The last few weeks of training has been hit or miss for us. We have been so busy trying to find time to do everything we want to do before and after the long work days here with Sea Shepherd on the Bob Barker. Hence, we have been rushed and tiered.
It had only been 5 weeks since we started our training after getting back from Africa, and we were clearly not used to being this out of shape. Africa took a toll on our bodies, and we are paying the consequences.
We spent 9 months in Africa and out of those 9 months we only had about 20 days where we could train, even just a little.
Not running for 9 months is insane!
It’s not something we ever want to try again, and why would you?
On top of this, Katie sprained her ankle in Africa and it was just beginning to heal once we arrived back to Australia. So no wonder our training has been extremely bumpy.
We were back in Melbourne finally!
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Reunited with our familiar running trails, we thought we would pick off where we left off last time we were running these trails last May before our Ultra Marathon. We pushed too hard, too early and we both got runners knee. We both never really believed in runners’ knee, and we didn’t really understand what it was until we got it ourselves. Apparently what it is, is it’s your knee’s way of telling you to slow down, and that your body is not ready for the amount of work you have given it. Our legs were not strong enough to run 10kms every day like we had been doing before Africa, and so our knees were mad at us, or at least that’s how we took it. So we listened to our body and we were forced to slow down. |
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But to recover from runners knee you have to take about 1 week off from running, so here we were only a few weeks into our training, taking a week off. As soon as our knees felt better we began to incorporate interval training into our weekly workouts! Once a week we are doing an interval training program from our new Sunto Watch: |
Its 16x 200m sprints with 30 seconds recover jog in between each set.
Wow, this is hard.
During the second week, Katie’s knee began to act up again the day after interval training, so it was clear that her body was not ready to push that hard yet.
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We also began to incorporate a “long run” once a week into the workout.Because we had just started training, and our daily run was at about 6-7 kms, so our long run was 10km, and we will increase 10% per week from there! |
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We have also been doing about 55 mins of plyometric and weight training in the mornings before work every day. |
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Gwen began to read “Becoming a supple Leopard” by Kelly Starrett, and the book is all about how effective cross training along with stretching that improves your strength and range of motion in your joints is the key to becoming a better athlete.So we have been trying it, and we are seeing great results during our runs because of our morning work-outs and interval training! |
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We have also been incorporating at least one 90 minute yoga practice per week into our workouts.Katie began to read “Jivamukti Yoga” by Sharon Gannon and David Life, and it is inspiring us to practice more yoga! |
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Jivamukti yoga is a very unique style of yoga that mandates compassion, veganism, and activism…
This is just our kind of yoga! |
Last week when Kate was cleaning out the dry store of the Bob Barker, we discovered a new very yummy healthy breakfast cereal/granola type food called “Buckinis”.
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Buckinis are Buckwheat kernels that have been activated and then dehydrated with a combination of different ingredients like coconut, raw cacao nibs, Goji berries, etc.This breakfast cereal is so freaking good!
It’s crunchy, which is so important when you have smoothies every day for your breakfast, it adds a little crunch and variety to the breakfast. The Buckinis are activated meaning that they soak the buckwheat, wash and rinse it, then dehydrate it at low temperatures (under 40 degrees Celsius). This allows for easier digestion and absorption of nutrients. Currently our favorite manufacturer of these is Loving Earth because they are always vegan, fair trade, ethical, sugar free and gluten free! Oh and amazingly delicious and they donate to Sea Shepherd! |
We are constantly trying to broaden our knowledge of food and see how different foods can enhance our performance!
Buckwheat is actually gluten free, it is not wheat at all, so it does not place a lot of stress on the digestive system. Buckwheat is prized for its high protein content, it has all essential amino acids and is especially high in Lysine, Tryptophan and Arginine. This is particularly important since the body cannot produce essential amino acids on its own and depends entirely on food sources to get them.
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This last week has been insane as we have been preparing to leave Australia and the Bob Barker behind as we prepare to begin our new life in the States, and spend a wonderful week in Hawaii along the way.We also spent last weekend at a vegan Bed and Breakfast which we will talk more about in the next blog! |
See ya next time, keep it vegan and happy!
Katie and Gwen
2 Healthy Fit Vegans
Vegan supplements with the Vegan-Supps-Logo made by POWERSTAR FOOD are available at Vegan-Supps.de und POWERSTAR FOOD
