also added as toppings to the oatmeal pecans and coconut. Breakfast for champions!

That combination kept me full from around 8.30 to 11am which is pretty impressive with this girl’s belly and after a run! The rest of the day there were quite a few pistachios consumed. This also lead to a messy office floor late this afternoon.

Me legs are weary again tonight, but nothing to complain about, just the end of another day!

On a different note, I am trying to cut back on drinking Moccacino’s at the moment, and I must say, what a difference I felt even today just sticking to long blacks and green tea. I have tried to set myself a challenge to just not drink them for a month, and then if after a month I feel like adding them back in then I will. Yesterday was day1, and well that was a fail, but the boss was doing a Starbuck’s run and white mocha was really the only way to go!

I am not actually a dieter in anyway, I don’t thinking a “diet” will help anyone, as from experience I certainly tried many diets in earlier days and the restriction led to binges 100% of the time. I am a big believer in moderation for every element in your life, so I am just trying to make a few healthier changes. I feel that the mocha’s I was drinking (5-6 at least a week, sometimes a load more!), were just too loaded with sugar or syrup and I often feel sick after 1 (or 2-3).

I think that if I tried to cut out a whole lot of foods at once, that is when I fail. And, at the end of the 4 weeks/month, if I really can’t live without drinking them, then bring it on! I think I will find that I thank myself for making the change.

Not sure on run tomorrow, I will see how the body is feeling, plus meetings from early morning. I think I will hit the library to check out some more marathon books.

It has a been a long day after a fitful night of sleep. My right shin was aching a bit, and sometimes when I get running aches they tend to lead to a lack of sleep.  Although the Hawaian Chicken Burger Combo I had from Burger King not long before bed time surely didn’t help either. Not the best post run kind of meal either really. I’m pretty sure I was awake past 2am.

Neverthe less, was a busy and productive day anyway. The legs are a bit sore from yesterdays run and today was a planned rest day. A nice long walk with the boyfriend and his dog in tow to catch up on the days events was in order. I think that helped the legs out a bit.

I went to check out a supermarket today purely because it was a new supermarket (yes, I get excited about things like this). I didn’t need to pick anything up but went with a friend who was shopping – but I came out with a bag of pistachios, which turned out to be salted (it was a self serve pick n mix thingy) which was a shame, but HOLY YUM.  So I nibbled a few on the car ride back to work, and then on the car ride home for lunch, and then nibbled at my desk back at work………it was a late dinner tonight because I was so full.

I am starting to look at training plans for the marathon, but am unsure whether to just read into existing running plans (which seems like a good idea) or whether to get a personalised one?

Anyway, I am off to organise my running gear for the morning. If I don’t have my entire running ensemble laid out the night before (and I am talking down to the hairtie), then there is a big chance of frustration and giving up in the morning.