Veggie Boy? Yup.

When you say, "I am a vegetarian," what does that mean?

Could mean lots of different things. In my case, what it means is that I am exploring a different way of fueling this engine, a way that hopefully makes me feel as good when I am not running as I do when I am.

It's not nearly as hard to do this as it was back in my post-collegiate days, really the last time I paid any attention at all to what I put in my mouth. Maybe that's because there are, according to a recent Washington Post column, 12 million American vegetarians.

My switch-over has been a gradual move spreading across the past month. This weekend, grocery shopping found us scoring soy burgers, soy milk and a couple cans of veggie chili to go along with the typical pierogies, fresh fruit and pasta that are already staples of the Team Gentry diet.

My goal is to avoid red meat entirely, and try to keep to a minimum anything pig. Fish and chicken stay. So does dairy.

I would have "gone vegetarian" years ago, but wasn't really willing to do the extra food prep and meal planning required to make that happen and still keep Heidi and Ben on their quasi-normal diet. So far, no problem. Given that it's Basketball Referee Season, I basically eat no weekday meals with either of them.

The good news is that I feel much, much better. The running is much better. My concentration is much, much better (maybe due to mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks and an overall increase in food intake).

Should be way interesting to see how this plays out.

Oh yeah, beer remains on the Preferred Foods list. Good runner food, beer. :-)

Great start

Any day that starts with a 2-hour run, then Animal Crackers has to be a good day.

Just another day in paradise, baby!

Did 2 hours run/walk (7 run, 3 walk) with Mike Carpenter and P.J. in and around the 'Burg. Yeah, it was 13F at 0500 when we shoved off. Yeah, I was in shorts. Yeah, they made big fun of me. No, my legs were fine. My hands, on the other hand (arf arf!), were stumps, even in double gloves. Parked at Carp's house, I was so pathetic that i ALMOST had to go get help with turning the key in the ignition. Yep, guess it's time to replace those 7-Eleven Jersey gloves with some real ones. :-)

Strength work before showering: 4 rounds of 15 push-ups, 20 crunches, 5 pull-ups in 4:55. Nice number. I can go faster. The last round everything hurt. Awesome!

Tonight I ref girls' JV hoops at Spotswood High School with Scott Arbogast, a young guy who is top quality. Good supplemental training piece and should be a fun time. Nice change to be home by 8ish, too.