Books: No Meat Athlete & Faster plus Winter training

 

 I found an interesting book called No Meat Athlete by Matt Frazier.  It's full of information and stories by Matt and a host of Ironman triathletes and ultrarunners.  If you want to go vegan and still compete this is the book.  There is plenty of other great data that pertains to nutrition in general.  I'm not sure if I'm ready to go vegan.  A friend, Dr. Deva, is vegan and that's what got me interested.  I stopped at Hoover's last week and bought 4 packets of vegan protein powder.  Compared to the Publix Whey Protein Powder I have been using, these are pretty bland.  The Vega Sport was the only one I would use again but I'm sure they all would work in a fruit smoothie.  All the directions had me mix them with water but almond "milk" might be better.  My friends at Hammer Nutrition have a new line of vegan products so I may try those too.

It's cooler here in Florida now and I've been training for the Town of Celebration Marathon coming up on January 26. I've stepped up my road and trail running and am aiming for a PR of 4:30 there. The course is a double loop, very flat, and is a Boston Marathon Qualifier; for my age, that is 3:50 so I'm not even close.  On December 21, I did my fastest trail run, 14.45 miles with 10:30 mile splits and early Christmas morning, I ran my fastest 5.5 mile road loop in the park (with hills) in 49:55, translating to 9:05 mile splits.

 

I found another book about triathlon called Faster by Jim Gourley.  Lots of practical information and advice on how not to spend money on things which will not improve your speed.  He found that on the bike, an aero helmet has more benefit than aero wheels and an aero frame has little benefit at all.  A properly positioned rider is the best aerodynamically.  He also found that trail running is 43% harder than road running, a notion I agree with.