Oh, Hi!

As I say at the beginning of all posts recently, I apologize for my absence! Law school definitely interfered with life for a minute there. However, I can now happily say that that problem won't happen again! I got hooded yesterday!



It was awesome! I now have two months of intense studying before I sit for the bar in late July, and then I'll be a real attorney! (But please don't ask me about your legal problems! I can't give you advice over the internet!)

Anyway, since my last post (seven months ago!), so much has happened. I won't bombard you with everything now, but there's been a lot of racing, a lot of training, and a lot of traveling. I'll get you caught up soon!

At the moment, I'm just finishing up my first week of Ironman training. Yep, Ironman! I know it's insane, being I just started running a year and a half ago, but I know I can do it if I stick to the training. I'm a pretty fierce chick! I was looking for a fall race, and I found an iron-distance triathlon in Maryland in September called ChesapeakeMan.



I'll actually be living in DC in September (Yes, I'm moving! Another story to tell...), so it's quite convenient. I started a 20-week training plan from BeginnerTriathlete.com on Monday, and I'm loving it so far. It's hard work--don't get me wrong--but I love training. Since Monday, I haven't really been able to do anything except sleep, eat, drink water, and rack up mileage. Seriously, if I sit down for more than five minutes and am not eating or drinking water, I fall asleep, no matter where I am. It's crazy! I hope it gets easier in subsequent weeks!

So far, training has gone like this:

Monday: run and swim
Tuesday: bike and run
Wednesday: swim
Thursday: long run
Friday: bike and swim
Saturday: REST!

Tomorrow I have a long ride, and then Monday starts Week 2, which follows nearly the same pattern. The workouts are specific as to time and/or distance, but I can get into that later.

Honestly, I had almost completely forgotten how much I love triathlon training. I spent all of last summer training for a fall triathlon too, Ironman 70.3 Augusta, and never in my life did I feel healthier. I was eating right, training a couple hours a day, practicing yoga regularly, and I felt like I just glowed all the time.

Even when I was dirty!



Although I've been consistently training for endurance running events since Ironman 70.3 Augusta, I've slowly let myself go. I ate junk for a couple days after my race because I felt like I deserved it, and then I never really stopped. I pretty much quit biking and swimming. I practiced yoga maybe once a week, but I was mostly just going through the motions. Despite the fact that I trained for and ran two marathons and a 50K ultra-marathon between then and now, I quickly became out of shape. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, and I was forced to confront the fact that I had put on almost fifteen pounds and could barely walk up a flight of stairs. It was definitely time to start triathlon training again!

I'm not going to post a picture of me now, which would essentially be a picture of what I consider to be "Overweight Me." I could, but I don't want to give anyone the wrong idea. I'm overweight for what I consider to be a good racing weight, and the subject of healthy weight is definitely one where your mileage may vary. Healthy for me isn't about what my body looks like but what it can do, and, right now, it can't do anything!

I'm hoping to drop between fifteen and twenty pounds before ChesapeakeMan in September, and I don't imagine it will be too difficult. I lost two pounds in the first week! The workouts are only getting harder, and I'm just going to keep eating better. I'm eating about 80% raw at the moment, and I'm absolutely loving it. I know I don't talk about food much on this blog, despite it's title referencing my choice of diet, but I certainly will if anyone has any questions about what it's like to train for an Ironman as a mostly-raw vegan. Just ask!

The last thing I'll address today in order to get you mostly caught up is a new and important character in the story of my life. My darling, Rusty.



Rusty and I have been dating since last fall, and I have a feeling you'll be hearing a lot about him in the future. He currently lives in Baltimore for work, so he and I regularly travel between here and there so that we can spend as much time together as possible. Also, I totally got him addicted to running, so you'll get to hear about his races, too, from the perspective of a spectator!

That's all for today. I have to go clean my apartment--my landlady already wants to start showing it to people, even though I'm not moving out until July!

Getting triathalon-readier

I'm getting better at biking, and it makes me so happy! Granted, I still ride slower than molasses, but I'm upping my distance a bit with each ride, which is cool.

Yesterday evening, the darlin' and I set out and rode 15 miles.



That's farther than the distance I'll be riding in my first triathalon in August!

Completing a triathalon was the first fitness goal I set for myself. The triathalon I'm doing is on August 14, about a week before my 27th birthday!



It's a short sprint triathalon, with just a 400m swim, a 13.6-mile bike ride, and a 5K run. I'm nervous about it, even though I know I shouldn't be. I'm going to incorporate an 8-week triathalon training program into my marathon training starting June 28th. Until then, I'm just going to continue building up my strength and speed in the different events.

You can see my triathalon training plan here.

I started with a Hal Higdon triathalon training plan and worked it around my marathon training. It's going to be complicated, but I don't think it's going to be impossible. Actually, I think it's going to be amazing!

There aren't words for how proud of myself I'm am now. I never thought I'd even get this far! I thought it would take me a year to get fit enough just to finish a triathalon, and, here it is, a few months later, and I can already complete all of the events separately!

It's an amazing feeling.

I'm not just going to complete the triathalon; I'm going to DOMINATE.

I'll leave you a picture of another favorite veggie shirt. :-)

Big news!

The Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco is 28 weeks away. A modified Galloway marathon training program will take me 27 weeks to complete. Coincidence? I think not! I know that yesterday I was considering just the half, but today I know that I want to try for the whole thing!

Twenty. Six. Point. Two. Miles. Oh my goodness!

I know I just ran my first mile in my life in January, but I know I can do this! It would mean a lot to me, and it would mean a lot to my mom, too.

I'm going to start my modified training program next Monday. I'll post my training schedule soon!

Today, I started out with a big mug of green tea and large dose of entertainment law homework.



I had a nice run on my "low and slow" course. It's a 3-mile loop around my neighborhood that's about 2 miles of slow incline and then 1 mile of steep decline.

Post-run, I had half a cantaloupe, 1/2 a cup of uncooked oats, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, and a cup of soymilk. Does anyone else love uncooked oats besides me? I think I like them better than cooked oats!



Awesome refuel. A few hours later I had my usual raw protein smoothie (banana, frozen fruit, raw rice protein powder, chia seeds, soymilk, and spinach).



Yum, yum, yum. After some more entertainment law homework, I packed up and headed to the gym for a quick spin before class. That was a hot 45 minutes! My gym had the AC on, but it's no match for Georgia-summer-in-April! I don't think I've sweat so much in my life!

Before class, I had some coconut water, apple slices, and raw walnuts to get me through. Please excuse my dirty computer! I had no idea it was so dusty!



Now, I'm sitting in class called History of the American Constitution. Please save me! Ha!

My vegan booty greets you!

I guess I'll start with a little about me! My name is Ali, and this is a record of my quest to have a better, healthier vegan booty.



Though I've been a vegetarian for 15 years and a vegan for 3, prior to last winter I was never healthy. I didn't really care about food or exercise, and my health was always on a back burner. Last December, though, I decided to get my vegan booty in gear! I realized that up until then I had done amazing things with my mind and my soul, but I had done nothing amazing with my body. I really wanted to do something amazing! I also realized that I wasn't going to do anything amazing by sitting on my tush. It was time to get to work.

In December I started eating a much healthier, mostly raw vegan diet. I started going to the gym to swim laps at least 4 times a week, and I made a pledge to myself to finish a triathalon before graduating from law school (I had about a year and a half left).

The triathalon was going to be my "amazing" thing, but now that I've been training for about 3 months and am nearing being triathalon ready, I know that it can't stop there. Healthy eating, healthy exercising, and healthy living have to be a way of life. Next goal after the triathalon: Marathon!

So, that's what this blog is about--healthy eating, healthy exercising, and healthy living while working towards my goals. I hope you enjoy reading!