A Case of the Runs

Now that I'm posting this online, I am even more accountable than before. When I first quit meat, I gave up eggs and dairy, too. I did this for a month, and it was tough. My hair and such did not like that, but I had more energy and fewer stomachaches! I've been wanting to do this again, at least once in a while, but with races and such, I was afraid to try. So now, from April 1-7, I will make another attempt at veganism. This will be tough, since I spend most of my days at a hotel for work and there is meat abound at home. Yes, I still get meat at home, although I avoid it unless it's pushed on me. And to think of it, my parents make pizza for breakfast on the weekends. In spite of all this (I am not at home that often, so there's hope), I want to try as best I can... I'll keep track of imperfection and report back in a week. And no, this is NOT an April Fool's joke. That's tomorrow.... ------ Day 1 - Thursday, April 1 Today at the hotel was not so bad. I ...

At the San Francisco Half-Marathon expo, I picked up a few samples of KT-Tape, which is an athletic tape that is supposed to support the muscles when taped in various ways. At the time, I was having a horrible hip pain that really could not be taped since it felt deep-seated, so I put the packets away. Fast-forward to now, more than 6 months later. Today was my first real run since after the marathon . I tried toward the end of last week but started spasming after 1/4 mile. So to make sure my first real attempt didn't go badly and unsure of how much damage I had done to myself during the marathon, I taped up my lovely knee with KT-Tape. Of course, I had to know how to tape it, so I looked on their website that described the different taping methods based on the condition. Now it was time for some good old self-diagnosis. It turns out that pain on the outside of the knee like I have is the all-famous iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS), one of the most common and painful running ...

I've been hearing about how bad soy milk is for you for a long time... you can just Google it and find propaganda everywhere about how soy in the US is genetically modified, pesticide-ridden, etc. etc. Cow's milk and I became sworn enemies when I was 19 years old... in addition to the fact that it contains pus (I won't provide links because I think these issues warrant their own research). Milk bloats me (or worse) every time I drink it. I really like soy milk. Vanilla, unsweetened, and even chocolate have become my primary cereal buddies. I have been drinking it more than previously, so now I have concern for all those "soy-is-bad" stuff. My boss' manager gave me a sample of his almond milk today (unsweetened chocolate). It was thin, it lacked protein, and it realllllly could use some taste. It was almost like water! And nutritionally, it still contains too much sodium for what it is... I hear rice milk is worse... and hemp milk is horribly expensive. ...

EVENT: Los Angeles Marathon DATE: Sunday, March 21, 2010 LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA RACE BEGAN: 7:47 AM FINISH TIME: 04:50:40 This was was important to me because is marathon #5 (3rd LA Marathon) for me, race #20 which is 13.1 or longer, and originally (see note at the end) my last race before surpassing the F 19-24 age group. So even after $125 + $9.44 processing fee, I was somewhat excited to be running from Dodger Stadium to Santa Monica Pier. Unfortunately, I have been mentioning ailments as of late. Five weeks ago, both knees were hurting. One knee got better, and my quad started failing. Then the Monday before this race, I woke up feeling sick. Fortunately, though, I felt better by the weekend, and my quad even cooperated. Pre-Race: I was up at 3:00 AM to get to Santa Monica in time for the shuttle to Dodger Stadium. This was my first time inside. We saw Gordon Ramsey from Hell's Kitchen being interviewed... that was really cool! Anyway, we froze for a while and then ...

One week from now, I will have done Marathon #5 and my last race before I bid farewell to the 19-24 age division. I'm excited to be doing another crazy feat in my relatively short life, but my legs/knees are not in the best shape right now. I'm sure it will be okay, but I can imagine that I won't be breaking any personal records . And I will probably be incapacitated from running for a while after the race. At least I've raised about $150, and that should keep me going if not by force. I think I've gotten to a point (or maybe I was already there?) at which marathoning really isn't the cornerstone of my life as it may have been previously. I think I have given it a similar time commitment, but mentally, something(s?) has changed. In other news, this weekend has been decently productive. I knocked off 1.5 of the 2 books I have set to read and submitted yet another dissertation proposal draft. My spring break is coming, so I hope I will not receive the dra...

Long before running or the advent of my adult life, I used to read a lot more. I can go on for a while about my favorite books, including Angela's Ashes , The Stranger , Life of Pi , and Falling Leaves . Nowadays, my reading is limited to textbooks, business books, newspapers, blogs, and Internet articles. I wish I had more time to read, but with my dumb dissertation on the line, I am mostly stuck with research articles and journals. More recently, I randomly saw the movie " The Lightning Thief " and wanted to read that entire Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Yes, my little sister reads those, so they are not exactly adult lit. Still, that movie brought a piece of my youth back, the young person in me who writes poetry and reads books. At the same time, I acquired two books from work that I was told I eventually should read. This one below is called Managing the Millennials . I've met two of the three authors and feel that this book will be useful for t...

This morning on the way to work, I had the most massive peanut butter craving ever. I slipped into the supermarket and found this jar of peanut butter for $3.55. This is more than I would normally pay for peanut butter, but hey, it is natural, right? (I also managed to pick up some sprouted bread and veggie cheese.) This PB requires no stirring and tastes rich like you'd expect it to taste. This certainly addressed my craving, and I didn't even have gobs of it. And I didn't want any more after I was done. So THAT is how I won't overdose! Good to know! I guess the lack of a ton of sugar and that tackiness of normal PB is what causes my addiction. Next time, though, I should get the chunky variety if they have one. I tend to like some bite to my PB. So in the work fridge it goes for some nice meals/snacks next week. Yay for PB&Cheese sandwiches!

Yay, I have time to do an update! Not much new stuff is happening in my world. I still have a cat living in the house and am still getting my dancing lessons in twice a week (that blog post will come soon, I hope!). Oh, and I guess my next marathon is in two weeks! More than the race, I'm more excited to be taking a DAY OFF after the race. I really, really need one! I'm more burnt-out than blackened toast! I've been having a hard time with running lately because about a week ago, my knees gave out. Those got better, and I've been icing them every day as a precaution. Following that, my right quad suddenly decided it would tighten up forever. So I haven't been running a whole lot lately due to its limited capacity. Last week's scheduled 20-miler became a 13.1, and we'll see how today's scheduled 12-miler goes. To keep me going, I am raising money for the Public Counsel like I did last year . I've raised about $100 so far, so I think that justifies bo...