I was a former endurance runner and trail runner. It just happened one day I wanted to scrub fat and increase endurance. I started walking then fast walking on a tread mill and worked the elevation up and down speed it up and slow it down. I didn’t like the tread mill so I tried jogging on the road then I changed to ground and trail I liked it. Either way I started slow and it wasn’t long before I went from walking to jogging then running. When I trained I would do what I called silly running and run on the side of hills one way and then the other. All the time I would run as fast as I could then slow down for a while then stop and start running at full speed, giving my heart a good work out. The most important training I did was running longer and as far as I could every day. Mine mind was the hardest thing I had to get right because of boredom.
I lifted weights in the morning and ran 8 to 10 hours a day for almost a year ( I took about a year break from work ). I wore different brands of shoes like Nike, Asics and adidas but I liked puma and had their shorts that had little pockets in them for salt and glucose tablets.
My first race was in a town not far from my home. The night before there were terrible storms with tornado warning the sirens went off a lot it was exciting. I ate mostly potatoes the night before because I wanted to store carbs and bread based breakfast.The next day they had the race which was a 10k over a mountain. They warned us that the trails were ruff. There were over 200 runners some pros and me, the people there were different then I imagined I watched what they did,after the night before excitement and I was at my first race.
I got signed in and got my number and I started noticing a lot of ambulance and rescue there. I never did pre race stretches because you hurt your leg muscles when you do. I did do short sprints to get my heart warmed up. I don’t remember what place I started at but it wasn’t first probably last. So we started and when you start you have to follow a lot of people on a skinny trail until it widens out. Some people didn’t do that and fell of the trail and down the mountain a lot of broke and sprained legs. There were tree that fell down I had to hop over loose rocks and mud. I got to my check point and got something to drink.
I didn’t know how I was doing but I do remember helicopters there having to air lift people to the hospital and rescue people all over the place getting the people that fell down the mountain. Once again it was exciting with all this going on I just chuged on though the woods. When I trained I wore a head set but when I raced I didn’t wear anything I just listen to the sound of my feet and kept pace. I sounded like a train chugging going though the woods with my breathing I was like a machine. At the finish I believe I came in 76th which was fine I did finish and it was my first race. I felt great that I accomplished it. From then on I was hooked on racing. I ran a lot more races made friends, got sponsors lost and won races and had great fun.
I did all this as a raw vegan and I believe it gave me an advantage over meat eaters.