Last week I went to the gym with Drew and Lindsay. I mainly worked on my abs, but I did run a couple miles as well as work on my legs, arms and back with weights. I discovered the medicine ball. I was doing the 45 degree twists with the medicine ball. I did 200 reps (starting off with 120 reps @ 16lbs and upping it to 20lbs for the last 80 reps.), I also did long arm crunches set at 90 lbs. Let me say that my mid-section was not happy with me the following day. Luckily being vegan means a much faster recovery from strenuous workouts like that.

Anyway, I need a new pair of shoes. The $20 pair of joggers I have now just aren’t cutting it. While I can run a mile or two in them without much worry, after that the heal strikes really start to fuck with my pace. The reverberation up my leg is a killer. I am thinking of picking up the Newbalance MR905. The running store near my apartment has a pair in my size and I think I am going to try them on this week. Especially since next week’s run is a mile longer than this one.

Yesterday I went to the gym, I know it isn’t a cross training day but I just doubled up since I had missed a couple days of working out. Drew Winter came with and ended up getting a gym membership as well. First I started on the recumbent bike. I rode for 2 miles to warm up and then I headed up stairs to the weights.

Once upstairs I started off with the sitting leg lifts; I did 3 sets of 10 at 50lbs before moving on to the standing leg press. Here I worked both legs alternating left to right and did 3 sets of 10 at 70 lbs for each leg. I then hit up the seated machine row and did 3 sets of 10 at 35 lbs and hit up another rowing machine where I did 3 sets of 10 at 50lbs. I then did some pull downs with 3 sets of 10 at 50lbs and finished off punishing my upper body with 3 sets of 10 rope tricep pushdowns at a meager 15lbs. But I remind myself that I am not going for weight I am going for endurance.

Once I was done with those I hit up the ab area and did 30 captain’s chair leg raises and 30 long arm crunches at 35lbs. To finish off the whole ordeal I went back down to the recumbent bike and did 12 more miles.

I was proud of my time on the bike. I did 14 miles in total with a workout in there as well. It makes me feel more confident about my abilities. Even today my legs weren’t sore, my goal for next time I am at the gym is to cruise up to a cool 25 miles.

Last night I did about 30 minutes of pretty intense hatha yoga. From the way I felt afterward it is a wonder how I ever did that before. I used to be able to do a lot of this with no problem, however by about 20 minutes in I was transitioning from one posture to the next rather easily. It was much needed, there was a lot of tension in my neck and back. Last night I slept really well.

This morning I woke up at 7am and went for my morning run. It was colder than I had hoped, but that is really just an inspiration to run all that much harder and get the distance behind me so I can go shower. Tonight I started moving some more, I never realized how much stuff we had but aside from the TV I am fairly sure all the heavy stuff is done.

Tomorrow I have to move more stuff but I hope to be able to hit up the gym briefly. Until then, check out my teamraising site and donate to help animals.

Today was a rest day. I didn’t do much, I moved a few things back and forth but nothing heavy. It was pouring rain all day so I couldn’t have moved some of our stuff even had I wanted to (which of course I did). I will do some light yoga later tonight and run a mile in the morning. One week is over, week two is upon me. Fifteen weeks to go until race day.

In the time that I was resting I did a lot of research on nutrition and vegan endurance athletes. It really seems as though vegan endurance athletes are becoming more popular. Did you know that Scott Jurek, a vegan ultra marathon runner, won the Western States 100 mile ultra marathon 7 times consecutively, every year from 1999 to 2005? He’s not the only one though, I found a site that helps other vegan endurance athletes as well, Organic Athlete.

I have my eye on the prize. Come March my goal is to finish this half-marathon. A year from now I would like to run a full marathon. In 2 years I would like to run a marathon and place. In 3 years I would like to compete in the Ironman triathlon.  Finally, in 5 years I would like to compete in the Western States Endurance Run, a 100 mile run.

You can help me achieve my goals and inspire me to train harder by donating a few dollars to my teamraising site.

I started out on a cycling machine to warm up, I did 1.5 miles and grabbed some water. After that I went upstairs, I hit up the lower body section of my workout. Starting with the sitting leg press I did three reps of 10 at 120lbs. I then went over to the sitting leg lifts and did another 3 sets of 10 at 50lbs. My plan is to increase each of these by 5-10lbs a week until 2 weeks before the marathon, at which point I will back off a bit and ease into something a bit lower to allow recovery.

Once I was finished with that I switched to upper body workouts. I did another 3 sets of 10 of bicep curls at 25lbs and 3 sets of 10 on the chest press at 50lbs. My goal with this isn’t to increase weight as much as reps. I will probably keep the same weight but try to add 1 rep to each set a week. I want endurance in my upper body not bulk.

With that behind me I went to the core training area. I did my most loathed machine (even more than the lateral arm lifts, Cody!) the ab rocker. I did 3 sets of 10 at a measly 15lbs before I went to the long arm crunch. This is something I am much better at, I did 3 sets of 20 at 25lbs. Finally to finish off the weights I did the oblique twists, I didn’t enjoy this much at all and I think I will try a different oblique work out next time, regardless another 3 sets of 10 at 15lbs.

To finish off the whole thing I went back down to the cardio area and did 7 miles of cycling before walking the mile back to the house. All in all I would call it a good day. I stopped at the market on the way home and picked up some bananas and cherries for a smoothie in the morning. Tomorrow is a rest day so yoga only!

Wonder why I’m vegan, watch this.

See you on Saturday!

Shortly after the rain started coming down, it was almost as if nature knew I needed to get my run in this morning and turned the sprinklers off. I was grateful to say the least.

For more reasons why I am running, watch this investigation that just broke today. Money raised from my running this race will go to help fund investigations like this, and force transparency onto corporations that use animals for profit.

Watch undercover footage from inside
Brookstone’s frog supplier.
Find out more at PETA.org.

See you tomorrow.

Regardless my activity for today could definitely be considered cross training. Rachelle and I got the green light from our landlord to move some of our smaller stuff into the new apartment. It is the same building but in a different section. We made several trips back and forth, all in all I climbed and descended 24 flights of stairs.

My legs are sore from all the stairs and I have a run scheduled in the morning so I am going to stretch a bit and go read before bed. In the mean time you can always check out the reason I am running this marathon and donate to help out.

See you tomorrow.

So my training started last night. I started off with some yoga to loosen up. Since I will be trying a new regimen, and haven’t run in the past few weeks I decided that all rest days will double as yoga days. This will let me relax and at the same time recharge so to speak. I can tell that I haven’t done any sort of yoga in a long time because there was quite a bit of straining and wobbling, especially during my forward bends and inversions, but in the end I got it. It was a good 30 minute routine and afterward I pretty much passed out.

I woke up this morning at 6:45am and hit the snooze once, bad habit I know, but I was up and running at 7:05 and in the shower by 7:15. I only ran a mile this morning. If you have been following my schedule, I am starting off with a mile a day for 3 days a week for the first couple weeks. It isn’t that I couldn’t have got up and done 2 or 3 miles but it’s early and I would rather pace myself now than pay for it later. For now a one mile loop it is.

Once I was back at the house I grabbed a quick cool shower to wash off before work and made a quick smoothie out of Trader Joe’s Organic Hemp Protein Powder, vanilla soy milk, and a couple of bananas.

Tomorrow is cross-training. I plan on cycling, and a short low weight upper body work out, but right now… sit ups.

See you tomorrow.

I have worked out a training schedule that is based on the one provided by the professional coach that is coaching our team. Since the provided once provided starts on January 4th my schedule allows me an additional month. Fifteen weeks isn’t much to get ready for a half-marathon, but I am fairly confident in myself and my abilities.

This is a 13.1 mile (21.1 km) endurance run. I don’t plan on placing, so all of my training is about LSD (long, slow, distance) and getting to the finish line.

Please visit my teamraising site and help with a donation if you can. For more information of other vegan endurance athletes check out Brendan Brazier’s website and Rich Roll’s New Veg Testimonial