The Scottish Lemon 2.0

The ramblings of a Canadian expat, living in the UK, trying to understand a new culture and take the odd photograph.

[the-scottish-lemon]

The trouble with jogging is that by the time you realize you're not in shape for it, it's too far to walk back.

Franklin Jones

[the-scottish-lemon]

Session 5.1

I only ran 2 days last week as I went off on a small holiday break in Cambridge.  I had every intention of continuing to run while there as the place I was staying was on the river Cam and had a perfect path to use.  However, waking up to 6 degrees with a high of 12 didn't do much for my motivation.  That 5 min walk to 'warm up' would do the complete opposite.  So I made the executive decision to allow myself to take a few days off.

Today I'm back home in London so got back on track and started the next session of runs (week 5).

5 min walk (warm up)

8 min run x 3 with a 2  min walk in-between for recovery

5 min walk (cool down)

Distance covered = 4.25 km

Average pace = 08:57 min/km

No problems encountered, the trails I ran in still had the odd mud patch and I had to duck the bramble and holly bush but I felt ok on the longer runs and was conscious not to worry about speed but to concentrate on trying to keep a steady pace.  Looking at my time splits for each km I succeed in that task.  Let's see how the rest of the week goes though...

[the-scottish-lemon]

Session 4.6 - technology fail

When I'm running the route in the city (from the office to the underground station) I always seem to get stuck at a red light waiting to cross Blackfriars Bridge.  So this day I decided to use the underground subway to get across the road which was great as it meant no stopping.  However this completely confused the GPS tracking on my mobile and thus through my distance all out of whack.  Looking at the map of my route it looks like I mastered the art of walking on water.  So using google maps I guesstimate my total distance run at 3.54 km rather than the 5.28 km my GPS came up with.

Distance covered = 3.54 km

Average pace = 09:06 min/km

I may need to adjust my route slightly lengthening the initial walk/warm up portion until I can get past Blackfriars bridge or find a different route as I hate loosing pace to a red light .

[the-scottish-lemon]

Do not cease to drink beer, to eat, to intoxicate thyself, to make love, and celebrate the good days.

Ancient Egyptian saying

[the-scottish-lemon]

Session 4.5

Today's run powered by 1 pint of Guinness.  I can never turn down the offer of  'just a quick one' from the guys at the office.

Distance covered = 4.26 km

Average pace = 07:35 min/km

[the-scottish-lemon]

You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.

Yogi Berra

[the-scottish-lemon]

In search of the perfect Pizza in London - Part 2 (Sainsbury's)

This is actually a week late in getting posted (sorry).

Last week I was in Sainsbury's and had a thought that I should include a store bought pizza for comparison to the take-aways.  I mean they have really improved over the years in their quality and for the price if you can find one you're happy with then you could be saving yourself a big chunk of change.

Looking at the options I didn't want to get the 'basic' option because that reminded me too much of the cardboard pizzas of yester-year.  So I picked up a 'Sainsbury's Italian Pepperoni' that comes with tomato and basil sauce, mozzarella and Cheddar cheese, confit onion and sliced pepperoni.

First impressions, there is a ton of pepperoni on this pizza!  As with Part 1, I'm trying to keep all the pizza toppings as close as I can so I added my own red pepper (didn't have any green), some sliced cherry tomatoes and thich sliced mushrooms.  I forgot to pick up black olives so those were missing.  As always on the grocery store pizzas they are a little light on the cheese so I grated the equivelent of 2 sandwich size slices of red leister cheese on top which was just enough to cover the additional toppings I added.

Here is the pizza after I pulled it out of the oven...

I also grabbed the ingredients I needed to make a simple salad because vegetables are good for you :)  The salad was made of 1 mini Gem Lettuce head, a few tomatoes, cucumber and red pepper.  I made my dressing out of Dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and a little bit of sugar and a dash or Worcestershire sauce.

I have to say I was VERY impressed with the pizza.  The crust was of the thin crust variety which I don't mind.  The middle bottom of the crust was a bit on the soggy side but I'm not sure if that was a result of my thick sliced toppings (so the juice from the tomatoes and mushrooms oozing out) or if it's because I put the pizza on a plastic cutting board straight away to take the picture and so there was condensation.

But apart from that it was really good.  And to make it even better, the pizza only cost £1.87.  If I try to work out the cost of the additional toppings & salad fixins it looks like this:

£1.87 = Sainsbury's Italian Pepperoni Pizza

£0.34 = 2 mushrooms

£0.25 = 1/4 of a pack of cherry tomatoes

£0.40 = 2 slices Red Leister Cheese (Sainsbury's brand)

£0.37 = 1 red pepper (Sainsbury's basics brand)

£0.35 = 1 head little gem lettuce

£0.20 = 1/4 of a cucumber

£3.78 = Total cost of pizza and salad

Wow - I can deal with a soggy middle for that price!   I wonder if a pizza stone would solve the issue?

Oh and for reference the size of the pizza was the same as the take-away I'd had the week before, a 10 inch pizza which is enough for 2 meals for me.  When I reheated the leftovers for lunch the next day the crust crisped up quite nicely.

Again £3.78 vs £15.98 for delivery

[the-scottish-lemon]

Exercise is bunk. If you are healthy, you don't need it. If you are sick, you should not take it.

Henry Ford

[the-scottish-lemon]

Session 4.4 (not ready for week 5 yet)

Last 3 sessions had me running for 4 minutes and walking for 1.  Week 5 bumps the running portions to 8 minutes and I really don't think I'm ready for a jump that big so I'm using this next week to run 3 'supplimental' sessions of the following:

5 min walk (warm up)

6 min run x 3 with a 2  min walk in-between for recovery

5 min walk (cool down)

Distance covered = 3.59 km

Average pace = 08:55 min/km

The heath is still very mucky but I prefer running on the dirt and mud to hard pavement as it's easier on the joints.  However the trade off is in speed.  But as they say it's not a race, I'm just trying to get fit on my own terms.

[the-scottish-lemon]

Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.

George Carlin

[the-scottish-lemon]

Session 4.3 - getting sweaty

The days are getting longer and the weather is getting warmer.  I am a girl who gets very sweaty easily so spent my entire run constantly wiping the dripping sweat off my brow, my eyes, my nose my chin (you get the idea).  When I got home I realized my face was gritty with salt - ewww.

Distance covered = 4.64 km

Average pace = 07:30 min/km

[the-scottish-lemon]

Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world.

Marilyn Monroe

[the-scottish-lemon]

Session 4.2 - not really having fun

Yesterday was the begining of a new series of sessions.  The running portion only increased by 1 minute (rather than 30 seconds) but what I'm feeling more is that the recovery time has been reduced to 1 minute rather than 1.5 minutes.  It doesn't seem like that should be a big deal but to my thighs it is.  I've lost what ever stamina and strength I thought I had worked my way up to in the previous week.  Right from the beginning my thighs feel very tight and weak.

Distance covered = 3.78 km

Average pace = 08:59 min/km

On the plus side I picked up a new pair of shoes tonight.  Not only were they on sale but with my private medical insurance provider I got an additional 50% off so they cost me a whopping £20 (regular £80).  

My thighs still hurt though...

[the-scottish-lemon]

100 posts!

[the-scottish-lemon]

I don't believe in jogging. It extends your life - but by exactly the amount of time you spend jogging.

Marshall Brickman

[the-scottish-lemon]

Session 4.1 (kicking it up a notch)

Next block of workouts started today.  Running portion increases and the walking portion decreases.  Here is what it looks like:

5 min walking (warm up)

4 min running x 5 with a 1 min walk in-between for recovery

5 min walking (cool down)

Distance covered = 3.94 km

Average pace = 08:39 min/km

My thighs were still a bit sore from yesterdays dodging and jumping over/around the mud and puddles.  The Heath was still too wet so I had to change my route to more solid ground.  I don't enjoy running on pavement as much as it's harder on the joints and I'm conscious of corners of paving sticking out just enough to trip one's toes if not paying attention.  At least it was sunny and dry.

[the-scottish-lemon]

You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That's part of it.

Denzel Washington