By Stephie, on Sunday 6th November, 2011 at 16:27 pm
Friday was my first long run of my marathon training programme. The plan was to run along the coast, but I chickened out because my legs were aching like mad from a gym session the day before. Instead I headed to one of my favourite local trails round the woods at Trelissick, which are stunningly beautiful at this time of year. I was stopped in my tracks by these fantastic mushrooms growing in the undergrowth near Roundwood iron age fort.
 Fly Agaric - not to be eaten! A large section of the track runs through woodland alongside creeks giving glimpses of the sky in still reflections, or wading birds like oyster catchers if the tide is low. But I absolutely love it at this time of year for the incredible kaleidoscope of autumn oranges, yellows and reds; the track’s like running on a golden mosaic of fallen leaves, soft under the feet and kind on the knees.
I ran 9 miles at a very easy pace, not far in the grand scheme of things – about a third of the distance I’m training for (28 miles). I’ve decided that I need to do some serious work if I’m going to complete this challenge in February; I realise I’m nowhere near strong enough and my upper body in particular is as weedy as a lawn covered in daisies. My attempts at resistance work at home have been sporadic, and I haven’t got a clue what I should be doing anyway, so I decided I’d go to the gym. Now I’m beginning to think ignorance was bliss!!!
 Reflecitons I’ve had a plan drawn up that I can fit ’round my running days. Three sessions a week at the gym: one for leg work, one for core and one for upper body – all three include some cross training on the bike. Last Thursday was a bit of everything though, where I was shown how to use the myriad rows of scary looking machines. It was hilarious. I have a reasonably strong core, but I was introduced to something called a ‘Roman chair’, where you hang from your arms and lift your legs to 90 degrees – lifting my legs was fine, but I had to give up because my arms couldn’t hold up my own weight!!! After doing a few chest and shoulder presses (with barely any added weight) my arms were like jelly. So not impressive! Then there was some contraption where you did squats half lying down. I think the idea is that you put weights on the thing behind your head somewhere, but I didn’t need any weights, ha, ha! Nope, my quads could do it solo thanks! (Just!!!)
All this effort meant I wasn’t prepared to risk injury running up steep cliffs on Friday, even though a coastal run was on the agenda. I think it was a good call: as I sit here on the sofa today I can report aches but no pains! I’m still confused about how many miles I should be running each week, and I only managed 16 this week which really doesn’t feel enough. I’m wondering if there’s some rule of thumb I should follow – I haven’t been able to find any programmes specifically for off-road marathons yet. Back to Google …
 zippy stuff Another aspect of marathon running I know nothing about is nutrition on the run. Energy gels. I’ve never used them before, so decided to get in some early research and just grabbed a couple randomly off the shelf in a local hiking shop. I’ve been told that you should take one every 45 minutes because the body can’t store enough carbs for longer than that. On Friday I planned to run for an hour and a half, so I seized the opportunity to try out this SIS Smart berry flavour gel.
I stopped about half way, not confident of ‘eating’ on the run yet, and tore the top off. I squeezed the cool sticky stuff into my mouth. It tasted pretty gross and nothing like berries. I was expecting something blackcurranty since the package was purple, but the flavour is indescribable – not like any berries I know for sure!
I set off again up an incline, an old pack-horse track. I felt an instant ‘injection’ of something, but surely it wasn’t carbs? No, that’ll be the caffeine. I felt the hit in my head, suddenly awake and alert. I felt good, but running along I could hear and feel the stuff sloshing around in my gut which was a bit unnerving. I half expected it to come back up and was surprised it didn’t. I was still feeling awake and definitely had some energy in the tank by the time I got back to the car. Result.
Next time I’m going to try the same brand, but a different flavour. I hope it won’t slosh around again, but the results were very obvious so maybe it’s something I’ll have to get used to and put up with. Of course there are other brands to research, so hopefully I’ll have found something that tastes good, feels good and works by mid February…it’s going to be interesting to find out!
Back soon
Stephie
By Stephie, on Thursday 3rd November, 2011 at 19:53 pm
Has it really been this long since I was last here? You know that in my head I’m always writing to you, right? Sometimes I think you must get totally bored with me and you need a break from whatever it is I ‘write’, but that’s not the reason I haven’t been here for a bit. It’s been half term and the week before and during was mostly taken over with this stuff:
 L E G O It’s the bane of my life. I find it everywhere: the kitchen, the sitting room, my bedroom, even the bathroom and my bag. The Danes have a lot to answer for. My son Kim tells me an “amazing” statistic: there are more than 67 Lego bricks per person on the planet. In my opinion Kim has far more than his fair share: there must be millions of people out there with zero Lego bricks.
It took me days to clear it out of his bedroom so that I could decorate it. The stuff was everywhere, in every nook and cranny and more than half a tonne of it scattered on the floor. I was not a happy mummy. With the decorating done it took all my resolve to pick it up, sort it out, box it and put it back on his shelves and anywhere else I could find room for it. But this is stuff he’s played with literally every day since he was able to hold a Duplo brick. More than a decade. I can’t really begrudge something that’s been a major factor in his creative development. Can I? I guess not, but I think that when I run, I might well be running away from it!!! And I definitely need something else to focus on. Like making hats.
I got a bit carried away with these. Simple and very quick (for me!). 4 of them done and dusted and put away for Christmas presents. In 3 days I made 4 hats. Now that was escapism.
 Different shades of Rowan's Colourscape Chunky 100% lambswool  This is a hat for a child - hence the big pink button! I found the pattern on Ravelry and bought it here on Folksy. If you want something simple, quick and satisfying this is a really easy pattern to follow 
I’ll be back in the next day or two with news of my marathon training programme that I started this week – the next 6 weeks are going to be punishing, and it’s got nothing to do with running!!!!!!
Stephie
By Stephie, on Monday 17th October, 2011 at 22:13 pm
A week ago I ran the half marathon. I rested on Monday and as usual on Tuesday I went to track. By Tuesday evening I was laid low with ‘man-flu’, exhausted,’sinusy’, with a throat on fire and eyes burning. I slept for days. Or so it felt.
On Friday I went for an induction at a new gym just down the road. I haven’t been to a gym for about 7 years, but I think I need it now. I need to build some stronger hamstrings – and my upper body strength, well it’s laughable! My legs aren’t strong enough to withstand 28 miles of “severe” cliff running that’s for sure, so…the gym. After running a mile and a half in fifteen minutes on the treadmill to warm up, the sweat was literally dripping off me as though I’d just run a 5 mile tempo run, and I felt dangerously close to an embarrassing collapse. Obviously I hadn’t recovered. I went home and slept some more. I did’t wake up until 11.30am on Saturday and I just pottered about in the afternoon, forcing myself to take it easy.
Saturday became Sunday, today, and I had a bit more energy so when a friend asked me over for a walk with her dog I jumped at the opportunity to get out into the October sunshine. We went through the local woods and so much is changing already. There are shiny scarlet berries on the holly trees, fungi appearing and the leaves are falling fast. The sound they make as you kick through them is such a pleasure and I really look forward to it every year; I’m just a big kid.
 Hawthorn for the birds, the view just for me!
 Autumn fruits Walking up steep narrow footpaths took it out of me and I felt so unfit! It’s horrible feeling like this when you just want to get out there, but being forced to slow down gives you time to really look. Back at Jacqueline’s I couldn’t help but look at these fantastic medlars that had fallen from a tree in her garden, the fading colours are beautiful and the spiky tops look like crowns. Or, in her words, a dog’s arse!!!
Then I was in for a real treat. Jaqueline is a bee-keeper. She’s quite new to the craft, getting her first hive earlier this year. Shortly after she’d bought them I went with her up to the field where they’re kept and we watched them flying to and fro, Jacqueline, like a mother hen, wanting to make sure they’d settled in and not taken a dislike to their new home and flown off in search of pastures new.
Now that autumn’s here it was time for a proper inspection. We donned the gear (‘all the gear no idea’ springs to mind!) and set light to the rolled cardboard tubes in the smoker. I make that sound so easy, but I’m pretty sure Jacqueline was never an arsonist in a previous life! As we got closer I felt like Winnie the Pooh, trying to be as nonchalant as possible as we approached. The bees were being busy, their legs almost red with pollen. Then we smoked them to calm them down and got ready to open the hive. Jacqueline doesn’t have a traditional hive, but has one of these, made of plastic. It looks like a giant cool-box on legs from the distance. Funky though.
 Jacqueline as we headed over to the 'Omlet'!  Smoking the bees to calm them Being surrounded by a swarm of bees is incredible, the sound is intense and could lull you to sleep very easily. Or maybe that’s just me?! You feel really privileged to get so close, to see inside another world.
 Sweet, sweet honey The colony is doing well, well enough to have waxed fast some of the frames! After a bit of freeing up Jacqueline thought it was best to leave them for a while, not wanting to smoke them to death or hang around long enough to be stung when they got fed up with being poked about!
It wasn’t what I was expecting to be doing this weekend, but the unexpected can be so nourishing. I feel inspired; to do what I don’t know. Meh, you can’t have everything!!!!
Stephie
By Stephie, on Tuesday 4th October, 2011 at 18:16 pm
Sunday. Clear blue skies and unseasonably hot. 21° of glorious heat (whatever that is in real money!) and I’m sitting in the garden, shattered after a 10k race in the morning, making a thick winter jumper. Well, samples for a Fairisle jumper at any rate. It’s a new project I’m working on for Kim’s auntie. It’s going to be an interesting project this one. The knitting should be fairly straight forward, but I’m trying to ‘design’ it myself based on the Sarah Lund jumper (and if you haven’t seen the original Danish version of The Killing you really, really should!).
The yarn is a soft alpaca and wool mix in 2 natural colours; it’s lovely to knit with, and the cat seems to think it’s fun to chase around too… At the moment I’ve got as far as trying out the yarn on various different sized needles to see if I can get the loose-ish tension to look right. Hmm, not sure yet… After that I’ve got to work out exactly where to put the 3 bands of Fairisle stars. That’s going to be the hard bit for me, for it will involve, dare I say it, counting. *Shudders with fear*. Miscalculating may mean the stars end up all over the place: an astronomical disaster, if you will!
I’d like to show you some photos of it so far, but I had a mishap with my camera-phone recently when it randomly decided to free-fall from my hands directly into a drain that most likely spills out into the Truro river. So, here’s a couple of pictures of my kitchen dresser that I reorganised recently. Also rather random, but I need a bit of inspiration and colour in my life sometimes
 Giant display cotton reel blagged (for £3) from a store in Bradford-on-Avon; hydrangea from my garden, hand made vase and vintage cotton reels  Mug from The American Museum. Fabric from Japan (bought in Bath!)  Bone china birthday mug (from Janie) and an assortment of spotty fabrics. I like. Back soon with some running stuff (Good race on Sunday and a half marathon coming up this weekend, there’s got to be something to talk about!)
Stephie
By Stephie, on Thursday 22nd September, 2011 at 22:43 pm
 Getting that summer feeling in Bath This post has taken so long to write. I started it about two weeks ago or more. I’ve just re-read it and it was long-winded and irrelevant, since it was about my birthday…which was in the middle of August. So I’ve deleted most of it. Here’s what’s left:
Kim and I went camping near Bath for a couple of nights.
It was the first birthday since I was 19 (trust me, that’s a bloody long time) without Kim’s dad there to celebrate. I survived. In fact, I had a great time.
The American Museum in Britain: go there, it’s awesome (and not just because of the fabulous quilt collection. Even Kim thought it was great fun. Probably had something to do with him beating me at ‘chequers’.)
We went to Kim’s favourite restaurant. Yes, Pizza Express. Again
Don’t bother going to the Jane Austen Centre it’s total crap. In fact I went on for a very long paragraph about just how crap it was. Trust me it was disappointing. And totally crap. I may have already mentioned it, but it was c r a p: crap.
We found this little place called The Makery. It was in the street in the photo on the left. I bought fabric. Not much: I was broke (I’d spent precious pennies on a visit to a crap museum remember). 1m of Japanese linen/cotton mix print. Nice. Plans for it? No. Stash.
 Japanese fabrics We found a wonderful café full of beautiful, dainty-looking cake and pastries. It was my birthday, cake was seriously on my mind. There was bitter disappointment: the café was full. Didn’t they know it was my birthday? Call the police. They should be arrested.
 Oooh, which one should I choose? Well, don't bother actually. You can't come in. We spent an inordinately long time in a store we couldn’t afford to buy anything in. It’s Kim’s favourite store. Well, his favourite one that doesn’t stock Lego. It bears the name of a fruit. With a bite out of it. I like it there too. Sigh.
 Window shopping...wishful thinking. I kept seeing signs that I should be making stuff. And that made me feel guilty. Meh. And a bit excited. Woohoo.
 Signs... It was a day (or two) that I won’t forget. Just Kim and me. Special. Memorable. For all the right reasons.
 Thinking... Poulteney Bridge  Dusk. Bath Abbey  A grand entrance. Or exit. The Pump Rooms. Didn’t get time for a run though. Shame. I’ll have to go back soon. There’s always something to add to the list of things to do next time isn’t there?
Stephie x
By Stephie, on Saturday 10th September, 2011 at 15:54 pm
When I came back from holiday a couple of weeks ago I was horrified to see what at happened to my allotment. I could have cried. Well, I did, just a bit. All the hard work and effort I’d put in earlier in the year, laying out the site, preparing the soil, planting… had been decimated by weeds in a matter of weeks. I couldn’t see the ground plan, or the plants, all I could see were knee-high weeds already in flower.
 Earlier this summer  Now... And as usual I’d overcommitted myself… You know that feeling of taking on too much? I think I live with it permanently. How was I going to sort this out when I’d agreed to help a friend with decorating, agreed to help with organising a half marathon, agreed this that and the other. And, it was the last week of Kim’s summer holiday. And no, he did not want to spend it weeding thank you very much. Who can blame him, it’s a massive task. And I’ve just begun.
I’ve started harvesting:
 My large bucketful of onions - hopefully not harvested too late I’ve started teasing out neat rows again:
 I'll have those leaks standing to attentions please! And I’ve started cosseting:
 Straw beds for my pumpkins Yes, despite the trauma, there’s still the anticipation of good things to come! And if only my tomatoes would start to ripen I will have grown all the main ingredients for this delicious soup. This recipe is for Monica, she’s looking forward to the new season but isn’t sure about my autumn favourite: pumpkin soup – this should convince her otherwise!
Roast Pumpkin and Tomato Soup
Serves 4
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 900g/2lb of pumpkin flesh cut into 2cm slices
- 450g/1lb of ripe tomatoes, skinned and thickly sliced
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 6 tbsp water or 4 tbsp of white wine + 2 tbsp water
- 1/2 pint of vegetable stock
- 4 fl oz single cream (optional)
- seasoning
- chopped chives to garnish
- Drizzle I/2 the oil in the base of a large baking dish and arrange the pumpkin, tomatoes, onion and garlic in the dish in 2 or 3 layers. Drizzle the remaining oil on top, pour over the water/wine and season with salt and pepper.
- Cover with foil and bake in a preheated over at 190°C for 45 minutes or until all the veg is soft.
- Allow the vegetables to cool slightly, then transfer to a blender/food processor and add the cooking juices and as much stock as needed to cover the vegetables. Blend until smooth. (I find I have to do this in batches.).
- Pour the puree into a saucepan and stir in the remaining stock. Cook gently over a medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the cream and cook for 3-4 minutes. Adjust the seasoning if necessary and serve in bowls with the chopped chives on top.
Delicious with a grainy, crusty bread!
Back soon, have a great weekend Stephie
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I'm running a 28 mile marathon in memory of Josie this February. Come and find out why.
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