Running commentary 002: Muscles

The way I see it there are three main reasons you may underperform on a run

1. Breathing
2. Muscle tiring
3. Energy low
4. The everything else….

So here is how I think they can be fixed. Today I’ll look at muscles.

There are two main reasons why you may choose to go running. The first being to get in a good cardio exercise to burn fat and the second being to be a better runner. Of course, it’s most likely that you want both.

If you run every day then yes, you will be burning off fat each time but you aren’t doing yourself any favours in being able to improve your run. Muscles will only be able to strengthen when you rest them, post exercise. If you work them hard, they will need a day, more likely two, maybe three days to recover and ‘knit’ themselves a bit stronger than before. By using them every day you aren’t giving them a chance to develop. The rest days are when the progress is really made, so be patient and let your body have the time it needs.

If you are finding that your muscles are hurting while running this may be because they are not strong enough to maintain the performance you are demanding from them, so you can work on strengthening with further of exercises. Of course it could also be that your warm up was insufficient – everyone is different in their requirements of this. There are all sorts of recommendations for what you should do, ranging from static stretching, no static stretching, loads of jumping around and warm up running. Judge for yourself what works and what doesn’t. You may also be running too soon after previous exercise, if this is the case then going for a walk instead is more beneficial.

In order to strengthen your body you would benefit from undertaking a different set out of exercises. For example, I go to two bootcamp workouts a week plus an hour of zumba. By pushing myself into training in different ways I can get a variety of workouts to use each muscle group and improve their capabilities. I honestly believe that the bootcamp training has worked wonders for my overall fitness, enabling me to improve my running performance in leaps and bounds. My muscle capability is much higher and recovery time hastened; don’t forget your heart is a muscle which although you cannot train to increase in size, you can improve it’s strength..

Two runs a week , one 3 mile and one six mile plus the two bootcamp training sessions seems to be my optimum regime for overall fitness. I know bootcamp sounds so arduous and mean but that’s not the way it works at all, at least not from mine the reports I’ve heard about others. If you’re looking for a new way to keep in shape and up your game then give your local class a try.

Muscles need a good amount of protein in order to grow stronger so make sure that included in your balanced diet is lean protein such as chicken and white fish. I’ll be talking more about diet in a future post.

Any thoughts to add about muscle?

Very Foof and Faff

In the first of  a mini series of guest posts, today we are hearing from Elise from Foof and Faff

I'm so excited to be blogging over here for Sophie!  When she asked me to write about something very 'me', I had just taken the above picture and realised it had to be about my polka-dot-speckled wardrobe.  If you've ever seen any of my outfit posts I'm sure it'll come as no surprise that I own such a variety (and that most are blue - I seem to have some kind of blue tinted beacon in my brain when shopping!).  Here's a few of my favourite looks...

Now that the weather has improved I've been wearing the navy skirt constantly - it's a great length for bare legs.  And the button down dress was my go-to winter wear, it works great with a variety of coloured tights and layered up with a shirt and jumper.  Most of these items were found in charity shops, which actually seems to be a better place for finding bits to fit my long limbs (always check the menswear section if you have the same problem - my orange shirt is so giant and comfy!).  My luck has been pretty low lately but I did just add another spotty skirt to my collection - an H&M one found for 10p!

And obviously slippers are another essential.  Preferably in the shape of fluffy sheep.  Just because.

:)

Go take a look at Elise's blog Foof and Faff  for a great read!
If you would like to guest post about something 'very you' then do get in touch 

Return to Brown’s Kitchen

To celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary the other week we decided to head out for a meal at the best restaurant we know, Brown’s Kitchen. We were so impressed at our first visit we knew we would be in for a treat.

The format of the menu had changed a little but perhaps in fact made it easier to choose. The dishes ranged from classic fare to the elaborate, with something for everyone. As we were in a mood to push the boat out we leaped to the more expensive dishes as they sounded so tempting.

Fresh fried King’s Lynn whitebait with Spanish spice, lemon aioli  and crusty bread – Fresh pea soup with ham hock terrine, parmesan croutons and chive cream cheese

Husband’s whitebait (he can never resist ordering whitebait if it’s on a menu) looked completely different from the usually clumsy crusted stuff he usually gets presented with. Instead, Brown’s serve smaller fish with a delicate spiced batter which looked delightfully pretty. So appealing in fact that I tried it for the first time and pronounced it delicious. I opted for the pea soup and lapped it up a treat. The ham hock terrine was in the soup as was the chive cream cheese, making it a snappy take on pea and ham soup. Oh, it was lovely.

Fillet of Norfolk beef with Dauphinoise potatoes, glazed green beans and asparagus, red onion puree, Portobello mushroom & porcini jus – Grilled fresh red snapper with curried monkfish loin, wild salmon and turbot fishcake, Cromer crab tian & Asian slaw

Husband was powerless to resist the call of steak. Apparently it was divine and a special mention for the Dauphinoise and mushroom. My choice of the red snapper is almost amusing, considering I was a fish-hater for the first 22 years of my life. Anyways, as a reformed character, I thoroughly enjoyed trying everything for the first time. The Asian slaw was perfectly refreshing and really made for good eating.

Raspberry cheesecake – Sticky toffee pud

Obviously these desserts had far better names than these but I didn’t take good notes and have no idea, so I shall try to reconstruct the components. The cheesecake was very neat and husband finished it off with pleasure. I opted for gingery toffee pudding with sticky toffee sauce and I think it was cream (or was it ice cream?). All I know was that it was super tasty and I polished off the last of it, leaving me rather full.

I was glad I booked early as it was full for the evening. The atmosphere was lovely and the staff were really helpful and efficient. Special mention to Mark for his ongoing passion for the fabulous local produce he sources and the vision of  the team creating such exciting dishes.  Brown’s is certainly still sitting pretty as my favourite restaurant and I’m looking forward to heading back again soon.

Lately 001

I’ve been enjoying walks around the country lanes with Lincoln in the sunshine lately. I adore seeing the verges bursting with cow parsley against the right blue sky. Lincoln is enjoying his new cute camo harness and walks like a lamb in it, the poppet, albeit a lamb who leads with a slack lead….

These Marc by Marc Jacobs earbuds* are so cute aren’t they?! Perfect for listening to music while out and about on my phone (Nokia E5), which  has although limited use is handy for listing to music. Though seriously when it’s time for an upgrade I’ll be sure to go for an android phone and actually be able to get apps!

We’ve also got our sticky mitts on an allotment plot recently too which although is pretty damn cool, is really rather unhelpful timing for getting anything grown this year. Many hours of frantic digging, planting and general hard work has been taking place in the past few week in our ‘free’ time. Very free…

Fingers crossed it will be worthwhile and we will see some fruit to reward our labour. I guess next year will be another story.

*I was gifted the earbuds. Just saying!

Running commentary 001: Breathing

I thought I’d give my running posts a bit of a topic title and ‘Running commentary’ rather tickles my fancy. Since I’ve started running ‘properly’ I've found out a bit on how my own performance can be improved.
The way I see it there are three main reasons you may underperform on a run

1. Breathing
2. Muscle tiring
3. Energy low

Maybe I should have given a fourth option of ‘everything else’ but I’ll tackle that another day.So here is how I think they can be fixed. Today I’ll look at breathing.
Regardless of distance you need to control  your breathing. I had no idea how important this would be! If you just puff and pant away without thinking then you’re not making the most of things.  Breathing is like feeding when you’re running, it can make so much difference to how you feel and the efficiency of your run. Try slowing down your pace to allow yourself to breath easily.

• If you’re after keeping a steady pace then it’s IN, two three, OUT, two, three. So one breathing cycle for every six strides. Breathing must be deep to get the most oxygen in your lungs. Puff out as long as you can to ensure that you get the most air on your breath in.
• If you are pushing on a bit then upping breathing to one breathing cycle every four strides; IN, two, OUT, two. This still needs to be deep to ensure you’re getting plenty of oxygen.
• For a sprint you may end up with a two stride cycle; IN, OUT. This is tough to sustain!
• Whilst you're on a down hill slope take a few extra gasps of air, this will really help on the forthcoming uphill
• If you’re having a drink (and I heartily recommend carrying a bottle with you) then try not to interrupt your breathing too much as it will throw your rhythm.
• Carry a tissue and make sure you give that nose a blow if you start feeling like you need it! I tend either to get a runny nose or a bit of phlegm so deal with it before it slows you down.
• If the air is cold you’ll really benefit from breathing in through your nose as this will warm the air before it hit your lungs.
• It’s worth trying to figure out what works best for you with a bit of trial and error.

Have I missed anything? Any more thoughts to add?

Mono

Blouse – present, skirt – ebay, jacket – ebay, necklace – New Look

It’s not often you see me in monochrome or a maxi skirt to be honest, is it? I won this maxi skirt recently and it seems to tick all the boxes for me. I even got to wear whopping heels underneath in the pretence I’m tall and still drag the skirt along the ground in a slightly dramatic way. It’s not exactly a typical summer outfit but that’s the way it goes when summer turns out to be rainy and cool.  Thank you for the kind messages about my Nan, she’s a tough old thing.

A big thank you to you lovely, kind people who come back to read my little blog – hitting 350 followers is quite unbelievable really.

Miss Tweedy

Jacket – Jaeger, blouse – Madam Rage (both charity ship finds), trousers – ebay, boots – TK Maxx, Sunglasses – Internacionale

This weekend has been so busy, it was just ridiculous and to be honest it was rather foolish really as I’m not going to be tired for the start of the week. Late nights and early mornings are most definitely not good for me. My Nan has been very poorly lately and I seem to be having to sort out a load of stuff due to her not making sure she had enough help and resources.  Anyway, she blundered with her phone yesterday early morning, calling her friend by mistake who called me in a panic so I went dashing round at 7am on a Sunday morning to find there was no emergency at all. Leaving me with a big frown and a mishmash of hastily thrown on clothes plus it left that awkward amount of time where I couldn’t go back to bed. Sleep seems to be in short supply at the moment which generally just leaves me grumpy as sleep is my favourite hobby.

AMused

Last weekend we headed off to the big smoke to see Muse play at the emirates.

We stayed in a nice little hotel that was just opposite Finsbury Park, hotel was nowhere near as bad as the scathing reviews. It even had a car park!

The support acts were Bastille, who we just caught the last few tracks of. They were ok but not really of much interest to either of us.

Plus Dizzee Rascal. I really enjoyed his set, which is more than you can say for husband who frowned the whole way through! The crowd were far more supportive than I feared. My first hiphop gig!

Muse were naturally epic in every way. We gasped and felt our faces warm with the crazy fire cannons. They played for over two hours and it was thoroughly awesome. We were fortunate enough to have the best seats ever, so got a great view of the show. Well worth the stress of heading to London. We did cock up the walk home though, somehow ending up in a big queue for a station that we had no need for, so a bit of barrier hurdling was in order. Thanks bootcamp, that upper body strength came into it’s own!

Food of late 009

Sausage casserole with asparagus – Broccoli and cauliflower cheese bake

Roast duck leg and trimmings – Hoisin duck stirfry wraps

Asian salmon with crunchy salad noodles – Black bean beef burgers (both Jamie Oliver 15 minute meal dishes and delicious!)

Smoked haddock veg and cheese sauce – Cajun steak, smoky beans and collard greens

Jerk chicken salad wraps – pork and stilton burgers (butchers)

spag bol

May Photo Scavenger Hunt

Here we go!

Purple

Sight

Growing

Middle

Bottle

Crop

Stone

Collection

Open

Clear

Guess – could I use this as a drinking vessel?

Bonus – Not all that exciting but I was happy it sat still long enough for me to snap

If you want to link up with your photos from this month’s hunt then please add the button to your post or a link to this page and submit your details below!

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(Just copy the code and paste into your post while in html/ source view)

Here is the list for June

• Design
• Pretty
• Solid
• Liquid
• Buy
• Action
• Picnic
• Green
• Small
• Flourish
• Hat
• Flower
• Bonus picture you’re pleased with

Are you taking part?