Its been a while since my last post. I think that the last few months finally caught up with me and I needed a break from everything. As much as I hate to admit it, May, June, and July were a struggle for me. I look back and cannot believe that I completed everything that I said I would do. That includes the Half Ironman....the main purpose of this blog. I wont say I am happy with how I did but I finished and throughout the whole process learned everything that I could do better for next time. Its funny, at the end of the race I said I would never ever do it again but now I am already planning when to do my next one. I want revenge and to hit my goal of under six hours.
So now that I have had some down time I decided I needed a new set of goals to keep me going. The first one is my short term challenge and the second is my currently unachievable partly crazy goal.
Short Term: Eat vegan for a month. I made the move to stop eating meat a few months ago in efforts to help me recover faster with my training. I pretty much was eating 90% vegan with the exception of whey protein powder and a few eggs. I wanted to go full vegan as Thrive said to do but was extremely worried where I would get my protein and did not want to make the change right before the race. I did spend lot of time reading about becoming a Vegan, started to visit a lot more Vegan restaurants (which are freaking awesome) and took out a bunch of cookbooks from the library to figure out what and where I could get my protein.
I decided last week my focus for the next month or so was to get my strength back. I wore out my legs so bad training for the Half that even with twice weekly PT sessions they barely held up to cross the finish line. As part of that, I signed up for Bootcamp for August. (very excited that Ariane brought back Hardcore!!). Then came my idea to go vegan for a month. It is going to be my experiment to see if I can get enough protein and still limit my carbs to keep my body fat % the same and not decrease my muscle mass. I have read all over that it can be done, now I am ready to see first hand if it is possible. I am determined to show any of the opponents of vegan eating that it is possible to still enjoy food, cooking, and remain at the same fitness level. Maybe I will inspire one of you to try it too.
Crazy goal: Qualify for the Boston Marathon for 2013. There, I have finally put it up. Some of you have heard me say this for the past few months now I am making it official. Oh, I should tell you that I have not run a marathon yet! So yes, I am truly crazy. My plan is to get my leg 100% better, run my first marathon in March, then pick one closer to September to run to qualify. This seems doable on paper but we will see. Slowly I am working towards this and as I mentioned above getting healthy and strong enough to actually do it. Though this is a crazy one, this is one goal I am going to hit.
Good luck with the vegan challenge. It is definitely going to be difficult to get your protein without soy. I have a feeling you'll figure it out though.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to look toward doing my first half ironman, do you have a general idea when your next one will be? I'm thinking sometime after October, as I have 3 more halfs and a full to get done by then.
You are amazing! I know you set goals for yourself for a reason, but don't be disappointed- you're accomplishing so many great things. Don't ever undermine your accomplishments.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the vegan test. I need my eggs and cheese :) But I hear ya. There are some things that can be eliminated or consumed less of to make us all feel better.