Eating Vegan While Competitively Running

For approximately 50 days in March and April, I ate vegan (no meat, eggs, or dairy products). Normally I eat these foods on a regular basis, so this was a big change for me. It was by choice but prompted by my church (Orthodox Christian church) for Lent, as it is seen as a spiritual discipline. (You can read more about it here and here.) I have done this vegan fast in the past but not while running competitively and logging 70, 80, and 95 mile weeks. I knew there were competitive runners and ultramarathoners (Scott Jurek being one of the most prominent) out there who survived on a vegan diet, so surely I could do it too.

Going into it, I was worried I was going to be hungry all the time. I thought I’d only find myself eating bread, cereal with almond milk, and not-so-tasty soy yogurt. I also knew it was going to more difficult to find protein sources. . . .not impossible but definitely trickier. I didn’t know how it would affect my running, but my faith is even more important than my running, so I had to give it a try.

Before the fast started, I got rid of all of our non-vegan food in our house by eating everything prior or giving food away to friends and family. I stocked up on vegan-friendly foods to make sure I wouldn’t be tempted to eat any cheesy crackers, eggs, or my favorite yogurt because I needed something in a pinch. After a couple of weeks, I got into a groove with making meals, and the biggest thing I learned: as long as I meal plan, eating vegan wasn’t that hard!

Usually on Fridays, I would plan out my meals for the next week and then buy all of the ingredients we needed. That way when it came to dinner-time, I had everything ready to go and didn’t have to think about what I was going to make. This way I wasn’t reaching for pre-packaged, “healthy” vegan foods such as frozen dinner entrees, granola bars, or an endless amount of chips and salsa.

I really didn’t have a hard time finding vegan recipes that tasted good. Thanks to the internet and an endless amount of legitimate food bloggers out there, I found a lot of recipes to pick from. Often I would Google: coconut milk + broccoli + quinoa (or whatever ingredients I already had on-hand) and see what came up.

Some of my favorite vegan recipes:

Twice-Baked Mexican-Style Loaded Sweet Potato

Butternut Squash Burrito Bowl

Sweet Potato Chickpea Budda Bowl

Gnocchi + Perfect Tofu + roasted broccoli

Simple Vegan Pizza

Anything-You-Have Coconut Curry

30 Minute Coconut Curry

Near the end of the 50 days of eating vegan, I started to track my food in My Fitness Pal as I am trying to get down to race weight for the marathon. I also monitored my macros (percentage of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) to make sure my categories were close the the correct percentages. I wasn’t surprised, but I quickly learned I wasn’t getting enough protein in my diet. I tried to amp up my diet with tofu, quinoa, protein powders, beans, and nut butters. However, while they are good sources of protein, they also add other calories from carbs and/or fats. For instance, I might eat a half cup of quinoa, which is a good source of protein, but there is also a lot of carbohydrates in it as well, so while I would add protein to my diet, my carbohydrate intake would also increase.

I did my best to get enough protein in my diet, but I know I fell short most days. However, I didn’t find myself hungry all of the time, which means I was filling myself with wholesome foods and a good amount of fats and proteins.

All in all, I was surprised it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be to eat vegan. I had to take the time to meal plan, but that is something I do most weeks anyhow. I am glad I was able to successfully nourish my body and refuel with a wide variety of vegan foods for running up to 95 miles one week. While it took some forethought, it wasn’t impossible.