Sunday, January 29, 2012

Getting old sucks

So what I figured out this week is that when I have bad stuff to say, I avoid writing a blog.  Its not that I don't want to share.  I think that somehow my mind thinks that if I don's write it down it will go away and not have happened.
So there has been good and bad this week.  On the good side--2 more visits to the chiropractor, lots of ice and a golf ball have gotten my foot to almost 100%.  I am glad that is now behind me.  On the bad side, just as the foot has healed, I screwed up my back.  It started to tighten up on Thursday--nothing out of the ordinary--just figured I needed to do some stretching etc like usual.  Friday it was a bit tighter--though I still was not concerned.  Saturday I got up and went to the club swim--swimming usually really helps me when my back gets tight.   Well, it didn't.  Now it just hurts.  It's better when I am standing or walking, best when I am flat on my back on the floor, not good for sitting.  When I took the dogs out for a walk this morning, Don had to help me put my shoes on because I can't bend in that direction.
What does this mean for running a marathon next weekend?  Well--I guess my modified goal is to just get to the start line at this point--I think that any sort of performance type of goal is completely gone and I hope the weather is nice because if I get to the start line, there could be lots of walking for this one.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Pizza???

So tonight I experimented with a new recipe--it was for "pizza" --the recipe was specifically for Curry Lentil Pizza.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out--or if anybody else would eat it.  Luckily Don and Paul were open minded.
So the crust of this "pizza"  was made from brown rice, gound lentils, oil, curry.  I made the "dough" and was pretty skeptical that it would actually hold together and act much like a crust.  On top of the crust went some tomato sauce--this is sounding more like pizza--and then a ton of veggies.  But wait--where is the cheese?   Well--grated carrots instead.
Before I served it, I apologized to everyone if it really sucked.  What did we discover---it tastes awesome.  We think that maybe it should be renamed so that you don't get the vision of traditional pizza in your head.  And my doubts about the structure integrity of the crust were indeed correct--you could just barely get it from the pan to the plate intact.  Definitely needed to be eaten with a fork.  My two meat eaters are both happy and satisfied after their vegan mean.   I will be definitely making this recipe again.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Just What am I eating anyway?

So I am sort of settling into an eating routine--though still doing lots of experimenting and trying new recipies.  I am finding that I am eating 4-6 meals/day.  Four would be on a rest day or day with very light workout and it increases from there depending on the workout schedule. 
Breakfast:  some sort of hot cereal--oatmeal, quiona or mixed with lots of fruit and a little soy milk
Morning Snack--so far I'm finding I only need this on the weekends when I am doing a longer morning workout.  I guess that may change as the season progresses and I have longer workouts during the week as well.   This varies from fruit to nuts and seeds or sometimes a piece of toast.
Lunch - I've pretty much settled on a large green salad with a mix of veggies and usually some nuts/seeds/dried fruit.  I finish this off with 2 pieces of fruit--often apple and banana because they are easy to eat at work.
Afternoon Snack - I always need this.  I guess partly because I have a workout after work almost every day--but even if I don't I still need something.  This varies quite a bit.  Sometimes I do a smoothie or a peice of bread with peanut butter.  Other times its a handful of nuts and seeds.
Dinner - This varies completely depending on what we feel like having.  I'm usually including some sort of rice/legume/beans as part of it and then a variety of other veggies.  Still experimenting with lots of different recipies.
Evening Snack.  this is the one the gets omitted the most depending on the workouts and what time we ate dinner.  It will be small--a piece of fruit, a few carrots with hummus or something like that.

What I have noticed is that it does not take as much to make me feel full anymore.  Eating more frequently does work better and I never get ravenous.  What I haven't been eating is sugar--aside from a piece of cake that 3 of us split at a restaurant a week or so ago, I haven't had anything with added sugar and I haven't even missed it.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Feet and Food

So 2 things have occupied most of my week:  continuing to figure out how to be a vegan successfully and get my foot fixed. 
So first the nutrition:  Weight check in:  144.8 this am--about 2.5 lbs down from my Jan 1 weight.  I'm not doing this for the weight--but I do need to get back to race weight after the fall off-season. 
How do I feel?   Well, great.  I think my body was detoxing this week--I won't give you TMI, but my buddy Jim would be proud of me.  I am not having any issues with being hungry  (actually half the time at dinner I get full and have to stop before my plate is clean), have lots of energy.  I did a food journal for most of the week just to get a handle on what I was taking in.  None of my days this week have been particularly hard/long workouts--1-2 hrs each day.  I've been taking in 1800-2200 calories at a mix of about 60% carb, 25% fat, 15% protein--that seems reasonable.
I've been doing a lot of reading since I want to make sure I'm doing this right--and I also need some new recipies.  I'm currently reading Thrive:  The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life.  Looks to have some good concepts to make sure I'm getting everything I need as an athlete--and a bunch of good looking recipies--now all I need is to accumulate the needed ingredients.
I must say that I am not having sugar cravings--and that is good.  I have even been able to cut out adding sugar to my tea and on my oatmeal in the mornings.

And now for subject #2--my foot.  Just before Christmas I had a run that netted a sore foot--didnt think much of it--as it just looked and felt like I had tied my shoes to tight and it was irritated from the long run.  Well, it has hung on--going away for the holiday didn't help since I wasn't able to get into the doctor to get it looked at until after we got back.  It's not severe pain--but not what you want to be running a marathon on (remember Surf City Marathon Feb 5th).  A foot issue at the peak of your marathon training is not optimal.  So trip to doctor #1 on Monday netted the outer metatarsal and cuboid bone were all jammed up and not moving--so he adjusted them, told me to ice 2x/day and do a test run on Wed and come back on Thursday since it was likely that there was more jammed up.  Well Wednesday test run--the outer portion of my foot would now bend removing the pain from that area of the foot and I was able to run a little more normal.  Return visit to doc on thursday--ankle not moving right and the more central metatarsals and cuniform bones are still bound up.  Well quite a few adjustments later he is pretty sure he has it.--same instructions, keep icing and do a test run.  Now there is no pain when I am walking.  But when I did my test run yesterday there is still pain in the center of the foot.  I am not sure if it just needs a few more days for the inflamation to go down or there is still something going on down there--I will be calling back to the doctor on Monday.  Meanwhile--today was supposed to be my last 20 mile run.  Well that isnt happening.  I am going to turn it into a 2hr ride followed by 1 hr of pool running.  Hopefully that hour will not bring up any urges to commit suicide.  I am still hopeful that I will get this thing taken care of in time for the marathon--but I know that I will have to adjust my goals given the amount of running I have missed over the last few weeks.

Monday, January 9, 2012

What's this Vegan thing about anyway?

So part of the reason I'm blogging is I want to document what my experience is trying this vegan experiment.  So first of all--why did I decide to go Vegan?

Well--it started a couple of weeks before Christmas when I got an email from a friend of mine Bob, who has been fighting cancer since 2000.  According to the doctors he should have been dead a long time ago.  Bob isn't the sort to just listen to the doctors and go home and die quietly--he had been looking into and trying everything out there.  Well, over time he has really been cleaning up his diet--and eventually has ended up as a vegan (should I mention again that with regular cancer treatments he was supposed to be dead a few years ago).  Well in his latest update to his huge group of friends he recommended that we all read the book:  The China Study.  Well I did.  I actually left for Christmas break with 2 diet books--the Paleo Diet and the China Study.  Read them both--and well, I guess you can tell which one I am going to listen to.

So--January 2nd I quit eating anything from an animal.  The goal of the diet is to minimize animal products--so I will not be a way over the top Vegan--if I get somewhere and I happen to get something with some animal product in it--not a big deal--but you wont be seeing me eating a steak any time soon. 


Everybody is worried about whether I will be able to train like I do on this type of diet--well, I guess we will see.  I have found a website  www.organicathlete.org for vegan athletes so hopefully that will help me out as my training really gets underway for this season.  This week I am keeping a meal log--to see what I am really eating and what the nutrient balance is--I'll post the results next week.  So far I just keep eating what seems like everything in sight and am not hungry at all.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Here I go!

So I figured that I have enough stuff going on that it was about time I started a real blog.  I really enjoy reading to blogs of many of my friends and figured it was time to take a stab at it.  You'll probably see a flurry of a few posts in the next week or so as I get stuff laid out and then I will continue to share the results of the experiment.  My body is a great lab experiment with a sample size of 1.

So what does this experiment consist of.   Well this year brings a couple of new things:
1.  I am adopting a vegan diet.
2.  For the first time in 8 years I will be self-coached.
3.  I am taking a break from Ironman racing and this year will be focused on XTerra racing--so I will have a journey to get my mountain biking skills back up to snuff.