Of foot-aches and veganism

Wednesday around noon I decided that eating egg and milk products was not unlike eating meat. My cheese is cheap, though, with the exception of one bar of cheese I bought under false impressions, rennet-free. My eggs not of the free-range variety, but they are vegetarian-fed (though I have plenty to say about so-called "free-range" hens). Even so, these products that I am consuming come from animals that are in the same slum conditions as meat-source animals.

My reason for becoming vegetarian is not one of empathy. Although now I would most likely not eat meat even if it came from a wild source, I found nothing wrong with slaughtering animals for food. We are intrinsically omnivorous. Our teeth, intestines, even bipedalism is indicative of a meat-and-plant-based diet. Anyone who tries to argue against this point obviously knows very little about herbivorous animal intestine morphology. My reason, therefore, was strictly because I am absolutely appalled by how disgusting the practice of raising animals for food is. It's dirty. It's wasteful. Our cows and chickens and pigs are being pumped full of antibiotics.

This is DANGEROUS, people! Seventy percent of all uncooked chicken carries a form of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria which is the DIRECT result of feeding them antibiotics. The anti-biotic resistant strain of E. coli, the one that makes it into the media so often, evolved out of similar unhealthy animal factory farms in Britain. Organic meat is only slightly better. The USDA does not have as stringent regulations on what is labeled "organic" as I would like. I think only about 70% of a product has to be organic for something to be labeled as such.

That being said, I am transitioning into veganism. Once all the cheese and milk and eggs are out of the apartment, I'm through. (Why be so hypocritical and eat these? Because they're already paid for. I'm not sending anyone a message by tossing them out, it would just be wasteful and irresponsible.) Overall I want to live a healthier lifestyle.

So that's where the foot aches come in. Aaron and I, on good days, go running. Summer has been a little difficult for the two of us to run together, mostly 4-5 mile runs on the Rail Trail (flat, boring), or 7-7.5 mile runs to the campus from home, or from the campus to the city and back to the campus. We did very well for a while running every day, but that tapered off. It's a little disheartening that I went from an 8-minute mile (40 minutes for a 5-mile run) down to a 9.5-10 minute mile (6 miles per hour), but at least I'm doing it. I was in great shape a year ago, 17% body fat, 10mm skin folds, four nicely-sculpted abdominal muscles poking through, toned arms... bleh. I'm soft now. Anyway, Noakes says distance first, speed later. Okay, I can try that.

Wednesday (8/8): 3 miles (27 min.)
Thursday (8/9): 6 miles [3 miles (27 min.), lost my towel and stopped to pick it up, 3 miles (30 min.)]
Friday (8/10): 6 miles (56 min.), stop for water, then .5 mile walk on 6% incline (10-11 min.)
Total for three days: 15 miles

And now my feet are sore as hell. I probably need new shoes, I got these Asics (GEL-Cumulus) in March and certainly have not put 500 miles on them yet. The cushioning seems a little... well, compressed and un-cushiony.

There. Veganism and foot pains are inextricably linked. My logic is not flawed, seriously.