Pass The Poultry

Today:
Run 13 miles
Bike 6 miles
Lift 18 lifts
-3 sets of 12 reps

Yesterday:
Run 7 miles
Bike 20 miles

Thursday:
Run 11 miles
Bike Commute 3 miles

Wednesday:
Run 10 miles
Bike 12 miles
Lift 17 lifts
-3 sets of 12 reps

Tuesday:
Run 13 miles
Bike Commute 3 miles

Monday:
Bike 33 miles

I've not eaten meat (fish excluded) in about 12 years. Until this week that is. I've been thinking about introducing meat back into my diet for several weeks now and finally did so this week with a couple turkey sandwiches and some Indonesian chicken curry.

Why meat? why now? Well, the next 2 races that I'm doing are going to be very long and in very remote places of North America. Both the Ultrasport and the GDR would be entirely possible to do on my loose vegetarian diet (i.e. lacto ovo pesco veg.), but I am discovering more and more that there is no substitute for a hot, substantial, hearty meal when out racing for hours and hours.

During the Susitna 100 last winter my only "real" food was a bowl of rice and cornbread at mile 75 and I'm certain that rice never tasted so good in my life. Then during the 24 hours of Light in June I ate, or more accurately gobbled down, some corn chowder at 3:00 am. Again, the most satisfying corn chowder ever to meet my stomach.

Anyhow, to make a long story short I am planning on enjoying every chance I get in both the Ultrasport and the GDR to gobble down some "real" food. I have never found it difficult to make hearty, satisfying, vegetarian meals for myself, but at lodges along the Iditarod trail and small cafes and diners along the Great Divide Route meatless options are either going to be non existent or pathetically unsatisfying. That rice and cornbread during the Susitna tasted great but I'm sure it would have been much more satisfying had I eaten the Jambalaya that I passed on because it had chicken or pork or something in it.

So my plan is to get used to meat in my diet now, with enough time to also incorporate it into my training diet to figure out which meats fuel me best when active for several hours at a time.

I'll likely go back to a mostly, or entirely vegetarian diet after the GDR, but for now I'm just trying to find out where I can get a good steak in Juneau, and looking forward to sucking down countless burgers and fries out on the trail. (gosh, this sounds so disgusting right now but everything has a time and place I guess).

Totals for the week: Bike 77 miles; Run 84 miles; 19.5 hours time.