Mallorca Training camp

So in March I went on a trainingcamp for the first time ever.

Seb, me, Ironmario, Tobi in Petra waiting for coffee and bread, 
on top: Timmi, me and Seb on Sant Salvador

Me and my buddy Seb were happy about having found a nice hotel with 25m pool, spa and a reasonable price. Shortly after we got there we found out it is one of THE Triathlon hotels on Mallorca. Hotel ferrer janeiro

So many freaks everywhere: Pro-Triathletes, Triathletes that booked a full training camp with trainer, etc, county elite teams... 95% of the customers there were aspiring triathletes.

On the first day we only ran, because we got there in the afternoon.

Due to my full agenda on the days before I couldn't really sleep much so I slept 10 hours. We got up around 8 and out of the hotel at 8:15 and were some of the last to leave the hotel for training. haha Freaks!

Anyways... we had a good time, missed the veggie restaurant in Inca 2 times, because of their opening times, had seen 3 veggie restaurants in Palma de Mallorca, cycled 850 km in 7 days on the bike, met nice people, spent hours and hours in the spa and ate probably more than double what "normal" people eat, but still all vegan, much raw and these 9 days felt soo soo great!
We did on guided tour, which was offered from the hotel, with the pro-triathlete Tine Holst. She was supernice to us, showed us new routes and gave us hints for races. She also works a few hours as physiotherapist and since my knee started to hurt, I had an appointment with her, which gave me quite some insight and made me continue training with far less pain. She's one positive, very nice person. You should definitely try to meet her, once you're in Ca'n Picafort!

Did I say we also went to Petra, which is the cyclists "Mekka" on Mallorca. I could have easily lived without the experience of hanging out there, but the pa amb olives (bread with olives, for us a vegan version with tomatoes on the bread) was really good. I will most definitely come back next year!!!
Ah yeah.... before I forget: We ate at Temple Natura in Palma. We really liked the mune del dia and they had enough vegan stuff for us. 

So this was the starter plate of the 1st evening

 

This was our second trip towards puig major

Off day in Palma, Cathedral in the back.

The other side of the cathedral site, towards the sea.

Our second to last trip with high elevation climbs. This is Sa Calobra! THE elevation climb on Mallorca!

Me and the Iron Mind Crew ran the Bleilochlauf in Kloster/ Schleiz in Thuringia. It is one of the most beautiful runs I ran and was my first real run, my impulse for starting to train 4.5 years ago, so it is special to me. Jan-Albert, Rene and me went there in one car. We got there late friday night and went into the ship, where we usually stay to meet up with Dominik and Thomas and sleep. Jan-Albert came from the north of the Netherlands to win the race and he did. 1:34h was his finish time. Congratulations!!!

Vegan Power placing 1st! Jan-Albert Venema, Team Iron Mind

I was slower than last year and not really satisfied but still placed 8th out of more than 100 and the run was nice as always. 
 

I had also asked my friend Freddy to put up a show in the evening after the run, which he did. Unluckily my own band had to cancel, so I just helped running the show in the evening. "Final Prayer", "Dogchains" and "Reality Returns" were on the bill as well as "Light it up" who replaced us. Awesome lineup, good atmosphere together with awesome dudes and great food it made a perfect day in Schleiz! I wish a weekend can always be like this. Iron Mind Army!

This weekend we will play 2 shows:

Dinslaken May 10th

Arnhem May 12th

Finally I do own a new bike:

I love to ride this rocket!

Climbing in a former industrial complex: Landschaftspark Nord in Duisburg

Pic taken on my way back home from Herne on my last 30+ run before the Marathon. This is Nordsternpark Gelsenkirchen.

Both these sites on the pics above belong to the Route der Industriekultur (Route of industrial culture)

Check this out if you speak german:
Milch und Kalzium

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

Next race for me: Vivawest Marathon May 12th

Training March 22nd- May 9th

22nd: Played a show in Saalfeld and therefore did not much apart from ropeskipping and the show
23rd: Landed on Mallorca, ran 15,5k incl. intervals, then some minutes on spinbike, then training power
24th: 8k running, 135 cycling, then coupling run 15 min
25th: 1k swimming, 166k cycling incl. 4 of the hardest elevation climbs (puig major, Coll de soller, etc.) , only spa afterwards
26th: 10k running, some weightlifting, 102km cycling at 29km/h, kneeproblems, 6,5km coupling run (fast), 1,4k swimming
27th: 20 min power and stability training, 130k cycling with Tine Holst, 12k coupling run at (5min/k, then 4.20 min/k)
28th: 2.7k swimming and then off to Palma... Palma... Palma de Mallorca!
29th: 2,4k swimming, 145k cycling up to Sant Salvador with Timmi (our new teammember), just 10 min coupling run, then physiotherapy appointment with Tine
30th: 2,6k swimming incl. 3*400m faster and 4*100 with progressing speed, 135k cycling (Sa Calobra)
31st: 18k running (incl. 10*1k from 3.55 to 3.40 pace), 96 k cycling incl. 1.6k elevation climbs, then power and stability
April 1st:  58 min running, power and stability    in Total: 85k running, 880k cycling and 8,7k swimming

2nd: Yogastretch and stretching
3rd: 1.4h cycling on fitnessbike
4th: 2.7k swimming
5th: 2.8k swimming
6th: 1.4 cycling on my TTbike for the first time, then played a show in Aachen
7th: Olympic Triathlon in Voerde in 1:58
8th: Yogastretch
9th: 100 min running incl. 7*1k at 4:00 pace
10th: 2.8k swimming, later 65 min running easy, then played a show in Essen
11th: Power and stability
12th: 2.8k swimming
13th: 19k running at marathonpace, moshing at a show in Duisburg, later 19k back home slower

14th: 35k cycling with my GF (meaning really slow), then 35 back home at faster pace
15th: 2.5h cycling
16th: running and cycling, but easy. ca 40k cycling, 4k running
17th: 2.8k swimming
18th: Power and stability, then swimming
19th: Restday
20th: Bleilochlauf: 24k run with elevation climbs!!! in 1:41:47
21st: 5 min running with Jan-Albert so show him the Schalke Arena, haha, some stretching
22nd: 2.10h cycling
23rd: 57 min cycling on fitnessbike incl. HIIT
24th: 30 cycling to Herne in the morning, 32k running back from Herne in the afternoon
25th: Power and stability and rowing
26th: 2.6k swimming
27th: 1h cycling on fitnessbike
28th: 1:05 h cycling, 40 min coupling run incl. some exercises (stairhopping, pushups, etc.)
29th: 1h cycling on fitnessbike
30th: cycling, 6.5k running incl. 4*1k at 3.20 pace, cycling, then 30 min cycling on fitnessbike
May 1st: Climbing, 57k cycling, 20 min coupling run
2nd: 1h power and stability, rpeskipping, rowing, 30 min progressive run
3rd: 30k cycling in the morning, 30k back in the afternoon, 2.7k swimming in the evening
4th: 64 min running incl. 3*4HIIT, 1h cycling in the evening at 30.6km/h
5th: 115 km cycling at RTF Velbert with 1700m of elevation climbs, eating at Delicious afterwards
6th: 2.6k swimming
7th: 90 min running incl. intervals, but my body couldn't really... took a break, kept on running slower, stretch Yoga
8th: 2.7k swimming
9th: Yoga in the morning, 35min running

Spending time in the Sauerland/ Soymilk/cowsmilk

This Blog is amazing: beVegt. They have just compiled a list of vegan energy gels. Something I had always been looking for. They have investigated on their own. Glad to have it, thanks to Daniel and Kathrin!

So I have done my first two triathlons this season. The first one in Harsewinkel and second one in Altena which is close to the eldest youth hostel in germany (also in the world?) in an old castle. The course was really hard, especially the bike course. Just up and down basically. Anyways... I have placed 11th out of ca. 70, so it was a good race, I guess.

Burg Altena

Here are the results of my team.

This weekend was the final ceremony of my 4th graders. We spent two awesome days in my hometown Oberhausen incl. swimming at the Aquapark. I was able to look after my kids but still swim 3.3km. Early in the morning I went 1.4h cycling so I had my training done for that day. The next day early in the morning I went running with a few kids to a strawberry field to steal some breakfast and then pick up the ordered bread rolls. The sun started shining real hot and the day seemed to begin very nice. We went to the Gasometer, which now displays loads of pics of natural and cultural sights of the Unesco. My kids really got into the pics and I made a few walk up and down the 116 m on stairs a couple of times while I only did that once.
After getting back from there we went back to have a barbecue, which I never really like because of all the meat. I think next time I will try to make this a veggie happening...
Oh yeah... one of my presents was voucher for Decathlon, which I will use for a new Spalding basketball that my kids lost at our camping site yesterday.

After having talked about holidays, Dubrovnik and feeling the warmth of the sun I am looking forward to my upcoming summer holidays towards the Balkans. I cannot wait to get on this trip, but have to move in my new apartment first...

Soymilk/ Cowsmilk: In my school the kids can order milk. It is supposed to be supported by the state, but I think it is still pretty expensive. I was trying to bring an alternative by asking Alpro (before I knew they got sold to Dean foods) to supply my class with their soymilk and dairy alternatives. Even though they wanted to they were not allowed, while usual milk is always allowed, even monetarily supported. Although I do have more kids allergic to lactose (4) than to soy (1) in my class we can only order cowsmilk. A couple of weeks ago I was on a Basketball tournament witht he schools team we even had a person masked as a hapy cow in our school working out with all schoolkids for free. Supported by the dairy industry... conveying the image as if milk makes you healthy and cows give milk altruisticly. It is fucking hypocritical and after seeing pictures of this milk "showcase" I have told my head teacher that I will not support that shite next time. Most people (and teachers) don't think critically about that, but it shades the truth. Showing a happy cow giving milk is just a lie. And I cannot see why we should lie to our schoolkids only because most people don't have a problem with drinking milk. It is still a lie to say it is not cruel to produce it or even showing hapy cows jumping up and down. What a fucking lie!!!
German speaking folks should read this:
veganesauge which tells a little about other governmental instruments to support the dairy industry thorugh taxes.

My band has recorded new stuff for two split records. A vinyl 7" with Overlord from Belgium on Reality records and a split cd with the newly reunited biggest turkish hardcore band of all time: Radical Noise.
I am very happy with the results of the recordings. John Joseph of the Cro-Mags has also featured us on a few lines of a song. Watch out for that!

Training June 11th-
11th: stabilizing and power exercises
12th: swimming 2.8km
13th: 82min running (incl. 4times 2000km faster pace)
14th: Yoga to regenerate
15th: 60km cycling
16th: blocktraining 30 min swimming, spinning, boat rowing, running, cycling, running: a little mre than 2.5h and quite hig intensity
17th: a short but hard running training of 30 min. incl. 6 times 10 basic jumps and a sprint after each set, later 62 km cycling
18th: 72 min easy running
19th: 3.3km swimming, stablizing exercises and stretching in the evening
20th: 78 min running incl. exercises and 40 min at almost racepace
21st: 2.30h speed blocktraining: 8km cycling incl. 5 seconds at max pace every km, then running 2.8km: sprint of 100m followed by 200m easy running all the 2.8km. all this 4 serious and then 15min easy cycling.
22nd: 60km cycling, 2.3km swimming int he evening
23rd: just climbing with my buddies here

Unterer Elberskamp

24th: Did my 2nd Triathlon (olympic) in 2.16h something. Was a really hard one. Link is somwhere on top of this blog.

Meeting a positively crazy dude during swim training/ Climbing (and running) in the Ardeche/France/ List of vegan climbing shoes

Meeting a positively crazy dude during swim training/ Climbing (and running) in the Ardeche/France/ New TV show appearance with Björn Moschinski

I had to hurry up with training this week since I knew I was neither going to ride my bike nor to swim so I wanted to have the bike sessions done at least, before leaving for rock climbing in the Ardeche/France.

So well... my last swim training took place on Friday 31^st. I went to the Südpool in Herne directly after school. I have seen another dude training real hard. He looked a lot like a triathlete (trained body and tanned) so we started talking. He told me he will start off this season with an Ironman 70.3 (half the Ironman distance) and do 3 full Ironman challenges throughout the year. Crazy dude! I have also discovered something on his upper chest that looked like a broken bone at first sight. Later on he told me he has a (hartpacemaker) but he also had a chemotherapy but finished an Ironman a couple of months later. Real crazy dude... but much respect for his motivation and eagerness from my side!

So on Friday evening I got picked up by a van packed full of teachers that want to complete the teachers qualification for climbing and this time in the Ardeche in France, outside on real rocks. It has been a nice overnight drive and I didn’t have to drive until 8 in the morning, so I just drove the last hour and went running directly until the other van arrived. I just went up the long road to our guest house La Residence du Chassezac and turned around after 25 min. A few minutes later the other van overtook me and offered to take me to the house but I just ran back. 50 min in total, pretty nice for a morning run in the sun.

Little swimming session

Abseiling

Le Chassezac captured from the rocks.

So this was our first day!

Then we had breakfast and afterwards went to our first rock climbing session. Amazing view from the rocks onto the river “Chassezac”. Around twenty degrees and we’re sliding down the rope towards the bank of the river. Yes! Afterwards me and 2 others went back by feet. We went through the river (it is not deep at all) and climbed up to the pension. I unintentionally slided down three times and got scratches on my belly and arms. We did a few exercises after that and then cleaned ourselves in the pool (cold, cold pool!).

The cold pool.

Abseiling

Right before the first abseiling on the first day.

Climbing up

Heavy route

The bible of climbing in the Ardeche Region

So the following week I was experiencing beautiful nature, breathing clean air, listening to creeks and rivers, discovering several different birds of prey and climbing, climbing, climbing! The Ardeche is just beautiful for outdoor sports. Many people do kanooing, climbing, cycling or walking and there are many camping sites. We were lucky that the weather stayed very nice. We had more than 20 degrees Celsius on the first three days and did our run back to the apartment topless (the other two sport nerds and me).

Many germans were there and also many families spent their vacation like this. In April it is still affordable and not too busy. The temperature is also mild, which benefits outdoor sports.

Training March 27th-April 4th
27th: swimming 3km in the morning and cycling 81km with my mate Florian in the evening
28th: 1h running, nothing special
29th: 65 min cycling on my fitnessbike for strength endurance
30th: 70 min running incl. 3 sprints
31st: 3km swimming and meeting the (posi) crazy triathlete
April 1st: 50 min running in Maisonneuve in the morning, climbing in front of the camping site (Mazet Plage), back to our guesthouse running and with backpack on. Then stretch and toning Yoga outside in the garden as the sun set. Awesome!

2nd: 80 min running searching for the bakery and finding this nice castle, climbing and then again 25 min running back, exercises outside
3rd: 35 min running, climbing, 35 min running back home and through Chandolas.
4th: 18min cycling really fast to the bakery, then climbing in Chauzet and riding the mountainbike back from Chauzon to Maison Neuve. Beautiful villages on the route! Awesome! Then we went running with 3 guys to the other bakery and did several speedups. We did 8,7km in 41min and did exercises after this again before jumping in to the pool.




Here's a little list of leatherfree and vegan climbing shoes:
German list but the brand names can be read in every language ;-)

"Easy to make" recovery meal/ Training March 5th - 12th

Mixed salad, mexican veggies, hash-browns, tofu, wheat germs, sprouted quinoa seeds, nutritional yeast (as in the big jar), soaked in buckwheat (in the bowl to the left) and a bloody orange for dessert. Easy and fast to make, yet a nice recovery meal (actually I ate two portions of this and had 2 wholegrain breadrolls before)

Training this week:
5th: mixed exercises for power with swissball, weights, own body weight for 75 min, then sauna and in the evening 75 min running.
6th: 2,4km swimming from 6.45-7.45 incl. some sprints
7th: playing football with my friends for 90 minutes here
8th: 70 min running incl. 3 sprints, then rehearsal
9th: power yoga 17 min, 2,8km swimming, stretch yoga 17 min
10th: 90 min running incl. spirints, exercises and high intensive sprint intervalls, 19km in total
11th: 5h cycling (144 km), then climbing at the "Bergwerk" (Which means "mine", it used to be a coal mine) in Dortmund here

Again media coverage in german: Peta2 Interview/ Running and climbing in Soest

This interview (Peta2) is in german, sorry for non-german speaking folks!

Training Jan 26th - Feb 4rth
26th: I got really sick. I guess it was a cold, so I went climbing at the Neoliet Indoor Climbing Center in Mülheim, but just safeguarded my friends and daughter. I eventually went climbing one route and bouldered a little. Couldn't eat much during the day but did eat more in the evening.
27th:  Still having a bad cold. Better to relax, no sports! Ate loads of vitamins through bloody oranges and other fruits t get fit again.
28th: Seemed to have recovered, so I went for a nice 40 min run in the morning at 7 and went on my fitnessbike in the evening for about an hour.
29th: Swam 2.8km early in the morning and went off to Soest to my qualification for lead climbing. So climbed a lot and did own body weight exercises while watching the german football team lose against france.
1st: Went running for 50 min with another sports teacher in Soest early in the morning before climbing the whole day at the Big Wall Indoor Climbing Center in Ahlen. Went to the bar "Zwiebel" which also brews beer and spirits. I just had a alcoholfree beer with banana juice and fries. Not a special vegan place but certainly nice to visit as it is a very old half-timbered house and wooden inside.
2nd: 55 min of running incl. running exercises early in the morning around and then through Soest. Soest is really beautiful and I saw many antique buildings. I ran alongside and on the middle ages city wall for a few meters. Glad I did take this different route this time.
3rd: Had to help a friend getting rid of almost a whole forest in his garden so no time for sports. Just did 35 min of Yoga in the late evening.
4th: 85min of running incl. 3 sprints with my girlfriend accompanying me on a bike.

City Wall Soest

At the end of the qualification in front of the climbing wall in a school

Training Jan 8th- 15th

Jan 8th: Last day without work. I went on my bike early in the morning for a 2.8km swim training.
After that my girlfriend wanted to go to a flea market and so we did. Her on a bike and me running (and in running gear). Just 8km forth and back, but nice. Bought some sportswear there, like a windbreaker vest and some stuff for my uncle (bikeshirt, running shirt, running cap) for very reasonable prices. Also met a friend there who started running a little more than a year ago and had a good talk.

Jan 9th: First day of work after Christmas break. Took a day off and just did power and stretch Yoga for 45 min. Regenerate!

Jan 10th.: Pretty diverse training this day. Did 2.8km swimming from 7-8 in the morning. Ran with my class for an hour without stopping to approve for some sort of running badge/insignia. This was very slow but a nice thing to do. Had a rehearsal with the band and also did almost 20 minutes of working out there.

Jan 11th: Not very spectacular: 40 min. cycling, then 18 minutes running in the gym.

Jan 12th: Did 2h of indoorcycling at the gym. Nice but exhausting!

Jan 13th: 2.8km swimming at the SGZ Altenessen through little kids learning to swim and old people from an aquagymnastics course. Felt like running hurdles in water. At least the sauna was nice there. Did 35 min of workout at home in the evening.

Jan 14th: Did an early morning run of 50 minutes before picking up new tyres for my car. In the afternoon I went on my bike to the gym (9km), did 1.20h indoor cycling, did chestpresses and went 9km back home on the bike. Felt awesome!

Jan 15th: Went climbing at Neoliet in Mülheim again with my cousine, daughter and friend. My friend, who climbed a wall for his first time ever, climbed better than me....

In the evening I went on my fitnessbike for an hour.

After Christmas days: getting back into training

I still had the Donauwelle here and ate pieces of this every morning for breakfast until the 28th.
On the 27th I wanted to go running, but it turned out we went to the gym, where I did 30 min of exercises for strength and then 30 minutes running in neoprene socks on a treadmill. I felt a blister after 17 min already, but wanted to finish 30 min of running. After the 30 min I went rowing for 10 minutes and then 20 minutes really fast on a fitness bike. So 1h cardio in total and very diverse. My feet hurt a little.
The other day my training buddy wanted to run ca. 20 km, but I didn't know if I was ready to go due to the blisters.
I was afraid of not being able to run so I went swimming first and did 3.6km at the Aquapark in Oberhausen around noon.
At 16.00h met up with my budy to run, but I only did ca. 13km, but went to the meeting point by bike again. I was pretty tired in the evening. Day in total: 8km cycling, 13 km running, 3.6km swimming. Needed to do Yoga in the evening and used this DVD which I got for Christmas:

29th December: Still pretty tired from lasts days workout. Wanted to go the gym again after helping a friend moving (loads of stairs up and down). Did one hour of Iron System workout there for the first time. During training my muscles felt sore a couple of times.

After Iron System I went to the Cycling course for one hour.
On the next morning my alarm clock woke me up at 6.17h in the morning. I was lying in bed unsure if I should get up that early to go swimming. At 6.33h I sat on my bike on my way to the pool. I swam 2.4km, shopped a few things afterwards and got home to have breakfast.
A guy came to tune our new purchased piano.
At 15.00h we met at the climbing gym "Neoliet" in Mülheim. It was my daughters first time climbing and she did very well. I still have to fight with 6+ routes. 5- I have done a couple so far. My daughter did a couple of 3 and 3+ routes.Luckily they even have vegan climbing shoes for rent there.

My daughter climbing up and me safeguarding

Felt my leg muscles in the evening and also shoulder and back muscles the other morning.
Had to wake up early again to meet with my students for the "Herner Silvesterlauf" at the Gysenbergpark. Since we are the current titleholder of primary schools with most kids finishing the race we had to go there again. We also wanted to win the donation for the winner again. Kids had fun, one of my students places first in his agegroup, the parents liked it and we placed 2nd and still got some money for our school. Good day! We didn't want to stay there too long due to my daughter feeling bad, so I only did the 5km run. My first ever 5km run. Placed 6th and first in my agegroup. Time: 18:53. Was alright, considering my muscles were already sore, when I ran with the kids before my run. Total muscle soreness this evening!!! Loads of stretching to be done!

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.