New speed record set today

I hate to brag, but today I set a new speed record while running 9 miles(14.8 km) in 1 hour 11 minutes. I managed to break into the 7 minute mile zone, the first time I’ve ever been able to do this for more than a few miles and I felt kind of tired toward the end. It wasn’t so long ago that I could barely do 8 minute miles for more than 2 miles, but then I finally managed to run 9 miles at this pace not too long ago. Today I ran a 7 minute 53 second pace while juggling for 9 miles. I dropped the balls twice.

As I’m sure many of you know, I drank a lot of that new cherry kefir juice(the very low alcohol one mentioned in the previous post) just before I went out for this run. Did the cherry kefir help? I really don’t know, it kind of felt like it did. Cherries are good for runners, but fermenting cherry juice improves it by giving it a vitamin boost(the B family and K family) and a probiotic boost. Interestingly enough, I had just run 21.5 miles(34.6 km) on saturday(this record breaking speed occurred today on monday), and it seems I have already recovered from it(it probably helped that I didn’t run yesterday). Usually it takes longer for me to recover from very long runs like this, and my speed usually suffers for several days after. Is the cherry juice helping that much? And is it the kefir or cherries that are helping more? Even more intriguing is the possibility of unknown biologically active compounds that may be involved in improving my running,

Unfortunately I can’t do a real study, using an alternate reality version of myself not drinking the cherry kefir drink as a control, so it’s difficult to say with confidence the cherry kefir drink is helping. It certainly doesn’t hurt though. I’m wondering how much I can improve, especially when the weather cools down. It was about 74 F(23.3 C) when I ran today, and little on the humid side and cloudy.

One thing’s for sure – the local runners will hate me even more. At least I didn’t have either of my wonderful vegan T-shirts on today while running, that really ruffles the feathers of other runners. I’m even getting cursed at these days. I don’t mean to cause butt-hurt, but it is kind of funny, especially when you consider that some of these people think vegans can’t run or be athletic. I’m hardly the fastest runner around, but I am the only joggler in the immediate area.

Cherry kefir juice update

Some good news. My post about the cherry kefir juice from a few days ago was only about the fermented cherry juice in jar 1, not jar 2. If you remember, there were 2 jars. Jar 1 spent 2.5 days fermenting at room temperature before I put it in the refrigerator, and it tasted like cherry wine to me, almost bordering on cherry brandy. Almost all the sweetness was gone since all the sugar had been converted to alcohol and acid. I didn’t enjoy the taste since I do not like strong alcoholic beverages and was aiming to just create an effervescent, soda-like probiotic drink with only a hint of alcohol(0.5% to 1%). It went beyond this.

After nearly finishing the cherry kefir juice/wine from jar 1(diluting it with water or regular cherry juice which made for some delicious, complex flavors), I started to drink the cherry juice from jar 2. I left this fermenting at room temperature for only 1.5 days, and then put it in the refrigerator. I put it in the refrigerator earlier to see how different it would taste from jar 1, and because I was going to drink it after jar 1 and didn’t want to leave it fermenting at room temperature for too long.

What a difference 1 day makes! The cherry kefir juice from jar 2 is a lot less alcoholic and sort of tastes like a strong cherry soda or cherry cola. It is a little sweet, but also quite sour. There is a hint of alcohol, likely less than 1%. This is what I was aiming for. It is very carbonated and bubbly, and it feels so tingly on my tongue, and is loaded with healthful bacteria.

So from now on I won’t be leaving juice to ferment for more than 2 days at room temperature during the summer, unless I am trying to make wine instead of a bubbly probiotic beverage.

The art of cherry kefir juice

I’m becoming obsessed with making water kefir juice drinks these days. This is made from black cherry juice, and it should be ready to drink in a few days. It will probably taste like cherry coke, but with a hint of alcohol, more tart, and an overall stronger flavor.

I used the blueberry kefir recipe, but substituted black cherry juice for blueberry juice and added 2 tablespoons of water kefir grains to each jar instead of 1 like I did in the blueberry juice recipe(I have a kefir grain surplus). I also used 2 jars instead of 1.This may cause it to ferment even faster and we’ll likely end up with an even stronger probiotic drink. I will skip the secondary fermentation step this time to see what happens.

This cherry kefir juice may be one of the most ideal things a distance runner can drink after a long run. I’ve already posted how cherry juice can help speed recovery in “Exercise Recovery is Just a Bowl of Cherries“, but the fact that this is a probiotic cherry drink may make it even better. So many of us can’t eat much of anything after very long runs, and some of us may even feel nauseous. Yet it is important that we eat or drink something within 30 minutes after endurance training, otherwise we can’t refuel and recover properly.

This kefir cherry juice may help resolve this issue since as a probiotic it may stimulate digestion and allow you to eat something protein rich without causing digestive problems. You could even add vegan protein powder or soy milk to it to make a more easily digestible protein shake.

I realize that black cherry juice isn’t the same exact thing as tart cherry juice. Tart cherries seem to have more healing potential, but black cherries have similar benefits, even if their anthocyanin content isn’t as high. I used black cherry juice because it is cheaper.

Echoing my previous post, it is sometimes difficult to classify these vegan kefir drinks. Are they “beer”, “wine” or should kefir be its own category? Because it is based on fermented fruit this will eventually taste more like wine than beer.

If anyone has any questions or suggestions I would love to hear from you!