20 miles

I took Sunday off for Mother's Day and did my long run on Monday instead. My running schedule says that you should run your long runs about 20% slower than race pace; it is all about time on your feet, rather than getting a great time for every run. I was quite pleased with my 20 miles in 2hrs 48 mins. After the initial few miles when my legs felt like lead I started to feel good and I have to admit that I could have kept going for another 6 miles. I put it down to a good breakfast of porridge, walnuts and crunchy demerara sugar and my Mum's almond tart "Tarta di Santiago", which is basically a tart base with a filling of almonds, eggs and sugar. You find it in every cafe in Santiago di Compostella and it is very filling and quite delicious.

On the subject of Spanish food, I made a very quick and easy spanish-style stew after my run. It is a great meal for midweek if you have people eating at different times, as we do on Mondays in our household. It takes literally 15 minutes to make, a hour to simmer on the stove and it really hits the spot... the idea is that it is chunky, so don't worry about chopping the vegetables carefully.

1 Onion, 1 leek, 3 cloves garlic, 1 head of celery, 5 or 6 carrots - or whatever you have that is chunky in the fridge
couple of bayleaves
4 pieces of pork belly, chopped into 2 inch chunks
Chorizo sausage in chunks
a couple of tins of tomatoes, a tin of chickpeas and a tin or two of butter beans
vegetable stock
spices - ground cumin, coriander, chilli, smoked paprika, moroccan spice mix
Salt and pepper

1. Chop onion and leek roughly and saute in some olive oil on a gentle heat with the bay leaves


2. Roughly chop the other vegetables and the garlic and add them to the pan and cook for 5 minutes or so


3. Add the pork belly, chorizo, tomatoes, chickpeas and butter beans and top up with vegetable stock


4. Add the spices - play about with different mixes - I added caraway seed yesterday and that was nice


5. Cover and simmer for about an hour until the meat is tender


6. Eat with chunks of crusty bread