Tag Archives: half-marathon

Mizuno Evo Cursoris and Evo Levitas Review

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Mizuno Evo Cursoris and Evo Levitas Review

Nice shoes, shame about the mud!

I’ve been running in my new Evos now for a couple of weeks, mostly using the gorgeously pink Evo Cursoris; with a thicker 12mm midsole, I find these more comfortable.  I am still not at all sure this minimalist running is all that it’s cracked up to be; I definitely need more time before I rave too much about it…perhaps after this weekend when I’ve raced in them in the Tunbridge Wells Half - if you’re racing too, I’ll be giving out 5 copies of Go Faster Food as spot prizes, so look out for me at the finish line!

I love being barefoot. As a kid, I would throw off my shoes at the start of the summer holidays and that was it for 6 weeks; I’d walk/run everywhere in my bare feet. My parents were both teachers and we’d disappear off to Wales camping for the whole 6 week holiday. Hmmm, Wales in the summertime…this wasn’t the-lovely-feeling-of-hot-sand-between-the-toes kind of barefoot, we’re talking the-squelching-mud-between-the-toes kind of barefoot, with the odd dreamy day running across warmish sand when the weather decided to perk up. I still love to go barefoot, but nowadays limit this to dry days in the garden and holidays in hot countries!

So ‘minimalist’ seems to me to be the natural step up from this. As a runner who naturally propels herself forward, my running style is apparently suited to these minimalist shoes. This is what I have to say so far:

The good

Both the Evo Cursoris and the Levitas certainly slip on easily, fit well, and I’ve enjoyed wearing them on my runs. They are extremely lightweight, really, really comfortable, more like splippers than running shoes (have I mentioned this before?) and I’m surprised by the amount of cushioning they have, especially the Cursoris.

The toebox

The jury is out on this. There is plenty of space for your toes, although after a while I feel very aware of this, almost as though each toe has become splayed out into its own special compartment.  This is apparently to give you extra grip and control. I’m not particularly keen on this feeling when I’m running but I’m willing to keep persevering in the vain hope that I’ll become accustomed to this.

Choose your shoes to suit the terrain you run on!

My main problem with the #Evos is where I am choosing to run in them, rather than their construction per se.  These shoes feel fab when I’m running on dry, flat road, but I naïvely joined the super UK Mizuno testing team without really appreciating how much of my running is off-road.  So really I’m using the wrong shoes for my type of running. As soon as the road surface becomes wet, the shoes feel less grippy, and as soon as I’m off into the fields and woods, which I’m afraid to say is the majority of the time, I’m sliding all over the place. Perhaps if the off-road were a nice dry, South of France or Lanzarote type terrain then they would be OK. I, however, have been testing these shoes in the rainy month of February in  Bristol (mud-city) and the Devon coastal path (rocky, muddy and boggy).

Having said that, the weather is clearing up now, I’m running the Tunbridge Wells Half on Sunday in the #Levitas, the forecast is good so hopefully the running surface will be dry!

For a peak of other member of the team’s reviews:

 

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Gels or Sports Drink?

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Gels or Sports Drink?

When I race, should I choose gels or sports drinks? Or a combination of both?

During a race of 90 minutes or more glycogen levels need to be topped up on a regular basis or they’ll become depleted, you’ll run out of steam and you’ll ‘bonk’ or ‘hit the wall’. Drinking water is not enough! You’ll need to rapidly replenish depleted muscle glycogen and restore body salts lost through sweat. That’s why we have to take on board gels and sports drinks. Unfortunately, most of them are disgusting, unpalatable and sickly…that’s because they’re more or less pure glucose, designed to be digested as quickly as possible. Using homemade sports drinks in training is fine, but this is usually an impractical solution for racing. The only option is to try out different brands to find one you can stomach.

With the ongoing success of FuelSmart for Race Day, I’m frequently asked whether it’s best to top up these glycogen levels with gels or with sports drinks during triathlon, half-marathon and marathon endurance training and races, and whether there is any difference between them.

Discover your ideal personal strategy.

Firstly and most importantly, what works for you is unlikely to work for your fellow competitor! You need to practice different strategies in training to discover what will suit you and your physiology best. Whether you choose gels, sports drink or a combo depends more on your personal preference than on any performance advantage.

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Optimise your performance with Go Faster Food FuelSmart.


Nutritionally-formulated meal plans and delicious recipes to help you go further, faster.

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Gels – don’t forget to wash them down with water

Gels, designed to be rapidly digested to replenish muscle glycogen as quickly as possible, provide between 20-30 grams of carbohydrate.  Your body requires 30-60 grams of carbohydrate per hour, depending on workout intensity, so you’d need 2-3 gels per hour. Each gel must be washed down with plenty of water, for good hydration and for the effective absorption of the gel.

 What about Sports Drinks?

Sports drinks are essentially gels with water, providing you ‘two for one’: hydration and carbohydrates. 500 ml typically contains between 30-45 grams carbohydrate, so you would need around 600 ml per hour, again depending on your workout.

Try a Gel/Sports Drink Combo to minimise Gastrointestinal discomfort

If, like me, you find sports drinks and gels too sickly-sticky, and water boring, try my combo method which maintains good hydration, body salt and glycogen levels.; a gel every 30-40 minutes, washed down with a 50% diluted sports drink. You never know, it might work for you!

Don’t forget electrolytes and protein

For best performance and recovery, choose a gel or sports drink which also contains protein and electrolytes; this helps prevent muscle damage and replaces lost body salts.

Solids can be kinder to the stomach

Overconsumption of gels and sports drinks can leave your gut feeling extremely uncomfortable.  Energy bars, dried fruit, marmite, cheese or honey sandwiches, bananas and rice balls can be kinder to the stomach and many cyclists find it more pleasant and effective to eat these on the bike. Solids on the bike works for triathletes and ironman competitors, followed by sports drink and/or gels on the run to minimise gastrointestinal discomfort.

If you suffer GI problems, keep it simple!

Your stomach comes under all sorts of stress during endurance events. Many competitors suffer gastrointestinal problems. The more gunk you put inside you the likelihood is that the more uncomfortable your stomach will feel! 

Practice different options in training to discover what is comfortable for you as an individual.

Butternut Squash Cake

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Whilst playing around with butternut squash recipes I fell upon the idea of grating it up and making a cake, just like you might do with carrot or courgette. It works! In fact, it works really, really well and what’s even more surprising, my daughter, who will normally extract any trace of butternut squash from her meal, absolutely adores it!

I think butternut squash is a fabulous vegetable and an excellent addition to any training diet. Bell-like in shape, it has a beautifully smooth, creamy-coloured skin which protects its dense, rich golden-yellow flesh. Its texture is deliciously soft; its taste sweet, buttery, nutty. It’s hard to believe that as little as 10 years ago few people in the UK barely knew what a butternut squash was. Now it’s widely available and has gradually become a much-loved and versatile staple in our shopping trolleys.

We may consider this beautiful tangerine-hued vegetable as just another starchy ‘comfort food’, but butternut squash is in fact a powerhouse of nutrients. It’s a complex carbohydrate loaded with the anti-oxidant beta-carotene, which can reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease, boost immunity and help the healthy funtion of the reproductive system. It’s low in fat, and rich in fibre, vitamin C and potassium. It even contains folic acid, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B1 and a plethora of essential minerals. Weight Watchers endorses butternut squash as one of its ‘zero foods’ because of its low content of calories and saturated fat.

To cook a butternut squash, peel the skin with a good, sharp vegetable peeler. Cut off the stem and then slice in half lengthwise, from stem to end. Scrape out the seeds and the stringy membrane with a spoon. If you’re roasting or baking squash you don’t need to peel.

Butternut Squash Cake

It’s a rare ocassion that this deliciously moist cake gets iced in my house – it’s always wolfed down as soon as it comes out of the oven. That’s fine! It’s packed with goodness. If you do get to the icing stage you’ll find this cake keeps very well for a few days.

You will need a 20cm round cake tin, greased or lined with greaseproof paper

For the cake

  • 125g unsalted butter
  • 125g caster sugar
  • zest of 1 orange
  • 2 eggs
  • 200g butternut squash, peeled and grated
  • 50g walnuts, roughly chopped
  • juice of 1/2 orange
  • 125g self-raising wholemeal flour, sifted
  • 75g raisins or sultanas
  • ½  tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp ground ginger
  • ½ tsp salt
  • small handful whole or chopped walnuts to decorate

For the icing

  • 110g full-fat soft cheese
  • 20g unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 40g icing sugar
  • squeeze of lemon or lime juice

  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3–4.
  2. Cream the butter, sugar and orange zest together until light and fluffy.
  3. Add the eggs, beating well as you add each one.
  4. Fold in the grated butternut squash, raisins and nuts, and add the orange juice.
  5. Fold in the flour, bicarbonate of soda, spice and salt.
  6. Pour into the cake tin and bake for about 45 minutes – you will know the cake is done as the cake comes away from the side of the cake tin and is springy to the touch.
  7. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool.
  8. Cream the cheese and butter together. Add the icing sugar and lemon juice and beat until smooth. Spread the icing generously over the cake.
  9. Decorate with whole or chopped walnuts.

Try my great pre-event dish for carbo-loading too – butternut squash risotto with maple syrup almonds

HAPPY 2010!!

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HAPPY 2010!!

I’m back now on the frozen UK soil. I’ve got over the shock of the low temperatures and decided that Australia’s much too hot for me anyway – you have to get up far too early to run to avoid the heat for my liking!

I’m getting excited about the rather awesome challenges facing me in 2010. Apparently 2010 is the year of the Tiger and we’ve got to be courageous, active and self-assured!!!

For me it’s going to be a MARATHON YEAR! My training for the 2010 Virgin London Marathon in April has already started and then there’s New York in November (just found out that I can get a good for age place – there are advantages to being an older female runner!), plus I expect there’ll be a few halves along the way and of course Liz Yelling’s new Kilomathon in March.

I’ve decided that I’ll have to push my dream of doing an ultra run to next year as there are too many other things happening to be able to focus on such a challenge – I really do need to earn a living as well as achieve my sporting dreams.

In addition to my writing for various fitness websites and magazines and promoting Go Faster Food, I’ll be writing my next book – Go Faster Food for Kids – along similar lines to Go Faster Food, but packed with healthy, energy-boosting and practical recipes suitable for active kids. My kids and their friends have been having great fun testing these out!

I’m very excited about supporting BEST (Bristol English Channel Swim Team) – a group of inspirational 12-year-old children training to be the youngest ever relay team to cross the channel. This is going to take place in August 2010 and should be an amazing challenge, well worth following.

But the most exciting thing of all is that we’ve booked a ski chalet in Switzerland for Easter – with no skiing last year at all, I’m just itching to get onto those slopes…..

What interesting plans has everyone else got for this year? Let me know, I’d love to hear….

Griddled lamb cutlets with chickpea and sweet potato pilau

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Griddled lamb cutlets with chickpea and sweet potato pilau

We’re getting to the end of the kids Summer holidays and stocks are getting pretty low. I’ve been delaying a big food shop in favour of much more interesting activities like long runs, bike rides with the kids or trips to buy new school shoes (?!) and so last night was most definitely a “scratch” meal….but sometimes they are the best. Within 10 minutes, a most delicious aroma had filled the house and supper was ready –  not only a tasty and speedy meal, but a perfect low G.I., high carbohydrate dish for my preparation for the Bristol Half Marathon on Sunday.

I had some fresh chicken stock and so decided on a risotto to accompany some lamb cutlets which had reached their best before date – it was only when I started to saute an onion as the first stage of the risotto that I discovered I had run out of risotto rice. When you’re running sometimes you have to be flexible and change your goals when things don’t go to plan – this can happen in just the same way with cooking and a quick change of plan was needed – it had to be a pilau with basmati rice. I threw in a sweet potato, some chopped celery, a spoon of madras paste, some crushed cardamom seeds and a tin of chickpeas. I added the rice to this mixture, mixed it all up and then covered it with the hot stock.  Ten minutes later the pilau was ready – finished off with some finely chopped green chilli and a big handful of fresh coriander, a healthy, energy-giving and tasty meal for five had been prepared in a blip….and subsequently demolished in about the same amount of time!

Ingredients – serves 5

  • 10 lamb cutlets ( I seasoned mine with herbes de provence and a little moroccan spice mix)
  • 350-375 g good quality basmati rice (about two big handfuls per person)
  • 1 onion, finely sliced
  • 1 stick celery, finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
  • 1 scant tablespoon madras paste (I use Pataks)
  • the seeds of 3-4 cardamom pods, crushed in a pestle and mortar
  • 400g tin chickpeas
  • 1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces
  • chicken stock
  • large handful of fresh coriander, chopped roughly
  • 1 large green chilli, finely sliced into rings
  • yoghurt sauce – mix a pinch of salt, pinch of sugar, pinch of chilli powder, pinch of coriander or ras-el-hanout spice mix into about 5 tablespoons natural yoghurt
  1. Prepare the lamb cutlets – coat them in whatever herbs and spices you have decided to use and heat up the griddle.
  2. Gently saute the onion and celery in the oil and then add the sweet potato after a couple of minutes. I use a large, deep frying pan with a lid – this sort of thing is perfect for a pilau. Add the madras paste, the cardamom seeds and the chickpeas and then stir it all around for a minute or so.
  3. Add the rice and stir so that all the ingredients are well mixed up.
  4. Add enough hot stock to cover the rice by about 1/2 cm. When the stock comes to the boil again, turn down the heat to very gently and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Basmati rice cooks really quickly so check to see if the rice is cooked after about 8 minutes.
  5. Meanwhile griddle the lamb cutlets. A good trick is to leave them on the griddle without turning until the fat goes really crisp, then turn them and finish them off on the other side.
  6. When the pilau is cooked, add the fresh coriander and the slices of chilli and serve with the cutlets and the yoghurt sauce.
  7. I found half a bag of watercress in the fridge which I livened up with a mustardy dressing – this went really well with the lamb and pilau.

Apple & Almond Bake Recipe

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14082009844The past two weeks have been spent camping in the wilds and kayaking down the River Wye, hence the lack of blogs. I don’t have internet on my mobile phone and there was absolutely no question of taking my laptop on the kayak, so I have been free from any contact with the outside world, apart from the odd newspaper….I like that!

Here’s some pics of the Wye trip. Huge salmon jumping around us (unfortunately not into the boat!), otters, herons, buzzards etc, heaps of blackberries and delicious field mushrooms to forage. Campfires every night. Happy, contented children. And it only rained for one morning. Paradise really, although quite hard work.

Better pics to follow once my 73  year-old mother-in-law, Sylvia a.k.a. extreme grannie, has worked out how to email them to me.12082009835

I hope I can get back into running fitness for the Bristol Half Marathon on 6th September and the Inverness Monster Duathlon the following weekend as the canoeing was very good for the upper body strength, but not so good for the legs! We managed to get out for a few early morning runs, but went no further than about 6 miles.

We’ve returned to a bumper crop of apples in our garden so I’ve been hard at work picking, peeling, coring and storing the things. It’s a great excuse to delay other houshold chores like the dreaded washing that makes coming home from a camping holiday such hell! I know there are countless exciting ways of using apples (and we have a range of varieties from bramley cookers to eater such as cox’s orange pippin) but what we and the kids really enjoy is a good old apple crumble or apple and almond bake. Here’s my recipe for a delicious (and very simple) apple and almond bake. It’s not just a treat for the kids, it also makes for a tasty, filling and healthy dessert for athletes. The almonds provide good, cholesterol-reducing monounsaturated fats and also contain significant amounts of the antioxidant vitamin E, plus magnesium and potassium and of course the apples are packed with low G.I. carbohydrate, dietary fibre and anti-oxidants, plus vitamin C.

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Here’s the recipe:

Apple and Almond Bake

  • Bramley cooking apples (about 4-5 medium sized)
  • 1 tbsp runny honey
  • 1 tbsp demerara sugar
  • pinch of ground cinnamon
  • 175g ground almonds
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder (optional)
  • 175g caster sugar
  • 175g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
  • 3 medium free range eggs
  • zest of half a lemon
  1. Heat the oven to 180C.
  2. Peel, core and chop the apples.
  3. Place the apples in a saucepan, cover, and then heat gently with the cinnamon, a tbsp water, a tbsp honey and a tbsp sugar until purreed.
  4. Pour into an ovenproof dish (about 20cm diameter, but don’t worry if it is a bit smaller or larger).
  5. Beat the sugar, lemon zest and butter together with an electric whisk until light and fluffy.
  6. Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure each one is well incorporated.
  7. Gently fold in the baking powder and almonds.
  8. Pour mixture onto the apples and spread it evenly so that all the apples are covered.
  9. Bake in the oven for about 35-40 minutes, or until golden and risen.