Chia Charge Breakfast Pancakes

Chia Charge Breakfast Pancakes


Prep time: 5 minutes       Cook time: 10 minutes       Serves: 1 (about 2-3 depending on size, I just made one big one this time)

Ingredients

- 1-1 1/2 scoops pulsin pea protein (depends how wet the mixture runs)
- 1 Chia charge bar
-2 eggs

- 40ml almond/soya milk
-tea spoon of chia seeds
+anything extra you choose for added taste, but truthfully the Chia charge bars are more than tasty enough for flavor.. 

Directions

-Heat up a pan on the hob on a medium heat (make sure it isn't too hot because it will burn the pancake). Whisk the eggs in a bowl. 
-Add the milk and whisk again. 
-Then add the dry ingredients, if the mixture seems a little wet, add a little bit more protein. But with it being a little more egg based it bakes well. 
-Cook the pancakes slowly in the pan, the wetter the mixture the longer it will take. after around 3-4 mins flip the pancake. After another 3-4mins the pancake should be ready.

Serve with what every you like, I love to throw some chia nut butter on top. You could add soya yogurt, fruit (blueberries, raspberries go well). Today I added a slice of butter. 

Race report Croome - Winter training - Wattage

A very foggy 5th Croome Capability Canter race

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Hundreds descended upon a very foggy morning at the National Trust location ready for the 5th Croome Capability Canter; the Black Pear Joggers’ annual 6.5M off-road race around the scenic Croome Park. This year’s 300 entries sold out in a record 4 days, highlighting how popular the race has become.

There was a great crowd of runners from the usual suspects, the Black Pear Joggers (with many more marshaling), Malvern Joggers (marking Steve Roode’s 1000th kilometre of racing this year for charity) and the ever-growing friendly Pershore Plum Plodders. There was also a record turnout from Tewkesbury AC (34 runners) and Kings Heath RC (24 runners).

Finishers were rewarded with a medal, goodie bag and a commemorative sports water bottle to mark the 5th year of the race.

Winner of last year’s race Daniel Geisler (Worcester AC) returned to keep the title, beating last year’s time by 10 seconds. First BPJ home was Ian Wild, who narrowly missed out of 3rd place, while in the female category, Black Pear Joggers Victoria Watkins and Anna Borecka landed 1st and 3rd place respectively, a great result for them and the club.

Proceeds from the race will be donated to Croome Park with total amounts yet to be finalised.

Thank you to everyone who helped make the race another success, bring on next year and hopefully less fog!

Top 3 male finishers

1. 40:14 Daniel GEISLER (Worcester AC, MS)
2. 41:16 Jay DOWDING (Cheltenham and County Harriers, MS)
3. 41:32 Jon MANSFIELD (Tewkesbury AC, MV40)

Top 3 female finishers

1. 48:38 Victoria WATKINS (Black Pear Joggers, FV35)
2. 48:58 Megan JUDGE (Malvern Joggers Female, FS)
3. 50:25 Anna BORECKA (Black Pear Joggers, FV35)

Winter training is always a strange period for me, do I race xc to not race, do I training longer with more miles, do I keep speed in or take it out completely, to add weights s and c or not?

Lots of questions and also no answers because its hard to measure progress without any races through the winter, and even xc are strange races because every course is different and you cannot really measure the speed and distance due to the MUD!

I have been putting together what I want from my winter training and theory is improvement, more bike speed and more running speed. Kinda simple really.....just get fitter, faster and stronger. I make improvements in the summer without weighted s and c work so this winter I am sticking with TRX training for core and functional movement work, I am keeping speed work, not a lot but still 2/3 at the most for both running and cycling. Swimming is still on the back burning till early next year.

I have decided to do without weights/ s and c, but I am also keeping some speed sessions because I always get spat out of the winter SLOW, strong in my legs due to the miles, but very slow. I dont want this, I want to keep improving and stay strong, so this winter I am trying a new approach. I am keeping a couple of speed sessions in and making them count...max effort, high HR and push the body to the limits. Then when I do my slow sessions this are longer and slower (this is the classic polarized training method). Although I am taking the body to new limits, I am doing longer harder session, there is no limit to how far you can go whilst pushing your body until essentially you blow up. But if you dont try then you dont know what you can do.

I am trying this new approach to training through the winter because the past two winters I haven't seen the improvements that I wanted. I want to be able to cycle faster after the winter and you can only do this by improving speed and fitness. I can already see that through spin classes I am pushing a higher avg wattage output, but on the road I am struggling to sustain this for a long time. At this time of the year it is ok, I need to keep working hard and then build to my next big race...this will be the British championships March 29th.

So lets see what the winter brings....its is already getting very cold and harder to push to the limits due to the temperature, so hopefully I can get used to the cold soon and maintain the quality. Happy winters training!

Delicious Alchemy - Brownie review

On the weekend I had the chance to meet and great the Delicious Alchemy team, and well it was fantastic to meet the faces behind this company. It was clear to see just how passionate they are to providing a product that can be used by anyone and also has the added benefits of being completely 100% gluten free.

I couldn't resist and had to have a go and bake the brownies. The mixture is so simple to follow (instructions below) and almost floor-less to achieve a fantastic bake. It was simple, add the packed of brownie mix, melt the butter, add this and then add the eggs and water. Then add to a baking tray and make the wonderful brownies. I had a feeling they were going to be tasty because the mixture smelt delicious.





The mixture also allows you to add what ever you like to them, at the point when the eggs have been combined you could pop almost anything into your brownie batter.

The bake was great and turned out perfect, it was literally the easiest simplest bake I have done. The mixture if perfect and the taste......well they were delicious. I would recommend this product to anyone of any baking ability.

Picture was taken by @beckyhorler8

You’ll need

1 x 400g Delicious Achemy chocolate brownie mix
100g unsalted butter or dairy free alternative
2 large eggs

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 180C /160C fan. Line the base and sides of a 20cm (8 inch) square tin with greaseproof paper. Make sure the paper sticks out 2.5cm (about an inch) above the rim of the tin.

Step 2

Add the brownie mix to a bowl. Melt the butter (or dairy free alternative) and pour this over the brownie mix and stir until the mix is starting to form a batter. Lightly beat the eggs, add to the mix and stir together well. Spread the batter into the tin and smooth the top. Bake for 18-22 minutes.

Step 3

When they’re done, leave them to cool in the tin for 20 minutes before lifting out and transferring to a cooling rack. Use the paper to help you. Leave to cool completely before slicing.
Here’s a yummy idea. Why not add chopped pecans or walnuts for a delicious nutty crunch?