Setting new goals!

My main race this, aka the one I have started training for in November will have to be canceled.
Not becuase of my fitness level, health or any other circumstances. It is due to the fact that I have been reading a book about vikings trying to find Attillas grave somewhere north of the black sea and pictures I have seen taken in the Kaukasus Region and Kasachstan. Those are some of the places most european people will never discover first hand. And then, two days later my friend called my and told me about his vague plan of cycling from here to Istanbul or even from Kasachstan to Istanbul to attend his friends birthday. I liked the idea of just cycling there... after the phonecall, my mind was fascinated by a trip like this. So 20 minutes later I called him back and told him I just have to cancel 2 Triathlons (and lose some money) but will def join, no matter which route to be taken.
So yesterday we have made our plans more precise, figured out two possible starting points (Astrakahn in Russia or Baku in Azerbaidjan), flight dates, etc.
Today we had done our first short training, cycled to the indoor climbing centre , climbed a few hours and cycled back again. I am so so looking forward to this trip!!!

 

This morning I also introduced my friend Marco into the world of alges with a green smoothie with Chlorella and Spirulina. Of course sweet fruits got in as well: Avacado, field salad, spinach, banana, chia seeds, gojiberries, linen seeds with dates, maca powder, agave syrup, sugar beet syrup.

I also like to add alges to soups or sauces:

I also like eating raw beetroot. Once the beetroot is mellow (after a few days) you can just skin it and cut it into pieces as finger food:

Lately I have also made pesto on my own. It is so quickly to be made and so delicious. Try it yourselves:

Pasta with selfmade pesto (spinach, pineseeds, walnuts, vegan cheese, salt, olive oil, flaxoil, herbs f.i. basil), alfalfa sprouts and yeast flakes.

I also did a raw tomato sauce which is also not hard to come by: Tomatoes (dried and fresh if wanted), salt, herbs in a blender. Blend it, ready!

Whenever I find time I also love to bake bread, being inspired by my favorite blog: bevegt.de
Here'smy quite healthy Ciabatta.

Well... just the dough: Buckwheat and wholegrain wheat flur, cashew nuts, lives, olive oil, seasalt, herbal salt, yeast, warm water

I went to my favorite city Barcelona in January to hang out with friends and see a hardcore festival.
Furthermore I finally went up running in the Collserolla mountains. Eventhough it was raining up there it was still a fantastic run!

 We went to this food place I have never checked out before called "Teresa Carles" and it was wonderful!!!
Check it out, espeically the salads and the small burgers!!!

The 2nd weekend of February had been special to me. On the 15th me and my daughter ran the OTVMeile. I placed another personal beston this course and wn my age group. My daughter also won her age group no 4.1km. Here's a link the the newspaper article.

On the 16th I had organised a slagheap run and a brunch. We were 6 people to run and 3 on bikes. It was a about 16km incl. to times up the slagheap. Everybody brought the food for the brunch before we started running, so it was all ready when we got back to our house:

I love this picture. haha!

I definitely want to organise this a few more times!!!


So next up for me: Bleilochlauf (probably 46km)

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

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)

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

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. :-)

Vegan Summer Day Leipzig

I will be here veganes Strassenfest Leipzig on stage and playing with Get It Done!
My friend Björn Moschinski will also be there cooking something for you!

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