Weekend Roundup

Hey hey hey!

Phew - what a busy weekend!  It's been pretty food-oriented but I don't think I've cocked up too badly, which is the good news.

Friday, I was still miserably down in the dumps, so Hannah took me out for dinner after work.  Just Ask, but we had a voucher so it seemed like an obvious choice.  I decided to try something a little different for my starter and had a pesto, mozzarella and sun-dried tomato salad which was very tasty, if not quite as healthy as it could have been.  I think I'd try this again at home though and just tweak the proportions slightly to suit my own tastes, as it was gloriously summery.  Mind you, the vegetable pizza and desserts that followed, plus a bottle of wine (each) put a rather large dent in my flex points for the week!

On Saturday I had various friends down for my housewarming party - I was getting a bit wound up, as I was feeling very unprepared.  It seems that it doesn't matter how many times I tell myself that I don't need to go as overboard on hostessing as I always do, I still end up getting so stressed about not having enough food / drink / friends / things to entertain them - very silly.  As it happens it all went well.  The flat was tidied and looking good in time, I managed to sneak a half an hour aside to put a quick banana loaf together and I'd bought all the necessary nibbles and drinks.  It turned into a fun but quietly civilised evening and was very relaxed, although I did have to break up a very intense (and somewhat inebriated) theological / existential discussion at 2am so I could boot everyone out as some of my guests were literally going to sleep on my kitchen floor by that point!

Not a fantastic evening for food, in that I ate a few too many of my own nibbles, but all pointed as best I can remember, and I hadn't had a lot to eat during the day.

Sunday turned into one of the laid back days where everyone quietly held their somewhat tired and hungover heads and didn't move too much.  My houseguests and I had a little wander round town for some fresh air after the ubiquitous bacon sarnies for breakfast, and I bumped into Hannah on the way back who helpfully suggested we go for a run in the afternoon.

I'd been debating it anyway, as I knew I really should be starting to put in a slightly longer run each week in preparation for my 10k and duathlon, but it really hasn't happened yet.  Anyway, the idea of having someone to run with made it far less painful, so I booted my last houseguest out at 4pm and jogged over to meet Hannah.  We have only run together once before, which was the 10k in October, but it turns out that our paces are well-matched and we set a slower but comfortable pace as we headed out, chatting merrily away as we went.  

Turns out that that's the best tactic ever for a longer run, as we went way further than we intended.  We'd kind of been aiming for a 7 - 8k-ish run, but we jogged back in 1hr 15 later with around 10k tucked under our belts.  And frankly?  I felt like I could either have run faster or carried on a bit longer!  We only stopped to walk when Hannah needed a quick break, and honestly, there weren't many of those; perhaps 5 when she slowed to a walk for a minute or two - no more.  I felt a bit silly doing it, but I took a leaf out of my personal trainer's advice and when she walked I continued to jog but at her pace.  It must look ridiculous just slowly bouncing along beside her, but it allowed breathing recovery whilst stopping my leg muscles cooling down too much.  Whatever - I felt good.  We've definitely agreed to do more of those.

Today has been back on the money with the eating.  I've just decided today that I need to have another look at my portion sizes and make sure they don't get out of hand.  And just for something a little different I had gnocchi for tea with bacon, mushroom and butternut squash, a little bit of Philadelphia Extra Light, and some tarragon.  Yum!!!!  I hadn't tried the squash with pasta / gnocchi before, but it works amazingly well!  Try it!

Spinning tomorrow hopefully, after a rest day today.