Veggie Fest /Off Season

On the 5th of October I went to the Veggiefest in Solingen. My friend Björn Moschinski stayed at ours the evening before. My girlfriend and him cooked a pumpkin cream soup together. He just cannot stay away from the kitchen, eventhough we wanted to cook the soup on our own for them. haha
Anyways... on the veggiefest I got interviewed concerning veganism and endurance sports. I'also gave away some energyballs I have prepared the day before. Then I assisted Björn with his cooking show.
Did I say that 1200 people came out to Solingen for this Veggiefest? Amazing!
At the end of the fest the "Kochen ohne Knochen"-crew also took pics of my veggie-tattoos. One if it will be visible in the next issue of this nice magazine. Thanks to Uschi and Joachim for this nice fest! I will cerntainly come back next year! Here's a little report in german about the veggiefest.

Me assisting Björn (taken from "umsturzvegan")

Did I say it is "Off-Season"?
That means at this time of the year I just do whatever I feel like sportswise.
I even got tattooed and will get some more ink soon, so that alone restricts me.
But I found a way of swimming with a fresh tattoo:
Use fatty cream on the tattoo, foil it, drop in the wetsuit. My wetsuit (Tri11 Redair) is pretty tight so my tattoo did not get wet.

Training Oct. 17th-29th:
17th:  some excercises for power/stability, later some swimming but also teaching somebody to swim better
18th:  Flight to Barcelona--> no Training
19th:  Yoga and Ropeskipping in the morning, later running and excercises on the beach
20th:  Running and excercises on the beach
21st:  45 min swimming in old publicpool in Maragall, later running and climbing on Montserrat
22nd: 17 min swimming in the ocean, later running and excercises on the beach, the new tattoo
23rd:  no training, new tattoo hurts (kneetattoos are painful!)
24th:  75 min cycling on my fitnessbike back home
25th:  18 min yoga in the morning, later 1h swimming with wetsuit, then stretchyoga
26th:  75 min running incl. 4 short uphill sprints
27th:  ca. 75-80km cycling in ca. 3h
28th:  35 min Yoga (breathing and toning excercises)
29th:  2.6km swimming, somce cycling (ca. 15km)

Pics Vegan Summer Day Leipzig/ Aftershow workout with Get It Done!/ Veganism in Mexico

It has been a long time since my last real halfmarathon. So I am gonna do one tomorrow:

Lauf um den Fühlinger See

So the Vegan Summer Day in Leipzig had been a real nice event. Just upon arrival we set up the backline for our concert and in the meantime me and Rene have been interviewed about sports and vegan nutrition. Then we played our set with Get It Done! and it felt really strange to see all these people so far away. But since my old band Black Friday'29 broke up I got used to playing shows with less people upfront. Still it feels strange when people only watch a show and don't partake a single bit.
Anyways... I have also been interviewed for a local radio show and finally met my friend Björn Moschinski again, who was supposed to do a cooking show later on. We will also both partake at the Veggiefest in Solingen on Oct. 5th.
While we were trying to sell a little merchandise after our gig, he just sold book after book or had to sign books. I had also watched Asthma la vista, which is a vegan Hiphop-Band and I really enjoyed their set. Sounded fresh, nice rhythms and no sexist bullshit attitude. Thanks to my daughter for playing so much Hiphop at home I finally get somewhat into that music.

Get It Done! on stage

Getting interviewed

Aftershow workout Magdeburg

Later I tried a vegan Döner and fajitas there. Both very good, but from differentcompanies and I cannot recall the names.

The day before Get It Done! had played Magdeburg. The show was not too special due to less people there, but the promoters were nice and we had our fun. We started off with playing table tennis halfnaked and then lifted weigths and chinned the bars. It was hilarious, but much fun!



In August I had spent two weeks in Mexico on Yucatan. On the first day I had met a fellow triathlete who I joined for a swimming session. Later on I met an english couple at the gym who both do triathlon. Of course I went running on the beach, cycled on the spinning bikes and swim either in one of the pools or the ocean. I was lucky I could continue training as my training plan demanded.
But we also took the time to go snorkeling, visiting pyramids and sacred maya places, Cancun city and Vegan Planet (surely on of the best vegan restaurants in the world!).

Me and some dudes from Israel that we met on one of our trips. This was taken on the top of the big pyramid of Coba.

Me and Britta snorkeling at the island of Cozumel.

Mexico is definitely worth a trip. Saw pyramids (in Tulum, Coba and Chichen Itza), maya villages, the famous sinkholes called Cenotes, an alligator, coatis, capibaras, crabs, iguanos and so many animals. One night I ran the around the hotel site and met a bird-eating spider. It stayed on the street and so I tried to make her leave the street by stomping near it. The next day I couldn't open my right eye. Two weeks later we found out that the spider might have shot some hair towards my legs and I might have wiped these away with my hands and eventually touched my eyes. So well... the spider was not nice afterI tried to recue it, but the people there are nice and helpful.
BUT watch out! Most of the bread in Mexico is not vegan. Many pastas are not vegan, our hotel didn't have any plantbased milk and no vegan soup (the Walmart didn't have vegan soup either). So I stuck with salads and fruits for like 70% of my meals which did really good to my digestion. :-)

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

Cologne 226 finished (Ironman-distance)

My first long distance triathlon (aka Ironman) is over! I have finished the 3.8km swimming, 180km cycling and 42km running in 10:22:59 hours.

I am happy about that. What I find strange is that I would love to go running, cycling or swimming just today (started writing this 2 days later). I am feeling very good despite the fact that I had lost 4.5kilos on this day. That is alot considering I had only weighted 68-69kilos.

Anyways... 2 kilos are back on already and I can't stop eating. Surprisingly I don't want to have icecream or any other shittier stuff. I am eating loads of pasta with red sauce (just had a plate of pasta and a pizza) and veggies and fruits all day long.

What also makes me very, very proud is the fact that my ironman race got PETA 520€ and hopefully made people think more positive about vegans, sports and power.

After the transition from bike to run I have taken my "Veggie Athletes"-vest, which also hads a PETA and Alles-Vegetarisch.de- Logo on front. People seemed to be curious.

The race: I got to the Fühlinger See at about 6.20 on sunday morning, went to my bike, checked in my transition2 bag (running equipm.) and tried to get ready (dressing, toilettime). I was happy about crapping 4 times before the race. I was also happy about solid crap again. The 3 days before I felt ill and my crap was not always solid (may sound strange, but liquid crap will make your body lose loads of minerals that are very important for races over 3 hours). Crap is a reliable indicator for health.

After checking in I met my friend Sebastian Ueckert, a fellow hardcore dude, who also wanted to achieve that goal of being an Ironman. My clubmates also came early that morning to see the swimstart and lend me a running watch. Thanks!

Somehow I was not very nervous anymore. We got to the starting line and I still had 3 minutes.

We started 5 minutes after the professionals, so no fireworks for us, but that didn't matter as I just wanted to swim. We had to swim up the whole regatta course then almost fully back. I got off the water after 1:08. I was glad! This was my first time transitioning at a long distance triathlon so I didn't want to be too quickly to forget anything and stayed calm. I got on the bike and after 20something KM I started talking to an elder ironman with much more experience. I needed to talk a little. It was cold (10-11 degrees Celsius) and my hands were freezing. He had gloves but I couldn't even take the gels I was offered at the food stall due to my hands unable to grasp. I also needed to wee so I asked him if I could do that while sitting on the bike. Then the motorbike overtook us and gave him a yellow card for blocking me. I wasn't blocked by him at all, because I didn't want to overtake. The street was big enough for other to overtake us, but anyways...

we had to speak to the referees and in the end it was alright. I don't know if this has to be that strict for hobby triathletes likes us, but whatever...

I did quite a big part of the 180km together with that dude. After a while another dude from Poland also cycled with us and it seemed as if he did not know about drafting, because he always sucked on us or basicly anybody else, so that I even thought I could do that too for a few meters. On some races you are allowed to do that, but generally in germany that is forbidden and you can get a penalty.

Sometimes I have seen my friend Seb and we tried to shout encouragement to the other.

The cycling course went from the very north of Cologne along the Fühlinger See to the city centre of Cologne, near the dome and to Köln-Deutz. In Deutz I placed my bike, took my running gear and started running. I was happy to see my supporters even following me a little and filming and taking pictures. The weather became real nice, around 23 degrees I guess. Ininitally I wanted not to eat much during the run but rather try to drink coke (I don't drink coke at home at all) as many of my experienced clubmates do it this way and even I cannot refrain from the fact that coke while running seems supportive. I also had pretzels, bananas, water melons, water and vegan energy gels from carboo 4 u. The first of the 3 14km laps was good, on the second I started becoming slower and around 20km I did not really want to continue running, my muscles became sore. At around 28-35km I got stitches on my right side so I had to slow down a little. After km 37 I needed to speed up again and so I did. My body felt alright and I overtook quite a few people on the last kms. The marathon took me 3:44h, which is alright and about what I have calculated but slower than I had hoped. 10:22:59 h in total is great for a first Ironman! I went to the chill out zone to relax and eat a bit but I wasn't as hungry as usual. From there I head to the massage and it was a good decision as I was first in line. 20 min of massage is like heaven after a race.

Next up we decided what and how to do next. Had to grab my bike, my bags, etc and that took a long time. Then we also had to find the bus shuttle that brought us near our cars (not too near though and I had waited for them to pick me up after 8 minutes of walking.

I am glad I got friends that supported me on that special day. I know that some people got inspired to do more sports on their own and hopefully many people thought critically about the shit they consume and the bullshit patterns of dietary in their heads.

It was a nice run, a nice day, with even nicer persons and a nice meal at Jade Imbiss in Düsseldorf after the race.

Today is day two after the race and I do feel really good again. Found this interesting article yesterday:

http://www.vegetarismus.ch/pdf/Wirnitzer_Handout_TR%20Kongress_2008.pdf

Friends of mine that got into sports before veganism said that it seems true for them. I don't know as I am vegan for 16 years now, which means long before I have started endurance training, but well... if there's only 50% truth to it then everyone should consider a vegan diet even for a better workout efficiency.

There's a new vegan catering company in the Ruhrpott run by real compassionate people.

Check it here!

Training August 20th to September
20th: 59 km cycling to Herne and back
21st: Stability and power Workout + Ropeskipping
22nd: 3.3km swimming
23rd: 25min running, 40min swimming, 26min running incl. 3 sprints
24th: 22km running in 1.41h incl. 73min almost half-marathon pace
25th: 111km cycling in 3.30h
26th: 45min running, 36 min yoga toning and stretch
27th: 1.5h cycling on ergobike
28th: Restday!
29th: 30km to Herne (morning), 42 min running (noon) incl. 2x10min halfmarathon pace, 30km back home
30th: 2.4km swimming
31st: Restday
1st: Srpint Triathlon in Cologne (First day of Cologne Tria Weekend) in 1:26h
2nd: Long Distance Triathlon in Cologne (second day/ PETA Donation run) in 10:22:59h
3rd: Restday
4th: Restday
5th: easy 1.3km swimming
6th: easy 45 min cycling on ergobike, then sauna
7th: ca. 1km lake swimming
8th: 20km cycling incl. 3 sprints, 3km running incl. 3 times fast for 1min
9th: Olympic Triathlon in Xanten in 2:22h
 

An interview with me on the Veganblog of PETA in german

One more week to my Ironman-Distance Triathlon in Cologne. I got interviewed by PETA and you can read the interview here (german only): Interview Veganblog
This is the direct link to the webpage where you can donate money to PETA: Donation

Vacation in Czech Rep./ Slovenia/ Austria/ Italy part II
We were still hanging out at Flufffest. This morning my friends Max and Dom wanted to go running again, but I had 6 hours block training on my schedule, so I went cycling for 5.10h again to Kralovice and Plasy and then through the countryside towards Rokycany through several nice villages, along reservoirs and just afew cars passing by and almost no cyclists although the whole infrastructure is perfect since there are no traffic lights (more roundabouts, if even needed).
When I got back Max' girlfriend Lex gave a lecture on Sea Shepherd, because she spent half a year on a ship in Antarctica. It was breathtaking what she has presented. Here's a link to their website.
After eating much more good food there, watching a few bands and saying goodbye to the english dudes and Dominik I went to bed very tired. But not before Dominik and me agreed on doing an ultra run together next year
The next morning was our time to leave. We went towards Vienna. A nice town to stop by was Jihlave, where we went shopping. The townfortifications looked quite impressive:

Jihlava

 After this we got to Vienna to see Ritual, Verse, Soul Control and Anchor play.
Lseeping in Vienna and planning to visit Schloss Schönbrunn in the morning (the girls wanted to see the park, Micha and me wanted to go swimming). The damage for swimming was 10€ which was too much, so we have joined the girls and went through the park.

Schloss Schönbrunn

Ciy of Vienna

After visiting Vienna we went to Michis father in Spital am Pyhrn, went to the Gleinkersee and ran there. We have also celebrated the birthday of Michis father with his friends and ate soup and veggiestuff while they had a barbecue. We left the other morning and went to the chruch in the village which is pretty big considering the small size of the village.

Bones in the church of Spital am Pyhrn

My car and me at Michis fathers house

 After we left here for Slovenia and Italy I still needed to go swimming, so we stopped in a small city in Austria where I saw signs to a swimming pool. It wasn't the warmest day and I was the only there. The water was 18degrees at max and I had to do 2.4km. I kept freezing for more than an hour after the swim still.

swimming in one of the coldest pools ever

"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

Vote for the best german vegan cookbook/Training Jan 23rd- 31st

There's loads of good vegan cookbooks around lately. You are able to chose the best german one here.
The one from the Oxfanzine is a cookbook (called Ox-Kochbuch) me and my girlfriend have contributed a few recipes.
"Vegan guerilla" is a cookbook by a fellow blogger.
Another one is called "Vegan-lecker, lecker"and compiled by a fellow triathlete Marc Pierschel who also runs "Roots of compassion".
And then there's also the book written by my friend Björn Moschinski called "Vegan kochen für alle".

So well... I have plenty of reasons for this book or another. Decide for yourself!


Jan 23rd: Went indoor cycling for one hour and lifted weights, did some exercises for 30 min.
Jan 24th: It was really cold, so I have decided to sit on my fitnessbike for 1.10h
Jan 25th: Went swimming 2.5km, due to bike problems I had to run home after spreading flyers for my show with 10kg extraweight on my shoulders. 25 min running
Jan 26th: Went on a 14km run with my buddy
Jan 27th: Did some serious weightlifting and exercises for 1.20h in the gym in the afternoon and went swimming in the evening with my triathlon club.
Jan 28th: Ran almost 14km incl. 8 sprints of about 70 meters. Total 65 min.
Jan 29th: Ran ca. 12km with my friend Jasmin in Cologne along the Rhine, afterwards 1km swimming in the new swimming pool which also has an ice skating lane above the pools.
Jan 30th: Regeneration: Just some power and stretch yoga. Relax!
Jan 31st: 2.5km of swimming int he morning. 12km of running in the evening and then 30 min workout at home.

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.

First week of the new year = loads of early morning swims

If you want to burn fat (to lose weight or to increase your endurance) you can just easily do sports early in the morning, before the breakfast. Just drink ca. 400 ml of applejuice-water mix and then do sports. This way your body starts to use the energy from the carbohydrates of the juice and then burns fat. This is also good for people that want to do long endurance races (halfmarathon/marathon/halfironman/ironman).
If you don't eat/drink carbohydrates before the workout your body will start burning proteins stored in your muscles.
Jan. 1st: Did a kettlebell workout 3 times after finding this online: Click here!
Ran 5km very slowly in the evening with my girlfriend incl. some sprints and running exercises.

Jan 2nd: 1h indoor cycling then 35 min on a fitnessbike

Jan 3rd: At 6.33 am on my bike to the swimming pool. Swam 3.6km there, cycled back home, and had breakfast. Went 14km running incl. 3 sprints in the afternoon.

Jan. 4th: Again on my bike very early and finished swimming 2.6km at 9, brought breadrolls home for breakfast, ate with my girls and met with my training buddy at 11. Went running quite fastly for 24km, but I felt really tired after 21km. After 19 I had this snack 

which you can order from Alles-vegetarisch.de.









Jan. 5th: Needed a little break from training due to yesterdays run. So I just did a mixed workout that also trained cardio. Kettlebell, dumbbell, swissball, thera bands. If you want to gain strength and get fit, do a workout that trains strength and cardio. As a sideeffect you will build your muscles way more defined due to lesser percentage of body fat through training your whole body and cardio.


Jan 6th: Went on my bike early in the morning again to go swimming (2.6km) and did a 55 min bycicle ride on my fitnessbike. I did a couple of highintensiv intervalls (6 times different duration and different repetitions).
Went off to meet my old colleagues from teaching class and convinced them to eat more raw veggie food. They have tried these fine vegan Schnitzel  and want to celebrate a vegan feast next year! Nice! Always let your friends try as much as you can. If they get turned off, alright, but if they like this stuff there is a chance they will decrease their meat consumption through supplementing with tasteful and healthy vegan stuff.


Jan 7th: Went to my gym for an hour of indoor cycling with my girlfriend. Then I went on the fitnessbike for one more hour, then 10 minutes of fast running on a tradmill and then 5 min rowing. That was it, off to the sauna!


So yeah... burn fat:
- Use your bike more often (I went to the swimming pool on my bike each morning)
- Do sports before breakfast after a fruit juice spritzer
- Don't forget your cardiosystem when working on your strength.

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!

Training around X-mas

On wednesday I went to the gym to lift weights whilst standing on a balance board and did exercises with my own body weight and a swissball.

Not my socks! But this is some kind of balance board.

After that I did two hours of indoor cycling.
I was pretty exhausted on thursday after this and due to X-mas preparations and feeling tired I rested that day.

On friday the 23rd I went running for 50 min. incl. 5 sprints and some running exercises plus 3 times 800 m. in my 10k racepace. In the evening I went to my triathlon clubs swimming pool, but I confused training times and could only swim for 25 minutes.

Saturday= Christmas eve, the day on which most X-mas rituals take place in this part of Germany. We went to my girlfriends parents. Before that we had to go shopping for some final presents, so I went running to the shopping with my daughter on the bike. Just around 30 minutes, but alright for a christmas eves run. Did some minutes of exercises after getting home.
Then off to Brittas parents and to the feast. Ate some very delicious traditional german "Rouladen" made of soyprotein, "Knödel" and "Rotkohl".

Rouladen, Knödel, Rotkohl

Had a pea soup as starter and some creamy whip with oranges as dessert. Amazing! I was very full and me and my daughter had to go running for 5 minutes to level out. Presents: I got this book which translates to "Long distance triathlon once in a lifetime".

 

 So I guess my family has coped with my decision.
On the first day of Christmas we went to my parents. I just did 1.30h on my fitnessbike before we went there. Got some money there that I definitely need for some triathlon gear or the application for my long distance once. While on my bike my daughter supported me with Christmas music on her new piano. Awesome!
Dec 26th we had invited my bandmates as well as a few friends to have brunch with us. Me and Firat went running before that. We went to the "Gesundheitspark Quellenbusch" and did a barefeet run there. There is some sort of route which is not really taken care of in wintertime, but it was an experience.
After that we got to the feast, prepared a little more and started eating. All was vegan. My girlfriends "Donauwelle" (translates with "wave of Danube" is a very creamy cherry-chocolate sort of cake).

Donauwelle

I made baguettes with tomatoes and herbalgarlic oil. We also had a chickpeas spread, fruits, potatoeballs, beans, my daughter baked wafers, a friend brought "Mett" (which usually is raw mince used as a spread for bread), another self baked baguette with pepper. It was a real feast!

Mett

"Veggie Athletes" Shirts available soon

Here you can see pics of the "Veggie Athletes" Shirts, which will soon be up for sale. More info will follow soon and on the website of Alles-vegetarisch.de.

Girlshirt backside

Girlshirt front

Tanktop backside

Tanktop front

shirt backside

shirt front

Meanwhile you can check their webshop anyways, as it is just great!

Training sat-tuesday
On saturday noon I started to ride my fitnessbike at home for 30 minutes and later on I went into the gym to do indoor cycling. Unluckily the instructor was sick, so I went on the fitnessbike there and on the rowboat machine. In the end I have spent 1.40h cycling + some more minutes rowing. Almost two hours of sports.
On sunday me and a friend wanted to go running at the Schloss Burg in Solingen, but we just walked around, did a tour in the castle, which is one of the best presevered ones in the west of Germany and then went drinking a tea. Later on I was trying to move a piano (X-mas present for my daughter) from the other stret to our house, but we couldn't. So we went eating at Cakes 'n' Treats in Dortmund again. Had a nice Hawaiiburger. Picked up my daughter later this evening from her friend in Dortmund and drove back home. Had loads of stuff to do for the X-mas party at school as well as the usual stuff for the week, so I ended up doing NOTHING! Crazy, but yeah... muscles can only grow in a period of resting.
On monday I ran to the dentist of my little one with her (her on a bike). In the evening I cycled to the gym to go running on the treadmill, but it had been shut down. No nice gym in my hometown anymore. Shiat!
Cycled back and went on my fitnessbike for another 30 minutes. So in total I did 1.10h on bikes and 40 running.
This tuesday morning I went to the pool near the Centro "Aquapark" where I usually swim on tuesdays, but that one was closed, too, due to a control of the whole building. Went as fast as possible to Herne to swim in the Südpool. Could only do 40 minutes before heading to school. At school I also did the sports around noon with a big group of kids and showed them some exercises with swiss- and fitnessballs. Was much fun. After that I had to grab some food and prepare for the X-mas party. Before getting home from the party I was happy to get some nice white cherry chocolate from my girl. It is very delicious.

I guess all of them are tasty but the right one kills it!

 I had friends coming to help me moving the piano from the other street to our house, but I can tell you it wasn't as easy as here, although we were four persons. It was heavy as f***. Thanks to my bros Ingo and Kiki and my uncle for helping me!