1. I WAS going to write a WIAW post, but I’ve forgotten to take photos of pretty much everything I’ve eaten. Except this photo which documents my recent obsession with ice lollies:

the scariest thing is that this photo has not been edited/filtered…I clearly just naturally give out an alien-like glow

2. I raced on Monday, and I absolutely LOVED it!! I have to admit, I was nervous for it all day, as it was the shortest distance I’ve ever raced, but I really enjoyed it! I don’t have the official results or any photos from the race yet, but I think I got around 5.25 for the mile…? I’ll confirm the time when I find out It was weird running such a short distance…it was over before I knew it! I just LOVE racing though, and dropping down in distance was definitely a good test for me! I need to learn to push more over short distances though, as I still felt that I had more left in me.

3. My race was the latest one I’ve ever done (gun went off for my race at 9pm!), so by the time I was done, I was starving and ready for dinner! I went straight to the nearby supermarket afterwards to pick up dinner, and I got a LOT of funny looks! Is it not normal to wander around a supermarket at night in racing gear…?

4. It is the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations this weekend, and the green just across from us is having a fete and a picnic to celebrate! How cute is that?! Sadly, I should be in Crete then, but it looks SO FUN.

5. I discovered that I prefer cold partly-frozen cookies to warm ones. I’m sure you’re so happy you made the decision to read this post and find out all these fascinating facts about me I made PB choc chip cookies and then froze them, and they are SO GOOD from the freezer!

6. I just saw the movie The Dictator with my friends. I have an embarrassingly loud laugh and I don’t think my friends will ever invite me to a comedy again. Also, I am The Dictator’s spitting image:

twins. all I need is a beard and I could be his doppelganger

What is your favourite hot-weather food? Right now I am in love with ice lollies…I am such a child!

What is your favourite genre of film? I think comedy, but I really should work on making my laugh less scary before I watch them in public

Random: Do any of you guys like iced coffee? I LOVE regular coffee, but iced coffee sounds weird to me! I want to try it though!

Have a great day!! <3

HEY friends! Thanks for your comments on my last post! It feels so good to be able to relax after weeks of stress, and to be able to blog properly again! I have so much to catch up on with you guys…seriously my Google Reader is overflowing right now!

Saturday involved summer shopping! I am leaving for Crete in FIVE DAYS(!!) so I just had to go out and buy all the essentials….and by essentials I mean giant floppy hats and summer dresses

After shopping, I headed over to a friend’s house for a barbeque. I was excited because this was my FIRST ever barbeque! And my friends were excited because I was there. Obviously.

See? So excited to see me

Barbeques are totally my new favourite thing. We all brought some stuff, and I was in charge of bringing the meat-free options for us vegans/vegetarians. I brought veggie sausages, veggie burgers, and vegetable kebabs, and had about a thousand of each.

Also, I discovered that pita chips are my latest newest foodie obsession. I brought them to share but ended up knocking everyone else’s hands out of the way any time someone tried to take some. Mine.

This morning began with a short shakeout run (I’m racing tomorrow), which was hot and sweaty, and then I headed off to church. Just so you know, dry shampoo is a lifesaver after a morning run!

It was a perfect lazy Sunday afternoon for sure, spent walking the dog in the sunshine and lying in the grass reading one of my favourite books…

I can’t WAIT for the film to come out at the end of this year!! And the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio is Gatsby just makes me the happiest girl on earth

What has been the highlight of your weekend? Spending time with the people I love whilst eating delicious barbequed food:)

Your fave barbeque food? The veggie kebabs were SO goood!

What is your favourite book? I have so many! My favourites are probably To Kill a Mockingbird, Les Miserables, and The Great Gatsby!

Have a great week!! <3

Finally, after exams every weekday for a fortnight, and after a month of living in the library…

“THIS IS SO CONFUSING”

…I am finally FREE! All my exams are done, and it feels good to be out in the sunshine relaxing, and to finally have clean hair again

The weather here has been so hot and sunny recently, but it sure made my decision to run late morning a very bad idea!! I headed to the trails for my easy run to try and avoid the heat. but I was still boiling! Six hot miles later I called it quits and jumped straight into a cold shower.

This is actually my first summer of proper running! This time last year I was injured with bad shin splints, so spent most of the summer not running, or making my comeback. This is my excuse as to why I am not so great with running in the heat

I also had a TOUGH workout in the muggy heat on Thursday evening. I hadn’t done a workout in a couple of weeks because of the exams, so this tough session on slow legs was interesting It was 400’s at 800m pace (2.24 pace = 72 sec 400s) and then 30s rest before a 200m at the same pace. And then that repeated a lot of times. My legs sure met the lactic yesterday!! As usual recently I was doing the workout with the middle-distance girls to “challenge me”. I feel SO slow when I train with them haha! It was tough, and I had to keep reminding myself of the quote that’s written above our track door:

Running is a big question mark that’s there each and every day. It asks you, ‘Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today? ~ Peter Maher

Love that quote. And I chose STRONG.

Apart from my run, I spent most of my day today lying on the couch watching TV doing absolutely nothing, and it was BLISS I caught up on everything I’ve recorded in the last four weeks, including the coverage of the Great Manchester Run. Can we just talk about how AMAZING and inspirational Haile Gebrselassie is for a sec?

I LOVEthat man. He has the sweetest personality too!!

I am writing this post whilst demolishing my third bowl of (non-dairy) ice cream. I am obsessed. As soon as the sun comes out, I go crazy with the ice cream.

vanilla+chocolate=SO GOOD

ALSO I am dropping down in distance to  race my first 1500m on Monday night! My coach thinks it will be a good test of my (non-existent) speed, so it will be interesting for sure

What is the shortest distance you’ve ever raced? As of Monday, it will be 1500m! I love 5ks and 10ks the most I think

Running in the heat or in the cold? Cold I think, because I run faster! In the eat I run slower usually haha!

Are you an ice cream fan? What’s your favourite flavour? Chocolate, obviously! I hope someone starts selling cookie dough vegan ice cream…that would make me the happiest girl ever!!

Have an amazing weekend friends!! <3

HAPPY WEEKEND friends!! I hope you’re having a great one!! And thank you for those of you who enlightened me in my previous post on the whole Starburst situation in the US…now I that I know you don’t have a purple one I have had to change my plans for next year a little. Staying in the UK with my favourite purples is my only option Yes, I am that person whose life revolves around food. Also…

…I am that person who LOVES mud and splashes in every puddle on runs. Clearly I’m a cross country girl at heart

after a PERFECT trail run in the sunshine

SIDETRACK can we just talk about how much I miss cross country and racing in general right now?! Stupid exams getting in the way of my running.

I was sposed to be running my county track championships today, and I definitely would’ve medalled (I’m not being cocky…so few people in my age group race today= definite medal!) but instead I spent 9 hours in the library…fun times

…I’m that person who reads the magazines off the shelf, and dies slightly inside when they put it in plastic covering. They are clearly on to my sneaky cheapster ways.

…I’m that girl who lives in a hoody and hasn’t seen a hairbrush in too long. I blame studying Give it a week and I won’t be able to see any more…haircut needed!!

oh hello lonely left devil horn

…I am that person who is just obsessed with carrot cake. I paid almost four pounds for that slice…crazy and clearly the reason why I am broke, but so worth it

…I am that person who is just a bit “off”. Or as my bro puts it, “special”…

casually napping/planking on the floor in the library

Your turn! Fill in the blank: “I am that person who _____”

Do you love racing? When is your next race? As soon as exams are over (they start Monday, and then I have one or two every weekday until the following Wednesday), I will be back to racing every week pretty much, and I can’t WAIT!! I love racing!!

What is your favourite kind of CAKE? Ok, chocolate fudge will always have my heart, but carrot cake comes a close second!!

Have an AMAZING rest of the weekend!! <3

*ETA*: I thought I posted this yesterday, but apparently it went to drafts instead! My intelligence never fails to stun me. So this is yesterday’s post

After 10 hours spent studying in the library today, this is what I looked like:

DEAD.

For some reason, sitting still for 10 hours makes me a thousand times hungrier than being active. Today, these crisps were my best friend. Hello caramelised onion and balsamic vinegar…

And Starbursts are a study essential. I only like the green and purple ones, and thankfully my study buddy only likes all the other ones. Clearly we are a match made in heaven and I need to try the Starburst Test on future dates to find my soul mate.

Anyway, let’s talk about RUNNING! During my last workout, my Garmin died after only two miles (maybe I should start charging it more than once a year), so this was all I got:

After those two miles, there was two miles of fartlek and then two miles cooldown:)

Recently, EVERY run has been in the pouring rain. On my early morning Sunday run, I got absolutely drenched. Seven hilly miles in the pouring rain, but I LOVED it!! I did my long run on Saturday, but felt surprisingly good today!

I discovered that I am not a fan of energy gels. Usually before my longer pre-breakfast runs (anything around an hour or more) I have a couple of Clif Shot Bloks (my stomach can’t handle much else!), but I was all out of those, so I decided to try an energy gel that I got free from the LM expo. It was a bad move.

Gels are gross. How anyone can stand that slimy texture is beyond me. It is all about expensive chewy sweets disguised as running fuel (*cough* Shot Bloks)

In other news, my running club have put The Dinosaur Photo on the front of their latest newsletter. That was a nice surprise when I opened my mail. Not only is it from last season, but I look like I’m trying to impersonate a dinosaur. It’s this gem:

WHY?! Just why.

What running fuel do you use? Do you like gels? It’s all about the Shot Bloks!! But I find them really hard to eat on the run, and I don’t tend to take in any fuel for my long runs, but then they’re not marathon-long, so I don’t feel like I need to!

Do you use a Garmin/GPS device on all your runs, or a HRM for your workouts? I use a Garmin for my workouts and long runs, or if I’m exploring a new route, but for my regular routes on easy days I leave it at home and just run by feel

Since I forgot to ask on my last post, tell me about YOUR summer plans! I told you all about mine, now I want to hear YOURS!

Have a GREAT week! <3

These past few days have possibly been the most stressful of my life so far. Money worries and exam stress (they start in just 11 days!) has been taking over this past week! In-between endless studying, I have been working every free hour I have, and much as I love my “job”, I need to stop taking every one I can get and take a bit of a step back!

don’t worry, I’m not pimping out my quartet, I’ve fuzzed out our details! and the grammar error on there is killing me.

BUT in less than a month’s time all my stress will be over and I will be in CRETE with my friends! We are going there for a week and I am more excited for a week of fun with my favourite people than I can say

this isn’t Crete FYI (I think this was in Spain…?) but I’m guessing it looks something like this!

And then a month after that I am off on a music tour to France (it was previously Russia, but there was a problem flying back with the Olympics on here), which includes a trip on the way home to Disneyland Paris (aka, my home), and then I am spending most of August in the mountains in the Lake District! Running and trekking all day every day will be bliss, and hopefully give me a great base for the cross country season! Needless to say, I am SO excited for this summer!

Running obviously makes me super happy and unstressed, even though I’ve actually had to miss a few runs for the first time in ages! I’ve done a couple of difficult workouts this week, including a 12 lap measured fartlek on Monday, and then the Kosmin Test and some 400s on Tuesday. The Kosmin Test predicts your 800m time, and this is how it’s done (from here):

I did it more for a measure of fitness and speed than anything else, as I’m not an 800m runner! My coach is having me do this a few times a year just to see how I’m improving, and I can’t wait to find out what my predicted time is when I see my coach next week! I’m not very fast compared to most of the people in my team, but I felt pretty good that day, so I hope the result is good!

My comfort food of choice right now are Fig  Rolls (or fig newtons), which are my latest addiction. You don’t want to know how many of these I am consuming daily at the moment…it’s not pretty

30% fruit=healthy, right?

I LOVED this Bible verse that Lindsay posted yesterday, and I thought I’d borrow it from her post and share it with you guys too:

amen to that!

So here’s to a more stress-free and worry-free weekend filled with running endorphins!

Tell me: what’s your #1 stress reliever? A run, followed by couch time with hot chocolate and a good book or The Big Bang Theory

Have a great week friends!! <3

The highlight of my weekend by a long way:

A full recap to come once the pics+results are up, but for a little bit of added suspense, I will leave my race talk with this panicked Tweet from yesterday…

p.s. sorry for being a tease!

My last session before the race was on Thursday evening. It was a race sharpening workout of 300’s and 200’s to prime us for Sunday! All my 300s and 200s were new PRs for me, so that was a good sign!

All of us Brits have been hearing non-stop recently about England’s drought, but after a rainy week and that hour’s session out in the pouring rain, I no longer believe it is true. Good thing I love a rainy run!

Totally drenched. And a very classy bathroom shot

I warmed up afterwards with a mug of hot chocolate, and some dark chocolate for dipping

On Friday, a teammate and I headed to the London Marathon expo!

I am quite the photographer

I absolutely love the expo. The atmosphere is so awesome! So many excited, happy runners! We wrote on the famous wall, and the other messages were so inspiring! I spent a good 10 minutes reading them before being dragged away!

But obviously, the best part of the expo was the samples and free stuff. Okay, the runner’s goody bag this year wasn’t as good as last year’s (can of lager and some rice anyone?), but the expo samples more than made up for it! The Clif/Luna bar table was my home. I successfully managed to consume about a bars worth of each flavour in tiny cut-up samples.

I am a pro at it. Yes, I am a shameless cheapskate

I hit up Whole Foods/Whole Paycheck for dinner (which literally cost me half of my food budget for a week!), but there was vegan cupcake sampling which made me the happiest person in the world!!

Surprisingly, banana walnut > chocolate ! I am usually a chocolate girl through and through!

They also had a delicious new range of cakes that I was so tempted by, but having already spent more money on dinner than I have on clothes in the past month, I passed up. I have dreamed about them ever since though, so I know it won’t be long until I cave.

My Saturday was spent with the fam celebrating my grandma’s 90th birthday! We went out to eat and I was carb-loading for my 5k (so important obviously ) so I had three courses, the best of which was obviously dessert!

mango, blackcurrant (my favourite!) and pear sorbet. all so delicious!!

race recap to come tomorrow!

What was the best part of YOUR weekend? Did anyone else race?

Have you ever been to a race expo before? How big was it? I’ve been to two, a small half mary one, and the London Marathon one, which is HUGE!

Hope you all had a great weekend! <3