Finally a run and some sunshine - more musings on diet

It had been a whole week since I last went for a run and that one was only 4 miles instead of a long run of 9 miles. Since the roads were so snowy and/or icy and the weather so windy that running outside was not an option but I could not safely drive into town to get to the gym I did nothing but walking all week. A couple of muscles had gotten pretty sore from too much ice skating and then from trying to shovel snow quickly. So I was careful today not to get hurt. I did one mile, then a break, then another mile and another break and finally 3 miles once all the ice had melted. I decided to go without heart rate monitor and just pay attention to my form and how my muscles felt. The slow warm-up paid off. My muscles feel much better tonight than they did for the past week. I'm still a little concerned that I missed two long runs by now but if I can run 9 miles this weekend then I have 3 more weekends to increase my long run before I need to start my taper before the race.
I've done a little more reading on the primal/paleo diet. It seems some people use these terms interchangeably but it looks like the primal approach includes some grains and possibly some beans and dairy. This seems like a more moderate approach to me. The raw vegan diet appeals to me a lot, too, I just can't get my head around juicing. Any whole fruits and veggies seem a lot tastier and satisifying to me than juice (especially with veggies) could ever be. It took me long enough to really enjoy drinking water that I think I don't want to go back to drinking my calories. What I am still hoping to learn is what reasons people have to eat a vegan diet apart from animal rights reasons, since there is so much evidence that animal products and saturated fats may not be unhealthy if they come from humanely raised and slaughtered, pasture-fed animals.
For now I will eat lots of eggs since our ducks lay a lot right now, some dairy, occasional meat and explore more alternative gluten-free grains. I have done only little with quinoa, millet, amaranth and buckwheat. I'm also hoping to do a lot of sprouting in the next couple of weeks as our freezer is running low on frozen veggies from our garden. We have a few winter squash in the basement and some kale left in the freezer.