Eating protein is like my full time job!

This past week we've been trying to figure out why I have so many split ends, or actually,
why I suck!
Just kidding, I don't suck.
Really what we've been trying to figure out is why I run so great in workouts but less so in races. I went through another three weeks of very good workouts: 6 times the mile at 6:12-6:17, 10x1000 at 3:51-4:00, and then two more races with only medium results- 10k at the Vancouver Sun Run in 41:08, 5k at Western Washington in 19:18. My 10k was actually a PR by 5 seconds but Joel thinks I can run in the 39s to the 37s so it was not a smashing success.  I'm so glad he believes in me because sometimes- how I run it feels like, how could anyone? But he always does.
One problem I have is insomnia. I always take a long time to fall asleep but some nights it takes more like 3 hours, then to wake up again another 2 hours later and stay awake until it is time to get up. Joel thinks that I don't have a lot of muscle mass for how much I work out and because I am a vegetarian that I don't eat enough protein. Symptoms of protein deficiency can include less defined muscle and not performing well athletics. I should, he says, eat 1 gram of protein for every pound I weigh, about 135-140 grams a day. I can only eat 30 grams per meal so when I take into account times I am running the figuring out what I am going to eat and monitoring the protein in it seems like it takes the rest of the day!
It turns out that 2 other symptoms of protein deficiency include "night blindness" (insomnia), and split ends- of which I have thousands!So after he'd been badgering me for months I ate a bit of salmon. It was gross! I haaaated it, I never want to eat meat, ever! I will never ever ever eat a cow or a pig if I can at all help it. I don't understand fully why I cant get protein through vegetarian sources. I know it is a lot harder, but like everything in running is hard. But Joel tells me there is something in meat that you need that you cant get through other sources. So in order to help my running I would even eat a little bit of fish. I'm really hoping this will help. Mostly I have just been eating veggie burgers, tofu, protein powder, eggs and dairy.  I want to become the runner Joel sees me as. One who runs fast because she deserves to.
Most runners I know don't know what "slow" means. I say I used to run slow and they say "oh me too, I used to run 20 minutes." (for the 5k) "My very first year of running."ever.  My very first year of running ever I didnt run the 5k, I was in middle school and we ran 3ks and I had to walk ( that's beside the point, we were 11, and actually everyone walked!) When I was in 9th grade I ran my very first 5k ever and I ran 26:42. I'm not even going to pretend that I was the slowest one. It was high school and there are a lot of high schoolers who run  slower than that, but very few of them go on to run in college. I am the only college runner I know of who ran four years in high school and never made it to state, (I didn't even make it to districts.) I heard Olympic 3000 m Steeplechaser Anna Willard as quoting that she too used to be slow, "I ran 10:35." This doesn't hurt my feelings that she thinks this time, a good minute faster than I've ever run it is slow. She simply has no perspective and I don't find her very relatable or inspiring.  She has no story, just- I was born, I ran fast, then I ran faster. I run for the underdog. The one no one ever paid attention too, ones who have all the drive but are just missing an ingredient. Running is hard for us but because we are so used to that we never quit when things don't go our way. We are used to them not going our way. I feel great after I have talked to a high school girl who runs 22 minutes in the 5k about running in college running. She doesn't think she can do it and I tell her- hey you run faster than I did when I was your age. I used to get last in almost every track race I used to do. I had teammates who would say to my face, what's the point of running if you get last every race? Most runners I race against don't know what's it like to walk up to the starting line of every race, expecting to get last place,the only thing you are hoping is that the second to last girl won't lap you. It's a hard feeling to shake off even though I do not usually get last anymore.  I never made it to league in high school track but I made it to the NAIA nationals my senior year which I am really proud of.  I always wanted to be fast since I was a scrawny 11 year old walking through the 3k. I will never quit even if I have to die running. The fight will be worth it someday!

Track Season!

Track Season: For the last thirteen years this is what running was all about but the last six months of marathon- 50k training have changed everything. I don't know what I'm doing when I put on spikes and step onto this red circle. I trip over the teeth in my shoes- what is this? This is track season!
I love track. You can hang out with your team from six in the morning until seven at night and only have to run for about nineteen minutes somewhere in there. Only sometimes is it raining, cold, or windy ( or if you're really lucky all three!)
It was raining when we left Bellingham and we passed through bits of freeway where it would pelt water bullets at us but by the time we got to Tacoma it was sunny and only slightly cold and fairly windy.
I was running the 5k. My training had been going great- a couple medium long runs a week( 14-18 miles) mixed with fast stuff like 3:37 1ks. Maybe I would finally beat my PR of 18:48 from three years ago!
Or not. I started out on pace for a great time- for the first two laps! Then for some reason it felt windier and my legs thought it was normal to run laps so slow that I had to stop calculating them in my head to continue. 19:40 was not what I wanted to run. I'm disappointed but I have a whole track season to hopefully go downhill from here. (that's a good thing!)