Holidays on Gran Canaria...

... but that doesnt mean that I am not training. Cycling down here is wonderful!
Images and more info on Gran Canaria will be posted within the next few days!

Back from BCN!

Saturday morning, 6.30 the plane took off.

Firat, Joan, Me, Nasim, Matze

The whole marriage party on the square in front of the city hall of Cervera

Montserrat

Brought me to Girona, which is a nice city, but most of the times I just take the bus from the airport to Barcelona. I got there around 10ish and met up with Canan and Firat to eat breakfast. Since I have eaten my wolewheat bread at the airport I only ate some dates, bought at the market boqueria, but on the evening, when it was dirtcheap, as Firat told me. Well, we went running towards platja Nova Mar Bella, stopped at muscle beach one, muscle beach two and then went to the place where you can pick up your gear for the Garmin Barcelona Triathlonchttp://www.garminbarcelonatriathlon.com/. I haven't signed up this year but wanted to check out whether I could still get a slot. No es possible! No worries... we just went back to muscle beach, dove in the waves - extraordinary high waves this day - and went back to Firats and Canans apartment in El Born to get to my friend Gabriels place right before the bus left to take us out to Cervera (an old catalan village on a hill, fortified by city walls). We even drove past Montserrat, where I definitely need to go next time!  There Lubia and Gabi said yes and bonded their relationship for life. Many pics have been taken as the ones above.
Then we went back to BCN for the party... and yeah... it was a party! The food was also amazing and brought to us by Gopal, a full on vegi deli https://www.facebook.com/julekeralagopal.bcn . Once you get to BCN, you gotta get there to eat most definitely! They do even have a few special catalan  recipes and transfer them into a vegan version. I couldn't move, because of eating to much. I was a bad guest that evening, but the food was just too good. We left the party shortly after one am.
The other day was the last day of my little trip, so yeah... tried to make the most out of it. After getting up and eating a little, me and firat ran to muscle beach again, swam a little, had a proper meal witht he leftovers from last nights catering and ran back, in time for me to catch the train to the airport.
I left BCN at 23 degrees celsius and landed in Germany at like 10 degrees... Shit!!!
It is always nice to get back home, but not when I get home from BCN.
The weather was nice today, but I have missed the right time to get outside as I was still pretty tired from the weekend, so I gotta get running now! Bye!
ah... we also took a pic after coming back from muscle beach: Yeah!

Packing for BCN

Today I have soaked in the last warm beams of the sun over Germany, probably the last time running here with only a t-shirt on. I didn't even want to out to cycle, so I went to the gym later on and did two hours of Indoor Cycling. Had great food later on, salad with carrots and wheat germs, a potatoe pan with zucchini, onions and pepper plus veggie burgers enhanced with soyflour to give it more protein.

Tomorrow I am gonna run on the seafront of beautiful Barcelona, my favorite city! It might also be the last time of the year to swim in the sea! Firat and me will meet in the city after I will get there early in the morning, have breakfast and then run along the seaside to the muscle beach. Yeah... working out in the sun before the wedding party (the occasion for my visit to BCN). Gotta make some food ready to take with and then get to bed! Need to drive to the airport at three... Goond night!

This weeks training and BCN this weekend! Yeah!

The monday I didn't do much, just some workout exercises and then toning and stretch Yoga!
On tuesday I went to my new gym again and there I ran for 25 min on a treadmill and then I did the Cycling II course.
Wednesday swim training with the Triathletes in Duisburg-Walsum again. Before that Britta wanted to go running with me, so I thought I could warm up a little, but due to the rain I felt really cold... But 25 min of smooth running is nice!
Today the sun shone bright, so I though to myself I could just ride my bike. At the weekend I am gonna be in Barcelona, so I won't have time to ride my bike.
So after school I had to get a few things done at home and then I went for a little nap. A few minutes past five I went to Dinslaken, near the Airport Schwarze Heide and back home again, to make it back before my daughter Elara comes home from training. Only 48 Km at a pace of only a little more then 30km/h. Then we went to have dinner and meet friends at Yummys (Vegan Restaurant/Cafe) at the Druckluft in Oberhausen. I can really recommend this nice little restaurant. https://www.facebook.com/pages/yummy/143422635730443
Should do some Yoga now, or at least stretch but I am very tired somehow.
Tomorrow running or swimming and then I need to pack my stuff to get to my favorite city Barcelona where I will meet up with my bro Firat to run topless to the muscle beach at 28 degrees Celsius! I can't wait to get there.

Weekend training

On friday before bandmeeting I went to the new gym. Did some weightlifting and a very short run there and then went for the sauna. Nice!
Then we met at the Unperfekthaus www.unperfekthaus.de and had some food and drinks there! Check this if you are somewhat creative or open minded. Felix and me found an acoustic guitar so we jammed some songs and got invited to a public band practice in another room. haha. But we just stayed there and sang some more Oasis and Dag Nasty. After this we headed for the mall "Limbeckerplatz", but it is shite! So we decided to visit my old university and went to a party at the KKC http://www.kkc-essen.de/ to dance to some shitty and some better music. It was fun and I went to bed around 4 am.

Yesterday I went running after bringing my daughter to her badminton game. I made it back in time to see her winning. Back home before entering I went for another 30 min of running incl. 8 sprints and did some exercises with Therabands for arms, shoulders, chest, back and belly in my living room.

Today I woke up late again. Having had a delicious and healthy breakfast I went off to meet with Micha (Ironman Triathlete) for a nice cycling tour of 64 km on a mountainbike to the Rhine. I am still quite exhausted and had to sleep an hour. Gotta get my work for the week done now! Good night and have a nice week!

Getting in training again after the Cologne Marathon

So on tuesday I went to my school in Herne by bike. It is around 26 km away, but I gotta cycle from Oberhausen through Bottrop, Essen, Gelsenkirchen and Wanne-Eickel to get there. You can never really speed up, but you are able to see a lot of the northern Ruhrregion. On my way back I have passed an interesting "Heimatmuseum" in Wanne-Eickel near the former coal mine "Alter Fritz" which is now used as a place for artists and culture in general. Then in Gelsenkirchen I have seen signs to an NS-documentation center. So I guess I gotta check these museums in the next couple of months.
In the evening I met up with some Ironman triathletes to see if I can join their club.
After that I have visited a new gym to check if it fits my training. Had a nice sauna and loads of cardiostuff. Lifted some weights there and did some stabilizing exercises. Gonna give it another try when there's a cycling course happening.

Yesterday I just went running for 32 minutes and it felt well again. I also went to my daughters school by bike, which was only 9 km. My legs have pretty much recovered and that makes me unexpectedly happy.
Did 10 minutes of weightlifting before going to bed.

Today I haven't done much apart from ropeskipping and running to the postal office, until I met up with the triathlonclub dudes to go swimming at the Allwetterbad Duisburg-Walsum. http://www.duisburg.de/micro/duisburgsport/baeder/AllwetterbadWalsum.php Pretty nice and clean there and not much going on tonight.
First time for more than a year without a fixed training schedule. So I just did like 2km, I guess.
Used pullbouy, paddles and float.
Gotta be there again next week I guess and gonna go mountainbiking with them on sunday.

Video and gear

Check this vid, which has been shot on the second half of the marathon in Cologne.
Adidas tanktop, decathlons (cheapest) kalenji pant, "Zoot" compression calf guards, Nike+ Lunar Rejuvenate Presto, XSocks "Speed Metal". A good combination. I felt very comfortable with that gear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvUmDr6omKM

Cologne Marathon

Before the Marathon: 
I finished my 2nd Marathon ever. 
Cologne was a real good one, since such a crowd is really helpful, when they scream your name.
Me and Jasmin met at her parents place and went by car and tram to the Marathon start. I registered my bag and went to the start... had to go to the toilet for 3 more times... haha. Better now then during the race!

The first few kilometeres went slowly, due to the high number of runners. I have estimated 3:10-3:13h. I knew I could do the 3:10h, but would have had to do more 30Km + runs in training. I did the halfmarathon in 1:32h (pic above taken by Britta at 21,5km), so I thought I should make it in 3:10h, but after Km 30 my body slowly rejected the pace.
In the end I finished in 3:12:51 h, which is cool considering my lack of long joggs in training and the short specialized marathon training period of 2.5 weeks.

But this was the first run without blisters. My muscles weren't too sore in the end. Only the upper leg muscles. I wore compression calf guards by "Zoot" and my socks "Speed Metal" by X-Socks kept my feet fresh and vital. The shoes I ran my fastest 10km race with also proved to be the best marathon shoes I got. These are a sneakers version of the Nike Lunar Racer, but cheaper. Nike Lunar Rejuvenate Presto is the name and I have never seen those at usual running shops, but sneaker shops sometimes got these. They are truely amazing! I can only write this again... they proved to be fast at 10km, but they also proved to endure a marathon.

Food: I put a few Aptonia fruit jellys from Decathlon in my mouth behind my cheeks and didn't eat them but let them slowly disappear. That way the body gets the sugar constantly through the saliva that gets resorbed easier than through food in the stomach. I chewed a salt tablet, took two sachets of "High5 Energy Gel", ate some slices of banana and half an "Oat Energy banana bread" supplied by my sponsor "Alles-Vegetarisch.de" http://www.alles-vegetarisch.de/Suesswaren-Riegel-Davina-ENERGY-OAT-SNACK-Banana-Bread--70g-,art-1326.Oh I also had a maca tablet during and right before the race.
After the race I ate as much vegan stuff as provided. They had loads of raisin and nut mixes, apple water, laugengebäck, bread, bananas and apples. I think I stayed there for like half an hour to eat and drink.

After the run: 
Jasmins mother was kind enough to provide us with some proteins and carbohydrates through delicious potatoes and vegetables after the run. I was invited to my friend Kouider for dinner in Dortmund. So I drove there, got some north african starter (mixed vegetables with bread), a very nice salad, canneloni with spinach and more vegetables as second and prickly pears and figs as dessert. Thanks to people who are not even vegetarian themselves but are open minded enough to make dinner comfortable for vegans and even eat vegetarian on that day! I love you!
Didn't want to drive back home due to feeling worn out, so I slept at my friends place.
Got up in the morning around ten and we ate the remains of the dinner from the evening before. Then I went back home, picked up my daughter and we went waterskiing. No other sports to be done today!
I will see what tomorrow brings... either cycling or swimming. Good night!

I will post a pic of all my gear within the next few days!

The last day before the Cologne Marathon

Last training and last day.
Did a 30 minutes run incl. 3 sprints, did some Yoga out in the woods and a Kneipp treatment for my legs.
Had two big meals with loads of rice today. One at home, one after picking up my racenumber in Cologne at "Well Being". "Well Being" is a full on vegan asian restaurant (http://wellbeing.blogsport.de/).
Try the saigon curry there! Awesome!

Me and Jasmin are going to be the two "Veggie Athletes" (our team) starting tomorrow!
We need more poeple to spread the idea of a healthy and fit vegan lifestyle!

Healthy breakfast to get fit!

Breakfast: Starter: Vegan Yoghurt with: wheat germs, mulberry syrup, agave nectar, lingonberry jam, almond something muesli, and soaked in linen seeds, macapowder (not on pic)
Second: wholewheat bread with ketchup, mayonaise, vegan cheese, smoked tofu, cucumber, tomato, lettuce
Drink: Shake with soymilk, bananas, kiwi, peppermint leaves, maple syrup, agave nectar, mulberry syrup —