Speed Work and Product Reviews

Last night was our first speed workout at the track. I was still feeling sore from Sunday, so I thought I might take it easy. I don't need to be getting injured. We did 400 metre repeats with a 200 metre rest in between and then finished off with two two hundred metre repeats. Here's how they went:

1st 400 - 2:07
2nd 400 - 2:08
3rd 400 - 2:15
4th 400 - 2:09
5th 400 - 2:04
1st 200 - 1:02
2nd 200 - 0:57

Not great, but I don't hurt too bad this morning. My shins even feel a little better.

So now, on to the product reviews.

Amy's Roasted Vegetable Pizza
All I can say is yum! It's not really large enough to share with a hungry hubby, so I had it all to myself. The sauce is made from caramelized onions. It's sweet and not tomatoey at all. Very different and I loved it. I had half before leaving for the track and ate the rest as my post workout meal. This is definitely something I'd like to have in my freezer for emergency meals.

So Nice Strawberry Soy Yogurt
Another winner. This was my first time buying soy yogurt and I will definitely buy it again. It tastes somewhat like real yogurt, and the calories and nutrients are similar to the real thing. It is quite a bit thinner than cow's milk yogurt, but I don't mind the consistency.

Tofutti Milk Free American Flavored Slices
These are the soy version of "Kraft Singles". I haven't eaten a slice on it's own, but it's good on a sandwich. I'll keep these in the house.

Tofurky Italian Deli Slices
This was the main reason for the field trip to the Superstore on the weekend. On their own, the taste is just so-so. But I've been making sandwiches with the Tofurky slices, the Tofutti American flavoured slices, Grapeseed Oil Vegenaise, French's Bold 'n Spicy Deli Mustard, and some lettuce and tomato. Let me tell you, these are really good sandwiches. It's worth the drive to St. Thomas for these slices.

President's Choice Meatless Beef Strips
Maybe it's just that I remember what real beef tastes like, but I wasn't crazy about these. I veganized a stew recipe on the weekend, and while everything else in the recipe tasted great, the fake meat just took something away from it. I doubt if I'll buy these again.

So those are just a few of the vegan products I've been lucky enough to get my hands on. It's taken some research to find these since the area I live in isn't very vegan friendly. I know there will be hits and misses, but so far, I'm pretty happy with my findings.

Boston Breakfast Club

Training for the Boston Marathon started on Thursday and today was our first long run. The people going to Boston meet at 7:00 am and do 4 miles before meeting up with the rest of the group at 8:00 am. As I am an official member of the Boston Breakfast Club, I was there right on time. Coach Johnny Rotten gave us the route and told us to take it nice and easy. Yeah right. I started out okay, but just over half way, everyone else in the group had passed me. I was the last one to finish. I had to keep reminding myself that I have as much right as everyone else to be in this group. I qualified for Boston and I'm going to enjoy the whole experience.

We were supposed to run a minimum of 10 miles with the group, but since I haven't been doing much running lately, I did 8, for a total of 12 miles. It was plenty. My legs were ready to give out by the time we finished. It turned out to be a really good run. The rain stopped before we went out, and the temperature was above freezing. What more can you hope for when it's January in Canada?

Shopping

Look what I scored at the Superstore yesterday. I went online to see where I could buy Tofurkey products and found out the Superstore in St. Thomas carries them, so hubby and I went on a field trip. I'm going to check in London, probably next week, to see if the Superstores here carry them, but it's really not that far to drive to St. Thomas.

I was a little disappointed when we first got in to the store because I was finding the same old Yves Veggie and President's Choice products that I can get in any Loblaws. But then we found the natural foods aisle. Wow! I was so excited to see soy yogurt. I tried the peach flavour as soon as we got home and had a Tofurkey sandwich for lunch. It's okay, but Yves Veggie Salami is still my favourite. I can hardly wait to try the Earth Island "Mozzarella." It's vegan and the label says it melts!

We needed the wine for a stew recipe I was trying for dinner, and no, it was not in the natural foods aisle, and it's probably not vegan. We're working on that, though. Hubby is making two batches of wine and he promised he won't filter them with isinglass.

After lunch, I went to Chapters to check on the price of some vegan cookbooks I'd like to buy. Their prices are better if you buy off their website, so I'll be ordering them online. I've had two of Sarah Kramer's books as well as Vegan with a Vengeance out of the library for some time now. I keep renewing them, but I'm sure the library will want them back eventually. I haven't tried a lot of recipes from them, but Isa's cookies are really good, and Sarah's soups are some of the best I have ever had in my life. Even my omnivore hubby loves them.

Gotta go and get ready for my 14 mile run in the rain, so I'll check in later.

Posting My First Recipe

This is what I've been eating for lunch the last few days. I don't know where the recipe originated, but I tweaked it a bit, so I'll call it mine. It's called Bean Sandwich Spread, but it can be used as a dip for taco chips, or a spread for pita wedges.


Bean Sandwich Spread
1 cup cooked kidney beans (rinsed and drained if using canned)
1/2 cup celery
1/4 cup onion
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1-2 tbsp. Vegenaise
Pulse all ingredients in the food processor and enjoy!

Here it is in a wrap with lettuce, tomatoes and onion:

A New Year, A New Blog?

I was going to abandon this blog since I haven't updated it since last April, but then I decided I would use it to chronicle my journey to veganism in 2008.

It will still be a blog about my life in general, but with an emphasis on food and, since I'm training for the Boston Marathon this coming April, I'll report on my training progress as well.

My New Year's resolution is to blog at least 3 times a week, and if I do that, I'll treat myself at the end of each month.

Stay tuned as I will be doing some posts that will catch everyone up on what I've been doing since last spring.

Race Recap

I've done four races so far this year, and haven't reported on any of them. So here's a recap.

Really Chilly Road Races, February 18, 2007
Temperature -11 C
Road Conditions - Poor

This is one race I said I would never do because the weather is so unpredictable in February. This year was no exception. I woke up race morning to a heavy snowfall. If it was Christmas Eve, everyone would have been overjoyed to see those huge snowflakes coming down. I drove to the race site and saw the course was covered in 2 inches of freshly fallen snow. Not exactly ideal race conditions. I was there early enough to do a warm up run, but missed my group, so I decided to just to scout out the start line and get a handle on the road conditions. I eventually met up with Joyce and Pat who had done the warmup and they told me the roads were in terrible condition. This was not a day for a PB.

I decided to take it easy and just enjoy the run, but something always comes over me in a race, and once we started, I had to try to catch the people in front of me. Everyone was running slow because it felt like we were running through sand. The race course is 2 loops around Fanshawe College. It's very boring because the scenery is much to look at. Anyway, I finished in 1:04:14, one of my worst 10K times ever, but still good enough to place third in my age group and get a medal.

There was lots of food to be had in the college gym after the race, including coffee and nice hot chili. All in all, it was very satisfying and I will do that race again. Here I am showing off my medal for hubby when I got home.















Around the Bay 30 K Race, Hamilton, Ontario, March 25, 2007
Temperature +3 C
Road Conditions - Good
This is another race I said I would never do because of the unpredictable weather that time of year. My friend did it two years ago, and the weather was terrible. So also told me about this huge hill at about the 26K point that is so steep you have to walk it.

I decided to do it this year because coach says it's good practice for Boston. I didn't have any goal finish time in mind and thought I would just go and have a good time. I took the bus that Runner's Choice sends each year. It was fun to be on the bus. Coach kept everyone entertained.

The weather report was sunny and high of 12 C. Perfect running conditions. I was going to wear my capris and a long sleeve running top, but I took my jacket as a precaution, because being near Lake Ontario, it could be a little breezy. When we got off the bus in Hamilton, we're all saying, where's the sun and why is it so cold? We then spent the next half hour deciding what to wear. I stuck with my first option and went without a jacket, but I did wear gloves.

I started out running with Joyce. We were going at a nice even pace, but not too fast. It was going to be easy to keep up that pace for 30K. Pat and Ally were behind us, but when Joyce stopped to retie her shoes they caught up. So we ran with them for a few miles. The first half of the race is really flat, but once we got into Burlington, the rolling hills started. We were running in a beautiful neighbourhood in Burlington - big houses backing onto Burlington Bay. I just couldn't figure out why anyone would want to have such a nice house with a view of Stelco and Dofasco across the bay, but what do I know?

I always take hills as a challenge and I refuse to walk them if I don't have to, so I started to give a little more effort at this point. Joyce has a bad knee and didn't want to risk an injury, so she fell behind. Pat was still with me and Ally had shot up ahead. I kept motoring up and down the hills, and eventually caught and passed Ally.

Soon enough I came to the huge hill everyone had been telling me about. It was big, too. As I approached it, another runner told me that they videotape people running up the hill and broadcast it at the finish line inside Copp's Coliseum. There was no way I was going to let those people see me walking up that hill, so I put my head down and ran it. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Once I reached the top, it was flat and I was only a couple of kilometres from the finish line.

I finished in 3:07:09, but I know I could have broken three hours if I had given it a little more at the beginning of the race. Anyway, it was fun, and I've got another medal to add to my collection. I'll definitely do that race again.

Downtown 5K - Good Friday, April 6, 2007
Temperature -7 C, Windy
Road Conditions - Fair

I do this race every year. It's the first race in the Runner's Choice series. It's flat and fast and last year I did my best 5K time ever in this race.

This year was a different story. Once again, I woke up to snow. It was a very cold blustery day, not conducive to getting a PB. I ran it in 25:28, not good at all. I was just happy to get that one over with and go home to my warm house. Enough said about that one.

Spring Run Off - April 28, 2007
Temperature + 9 C, cloudy, light misty rain, mostly calm with some light winds
Road Conditions - Good

This is another race I do every year. It is race two in the Runner's Choice series. I PB'd it last year with a 51:12 finish time.

This year the running conditions were perfect. The rain held off - it was just a little misty. I had no excuse not to have a good race, but for some reason, I just didn't have the speed. I finished in 53:44, over two minutes slower than last year. I blamed my other poor finish times this year on the weather conditions, but didn't have that excuse this time. I need to rethink my training and do something to improve my speed. It was good enough to finish 4th in my age group, but I want to place in the top three.

The next race is an 8K on June 24. I'm going to work on my speed and see if I can pull of a 40 minute race. Stay tuned.

Tapering

Sunday was our longest training run before the Forest City Road Races on Mother's Day. I ran 24.5 miles, the farthest I've ever gone in training. The weather was amazing. It was 6 C when we started at 6:30 am, and by the time we were done, it was up to about 18 and sunny. We're not yet acclimated to the warm weather, but it felt so good to me. Coach had organized a little picnic of beer and chips when we finished and it was really nice to enjoy that in the warm weather.

When I woke up Monday morning, my right knee was hurting and not in a good way. I took it easy all day and then went to an aquafit class after work. Yesterday we ran an easy 7 miles rather than doing speed work and the knee felt good.

So now we are officially tapering for the race. I need to do 14-16 miles this Sunday, which won't be easy because hubby and I will be at the farm. Maybe he'll ride his bike and accompany me on the nearby trail.

One year from today...

I'll be running the Boston Marathon. I've got one year to get ready physically and mentally for the race of my life. I still can hardly believe it.

Good Farm News

A couple of weeks ago, the lawyer for my mother-in-law's estate called to say the farm land had been severed and the deed to Hubby's section is now in his name. Halleluiah. It's only taken about 18 months to settle the estate. The lawyers are unbelievably slow and the a**hole brother-in-law wasn't exactly cooperative either. But it's done and now we can move on with the renovations.

Then on Saturday, we got a phone call from a farmer down that way who wants to rent the land. He made a reasonable offer, so Hubby took him up on it. It's all coming together. With the land rental and the rental of the small house, the farm will pay for itself. What a relief.

Yesterday, we went bathtub shopping, and I think we got two picked out, one for each house. Hubby just wants to talk to the plumber and take some more measurements before buying them. We picked out a clawfoot tub for the big house. That room is going to look so nice when it's finished.

Hubby will be spending a couple of weeks there in March, possibly getting the bathrooms put back in and varnishing the panelling. There's no heat or running water, so it won't be much fun for him, but he thinks he can get the space heater in the living room working, and we have two other electric heaters. He can put one in the bathroom and one in the kitchen to warm those rooms up. It'll be like camping. He'll have fun. I'm just glad I'm not going.

Cold or Bored

I had to make a choice today, and I chose the boredom of the treadmill over running outside in the cold. Today's schedule called for 8 miles, and I wondered how I would get through it on the treadmill. I watched the last bit of Oprah, all of Dr. Phil, and the first 15 minutes of the six o'clock news. I got off a couple of times to go to the bathroom, and before I knew, I had 8 miles in the bank.

The best part was when I was heading back to the changeroom, I walked by the room where my group gathers. I could hear Coach saying "And one more thing before we head out..." Yeah, I was done before they even left. As I sit here now, all warm and well fed, I'm thinking, I would probably just be getting back, all cold and hungry, if I had chosen cold over bored.

Generation V

Here's a link I shamelessly stole from a fellow blogger.

I'm not feeling the "V" with this weather. All I want to do is hibernate. They've lifted the wind chill advisory, but it's still danged cold out there.

Just Like Starting Over

Last weekend I dipped down to 127.5 lbs. I just weighed myself this morning at 131.5. One week of poor eating and exercise habits undid all of my hard work of the past month. That's depressing. I'm hoping some of it is water weight from the extra sodium ingested.

It's going to be hard to get back on the wagon after all the laziness of last week, but no exuses. I'm going to the gym at noon to do my upper body workout and then again after work for my Firm Parts/Awesome Abs class. I'll whip this body back into shape in no time.

Global Warming

I've been reading a lot of articles on the internet about Global Warming the last couple of days. The UN released a report stating that Global Warming is a result of human activity and if nothing is done to change current emissions patterns of greenhouse gases, global temperature could increase as much as six degrees Celsius by 2100.

David Suzuki has a great website and I joined his Nature Challenge.

I also followed a link from one of his newsletters to the 100 Mile Diet. Hubby and I have agreed to try the 100 mile diet one day a week as a start. We can go to our local farmer's market. This time of year, we'll be eating hothouse vegetables, but as long as they're not transported more than 100 miles (160 km), they're legal. We're also going to check out the Arva Flour Mills just north of the city to see what we can get for locally milled flour. Then we'll dust off the bread machine and make some home made bread. This is going to be an interesting experiment.

Too Cold to Run

I checked the weather network when I got up this morning and it was -18 C with a windchill factor of -28. No way was I going out in that. So I've missed my long run two weeks in a row. I can't wait for spring.

Around the Bay

I registered for Around the Bay this morning. I've never done this race, but my running group sends a bus every year. I have three reasons for not wanting to do it. First, it's run in March when the weather is unpredictable. Second, it's 30K, that's a long race. And third, there's apparently a big hill near the end. But I've been told it's good training for Boston, so I'm gonna do it.

I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing

Yesterday we had a staff lunch at one of the nicer restaurants in town. I had a chicken breast stuffed with some kind of bread, crab meat and asparagus,wrapped in proscuitto with a cream sauce. It came with a twice baked potato. The serving was huge and I was hungry, so I ate the whole thing. When we got back to the office, I had a bit of a tummy ache from all that food and I knew I was in trouble for my 10 mile run in the evening.

The run started out okay, but I was still feeling heavy and bloated. A couple of miles in I knew I had to find a washroom. I didn't want to slow my running buddies down, so I made it over half way before I suggested we stop for a washroom break. I felt slightly better after that.

It was a fairly mild night compared to some of our runs lately. The temperature was a balmy -3 C. The sidewalks were snow covered, so we ran on the road where we could, but on the busier streets we stuck to the sidewalks. Running through snow is like running through sand, and I started to get a pain in my lower left leg. It wasn't a good pain. It was kind of like when I had my stress fractures, but it wasn't on my tibia, more to the side.

Once we got past University Hospital, and we were on our way back, we were on quieter streets, so we got off the sidewalk and ran on the street. A car came by and some guy yelled out the window at us to ask if we knew what the sidewalks were for. Jerk. Runners have the right to run on the roads. We've been told that a number of times by our coach. And it wasn't like the jerk didn't have room to get around us.

Anyway, my tummy started feeling yucky again and I thought I might need another pit stop. I struggled on and we made it back. 10 miles in 1:57.

Somebody warn me next time I think I can eat a big meal on a running day.

Tuesday Speedwork

Last night's speed work was kind of fun. We were to do 400m, 600m, 800m, 1000m, 800m, 600m, 400m, with a 200m rest between each. It was a pyramid. We decided to shoot for each 200m in 1:05 which is 5 seconds slower than we did last week, so we could get an even pace and not feel wiped out by the 1000m. Here's how it went:

400 - 2:08
600 - 3:11
800 - 4:13
1000 - 5:18
800 - 4:13
600 - 3:08
400 - 1:59

We poured it on a bit for the last 400m set. Once again we were the last ones out there. Everyone else was already cooling down. During the cool down, we run the opposite direction on the track, so people were coming at us in our lane. It was a little embarrassing to still be out there slugging when everyone else was finished. It's not easy being in level two.

What's Going On

This is how my week is going.

I helped my son and his girlfriend move in to their new place on Saturday. I'm finding out that I can't drink alcohol anymore. I had a few beers at Chris' place during the move and then I woke up at 2:30 am on Sunday and could not get back to sleep. The same thing happened the weekend before when I had two glasses of wine. What's up with that?

So needless to say, I didn't get up for my planned 14 mile long run on Sunday. I was just too wiped out. Sunday afternoon we went over to Chris' and helped him build his new Ikea furniture.

Work got in the way on Monday, so I didn't get to the gym at lunch. I went after work for my Firm Parts/Awesome Abs class and you won't believe it - I forgot my running shoes. AGAIN.

Yesterday I had a training session at work over lunch, so no gym again. I did manage to go to the track last night for my speed work.

I feel like I'm on a downward spiral this week. I have two more days where lunch is being provided at work, so it's impossible to enter my food intake in to SparkPeople. And I'll be missing my lunch time workouts, and I'll be missing my Friday Body Flow class due to a meeting I have to go to. More on that later. It's exciting but I'm not ready to announce anything yet.

Everyone has one of those weeks every now and again, so I'll just get through it and carry on next week. No big deal. Life happens.

Almost Forgot

41 pushups today.

Stupid Gym Stories

Yesterday I went to the gym at noon as usual. When I got there I realized I had left my running shoes at the office. Our gym has a policy where you have to wear shoes (Duh!), but I wasn’t about to waste 15 minutes of my lunch hour going back for them, so I decided to sneak in wearing socks. I thought, I’ll just do my workout until someone asks me to leave. It was upper body and ab day, so I knew it wouldn’t interfere with any of the exercises. I hustled through the workout in record time, thinking, I gotta get this in before I get caught. And guess what, no one said a word to me. I totally got away with it.

Today was Body Flow. Body Flow is a choreographed combination of Tai Chi, Yoga and Pilates, so we do it in bare feet on yoga mats. The woman in front of me had her mat kind of close to mine and when we were doing the balance track, so almost stuck her foot in my face. Whew! She had smelly feet. Later on, someone nearby farted. It smelled too. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

I go through a lot in the name of health and beauty. I better be down a pound when I weigh in tomorrow morning.