The ultimate motivation, running catch ups and fuelling like a BOSS...

A few of you may have already seen this clip already but if you haven't, you NEED to check it out. Here is the ultimate motivational clip:

The last couple of weeks have been great for training. My speed sessions are getting better and better, I am feeling a lot fitter and am running my repeats at a faster speed, which I LOVE!

I have been quite slack with my cross training lately but have been running 4 times a week. It is hard to fit all the things in that I would like to with having a baby but I am really happy with everything that I am managing all the same. I have even been doing my core and some leg workouts in the evenings in front of the TV.

With it being Spring now I have also loved getting out on the road every chance I get to run in this beautiful weather. I have been taking Fletch for a few more buggy runs again now that it is warming up too. He loves it, I love it, we all win. I really love spring, it is such a beautiful season and it brings all the promises of summer ahead... YAY!

Last Saturday I did a 32km run and it was gorgeous but soooo HOT! I took it nice and slow but finished feeling good. I think it was because I fueled like a BOSS the night before that got me through it. My pizza and wine that I had the night before at my girls' dinner really did the trick... Perhaps i had better work on my nutrition if I want to be a better runner... Eek! (Please excuse my terrible phone photography):

This is a metre long pizza with three different toppings - my happy place!

Love running along the water front on a beautiful sunny day

 This is my next bit of fuel for tomorrow's long run... I know, I take this carb loading thing to a whole new level!

I'm going to need a REALLY big cup of tea to dunk this bad boy!

Although I am sure I will have a bite or two of this delicious morsel, I must add that I actually bought this for my hubs. The chunks in it are actually pineapple lumps which are his fave. And it was only $3... I still can't believe it. It would have been plain wrong to NOT have bought it.

Tomorrow I have a shorter long run planned of about 25ish kms (give or take - I am a bit more relaxed about this one as we will be away). The following week will be my last long run of about 34kms and then it is TAPER TIME!! Woah, the countdown really is on now! Less than a month to go!

P.S. If you are new to running (or not but still like a good read) then Amanda over at The Lady Okie Blog is doing a series called 'How to Start Running'. She has some awesome tips, advice and fun stories and I feature in her latest post, part two. Follow the link above and go check it out! YEOW!!

How do you fuel for your long runs?

Favourite cookie?

Mine would have to be a good old home made choc chunk and oat cookie

 

Favourite season to run?

Mine is def Spring as summer can just get a wee bit too hot

Marathon training week 2 and what I am loving at the moment...

Have had a good week of training this week. It's officially the first week of my training as I was sick last week so only made one sesh... Eek!

I got in my speed sessions, my tempo run, a weight session and a cross training session of spin class, and today's long run of 15kms. I felt great the whole 15kms but it was possibly from all of the sugar coursing through my body from eating all this chocolatey goodness last night, thanks to some awesome friends for bringing it over...

Yes, it's new and YES, you need it!

My goal was to run at marathon pace (MP) + 28 seconds per km - so 28 seconds/km slower than I want to run my marathon at. So this should have been 6.08 minute kms... And I did 6.07! BOOM!

Part of the run was on trails, which made it a bit more interesting too.

Who doesn't love a running selfie? Ok, don't answer that!

My calves were toight like a toiger but I didn't let that deter me. I will possibly pay for it for the next 3 days, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

What I have been loving lately...

Green smoothies!

• I have been loving my smoothies... Well, I never really stopped but I have changed them up a little. I have gone green. I have never really been the biggest spinach fan but know just how good it is for me, so I have been adding it to my smoothies. It's great. You can't even taste it and, so long as you don't mind the colour, you can still have your delicious smoothie with more benefits. It's an awesome post run/workout drink, protein packed for good recovery. Today's one contained:

- natural yog
- milk
- banana
- LSA (ground linseed, sunflower and almond mix)
- a handful of frozen spinach cubes
- a spoonful of honey for a sweet kick

• The Map My Run App for android. It is sooo awesome. My phone broke a few weeks back and I had to take it to get fixed, so all my apps and things got wiped. So when I downloaded the latest version it was all fancy like, and it is so cool. As you all know from my many posts in the past, I do not have a GPS watch (the offer still stands if any of you want to buy me one), so this app is the next best thing. It seems to be pretty accurate and it tracks your running, your time, pace and splits, as well as talking to you about how fast you are running, etc. It is great. I think I got a few weird looks as I was running past people when my bum pocket started telling me how fast I was running, but it is still great.
  The only downside is that it chews the phone battery, so any runs longer than 2 hours and my phone probably will die. Unless you have a phone with a good battery I suppose.

• Long runs. I am really enjoying the longer runs again and am suprised at how I am managing to get back into them without dying or breaking! Bonus!
• I am also LOVING our super sunny and warm winter weather. You wouldn't even believe it was the middle of winter at the moment. It's probably the equivalent to UK's summer (except for now during their heat wave). That was possibly a slight exaggeration, but it is awesome weather, and it's really motivating for getting out running. 
• Last, but not least, I am loving that my father in law is here to look after our wee boy tonight so the husband and I can go on a dinner date... YUSSS! 

 What things are you loving at the moment?

How far was your run this weekend or what was your workout?

Anyone go or going on a date this weekend?

Comment if you think it's time I had another giveaway :)

Christmas delights...

I absolutely love Christmas and always have, however it gets a bit different when you are all grown up. It seems to loose some of it's spark. Still fun and exciting but there are all the added bits in there that you never had to think of as a child. However, next Christmas is going to be the best with our little one here. I already know this and I am already excited about this!! 363 days to go...

But here's what I did this year...

Since we had Christmas with Tim's family a couple of weeks ago, we spent Christmas day with my family.

Lunch picnic with Tim's extended family

Brunch picnic in the park with immediate family - Tim has 3 brothers, 1 sister and 1 sister-in-law.

On Christmas morning we had brunch with my Mum's family. Even though it's summer here and it was really hot and humid, unfortunately it was pretty much pouring with rain the whole day (Thanks Cyclone Evan!). So we stayed inside to eat, drink, and be merry... And merry we were (well, some of use anyway).

After brunch with them we headed out to my Dad's house where we had a lovely relaxing afternoon playing cards and games and cooking everything for our lovely Christmas dinner. We pretty much kept eating all day, it was so good!

Remember this guy...

Super huge Turkey that I won.

Well it went from this, to this...

Freshly cooked and filled with the most delicious stuffing!

Fruit platters galore - I just can't get enough of the beautiful, fresh summer fruit at the moment and am pretty sure I demolished most of this platter myself!

I am trying to look skinny in this photo... Can you tell?? 2 months to go...

Christmas dinner, complete with Christmas table cloth and all!

There was also Christmas pudding with my Step-Mum's famous Christmas ice cream to follow, however I was probably too busy eating it to actually get a photo of it. So good! Unfortunately I also forgot to get a photo of the tree with all the pressies under it, but most of them were for our unborn child... Soooo much fun opening those!

Even though it was a wet Christmas we had a lovely day celebrating with family and lots of food, fun and pressies. We really are so blessed to be able to have a Christmas with all of those things and I am so thankful for that!

How was your Christmas? Did you spend time with friends or family, or both?? 

Did you pretty much eat all day long like us?

What do you love most about Christmas?

I enjoy the family time and the fact that we are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ - our greatest gift ever!

Food for thought...

Lately I have been super busy with school work as well as still trying to have a life, and get lots of bits and pieces done around our house before wee one joins us. My priority is my teaching job and doing the best job I possibly can before I go off to have this baby. I am absolutely loving my job and my students - I teach 9 and 10 year olds - and my school is totally the best!

The only problem is, this job is very tiring, not to mention growing a wee baby... Which means that there is less energy for workouts. I have still been pumping up the jam (doing pump class) 1-2 times a week at the gym but my running has turned to run/walks, and inconsistent. I don't mind this but I do need to do better with my consistency.

Ever find this a struggle? Starting an exercise regime/plan and struggling to stay consistent?

This evening I went for about a 6km walk. It was only ever going to be a walk as I really just did not feel like wearing my support belt today, and I just get a wee bit too much discomfort if I try and run without it. I loved the walk but really felt like running the second half especially. Was quite a nice change though to just walk.

If you are a newby to exercise or are really just trying to create some great habits and consistency in your workouts, this website here  has some excellent tips...

"Once you have decided on the type of exercise you want to engage in, creating consistency means being realistic about how much time you need to devote to your regular exercise regimen. Create a workout schedule that involves at least a few minutes a day for a warm up, 20 minutes for a cardio activity and additional time for strength training and a cool down. You might write down your schedule to solidify your commitment to your exercise plan."

Great advice to people starting out, or you can take some gems from that if you are a bit like me at the moment and struggling to fit everything in.

Tim is away tonight on a Managers retreat thingee so I came home and had a nice dinner of fish and veges... So good! After that, however, I decided that I was allowed to indulge in some fruit salad with ice cream and caramel sauce. YUM!

Treat city!!

Don't get me wrong, I am trying to eat really well during my pregnancy and I am not buying into everyone's comments that 'It's ok, you're eating for two so you can eat whatever you want'. This is somewhat true, I am eating for two, however the second person is only teeny weeny and only requires an extra 300 calories from my behalf, so the 'eat-what-you-want-because-you-are-pregnant' excuse doesn't really cut it. I am a bit more partial to indulging in treats a little more often than I used to though. I think I could actually live off ice cream!

Now that I have had that little burst of thought, here's a preggy pic update to keep you happy... Or unhappy if you're not into that stuff??

6 months preggers and check out the bump!

As I mentioned, Tim's away, thus the reason for the cheesy selfie! And thus the reason for eating treats on the couch whilst (supposed to be doing school work but am blogging) watching this victorious victory speech live from Barack Obama...

Got to say, although I am not American and can't vote so it doesn't really even matter, I am a bit of an Obama fan (sorry to all the Romney fans out there). So good on you Obama, and great victory speech. Yip, NZ might be small and totally a gazillion miles away from any other country but we do get some of the world news over here you know :)

American readers (and anyone else) - What do you think about Obama's success in this election? 

I don't really know too much about politics, but I do enjoy hearing people's opinions on the matter and sometimes even share my own... Would you believe I share my opinions?? 

That's about all for now but please, keep watching this space for my guest posts and my giveaway coming up, as promised!  

The perks of a teacher and a banker...

At the moment it is school holidays which, you guessed it, means two weeks off!! Well, sort of anyway, maybe it's more like 2 weeks to get the teacher's work done without any students around...

I was supposed to be at school most of this week planning for the term to come, however I couldn't resist tagging along on Tim's work trip to the 'big smoke', a.k.a Auckland. I am from a reasonably small city so it's always exciting getting to go with Tim and stay in some swanky digs and pretend like I am posh.

We arrived late Monday night to this delightful little apartment which is right in the Viaduct...

My little setup in the corner to do school work (or stalk some blogs, whatever)

On Tuesday morning I thought I'd get up and go for a wee run, reliving some of the glory from the Auckland marathon course, since I won't be running it this year.

I thought you'd like to see what I looked like first thing in the morning with a 19 week bump and wearing my ugliest race tee shirt, so I took this photo for you. And because I thought you'd like to see the most unflattering photo of me that I think has ever been taken... Ha!

I ran about 4km but didn't wear my belly belt, so then walked the other 4 kms. Now when I run I just look a bit like a fat kid trying to catch up to all the other kids miles ahead in the cross country... Yikes! I can't really go too far without the lovely ol' belly belt on as it starts to get a bit uncomfortable/sore. On my walk I enjoyed sites like these:

The Viaduct where all the fancy peoples' boats are parked

A lovely shot of the Sky Tower in behind all the swanky boats

After I got back I did some school work in the apartment and then got dolled up to do some window shopping and have lunch with my sister in law... Coz that's how I roll when I am a lady of leisure...

Just threw this one in so you know that I didn't look as horrid as that first pic ALL day!

 This morning I got up nice and early to head home so I could hit my fave mall on the way, then get some hours in at school. Yip, posh time was over! But before all of that I parked up at a sweet little cafe and had this delicious and nutricious breakie...

You just can't beat good muesli, fresh fruit and natural yoghurt to start the day!

Now I am home and Tim won't get back til tomorrow so I'll probably just eat ice cream for dinner... Oops!

Oh, and I just HAVE to tell you about the BEST yoghurt I have just discovered! I saw it advertised in a magazine a few weeks ago and hadn't managed to find it in the two supermarkets I usually go to, but then tried another one and found it. I was delighted! Here it is... If you want to find it in Whangarei you can only find it at Countdown at the moment. Hopefully everyone else gets it soon because I normally nevs evs shop there.

Collective Skinny Greek Yoghurt... YUM!!

 They had about 6 or so different flavours to choose from, like tart cherry, passionfruit, and more, but I wasn't going to buy all of them so just chose berry flavour. It was sooo good. It's got no added sugar OR sweeteners, it's low in fat and high in protein and it's just so good! Goes really well with some fresh fruit and probs is super delish on muesli in the morning. The only problem is that the tub isn't big enough and it's more in the price range of the gourmet yoghurts... Will have to be my sneaky indulgence.

This was the wee treat I got when I took off the lid. So true!

So that's the start of my school holidays in a nutshell. Not too exciting, I know, but on Friday we are heading off on our real holiday for 5 days to relax and catch up with some of Tim's family down in the Coromandel... Bliss! Can't wait.

If you're on holiday right now, what are your plans? Doing anything exciting?

What's your favourite yoghurt or your sneakiest indulgence?