Lessons I should have learnt from Popeye...

 No.1: Always eat your spinach...

Honestly, August hasn't really existed for me.  Since I last posted, I've mainly spent my time asleep, or ill. Not conducive to good blogging or half-marathon training really!

I don't want to bore you with the details, but basically I spent the last couple of months feeling more and more tired and ropey, to the point that I was napping daily after work, and it suddenly dawned on me that I'd not been taking my iron supplement for the entire of July. MAJOR FAIL. Of course I feel like death, I'm anaemic and I'm not taking my iron? Surprise surprise then that I felt awful!

Taken from the BUPA website, the symptoms and complications of anaemia for anyone who doesn't know what to look out for include:

• feeling breathless after little exercise
• feeling tired
• palpitations (the sensation of feeling the heartbeat thumping in the chest)
• looking pale
• a rapid pulse 

Also (but less commonly):

• tinnitus (ringing in your ears)
• an altered sense of taste
• brittle nails or 'spoon nails' where the middles of your nails are pushed inwards and the edges are raised
• soreness at the edges of your mouth
• a short attention span and poor concentration

By the time it dawned on me that this is what was going on, I had all the first set of symptoms by the bucketful (I forgot how scary palpitations are!) and some of the less common ones too (namely the poor concentration and altered sense of taste, but I have had the mouth issue in past flare-ups too)

So, I'm back on my pills, and really trying to concentrate on my non-animal iron sources for keeping my levels up. The best sources of iron for vegetarian/vegan people are:

• wholemeal bread and wholegrain breakfast cereals
• pulses such as lentils, kidney beans and chickpeas
• green vegetables such as watercress, spring greens, broccoli and okra
• eggs
• dried fruit such as prunes, apricots and figs
• nuts such as peanuts, almonds and brazils

Whilst I think I eat alot of all of the above anyway (minus the eggs), I'm going to try and concentrate on them a little more from here onwards. And to make sure I'm consistently taking my supplements. I never want to feel as rough again as I have this last few weeks! and I'm going to start drinking OJ again, not all the time, but just to help with iron absorption (we need vitamin c to help iron absorption from non-animal sources) as I usually avoid it due to the high glycaemic load involved.

The result of all this (and the stomach bug that followed shortly after, thanks alot world!) is that I had 2.5 weeks off from any exercise at all, and now with less than 3 weeks left to go before Bristol Half Marathon, I'm feeling a little terrified! Had my first run in about 19 days last night and managed 5k in 30:05, which is actually pretty good for me, but getting my mileage back up from 3 miles to 13.1 in under 3 weeks, and including time to taper, is surely going to be a stretch.

My intention is to follow this rough plan:

• Tues 17th: 3 miles - Done, 3.1m, 30:05
• Thu 19th: 6 miles
• Sat 21st: 3 miles
• Mon 23rd: 9 miles
• Wed 25th: 3 miles
• Fri 27th: 12 miles:
• Sun 29th: 3 miles
• Tue 31st: 3 miles
• Thu 2nd: 3 miles
• Sun 5th: Half mara

It's going to be tough going, but I don't think it's impossible either. My last long run was 11.5 miles or thereabouts, so I'm capable of the distance, I just need to refind my confidence in myself after the last 2.5 weeks of no runs at all. This plan gives me alternate days off and a recovery run between each increased distance, plus a 8-9 day taper to rest my legd ready for the main event, so it shoudl be okay, I think...

If any seasoned half marathon runners are out there and would like to impart some wisdom, please let me know what you'd do in this situation?

Does anyone have any iron rich vegan recipes they'd like to share? A long shot I know!

Hmm, I wonder if Robert could help... *swoon*

PS: Thankyou to those of you who've nominated me for a blog award, I shall do my post this evening. And hello new readers, lovely to meet you! x