Dan, Just out of curiosity: How did your third marathon training cycle feel compared to your first two, now that you've been a vegan for at least a year (as far as I know)? How do you feel energy-wise? Have you lost any muscle? How much do you eat; what do you eat?
Admittedly, I'm struggling as a vegan. It's not that I crave animal foods; it's a matter of consuming enough and the right combination of plant foods. I'm down to 142 pounds. When I was running 40-mile weeks, my average weight was at least 5 pounds heavier. I became a vegan about two-thirds of the way through that training for the 2007 Hartford Marathon.
Let's talk about this.
4 comments:
The only thing that causes me to lose any muscle is distance running. I find that unless I do something to keep my upper body strong the muscle begins to wither away as the mileage increases. In my legs I notice my muscles are tone, but not any bigger.
I think I've been doing the whole foods plant based diet now for about 1.5 years consecutively. I feel fine energy and health wise. I rarely get sick if I'm eating right, and I generally don't have any problem getting enough calories. Since Karolina is a vegan we tend to indulge in all kinds of vegan treats.
My suggestion to you is to start eating more. Regardless where your calories are coming from, meat or plants, if you burn more calories than you consume you are going to lose weight, and vice versa. The difference is that the plant foods tend to have much more nutrition per calorie. I've seen you eat, and you don't seem like you have the biggest appetite. Eat more! If you want to gain weight try some tasty calorie dense foods that appeal to your taste buds. My favorites after long runs are peanut butter, dark chocolate, bread, pasta, and soyscream, especially the coconut milk kind.
To prove my point further, google vegan bodybuilder and look around. If you eat enough, and do the right exercises you can gain lots of muscle, if that's what you want to do. There are certainly some genetic limitations though. A girl I work with is a vegan and spends quite a bit of time lifting weights. She is heavier than me and ripped.
Of course, if you want to be a distance runner, less muscle mass may be better judging by what the pros look like.
Apparently Scott Jurek, ultra-marthoner, and Carl Lewis, are both vegans. Two very different kinds of runners.
Thanks, Dan. I eat all of those things, too. Perhaps you're right in that the solution is to just eat more. Soycream?What do you do with coconut milk. It sounds good.
Come to think of it, I have a can of coconut milk in my kitchen cabinet. I bought it for a recipe which I haven't tried yet.
Do you cook with it or drink it straight up?
I wouldn't recommend drinking coconut milk straight! I was referring to ice cream made with coconut milk: http://www.turtlemountain.com/products/purely_decadent_Coconut_Milk.html.
If you don't mind the coconut flavor, it's great stuff.
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