Race and Training Recap, Clean Eating

Race and Training Recap:

It’s been a fairly uneventful week as far as training goes. I ran on Monday, but on Tuesday had some fairly uncomfortable ankle/shin pain in my left foot/leg. Since I had the marathon today, I decided to just take it easy and not run the rest of the week, especially since I was considering this race as a “training run” for the Turkey n Taturs 50K. The last thing I want to do over the next three weeks is nurse an injury. I threw in one gym workout on Wednesday just so I wouldn’t go crazy from sitting around.

The marathon this weekend was the HITS running festival. It was also Katie’s birthday and the marathon that would bring me into the double digits. This was the inaugural HITS festival in OKC. I have to admit, the first impression was not the best. The course was changed two days before the race, the “expo” was a few tents set up outdoors, and the pasta party was also outdoors. I ordered a mens’ fit shirt, but ended up with the women’s cut, and several others did not get shirts at all. The medals were “one size fits all”- full marathoners received the same medal as people who ran the half and 10K. Plus, HITS is not a locally operated race and as far as I know is a for-profit organization. However, the race did give the Landrunners a huge discount, so who can really complain about a $24 marathon?

On race day, the weather was perfect for a marathon. I got there about 15 minutes before the start, pinned my bib on, and removed my sweatpants. I am very cold natured, so I instantly started shivering uncontrollably. During the national anthem, I probably looked like I was having a seizure. Luckily, a man whom I had never met before saw me shivering and gave me one of his hand warmers. I felt like I had just found a water fountain in the desert! He ended up being a fellow Landrunner and ran a big chunk of the race with our group. Thanks, Dine!

Once the gun went off, I found Brian, whom I usually line up with if we’re both present.  Brian and I always seem to start together, then I run off and leave him. Today, we ran for the first mile or two before we split ways. Brian caught back up to me around mile 6 along with some of our other friends, so we ran most of the marathon in a 7-person pack. My muscles were feeling great for the most part, but my feet were absolutely killing me.

Somewhere around mile 17, our big group started to dissolve into smaller groups. Matthew, Brian, and I ran together for a few miles before Matthew took off to claim his PR and Karl took his place. All three of us were feeling pretty crummy and decided to run the rest of the race together. We pushed and pulled each other through the last 10K and questioned why we even run marathons. We were getting pretty grumbly until mile 24 where Omi was handing out mimosas! We stopped for a drink, took a few pictures, and moved on in better spirits and with a little less pain. Amy, who had an amazing finish time and won second in her age group, joined us for the last mile and a half. We all three finished together and reunited with the rest of our group, many of which accomplished PRs and won age group awards. My final gun time was a 4:42:47, about a minute and a half away from a PR.

My end impression of the HITS marathon was OK. As a local run with friends, it was great for a first-year event. The volunteers and staff were incredibly friendly and every aid station had bananas, oranges, Gu, water, and Gatorade. If I had been from out-of-town or didn’t have friends at this race, it would have been depressing. There was no crowd other than the crowd at the finish line and one single family that had come out on their lawn to cheer about a block away from the finish. For $24, it was an excellent deal. I have some of the absolute best running buddies ever, and even a boring, hilly course is fun with them.


Clean Eating:

I’ve decided to take up Ryan Baggett’s 30-day Real Food andFitness challenge and take up clean eating for a month. Ryan is a dietitian that works at Red Coyote. I have been slacking on my diet lately and have been eating too many weird vegan versions of meaty things, like fake hot dogs, and loading up on peanut butter and syrup. Eating these as a main part of the diet basically cancels out the good benefits of vegan eating. Plus, last year’s jeans are just a little too snug for my liking. The basic rules are:

1.   No processed food- this is where I need work. Daiya and Gardein have become staples in my house.
2.  No added sugar- shouldn’t be too hard.
3. No dairy- check!
4. No gluten- once again, shouldn't be too hard since I don't eat much of it anyways. Plus, we get rice!
5. No beer- shit just got real. I'm not 100% committed to this one. 
6. 5-6 days per week of exercise- check!
7. No weighing yourself for the duration of the challenge- check! My scale is somewhere in the garage and hasn’t had batteries in about a year. I will weigh myself and get my body fat composition tomorrow at work just to get a baseline weight.

      Since I follow a vegan diet, this challenge will be a little more difficult since I won’t just throw down a chicken breast and call it a meal. I’ll be posting a blog early this week with my meal plans and a few recipes, as well as some of my baseline stats. I’m hoping to lose a little bit of fat and clean up my diet too.

Leslie Driskill is a scientist from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. You can learn more about her running adventures by checking out her other pages. 

https://pharmahub.org/members/6085/profile
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leslie-Driskill
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yqkPrs8AAAAJ&hl=en
https://twitter.com/Leslie_Driskill
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3484-2794
http://veganleslie.blogspot.com/
https://www.quora.com/profile/Leslie-Driskill-1
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yqkPrs8AAAAJ&hl=en
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesliedriskill/
https://www.alltrails.com/members/leslie-driskill
https://soundcloud.com/user-907900105-88781924
Location: Oklahoma City, OK, USA

Popular posts from this blog

Weekend in Review: Running

Well, I meant to publish this on Monday, but life gets in the way sometimes. I was scheduled to run 7 on Friday, 4 on Saturday, 20 on Sunday, and off on Monday. I woke up late on Friday and was a little weary of running that night with the storms moving in, especially with T. I figured out that the best plan would be to knock out the 20 on Saturday morning while T was with her dad, get the 4 out of the way on Sunday afternoon, and run 7 on Monday morning instead of taking the day off. I started out my Saturday somewhere around 5am. The weather was perfectly cool with some nice wind. I was too lazy to drive to Draper to meet up with the group there, so I opted for 20 solo miles around Norman.  This was actually the first time I’ve ever ran more than 18 miles by myself. Things were feeling pretty good for the first 12 miles or so, other than feeling really sluggish from eating junk on Friday night. There’s a TON of vegan junk food out there, and I don’t recommend eating any o...
Read more

Up Next: Turkey N Taturs! Race Report by Leslie Driskill

Image
Nothing noteworthy has happened the past few weeks. Sleep, run, eat, work, eat, eat, eat, kids, read, eat. Repeat. Well, this weekend will change all that. I’ll be running the Turkey N Taturs 50K in Tulsa. Check out the course map here .  I’ve been a little obsessed with this race the past few years. I read about it when I first started running marathons, but was always too scared to register. There’s just something a little intimidating about 31 miles on the side of a mountain, even if it is just a glorified hill compared to other mountains. Plus, I’ve never finished a marathon and said, “I wish I could go run 5 more miles!!” However, last year I won a free entry into any TATUR race and decided it was time. I registered. I told a few friends. I heard stories about how tough the course was. I heard stories about how easy the course is. I worried myself sick the night before and barely got any sleep. I thought about not even showing up to the starting line because I was afraid I...
Read more

The challenges of a housepig

Image
Overall, Charlotte has been a great pet so far. For those of you who don't know, Charlotte is a stray pig I found one night while out running. I never would have considered owning a pig as a pet, but I actually think she has been less trouble than the other pets I have had. She doesn't mark her territory, is clean, doesn’t shed, and is funny. She goes to sleep as soon as I turn the lights out. She interacts with us, follows us around the house, and begs for food. She takes off running if I suddenly cough, and gets excited about corn and watermelon. I can leave her alone during the day. She has a funny personality and is generally pleasant. However, having a housepig isn’t always easy. Many of you have made comments like “I kinda want a pig now!” I’m sure most of the people who say this have no real intention of running out and obtaining a pig, but just in case someone is, here are some of the hassles of pig ownership. Having a pig indoors is about like having a second two-yea...
Read more