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

The world is changing for the better...

Lately I have been thinking about this a lot because I can see a significant change towards a more conscious lifestyle in todays society.

In 1996 at the age of 16 I have made a conscious and consequent step towards a vegan lifestyle.

I remember being happy when seeing soymilk in a supermarket and not having to pay a lot for an undelicious soymilk from the health food store.

I ran around with a "Veganissimo 1" in my backpack all the time.

Just today I went to Netto (german discount grocery store). Nowadays I can get soymilk, fakemeat stuff and organic bananas there. But they also label many of their products "vegan", even the aceto balsamico I have bought. That is an incredible progression towards a more conscious society und unthinkable 10 years ago.

3 weeks ago I went running with these fine dudes that are running the blog "beVegt". The forest "Stadtpark in Frankfurt was our destination and we ran almost 22km. Really nice!

Daniel, me and Katrin

We had an incredible hangout, good talk, they prepared a delicious meal and I have tasted their energy bar http://www.bevegt.de/selbstgemachte-energieriegel/. Thanks to you for these hours spent!

There's two more things that I want to see happening soon:

A network of veggie/vegan handymen, financial advisors, etc. so that I can choose for veggies to do jobs for me. I don't want my money to support other people to buy more meat and exploit more animals or perhaps even buy guns to go hunting! So someone should get that sort of info network together, please! 

I would also love to see a petition asking for all the german chocolate producers to leave butterfat out of their bitter chocolates. Until around ten years ago I was able to eat all the christmas chocolate stuff, but nowadays it is hard to come by vegan christmas stuff.

Another question: What's up with filtering fruit juices? It can be made with gelatine. Need to find that out as well. Anyone's got a hint? I've just heard that Aldi Süd's apple juice is vegan. I am happy about hearing that since it is my fave apple juice.

The second to last weekend I went running with my friends Kerstin and Sebastian, accompanied by my girlfriend. We went 20km around the 6-Seen-Platte which is the running mekka in Duisburg.

Last weekend we went mountainbiking with several cool dudes from my triathlon club plus one more friend of mine. It has been my first time on a MTB after 2 years since my bike got stolen. Awesome! I really love it and need to buy a decent MTB soon again. 

Some of the best dudes to go mountainbiking with!

On the next day 4 of us from the MTB tour did the 10km race of our club in Oberhausen Schmachtendorf. Sebastian placed first in our age group, I was second. 

Nordtriathleten after the race

Me and Seb. The 3rd guy was not there anymore, but that pic is real! :-)

Finally I was brave enough to get a "vegan" tattoo. I do have "No more" tattooed on my inner lip, which is from a veggie song by "Youth of Today", but up until a few months back I was not 100% sure if I will stay vegan for the rest of my life.

Now I do know! I have been vegan for the last 16 years of my life, which is half my life now and it has never been as easy to live vegan as it is now. So why should I ever take that decision back. It is the best choice in my life and feels totally natural, healthy and compassionate. It has also become so easy. So I went to my buddys at Lifetime Tattoos and got Frank to do this on me, after Andre has done a three other big tats on me.

After the tattoosession I went to Lolu, which is really close. It is a nice veggie restaurant with several vegan options and meals. They got great fresh tea as well. I can really recommend the hummus with bread and the seitan burger.

Before heading there I went to my favortite organic bakery in Duisburg: Schomaker. They got vegan nougatrings as well as other sweet things and delicious bread rolls with olives, etc.

You cannot go wrong there!

Training November 18th- December 18th:
18th: 2h running with Katrin and Daniel of BeVegt in Frankfurt
19th: mixed workout with kettlebell, ergobike, rope, own body weight
20th: 1h badminton with my daughter, 2.1km swimming with speed intervals
21st: 1h easy cycling on my fitnessbike
22nd: ropeskipping, treadmill, fitnessbike, TRX training, own body weight exercises at my new job
23rd: 10 min running to the swimming hall, then 2.1km swimming
24th: 1h running with Fila Skeletoes, 34 min Yoga (toning and stretch)
25th: 2 climbing, then 20.5km running
26th: Restday
27th: 2.3km swimming
28th: 35 min running in Fila Skeletoes, then 40 min easy cycling on fitnessbike
29th: 1h power and stability exercises +  ropeskipping and running on the treadmill
30th: 1h running incl. 3 sprints (with Fila Skeletoes again)
Dec. 1st: 3h mountainbiking with my teammates and friends, then 30 min badminton with my daughter
2nd: Nikolausrun (crossrun) of Sterkrade-Nord (my club): 10km in 39.03min
3rd: 34 min toning and stretch Yoga, then 15 min easy running with my daughter incl. sprints
4th: 2,4km swimming
5th: 42 min running incl. 3 sprints in the morning (fasting run)
6th: 1h power and stability, then 65 min treadmill incl. 4 sprints
7th: 34 min easy cycling on fitnessbike
8th: 3 spinning, 25 min running incl. 5x1min at 20 km/h, then a few exercises for power
9th: 11.2km running on snow and ice
10th: Just Yoga (toning and stretch)
11th: 70 min running incl. 3 sprints
12th: 1h cycling, ca. 40 min power and stablity, 70 min running incl. 10 sprints (first four moderate, 6-10 harder)
13th: 36 min running, 5 min rowing
14th: restday
15th: 29km running incl. several runs up the Schlackeberg (big big slagheap) 
16th: 64 min cycling incl. 2x 6 high intensive intervals
17th: 1h easy cycling (to compensate the weekends training)
18th: 45 min easy running incl. 3 sprints

It's been a while since my last blogentry.

I just had a lot to do and haven't found much inspiring to me that I find inspirig to share.

Well... I regularly check out this blog www.bevegt.de and I think you should do, too.

I have just came across this interesting website:

www.greatveganathletes.com

Check it for yourselves, it is definitely worth a visit or two.

My band GETITDONE! had just put out a split 7" we have released on our own and a split CD (on Lunas Records from Istanbul) with Radical Noise from Turkey. This band is damn good and amazing dudes.

Check out their video here:

http://vimeo.com/49978697 

It has been edited by my friend Engin who will soon be living in Germany so let me know if you need professional videos for your band.

My friend Firat organized a pair of Fila Skeletoes for me for just 10€. 

 

These are barefoot running shoes similar to Vibram's fivefingers.

I got a few pairs of shoes that are very light racers, but this is the second time I have purchased barefoot alike shoes.

What can I say? I love running in these!!!

This pair costed only 10€ due to the german shoe shop Deichmann throwing these out of their roster.

Amazing shoe, your feet get wet, and it is a tight and flexible feeling, still I felt safe.

Lately I have made pizzadough on my own out of memory without a scale or anything.

I took these ingredients: 

wholegrain spelt flour, wheat flour, salt, agave nectar, oliveoil, 2 portions of yeast, wheat germs, soyflour, warm water

Knead the ingredients for a while until the dough is just fine. Then leave it in the bowl under a piece of cloth for like 30 min.

Then preheat the oven, form the dough and put the dough in the oven before putting the stuff you want to have on your pizza. So the dough becomes more solid.

Then put whatever you like on to and wait the few minutes until it is ready.

A few times I only added garlicoil and tomatoes on it and added salt and pepper later on. Delicious.

I have also baked this bread.

It is totally tasty, healthy and fits to sweet and salty spreads.

The dough can also be put in the freezer and used whenever needed.

Training Oct. 17th - November 17th:

17th: 34 min Yoga in the morning, 14,5 km running incl. 4x1km fast at ca. 3.50min/km, later 17 min stretchyoga

18th: 10 min mixed exercises to warm up, later on a few exercises with Thera bands but resting apart from this.

19th: 2x 20 min running, later 2.5km swimming incl. 5x100m fast

20th: 105km cycling incl. 2 flat tyres :-(

21st: 14km running incl. 5x1km at 3.50-3.40min/km around lakes in Duisburg, later stretch Yoga

22nd: Restday

23rd: 30 min strength and stability, 55min indoor cycling, 30 min strength and stability exercises

24th: 1.30h relaxed running

25th: 1h cycling on fitnessbike

26th: 1h cycling on fitnessbike

27th: 2.5km swimming, later 45 min running incl. 3 sprints

28th: 18 min Yoga, 12km running incl. 3x 10 squats, then sprints, 6x1km fast at ca. 3.40min/km

29th: 45 min easy running

30th: 1h strength exercises, 1h fitnessbike

31st: 8,5km running incl. 4x 1km fast at 3.40 min/km

Nov 1st: 15 min Yoga in the morning 30 min Yoga in the evening

2nd: 55 min swimming

3rd: "funrun" in Oberhausen. I only partook in 3 laps: 1* 2,6km (6.30min/km), 1* 2,6km (4.15min/km), 1* 2,6km (3.30min/km), went climbing in the evening

4th: 1,6km running to warm up, then 800m fast, 10km race at the st. martinilauf in Herne in 39.00

5th: Restday

6th: 30 min strength, 52 min inddor cycling, a few more strength exercises

7th: 50 min running incl. stairs, jumps, etc. with my Fila Skeletoes

8th: 1.20h cycling on fitnessbike, incl. Intervals

9th: 2.4km swimming

10th: 1h cycling and 25 min mixed exercises with kettlebell, swissball, rope and dumbbell

11th: 35 min running, later 15 min fitnessbike, then 32 km cycling very easy with my uncle

12th: 2.1km swimming

13th: Restday... too much work

14th: 35 min runnin, 70 min cycling on fitnessbike, 10 min strength exercises

15th: Restday... too much work again

16th: 1h cycling + 1 h swimming

17th: 2h cycling on fitnessbike

Interview on beVegt (blog in german)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Olgapark in Oberhausen. Playing Basketball

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

Save money burn fat, instead of oil!

Last week I went to work by bike a couple of times. It saves me 9 € on gas and of course some more money for not using it in the end (no repairs, tires will last longer, etc).
It is almost 29km away so in the morning it is hard sometimes to wake up earlier and do the trip, but once done I am always happy about having done the cycling. Usually the way back is nice, too, becuase the weather gets nicer. Well, one time I last week on my way back home I got caught up in a storm with hail and loads of rain and couldn't ride on for like 40 minutes. I was also freezing and lots of my stuff in my backpack got wet. Anyways... it is still a good thing to do. For me, for our families bank account, for the environment.
Need to get to bed now to get up early enough tomorrow morning.
Here's thoughts on this subject by another being: 5 reasons to cycle to work

Training May 13th - 25th
13th: cycled 75 km with my new buddies on a RTF around Bottrop, later on I have ran to my parents place and back home (4km)
14th:  63min on fitnessbike a little faster
15th: Birthday!!! Only 3.2km swimming in the morning.
16th: 83 min running incl. running exercises, sprints and 4x2000m at faster pace
17th: 73km cycling, then 13km running with my vegan buddy Sebastian
18th: 1h exercises for strength and stability and then 3.2km swimming in the evening
19th: 102 min running: 55min faster incl. 3 sprints, then 47min a little slower
20th:  131km cycling, followed by 5km running
21st: ca. 1.5km swimming in the lake for the first time this year (6-Seen-Platte)
22nd: 28.5km to Herne (city where I work) and later on 28.5 back, 1,5km swimming in the lake with my buddy Florian
23rd: again 28.5km cycling to Herne fourth and back
24th: 91 min running incl. exercises, sprints and 5x2000m faster
25th: 59km cycling Herne fourth and back, 1.2km lake swimming, then 23 min running + 10 min uphill running up on a hill and then on this tower.

Open water season has begun!

Yo! I am happy to anounce the opening of the open water season in the Ruhr Area in western germany.
Went lakeswimming today for the second time after yesterday. It feels so so good. Not for my pal who was with me (first time swimming in a lake in a wetsuit), but I love to swim there again. My hotspot is the 6-Seen-Platte in Duisburg-Wedau (close to the Stadium of MSV Duisburg). 6-Seen-Platte means 6 lakes area. I usually go for the Wolfssee. Where I usually hang out, there is a nice, small sandy beach. You can also have barbecues there, it has supergood running routes. It just pleases all my needs.

I have been interviewed for another nice blog you should check out called beVegt. It will be online in the first week of June!

I am very happy of having done a few trainings with a guy from my Triathlon Club "Nordtriathleten" and finding a new buddy with whom I did quite a few trainings already. Luckily he is also vegan, so we're now the vegan triathlete power duo, when we're running, cycling or swimming around.
Actually he is the only other real vegan triathlete near my hometown I know, and the other way round, so we're quite happy. This might sound homosexual to some, but it is not... Just happy of having a trainingbuddy with a similar ethical mindset!

This is how to make healthy Kartoffelpuffer/Reibekuchen (potato pancakes):
grate potatoes
add wheat flour, wheat germs, soy flour, onions, nutmeg and oatflakes and make a dough out of it.
Fry the dough (in the size of the palm of a hand) in a pan.
Wait until it is golden.
Eat with apple puree!

Two of my 4th grade schoolboys thought more critically towards vegetarianism. I have strengthened their thoughts and now they claim to be veggies. I ahve brought them a few things to try out (schnitzel, meat slices) and they even made the schools canteen go veggie for one week. I am happy and proud.
Another kdi just told me today that he and his father went to a sheeps slaughterhouse a few days ago and he doesn't want to eat meat again. We'll see if they will maintain, but at least they got an image of how cruel the meat industry is and how easy it is to live an alternative and healthy way.

Training April 29th- May 12th
29th: Went to the RTF in Dorsten with dudes from my Triathlon club. In total 200km cycling.
30th: 5km running as quickly as possible in 18.26min.
1st of May: 1h exercises at home (stability and strength) and then 30km to Herne and 30km back on my roadbike
2nd: 57 min running incl. 4 sprints
3rd: 3.2km swimming, then exercises for stability and strength
4th: 28km to Herne and 28 km back to Oberhausen
5th: 3.2km swimming in the morning, 1 h spinning, 5 min rowing, 40 min hillrun intervalls and 3 min rowing.

6th: 65 min cycling on my fitnessbike (endurance strength), then 106 min running incl. 3 sprints
7th: 10 sprints, then 5km running in 18.46min
8th: 3.2km swimming
9th: 10 sprints, then 5km running in 8.53min, then lifting weights
10th: Badminton with my daughter
11th: 2.7km swimming, then a few nice exercises (stability and strength)
12th: 64 min running incl. 3 sprints, 1.5h cycling on my fitnessbike