Since my half marathon in Ottawa at the end of May my training has picked up pretty well, though my updates are slacking. I’m not going to lie, I really don’t like blogging and the only reason I force myself to keep writing is I believe there are people out there, in the similar situation as me, who could benefit from my experiences transitioning to vegan. I had a lot of doubts in the beginning whether it was possible to live a healthy active lifestyle where you can build strength and stamina without animal protein, but the longer I do it the more I believe it is the right way to live.
For the first time this summer I did a swim/bike/run all at once and boy did it feel good. I went with an Olympic Tri distance of 1.5km/40km/10km just to see how the body would hold up. All in all it went very well and I’m quite pleased with how I felt afterwards – I felt tired, but not exhausted. I didn’t take a timer with me because I always try to push the pace too much when I’m on the clock and I was more concerned about doing the distance than posting a good time. Though I’d guess my times would be around 40mins/100mins/55mins if I had to ballpark estimate.
It’s funny looking back a few years ago when my ideal Sunday would consist of 20 beers, 8 hours of football watching and 2 pounds of chicken wings. Now it’s swim/bike/run, a delicious couscous salad and a little bit of weeding in my vegetable garden. Though I will admit, come September, I may have a few more beer and football Sundays, just with tofu wings instead.
Looking forward I’ve gone ahead and signed up for a 14km trail race (http://thelimberlostchallenge.com/) on July 12. It will be my first trail run so I’m sticking to the shortest distance to get a feel for running off road. I will also compete in my first triathlon this summer on August 10 (http://www.multisportcanada.com/bracebridge/) and I’m hoping to break 3 hours in that.
I did my 5k test and pushup test on Thursday and the results were:
5K time: 27:09
Pushups: 58
Lastly, I finally found a “pretty good” vegan protein powder drink. It’s called Professional Strength Soy Protein by Six Star Nutrition. It was at Wal Mart and costs around $20 or $25. If you’ve been following my blog you know how hard I’ve been trying to find a decent vegan protein powder. 9 out of 10 I’ve tried are nasty tasting. This would be my favourite tasting one so far and that price is pretty good.
Disclaimer: I say vegan protein but I’m not 100% certain on that. I don’t know all the terms on the back, but I’m pretty confident there aren’t any animal products. I’m learning as I go.
