I’m home in Sherwood today after two weeks in the Galapagos. I’ll write all about the trip later, as right now I’ve got my hands full with a PB&J. I’ll be racing Eugene Celebration starting on Friday, but I’m sure I’ll be going pretty slow. The last time I raced was Cascade and since then I think I’ve ridden less than 15 hours. So if you see me suffering a bit, please do as I did throughout the season and take pity by courteously slowing the pace down a few notches.
Today is my first day being vegan. I’ve decided to give the vegan diet a try for 4 weeks while my training slowly starts up again and the intensity is pretty minimal. I want to do it partly to keep my weight down and even slowly lose a little muscle mass, but also to just see what vegetarianism is like. This morning I didn’t eat any eggs. So far, that’s been the only thing I’ve had to purposely skip today. Although skipping out on two eggs may seem like a small thing, I almost cheated right then and there, contemplating the inclusion of eggs into my vegan diet. But I held strong. All day, though, I’ve been going back and forth about whether I really want to do it and right now I’ve reached the conclusion that I’ll do a revised vegan diet. It will still include fish oil pills and cod liver oil. And because of that, it might as well include fish now and again, but not too much mind you. Eggs are also a good source of omega 3, so I don’t think it would be wise to cut them out completely. Eating less protein will help with weight loss, but I don’t want to lose too much, if any, power. So I’ll have to keep my protein up with weigh powder, which is a dairy product. Chicken is another good source of protein that I normally eat–much better than any plant source since the body more easily digests and uses amino acids from meat than from plants. I’ll make an exception for chicken, and maybe other poultry on occasion. And of course I don’t want my iron levels getting super low, so I think a steak or hamburger once or twice a week would help with that. Other than those things, I’ll be completely vegan. It’s going to be tough. I’ll let you know how it goes.
KENNETT PETERSON 