Monday 28 March 2011

Delights I forgot to mention..............

Sculling along the river with the scent of orange blossom in your nostrils...
Watching the river turtles sunning themselves on protruding branches in the midday heat.....
Listening to a man practising his flamenco under a bridge where he can hear his own echo....

Sunday 27 March 2011

The Delights and Downsides of Training Camp!

It's that time of year again when our coach takes us all off to Seville for a week of training on the Guadalquivir River.  When people say to me 'have a nice holiday', it's hard to make them understand just what a training camp really is.  And what sounds like hell to most, sounds like pleasure to us mad rowers.  Basically, for one whole week, we don't have to think about anything except when we wake up we get in a boat.  When we get out of the boat we go to the canteen to eat.  When we finish eating we go back to bed or crash out under a tree in the sunshine.  And the routine repeats itself 3 times a day every day for a week.  The only thing that upsets the routine is injury or, in most cases, really blistered hands (see last years' entry for photographic evidence, it's not a pretty sight!).
The other delight is obviously getting to train in the sunshine!
Fortunately for me the blisters arrived early in the week, so I used the excuse as a chance to visit one of the pretty food markets of Seville, Mercado calle Feria, which was just a short walk away from the sports centre where we stay,Centro Especializado de Alto Rendimiento, La Cartuja (not the height of luxury!).  I intend to visit another one before we leave (may have to fake an injury for the time off!), as Seville is spoilt for choice when it comes to great fresh produce, and it would be a shame to be here and not appreciate some of it, even if it is for viewing only!  The food we are given at the centre is hard to describe, although one of the athletes managed quite a good attempt at it today - a great diet of sugar, salt, fat and garlic.  The cooks here seem to believe that it doesn't matter how badly you cook something - if you cover it with fat, salt and garlic, it will taste fine.
I think a night out in a tapas bar is required.........it's nice to dream!

Sunday 20 March 2011

Time to up the training

With only 6 weeks until we embark on Endto3PeaksEnd, I was very aware last week that I need to be training longer and harder.  And with Row Zambezi following on just 12 weeks after that, my fitness needs to be pretty good all round.  So this morning saw me peddling my heart out towards Windsor, doing a 45 mile round trip, aiming at an average 14 miles per hour.  As most days we are hoping to do an average of around 80 miles, it was good to test whether I thought we would be able to get 50 under our belts before lunch!  Food is obviously always uppermost in my mind, and planning anything has to take this into account.
Luckily Tim, who I do my cycle training with, is like-minded, so we tend to cycle towards a great cafe (about 25 miles away from home) then, after a cuppa and cake, cycle home a different route.  Last week we did the famous Box Hill climb - I was very amused to see all the 'bikers' (as in, those with motor bikes) stay at the bottom of the hill, yet those with only peddle power cycle to the top for their refreshment stop!
This week our pit-stop was Fairoaks Airport, a real find in the middle of no-where, but obviously known to a number of cyclists.  We decided the cakes were not up to the standard of Box Hill, but the fried breakfast looked amazing (or maybe it was just that we had just cycled 25 miles and were starving!).
Next week I will be training hard in Seville, Spain, so there will be no cakes at all (not sure I will last the week without sneaking into the centre between training sessions to buy something naughty!).
As the weekend has been so gorgeous weather-wise, I made a summery lunch of Panzanella, and for the first time this year, ate in the garden.

I had this in Italy last year when I was visiting the Italian boy - but his mother made it with soft bread and it was all quite soggy.  I prefer to have a little 'bite' to mine, so use wholemeal or granary bread instead.


Panzanella 
 
Serves 4

300g tomatoes
125g wholemeal or granary bread
16 olives, stoned
3 tsp capers
½ red onion, finely sliced
300g red and yellow cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil

1.     Place the tomatoes in a sieve over a bowl, using the back of a spoon, squash them well to release all the juice into the bowl.
2.     Roughly break up the bread and put into the tomato juice and leave to stand for 15 minutes before transferring to a serving dish.
3.     Scatter the remaining ingredients over the bread, drizzling over the red wine vinegar and olive oil at the end to serve.

Sunday 13 March 2011

Dreaming of Summer

At last the mornings and evenings are getting lighter, and for the past few days it has even felt quite warm (although if you are reading this in Scotland you may not agree!).
And the best thing about lighter mornings is that I can get out on the river for longer each day before going to work.  Today I was out at 6.30am, and for the second time this week was treated to the sound of a couple of woodpeckers busily pecking away.  The herons too are very busy right now, building their nests at the highest point in the spindliest of trees - seems like madness for such large birds!  And finally the ducks - they appear to be mating quite well, so in only around 28 days there will be gorgeous little chicks floating around (yes, I did have to check the gestation period of ducks for that info!).
And with all the extra training (now training for cycling Lands End to John O'Groats in May, plus 1000km row down Zambezi river in August), I need to get a few more calories in, and what better way than great home-made cakes.

Lemon and Raspberry Summer Cake
 Serves 8-10

225g  unsalted butter, softened
225g  caster sugar
zest of 3 lemons
4 egg, beaten
200g  self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
50g  ground almonds
juice of 2 lemons
2 tsp caster sugar
250g  crème friache
150g  raspberries

1.     Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 5.  Grease and base line a 20cm loose-bottomed tin.
2.     Cream together the butter, sugar and lemon rind, until they are light and fluffy.  Slowly beat in the eggs, a little at a time.
3.     Sift in the flour and baking powder and carefully fold in with the ground almonds and 2 tbsp of the lemon juice.
4.     Pour into the prepared tin and cook for 1 hour 15 minutes – checking that a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean to confirm it is cooked.
5.     Whilst the cake is cooking place the remaining lemon juice in a small pan with the 2 tsp of caster sugar and heat gently to dissolve the sugar.  Leave to cool.
6.    When the cake comes out of the oven, pierce the top with a small skewer then drizzle over half the lemon syrup.  Leave to cool in the tin.
7.     When cool, remove from the tin, slice in half and fill with the crème fraiche and raspberries.  Drizzle over the remaining lemon syrup before serving.

Sunday 6 March 2011

Country v City

Last weekend I travelled back to my home county, Norfolk, to race in the head of the river Yare with my great mixed doubles' partner Anthony.  Anthony and I tried to break the record for the Boston Marathon two years ago and, after 3 hours and 57 minutes we missed it by around one and a half minutes - very painful and very frustrating!  But since then if there is a chance to race together we do, as we seem to work well as a partnership.  The other great thing about racing on the Yare is the gorgeous flat water - last weekend a few of the boys were complaining that it was a bit windy - take a look on the left - that was it!!!  Compared to the Tideway where I train, this was nothing.
The following day I spent with friends, mountain biking through Thetford Forest - another wonderful place that is totally unspoilt and not known to a huge number of people, so doesn't tend to get too crowded - but you do need to know your way around, as it is huge.  Travelling back to London is always hard after such a great weekend away playing outside - I think I am a country girl at heart!

But then back to work on Monday I experienced Exmouth Market and its' wonderful food stalls - if you need a healthy, delicious lunch this is certainly the place to go, and if you don't want healthy they have got that too - salt beef sandwiches, traditional vegetarian Indian thalis and samosas, a seed salad bar, risotto stall, gourmet burritos, and Moorish food from Moro - the choice is amazing.  So suddenly the country didn't seem quite so exciting after all!

Tuesday 1 March 2011

The Spirit of Tanzania

When I started the charity Community Projects Africa over ten years ago I never dreamt that one day I would be giving a speech at our very own photography exhibition, alongside the Tanzanian High Commissioner, at Thomson Reuters in Canary Wharf - what an amazing experience.  Giving speeches is not something I am a natural at, but this one was very important for the charity and for once I managed to hold it together until the end!
And not only did we have photographs that had been donated by our own fantastic creative volunteers (people who have travelled out to Tanzania to work on our projects), we also had the most stunning images by photographer Alwyn R Coates who takes photographs on behalf of the Born Free Foundation.
On top of that we had the very glamorous Jasmine Harman to act as auctioneer, and a host of great guests that really made the evening a huge success.

Watch this space for the next exciting event!