Montag, 30. Dezember 2013

End of the year!

2013 was good, 2014 needs to get even better!

One run in early December: "Nikolauslauf" organized by our clubs athletic department (I placed 3rd overall with a new personal best of 37.55min, with least training ever!!!)

The start (me in the center)

Me and my friend Sascha placing 1st and 2nd in our age group

This is the plan I have done with the guidance of my friend Robert from the OTV Endurance Team for the days between christmas and new years, ending the year with a run in Herne called Hernersilvesterlauf

Friday 27.12
10 h
2 ½ h Mountainbike
evening
1h power and stability at home
Saturday28.12.
8 h
1 ½ h swimming Schwimmbad SV Gladbeck
~ 9:45 h
1 ½ h running (directly after swimming)
15 h
Iceskating with the family
20 h
1 1/2 h indoor cycling
Sunday 29.12.
10:30 h
3 h Mountainbike Vereinsanlage Kaisergarten
~ 14 h
Coffee and cake
Monday 30.12.
8 h
1 ½ h swimming Schwimmbad SV Gladbeck
10 h
Breakfast
11 h
2 h MTB, then 25 min running

My plans for 2014:

April 12th: Bleilochlauf (Distance: 24 or 46 km) in Saalburg/Schleiz
April 14th-23rd: Training on Mallorca with Ironmario
May 25th: Olympic Distance in Hagen (with Nordtriathleten)
June 1st: Olympic Ditance Triathlon in Kleve
June 8th: Middle Distance (aka Half Ironman) in Terheijden/NL
June 15th: Olympic Distance Triathlon near Aachen (Indeland Tria)
June 29th: Olympic Distance Triathlon in Münster
July 20th: Long Distance Triathlon (aka Ironman) in Roth

Autumn: Running along the Camino de Santiago


Dienstag, 29. Oktober 2013

Veggie Fest /Off Season

On the 5th of October I went to the Veggiefest in Solingen. My friend Björn Moschinski stayed at ours the evening before. My girlfriend and him cooked a pumpkin cream soup together. He just cannot stay away from the kitchen, eventhough we wanted to cook the soup on our own for them. haha
Anyways... on the veggiefest I got interviewed concerning veganism and endurance sports. I'also gave away some energyballs I have prepared the day before. Then I assisted Björn with his cooking show.
Did I say that 1200 people came out to Solingen for this Veggiefest? Amazing!
At the end of the fest the "Kochen ohne Knochen"-crew also took pics of my veggie-tattoos. One if it will be visible in the next issue of this nice magazine. Thanks to Uschi and Joachim for this nice fest! I will cerntainly come back next year! Here's a little report in german about the veggiefest.

Me assisting Björn (taken from "umsturzvegan")

Did I say it is "Off-Season"?
That means at this time of the year I just do whatever I feel like sportswise.
I even got tattooed and will get some more ink soon, so that alone restricts me.
But I found a way of swimming with a fresh tattoo:
Use fatty cream on the tattoo, foil it, drop in the wetsuit. My wetsuit (Tri11 Redair) is pretty tight so my tattoo did not get wet.

Training Oct. 17th-29th:
17th:  some excercises for power/stability, later some swimming but also teaching somebody to swim better
18th:  Flight to Barcelona--> no Training
19th:  Yoga and Ropeskipping in the morning, later running and excercises on the beach
20th:  Running and excercises on the beach
21st:  45 min swimming in old publicpool in Maragall, later running and climbing on Montserrat
22nd: 17 min swimming in the ocean, later running and excercises on the beach, the new tattoo
23rd:  no training, new tattoo hurts (kneetattoos are painful!)
24th:  75 min cycling on my fitnessbike back home
25th:  18 min yoga in the morning, later 1h swimming with wetsuit, then stretchyoga
26th:  75 min running incl. 4 short uphill sprints
27th:  ca. 75-80km cycling in ca. 3h
28th:  35 min Yoga (breathing and toning excercises)
29th:  2.6km swimming, somce cycling (ca. 15km)

Sonntag, 27. Oktober 2013

Herstblauf HTT 11/ Barcelona/ Energy balls

On the Day of German Unity I partook in a race in the town where I work. I had signed upfor 40 schoolkids to run there as well on the childrens course. We were happy about having won the cup for the school with most running kids and many of them ranked on one of the first places in the agegroup. Right after noon I myself was on the starting line to run the 10k race. After 4 min I was ahead of the rest of the runners and ran past the fronting mountainbike the rest of the race. I got in as first at 38:23, which is 1 minute faster than my last years result in this race. It was a perfect day!

German speaking people can click on here to find a newspaper report.

Here you can see me on the right side and on the pic in the middle are many of my kids form school.

So I am ought to put a recipe for energy balls online, so here is mine:
What you need:
-a bowl
-a handheld electric mixer

ingredients:
- dates/ figs (optional)/ dried gojiberries
- ground nuts/ almonds
- any plant milk (makes it easier to shred the dates/figs)
- agave syrup/mulberry syrup/whatever needed to make it sweet
- wheat germs/ flour (if the dough is too moist)/ protein powder (if balls are postworkout treat)
- maca powder
- linen seed/ chia seeds
- desiccated coconut

The base of my energy balls are usually the dates. They are quite hard to shred, so I use some milk (oat, soy, whatever).
So dates and some milk in the bowl first, add the figs and shred these first. Once you have some sort of dough you can just add all the other ingredients and use the mixer.
If the dough is too dry add more plant milk or just water (I once used peppermint water).
If the dough is too humid, use some flour (I use spelt wholegrain, because it taste a lot like nuts), soyflour or proteinpowder.

Once the texture seems good to form little balls, do that.
Put desiccated coconut in another bowl and put 1-3 balls inside this bowl with the desiccated coconut and and shake gently until the balls are completely covered.
Ready!


Play around with the ingredients! I have once added sprouted germs, dried bananas, cacao, etc. Feel free to try, see what you like and what does you good, but go ahead and do it! It doesn't only taste good, it also does good to your body and feels great to eat completely handcrafted stuff that would cost so much a health food store.

I also went to my fave city again: Barcelona!
This time I made one another dream of mine come alive! I ran through the mountains near the monastery of Montserrat! For the first 725m we took the Aeri de Montserrat (cable car) together. While my girls took the cog railway to get higher in the mountains on the paths to the ermitages I just followed the little paths upwards. Amazing nature to be seen there.

Workout station on the beach
I love running in the cty as well. The beachside front is amazing to run. The little adults playground is nice to work out. I love running topless in October!!!

 This time I have also seen an amazing spot to run near the Zona Universitaria. It looked as if 500 sporty students went running there on a footpath next to a big avenue.
Reading a nice zine of a friend of mine on top of the one of the mountains

In front of the entrance to the Basilica St. Maria de Montserrat



In the Aeri de Montserrat

With my daughter in front of our new crib on Montserrat
One ermitage in the Montserratmountains


Of course I had to go swiming in the ocean, despite the high number of jellyfish. I didn't swim very long though.
Visiting the ruins of Ullastret (an Iberian settlement from pre-roman times)
First day in Sitges... only nice women around me :-)
Getting a mexican skull tattoed on my knee by my friend Joan Cinder. Contact him if you're in Barcelona and wanna get tattooed.
Above where the sun reflects in the water is Dalis house in Port Lligat, short visit on the last day


Another impression of Port Lligat, where Dali liked to live because it was pure! Sea, wild coast, poor fishermen, almost no stress. Perfect surrounding for a great artist.















No Müsli at home? Here is what I did!
Selfmade Müsli: apple, banana, wheat germs, flaxseeds, ground hazelnuts, gojiberries, macapowder, ginger, cinnamon, chiaseeds, oatflakes, a saladseeds mix (pine, pumpkin, sunlfower seeds), desiccated coco




Samstag, 21. September 2013

Pics Vegan Summer Day Leipzig/ Aftershow workout with Get It Done!/ Veganism in Mexico

It has been a long time since my last real halfmarathon. So I am gonna do one tomorrow:

Lauf um den Fühlinger See

So the Vegan Summer Day in Leipzig had been a real nice event. Just upon arrival we set up the backline for our concert and in the meantime me and Rene have been interviewed about sports and vegan nutrition. Then we played our set with Get It Done! and it felt really strange to see all these people so far away. But since my old band Black Friday'29 broke up I got used to playing shows with less people upfront. Still it feels strange when people only watch a show and don't partake a single bit.
Anyways... I have also been interviewed for a local radio show and finally met my friend Björn Moschinski again, who was supposed to do a cooking show later on. We will also both partake at the Veggiefest in Solingen on Oct. 5th.
While we were trying to sell a little merchandise after our gig, he just sold book after book or had to sign books. I had also watched Asthma la vista, which is a vegan Hiphop-Band and I really enjoyed their set. Sounded fresh, nice rhythms and no sexist bullshit attitude. Thanks to my daughter for playing so much Hiphop at home I finally get somewhat into that music.

Get It Done! on stage

Getting interviewed
Aftershow workout Magdeburg
Later I tried a vegan Döner and fajitas there. Both very good, but from differentcompanies and I cannot recall the names.

The day before Get It Done! had played Magdeburg. The show was not too special due to less people there, but the promoters were nice and we had our fun. We started off with playing table tennis halfnaked and then lifted weigths and chinned the bars. It was hilarious, but much fun!



In August I had spent two weeks in Mexico on Yucatan. On the first day I had met a fellow triathlete who I joined for a swimming session. Later on I met an english couple at the gym who both do triathlon. Of course I went running on the beach, cycled on the spinning bikes and swim either in one of the pools or the ocean. I was lucky I could continue training as my training plan demanded.
But we also took the time to go snorkeling, visiting pyramids and sacred maya places, Cancun city and Vegan Planet (surely on of the best vegan restaurants in the world!).
Me and some dudes from Israel that we met on one of our trips. This was taken on the top of the big pyramid of Coba.

Me and Britta snorkeling at the island of Cozumel.
Mexico is definitely worth a trip. Saw pyramids (in Tulum, Coba and Chichen Itza), maya villages, the famous sinkholes called Cenotes, an alligator, coatis, capibaras, crabs, iguanos and so many animals. One night I ran the around the hotel site and met a bird-eating spider. It stayed on the street and so I tried to make her leave the street by stomping near it. The next day I couldn't open my right eye. Two weeks later we found out that the spider might have shot some hair towards my legs and I might have wiped these away with my hands and eventually touched my eyes. So well... the spider was not nice afterI tried to recue it, but the people there are nice and helpful.
BUT watch out! Most of the bread in Mexico is not vegan. Many pastas are not vegan, our hotel didn't have any plantbased milk and no vegan soup (the Walmart didn't have vegan soup either). So I stuck with salads and fruits for like 70% of my meals which did really good to my digestion. :-)


Sonntag, 8. September 2013

Samstag, 24. August 2013

Weekends of summer!/ green and red smoothie/ Berlin/ Ottonenlauf/ Shower gel

The summer is almost over. I have had a wonderful time, still not much time to update this bog with a new entry. And then I finished a new entry, but couldn't upload it. Everything was gone! I really hate putting things back together that had been finished already and that is why I stay away from putting it back together.
Anyways... here is what I have started to write sometime in June:

So I have spent some wonderful weekends. It is rare for me lately since I had to write reports and also need to refurbish the new apartment still. Today we had worked on the terrace and the soon to become living room.

Wonderful weekend of July 5th to 7th:
Friday: sleeping, cycling to swimtraining, cycling to WolfXdown/Keep them shut show @Druckluft, Adults only @ Altenberg, cycling back home: All with my bro Rene. How I love to cycle on mild summer nights!
Saturday: cycling 32km to ultrashorttriathlon in Herne, winning this triathlon together with Rene (got to the finish line together), cycling back home, picking up my repaired tyre and finding a mountainbike to buy there this week, working in the apartment with the electrician, working with the hammer, helping our neighbour to pick a new massive refrigerator, lakeswimming with my daughter and friends with little kids, able to do some shortswims with my training buddy Rene, wanting to cycle to the night of the industrial culture, but realizing that Iron Maiden can be seen for free, so we went up the Gasometer and checked Iron Maiden from there, cycling to another museum (Ludwiggalerie) with a nice photoexhibition, sneaked in for free, almost falling a sleep while standing, cycled back home and fell asleep in no time.
Sunday: Alarm clock set for 7.30 to bring my daughter to her badminton tournament and hanging outside the sportscenter. Did some Power workout later on and some Yoga in the evening to end this weekend.
Rene and me did the whole race together, even the finish!


Me before the swimstart at the UKT Herne
One week later my daughter wanted to go to the Splash Festival with her. We always take passengers with us to make up for the gasmoney. So we had this dude who wanted to work at a vegan snack bar. Of course we talked alot about his profession as organic vegetable farmer. Quite interesting. Beforehand I wouldn't have expected this festival to serve vegan food. We didn't find his snackbar but the one from Alles-Vegetarisch and had Cheeseburgers twice in those two days we spent thee. My daughter goes crazy for Casper, so we checked him out. Since he's got hardcore roots it is quite funny to see him play in front of 20000 people while I have played shows with my band and his hardcoreband from almost 10 years ago in front of 50 kids. Anyways... the Caspershow was great. A Tribe Called Quest were great, but all this new sexist hiphop stuff is just nothing for me!
I found the time to go running there, but no special training or anything. Even the one travelling day without training.We drove back in the night after the Caspershow to hang out at some Badminton tournament again. 
Hanging out at Splash! festival




This is how we had celebrated the open water season:
1st open water training with my team: Nordtriahtleten
and since then I have trained there a couple of times, like here at 7.30 am
Sven and me with 3km of swimming done at 7.30am !!!




Spring weekend in Berlin:
A few weekends earlier we went to Berlin and ate at Yoyo (fastfod), Freckles (cakes), Tanne B (Icecream) and Zeus (pizza and pide). We had visited the XX show at the Plänterwald (Videolink), the Isolation, ThugXLife show in a squats basement after the XX show and Sundowning at the open air cinema stage at the Tiefgrund. Three completely different shows but all amazing. It was also our first time to ever try out a tandem bike. I had really enjoyed this, while my girlfriend found my driving style too rowdy. On our last day in Berlin we had also visited the Hamburger Bahnhof, which hosts a really big arts exhibition in a former railway station. The main exhibition was Martin Kippenbergers art, so the punkrocker I am I had much pleasure discovering what was for me new material by this guy. Definitely a must see for any punkrelated, arts-interested person.
Powernap in front of Freckles



In front of Tanne B with our tandembike
Have you ever walked into public shower and seen shower gel, which still stands there after you get back to the shower after your workout? Lately I collect all shower gels that lie around abandoned in public showers such as the gym's or the swimming pool's. I can't see any sense in letting the service throw it away and me buying a new one. It is always better to not buy any product, even if I try to buy as conscious as possible (vegan/organic). But having less waste on this planet and less shower gel to be produced is def. most ecological, vegan and econimical.
So in case you find an abandoned shower gel, consider taking it with you before someone just throws it away.
This is a nice post run snack I found at the turkish cornershop: 
Nuts, figs and wafers! Delicous!
Anyways... the best food is still the one picked oneself:
My daughter and her friend after a badminton tournament

I went to the Ottonenlauf with fellow vegan runners. We were 9 to run or walk (because of injuries). 3 of us made it onto the prize giving for age group prices. We had stayed at the vegane Bergpension in Schulenberg in the Harz mountains. A nice, family friendly full on vegan motel. Very quiet surrounding, not far from a like to have a nice swim. I will come back. By the way: Katrin from Bevegt was there, too! Check out their amazing blog!!! Infos on the run have also been posted on veganrunners.de.



Just in case you're interested: My band had put out a new split 7" with Overlord from Belgium on Reality Records. My fellow vegan triathlete John Joseph sang a line to one of our songs.


 Here's two recipes for smoothies I wanted to share:
Green smoothie made of half an avocado, a banana, a kiwi, field salad, maca powder, wheat germs, hazelnut oil, ground almonds, agave syrup, weight gainer powder wheat(oat, soy, potatoe), ginger, cinnamon, vanilla sugar, mulberry syrup and apple juice.
red smoothie: water melon, strawberries, blueberries, field salad, avocado, banana, ground almonds, weight gainer powder, maca powder, wheat germs, apple juice, blood orange juice, peppermint, cinnamon, ginger, agave and mulberry syrup for sweetness

In Duisburg there is this nice veggie Restaurant called Lolu and I think you should check it out, while you're in this area! It is truely great!
Kaiserschmarrn with fruits and icecream
I had checked out Hiller in Hannover last weekend. Nice veggie restaurant! The next day I placed 20th out of 340 triathletes at the Maschsee Triathlon.
my pics

Donnerstag, 9. Mai 2013

Mallorca Training camp


So in March I went on a trainingcamp for the first time ever.
Seb, me, Ironmario, Tobi in Petra waiting for coffee and bread, 
on top: Timmi, me and Seb on Sant Salvador
Me and my buddy Seb were happy about having found a nice hotel with 25m pool, spa and a reasonable price. Shortly after we got there we found out it is one of THE Triathlon hotels on Mallorca. Hotel ferrer janeiro
So many freaks everywhere: Pro-Triathletes, Triathletes that booked a full training camp with trainer, etc, county elite teams... 95% of the customers there were aspiring triathletes.
On the first day we only ran, because we got there in the afternoon.
Due to my full agenda on the days before I couldn't really sleep much so I slept 10 hours. We got up around 8 and out of the hotel at 8:15 and were some of the last to leave the hotel for training. haha Freaks!

Anyways... we had a good time, missed the veggie restaurant in Inca 2 times, because of their opening times, had seen 3 veggie restaurants in Palma de Mallorca, cycled 850 km in 7 days on the bike, met nice people, spent hours and hours in the spa and ate probably more than double what "normal" people eat, but still all vegan, much raw and these 9 days felt soo soo great!
We did on guided tour, which was offered from the hotel, with the pro-triathlete Tine Holst. She was supernice to us, showed us new routes and gave us hints for races. She also works a few hours as physiotherapist and since my knee started to hurt, I had an appointment with her, which gave me quite some insight and made me continue training with far less pain. She's one positive, very nice person. You should definitely try to meet her, once you're in Ca'n Picafort!
Did I say we also went to Petra, which is the cyclists "Mekka" on Mallorca. I could have easily lived without the experience of hanging out there, but the pa amb olives (bread with olives, for us a vegan version with tomatoes on the bread) was really good. I will most definitely come back next year!!!
Ah yeah.... before I forget: We ate at Temple Natura in Palma. We really liked the mune del dia and they had enough vegan stuff for us. 

So this was the starter plate of the 1st evening

 
This was our second trip towards puig major


Off day in Palma, Cathedral in the back.
The other side of the cathedral site, towards the sea.
Our second to last trip with high elevation climbs. This is Sa Calobra! THE elevation climb on Mallorca!
Me and the Iron Mind Crew ran the Bleilochlauf in Kloster/ Schleiz in Thuringia. It is one of the most beautiful runs I ran and was my first real run, my impulse for starting to train 4.5 years ago, so it is special to me. Jan-Albert, Rene and me went there in one car. We got there late friday night and went into the ship, where we usually stay to meet up with Dominik and Thomas and sleep. Jan-Albert came from the north of the Netherlands to win the race and he did. 1:34h was his finish time. Congratulations!!!

Vegan Power placing 1st! Jan-Albert Venema, Team Iron Mind
I was slower than last year and not really satisfied but still placed 8th out of more than 100 and the run was nice as always. 
 
I had also asked my friend Freddy to put up a show in the evening after the run, which he did. Unluckily my own band had to cancel, so I just helped running the show in the evening. "Final Prayer", "Dogchains" and "Reality Returns" were on the bill as well as "Light it up" who replaced us. Awesome lineup, good atmosphere together with awesome dudes and great food it made a perfect day in Schleiz! I wish a weekend can always be like this. Iron Mind Army!
This weekend we will play 2 shows:

Finally I do own a new bike:

I love to ride this rocket!
Climbing in a former industrial complex: Landschaftspark Nord in Duisburg
Pic taken on my way back home from Herne on my last 30+ run before the Marathon. This is Nordsternpark Gelsenkirchen.
Both these sites on the pics above belong to the Route der Industriekultur (Route of industrial culture)

Check this out if you speak german:
Milch und Kalzium

My daughters Confirmation in her christian believe (not mine!!! haha) took place at the end of april and therefore we had to find a vegan catering service. Luckily Papa Lufu took these duties and prepared several pizzas, african rice meals, pasta, desserts, bread, spreads, a soup, etc. This awesome stuff together with our selfmade cakes and salads made up a wonderful and satisfying meal. I can only recommend "Delicious" for catering but also as a restaurant. Check it out! Organic, vegetarian and 90% vegan.

Next race for me: Vivawest Marathon May 12th

Training March 22nd- May 9th
22nd: Played a show in Saalfeld and therefore did not much apart from ropeskipping and the show
23rd: Landed on Mallorca, ran 15,5k incl. intervals, then some minutes on spinbike, then training power
24th: 8k running, 135 cycling, then coupling run 15 min
25th: 1k swimming, 166k cycling incl. 4 of the hardest elevation climbs (puig major, Coll de soller, etc.) , only spa afterwards
26th: 10k running, some weightlifting, 102km cycling at 29km/h, kneeproblems, 6,5km coupling run (fast), 1,4k swimming
27th: 20 min power and stability training, 130k cycling with Tine Holst, 12k coupling run at (5min/k, then 4.20 min/k)
28th: 2.7k swimming and then off to Palma... Palma... Palma de Mallorca!
29th: 2,4k swimming, 145k cycling up to Sant Salvador with Timmi (our new teammember), just 10 min coupling run, then physiotherapy appointment with Tine
30th: 2,6k swimming incl. 3*400m faster and 4*100 with progressing speed, 135k cycling (Sa Calobra)
31st: 18k running (incl. 10*1k from 3.55 to 3.40 pace), 96 k cycling incl. 1.6k elevation climbs, then power and stability
April 1st:  58 min running, power and stability    in Total: 85k running, 880k cycling and 8,7k swimming
2nd: Yogastretch and stretching
3rd: 1.4h cycling on fitnessbike
4th: 2.7k swimming
5th: 2.8k swimming
6th: 1.4 cycling on my TTbike for the first time, then played a show in Aachen
7th: Olympic Triathlon in Voerde in 1:58
8th: Yogastretch
9th: 100 min running incl. 7*1k at 4:00 pace
10th: 2.8k swimming, later 65 min running easy, then played a show in Essen
11th: Power and stability
12th: 2.8k swimming
13th: 19k running at marathonpace, moshing at a show in Duisburg, later 19k back home slower
14th: 35k cycling with my GF (meaning really slow), then 35 back home at faster pace
15th: 2.5h cycling
16th: running and cycling, but easy. ca 40k cycling, 4k running
17th: 2.8k swimming
18th: Power and stability, then swimming
19th: Restday
20th: Bleilochlauf: 24k run with elevation climbs!!! in 1:41:47
21st: 5 min running with Jan-Albert so show him the Schalke Arena, haha, some stretching
22nd: 2.10h cycling
23rd: 57 min cycling on fitnessbike incl. HIIT
24th: 30 cycling to Herne in the morning, 32k running back from Herne in the afternoon
25th: Power and stability and rowing
26th: 2.6k swimming
27th: 1h cycling on fitnessbike
28th: 1:05 h cycling, 40 min coupling run incl. some exercises (stairhopping, pushups, etc.)
29th: 1h cycling on fitnessbike
30th: cycling, 6.5k running incl. 4*1k at 3.20 pace, cycling, then 30 min cycling on fitnessbike
May 1st: Climbing, 57k cycling, 20 min coupling run
2nd: 1h power and stability, rpeskipping, rowing, 30 min progressive run
3rd: 30k cycling in the morning, 30k back in the afternoon, 2.7k swimming in the evening
4th: 64 min running incl. 3*4HIIT, 1h cycling in the evening at 30.6km/h
5th: 115 km cycling at RTF Velbert with 1700m of elevation climbs, eating at Delicious afterwards
6th: 2.6k swimming
7th: 90 min running incl. intervals, but my body couldn't really... took a break, kept on running slower, stretch Yoga
8th: 2.7k swimming
9th: Yoga in the morning, 35min running