A slow start to January

I went out for my first run since I had laser eye surgery yesterday. I’ve been desperate to go out for a run. I didn’t want to push too hard and was looking to have a social run, but I didn’t see anyone I knew who was going to be running at a conversational pace – possibly because it was cold, wet and windy.

I knew that the run was going to be tough as I’ve not eaten well for the last two weeks, which was made worse by the total lack of exercise. I also realised at the start of the run that I had forgotten to pick up an inhaler, so I had to be careful. Every time that I started to have breathing problems, I slowed down a bit. Fortunately,  this strategy seemed to work. It wasn’t a fast run, but I finished:

Now, I just need to start eating healthily again and get back on the training wagon, to knock three+ minutes off that time!

RunKeeper

Amusingly, in the evening, I received this email:

Clearly, if I want to receive a cheerful email, I need to go out at a fast pace on my first run of the month!

I read this post on RunKeeper this week: Brian: Losing 365 pounds and getting my life back. It’s really inspirational, so I urge you to read it.

Exercise trackers

I tend to ‘use’ quite a few exercise trackers (mostly as I use tapiriik to sync my data to all of them)

• Garmin Connect: http://connect.garmin.com/profile/Tamsyn
• Strava: http://www.strava.com/athletes/tamsyn
• RunBritain: http://www.runbritainrankings.com/runners/profile.aspx?athleteid=246411
• Endomondo (retired December 2020)

GarminConnect is my main tracker, but I quite like what Strava does. I also like their new code of conduct: Stand with us.

If you want to find me anywhere else, you can also find me:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fatgirltoironman
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tamsynsmith
• Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/tamsynmsmith/
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/tamsynmsmith

I’m also doing Jantastic again this year. It’s a challenge that runs through January, February and March, where you set your own goals and then aim to meet them. I had to reset my goals as I had intended to swim at least twice a week throughout January. I’m not allowed to swim again for a few more weeks, so I had to change that goal.

Running and marshalling with Teri

This morning, Teri and I had agreed to run, but she also needed to go to junior parkrun with her children, so I agreed to go along and marshal as well before we went for our run.

Initially, I didn’t think it was very cold out as there wasn’t any frost, but after standing around for just over half an hour, I was definitely feeling the cold. I took off my jogging trousers and put them in Teri’s car, but couldn’t bring myself to remove my running jacket as I just had a short-sleeved t-shirt on underneath.

We started off at a steady pace – mainly because I couldn’t go any faster. We ran around Riverside Park, which was a nice change from running on The Common. Then we headed along some of the route of Southampton Half Marathon. It’s quite hilly, so I know that I need to do lots of hill training between now and April.

On the way to The Common, we saw Irene and Alice from Lordshill Road Runners, then on The Common, we saw Rob and Nick out running. It’s lovely that whenever I go for a run I see people I know.

Home-made chilli

This afternoon, I’ve been in the kitchen. I’m hoping to plan all of my meals for the week and also prepare my breakfast and lunch for tomorrow to try to get the week off to a good start. For tea tonight (and tomorrow and Wednesday), we’re going to have homemade chilli – yummy! It’s quite a simple dish:

• 3 cloves garlic
• chilli powder
• paprika
• coriander
• cinnamon
• ginger
• 2 tsp chipotle paste
• 2 tsp molasses
• miscellaneous dried herbs
• 2 tins tomatoes
• 1 small tin tomato puree
• 2 large onions
• 2 carrots
• red pepper (capsicum)
• green pepper
• spinach
• 2 sticks celery
• 4 mushrooms
• 1 large courgette
• 1 can borlotti beans
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 can pinto beans

It’s a smoky BBQ-type chilli as a consequence of the chipotle paste and the molasses. It’s also a dish that improves after a day or two. I quite often cook large one-pot meals like this, so that I don’t need to cook every day.

Television

As I’ve not been able to go out and exercise, I’ve watched a few TV programmes online. I finally had a chance to watch ‘The Adventure Show’ on BBC iPlayer. The episode that I was interested in was episode 5, which is one that focused on a group of cyclists doing an Audax event in Scotland. This is something that I would like to do one day, but I need to build up my cycling quite a lot before it happens!

I also watched an excerpt from the Graham Norton show, featuring Bradley Wiggins:

What have you been up to?