Duathlons and halloumi

Week 2 of February Vegan Challenge and a slip has happened. Not even an accidental slip, an actual "Oh bugger it I don't care" and it's all the fault of a duathlon.

As I mentioned in my last post, I took part in the Real Women's Series duathlon (my annoyance at that name can wait) on Sunday. Due to work starting back, stupid high humidity in the evenings and coaching fresh meat, I had let my running training slide in the last couple of weeks. However, I had the arrogance to think that it wouldn't matter and I'd breeze it. The "You're all WINNERS! Beautiful, sexy WINNERS!" rhetoric was also grating a little and went against me taking it seriously.

It was a lesson in hubris.

The free shirt's quite nice though

I struggled. The duathlon took place in either stinking humidity or torrential rain, neither of which were conducive to a fast time. Once again I hit a bit of a wall with the running sections (only 3.5k and 1.5k FFS), and felt like I was wading through treacle on the final kilometre or so. I had set a goal time of 1hr 15 mins, but had secretly hoped for an hour. As it was, I got 1hr 10mins, which is OK I guess but not what I hoped for. No finisher's high that day.

It was a great learning experience though. I actually felt like giving up several times, coming up with some "my ankle hurts" excuse, but I pushed through the BS and completed. I learned a valuable lesson about complacency in events, that it doesn't matter how stupid-sounding the event or the extra frills, every event is only ever against yourself and that needs to be taken seriously. As a result, I have set about 6 alarms for Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and successfully managed my first morning run of 2012. My time was crap (I need to look at a 6am pre-run fuel option) but I feel like I'm finally getting into something approaching a decent schedule. Run Tuesday, Thursday, and weekends, derby Monday and Wednesday, coaching other days but that's a bit lower-impact, Fridays day off. Sorted.

Look at it. JUST LOOK AT IT.

As for veganism, I slipped up after the duathlon. I met some friends for brunch, still in my soaking wet running gear. I was pretty irritable, tired, and the cafe we met up at does an amazing vegetarian burger. A. MAZE. ING. It has halloumi cheese on it. I ate it with a kind of nihilistic abandon. I knew it was there. I didn't I care. It was delicious.

But WHY, Bruja? Why cave and eat the cheese? Honestly, because of the grumpy. Because I felt like I'd failed at the duathlon (at the time I thought I was a good 10 minutes slower than I actually was) and so did not give a damn. Because halloumi is delicious. Back on the wagon now of course, I have discovered a quick and delicious stir-fry recipe that may see me through to about August.

Stupid simple, just fry up half an onion and then add a couple of handfuls of blanched peanuts. In another pot, boil up some delicious quinoa (cooks faster than rice, tastes great, and has lots of protein. Also, doesn't leave you feeling bloaty and overfull). Add some veg to your onion and peanuts (I add lots of carrot, corn and peas). When cooked to your liking, add a huge spooge of soy sauce, a teaspoon-sized glob of garlic, one of ginger, and a bit of chili. Cook a bit more. Add quinoa. FEAST.

Me, yesterday.

I have to say though, I am still enjoying vegan month, and I think it will continue to impact on my diet once the 29 days are over. I've swapped out my black coffee addiction for green tea, eating WAY more vegetables (which I'm now enjoying more than fruit. And I love fruit.) After the initial dip in energy (which I can attribute to work starting up I think) I feel pretty good. I've discovered avocado on toast with hot sauce. Exciting things to cook with quinoa. I think I'm cooking more from scratch, and I love that my grocery bill last week came to.... $35. And I probably won't need to restock until next pay day either. Apart from my teenage antagonism on Sunday, I've not really missed dairy or felt a gap in my diet. Given that three years ago I was eating meat almost daily and didn't really give any thought to my diet beyond "Don't eat too much crap" this is something of a development.