Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

oh no- some of my posts got lost!!

That's ok, I haven't been working out much anyway. I am finally over this nasty cold I had and finally feel like myself again. Friday I swam for 10 minutes, biked for 20, then did chest, abs, biceps. Saturday I ran a REALLY hilly & difficult 5K, Yesterday I went to the gym for legs and biked for 30 minutes. This morning I slept in. I picked up a new running book with a training program I plan on following. I've been loosely following it anyway, but I'm going to make more of an effort now. It's running 3 days a week and crosstraining 2-3 days. But the running workouts are specific, one speed, one temp, and one distance. I'm going to try to follow the 10K program for now and work up to the half marathon in the spring. I'l also going to try to be flexible so that I can run with a group when ever possible.

WOW, I have all my old energy back finally!!! I don't know what kind of bug I had but it was nasty. I never used to get sick & since I've gone vegan, I've had two pretty bad episodes, is there a particular nutrient I may be missing?

Anyhow, Last night I went to the track & ran a tempo workout. 1 mile warmup, then 3 at 9:12-9:14 pace, and another mile cooldown. This morning I actually woke up early to go to the gym. I swam for 20 minutes mostly in a cycle of doing 4 lengths fast and with good form, then taking a minute break. Then it was back, shoulders, abs, and triceps.

On the way back from the gym I stopped at this convience store that recently changed hands because my husband said they had a vegitarian sandwich & he said he thought I would like some of the other things they carried- I was in heaven!!! Tofu, Soymilk, Clif lara & luna bars, huge selection of teas, fresh looking fruit salads, lots of good stuff!!! I just walked around looking at everything for a while.

I'm glad you're feeling better, Lisa. Good for you doing the tempo workout on your own accord. So far I have mostly sucked at doing that stuff voluntarily. That's why I'm going out to the running group when I can... it forces me to do speed work.

That's awesome that a convenience store carries that stuff!! It reminds me of how I felt when I went to Sticky Fingers when I was in DC. It was amazing looking around and knowing that every single thing I saw was vegan. I don't think they even had mushrooms there either, which made it pure heaven.

I'll try to get Doron at Stickyfingers to get mushrooms for the vegan hot dog stand.

LOL you're such a pain in the ass. You're lucky that you're cute.

That's funny, I realized I tend to go slower when running in a group, or else too fast. I think I'm going to stick with the training schedules outlined in this book, it expalines why going at different paces are good for you & what each type of workout does. It's only running 3 days a week, so its not hard to get motivated.

Last night I ran by myself again, 6 miles at the Long Tempo Pace. It felt really good & I was actually a little faster than I planned on. Only bad thing was I think my shoes were already shot, my ankles & my left calf were pretty sore afterwards. I knew I should have tried out my new pair!

Well, it's not a regular running group, it's mostly competitive triathletes who go out to it so most of them are fast. And we're doing speed work, not jogging.

Good for you on your run. I know what you mean about the shoes... I think my old pair are causing the groin pull, but I've been alternating between them and my new pair (I can't bring myself to wear them in so much snow just yet).

Pamela, I don't know what kind of sneakers you run in, but if I run in the snow I wear my trail shoes, they give better traction & are water resistant. In a race that I did last winter where the trail was covered with ice & snow, a bunch of people had these gripper things that fit over their sneakers too.

Sat morning was the first group speed workout in a while. We ran 6 X 400s with 2 min rests. I ran them faster than expected, which made me happy. It was nice to run with other people.

Sunday I went to the gym. Did 20 minutes hard on the bike and did all my weights for my legs, abs, biceps, and chest.

Lisa, I['m just wearing my regular shoes with "yak trax", which I think are probably the same things you're referring to. I find they work really well. I had bought trail shoes but returned them before even wearing them because I just didn't want the hassle of figuring out if they were going to work or not.

Have you guys thought of snow shoeing??? I know there are a few snow shoe marathons out there.

Wouldn't that involve buying even more gear?

Seriously, I'm maxed out on gear spending.

But yeah, I was thinking about it just the other day. The new snow shoes aren't like the ones we had to wear in grade school!

those yax trax sound like what I saw. That was at a race in Reading, PA. It doesn't relaly snow much here in NJ. I've thought about getting snowshoes becsuase they look fun, but I can't justify spending the money on something I might use a few times a year. IF we get snow on one of my shorter running days I'll probably just hit the treadmill at the gym, A long run on a snowy day might mean a trip to Atlantic city, where they plow the boardwalk.

Yesterday the idea of running in the cold windy weather in the dark by myself just wasn't appealing, so I went to the gym for the treadmill.

My plan was to run 7 miles at the same pace I ran 6 miles one day last week. 2 miles in I realized that wasn't going to happen, I felt like I was racing a 5K! I checked my heart rate, just because I could on the treadmill & it was 180. I don't know much about heart rate training, but since it was off the chart printed out next to the screen, I figured I was justified in stopping after 3 miles. I walked for 400 meters, then I did two more 1 mile repeats with 400 m walk in between.

I remember this happening to me trying to run on the treadmill last winter. I think it feels harder to me because it is warmer inside than what I am used to running in. My favorite weather to run is around 50 degrees, so if it's closer to 70 inside the gym I would think that would impact me.

I'm going to look up the pace I ran yesterday as a short tempo or even 5K pace and see what kind of long tempo or distance run it cooresponds to & run 7 miles at that pace tomorrow.

Today I'm going to either swim, row, or bike and train back shoulders & triceps.

Wednesday I swam 3/4 of a mile in 29 minutes. Felt really good, I haven't swam in a while. I could've kept going, but I didn't want to push it, my shoulders were starting to get tired. Then I did weights: back, shoulders, triceps.

Yesterday I ran 7 miles on the treadmill. The was really slow, but my effort felt right, the las tmile was challenging. I didn't mind the treadmill as much as I thought I would.

No workout today. I have a 4 mile race tomorrow.

Let us know how your race goes!