St Mary's and Gold Camp Rd

18.2 miles 3:03:23
Ran up to the top of St Mary's 9800ft. The snow pack
Got to the point of making it hard to run. I went back
down and jumped onto Gold Camp Rd. Ran up that for a
few miles then back down to the vehicle. Pretty tired after
this run. Still building the base. Solid week with 53 miles
on 6 days of running. Race coming up in 3 weeks so
will cut back some this week maybe 45 miles.

Gold camp rd, 665, High drive

14 miles 2:17:19 9:48 average per mile
Day off from work so did a fun run in the Cheyenne canyon area. Snow was deeper
than I expected. Post holing in spots 6-12". Made for a great workout.

2017 Race Schedule

It's going to be a busy year with lots of new races
I'm excited to tackle my second 100k and second 100 miler.
Training is starting to ramp up slowly. I have been doing more weights this
 year and have planked every day this year. My diet is very good. I'm still
eating a vegan diet of Whole Foods plant based without any added oil, sugar
or salt.
Today I started to reincorporate treadmill workouts at 15% incline. I am
power hiking. Today I got 2.2 miles covered in 30 minutes.  Hopefully this is
just a baseline and will see improvement over the coming months.
More post to come.

Solid week of training

49.7 miles for the week.
Coming off another bad week I finally got some miles in. I had planned on
running the Cimarron 50k the previous week but came down with a
illness and had to scrap the race. This was my first DNS ever.
I look forward to putting in some consistent weeks here on out till
the 100 in August. This weekend I put in 31 miles and 5:40.

Leadville 100 Here I Come

Well its been a long time since I blogged. I have since qualified for Leadville 100
trail run at Austin Texas a couple weeks ago. I have just under 4 months to get in
the best shape of my life. I'm running a 50k this coming weekend to get a longer run
in. I have a coach Justin Ricks to guide me along the way. http://www.madmooseevents.com
Look him up if interested in a very knowledgeable runner and coach. Justin knows
his stuff!
This week was me just kind of getting back to some regular running. I did 5 runs this
week. I will build the mileage up going forward. I think I did 34 miles this week and
next will be 50 with the 50k race.
Will try to post more regularly as I have much more focus in my running than I have
had over past 6 months.

Rampart Range Road & weekly recap

15 miles 2:17:43
Easy to moderate effort run today. Just getting the miles in. This was my biggest mileage
week in quite a while. I ran 6 days this week and biked 1 day.
Monday 10.6 miles Section 16
Tuesday Bike 30 minutes
Wednesday 3.6 miles Red Mountain
Thursday  6.2 miles Ute Valley
Friday 5.7 miles roads around the neighborhood
Saturday 7 miles Intemann trail and Iron Mountain
48 miles for the week. Great week for me. I definitely did some miles this week compared
to past few months. Time to get after it. Leadville 100 demands my full respect.

This morning I ate Teff porridge, piece of toast, smoothie and coffee with coconut oil.
I think I ate and drank a bit much:) Plenty of fuel for the run!
Teff porridge is a tiny grain from Ethiopia. I do half a cup of it to a cup of water.
It's not overly flavored but just a nice almost nutty flavor. I add cinnamon to it along with
a banana and walnuts.

Gone Vegan!

I changed the name of my blog to reflect my passion for my lifestyle of being
a vegan runner. I became vegetarian back in June. I was happy to be vegetarian
rather than vegan as I still could eat cheese. My views changed a few months
down the road as I realized eating cheese and dairy was just as bad as eating
meat. Do it all the way or nothing I figured. So no animal meat or by
products for me. Yes this is very challenging and especially when going out
to eat. But so worth it for me. I feel like a weight has been lifted off me.
I feel one is not really a true animal lover until one totally gives up meat.
My compassion for animals is like it has never been. I don't just love the
family pets anymore but all of God's creations. It's a new year and I highly
recommend anyone reading this to consider reducing or giving up eating
meat and dairy.
A little history on how I have come to this point. I was a meat eater all my
life. I read a book by Scott Jurek and it all changed for me. Scott
is the most prolific Vegan runner out there; winner of 7 Western States 100
mile trail races. As I read his book Eat & Run, I started to think of my own
eating lifestyle. I started to rethink it more and more as I read this book.
By the time I finished the book I was sold. I was ready to try vegetarian.
Meanwhile Bethany, my partner, was also reading the book and was on
board. We did it cold turkey no more meat. We have had so much fun on this
new journey. Food is much more fun! We try so many new things. I honestly
have not missed meat at all. So fast forward a few months down the road.
We watched a documentary on Netflix called Cowspiracy. This was the next
big life changer for us. We watched it and we knew we had to go vegan.
By not eating meat, we are improving our health, making a difference for
the environment, but the most important thing is, we are saving animals.