Vegan Pre/Post Race Fuel

I made sure I had my typical pre-race fuel in line the day before I was to run the Nittany Valley Half Marathon this past Sunday. I had been having a lot of luck fueling up with a 1/2 banana and some Artisana Walnut Butter before my longer training runs over the past few months. They say not to try anything new so, I planned on the same pre-race fuel even though I was to start running a little later in the morning than usual. I just ate 2 portions well spread out through the morning.

Artisana Walnut Butter comes in cute little to-go packets but I didn’t have to worry about it this time since the race was less than 2 miles from my house. It would have made a nice warm up to the starting line, if it wasn’t all uphill. I would get to run those hills soon enough. I settled for my big jar and planned to just eat it at home between picking up my race packet and the start of the race.

Next, I was all ready to go out and buy my post race Galiker’s chocolate milk. The idea is an easy to consume product with the right balance of carbs/protein. Studies have shown that runner who drank fat-free chocolate milk during the three hours after a run had heightened markers of muscle protein repair compared to those who drank a carbohydrate drink.

I ended up getting that ever present pang of guilt for feeding into the dairy industry and I decided to make my own with what I had on hand! In retrospect, I would use Almond Milk but I only had Rice Milk in the fridge.

Vegan Chocolate Milk

Ingedients
1 Tablespoon Florida Crystals® Organic Amber Agave Nectar
1 Tablespoon Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Sugar
1 Tablespoon Hershey’s Cocoa
1 Tablespoon Woodstock Farms Raw Almond Butter
2 Cups RICE DREAM® Enriched Refrigerated Original

Directions
Stir the first 4 ingredients into a thick paste until completely blended. Slowly add the rice milk and stir so that sugar dissolved. Store in fridge or cooler until post-race fueling. Shake vigorously before drinking.

Happily Fueled and running a personal record at the Nittany Valley Half Marathon

The day turned out to be great, in the 40s°F, light breeze and sunny (opposed to last year 20s°F, stiff sideways wind, snow flurries). The race had over 850 registrants and about 750 of those finished. The best difference was that I shaved over 7 minutes off of my time last year which had been my personal best! Now this hilly course has my best at 2:06:56 for 13.1 miles. How’s that for my 4’10”, 49 year old body, running on a plant sourced diet?