Training around X-mas

On wednesday I went to the gym to lift weights whilst standing on a balance board and did exercises with my own body weight and a swissball.

Not my socks! But this is some kind of balance board.

After that I did two hours of indoor cycling.
I was pretty exhausted on thursday after this and due to X-mas preparations and feeling tired I rested that day.

On friday the 23rd I went running for 50 min. incl. 5 sprints and some running exercises plus 3 times 800 m. in my 10k racepace. In the evening I went to my triathlon clubs swimming pool, but I confused training times and could only swim for 25 minutes.

Saturday= Christmas eve, the day on which most X-mas rituals take place in this part of Germany. We went to my girlfriends parents. Before that we had to go shopping for some final presents, so I went running to the shopping with my daughter on the bike. Just around 30 minutes, but alright for a christmas eves run. Did some minutes of exercises after getting home.
Then off to Brittas parents and to the feast. Ate some very delicious traditional german "Rouladen" made of soyprotein, "Knödel" and "Rotkohl".

Rouladen, Knödel, Rotkohl

Had a pea soup as starter and some creamy whip with oranges as dessert. Amazing! I was very full and me and my daughter had to go running for 5 minutes to level out. Presents: I got this book which translates to "Long distance triathlon once in a lifetime".

 

 So I guess my family has coped with my decision.
On the first day of Christmas we went to my parents. I just did 1.30h on my fitnessbike before we went there. Got some money there that I definitely need for some triathlon gear or the application for my long distance once. While on my bike my daughter supported me with Christmas music on her new piano. Awesome!
Dec 26th we had invited my bandmates as well as a few friends to have brunch with us. Me and Firat went running before that. We went to the "Gesundheitspark Quellenbusch" and did a barefeet run there. There is some sort of route which is not really taken care of in wintertime, but it was an experience.
After that we got to the feast, prepared a little more and started eating. All was vegan. My girlfriends "Donauwelle" (translates with "wave of Danube" is a very creamy cherry-chocolate sort of cake).

Donauwelle

I made baguettes with tomatoes and herbalgarlic oil. We also had a chickpeas spread, fruits, potatoeballs, beans, my daughter baked wafers, a friend brought "Mett" (which usually is raw mince used as a spread for bread), another self baked baguette with pepper. It was a real feast!

Mett

"Veggie Athletes" Shirts available soon

Here you can see pics of the "Veggie Athletes" Shirts, which will soon be up for sale. More info will follow soon and on the website of Alles-vegetarisch.de.

Girlshirt backside

Girlshirt front

Tanktop backside

Tanktop front

shirt backside

shirt front

Meanwhile you can check their webshop anyways, as it is just great!

Training sat-tuesday
On saturday noon I started to ride my fitnessbike at home for 30 minutes and later on I went into the gym to do indoor cycling. Unluckily the instructor was sick, so I went on the fitnessbike there and on the rowboat machine. In the end I have spent 1.40h cycling + some more minutes rowing. Almost two hours of sports.
On sunday me and a friend wanted to go running at the Schloss Burg in Solingen, but we just walked around, did a tour in the castle, which is one of the best presevered ones in the west of Germany and then went drinking a tea. Later on I was trying to move a piano (X-mas present for my daughter) from the other stret to our house, but we couldn't. So we went eating at Cakes 'n' Treats in Dortmund again. Had a nice Hawaiiburger. Picked up my daughter later this evening from her friend in Dortmund and drove back home. Had loads of stuff to do for the X-mas party at school as well as the usual stuff for the week, so I ended up doing NOTHING! Crazy, but yeah... muscles can only grow in a period of resting.
On monday I ran to the dentist of my little one with her (her on a bike). In the evening I cycled to the gym to go running on the treadmill, but it had been shut down. No nice gym in my hometown anymore. Shiat!
Cycled back and went on my fitnessbike for another 30 minutes. So in total I did 1.10h on bikes and 40 running.
This tuesday morning I went to the pool near the Centro "Aquapark" where I usually swim on tuesdays, but that one was closed, too, due to a control of the whole building. Went as fast as possible to Herne to swim in the Südpool. Could only do 40 minutes before heading to school. At school I also did the sports around noon with a big group of kids and showed them some exercises with swiss- and fitnessballs. Was much fun. After that I had to grab some food and prepare for the X-mas party. Before getting home from the party I was happy to get some nice white cherry chocolate from my girl. It is very delicious.

I guess all of them are tasty but the right one kills it!

 I had friends coming to help me moving the piano from the other street to our house, but I can tell you it wasn't as easy as here, although we were four persons. It was heavy as f***. Thanks to my bros Ingo and Kiki and my uncle for helping me!

Supporting my friend Björn and training thursday, friday

Got a nice link for german speaking folks:
Björn Moschinsky und Kool Savas gegen Fleischesser in einem Schlagabtausch im ZDF.
Here you can also see how Björn works with little kids to show them the benefits of vegan cooking and eating.

Nothing special trainingswise. I had a long day yesterday due to our christmas feast with my fellow teachers. I have eaten so so much, loads of veggies and veggie gyros I have bought at Vegilicious in Dortmund.
In the evening I went swimming in the pool in the center of Oberhausen again. On thursdays it stays open until 22.00 h. I really like to go swimming late in the evening.

Today me and Britta went to the gym. I did 40 minutes of exercises with weights and swissballs and then went on the treadmill for a 30 min uphill run.

After that we met friends at Yummys at the Druckluft in Oberhausen. Ate a delicious burger and salad there and met some friends. Wanted to go the the HHF benefit sampler release show at the Roots Club in Mönchengladbach, but unluckily all my car passengers couldn't make it so I had to stay home due to my bad driving at nights.

Cover of the benefit sampler

I have been wham-ed at indoor cycling

Shit! It had happened. I have been semi"wham"-ed earlier this week when my daughter came home singing this shitty "last christmas" song, but I have been full on "Wham-ed" by my cycling instructor a few hours ago. She did not really want to play it, but some dude wanted to here it, so I got "wham"-ed there. Shit! Game over!

Anyways... I did 45 minutes of swimming yesterday morning before going to school and that wakes me up!
There was a time when 25 minutes scwimming before school left me very exhausted but now it is refreshing to swim 45 min in the morning.

Found these two interesting links:
Dave Noisy about vegan cycling
Vegan Tour de France cyclist

I have just picked up the "Veggie Athletes" team shirts. Will be for sale through alles-vegetarisch.de soon!
More Infos will be posted here!

Weekend training and watching my favorite movie again

Since I couldn't convince myself to leave home for swimming on friday I went on my bike on saturday morning to go swimming. I did 2km following a training schedule for offseason training. The new pool in the center of Oberhausen is nice, due to a fast swimmers lane. 

The usually divide the pool into lanes, which makes it easier for swimmers with ambitions.

After that me and Britta had to leave to donate blood to check if we fit to donate bone marrow for a little girl from Bochum called Greta. Our incorporated association "The Hardcore Help Foundation" had donated 50€ for everyone who let the DKMS (organisation that checks the blood compatability) check their blood.

Team HHF: Anett, Patric, Phyllis, me, Britta, Rico  Pic by Toni BDHW

My little one couldn't join us due to a Badminton game she had to play.
From Bochum we went on to Wuppertal to meet friends and have dinner. Initially me and my bro Firat wanted to go running , but then we waited for the food and somehow we just ate and were too full to run afterwards. So we started watching my favorite movie "Night on Earth" by Jim Jarmusch which I hadn't seen for the last 6 years, so watching it was great amusement!

On sunday I was very tired still due to less sleeping last night, so I did not do much apart from 1.15h cycling (Ergobike and outside) plus 1h of weight lifting at my gym.

Gasometer OB

Monday: Did a 1.10h, nice 14km run along the Rhein-Herne-Kanal in Oberhausen towards Duisburg passing the stadium of Rot Weiß Oberhausen and the Gasometer. I might only stretch now. Good night!

Wednesday to friday

On wednesday I went to my gym to go indoor cycling. Nothing spectacular, just around 2 hours of indoor cycling. The powercycling II course, the second one this evening, wasn't this hard this time.
On thursday I felt as if I would need to take a break from sports for just one day as I was really tired. For lunch I ate at the YMCA in Herne and they kept a salad dressingfree, so I could make my own vegan dressing. Luckily I had sprouted quinoa and wheat with me due to showing it my students earlier the day, so I could use this to supplement my salad. In the evening I had to go back to Herne and went swimming at the Südpool, but only for 40 minutes. It's been more than a week since I went swimming last time, so it was quite hard.

sprouted quinoa

sprouted wheat

Today (friday) I was tired again, due to hanging out at Michi's place until latenight. Wasn't sure about running or swimming, so in the end I went running for 42 minutes towards the Revierpark Gysenberg and did a few short uphill runs there. After getting home I have done a mixed workout with my new purchases: Kettlebell and swissball. Squats on a swissball is really hard and takes advantage of every muscle in your legs. And then I also did some Theraband, barbell and own weight exercises.

Swissball exercises for bootie, legs and belly muscles

My kettlebell

Sunday to Wednesday

On Sunday I sat on my fitnessbike and did some cardio-strength exercises with my new kettlebell, therabands and barbell as well as bodyweight for almost 2 hours. In the evening my GF wanted to go running, so we went for like 3-4 km, but also walked parts of it.
On Monday I just went to my gym to ride a spinning bike with spinning exercises for 1.20h but on my own.
On Tuesday I wanted to go swimming in the morning, but I have skipped that so I only went running for an hour, did some sprints and went fast towards the end as I had to pick up my daughter from training in time.
I usually do stretching in the evening before going to bed. There was a time when I have stretched after every workout, but now I only do after harder trainings i.e. when I can feel my muscles.

German Tv Broadcast

Click here for the video!

One of the IRONMIND Army. Vegan SE and proud, but also taking it to another level!

Another video to check!
The Veganisator

Vegan cafe/shop in Dortmund/ Training after problems with ligament

On friday I did a mix of cardio and exercises: Jumps, curls, kettlebellexercises, pushups... a broad spectre of exercises and riding my fitnessbike a few times for a couple of minutes. I had to do all of this, since I went to TK Maxx and bought a shitload of stuff, like some nice and functional sportswear from CRAFT, a kettlebell, an exercises ball, etc.    Had to try some of that, of course!
This morning for breakfast I ate: Alpro Soy yoghurt with müsli, macapowder, figmarmelade, mulberrysyrup, agave nectar, goji berries and wheat germs and was full!
I took my GF to her first indoor cycling course ever. The gym I go to is really nice, since the persons working there are nice and they have many cycling courses plus a sauna. So we went indoor cycling and after that I have tried running on the treadmill to see whether my ligaments hurt. Did a few minutes on the treadmill, but it seemed, as if running would work out again. Then we went down to the room to workout and were on our own (apart from the owner fo the gym). So again I mixed cardio and power exercises. Did some stairjumps, exercises on a balance pad and just a nice crossover workout.
Picked up my daughter from her mum's place after training, because she wanted to play badminton since she has to play a big competition tomorrow. We had a falafel and makali in Oberhausen near the station after picking her up and met up with my uncle at the other gym to play badminton.
I also brought my rope with me, so I was trying to stay in motion all the time, even when the others played.
At home I made a soyprotein shake and refined it with gojiberries, pineapple and apple juice and wheat germs.

The proteinpowder I have bought at vegilicious in Dortmund.
The cafe "Cakes'n'Treats" next door is also really nice. Check it, when you are in the Ruhrpott.

Indoor football= fun but dangerous

Went playing football yesterday evening. This usually is my fastruntraining. haha. I got to run fast, but it is not like an hard intervall and much more fun. The downside of it is the high risk of injuries. I do play for more than 4 years about twice a month, sometimes less, sometimes more. Never got any injury, but yesterday I bend my ankle two times and after the second time I had to lie on the ground for a minute before I could move my foot again. Luckily another football player is a physiotherapist and could tell me directly that my ligaments weren't torn. It seems as one broad front ligament could be bended too much, but well... today I could walk again and went indoor cycling. 30 minutes warm up, 1 hour hillcycling. Got a nice potatoesalad, sausage and bread afterwards at home! Yum!

Last week: 6 hours running, 4 days climbing, 3hours cycling, 2 workouts

Yo! Last week has been much different from my usual training routine due to my qualification in climbing. On sunday while running I could feel my back muscles (from climbing, I suppose).
Need to find vegan climbing shoes. Found a list on the internet and really want to have some:
vegane Kletterschuhe
Climbing is really nice, too! I have only done indoor climbing so far, but will climb outside in the Landschaftspark Nord in Duisburg soon. I really love challenging my own body versus the power of mother ature. As a result I will probably climb mountains in the south of France - the region is called "Ardeche" - right before Easter.

My sundays uphill run experience can be read about in the last post.

So monday... this should be a day to rest, but well... I do a cardiotraining rest. I usually do Yoga or weigthlifting on mondays. Did weightlifting in the gym this time. More than an hour! Need to film some exercises soon for this blog as I don't just do the usual weightlifting or pushups. After lifting weights I went for the sauna and relaxed for a bit before getting home to have a nice dinner.

This morning I went swimming at the Aquapark in Oberhausen. It only costs 2 € in the morning.
My little one had just left for her training, so I will prepare pizza dough and then do a run outside in the woods with lots of ups and downs and quite a couple of stairs!
Just picked up my daughter from her training and then went home to make pizza. I made a usual italian dough, put that in the oven for a couple of minutes and spread a blend of spiced olive oil, garlic, herbs, salt concentrated and crushed tomatoes. After that I have put sliced onions, smoked tofu, capers and "cheezly" cheese subsitute on it. The pizza looked really nice, but I also wanted to add some raw foods to it, so I put sprouted quinoa, yeast flakes and field salad on top of it. Yes! Tasteful!
Actually the sprouted quinoa is slightly sour, but fits really well to the also slightly sour capers.

sprouted quinoa in a selfmade jar for sprouts (jar of marmelade with little holes on top), nutritional yeast, pizza ready!

close up of a tasty pizza with raw foods on top

Much pasta and running up the hill

In the evening when I came back from Soest, I needed to do something different again, so I have lifted some weights after warming up on my fitnessbike. In the end I sat on the bike for more than an hour and did a ca. 40 min workout.
I wanted to check whether my climbing skills really improved so I went climbing to the neoliet in Mülheim/Ruhr.
I did my first two 5+ climbing routes there and felt very happy. Me and my daughter made some pasta. We took some readymade, but tasteful veggie bolognese

Rossmann Organic Veggie Bolognese

from "Rossmann", added melting vegan cheese from "Cheezly", field salad, wheat germs and nutritional yeast flakes. Yummy!

Still I wanted to train my endurance this day, so I've cycled on my ergobike for 1.20 h but very calmly, putting my laptop on the handle bar.

This sunday morning I went 25 min. on my bike to meet some triathlon teammates who wanted to run up a hill. The wind was very very strong and something flew in my eye. Due to wearing contact lenses I had to stop and cleanse my eye. So in the end I missed my teammates by a few minutes and tried to run after them but I wasn't familiar with the route to the hill they wanted to run up. So I took at least one wrong turn and had to run the Schlackeberg (how we call this slag heap) up on my own. It was still a billiant thing to do. The earth under your feet, the wind pushes your body, you can feel all natures energies.
Got back to my bike ca. 1.55h after I left it at the meeting point. The cars of my teammates weren't there anymore, so I had trained longer! Yeah! haha
Had to cycle back, since my little one wanted to go Ice-skating with me.
For lunch I took last days remaining pasta, added spiced oliveoil, redpepper, tofu, field salad, vegan cheese (cheezly), sundried tomatoes, wheat germs and (nutritional) yeast flakes, to make up a healthy and tasty meal to recover. Dessert was a kaki.

Amazing!
Might have to do some stretch yoga this evening....
My daughters friend called us, couldn't make it, so we just stayed home. Time to chill is good!

Climbing course in Soest, not much time, but still running!

On sunday me and Micha went 66km on our roadbikes. It took us north out of Oberhausen, through Kirchhellen and back through Hünxe and Dinslaken. We went slowly since Micha was ill the days before and I really need this part of the year giving my body some rest. It was very nice, the weather was really good and we met a lot of fellow cyclists.
On the next day I went running on my most familiar running track next to the Rhein-Herne-Kanal in Oberhausen.
It was an hour in total. Within this hour of running I did high intensive intervalls: 20 seconds running fast, 10 seconds slowly, 20 seconds fast, 10 slowly. 6 times fast and then later on again 4 times fast. Britta accompanied me on the bike. Thanks!
On Tuesday I had to do the first day for a qualification for safe indoor climbing. The guide is a famous climber and you can also book climbing courses through this association DAV HSK. It was great fun and luckily I met a fellow triathlete with whom I ran this evening and the next evening through the beautiful city of Soest, which has a lot of interesting history. Whilst running you can visible see a lot of the medieval remains of this formerly quite important city such as town fortifications, towers, old churches and cobblestone streets. Nice! I also do think that this is special for running: You can do it anywhere, almost anytime (we did at late evenings) and still discover beauty (like landscapes, old buildings, parks, trees, water) within less than an hour while doing something very good to your body and do no harm to nature. Running bears insights non running /walking people will usually not discover. Little things like creeks or just nice smelling blossoms in a forest. It makes you more aware of the places we live in or nature in its own self. And if you got company you can still have deep or just nice conversation and exchange experiences that don't exceptionally belong to the sportsworld.

So well... Now I have a certification to look after someone climbing and bettered myself at indoor climbing.
I have fulfilled one more goal this year. Next year I am gonna try to do outdoor climbing in real mountains and if time lets me train long and hard enough, I am gonna do an IRONMAN for the first time! Gotta keep up informing about my training when it starts to densify in december/january.

We ran along the wall (the green cycle around the city) a couple of times.

Football! Finally again!

After 4 weeks I went playing football again! This place we play is similar to these "Soccer world" places. I like that artificial turf!
Well... we play for 1.5h and I ran loads and loads and the next day I could feel most of my muscles again, but yeah, football makes much more fun that running crazy intervalls and looking at your watch all the time.

On the following day I did 40 min of calm cycling on my fitnessbike plus 40 min of exercises with bodyweight, Therabands but I don't do stuff like this:

and a ball.
These 40 + 40 minutes made my muscles sore again on the next day. Not as hard as the days before, but I felt it. So I just went running for 30 minutes and since the newly tattooed skin had healed, I also wanted to swim a little, so I went swimming for 30 minutes ath Südpool in Herne.

Before I went back to school to learn spanish.

On saturday I've done a lot: First 3 hours of spanish class, then 40 min swimming, then Hardcore Help Foundation meeting, then 2. tattoo session at lifetime-tattoo.
After that me and my tattooartist Andre went to eat falafel in Oberhausen. Actually there are two good falafel places in Oberhausen on one street (Friedrich-Karl-Straße) near the station.

Muscles sore

The workout the day before was quite tough so my muscles got sore.
Still I went Indoor Cycling  for 2.10h in the evening, did some stretch Yoga and usual stretching.
On the next day I could rest a little since I had an appointment with my tattoo and old HC buddy Andre Hoppe.
So Far, So Good, So What! Pics to be posted after it gets finished!

The very next day I wanted to go cycling again, so I did a fatburn indoor cycling course followed by power cycling II. My heartrate went on 97% three times. Felt good and exhausted, but the Tattoo hurt a bit.

My muscle were still a bit sore, plus the tattoo still hurt and prevents me from swimming, so I figured it was a good time to rest for another day and watch

with my GF and a friend.
This movie takes you into another reality. It is confusing, challenging, but also beautiful. If you like movies that are more challenging then the usual hollywood shit, then go for it! Nowhere near as brutal as "Antichrist" by "von Trier".
On the next day I met up with my friend Hann in Düsseldorf and went 16 km along the Rhine from the Düsseldorf Fare to Kaiserswerth. It was great, since it has also been a beautiful sunshiny day.
I would have gotten home around 4 but I felt like I need more so I went to my gym and did a real tough workout for 1.10h and relaxed in the sauna.
On the next day I had massively sore muscles.
Thought of resting again, but I wanted to check this Vegan Shop cose to my work, so I decided to run there. It was only 6km forth and back, but I got myself some nice chocolate and other sweets. You can check the store here: javego. It is pretty cheap!
Next day noting spectacular: did 1.20h on my fitnessbike in the evening.

Back from London

London is a very veganfriendly city and England is a veganfriendly country. The labels of the vegetarian society or the vegan label of the big groceries really make life easier there. You can also eat out vegan in every part of the city. Even restaurants as the Eritrean Mosob label their food as Vegan.
And now I am back in Germany. I mean it is not Gran Canaria or even worse: France (worst country for vegans in the world probably), but it is getting back to normal. Looking back to the beginning of my vegan life 15 years ago, it has changed for the better over here, too.

Back to training:
I arrived at 9.30 at the Airport in Weeze, dropped my daughter off at home and made my way to the St. Martini City Lauf, a 10km run in Herne, where I work and many of my students also wanted to run. When I got there their run was over but some of them placed almost on top. Then I got the chance to still register for the race and so I did with just a ew hours of sleep, but ok prepared. I ran a 38.55min, but Mikatiming says different. I got the same netto as brutto time, so they made a mistake. My watch told me the time I posted above, so I go with this! It was not exactely what I was aiming for but considering I only had 3*1h sleep on the floor of an airport, it was decent. This is a pic of me running this race.

The other day I only did an hour of cycling at home on my fitnessbike.
On tuesday morning I went swimming at the Aquapark in Oberhausen. This pool usually is really expensive, but quite cheap when you enter before 8 am. Then you can oly use the 25m lane pool, but that is the only thing I go for anyways... In the evening I also went to my gym to lift some weights.

London Part II

On the third day Michi and me ran on the canal again. Really beautiful with these little boats along our track.
We did 8km and I did a 3*1km at faster pace.
Later on we went along the river Thames and to  Tate: Modern/ Contemporary Art Museum.

I was really impressed by the works of Beuys and this photo here:
We ended our trip at the Loving Hut in Camden Town. I find these restaurants strange and so did Michi, Kati and Elara. The food was good, but customers and waiters acted "strange". Be sure to watch the TV broacast but don't let it suck your brain out!

Freaky person at Occupy London

On the next day I started off with some soft exercises with Thera bands and then we went into town again and witnessed the "Occupy London" campaign and the tents around St. Pauls Cathedral. These activist have real important messages to spread, but some people there were quite entertaining and I doubt that these entertaining people change the minds of the bosses.
Again I have stolen these pics from my friend Michi. In the evening I went on the fitnessbike for 1 hour while watching "Back to the future II".
On the next day my daughter and me wanted to take the coach up to Sheffield. Before meeting some of my best friends up north we also wanted to go swimming. But well... we missed the first coach and got to Sheffield very late plus the coach left us outside Meadow Hall which was further away from the swimming pool then I expected. So we skipped swimming and tried to get to my friends Ians place, which was a pain in the arse, since in Sheffield you pay for each travel with a different bus company. So in the end we had to pay three tickets. Could have better called for a taxi. So yeah... this day I wanted to give my body a little rest to be best prepared for the 10k race on sunday. We had late evening chips (very healthy) and I went to see my friends band Inherit and Abolition. Got home not too late, but went to bed directly to be fit for a morning run.

Next morning: Couldn't run too early so we had breakfast before since my friends Ian left to shop for some food. Awesome breakfast with Crumpets and homemade marmalade, plus soymilk and juices.

Crumpet with melted margarine

Yummy!!! The margarine melts in these little holes after the crumpet came out of the toaster.
Anyways... back to sports: There was a little reservoir nearby and a little hill, so I ran up the hill twice at full pace and did another 2 sprints.In total it was just 28 minutes, but enough considering next days race. A little later, my daughter and me got picked up by my other friend Max and he prepared a feast for us. Shepherds Pie (a traditional yorkshire recipe, some veggies, strawberry crumble... delicious!!! Of course verything was vegan as I was surrounded by vegans on this trip again. Amazing!!!)
By the way... If you're into HC, Max put out the best HC related zine ever: Back on the bins

My favorite fanzine edited by my friend Max

If you're into HC and you don't want to read the same Interview questions from last years and second to last years zines and got some special humor then do pick this up! Best zine read I had in years and years.Rumors have it I have slightly contributed to it without knowing or intending.
After Max has offered to drop us off at the airport, I have convinced Max to drive back to London this afternoon. So we got to London in the early evening, talked to our friends at the house for ages (in case Max hasn't seen most of them for quite a while) and waited to Kati and Michi to come home. When they got there we hurried up to get to an Eritrean restaurant calles Mosob. It was very veggie/vegan friendly and family run. Check it out when you're in London. The waiteresses are also very nice and try to let you get an impression of the eritrerian culture by showing a book or some food related ceremonies if wanted.

We got home quite late (after I ate for like 2 persons) and went to the airport directly, Max dropped us off around 2 o' clock and me and my daughter slept for like 2*1 hour. So many others sleeping at Stansted airport. haha. They should build these little sleeping holes there. I'd rent one. At 7.25 it was time to say "Goodbye, England!"

Second part of my autumn vacation: London part I

We got home from Gran Canaria late in the evening. I still had to pick up my car at our bassists house... Manana!
So the other day I went to pick it up by bike but quite late around 3pm and it was only 10km away. I had to arrange a lot for the next holidays in London/Sheffield with my daughter, so the whole day was packed with organizing things and so I went on my exercise bike at home for only 40 minutes.
The next day we had to get up real early (4o'clock) to catch the airplane and went off from Weeze to London.We arrived in the city around noon and went to the "Nationalgallery", which is very interesting, but I am more into modern art...
We met up with my friends Max and Lex and had a falafel at Maoz. Lex has been dropped off at the aiport after our lunch to fly to Australia and get on a "Sea Shepherd" ship. I now know quite a few people that tried to save the ocean wildlife by working on one of the boats and it is a very good effort, so if you come across a shirt or want to donate, go for it!
In the evening my daughter and me met up with my friend Adam, who now sings for "Inherit" (a Straight Edge band from London with something to say due to Adam) and my friend Patrycja, who has taken some fo the pics from my Barcelona blog entry and whose boyfriend also works in the Sea Shepherd fleet. We went to the Iskcon Temple in London Soho, hung out there and went to the vegan restaurant next door called Vantra. Nice, but a little more expensive than the temple.
We got home quite late and waited for our two other friends from Germany Michi and Kati, who we shared a room with at our friends house in Kensal Green, right in front of this exciting, mindblowing cemetery, which is one morbid beauty. It is hard to decribe. If you ever go to London, go there! Check out Michi's pics here.

Me and Pat on the cemetery where also Erich Fried has been buried.

A shot of Michi in between some old graves

This pic features Patrycja, my daughter and me and it is taken from Michi's blog.

One of my favorite places to un in London

In the next morning Michi and me went for a run and I was aiming for a short one but in the end we ran about 13km on the canal , which also goes to Camden town. A small green oasis in the midst fo this big city. I did 3X1km at my 10km racepace. I didn't want to train too much as I had the plan of running a 10km race right after landing in Germany on sunday. I need to be there anyways, since I have registered 35 of my schoolkids to run there... so well... I want to run there, too, but who knows in what constitution I will be after taking a flight out of london at 7.25 am?
The rest of the day we just went on the riversides of the thames and I think we cooked a nice lasagne and made a raw foods salad later this evening. Michi is a good lasagnechef!

Gran Canaria Part II

On our third day on Gran Canaria I went for a little more than an hour running, but up and down loads of stairs and the dunes. I swam a little in the atlantic ocean and in the pool with my daughter.
In the evening I did some more exercises with bodyweight and Thera bands. I can recommend this book especially for german speaking pals, when it comes down to muscle strength training for triathletes:

On this day I also went to "Free motion tours" (http://www.free-motion.net/en/free-motion-bikes-tours-bikesports-gran-canaria) to sign up for a 70km roadbike tour.
So in the morning I went the almost 3 km to their shop. After setting up the bikes (most work was already done), we started. We went up to the mirador del tunte, towards fataga.

The route got high up. The description of the tour is here: http://www.free-motion.net/en/tour/winter-schedule/fataga-santa-lucia-roller-coaster 
When you look at the pics you can see how beautiful the inner parts of Gran Canaria are. It looks alot like the Grand Canyon.
The "Free motion" staff is very kind and professionally working. I would definitely ride with them again! Our tourcrew also made up a great atmosphere. I even met some other german teachers who live near my city.
After coming back from the tour I decided to keep the bike for a while and drove home with it. I brought it back in the evening and ran towards my 2 girls who were on their way to Playa del Ingels where I dropped off the bike. We met there, ran through the "city" and one of the ugly malls. Later on we decided to walk home through the dunes along the beach, but couldn't swim in the ocean. The waves were just too high and the wind stormy. So we walked for almost 2 hours through the dunes and I could finally feel my muscles. We got home shortly before the pool wasn't accesible anymore, so I just dove in to cool down.
The next morning started off with a refreshing 1h run to and along the beach. I did some running exercises and ran barefeet on the sand. Felt really good!!! Did another 2*10min swimming in the pool later on before we took the bus to the airport and left for Germany.
Training and chilling at the end of october in such a warm climate felt really good and I definitely consider going there next year again. Goodbye Gran Canaira, hello again, Germany!

Vacation: Gran Canaria Part I

We have played a show in Leipzig with my band GetItDone (https://www.facebook.com/getitdonehc).
We went to the Fleischerei (vegan deli, pretty good) before the show at Conne Island. I didn't do much training apart from the usual jumping and shouting on stage and some exercises on that day.
But Micha, Rico Ironmind and me agreed on swimtraining the other morning at 8. So we went for that at the pool "An der Elster" (http://www.sportbaeder-leipzig.de/index.php?page=28) which has a really nice 50m lane. Very new pool, so quite clean. Enjoyed it!
Since I have decided quite spontaneously to go on holiday to Gran Canaria, I went looking for cheap flights, a cheap apartment for me and my 2 girls with a pool and not too far from the sea. After picking everybody up, my bandmates dropped us off at the airport in Cochstedt near Magdeburg. Such a small airport...never seen one alike.
So yeah... we got to Maspalomas and almost everything looked strange. No towncentre, just apartmentcomplexes and hotels. Well... the weather was nice, when we landed, around 24 degrees, slightly cloudy, but much better than in Germany. So what have I done there? Meals: Not too good for a vegan. I have bought stuff to cook everyday, tried to buy as much fruits and veggies as I could (but not much to be found at the small local shops). So well... had baked beans or red sauce and pasta most of the days.

But waking up, watching the beautiful sun and diving in the pool felt really good!
So what else did I do?
On the arrival day I only went for more swimming in the pool as I had my training done earlier that morning in Leipzig.

The next day I went for a short run (6,6km) in the morning and then into the pool, did some exercises with Thera bands and another run in the evening (6km). Fine! Found out about some bike rentals, so the next day began with running 8km (incl. 3x1km a little faster than 10k racepace), then swimming in the pool directly afterwards. I also went to the bike rental (http://www.linosbike.com/site/?page_id=30&lang=de) and got myself a decent roadbike for 18€ a day. Initially I have wanted to drive to the capital of Gran Canaria - Las Palmas - but the bike dude, told me I should rather go somewhere else. So I had to convince my girls to not go to Las Palmas this day and go on a bike tour with me instead. So we rented more bikes and just drove around Maspalomas and Playa del Ingles. Got to a botanical garden and saw a plant of cotton for the first time in my life. We also went to the beautiful dunes of Maspalomas, that are totally worth the trip. Even my shitty cellphonecam can capture the beauty of this:

Bikeriding, dunes in the back!

Los Toros! Had been great fun!

I guess I just fell down! Riding the bull was the only non-vegan act I have done!

We cycled back to the apartment an eventually dove into the pool a few more times in the evening at the apartment.
The next day I had to bring my bike back, so I decided to get up early and cycle from Maspalomas to Puerte de Mogan. Almost 70km in total, so a nice start for the day. I dove into the pool again, ate alot, we brought the bikes back and head off to Las Palmas by public bus.

We walked through the city and finally saw a few older buildings and real cool park near the swim stadium, where many runners trained and another "muscle beach" was situated so I did a few exercises. Nice! Back to the apartment, diving into the pool, eat and sleep!