Half Marathon Roadmap: The Vegetarian Guide to Conquering Your First 13.1

by Matt Frazier

Want to run your first half marathon as a vegetarian or vegan?

Written for the 5K runner who wants to take it to the next level, the No Meat Athlete Half Marathon Roadmap is packed with everything you need to successfully train for your first half marathon on a vegetarian or vegan diet, starting with how to choose the right race, all the way up to the mile-by-mile walkthrough of the half marathon itself, so you’ll know just what to expect on race day.

The Roadmap includes nutrition guidelines to help you make sure you're getting everything you need from your plant-based diet, as well as two different 12-week half marathon training plan options and a base-building plan, so that you'll build your mileage safely and effectively en route to your first half marathon as a vegetarian or vegan.

Genres: Fitness

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 15, 2012

About the author

Matt Frazier is a vegan ultramarathoner and founder of the No Meat Athlete movement.

Frazier shares training tips and vegetarian recipes on his site, No Meat Athlete. When he's not running, cooking, or blogging, Frazier's a full-time graduate student working on his Ph.D. in applied math. He also enjoys reading, gambling, music, and brewing beer. Frazier lives in Maryland with his wife and son.

Reviews

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, really glad I purchased and read this. It included a lot of info I honestly can't believe I didn't already know, and a lot of info I'm super happy to now know. I feel way more confident now in my training for my upcoming half marathon, and just training in general. Currently finishing up c25k, then going to transition into this. Just a wealth of information. Less focus was placed on the vegetarian aspect than I expected, but that's fine. It did still cover nutrition thoroughly, and even if you're not a vegetarian or vegan you would find this book very helpful. I think it was worth every penny. Plan on listening to the podcasts next. Definitely recommend. It even has me considering running the Chicago Marathon in 2014. If I can do the half this year, I see no reason why I can't do a full next year with smart training.

[Abbey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this before my first half marathon. I found parts of it useful -- in the days before my half I kept quoting it. But all in all, I was disappointed to find that most of the advice in a book I'd paid for was actually online and could have been accessed for free. Also, a lot of the content was aimed at new vegetarians or vegans, and I've been veggie for 10 years.

Still, I followed the training plan and used some of the recipes. I'd give it 2.5 stars because it was helpful, but not worth the cost, I think.

[Jo * Smut-Dickted * · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oddly enough I actually found the info on foam rolling and running itself to be more engaging than the food vegetarianism. Race coverage was also very good. Not a long book but surprisingly complete for its length and brings up things people often don't do like foam rolling which can make such a great difference. I've read many books and this was a late pick up and I feel like I got my money's worth!

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm currently preparing for my first half marathon and this book delved into information I likely would have discovered the hard way, as he did. I've been a vegan fitness nut for a few years and followed the No Meat Athlete for a bit longer than that, mostly for nutritional information. Now I get to put all of this into practice and hopefully my training for this immense step will go well.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast and easy read, great if you're a vegetarian planning to train for a half marathon. This book isn't an exact fit for what I need (I'm walking a half, not running), but the training plan is in line with the plan my training group is using, the advice on stretching and dealing with potential sources of injury is great, and the nutritional information is interesting and helpful. The first time I walked a half marathon three years ago, I wasn't a vegetarian. I felt a bit nervous with my training this time because I wasn't sure how to handle training and race day nutrition from a vegetarian perspective. The information in this book was incredibly helpful from a planning perspective.

Four stars instead of five because the book's perspective on a half marathon vs a full marathon felt a bit forced, like the author took his full marathon approach and shoe-horned it into the half marathon format and also because it was so running focused and there are many ways to complete a half marathon.