All things running

By: Matt Frazier

Take one down, pass it around

As of yesterday (November 2009), 99 No Meat Athlete shirts (plus a few freebies) are floating around this planet! Most are in the U.S. lower 48, but I’ve shipped some to Hawaii, Australia, Denmark, and many to Canada (eh?). This is so neat for me, since when I first considered getting shirts, I was pestered by my own nagging “Why would anybody want a shirt from your stupid blog” thoughts. So it is awesome that so many people have bought them and it’s cool to hear people tell me they saw someone wearing one in a race. Just yesterday, NMA-reader Elisa sent me this photo of herself showing her veggie pride at the Jack London Trail Race in Nashua, NH! Thanks Elisa. (And the other 98 of you, feel free to send me your photos. You, too, could have your photo on this newfangled interweb!)

Two runs, one day

I just got back from a nice 7-miler this morning, and tonight I have my weekly trail run. For those scoring at home, that’s two runs in one day! This is actually something that serious runners do a lot — your legs get a chance to recover, and you can refill your glycogen stores — but I’ve never in my life run twice in a single day. I’ve just never wanted to; it’s always been a “workout” mentality for me. One workout a day, no need for any more.

But it’s not about that anymore. I really just love running recently. When I’m running, everything is good. I told you Stu Mittleman‘s book was a little bit of a daisy-picker so far, but maybe it’s rubbing off. When I consciously direct my focus and try to enjoy running, I’m finding that it gives me the same sort of “high” that I get from coffee (which, by the way, I haven’t had in six days).

Four 50K’s, four months

Part of my motivation for putting in more miles recently — every day in November, going strong — is something I haven’t told too many people about yet. I’ve signed up for a 50K (31 miles) race in each month from December through March!

The Frozen Foot 50K, December 5th (a training run my running club, RASAC, does)
The PHUNT 50K, January 2nd
The Hashawha Hills 50K, February 27th
The HAT Run, March 20th

This is definitely a change from the “train for a marathon” mindset, where you build up to the race and go all-out on race day. It will be a nice test to see if I can maintain consistently high mileage for an extended period of time, rather than training in terms of build-ups and rests. I certainly won’t “race” all of these; I’ll take some easy and use them as long, slow training runs.

Of course, this is all in preparation for a 50-miler which I hope to do in the spring. I was really hoping to do Bull Run, but I’m realizing that April 10th is just a bit too close for marital comfort to our baby’s due date of April 19. But there are plenty more; I just might have to do some traveling to get there.

And one thing vegan

Michelle from Eating Journey and Katy from Silly Tater Tot have gone vegan for the week! They asked me to participate by going vegan for the day, which is coincidental since I’ve been vegan for the week too, ever since I found 1,000 Vegan Recipes. They’re having lots of guest posts about vegan stuff, so check out their blogs and think about going vegan for a day this week!

Stay tuned

I have an awesome giveaway in store for next week (now closed), one that I know you runners/athletes will be excited about. Now, I don’t want to mention any names and spoil what it is, but somewhere on this page I have placed a very subtle clue. It’s one of my favorite things, something that I use ALL the time, after every long run. Hmm, what ever could it be?