Spending time in the Sauerland/ Soymilk/cowsmilk

This Blog is amazing: beVegt. They have just compiled a list of vegan energy gels. Something I had always been looking for. They have investigated on their own. Glad to have it, thanks to Daniel and Kathrin!

So I have done my first two triathlons this season. The first one in Harsewinkel and second one in Altena which is close to the eldest youth hostel in germany (also in the world?) in an old castle. The course was really hard, especially the bike course. Just up and down basically. Anyways... I have placed 11th out of ca. 70, so it was a good race, I guess.

Burg Altena

Here are the results of my team.

This weekend was the final ceremony of my 4th graders. We spent two awesome days in my hometown Oberhausen incl. swimming at the Aquapark. I was able to look after my kids but still swim 3.3km. Early in the morning I went 1.4h cycling so I had my training done for that day. The next day early in the morning I went running with a few kids to a strawberry field to steal some breakfast and then pick up the ordered bread rolls. The sun started shining real hot and the day seemed to begin very nice. We went to the Gasometer, which now displays loads of pics of natural and cultural sights of the Unesco. My kids really got into the pics and I made a few walk up and down the 116 m on stairs a couple of times while I only did that once.
After getting back from there we went back to have a barbecue, which I never really like because of all the meat. I think next time I will try to make this a veggie happening...
Oh yeah... one of my presents was voucher for Decathlon, which I will use for a new Spalding basketball that my kids lost at our camping site yesterday.

After having talked about holidays, Dubrovnik and feeling the warmth of the sun I am looking forward to my upcoming summer holidays towards the Balkans. I cannot wait to get on this trip, but have to move in my new apartment first...

Soymilk/ Cowsmilk: In my school the kids can order milk. It is supposed to be supported by the state, but I think it is still pretty expensive. I was trying to bring an alternative by asking Alpro (before I knew they got sold to Dean foods) to supply my class with their soymilk and dairy alternatives. Even though they wanted to they were not allowed, while usual milk is always allowed, even monetarily supported. Although I do have more kids allergic to lactose (4) than to soy (1) in my class we can only order cowsmilk. A couple of weeks ago I was on a Basketball tournament witht he schools team we even had a person masked as a hapy cow in our school working out with all schoolkids for free. Supported by the dairy industry... conveying the image as if milk makes you healthy and cows give milk altruisticly. It is fucking hypocritical and after seeing pictures of this milk "showcase" I have told my head teacher that I will not support that shite next time. Most people (and teachers) don't think critically about that, but it shades the truth. Showing a happy cow giving milk is just a lie. And I cannot see why we should lie to our schoolkids only because most people don't have a problem with drinking milk. It is still a lie to say it is not cruel to produce it or even showing hapy cows jumping up and down. What a fucking lie!!!
German speaking folks should read this:
veganesauge which tells a little about other governmental instruments to support the dairy industry thorugh taxes.

My band has recorded new stuff for two split records. A vinyl 7" with Overlord from Belgium on Reality records and a split cd with the newly reunited biggest turkish hardcore band of all time: Radical Noise.
I am very happy with the results of the recordings. John Joseph of the Cro-Mags has also featured us on a few lines of a song. Watch out for that!

Training June 11th-
11th: stabilizing and power exercises
12th: swimming 2.8km
13th: 82min running (incl. 4times 2000km faster pace)
14th: Yoga to regenerate
15th: 60km cycling
16th: blocktraining 30 min swimming, spinning, boat rowing, running, cycling, running: a little mre than 2.5h and quite hig intensity
17th: a short but hard running training of 30 min. incl. 6 times 10 basic jumps and a sprint after each set, later 62 km cycling
18th: 72 min easy running
19th: 3.3km swimming, stablizing exercises and stretching in the evening
20th: 78 min running incl. exercises and 40 min at almost racepace
21st: 2.30h speed blocktraining: 8km cycling incl. 5 seconds at max pace every km, then running 2.8km: sprint of 100m followed by 200m easy running all the 2.8km. all this 4 serious and then 15min easy cycling.
22nd: 60km cycling, 2.3km swimming int he evening
23rd: just climbing with my buddies here

Unterer Elberskamp

24th: Did my 2nd Triathlon (olympic) in 2.16h something. Was a really hard one. Link is somwhere on top of this blog.

Interview on beVegt (blog in german)

On one of my most favorite blogs you can read an interview with me: beVegt
I have also planted my first tree on my own. It is a sweet cherry tree and now stands in what will soon be my garden: 

I just relax from a full weekend with much hardcore and less anything else.
On thursday I went to Cologne to see a concert of the almighty Cro-Mags. Their singer John Joseph is a triathlete as well, so we had talks about sports and later on this night I made him record a line for one of my bands songs. If you like HC, keep your eyes open!
On friday I had a show with my own band in Gotha. Since Gotha is in the most beautiful german country Thuringia I took my bike with me and cycled from gotha to the Wartburg in Eisenach, where Martin Luther had translated the bible and set a mark in world history. It was my second time there, but the first time I had a chance to sneak in. The way up the hill was pretty exhausting, but the view and the beauty of the castle was totally worth it.

This pic was taken on my way up to the castle.

After coming back from the trip to Eisenach I just ran 4.5km to the castle of Gotha and through the parc behind it.

I love when I can mix sports and culture/history.

I got back to the club after the run and food has been waiting for me, so I ate shitload of pasta and lentilsauce before taking a nap. We were set to play after twelve... and after our set the dudes at the club partied until early in the morning and didnt let us sleep. At 6.40 we wanted to get up to go home (I wanted to see my daughter playing a badminton tournament) and at 6.45 the punks of the club woke us up with "Bolt Thrower" and when we left the buiding at 7 4 of the party dudes already sat outside and continued or restarted drinking....  Crazy dudes!

So we got home and I couldn't do much sports, had to correct schoolstuff, so I went buying some vegan barbecue stuff for this show:

I was glad I had to take care of the veggie stuff and needed to go shopping for some more veggie stuff during the day.

On sunday I wanted to relax but the tournament of my lil one had only really started this day, so I needed to wake up early again (after 5 hours of sleeping) at 8 o'clock.
Later this day I met up with my fellow vegan buddy for a 125km cycling action towards the netherlands. The weather was amazing and it felt very good despite not having caught enough sleep.


Training May 26th to June 10th:
26th: have deleted my diary but i think I went cycling and running
27th: did exercises for my stability in the morning before jumping on my fitnessbike for 56 min. Did intervals on the bike and then went running 1.45h incl. sprints. Went swimming 1.3km in the lake later this evening.
28th: Went cycling with my team (80km), then 50 km to Düsseldorf and met up with a friend with whom I ran 10km.
29th: 2.2km swimming, then 5.5km running with my team at the 6-Seen-Platte in Duisburg.. Afterwards I went cycling (very slowly) with my girlfriend and with her, my daughter and a friend we went playing basketball.

Olgapark in Oberhausen. Playing Basketball

30th: 1.2 km swimming (quite fast), then running ca. 4.5km with my teammates in Essen-Borbeck.
31st: bricktraining: 15min cycling, 12 running, 18 cycling, 12 running, 18 cycling, 13 running. All quite fast as direct preparation for my first triathlon race this year.
June 1st:  60 km cycling to my work and back
2nd: easy going training with my schoolkids for the Herne Ultra-Kurz-Triathlon.
3rd: First Triathlon in the Regionalliga: see and read here I was pretty satisfied, nevertheless the Regionalliga is on a high level... to high for us.
4th: Only exercises for muscle strength and sauna
5th: 74 min running incl. 3 sprints
6th: 3km swimming
7th: running 2hours incl. 3 sprints
8th: 3km swimming, 72 cycling (Gotha to Eisenach), 4.5km running, playing a show
9th: 36km cylcing
10th: 125 cycling