food what i ate, the final instalment!: sunday

And so my latest series of food what I ate is at an end!  I didn't update yesterday as I felt a bit ill after the overindulgence that was Easter Sunday and had an early night :)  So here is the final day, in all its glory:

Pre training:  1/2 bottle Lucozade Body Fuel in orange flavour, 8 almonds (I was feeling a bit empty, and cursing myself for not making more chia seed pudding!)

Training:  The rest of the Lucozade, which I had diluted with water to make a full bottle again before I headed out.

The training today was 2 x 40 minute run with a walking/stretching break in between.  I ended up covering 12.6km and it felt strong and comfortable.  I feel very ready for next week's half!

After training: 1/2 bottle Lucozade Body Fuel in raspberry (I think that one is my favourite flavour...but it all tastes wonderful after a big run and you're very thirsty!)

Breakfast:  I tried to have this quickly for a change!

I had 1 and a half of my hot cross buns I had made on Friday with dairy free spread, accompanied by another smoothie in a bowl.  This one was frozen banana, frozen mixed berries, 1 scoop Good Hemp Chocolate Gym Shake and Kara chocolate coconut milk.  I topped it with roasted almonds, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds and chia seeds.  So good!

Lunch:  We had a delicious Easter Sunday roast dinner of Quorn Family Roast, roast rosemary potatoes, carrots, broccoli and a Bisto roasted winter vegetables gravy.  I used to get their roast onion one but the winter vegetables one is much lighter and (I think) tastier!

 
To accompany lunch we shared a bottle of red wine, so I had about 2.5 glasses.  That was more than enough, as it turned out!

Dessert:  Rather than make an apple crumble with the granny smiths I had lying around in the fridge, I made Coach Julia's baked apples and served with some Swedish Glace vanilla vegan ice cream.

This is fast becoming my favourite way to use up apples for dessert - you just hollow them out with a corer, sprinkle with cinnamon, put a bit of water in the dish and off you go.  The inside becomes so soft and delicious, it's just like eating apple pie.  The skin goes a bit crispy but I quite like that :)

Chocolate:  Yes, it gets a mention all of its own!  Easter Bunny got me a few blocks of Lindt and I managed a few squares of the Coconut, then the Sea Salt.  I was still sipping on my red wine from lunch. Then I felt a bit sick.....[despite the coconut chocolate being so delicious]....

Evening/dinner:  Basically there's no pictures (!) but we went for a long walk in the fresh air and then after we came back we had a Crabbies ginger beer and a few pieces of chocolate, which kind of finished me off!  I haven't been indulging much over the past few weeks since I stepped up training, and I've laid off alcohol since we got back from Oz (where we had perhaps 2 dry days in the entire six weeks!) so it doesn't take much to get me tipsy these days!  Easter Sunday was my last day of indulgence before the half this coming Sunday so I wanted to make the most of it.....but I didn't have as much of a stomach for indulgence as I thought!  So I had what I wanted but stopped when I felt I'd had enough.  Which was very quickly ;)

For dinner, we had lunch leftovers.  There were not many vegetables left so I made more broccoli and carrots, and some peas.  It was just as delicious as lunch!  I really enjoy having a vegetarian roast, it's always a nice treat.  I enjoyed the rosemary potatoes in particular.

But I had well and truly eaten enough, so I picked at my leftovers, drank a stack of water and then it was a herbal tea and off to bed with my book!

I hope you had an abundance of all these things this Easter :) 

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter break.  It's back to training for me tomorrow, with a recovery and stamina session, then my final long run will be Thursday before heading off to Edinburgh.  I'm really excited!  It's been ages since I did a half marathon!  About a month ago I was starting to think I had really lost my edge when it came to long distances but it's amazing how, with a bit of focus and sticking to my old training plan, it's come back.  I've been thinking a lot about how to maintain the training I've been doing for the long term without another event immediately on the horizon.  I've never managed it before, as I tend to train for an event and if I don't have another one to do straight away, I let it drop off a bit.  Having this level of fitness back is a fantastic feeling though so I'm sure I can maintain it if I make it a priority.

I've enjoyed tracking my food and drink for you over the past week - although remembering to take decent photos of everything that passed my lips was a bit of a challenge at times! - and it forced me to try a few different things rather than show you the same lunch every day, ha ha.  I mentioned that I sometimes don't quite get the balance right when it comes to reading my hunger signals after a long run, and tracking this week has shown me where I might improve things a little, particularly eating after a long run, as I've noticed I was very tired after them this week.  I think eating something as soon as possible after coming back and then a protein-heavy meal afterwards is the key.  Putting it into practice is another thing, as the shower tends to be my first port of call when coming back rather than the kitchen! ;)

So there you have it - food what I ate, the half marathon edition!  I hope you liked it :)

I hope you have a great week ahead - it's hopefully going to be a lean, mean week of focus for me ahead of Sunday's race!  Have a good one :)