So where do you get your protein?

A well-meaning but (eventually) tiresome question which vegans hear all the time. Oh so you are not eating ANY meat, no chicken, fish - nothing? No cheese even, wow. Then where do you get your protein?... Grrr.

Almost everything we eat have some protein in it, even vegetables. And plenty of it. Whole grains, lentils, beans, peas, brown rice, broccoli, corn, asparagus, tomatoes, pumpkin, it's a very long list. You can eat a diet of just potatoes, and still get enough protein. The protein which omnivores get from eating meat comes from --- plants. So vegans are just cutting out the middle animal, and getting the good stuff straight from the source. Which means they don't have to deal with the packaging consisting of lots of unwanted fat, cholesterol and who knows what else that has been injected into or consumed by the animals. As an added bonus plants have lots of nutrients and plenty of fiber.

But enough about nutrition. It is Saturday night and Game 3 of the World Series is in a rain delay. Hope they get it underway soon; we are cheering for the Tampa Bay Rays even though Houston is a National League town. Nothing against Philadelphia but the Rays are just such a great story. Loaded with young talent, from last place to the World Series - how can you not like them.

On the running front things are going well. 27 miles so far this week, mostly at an easy pace but including 3 mile repeats around 7:25 pace and some tempo running at 7:40 pace. Counting tomorrow's half marathon race, I will hopefully be able to clock a total of 40 miles for the week. Tomorrow's race will be a good test for the knee: if it holds up for more than 1 hr 40 minutes I think I'm good to go. I will be running in my racing flats, which don't have as much support as regular running shoes. It will be an experiment. Might shave off a few seconds.

As for the prospects for the race, I had hoped to be ready to give the 1:40 barrier (which would qualify me for the New York Marathon) a good go. However the knee injury on Sept 12 and the resulting lay-off as well as relatively low mileage since then, has forced me to lower my expectations. I would be happy to equal or better my time of last year, which was 1:44:40, at a pace of 8:07. Depending on the weather and how I feel after the first loop, I will try to keep the pace under 8:00. Whatever the pace ends up being, I don't want to push my heart rate much over 150, at least not for the first 10 miles. We shall see how it turns out.