Half marathon recap, and Plan March 17-23

Happy St. Patrick's day, Happy Spring break, Happy my birthday week!

I will be taking today and Monday totally off, since I ran the half marathon on Saturday! I think I deserve it, do you?

Speaking of the half marathon, I want to tell you how great it was! The race was really well organized, and a ton of fun. I loved the course, except for the hill in mile 6, it was beautiful. They had tons of race support, and music along the way. I got a nasty calf cramp around mile 11, and walked most of 11&12, but still finished in less than my projected time. I actually was able to finish the course in about the same time as I can do it by myself on my flat trail, so I am really pleased with that.

It was dark and chilly Saturday morning, but people started amassing on the mall around 6 am.

With so many people, I'd heard the portapotties were danger, but luckily, I got a VIP POTTY sticker. Were you ever curious what a VIP portapotty looked like?

The toilet paper even had the sponsors name on it.

Mom took my Before picture while we hid from the wind.

Finally, it was time to line up. With 25000 runners, they did a wave start, so I didn't actually start running until after 8 ( the race started at 7:30). It was well handled, and allowed everyone to find their own pace.

I finished in just over 3 hours, while my projected finish time was 3:20, so I was pretty proud of myself.

I gave up alcohol during my last 3-1/2 weeks of training, so that beer at the finish line tasted great!

Anyway, on to my plan. This is my spring break, so I have the week off. I am hoping to get caught up on all my grading, get a pile of letters of recommendation written, read a lot, maybe clean my house. Many of the recipes I'm using this week are from Angela Liddon's new cookbook, Oh She Glows. I'm  taking a couple of days off, but will ease back into training mid week. I have another half coming up in May, and a ten- miler in April to prep for! What do runners do when they're not training? I have no clue...

Monday

St. Patrick's day

Green monster smoothie OSG

Cereal

Leftover tempeh beet salad

Fruit

Irish seitan porter stew with dumplings and brown bread VM

Tuesday

Upper body Fix

Hike with dogs

Massage (a birthday gift from my friend, Cari!)

Fruit smoothie

Leftover stew

Veggies and hummus

Tempeh Reuben

Wednesday

Run

protein shake

Tofu breakfast sandwich

Tempeh peanut salad

Winesday- life affirming nacho dip OSG

Thursday

Pilates

Bike ride? (if the weather improves)

Pb and strawberry smoothie

Breakfast scramble

Tempeh peanut salad

Quick and easy Chana Masala OSG

Friday

Happy birthday to me!

Run (3.9 miles sounds like a good goal!)

Smoothie

Bagel and coffee

Muppet movie

Everlasting Life Cafe

Pottery Painting

Saturday

Total body Cardio

Smoothie

Sandwiches and fruit

Shamrockfest (I'm hoping I will find some vegan goodies on a food truck)

Sunday

Yoga

Vegan French toast TVS

Kitchen sink salad (using up leftovers)

TexMex casserole OSG

Did I tell you guys I won my triathlon challenge? It was awesome, I finished out way ahead. It was really fun, too, so you may notice that I am continuing the training. I will do the Gunpowder State Park Triathlon in the fall.

Here are some pictures of food from this past week:

Korean BBQ Tofu bowl with cabbage and asparagus

Veggie wraps, with more asparagus

From Sammy T's in Fredericksburg, VA, a Tempeh Beet salad

Carb- loading the night before the race at District of PI with a vegan cheese, beyond meat, artichoke hearts, and olives. Then we went to Ford's Theatre to see The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

After the race, lunch at Stcky Fingers DC.

Cupcakes to share from Sticky Fingers DC.

Dark picture of Roasted Portabello and Quiona with mom and old friends after seeing the Gay Mend Chorus perform Von Trapped (an all-male Sound of Music) at District Chophouse.

My coveted hand pie from Sticky Fingers, in bed with a cup of coffee the day after the race.

OSG Oh She Glows-Angela Liddon's

VM http://veganmiss.blogspot.com/2011/03/irish-festivities-stew-brown-bread.html

TVS http://theveganstoner.blogspot.com/2011/03/vegan-stoners-orange-french-toast.html

Plan Feb 2 - 8

Monday

Run 3+

IDI Phyllo Pot Pie

Tuesday

Bike 10

Swim 1

HHLL Sonoma "chicken" salad (pre-cook tofu on Monday)

Wednesday

Run 3+

Crock pot vegan chili and cornbread

Thursday

Swim 1

Bike 10

Baked Sweet Potato (pre-baked on Monday)

Friday

Run 10

THH Hippie Loaf, mashed potatoes, and veggies

Saturday

Bike 

Swim

THH Corn Pudding, Spicy Collard Greens, and Vegan Spicy Sausage

Sunday

Rest day

IDI Seitan and wild mushroom stew

IDI - Isa Does It

HHLL - Happy Herbivore Light and Lean

THH - The Happy Herbivore

This week, Rob starts the 28 day E2 challenge, meaning he is going vegan for 28 days. He eats, for the most part, 90% vegan. Since I do most of the cooking and shopping, I guess I don't leave a lot of room for variation. In step with his challenge, I am cutting out cooking with oils. This won't be too difficult, I imagine.

I don't worry too much about extra fats in cooking because I eat pretty healthy foods, and exercise a lot. In fact, I just read Vegan for Her by Virginia Messina, and according to the calculations given in the chapter about vegan athletes, I should be eating more than 3000 calories each day! Wow! That is a lot!

My triathlon training is going beautifully, and I put in more than 50 miles running/biking/swimming last week! My distance run wasn't everything I wanted it to be, I wanted to do more than 10 miles, but ended up just shy of 9. I am really hoping for dry weather this next Friday, so I can try to improve that.

I haven't been reading as much as I would like to. I started Hollow City by Ransome Riggs, the sequel to Miss Perigrine, but haven't fallen in love with it yet. Maybe today I will pick something else up, and try Hollow City again later.

Or maybe, since it is my rest day, I will just clean my kitchen, make some food, and watch some football....

Vegan Breakfast and swim/running

On Sunday, I woke up with a serious hankering for waffles.  It was raging.  It could not be quelled.  Except by waffles.

Now, here's my thing about breakfast foods.  I've always been a simple breakfast eater.  Before I started running, breakfast 98% of the time was cereal (not always with milk, because 1. unless you eat it right away, your cereal gets soggy, 2. if you eat it too quickly, you have dry cereal, and you're left with a bowl full of soy milk with crumbs in it, and 3. milk? who has time for that nonesense?  Cereal + cup = breakfast to go...) or toast.  

Anyway, back to my hankering for waffles...

Traditional hot breakfast foods are generally NOT vegan.  So when I get a hankering for flapjacks or waffles etc. I generally have to make them myself.  

There's a good company called Mom's Vegan Kitchen that makes mixes for pancakes, waffles and biscuits that I like, and I actually have one of the mixes in my pantry, but you know, when you get a really good waffle crave happening, you don't actually want to MAKE YOUR OWN waffles, do you?

Anyway, there's a lovely vegan restaurant in Temple Hills, MD (Everlasting Life Cafe), about 45 minutes from our place, that has a Sunday Brunch.  I've always wanted to go, and even though I've been there many times for lunch, have never gotten there on a Sunday.

Well, wouldn't you know it, when we got there, they didn't have any waffles, but flapjacks suited my needs just fine.  Rob and I each got something different, and split our meals in half.  That way we each got:

Strawberry pancakes, tofu scramble, vegan sausage, steamed broccoli, and grits!

I did think it was odd, though, that there was no coffee on the menu.  A cup of Joe (it could be organic and free-trade!) and the Washington Post would be the only two things that could have made this breakfast better.

Anyway, enough about food, now let's talk about running.

June 5 was National Running Day!  Yay!  Another cause for wanton celebration!  I got out and ran a 5k in the morning.

Then, like the crazy person I am, I signed up for the Rock N Roll Half Marathon next March!  For the last month or so, I've been thinking pretty seriously about a half marathon.  The Running Day $20 discount sealed the deal.  So I guess it's serious now!  Anyway, I've read the No Meat Athlete guide to running a Half, and have started building up longer distances each week.  I have a while to get there.  Thank goodness.

I don't think I could do the program with the weather acting crazy like it has been for the last week.  When it's not thunderstorming (I don't ̶m̶i̶n̶d̶  hate running in a shower, but this stuff has been crazy!) it's SUPER HUMID.  So much so that when I have been running, I'm finding it hard to get good air in, it's like I'm swimming through the air!  At least it seems to be breaking up a bit. 

This is how I know I'm a runner.  When it rains at night, I wake up and am sad about not being able to run first thing in the morning.  I check the forecast at 2am to see what it will be like at 7!  

This morning, it was storming, so I didn't go.  After teaching my class this afternoon, it looked like it had stopped for a bit, and the forecast called for about an hour of no rain, so I booked it home, threw on my Saucony's and ran.  I made it about 10 minutes before the clouds broke open again, and by the time I got home, I was pretty wet.

Tomorrow doesn't look too much better.

Thunderstorms again in the morning, so I'll have to brave the afternoon run again.  Gah.  I hate running after I've eaten anything. I run so much better on an empty stomach- is that weird?

Anyway- cross your fingers that it clears up for me!

Streaking and other things to do.

Runners World periodically hosts a Running Streak, wherein those who are participating attempt to run every day for the duration of the streak.  The last one I tried was from Thanksgiving to New Years (2012).  It started off well, but then I went out to visit my folks in Nebraska and go skiing in Colorado, and it was bloody cold.  The next streak starts Monday (Memorial Day) and lasts through July 4 (Independence Day).

My Dad used to sing this song, and anytime I think of the word "Streak" it pops in my head.

Anyway, I'll be attempting this one, and I think I'll do better during this time frame than with the weather in December.  This is also a great way for me to jump start my new goal for 2014... I want to run a half marathon. Before I'm 40.  So that gives me about a year and a half to train for and do it.

I've ordered the training program from No Meat Athlete which I'm excited to take a crack at.  In addition to the running schedule, it also gives food recommendations specifically for vegan and vegetarian athletes.  Not meal plans (because really, who can follow those??) but suggestions.  Guidelines.

In preparation for that, I've been attempting a few longer runs each week.  Yesterday I ran 5 miles in 54 minutes, and felt STRONG.  (Today, on the other hand, I ran a little less than 2 miles, and felt yesterday's run!)