Vegan 3:15 Marathon Project

Sun 14 May 2023

Can a mediocre vegan runner match an omnivore professional?

My uncle worked at the YMCA, ran sometimes twice a day as part of job as a fitness coach. He ran dozens of marathons in his life, with a known lifetime PR of 3:15 at the age of 50. He, like my Dad and everyone else at the time, ate like everyone else--neither vegetarian or vegan.

I recently saw "The Game Changers" a documentary with the thesis, "Plant Based athletes recover faster and so can work out harder and more frequently." I figure I should put that to the test.

My goal is to run a 3:15 marathon at the 2024 Marine Corps Marathon. That 13 months from now.

Can I do it?

You can take your recent races and plug them into calculators to predict your race time. Depending on the calculator, it seems like my 5k, 10k and half marathon paces are not far from where they need to be. I've never run a marathon before, so I only have predictions, which say I have quite a large gap to close.

How will I do it?

Well, eating plant based of course. But also eating clean in the currently sense of clean- low saturated fat, high fiber, high carb, etc.

Daily Goals

• Grits or oats for breakfast
• Something vegan for lunch and dinner
• Less restaurant food than usual
• Less

Supplements and why

• B12 - because there's no bacterial sources of b12 in modern vegan diet.
• D - because I'm indoors a lot
• Hibiscus - to reduce blood pressure by 5-10 points
• Omega 3 Fatty Acids, Lutein - Speculated to help with brain, nervous system, vision because I'm not young anymore.
• Magnesium - to replace magnesium lost to sweating
• No multivitamin - too many effects

Post workout

• 20g protein after workouts. Replace any protein lost, rebuild muscles, tendons, etc.
• Salt tablet, like Nuun. To prevent feeling exhaustion post workout
• Watermelon juice. Citruline is speculated to reduce muscle soreness, speed recovery
• Cracker or some sugary drink. Speeds restocking glycogen in liver and muscles

Pre-workout/Race

• Beet juice - temporary increase to Vo2 max/cardiovascular efficiency
• Taurine - 3g speculated to help with recovery
• Creatine - for speed bursts and has good data supporting its use in sports
• Caffeine - for speed, data appears to support net-benefit

Actions

• Hired a coach and will follow the plan as close as I can
• Sleep 11 hours a day
• Do something to tighten up scheduling in the rest of my life to make time for enough running

Information Tracking

• Use Garmin tracker
• Use Garmin chest strap HR tracker
• Use Strava and Final Surge

Gear

• Carbon plate shoes on race days only
• Maximalist shoes because I'm used to them and changing is as risky as any merit or demerit of a shoe type