Anna's Get Healthy Now Diet

This past week I have a sinus infection. This is sooooo frustrating because it breaks my 18 month streak of no illness. I thought I was immune from sickness. But now I have been sick for a week and it is showing no signs of improvement.

I think it is my body telling me to tone it down a bit. I had been feeling mentally drained for some time but stopped listening to my body. I recently had a week of high mileage which included no rest days and crossfit workouts 3 times in that week and I think maybe that was a bit too much. The Bruny Island Ultra is on in 2 weeks and I don't want to be sick for that so as of yesterday I am on Anna's Get Healthy Now Diet.

The diet includes fruit, vegies, pulses, nuts, seeds, rice and quinoa.

It does not include processed food, ice cream or chocolate :(

The simplicity of it means my preparing/cooking/washing is even easier before (and for the record, I refuse to cook anything that takes more than 10 mins and involves more than 1 dish to wash up). I've been having lots of salads and mono fruit meals which is so yummo. I am hoping it will send me back on the path of good health.

Vegan for a week and 100 Pushups! What? 100 pushups?!

Last week I was vegan. An initiative of the Plant Powered Cool Runners group, those of us who were not vegan decided to give it a go for a week.

I was terribly unhealthy. I thought Right, I'm vegan. Vegan food is good food. I will bake some vegan muffins, vegan banana bread, vegan pancakes, go to the local World Vegan Festival and buy lots of vegan muffins and vegan raw chocolate. But you know what? Muffins are still muffins and chocolate is still chocolate no matter what label you want to give it. Hence I had a week of terribly bad health. So today I am back to my normal diet. I felt the need to cleanse myself of this terrible vegan eating so for dinner tonight I had a huge bowl of vegetables. Potato, squash, zucchini, green beans, cherry tomatoes and broccoli. I feel sooo much better after that!

It's funny, there seem to be a lot of barefoot or near barefoot runners who run long distances and are vegan. They are a bunch of hippies. They are like the beautiful people at doofs in the bush who dance barefoot all night and all day.

Eating vegan food is one thing that makes me feel closer to the earth. I remember several years ago I came home from Rainbow Serpent and wrote down a list of things that I wanted to do to be myself. One of the things I wrote down was to walk outside barefoot at least once a day, even if it's just in my back yard, so I could connect with the earth.




Has anyone checked out the 100 Pushups Challenge? Who wouldn't want to be able to complete 100 pushups in a row? ONE HUNDRED FULL PUSHUPS! Well I am giving it a go starting tonight, I did Week One, Day One.

And I am not doing any of this girly knee pushup business. Full man pushups all the way baby! It makes such a difference. The girl pushups are so lame I think, even though at the start of the year I could only do 10 before collapsing. I have noticed with full pushups I really feel my core working, and that is what I need.

I have been building up to this for a while, working on my girly pushups so I can do 35 in one hit without a break. Then I suddenly went from being able to do 5 full pushups to 10 to 15! I tried again this morning, but with correct form I could really only do 10 full pushups. So I started the 100 pushup challenge tonight. J is doing it too so it will be good to compare notes :) We have made a rule to start today and to do full pushups with correct form - No cheating!

I suggest anyone who is interested in general fitness and strength to give it a go. Who knows when you will need to impress someone with your ability to do so many pushups?

Lead up to First Ultra

3 days to go until my first ultra. I have been doing a few things in the lead up to make sure I am feeling good on the day.

Firstly, I bought some Dunlop Volleys. I thought it would be good to have some flat, unsupportive shoes for trail runs, rocky ground, and general situations where the Vibram Five Fingers may not be my first choice. I am also too cheap to buy some propper flats at the moment, although would LOVE to try on the Adizero PRs. I ran in the Volleys on Monday (felt good), Five Fingers on Tuesday (felt better), and my old Nike Waffles on Wednesday (legs felt great, pitty the shoes are so narrow). This switch in footwear has alleviated a lot of the recent achillies/bursa/metatarsal pain and my feet are feeling pretty good. I didn't run today, and probably wont run until the day, although I might sneak a short one tomorrow or Saturday.

Secondly, I have declared myself vegan from today until the ultra. I'm doing this for my health. I have been experimenting with food lately, and I do feel much healthier on a vegetarian diet. I have decided to go a step further and be temporarily vegan, mainly to cut out dairy, but partly just out of interest to see how difficult it is to maintain.

Now I just need to make a list of what I need to take to the ultra, foodwise. It's only 53k so it's quite possible I wont even need any solids. Lately I have noticed on my long runs that I do crave fruit towards the end. Based on that, my list is this:

• Water
• Orange juice
• Apple juice
• Homemade boysenberry cordial
• Kiwi fruit
• Bananas
• Promite sandwich on multigrain or similar bread

I will run in the Five Fingers, but take the Asics DS Trainers just incase. I'll also take a very old pair of Asicas Kayanos with orthotics that I had years ago. They are sooo comfortable. Not to run in, but to wear after a long run when your feet just don't feel like doing anything. The cushy cushy feeling and the orthotics moving your feet for you is just perfect after a long run!

If anyone reading has any further suggestions, please comment!

Longer distances and immunity

The last few weeks I have felt like my training has not gone to plan. It was not enough. I didn't go far enough, didn't run enough days and my weekly mileage sat around 50-55km/week. There's nothing wrong with running 50-55km/week, but my intention was to increase this figure, not stay the same.

So on Saturday I set my alarm for 6am, and after a few hits of the snooze button, managed to kick myself out the door by 6:30am. It was 1 degree, frosty and misty. I am in love with my arm warmers :)

The run felt so easy and it was my longest yet at 27.3k. Strangely enough, I didn't feel battered about like I would normally after a longest long run. After a quick stretch I felt like I hadn't exerted myself more than if I had just walked around the block. Recovery was instant. I really only stretched because I thought it would be good for me, not because of any tight muscles. This long run pushed my weekly total to 66.3k even though I had 2 rest days!

Did I mention I felt good during that run? No recovery issues? Well, Sunday I woke up with a sore throat. Today a sniffly nose. This is the 3rd cold I've had this year. My colds last 2 weeks usually. I did a quick calculation today and worked out I have been sick for nearly a 3rd of 2008! That's shocking!

I know long distance running and endurance sports place stress on your immune system. I have read reports of people getting a cold after a marathon or ultra. I only did 27k though! That is not much in the scheme of things. Really, my system must be poor. I could not for the life of me work out what I could be lacking. Do I need to start eating on the run? Is there a magic food I should be eating immediately after a long run? Is there a pill I need to take?

After a query on a running forum and some Googling, I realised I don't eat any fruit. That's right, I couldn't work it out for myself, I needed the internet to tell me. Probiotics apparently assist in boosting the immune system too. So today I went to the posh supermarket that sells edible fruit (as opposed to the usual supermarket that sells cardboard tasting things or the organic shop which would cost more although taste better) and I stocked up on mandarins and kiwi fruit. I ate a kiwi fruit after my lunch. It felt good. It tasted good. I could feel the micro nutrients doing me good. So I am now going to trial eating fruit straight after a long run. I'd also like to give the probiotics a go. I honestly don't think I could be bothered buying yoghurt and eating it every day though. I'd get sick of it, then it would sit in the fridge and go off. But probiotics come in pill form so at some stage I might give those a go too.

Something else that also occurred to me today is I do place a fair amount of mental pressure on myself to run certain weekly distances and to get the long run the right distance. I think this pressure also puts me at risk of colds so I need to chill a bit. Go with the flow more. I don't know how to do that though and improve the way I want at the same time. I don't want to get sick every 6 weeks so something has to change in that regard. Fruit will help, but a relaxed state of mind might help more. The fruit thing I can control. This business of chilling might take some time. But maybe because my body just isn't used to these distances I am more susceptible to colds. Maybe when my body is used to these distances then I wont get sick all the time. Maybe I need a combination of everything - more nutrients in my diet, peace of mind and a fitter body. Maybe then it will all come together and I will feel healthier and suffer colds less. Time will tell.