markc7

I had a very good race. I finished within about 30 seconds of my PR, but gave it all I had and have no regrets. My actual time was 2:37:41, gun time was 2:38:37. Placed 1361/4368 overall, 77/145 in my age category. My splits were: 51:47 for 10K, 1:16:33 for 15K, and 1:42:30 for 20K. I'll write a bit more about the report soon. Wendy also had a great race, and also finished about a minute over her PR.

Welcome aboard!

Those cats are too cute! Good luck with your training and I'm looking forward to reading about your progress.

Prediction time! This weekend I'll be running my first race of the year, the Around the Bay 30km in Hamilton Ontario. It's the oldest road race in North America (a couple years older than the Boston Marathon). This will be my fifth time running it. My times in previous years were: 2003: 2:51 2004: 2:39 2005: 3:37 2006: 2:45 (Helped my uncle move his house the day before ) This year my training has been going quite well, and I'm very well rested this week. My dream goal would be to go under 2:30, but I'm not sure if that's in the cards this year. I think I'm capable of beating my best time, so I'm going to shoot for 2:35 (5:10/km). Given the course profile, I'll try to do the flat first 20k in under 1:40, then expect to slow down some on the last 10km where it gets very hilly. If I'm able to hold the pace longer or speed up at the very end, then that's just a bonus. Wendy is running as well, although she has not been training as consistently as in past years. But this race is always a good time no matter how fast you run, so we're both looking forward to it.

I didn't know your are also a really smart guy with rad writing skills !! I'll bet a bunch of people try eating veg as a result! Thanks SeaSiren and Bunnylalu. The best part of it is that I have recieved a couple of emails and pm's from bodybuilders, asking for more information and advice on veganism!

great stuff. Look forward to reading about your progress.

Hey everyone, check this out: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/topicoftheweek114.htm Every week bodybuilding.com presents a "Topic of the Week" for members to answer. The best response becomes an article on the main website, and the winner gets 75$ in store credit. Some guy named markc7 won this week, for a topic on vegetarian diets!

Great work Matt! I did a set of 59 today. I'm still not too impressed by that number. So I did 5 more sets of 30 pushups, for a total of 210 for the day.

I did 57 in one set today. Meh. I might try again later this week.

When I was a kid, I had a book called "99 ways to save the animals". It was a fairly basic, junior activism sort of book that dealt mainly with conservation and environmental issues. But it also had some major sections on puppy mills, circus animals, and factory farming. At the time it next clicked with me that the animals the book was talking about were the ones I was eating (although I did start to avoid animal performances and pet stores). A while after reading that book, my mother suggested I read "Diet for a New America". That book really planted the seed, and although I didn't go vegetarian or vegan right away, it was always in the back of my mind. When I did start considering a vegetarian lifestyle, all my latent knowledge gained from "Diet" came back to mind. I wonder how much those books non-consciously affected me and my decisions between the time I read them and when I went vegan.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome!

Welcome aboard! I also first changed to a vegan diet because I found that it helped me run faster. Glad to hear that it works for you too! Any marathons coming up?

I enjoyed reading it. Thanks Robert!

I did a short but fairly intense core and upper body workout this morning. I took very short breaks between each set, and did most of the exercises in suppersets. Felt good. Now I've got to start resting up for the weekend. I'll be living vicariously through other people's workouts, so I look forward to reading everyone else's posts.

In Canada, you can't give blood if you're a man and you've had sex with another man at any time since the 1970's. And negative HIV tests don't matter; you are excluded if you've ever been tested. I guess they're assuming that you would only be getting tested if you believed you might have HIV ie: were having unsafe sex. Stupid.

I'm in! I'll see what I can do this afternoon, probably around 60 in a set.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard! I'm from Ottawa, so we're practically neighbours. Good luck with the new training routine, and we look forward to hearing how it's going. See you around.

Wendy and I just got back from a 22km run. It's been snowing all morning, and it was still coming down during the run, but the pathways were clear and the footing was good. I felt great, and Wendy had to keep holding me back from running faster. I always get like this when I'm tapering before a race.

That avacado soup looks gooooood. Thanks for posting these.

I've started to rest up for my first race of the year, which is next Sunday. I'm planning to do one more run, about 20km tomorrow morning. Then I won't run or workout my legs again the race on the 25th. I might do another arms workout sometime next week, but it'll be pretty light. This morning I did a brief upper body workout. My max number of reps for pullups is now 10!

Awesome! My wife has been bugging me to make dumplings all winter. I'll give this recipe a try, using my homemade seitan. Thanks!

Welcome to the forums! There's lots of great advice on here to answer both of your questions. For cookbooks, my personal favourites are the three books by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard "How it all Vegan", "In the Garden of Vegan", and "La Dolce Vegan". If you're new to veganism, you'll also definately want to check out "Becoming Vegan", which is a great how-to guide for eat an awesome vegan diet. It includes a section on vegan athletes. I'm not too sure about the counting calories thing, since Ive never done so myself. Good luck and see you around the forums!