Vegan Fritz

• 3:06:46 finishing time
• 91st overall
• 4th in my division
• a mylar blanket and finishers medal to remember it all by.

I’m going to lay low for a bit. There a hometown 5K that I want to run a decent time on November 27th. I’ll want to maybe run some other 5, 8, or 10Ks and then get into training for an April marathon. Oh, I didn’t get a chance to catch Where the Wild Things Are on the debut weekend but I’m planning to see it on a weekday, can’t wait.

D. and I post-race

I’ll post some things but nothing of any frequency so ’till then,

Erik

Well, I’ve been pretty M.I.A, heh. Running has been kind of rough the past couple weeks, I just haven’t had the motivation to get out there everyday. More often than not, I’ve just felt too tired mentally. Despite not feeling superbly ace, I’ve gotten in some tempos and quality base runs. It’s a good thing I’m in my taper though what with it being right around the corner, Oct. 18 – that way if mileage slips, it’s not altogether failure. I’ll post my mileage for this week so my blog won’t be quite so bare, eh? It looks like I’ll go 70 mi this week, I’m planning on doing my LR on Friday because I’ll be busy this weekend. I want to post some grub, I truly do, but I don’t know what to do with a dead camera. I really don’t want to pay for a new one. I simply don’t have the dough for that, I had to bum money for another pair of Brook’s.

Alright, so the dawn of October not only brings my marathon, but Where the Wild Things Are is due to be released in the month of October as well. Yay. Therefore, I have a song from the soundtrack for you.

Alright, so I didn’t post yesterday. I was marginally preoccupied with get ready to move out and whatnot. I haven’t taken any foody pictures but I can tell you I’ve had blueberry oats the past two mornings, a lot of kiwis, oranges, and nectarines. Today though was rather epic however. I made a batch of hemp seed butter yesterday and I took that with oatgroats, plantains and salsa – that’s it. I don’t know what was going on but it tasted so gourmet, it was quite profound. I liked it so much for lunch today that I made it again for dinner, except I used sweet ‘tatoes as my carbohydrate base rather than oat groats. I think I might re-do this with a twist of almond butter and other stuff some other time. So my advice to you is to get some seed/nut butter(coconut butter?!) with salsa goin’ on, make some groats (or rice), and make some tostones de platanos – it’ll be creamy, dreamy awesomeness.

Now, I digress. I’ll take and backtrack my running. Yesterday was an easy 8 recovery post long-run, I took a nice easy pace and felt pretty fresh. Here’s the stats from that:

Monday

Distance:   8.07 mi

Time:  00:59:48

Avg Pace: 7:24 min/mi

This morning’s run didn’t go as planned. It was decent run, don’t get me wrong, but I went out way fast and wound up losing steam at the end. I don’t like feeling whipped at the end of an easy run. I can’t do this on a regular basis otherwise I’ll feel really crappy the day succeeding it. Well, here’s the stats:

Tuesday A.M.

Distance:   14.27 mi

Time:  01:48:42

Avg Pace: 07:37 min/mi

This evening was a good and easy 7. I felt good except my left hamstring felt really strained. I tweaked it back on my tempo from Thursday and it hasn’t seemed to have gone away since. I can’t really get to it from the surface to massage or roll it out so it must be something deep. I’ve been stretching and icing, anybody have any input on this? It was a nice run though so here’s the stats from that:

Tuesday P.M.

Distance:   7.07 mi

Time:  00:52:10

Avg Pace: 07:22 min/mi

My morning run I’m going to bump the pace a bit, maybe head out at 7:40-45 pace and just relax. I have my 30K Saturday so it’s crucial that I take it easy these days preceding. My evening run will be on campus streets seeing as it’s move-in. I’ll see how that goes. I don’t know when I’m going to be posting next so this is goodbye for now I s’pose. I know I’ll have a race recap for sure on Saturday or maybe Sunday no matter if the race went well or bad (I’m also planning to stop by Mind Body & Spirits post-race so pictures will be up of that grub).

I have a track for you before I leave. It’s by a Swedish band named Miike Snow – I love the vibe and I also love the video, it’s quite profound. Ch-ch-ch-check it.

Happy days,

Erik

The forecasts were spot on, 49 this mornin’. I rolled out in the drizzling rain and I took a trip out to the lake I ran at about a month back. I wound up passing the exit in the pitch-black not to mention the construction cones on the highway had me a little disoriented, I turned back at the next exit and got there in due time however. I popped a GU in there car on the so I had something in my system to work with and was ready to go when I hopped out. The rain stopped in the first 800m which I was kind of happy for (rain’s okay but being soaked wet on a whole long run isn’t too much fun) The rest of my run was sheer awesome – here’s some details:

• Miles 1-5 were like a scene out of a bad horror film, I was enveloped in darkness, no a sun or moon to illuminate my hands in front of me. The trails were absolutely bare and I was sure if I was to be abducted it would have been right there and then. I’m glad that I know this place like the back of my hand though becasue I was navigating and hitting my splits with relative ease despite wanting to pee my pants with fear. Actually, I kind of got this flashback moment of when I was maybe 8 or so and my older cousins took me through a haunted forest during Halloween. I was running on trails in fear even when I was young, oh joy.
• I dropped off onto the trail that slips under the highway to another rec area. Fun went down right then and there. The sun finally combated the overcast skys and I saw a white line leading of onto some trail. What?! XC course? hellzyes! I had so much fun on this course. This cross course was split into two loops, on the first loop was a quad busting downhill and some rolling hills out over by the beach are. The second loop was a blast, it took me up a blistering up hill on the far side under some trees and looped back into the woods for the better part of a mile. The finish was just hellafun – a wicked tough hill took and looped me around and pulled me into a huge downhill. It leveled out over 400m with a finish right at the beach. I’m tellin’ ya, fun stuff.
• By the time I was back on my main trail, it was mile 13. There was a lit-up sky and it was getting busy with some walkers, runners, & bikers. My eyes were off of my Garmin as I was getting pulled along by cuties in pink technical tees ;P No doubt my pace was a little inconsistent here.
• Mile 17 was when the sun streaked across the sky in an utterly brillant fashion. The lake looked beautiful at this point and I don’t even like water all too much.
• The miles ticked off really quickly but I was getting  a bit peeved at the amount of Strawberry-Banana GU wrappers someone must’ve been dropping ahead of me. People, this is our earth, treat it with respect please. GU wrappers are not biodegradable so do not go tossing them to the ground.
• with 5K to go I was starting to feel my IT band tighten but I still had real good kick.
• I’ll spare you all of the splits but here’s the stats:

Distance:   24.50 mi

Time:  03:15:21

Avg Pace: 7:58 min/mi

Overall, stellar run. It was a nice way to capitalize a good work week. I looked back on my weekly totals and I overshot my low 90’s extimates. I wound up with 99.3 miles on the week. Seriously, 99.3? If I was going to get high 90’s you’d at least think I’d hit and even 100 right? Meh, whatever, I had an excellent week and my body doesn’t feel all too beat up right now. I’m thoroughly pleased how this week panned out. I got in some solid speedwork, a solid tempo, and a flawless LR, so heck, there’s nothing more I could really ask for. I feel really fit for my 30K on Saturday, that’s what’s on my mind right now.

Today’s grub was a monumental nosh fest. I ate 4 oranges, 6 bananas, 3 apples, 2 mangos, & a whole melon. I’m fairly sure I was channeling my inner primeape with the 6 nanners. I’m also pretty sure I ate enough peanut butter to feed a village in Africa for a year. Nothing too exciting went down except I did make this recipe here. I totally downed a whole head of cauliflower-au gratin style, so good. & Marissa, your Vegan Parmesan was bomb, thank you. I also roasted a sh*tton of veggies later in the day: zukes, red & green bells, sweet po, carrots, ‘fu (it’s a veggie) and promptly doused them in sriracha.

I’ve got a track by Iglu & Hartley. I’m not sure why I’ve been listening to them today – they just seem so catchy in a weird poppy way. Well, here ya go.

have a good one,

Erik

8 easy this morning. I was jumping at everything that made noise on mile one and two, for some reason I was really twitchy. I evened my pace out, got methodical, and rolled after the second split though. Today was really serene on the back roads and it felt so good to chillax at a slow, easy pace and let my thoughts drift. Temps were cool again and tomorrow the forecast is 49 for my long run tomorrow morning! Wootwoot. Anyway, here’s my run.

Distance:   8.01 mi

Time:  01:03:16

Avg Pace: 07:53 min/mi

Well, let me zip through some grub here eh

oat bran peach fest with pb out of a the pot

Classy.

teriyaki'd eggyplant, carrots, green onion with brown rice

There is zero ‘fu or temph to be seen. That makes for a very sad Erik ):

peaches and ab

what the hell…those farmer’s market peaches are laced with cocaine or something highly addictive. I’ve downed all of them in two days. Curse thee you pleasantly juicy fruit. How do you never cease to tingle my taste buds so delightfully so?

apple and orange

rockin' dualy sammies

That’s how I roll when I get home hungry. I had one with smooshed nanner with pb and the other was razz preserves with pb. I thought it was quality, fruity carbo loading… I was planning on a rice pilaf dealy thing but that is officially postponed to tomorrow I s’pose.

Let me pull a track here forya. Hmm. How ’bout Manchester Orchestra? I love Andy Hull’s voice, I really do. The name of the band actually stems from Andy’s interest in Manchester and his influences from music like Morrissey and the Smiths. He has a side project with a band called Right Away, Great Captain!, check it out if you’re interested. Here’s the acoustic of ‘I’ve Got Friends’-

Alrighty then. I’ll post up a long run re-cap tomorrow, may you all have fine times wherever you are at at this moment in time.

Best of health,

Erik

The morning was another puddle romping day. I was fairly stiff from yesterday but I got loosened up in the rain in due time. I took it easy and relaxed around a nine mile loop. I was pretty soaked from the precipitation by the time I got home. It’s been overcast and cool all week and today was no different which I’m enjoying.

Here’s what the run looked like.

Distance:   9.21 mi

Time:  01:09:31

Avg Pace: 7:33 min/mi

Fueling was as follows:

rolled oats, coconut meat, nanner, açaí hemp, gojis

peachys & ab

grapes with okra, spinach, pinto and corn salsa & hummus

apple & pb

eggplant & pepper with a rogan josh sauce and basamti

Gratz to Ritz for sub-13 in the 5K. 12:56- A new American record!

boss.

Alright, I’m peacin’ out but I have an animation for you. It’s a lot of fun, check it out.

Best of health,

Erik

I went puddle rompin’ this morning in the dark. I did an easy 8mi in the rain and mud, it was a blast. I’m pretty beat up from yesterday so I didn’t push pace and I kept it relaxed @ 7:30 pace. My calves took the brunt of the w/o yesterday and I also tweaked my groin a little bit but other than that though I’m alright. My energy levels have been pretty high these past couple weeks and I’ve been healthy so I hope to keep it that way.

Here’s the stats:

Distance:   8.09 mi

Time:  01:00:56

Avg Pace: 7:32 min/mi

The only thing about rain is that it always winds up chafing my nipples even though all I wear are technical tees. I might have to invest in body glide but I don’t know what ingredients are in that stuff. As long as I can keep nip bleeding to a minimal I think a little rain is fine.

The grub for the day is as follows:

rolled oats, nanner, cherries, coconut meat, flax, ab

apple & orange

grapefruit & a falafel, hummus with mixed greens on rice/almond bread

La-la-la-lärabar

spiced quinoa & twice baked swee po'(X2)

I spiced the quinoa with turmeric, cumin, coriander, ginger, & cinnamon stick. The sweet po’ was pb, Tofutti, stevia, ‘nilla extract, & currants twice baked.

& my new flats came in today. wootwoot

Brooks Racer ST 4

pretty fly, eh? I’ll take ‘em on the roads for my tempo tomorrow.

Inquiry: I want to know what your thoughts are about running a 30K next weekend in preparation for my marathon. It’s the Labor Day 30K about a half hour away from me. 30K is equivalent to 18.64 miles so it’s a good distance for keeping fit about a month out from my marathon. The course is good and hilly to get me ready for the mary in October. Tell me what you guys think, really – post it down below. Also, there’s is a 5K I was thinking about doing  just to get some good speed work in on the 12th- it’s the Run Drugs Out of Town race in my hometown. It’s for a good cause so I think I might do that as well.

I’ve got a track for you and then I’m out. For this song here, I’ll be forthright and say I didn’t like it initially. I turned it up and re-listened to it, like really listened to it and found it to be quite profound. I’ve never heard The Antlers before and maybe you haven’t either. Give it a shot and listen to the lovely ambiance.

Best of health,

Erik