Woohoo, dip station! I can't wait to use it for a Bodyrock workout...

And pull up bar and rings

Lunch today was salmon salad on a seeded bagel with an apple. I made the salmon salad with 1 tin salmon, 1 tsp tahini, 1T yogurt, some chilli, cup of chopped spinach and 1/3 big yellow pepper.

Dinner was an old favourite- coconut curry- this time with Quorn, collards and red pepper. With full fat coconut milk and a cup of brown rice, this beast comes in at about 850 calories! Needless to say, there was no need for dessert tonight;)

MrPeskyRunner decided to join me in the salmon eating at lunch time, AND he had scrambled eggs for breakfast (as well as his usual cup of muesli). He used to think eggs were really unhealthy and never really liked fish. He's trying to put some weight on so I have been helping him with suggestions for plenty of protein. Today he got to over 3300 calories (128g protein), although when we're at home this is much easier. We also did an upper body workout with the new dip station and pull up bar:)

Today I ran for the first time since last Wednesday, and despite the hacking cough, I banged out a paced run (I'm aiming for at least 7:20 min/mile for the 10k in three weeks)- today's pace over 3.8 miles was 6:49min/mile. So proud! I've been looking finishing times for last year, I would need to get 40 minutes to be in the top 10 women, don't think it's going to happen, although with 43-44ish minutes, I will probably finish in top 20, which is pretty good for my first real 10k.

Pretty good day!!

And I'm off again tomorrow. We are running around the race course in the morning to get a feel for it and to try and work out MrPeskyRunner's target time.

Banana Bread Pancakes

I had two really black bananas that needed used up and pancakes on the brain! Really ripe bananas are so sweet that all blended up I would say you can do with no other added sweetener.

The recipe:

2 very ripe bananas, smooshed with a stick blender

2 eggs

1 cup flour of your choice (not tightly packed)- I used organic self raising

1/4 tsp baking powder, maybe 1/2 tsp if you use flour without raising agent

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsweetened soya (or other) milk

Blend it up, either with a stick blender or in the food processor. I think I fused my food processor after making a banana berry smoothie yesterday:( Need to get that fixed.

Spoon the batter onto a hot skillet/frying pan, using the oil of your choice. I used a total of a tablespoon of coconut oil for the batch.

The stats:

This made 6 good sized pancakes- a very generous breakfast for two (comes out at 450 calories before toppings for half the batch) but it would happily stretch to serve 3.

I had mine with a spoonful of set plain yogurt, sugar free raspberry jam and cinnamon.

This would be a far more ideal breakfast after some sweaty cardio but I haven't done any since thursday as this cold is pretty bad. I've just done a few sets of strength training stuff here and there. Still, you've got to treat yourself when you're sick! I would like to make a slightly healthier version next time- use a combo of oat flour and protein powder instead of the self raising flour and eat 1/3 of the recipe (as it would be much more filling with those modifications). They would be nice with brown rice flour, buckwheat, almond, whatever you fancy:)

I have been sneaking chilli in where I can to drive the cold out of me, as well as munching away of protein.

Yesterday's lunch:

Multiseed bagel topped with Quorn slices, pineapple cottage cheese, very hot hot sauce and two carrots chopped up (went to grate them but the food processor isn't working). I had two clementines to start for some vit C :)

On the training front, I had been thinking of topping up my swimming package at the gym so I could use the weight room, but we are probably going to invest in a barbell/dumbell set and a bench to use at home so we can both weight train and not have to stand around waiting for free space. We are both really loving doing as much as we can with what we have at the moment; for me it will be a great way to build strength and muscle to support my running, for MrPeskyRunner, he wants to regain some lost muscle. Although he used to run marathons, running isn't great for him as he just loses mass- he has, like, no body fat. He loves his carbs but he is coming round to the idea of shooting for a higher protein (vegetarian) diet. I will keep you updated with our first steps into weight training!