Stair running, heart diseases, next races + shows

 “Don't always walk on the smooth roads, walk ways
that no one has travelled before, so as to leave
behind traces and not only dust…”  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry


Hey!
Lately I have tried to integrate stair running in my training plan. After having done a stair run at the Halde Norddeutschland with my training buddy Robert I really got inspired. Fridays is a good day for me to run stairs on the Halde Hohe Mark in Recklinghausen. The view from the top of this slagheap is amazing: You can see the whole Ruhrarea, incl. the Schalkearena and the Signal Iduna Park, the Gasometer and so much more. But as much as it is a nice spot it can be a very high intensive training.
Last sunday we met up with a few fellow triathletes to go running there. My program after the warmup was to run the first 3 flights of stairs and back down to the start, then 5 and back, then 7, then 9, then 11, until the whole way up. One complete way up consists of 595 stairs and 100m height.
It is exhausting but also a very pleasant change from the daily routine of just running the same old route.
The day before I went 15km running in barefeet shoes on snow and trailtracks I have always wished to run when driving past in my car. It feels very good to skip the daily routine and set different stimuli.

There are several benefits from stair running:
stairrunning engl    treppenlauf deutsch
If you're eager you can also compete here: Treppenmarathon

Last week I have also done a 15km trail run with barefeet shoes on snow. I ran tracks I never ran before, some would have not been easy to run on if it wasn't for the snow. It felt great!!! So good when you're leaving your routine behind and search for new ways, explore new tracks, see new parts of the surrounding einvironment. You know this moment, when you see a hill and you know you want to run up there. It was just a very small hill that I have seen, but that was one destination I was heading for. I love to make new experiences, because that makes me think I am not old, because I will still grow. Of course I won't grow in height, but mentally, I can grow stronger physically and yeah... still experience new things, discover new goals in life. I hope for everyone to have this feeling at some point no matter how old you are.

Someone posted an interesting diagram on heart dieseases and its relation to (un)refined food consumption in different countries. Have a look!


I still try to eat 30-50 rawfood a day. Many fruits are the basis of my diet until the afternoon. Had banana, apple and pears + müsli today already. I have bought the Sunwarrior raw protein, so after training my proteins derive from raw food resources.

No, I don't get sponsored, I just think it is really really good.

Sunwarrior is very expensive, but judge for yourself if you think it is worth the money. I certainly do. Also try out the different tastes. I got natural and the taste is not overwhleming, but you can always mix it with chocflavoured milkalternatives and then it tastes pretty good!


The next races I am going to partake are:

Feb. 16th. OTVMeile in my hometown Oberhausen. My team Nordtriathleten is setting for the team championship.
OK... haven't managed to finish this blog entry ealrier, so it is over by now and I finished the 10.1km in 38.35min, which is my new PB! Yeah!
April 20th: Bleilochlauf in Kloster (Schleiz) probably combined with a show of my band Getitdone! on the evening after the show. 24km hilly running and a show in the evening! Psyched!

My band will also play in Hamburg on March 2nd, so get there!

Training Jan 18th- Feb 16th
18th: 2,2km swimming
19th: 70 min cycling
20th: 85 min cycling, 1h power and stability
21st: Restday
22nd: 73 min easy running incl. 3 sprints, then 90 min cycling on indoor trainer
23rd: 90 min easy cycling on fitnessbike
24th: 75 min cycling on fitnessbike
25th: 73 min running on a slagheap (stairruns), later 1,9km swimming
26th: 1.30 h cross country sking on Halde Hoheward with my girlfriend
27th: feeling sick, but had to go to a swimming course to better my technique
28th: sick, resting
29th: sick, resting
30th: 1.10 h cycling, a very short run of a few mins and a few exercises
31st: 1h cycling on fitnessbike, then 35 min toning and stretch yoga
Feb 1st: 1,8km swimming (still ill, couldn't do more)
2nd: 1.05h running and stability exercises
3rd: 2h cycling inl. 3*5min with hard resistance, then power and stability exercises
4th: short cycling warmup, then 33 min running incl. running exercises and 5 sprints
5th: 1h running incl. 3 sprints
6th: 2,65km swimming, then 18 min stretchYoga
7th: 45 min power+ stability exercises, later 70 min cycling on fitnessbike incl. hill intervals
8th: 3km swimming
9th: 1.50 cycling, 80 min trailrun incl. 3 sprints with barefeet shoes
10th: stairrun at Halde Hoheward, later power and stability exercises
11th: only a few power and stability exercises
12th: 2,8km swimming
13th: 2,6km swimming,  later exercises for coordination and 18 200m intervals with 200m slowjogs in between (after warmup of course and cool down at the end)
14th: 20 min cycling, 15 min running, 10 min rowing and some power and stability exercises
15th: 2,6km swimminf, 38 min running
16th: 10,1km race in 38.35 (new PB), a few minutes on fitnessbike later on

The end of 2012/ beginning 2013 post

I just got back from Barcelona on sunday night.
I love this city! There are many nicenice people, there are great vegan restaurants, there's a beach, there are tons of interesting museums, there is Montserrat and there are mountains not far away. Also my friend Gabi and his crew put on shows there, so I also went to "Can't keep us down" fest where I have seen Decisions (a new promising SXE band), Absurdo (one of the best HCPunk bands), Appraise (Gabis SXE band), Manliftingbanner (the old communist SXE band that got back together).


This fest took place on friday and saturday. People that know me also know that fests are in the evening, so there's loads of time for other stuff.
My friend Tete told me a couple of days ahead that there is going to be trailrun of 26,6 km (Cinc cim) not far away from BCN on sunday. So I thought this is going to be the perfect weekend 
A futbol match had been planned for saturday noon but naturally after going to Decathlon to get a trailrun backpack and getting to the meeting point with 25 min delay I was still one of the earliest.
We played some nice matches, me and some catalan/spanish HC kids. Eventhough I have warmed up a little I felt my adductores, which is a common thing if you don't play soccer often. After trying to catch a ball I felt I overbend my adductores. This time the right side. I had to quit playing directly, it hurt so much.
In the evening I didn't want to do the trailrun on sunday anymore. Due to miscommunication through broken and uncharged cellphones my friend was there to pick me up early in the morning. So after 4 hours of sleep (The fest and aftershowparty lasted quite long) I found myself in Tetes car, without breakfast, shower or anything but with a prepared new backpack with gels and bananawheat-bars. We went to the race and talked about the pros and cons of me taking part. Through the internet I found out that I got an irritation of the adductores on both sides but really hard on the right side.
The course of cinc cim was very hard, especially since I could not really move. I couldn't stretch my legs as usual so I had to run a lot slower. After 5 min I tought I would have to quite directly, but continued. Tete and me ran together most of the time, but later on we split.  was doing alright I knew  was gonna finish if I don't hurt myself anymore and so I did. The route, the nature was breathtaking. It has been my first trailrun so I was really astonished.

We are on the far right side of the pic. We came a little too late, had no inscription and gave a shit about the finish time.

The run was an amazing experience. Not only because of the beautiness of the mountains, but also because I have reached all my goals of 2012 (Long distance triathlon) so long trail runs are another thing I have always wanted to do. 
On saturday we ate at the Catbar, in sunday we had pizza with like 25 people before we took off towards Girona airport. BCN = love!

My teammates sometimes organize a little run in Oberhausen which is called FunRun and open for everyone.
Get there if you want to join us!
On the last FunRun I did more than just the run: Me and Rene ran to the meeting point, around the slagheap, up and down and back home. I did 29km, the special thing is I only wore barefeet shoes (Fila Skeletoes) and only had slight muscle soreness the other day.

Budget barefoot running shoe by Fila

 At my parttimejob in a gym I had asked my boss to add the point: "vegan diet" to my profile on the blackboard. Since he did one dude training there came up to me and sai he doens't fit it ok for me to be vega, because I seem like a cool guy and shouldn't be vegan, especially since vegans cannot wear cool leather jackets :-)

Anyways... I told him that I only got 3,2% bodyfat while he's got around 20% and wants to lose 5% more, so that was a punch in the face.

My band had played two amazing shows: One in Berlin, one in Coburg.

The whle band went to Berlin a day earlier to check out several places, such as the Veganz, the Kopps for brunch or the Vego and the Seerose as well as the Ramones Museum or the Altes Museum. I was lucky enough to meet very old friends, for dinner or the museum for the show and shopping. I ran alone, I did uphillrunning at the Carl Zeiss Sternwarte and swam in the Stadtbadbad Lankwitz. At the pool they had one lane for "fast" swimmers. Not too fast, but I was able to get my 2.8km done. The show at the Tiefgrund was nice! Bring it on! and Final Effort played as well and for a 1st show BIO were really good! We hung out at the bar before the show and the atmosphere was really good due to many friends of ours that came to the show. Actually two of our friends that used to live in our area set up the show, so it was very welcoming.

After brunching at Kopps, which is the restaurant of my friend Björn, on saturday we head down south towards Coburg, an old medieval city with an impressive castle.

Veste (Castle) Coburg (pic taken from Wikipedia)

We got there early enough to check out the venue and say hello to like 60 people that we knew already. It was something really special, since this was the first time in a long while I hung out in a backstageroom and knew so many people. Friends from east and south germany, even friends from Poland and America were there. The atmosphere was overwhelming and so was the food. A very good evening!

I got myself a blackroll orange and so far it feels good to use it. Will report more on this later, after having done a few xercises with it.

On new years eve I ran a 10k race but before that I've let my pupils run 1.5k. Our school had second most finishers, so we even got paid some pricemoney which I have used for some sportsequipment for the runners and the school.

Me and my schoolteam of runners

This is the stuff I got for Christmas:

If you got goals for the next season, the next year or just the next few months. Check BeVegt. They have presented exercises for your bodys stability especially for running. I do most of these exercises myself.


Training: December 19th - Jan 17th
19th: 2,3km swimming, 50 min running (sprinttraining incl.4  50m sprints and 6 100m sprints), a few exercises on a playground
20th: pumping iron, 25 min PWC Test (Interval test which stops when reaching 150 beats heartrate), 20min running on treadmill incl. 3 sprints
21st: 2,3km swimming
22nd: 30 min easy running
23rd: 32 min running, then 69 min cycling incl. 4* 10sec at max speed
24th: 40 min running incl. 3 sprints
25th: 1h power and stability exercises
26th: 2020 stairs at the Halde Norddeutschland, ca. 70 min incl. warmup and cool down
27th: 2,4km swimming, 17min stretch Yoga
28th: 53 min running, 2,6km swimming
29th: 2,6km swimming, later indoor climbing, then 62 min easy cycling
30th: 7,8km running incl. 5 * 800-1000m intervals
31st: 10km race Silvesterlauf Herne
1st: 19km easy running
2nd: 2,4km swimming
3rd: Restday
4th: 2,8km swimming, 60 min running incl. 5 * 2 min uphill, played a show later on
5th: 35 min easy running uphill to the castle of Coburg, playing a show in Coburg
6th: 2h cycling on fitnessbike, 70 min running incl. 3 sprints
7th: Restday
8th: 40 min Yoga, 2,75k swimming
9th: 55 min easy running
10th: weightlifting, stability, 2,9 km swimming
11th: 75 min stair uphill running at the slagheap in Recklinghausen Hochlarmark
12th: Soccer in Barcelona, Irritated my adductores
13th: 26,6km trailrun in Corbrera de Llobregat
14th: Restday
15th: 60 min easy cycling
16th: 2km swimming
17th: 40 min stability and strength exercises, ropeskipping, rowing, 15 min running