Herstblauf HTT 11/ Barcelona/ Energy balls

On the Day of German Unity I partook in a race in the town where I work. I had signed upfor 40 schoolkids to run there as well on the childrens course. We were happy about having won the cup for the school with most running kids and many of them ranked on one of the first places in the agegroup. Right after noon I myself was on the starting line to run the 10k race. After 4 min I was ahead of the rest of the runners and ran past the fronting mountainbike the rest of the race. I got in as first at 38:23, which is 1 minute faster than my last years result in this race. It was a perfect day!

German speaking people can click on here to find a newspaper report.

Here you can see me on the right side and on the pic in the middle are many of my kids form school.

So I am ought to put a recipe for energy balls online, so here is mine:
What you need:
-a bowl
-a handheld electric mixer

ingredients:
- dates/ figs (optional)/ dried gojiberries
- ground nuts/ almonds
- any plant milk (makes it easier to shred the dates/figs)
- agave syrup/mulberry syrup/whatever needed to make it sweet
- wheat germs/ flour (if the dough is too moist)/ protein powder (if balls are postworkout treat)
- maca powder
- linen seed/ chia seeds
- desiccated coconut

The base of my energy balls are usually the dates. They are quite hard to shred, so I use some milk (oat, soy, whatever).
So dates and some milk in the bowl first, add the figs and shred these first. Once you have some sort of dough you can just add all the other ingredients and use the mixer.
If the dough is too dry add more plant milk or just water (I once used peppermint water).
If the dough is too humid, use some flour (I use spelt wholegrain, because it taste a lot like nuts), soyflour or proteinpowder.

Once the texture seems good to form little balls, do that.
Put desiccated coconut in another bowl and put 1-3 balls inside this bowl with the desiccated coconut and and shake gently until the balls are completely covered.
Ready!

Play around with the ingredients! I have once added sprouted germs, dried bananas, cacao, etc. Feel free to try, see what you like and what does you good, but go ahead and do it! It doesn't only taste good, it also does good to your body and feels great to eat completely handcrafted stuff that would cost so much a health food store.

I also went to my fave city again: Barcelona!
This time I made one another dream of mine come alive! I ran through the mountains near the monastery of Montserrat! For the first 725m we took the Aeri de Montserrat (cable car) together. While my girls took the cog railway to get higher in the mountains on the paths to the ermitages I just followed the little paths upwards. Amazing nature to be seen there.

Workout station on the beach

I love running in the cty as well. The beachside front is amazing to run. The little adults playground is nice to work out. I love running topless in October!!!

 This time I have also seen an amazing spot to run near the Zona Universitaria. It looked as if 500 sporty students went running there on a footpath next to a big avenue.

Reading a nice zine of a friend of mine on top of the one of the mountains

In front of the entrance to the Basilica St. Maria de Montserrat

In the Aeri de Montserrat

With my daughter in front of our new crib on Montserrat

One ermitage in the Montserratmountains

Of course I had to go swiming in the ocean, despite the high number of jellyfish. I didn't swim very long though.

Visiting the ruins of Ullastret (an Iberian settlement from pre-roman times)

First day in Sitges... only nice women around me :-)

Getting a mexican skull tattoed on my knee by my friend Joan Cinder. Contact him if you're in Barcelona and wanna get tattooed.

Above where the sun reflects in the water is Dalis house in Port Lligat, short visit on the last day

Another impression of Port Lligat, where Dali liked to live because it was pure! Sea, wild coast, poor fishermen, almost no stress. Perfect surrounding for a great artist.

No Müsli at home? Here is what I did!

Selfmade Müsli: apple, banana, wheat germs, flaxseeds, ground hazelnuts, gojiberries, macapowder, ginger, cinnamon, chiaseeds, oatflakes, a saladseeds mix (pine, pumpkin, sunlfower seeds), desiccated coco

Super swimming goggle on discount tomorrow/ Training Jan 16th - 22nd (Barcelona weekend)

Tomorrow (Jan 31st) you gotta check sportshop-triathlon to getawesome approved by myself swimming goggles for cheap. This is how they look

and I can tell that they are high in quality and long lasting goggles.









Trainings:
Jan 16th:  Did 55min on a treadmill incl. 3 sprints
Jan 17th: 2.5km swimming in the morning (7-8), in the evening running 1.15h
Jan 18th: 30 minutes workout for muscles, 55 min (power) indoor cycling, 15 min running (of which 10 pretty fast), 5 min rowing
Jan 19th: 2.8km swimming at the Hallenbad Oberhausen in the late evening (8-9)
Jan 20th: Arriving in Barcelona. Went to Maoz for a falafel at first. Later on we went to the Catbar, which is another all vegan restaurant. Attending the first day of the festival my band is flying over for. Running back into the city at night (after 12) at 10-2 degrees C. to meet up with the rest of the pack. Awesome 1.20h run (not the shortest way).
Jan 21st: Visiting Montserrat in the mountains near Barcelona. Going there by train, then up to the monastery by cable car. Beautyful and mysterious place. I think everyone should go there once in his lifetime! Awesome for hiking, climbing and even running, special for nature wildlife (my friends have seen wild pigs and eagles the day before). Me and my girlfriend just went hinking a little and on the way back to the cable car station I went a little faster than her to have time to do a few short uphill runs. These 5 short (20-50 seconds) runs made my muscles sore. Before goin to the venue I have introduced Orxata to my girlfriend which is a milk of tigernuts. Got it from the Valenciana or go here:

 You should def. try Orxata (catalan) or Horchata (spanish) con limona ... (something with lemonstuff).
Later this evening we got to the venue where we had to play the show. It was a nice venue with amazing people, awesome crowd reaction, good hangouts, nice other bands (Assac, Col-lapse, Truth through fight, Absurdo, etc.) and an intense aftershow party. Spanish people party hard!
Video to the coversong we played  This guy also has loads of videos of the festival.
Again in bed very late (4 o'clock), but up at 10 to get to the famous labyrinth in Horta with my friends Gabi and Lubia. Found out about a velodrome and swimming pool next to the park. On the agenda for my next visit to BCN in april. After this hitting the city to eat some delicious meal at Gopal and meet the others. Then off to the airport and germany again. It's a pity we missed Gelaaati this time. They offer great vegan choices of icecream (although I haven't found it on their website, but they do have quite a few, for instance ricemilk chocolate).

Labyrinth in Horta

Cable car towards to old monastery on Montserrat

Gopal

The black Madonna (La Moreneta) of Montserrat