I must say, since going back to the vegetarian (+1 meat meal/week) in early March, I have seen a dramatic change in my health. I feel better, I sleep better, I workout better, I “relieve” myself better (Your welcome digestive system) and, most importantly, I run better. The same can be said for the only other vegetarian/runner/blogger I know, Matt Frazier.
Frazier once led the common steak and potato life that most of us have come to know…and love?! Then he decided to make a change and go veg. That’s when it all changed…
Since becoming a running vegetarian, Frazier has qualified for the Boston Marathon and run a 50 mile ultramarathon in 10.5 hours. Yes, it can be done.
Today, RunSome features an interview with Matt Frazier…..
Also, for more from Matt, check out his site, No Meat Athlete.
As a marathon runner, what is your favorite meal to spoil yourself with after a long run or race?
I try to eat well after most long training runs, but to celebrate finishing a race, it’s definitely pizza. I’m vegetarian but not vegan, so I allow myself to eat cheese occasionally. It doesn’t seem like all that grease would be very appealing when your stomach is upside down like it always is at that point, but somehow pizza is the one thing I always find myself craving. With a beer or two, of course.
I think Badwater, the 135-mile race through Death Valley in July, would be amazing. Runners wear these white suits to protect themselves from the sun, and have to run on the white line in the road so their shoes don’t melt! It’s really hard to qualify; they want you to have run a few hundred-milers or something equivalent before they’ll even consider you. So I definitely have a long way to go!
A friend of mine is running it this year. I’m trying to figure out a way to go out there and crew for him for three or four days. It just seems like such an incredible experience.
of diet. When someone asks me how I can run marathons or ultras without eating meat, it’s nice to have him to point to and say, “What I’m doing isn’t even close to what he’s doing.” If someone tries to tell me you have to eat meat to be a good runner, it’s convenient to have one of the best ultrarunners ever be a ve gan. Whenever I used to buy shoes, they’d always tell me that I overpronate and they’d fit me in stability shoes. But I always got these awful stress fractures and that didn’t stop until one day I just decided to go with whatever shoe felt most comfortable to me. And that happened to be a neutral shoe. So ever since, I’ve run in neutral shoes and I’ve been essentially injury-free.
My wife, who used to work in a running store, tells me that I still overpronate. But I don’t really pay attention to any of that stuff anymore. I found something that works and I’m not messing with it.
Well, I’ll first say that any “barefoot” running I do isn’t really barefoot; it’s with Vibram FiveFingers. I actually tried the real barefoot thing, once on a track and once on a trail, and I made it about 100 yards before my feet were absolutely killing me. That was the end of that experiment.
But I really like running in the FiveFingers. Not so much on roads, but on grass or on non-technical trails. It just gives me a feeling of connection with the ground—I’m not sure if it’s from feeling the rocks and undulations under my feet, or if there’s more to it than that, the whole idea that running is part of our evolution.
Either way, I think the
evolutionary ideas behind barefoot running are fascinating; that all makes a lot of sense to me. I don’t have the urge to throw away my other shoes or anything, but it seems like there’s a lot of potential there for people who struggle with injuries because of the bad running form that fancy shoes enable. For me though, it’s a once- or twice-a-week thing, to work different muscles and have some fun.Technically, the most difficult race I’ve done was the 50-miler I ran a few weekends ago, when it was 90 degrees and humid. But I was prepared for it, so it really wasn’t that hard of a day.
Much harder was a 50K I ran at the beginning of this year, the PHUNT 50K in Maryland. It was my first ultra, the temperature was well below freezing, and it was a trail race with minimal support. What made it really hard though, for me, was that the course wasn’t marked very well. I am quite possibly the world’s worst orienteer, and I cannot think of any worse feeling than when I was lost in the woods thinking I was literally going to freeze to death, having already run a marathon and not knowing if I was even headed in the right direction.
I did eventually find my way and finished the race in 5:30 or something. But that was a rough day.
If you could give up being vegetarian for one meal, what would you love to eat?
I can give up being vegetarian, anytime I want! It’s a choice, not something that someone is forcing me to do. It’s a belief about what I want to eat, not like a weight-loss diet or something where I’m always wishing I could just cheat for one meal.
I’ll say that I miss the taste of some things, especially buffalo chicken wings. But I can’t say I’d “love to eat” even that. It might taste good, but I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it if I knew what I was eating.
