What it was like back at the gym...

Outfit head to toe Nike

Top - Cheshire Oaks pre lockdown in March

Pants - Nike online sale start of lockdown

Trainers - Super old Air Zoom Pegasus

After 4 long months I was so happy to be back in the gym yesterday. I was a bit undecided on going as I didn't know whether it was going to be really busy with it being shut for so long as they weren't doing a booking system you could just turn up and if it was full capacity you would have to queue. My gym is big enough for people to social distance so that was why they decided to let people come and go as they pleased. 

I got there just before 10am and it was fine - wasn't busy at all and was told everything is the same just wipe before and after and wash you hands. Just the standard things we were doing before it got shut and the norm now. What I was doing when I went to the gym on the cruise. It isn't usually busy of a weekend morning at that time was just the usual faces in.

The gym did look a bit different - there was a screen on reception. You could only enter using 1/3 turnstiles. The middle was closed and the other was for exiting only. Stickers on the floor to social distance if there were people in front of you. Hand gel once you enter as you still have to use the finger print scanner to enter. You could only use every other cardio machine and the cross trainers have been spaced out. The spin bikes have been moved around. The boxing ring and cage were closed and there were a lot of cleaning stations dotted around with bottles of spray and tissue for you to wipe before and after. Hand gel dispensers on the walls and wipes.

The ladies only bit was free to use with a cleaning station and hand gel dispenser on the wall. Could only use 1 of the treadmills, stepper, cross trainer and bike. Only 1 bike has been taken out.

I tried to use as little equipment as possible to save on the wiping. 

From what I seen people were wiping before and after themselves so I felt safe and fine in there. I didn't feel worried at all the only thing that did annoy me was...

Selfish people who can't put their weights back!! This is a real problem in my gym with people doing this especially on the squat rack and they've put every weight on the bar so you can't take it off yourself. The worst is when they have been deadlifting and leave it on the floor! If you could put them on your can take them off! I really don't know why people do this and people don't put the dumbbells back in the correct place as labelled so you're looking all over the gym for weights. You can spend a good 5 minutes looking for weights as it's been left in some random place!

Other than that it really hasn't changed. I'm glad to have some normality back and to have a routine again.

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Muffins

Made 3 different types of muffins which turned out better than my Carrot Muffins and I actually made these before I made Banana and Walnut Muffins.

Left - Cranberry

Middle - Orange

Right - Matcha and Coconut

Ingredients:

2 Medium Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

125ml Vegetable Oil

250ml Milk

250g Sugar

400g Self-Raising Flour

(Or same Plain Flour and 3 tsp Baking Powder)

1 tsp Salt

Your choice of filling

Oven 200℃ / 180℃ fan

What you will need:

Mixing Bowl

Separate bowl you can spoon your mixture into for your different fillings

Measuring Spoons

Electric Whisk

Wooden Spoon

Muffin Tray

Cake cases

Method:

Beat your 2 eggs with your electric whisk for 1 minute. Then add vanilla extract.

Add the veg oil and milk and beat until combined. Then add your sugar until you have a smooth batter.

Sift in your flour and salt and mix until the batter is smooth. Don’t over-mix the batter as it will make the muffins tough.

Then pour some of your batter into your other bowl and add your filling of choice. Once that has mixed in you can pour it into your cases.

Cranberry - used a handful of dried cranberries. You're best soaking these first to get the flavour to come out

Orange - Used the zest of one large orange

Matcha and Coconut - Used a tablespoon of matcha and a handful of desiccated coconut

Fill your cases to the top and bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and a skewer comes out clean.

Leave your muffins in the tray to cool for a few minutes then transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.

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Bike Ride

It's been a while since I've posted and it's not a recipe! I'm currently on a baking ban so if you do see a recipe it's from a while back and not made on the day the post is out!

I've got a bad knee from back in April which hasn't healed so I've not been running. I've been doing daily walks near my house or going on bike rides with Jo borrowing Rich's bike as I don't actually have one. We've been doing rides most days just down the Ralla and on the weekends when the weather has been nice just down to the prom to town and round Sefton or Calderstones park but today we thought we would go on an adventure and go somewhere new.

We went on a long 27 mile bike ride with Jo this morning/afternoon which took us 3 hours. We weren't actually sure where we were going or what the route was going to be like. We knew we wanted to go near the Runcorn/Widnes bridge and knew you could get to Chester but didn't know how to get there. We've been going on the Liverpool Loop Line also know as the Ralla to scousers which is an old train line that got abandoned by British Rail in 1964 which was derelict until 1986 when they changed it into a walking and cycling route in 1988. It links South Liverpool from Halewood to North Liverpool - Aintree. It's a nice flat traffic free route part of the Trans Pennine Trail. It also connects you to the Liverpool to Leeds Canal.

We found a way onto the path but wasn't sure which way to go and thought we would just go and hope for the best we were going the right way and would ask people along the way if we were lost. So we did ask a fellow cyclist if we were going the right way but he was so rude and snotty there was no need for it. We just asked him if this was the way to Runcorn and he was like "I'm from Manchester. Just follow the blue signs". Alright mate no need to speak to people like that, if we knew we wouldn't be asking! But we managed to follow the path and get there on our own without his help.

You'd think we were tourists and never seen the Runcorn bridge before even though we've been on it many a times before back in the day before they opened the Mersey Gateway Bridge.

The path was pretty smooth and easy to ride with a bit of "forest" where you have to dodge some branches.

Until we got to this part... Not ideal but you have to get off your bike and walk it with wide steps. Each section has a bit of a maze where you either have to steer your bike around it or we just pushed the bike through it. It wasn't fun going up or down it. 

After this bit we just carried on going not sure where we were going to end up but ended up stopping when we got to Warrington as we were hungry. We hadn't eaten anything before and didn't have any snacks with us. I was tired and done in knowing we had to go all the back as well.

We left before 12pm and got back at 3:15pm. A long ride with no food so I was starving when I got back and was a hungry hippo! This was what I ate...

Left over rice, char siu, steamed baby corn and tender stem broccoli (I like to call it posh broccoli but it's actually from my garden which my mum and dad have been growing) and some sun dried tomatoes. It was so nice oh and I had a treat as well.. An actual real white Magnum not a fake one!

It was well deserved as we burnt 701 calories. To be honest I thought it would have been at least 1000 calories. Getting the bike up and down the steep hill was a workout in itself but I was tracking it off my phone so it wouldn't have taken that into consideration unless I was wearing a smart watch and taking my heart rate.

We're going to aim to go further next time might even make it to Manchester but will be more prepared with some snacks next time! If you're looking for a day out and have a bike I would definitely recommend going on a bike ride. Most of the route was on the cycle path but going through Hale Village we did have to go on some country road which was scary but it was quiet so not many cars. I'm glad I was wearing a helmet as I did bang my head a couple of times and got it caught in branches so that saved my head!

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