7:30 a.m. 8 miles recovery run. Felt fine and dan-day; should be okay for tomorrow night's workout: 5x0.5 mile @3k pace - whatever that is - with a 90 sec rec.
Today I want to share a little bit of magic with you: Bam's Breakfast Bar. This comes with a health warning. This bar will seriously change your life. The only thing I'll add is that if you don't want to do the whole bar thing then you can try Bam's Breakfast Booster. Both recipes have a powdered version of the Peruvian root vegetable Maca - and I'm telling the men folk, Maca does what it claims:).
Anyway, Bam's Breakfast Bar:
1. 0.5 cup of raw organic oats.
2. Healthy scattering of milled flaxseed, brazil nuts, almonds and walnuts.
3. A good sprinkling of natural whole Chia Seed.
4. A scattering of milled sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds and goji berries.
5. Here's the daddy - A heaped tablespoon (don't be greedy, this is all you need; trust me.) of powdered Peruvian Maca.
6. A shuffle of shelled hemp.
7. Organic banana (fair trade would be nice too) - sliced.
8. A glutton's scoop of raisins.
9. Splodges of wholegrain peach (or any other flavour) Probiotic yogurt.
10. A few shakes of raw organic cocoa powder.
11. Drizzle Agave Syrup over everything and finally, pimp it up with a shaking of ground cinnamon.
Mix it all together and form it into a bar. You can eat it straight away or leave it for 5 mins. This will sort you out for the morning and you might not finish the bar. Save it for later and enjoy it when you're peckish. 'tis lovely with a cup of coffee, which leads me into Bam's Breakfaster Booster. The Booster is great if you're trying to quit coffee. Simple:
1. Cup of skimmed/low fat milk.
2. Add a tablespoon of raw organic cocoa powder and a tablespoon of magic MACA powder.
3. Sprinkle cinnamon over the top and stir or give it a quick fizz in the blender (this is the better option.)
4. Heat up in the microwave or on the hob.
Drink and enjoy.
The rewards of Maca are pretty quick.
6:00 p.m. 8 miles easy. A touch of DOMS in the quads. Hopefully tonight's run will ease the discomfort.
After I finished my housework, I sat down and planned my training paces for the next few months. I’ve become an expert at dividing by 0.93, 0.9, 0.87, and 0.75. I’ve also mastered the fortnightly improvement in Horwill’s multi-tier interval training – how 1,500m pace works on 3k pace, which works on 5k pace, which works on 10k pace. I remember doing this many years back. By my estimations, if all goes well, I should see a 4 second per mile improvement in my fortnightly 4x1 mile sessions, which roughly equates to a 12 sec improvement over 5k, each fortnight.
In the middle of all these frenzied calculations, my two new pairs of running shoes arrived – Asics Nimbus 14 and Asics hyperspeed 5’s. I now look quite the dandy in my new runners. Ran in my usual Nimbus 13’s tonight as the rain was hammering down. But the light and swanky Hyperspeed 5’s will be out for a test drive tomorrow – they’ll be ripping up the half miles at 3k pace…
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