Tag Archives: cat

Do Check That Inverter Is Working!

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Jane had to take Lala to be put down shortly before Xmas. We were very sad to lose her – I probably spent more time in her company than anyone else’s over the last year – but she was suffering brief periods of what looked like great discomfort and it was time to say goodbye. She spend much of her last few days trying to get comfy on a chair, she couldn’t curl up any more, or toasting herself by the gas fire 🙁

Lala Chair Dec 2012Anyway I decided to put her big, pink, covered, litter tray up in the attic which was my first trip up there for many a month. While I was there I decided to take a look at our solar inverters and saw the red fault light was displaying on one. I’d like to say I was surprised but to be honest I’d been suspicious of our low generation readings for a couple of months and had just been too lazy to check. It has been such a miserable summer of rain, rain and rain that I hadn’t been that surprised to see our readings drop – all the same I’d been justifying poor readings to myself by thinking that despite the sun being out for a change it was at the wrong angle for the arrays and that sort of thing. I do have a power monitor rigged up to the solar AC output via a current transformer so can tell roughly what it’s generating at any particular time.

The inverters have a 10 year guarantee so I emailed Solar PVE who got right back with the suggestion I try power cycling the system. It’s important to turn it all off in the right order, AC isolator first then the DC isolators. I was also asked to give it 10 minutes for the capacitors to discharge before restarting. The fault light was still on after this so, this being just before Xmas, Solar PVE offered either to get someone out after the holidays or, if I felt I could install it myself, they could send me a replacement next day delivery. I went and had a quick look, 4 mounting screws and 3 plug-in connectors, and said I’d do it myself.

InvertersGood to their word a new inverter was sent by fast courier and it took me less than 30 minutes to install – plus the same again to negotiate the unreadable Japanese menus using the manual to set the menu and read-out language to English. The AC output was noticeably higher straight away despite it being a cloudy December day and at midday the first sunny day I saw it was generating 1500W for the first time in ages. I was left kicking myself for not checking and dealing with it earlier.

So the total generation for 2012 was down to 1548 kWh compared to about 2230 kWh for 2011, much of this down to the most wet and dismal year on record but I suspect a couple of hundred kilo-Watt hours lost due to me being too lazy to check the inverters when I first suspected a problem back in September. On the bright side the amount of electric we consumed from the grid was 1311 kWh (this obviously doesn’t include energy we’ve generated and used directly) so we are still generating much more than we are buying.

Andy Reading 2012

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Back on my bike for the journey to Chesterton for the Andy Reading 10k having copped out and driven to last weeks event. I’m rather enjoying riding gears regularly again after so long on fixed and my £125 well used Muddy Fox hack is proving to be fine for rides up to 15 mile or so as well as the commuting and shopping for which I bought it. I gave the remains of my Bob Jackson away via freegle which is what freecycle seems to be called nowadays.

Muddy Fox HackI was expecting cold and windy but actually overheated on the way out and had to stop and remove a layer after Islip. Soon enough though I was stripped down to shorts, shirt and vest feeling the cold in the playing fields where I usually shiver waiting for this race to start. A girl from Reading said she was glad to see a vegan runner and we chatted as the runners jogged towards the start line. Fortunately this race is chip to chip as many of us were still on our way when the race started.

Once round the village then over the M40 and along Akeman Street for a bit into the wind but not as bad as I feared what with forecasts of 15 mph gusting to 30. Onto the airfield and I seemed to be managing my planned 7:45 minute miles which should give a sub-50 and hopefully under 48:33 which would be a season best even if still 2 minutes slower than last year. Lots of airfield and still feeling strong past the halfway point where I decided not to bother with the water.

After the 4th mile we turned directly into the now very strong wind which slowed us right down. I couldn’t manage 8 minute mile pace yet no one seemed to be passing me.Way in the distance the point where we doubled back and re-emerged onto Akeman Street was visible, after that it should be tailwind all the way. I held back a little then back up to speed once we’d turned and kept it going to finish in 48:09 217th of 419 which I was pleased enough with.

My plantar faciitis seems to have improved a lot, though not totally disappeared, what with my reduced mileage and daily stretches which I found here. I’ve got a sore arm instead now but at least that doesn’t effect my running.

Fragile Lala

This is our poor old Lala enjoying a bit of sunshine last Friday. She is very ill and has various tumours we can feel, probably worse further inside her. Just a few days after this photo she is a bag of bones and terribly weak. She has hardly eaten and sometimes struggles to breath. We took her to the vet on Saturday really expecting to say goodbye to her but he gave her a jab of B12 and some pain medicine for us to give daily and said we should report back in a week or sooner if she seems to be suffering badly. She still seems to get some enjoyment from the hot water bottle we’ve put on her chair and from toasting her head by the gas fire. I’ll go and say good night to her now – maybe it will be goodbye 🙁

Milton Keynes Marathon 2012

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The forecast had predicted that Sunday 29th April would be the worse day of a wet and windy week and it was not wrong. Driving out to Milton Keynes the rain poured down and I tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to avoid the puddles that covered half the road in places. Still I’d slept well, trained well, tapered and carboloaded –  I was still in with a chance of a sub-4 hour PB and if not I’d settle for 4:10 as good enough considering the conditions.

We queued in the rain for the Furzton Lake car park and I was a little alarmed as the marshalls had to help push the car in front up a saturated grassy slope as it’s wheels span and sprayed. I took a run at it and managed without help. A banana, a drink and some ibuprofen then I put on coat and hat then ventured out into the downpour to catch the shuttle bus to the start at the Milton Keynes Stadium.

We’d arranged to meet outside gate 5 but first I fought my way through the throng of runners and supporters sheltering from the weather to find a desperately needed loo where there was fortunately no queue. Back out in the weather I found Peter, who had turned out to support and take photos, but none of the others. I deposited my bag in the ‘buggage’ (well that’s what they called it on the little map) and headed for the start where it turned out they’d got the time band flags mixed up so we had a bit of a scramble finding our correct places which passed the time. I met Vegan Runner Shelley at the start who was looking confident and in good form.

My plan was to start off wearing an old cycling jacket and unloved gloves then ditch them once I warmed up, I knew one of my problems was likely to be wind-chill on wet clothing and I hadn’t forgotten the freezing wet Milton Keynes Half earlier in the year.

We started off on time at 10am and by the time we crossed the line we were running, it felt good to be on the move. I couldn’t see the promised 4 hour pacer but managed to keep under 9 minute miles and was snug in my jacket. The wind was horrendous on the exposed stretches so I tried to shelter behind the masses which was easy enough at first as there was a big turnout despite the weather.

We ran up a closed road with a roundabout where a bagpipe band were playing, under a subway where Vegetarian Cycling and Athletic Club members Keith and Sharon were supporting. Through parks, along cycleways, round a lake – a lively drum band spurred us on – there was lots of support despite the weather. I dumped my jacket, then later my sodden gloves, in bins somewhere around here, I wasn’t too warm but felt weighed down. I was keeping to planned pace and making sure I had a gel and a drink every few miles. A long mile, which later turned out to be a last minute diversion round flooding, cost me a couple of minutes but I was still on target.

The 4 hour pace man appeared from nowhere, or maybe I just caught him up, and I decided to keep behind him for the rest of the race. An ache in my left thigh had been bugging me from the start, I’d hoped it would disappear as I warmed up but it hadn’t. My upper arms were mysteriously aching as well. We were all thoroughly soaked and what with the wind and the huge puddles we tried to avoid via squelching diversions across waterlogged grass it was hard work for a flat road race. Still, I was on schedule and had re-caught the pacer after a quick hedge stop.

Halfway, including the extra bit, in 2 hours – then it started coming apart. I’d spent too much energy, physical and psychological, keeping up the pace and my spirits during the first half and soon enough the pacer was disappearing from sight as my attempts to keep up slipped then vanished. My splits tell me that miles 14 and 15 I was just hanging on about 9 minute miles then miles 16 and 17 nearer 10 minutes miles and, after an occasional walking break became an occasional running break, the rest over 11, 12 even a 13 minute mile. If there was any way out of this drudge – a taxi, a bus – I’d be gone!

It rained and it rained and the course got a bit hilly, hundreds of runners passed me while the few I passed looked in a terrible way. I was gradually joined by more walking runners though and after a bit we’d recognise each other and chat then jog. The 4:15 pacer past but I’d already reconciled myself to 4hr 30m. I remembered to eat and drink. I resolved never to start a long race in these conditions again. I still had over an hour of rain and wind to get through and I ached all over, particularly my upper arms which seemed totally unreasonable. I wished I hadn’t chucked my coat away.

Somewhere about here I got a shout from Rich who was supporting at one of the many bridges. I made a point of running where the supporters were congregating and not stopping till I’d got past that bunch. I must have had more than 10 shouts of ‘go on vegans’ or similar and only one joke about steak. The 4:30 pacer passed much too soon and I agreed with a fellow walker that we could still manage 4:30 without chasing him. I was managing to cheer up a bit though not getting any faster, on one of the many cycle underpass ramps I noticed everyone was walking –  a road marathon with about 20 walkers and not one runner!

I jogged past Keith and Sharon again. A chap overtook and said he was a vegan runner too. The 25th mile was the slowest but it was nearly over and for that I was very happy. I ran all the last 0.8 miles and running into the dry of the stadium, only just losing a pathetic race for the line, was actually rather fun. Peter appeared from the seating, having supported round the course then gone home for a much needed dry-out, and took another photo – that is not a look of triumph – just relief!

A brief chat then I regained my buggage and put on a jersey and a waterproof, apparently I was lucky as the baggage had been unmanned chaos earlier. I said goodbye to Peter and headed off to find the shuttle bus, having to ask a marshall when I realised I’d no idea where I was going. My thigh started cramping badly but was temporarily eased by squatting so I must have made an unusual sight, not as bad as some of the limpers though or the poor hypothermic shiverer who I was glad to see someone more capable than me stopped to help. I was stopped twice by grinning survivors waving their phone cameras and requesting I take their picture which I just about managed. The bus was waiting, the car warm and not stuck in the mud, the journey home pleasant enough.

Result seems to be 4hr 28m 27s 1800/2934 chip time. The fact that the winner ‘only’ managed 2hr 42m and only about 25 of nearly 3000 runners got sub-3 testified to the conditions. I’m not particularly pleased with myself though, I would better have accepted the weather and revised my target before the start than foolishly tried for a PB when it just wasn’t going to happen then end up with a predicable death march. Still, I’ll try and learn the lesson this time (again). Roll on Abingdon Marathon!

 

Oh the cat – I almost forgot! Jane and I went out for a wander down Lye Valley on Monday, me making it clear it was to be a slow walk. We looked sadly again at the poster about Isis the missing black cat, gone almost 2 weeks now. We saw a couple of muntjac then later, sitting on a broken willow some way off the path, a black cat. Probably just some other mog off chasing birds but maybe? We tried to approach through the thick undergrowth but it was gone. A bit of a search but we didn’t see it again, all the same it just might be Isis so Jane phoned the number on the poster when we got home and left a message. We’ve almost lost cats before and it’s very distressing. A chap (we know the house but not the people) phoned back and said he’d go and have a look. Later that evening he phoned to say it was indeed Isis, she was back home, a bit skinny and bedraggled but now ‘filling her boots’. He was so pleased and so were we – a better result than any marathon PB!

 

Lincs Leadout 600

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The plan for a good 6 hours sleep the night before my first 600km audax in over 3 years didn’t quite work out. Alarm set for 4:15 but an intermittent toothache I really ought to get sorted decided to nag and didn’t let me go to sleep for a while. I was then woken early by Lala howling and, after I dozed off again while Jane dragged herself downstairs to feed the demanding creature, woken again by Lala’s encore as she announced she’d done something very smelly in her litter tray. So somewhat tired I fed myself breakfast and coffee and Jane stirred herself again to give me a lift to the start at Goring.

A cup of tea at Trailblazers bike shop, which had kindly opened up at this early hour to accommodate the start, then 6:00 am and we were off – well a few of us were the others still seemed to be faffing about like there was no hurry. Chatted away the first short leg to Long Crendon where Phil was waiting to stamp our cards. I stopped there a few mins and ate a Veg-Out sausage roll, the secret of these long rides is eat early, eat often.

The next stage to Ross’s place in Earls Barton was the longest and I was expecting to feel the hills around Chearsley and Winchendon even though they are not exactly mountains. A chap called Peter joined me for a bit, a strong rider doing his first 600 as part of his PBP qualification (in fact I think I might have been the only rider who definitely wasn’t going for PBP). He was inquisitive about veganism and I tried to explain why some of us felt consuming milk and honey was bad as it often financed the abuse of the animals producing the stuff and because it meant depriving the creature the food was meant for of nutrition. Like many he didn’t seem to have considered that the honey and milk might not just be going spare. It was pleasant to talk to someone who didn’t seem at all defensive or critical but I don’t think I made a convert. I didn’t really notice the hills.

I stopped for a nibble somewhere after Winslow then stopped again to take a layer off in Salcey Forest as it was getting warm and sunny – unfortunately this precipitated a downpour so effectively that it was raining well before I even got back on the bike! A short shower though and I was soon enjoying beans on toast in Earls Barton at 110k.

We followed pretty lanes along the Neme valley and I made the Oundle control a short stop continuing on towards the next control at Bourne. Another brief shower came and went, then a longer, torrential, deluge which lasted 40 minutes and left me unimpressed by Wet West Deeping and the 7 mile long dead straight King Street (presumably Roman).

A regroup and chat with some other Oxfordshire AUKs outside the shop in Bourne, Jeremy on his first 600 and Pat, the only other fixed rider, on his umpteenth. 185k done and I was ahead of schedule and feeling great. I had a room booked in Scunthorpe to get a couple of hours sleep and thinking of this was a good psychological buffer to dispel any ‘not even a third of the way yet’ type gremlins.

So onwards alone to get another short leg out the way, next stop Grantham. After a brief stretch of A road we followed the East Glen River valley for most of the way and I was increasingly aware that better than expected progress was mostly down to a steady tailwind that had been with us all day, the forecast cross wind was just not there. This was a pretty direct south to north route but then tomorrow we were to retrace 315k back the way we’d come. I decided not to think about this too long.

A quick garage stop in Grantham then good progress to Lincoln, actually about 5k outside Lincoln as the route didn’t go into the city itself, where I stopped at a garage I assumed to be the recommended control. The young guy manning the till spotted my Vegetarian Cycling and Athletics Club shirt and for the second time this ride I had a chance to rattle on about vegetarianism. He was torn between an urge to go veggie and some idea he’d got that beef was ‘strong’ meat and he needed it for muscle. I told him about Rob Bigwood, vegan arm wrestler, and he seemed intrigued enough for me to think he’d do a Google when he got home (alright so the bit about Rob’s biceps being thicker than my waist might have been a little bit of an exaggeration).

Outside the garage stuffing my face I watched 2 AUKs cycle straight past, I whistled but they carried on, I was surprised they hadn’t returned by the time I set off again a few minutes later. Around the corner I spotted their bikes outside MacDonalds which was where I was supposed to have stopped – oh well, near enough!

Flat and fast to Scunthorpe, bag of chips at McDs, and I was in the hotel room (a first for me, I usually just crash wherever on long rides) showered and in bed for 11:00. The ride up had taken 16hr 30m for 315k which was fast for me an an hour up on schedule. Much needed sleep was disturbed first by the toothache crawling back out of it’s lair then later by my blooming phone going off to tell me I needed to spend some money if I wanted more free wotsits. Still a good 2 hour 30 mins actual sleep then stuff my face and I’m back on the bike for 3am.

The start of the road back was dark, quiet, and flat. My iPod decided to play up, I couldn’t actually remember recharging it, and I gave up on it. Soon enough the sleepies were upon me and the time and money spent on the hotel seemed wasted. I crawled along through dawn and Hough on the Hill, seemingly towering up more like a mountain than the molehill it actually is, looked daunting. In fact the climb turned out to be just what I needed and by the top I felt awake and strong and that was the end of the dozies for the rest of the ride.

With day came the wind though, a gentle but constant againsterly, it slowed me and the prospect of over 10 hours into it brought on a dose of misery that lasted a long, long time. Coffee and hash browns at McDs cheered me up for all of 10 minutes. I took the main road route out of Grantham which saved me the 5k retrace but led me to a rather lumpy road to Bourne which I could have done without.

Oundle CarnivalTime was oozing away by the time I reached Oundle where notices told of a carnival. The motor vehicles were all diverted off but I was waved through and soon found myself riding alone down streets lined with people watching and waiting. A lot of noise from round the corner and I reckoned it was time to get out the road sharpish! So 15 mins spent in Oundle with no chance of a cafe stop, I ate a gel and enjoyed the show which was pretty good with kids being green men and majorettes and a weird bike and floats and stuff. I chucked some change in a bucket and forgot about having to ride the bike for a bit.

Oundle CarnivalThe entertainment thinned out and I got back on the bike passing a ocean going yacht being towed on a trailer complete with crew pretending to be a sea which looked huge and laughably out of place. I stopped for a proper eat somewhere on this leg, pulling into a shop forecourt for water before noticing it was closed which didn’t exactly enhance my mood. Pat and Jeremy appeared, I expressed surprised they were behind me and they pointed out there were at least 2 more behind them. I’d forgotten that most had slept at Lincoln, even Grantham, so I’d probably passed as they slumbered. I think my plan made more sense, sleep while it’s dark.

A quick hello to Ross and a water fill up at Earls Barton and I was on my way. I’d been too slow for too long and had little hope of finishing in BRM time, 10pm dead. At the start Matt had made a point of letting me know that a BR brevet would be awarded for a finish within AUKs more generous limits. No excuse to stop then as I’d manage midnight surely!

Somewhere on the long leg to Long Crendon my mood changed drastically upwards, maybe I’d let the blood sugar get low and it was now replenished, maybe the wind shifted or dropped, maybe remembering that my phone played music so I had Muse and the Stranglers for company. Whatever it was I found myself going well through Winslow, honking up Winchendon ok despite an increasingly painful right knee. Alright then – no harm in going for 10pm even if I might not make it!

A chat with Chris at Crendon, he needed BRM and was determined. I phoned Jane to beg a lift back from Goring saying I hoped to be there 10ish. I set off on the last short leg 5 minutes after Chris and found I was going pretty well considering I’d over 350 miles in the legs. The evening sun was good and the scenery was splendid as I span along through Stoke Talmage and Brightwell Baldwin (well it was when I wasn’t hooking greenfly out of my tired eyes). Outside the pub at Ewelme, over 615k into the ride, Chris had his wheel out and was fixing a flat, I stopped and said if ever I’d seen a good reason for an appeal for extra time this was it.

Onwards over a lump after Benson I didn’t remember being there. My knee hurt and I was aware that the last few miles were flatter on the other side of the Thames but wasn’t sure enough of the way to gamble with a diversion. I was going to make it though and sure enough I rolled into Cleeve road, Goring at 9:55 with 626k on the clock. So that was my fixed wheel Super Randonneur* series for 2011 in the bag.

9:58 Chris appeared and as we put our completed cards through the letterbox as requested he said ‘listen’ – we stood there and listened to Goring clock strike ten!

I was knackered Monday despite a good nights sleep so did little. Tuesday I decided to skip my run, Thursday I just ran 3 miles and took it easy. Friday I ran my favourite local 5 mile multi-terrain training route fastest time ever. The wonders of cross training eh 🙂

*The spell check doesn’t recognise ‘randonneur’ and wants to substitute ‘abandoner’ – bit unfortunate.

 

Vegan

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I ‘went’ vegan, already having been vegetarian for most of my life, in November 2008. November is Vegan Month and as my second full year approaches, and I can start to look back on the first few months of transition as the past, I thought I’d go on about it.

So why vegan? Animal welfare is the core answer and only the blindest or thickest of people could pretend that farming in the industrial way we do is kind to, or good for, animals. Obviously just me not eating eggs and dairy doesn’t actually make any animals better off in a society which over produces and throws away many thousands of times more animal produce than I’m not consuming. But we supposedly have a market driven economy where suppliers respond to demand – and I demand soya milk and egg free meat substitutes and leather free clothing and vegan biscuits and the like. There are other important reasons of course, such as sustainability, limiting damage to the environment and eating well.

Does being a fussy customer work? Well it certainly did for the ovo-lacto vegetarian movement, almost every pub, restaurant and cafe in the UK now offers veggie choices, it would be economic suicide not to! There may not be so many vegans yet but the easy options are fast growing: a choice of tasty vegan frozen goods at Holland and Barrett; vegan curries at Wetherspoons – even some (but not many) bottled beers and wines are marked as suitable for us nowadays and many more prove to be ok after a bit of research. The emergence of tough, waterproof, synthetics increasingly makes leather look like a sidelined, fetishist, choice. Vegans are customers and the more we buy the more commerce will offer and this will divert resources from producing and promoting animal based products, in percentage terms at least.

But why me in particular? Well as a long term veggie, and an animal lover of the sort who can clearly see that a sheep can feel pain and distress as surely as my cat can, it was maybe only a mater of time. I am not one of those who pretends that becoming vegan puts me at the the top of the kind to animals status pyramid, I’m well aware that thousands of creatures die to allow our industrialised agriculture grow the grain to make the bread that I throw away when it gets stale, but I do see veganism as another step upwards and I do think these changes are best made in steps rather than too gradually.

Chickens kept by kind owners in non-commercial situations may well have a happy life. Once profit becomes the motive though welfare tends to go out the window!

For many years I’ve been an audax rider, a long distance cyclist, eating many, many more calories than I need so I can squander them in pursuit of another 100 kilometres – I was painfully aware that it is one thing to ride and eat without causing any harm but another to obtain my fuel at the expense of animal welfare. A further incentive came from the fact that in Autumn 2008 I had some concern about animal abuse becoming more prominent in areas of my life I have no influence over and I felt the need to balance this out with action elsewhere.

Also, importantly, becoming vegan was a challenge I set myself, a bit of a mountain to climb with views and satisfaction waiting at the summit for me. Making the change was more about achievement than deprivation.

So come November 1st 2008 I’d been practising by having vegan days and I’d done a deal with Jane, my veggie partner, that I’d cook 3 days a week but if she cooked for me it’d have to be vegan. It was only going to be for November at first. Making the change was quite easy and fun in many ways, experimenting with new recipes, pigging out on vegan meat substitutes and ice cream. Since she retired Jane spends a great deal of time eating pub meals with her friends so she could eat veggie then and seemed to enjoy the vegan adventure at home. I on the other hand dislike just about any social activity that involves sitting and talking in groups so nothing for me to miss out on and even a convenient excuse if I need one. Jane seems quite amiable to stuffing her face and nodding while I drink too much and waffle so we have a vegan (for me) meal out at Wetherspoons, or occasionally the excellent Garden in Jericho, at least once a week.

I wasn’t too sure about the no honey thing at first, it just didn’t fit into my definition of animal produce. After all bees are just insects, ‘good’ insects I’m sure, same as ladybirds, but still insects, same as the greenfly and blackfly I continue to be mean to when they attempt to eat the vegetables I’m growing. But about that time the media started highlighting how colonies of bees were shrinking alarmingly and the potentially devastating effects for agriculture and plant life in general that could occur as a result of their loss. The truth started coming out about how greedy commercial bee-keepers had been treating them, ferrying them round hundreds of miles to sell their pollination services, making them grow artificially large and weak by constructing oversize cells, taking not just excess honey but honey they needed to survive and replacing it with sugar solution of little nutritional value. Yet again the money men trash nature in their ignorant greed. So now I get the honey thing, it’s just another facet of unsustainable factory farming treating animals as product, and I don’t eat honey.

The beer thing took a while. I’d always enjoyed drinking cask ales as a vegetarian, ignoring or excusing the fact that they are mostly fined with fish swim bladders. I love real ale, it was difficult, but there are plenty of tasty, animal free, bottled options. Eventually I drunk my last fishy pint – we all have to sacrifice something 🙁

It would be great to be able to say that from the moment I went vegan I felt healthier in mind and body. It wouldn’t be quite true though. My digestive system really didn’t like being deprived of all those dairy fats to slow it down. For several months I was not really happy to be too far from a toilet for too long. I slept badly most nights partly due to irritable bowel syndrome type symptoms but also because of the endless circular internal monologues of stress and depression. I felt weak riding a flattish 200k and took longer than usual to recover. I took pre-biotics and B12 supplements and never seriously considered going back to dairy, but for a while I was not the best advert for the vegan diet!

Looking back now though it was just change and change isn’t always easy and quite often has mental as well as physical side effects. I was getting genuinely stressed because of changes at work and a badly timed attempt to impose a somewhat incompetent manager on me – that wasn’t just diet! Of course I was knackered after long rides – I’d just taken up running again and expecting to start running 20 miles a week while changing my diet and continue to ride long distance was a bit much. And yes the digestive process does quicken when you eat less fat, this means less time for food to hang about in the gut causing polyps which are associated with colon and bowel cancer.

Eighteen months vegan and feeling fine!

Almost 2 years on and I think I can now honestly say that I do feel better than before I went vegan. I sleep pretty well, better than I can remember for a long while. My stomach is mostly fine and predictable and is even quite open to pints of adventurous smoothies that Jane will only pretend to sip. I think I’ve become better at shrugging off dark moods when I don’t feel like indulging them and at ignoring the fact that I hate my job. (I wouldn’t want to be one of these always look on the bright side types anyway.) I take B12 supplements and flax oil for Omega 3 and sometimes protein recovery drinks, usually hemp in soya milk. I make sure I get at least my 5 a day and usually also manage my 21 units a week without much effort.

I can certainly run better than ever before, mostly due to training of course but you can’t train without a good mindset and diet. I really enjoy running. I made a point of completing a Randonneur Round the Year (200k brevet a month for 12 successive months), as a vegan, while still running, I’m no slower and recover well. I’m currently focussed on doing my best at the Abingdon Marathon in tens days time but after that I’ll be looking forward to shorter runs and getting back on the bike and trying some of the longer distances with animal free fuel.

Being a vegan is good – I recommend it 🙂