Day 14 - Back on track

I've shaken the worst of the food poisoning now. I was even able to do a short 5km run this evening, although a painfully slow one.  I did try out the (somewhat superfluous) hydration vest and it was extremely comfortable.  Look forward to giving it another try soon.

On the food front, we had veg burgers today for lunch and they were awesome! Did not find myself thinking meat would add anything to it. Instead all the flavours came together more naturally and I managed to stuff two of them down, even though my appetite is still quite suppressed.  The best part was that even though it was a big meal (calculated it was about 900 calories) and I felt totally stuffed from it (and still do)... No the best part was missing the associated "bleah" low energy moment straight afterwards.  Feels nice to normalise the energy curve from the previous roller coaster ride.

Will start back with another easy run tomorrow, gym on Tuesday and then a medium/long run on Thursday.  Then jet-setting off to Australia to see family.  Can't wait :)

Day 6 - Plant Powered

This evening I had a food breakthrough! Thanks to a recipe from Scott Jurek's book Eat and Run (brilliant book, highly recommended) I've finally managed to make my first really yummy vegan meal.  Sure, I've bought some nice meals, and enjoyed a variety of delicious vegan food in the past week, but this time I made a complete meal that worked!

I decided to try out Scott's Long Run Pizza Bread recipe and this time I made sure I got all the ingredients right.  I made a special trip to the shop to get all things not in the cupboard, including spelt bread, tofu, miso, nutritional yeast and seasonings. I then followed the instructions precisely and voila! Success!

Messy, but looks promising

Some tofu "feta" added and 15 minutes in the oven later they turned out great (no professional photography here, clearly):

Not too bad! Tasted pretty awesome too

All said, I'm just so pleased, since I was despairing that I'd never get the hang of cooking anything well. Previously my most complex dishes involved nothing more than 4-5 ingredients, no measuring and a touch of luck.  This has been quite a journey already, and there is lots of room for improvement in the future.

Now, I did say this was the athletic vegan and I haven't mentioned my running much yet.  Mainly focused on getting nutrition right first. Also, my nagging injury from my last long run has limited my options.  Excuses aside, I went for a medium paced 10km run today and it went pretty well all said.  It was very windy and I wasn't pushing myself, but I was only 1 second a km off my PB.  So I'm pleased with that.  Tomorrow is my long run; this time I'll do 5km laps of a park that is 5km away (aiming for a total of 25km).  Let's see how my new plant powered body holds up.