A brighter Day

Last day of 2009! I'll spare you the look back on it. One of my rituals: I write down what I want to leave in the old year and burn it in the old year to get a fresh start. I'll do it when I have finished this post.

At 9:30 AM I was on the track. Funny thing, but I was the first to rise this morning. My mom was kind of shocked, that I would get up earlier than them. Well, it seems like I'm starting to change for the better. ;-) And since I slept like crap, getting up could only make it better.
The weather was and is crap. It has only -1 or -2 °C, but it's windy and the humidity is high, so it feels more like -15°C. Chris was 15 minutes late as always, but she showed up. And we shuffled some laps, due to the temperatures and the snow, we couldn't run properly because it was slippery as hell. I used the "waiting" time to shuffle and run (im)properly several laps and did also two different drills. I would have loved to do more but I didn't want to risk a fall. Chris wasn't that lucky, she slipped and fell on her butt on the way to the track. Luckily only her pride was hurt. ;-)

Anyway, here are todays stats:
time: 1:01:40 hr
in zone: 30:38 min
HR: 131 bpm


In roughly 6 hours we have 2010, a new year and a new decade begins. I wish for the whole universe that it will be one filled with peace, love and laughter. A lot of us are having a hard time at this moment and we often forget that we are abled to change it for the better by ourselves.

You have the strength within you, believe in yourself and your abilities.

"Each new day is a blank page in the diary of your life. The secret of success is in turning that diary into the best story you possibly can."

Douglas Pagels

I wish all of you a wonderful new year filled with love, laughter, fun, success, happiness, friends, peacefull hours, hugs and wonderful moments.

Keep Running!

A track covered with sparkling diamonds

Today Chris and I met at 9:30 AM on the track, to do some track drills and a bit of running. My muscles were still sore from my Sunday sessions and I slept like crap last night. So when I had to get up I was in a foul mood. I got out there anyway and I even wore only my long running tights, not the winter tights. Only? Well, it was just -4° C =24.8° F, which seems warm considering how cold it was on December 20th. Everything was covered with rime, when I shuffled (my slow "run") to the track the gravel looked like some pictures from the scanning electron micrograph.

Then I got to the track and oh this beauty! The sun shone directly on the track which was fully covered with hoarfrost. It looked like it was covered with diamonds or crystals. It was absolutely amazing. I'm so grateful that I was abled to see this. Things like this are a runners reward for getting up, when you could also stay in bed with your sore muscles. I mean, I can say that I practiced on a track of diamonds and Chris too.

Sorry, but I didn't take my ixus with me, so you have to imagine this. A track surrounded by gardens gleaming in the sunshine with millions of diamonds. Just stunning.

The work out went surprisingly well, considering that my muscles were still sore from Sunday. I didn't take my amino acids then, so this is probably the reason for the longer recovery AND that I ate carbs in the evening. I took the amino acids today and what can I say, my body feels better with it. I also found that when I pinch my nose shut, the taste isn't that disgusting.

We marched some laps, did some strength drills I found yesterday on youtube and ran some straights to get our muscles used to the feel of real running. After that we marched some more laps and then departed. She got in her car and I shuffled home. Interestingly, just these two track sessions have already changed my movements when I shuffle (run slow). There is a lot more spring in my steps, if you know what I mean. To me this means I'm on the right track, literally and metaphorically.

Here are todays stats:
time: 1:10:25 hrs
in zone: 36:34 min
HR: 130 bpm

And to make up for the missing diamond track, this:

I took this picture on Christmas Day in front of my Grandmas house. It's not photoshoped, this is how the sunset looked like on that day. Pure beauty.

Keep Running and enjoy natures treats.

Good news post! (edit)

Hi everyone.
The new track training definitely works. I've got sore leg muscles. It's weird, but I'm glad about it.
Today, I'll eat a lot of protein, to help my muscles to recover. Chris will run track with me tomorrow. I'll look up the Runners ABC later, then we can start with it tomorrow too.

Today is Monday, so it's SCAL(R)E DAY.
I don't know how you ate on your holidays, but I ate too much and mostly bad stuff. Which would normally mean that I gain weight.

BUT NOT THIS TIME!

San proudly presents her AFTER-X-MAS-WEIGHT-STATS:
Weight: 63,5 kg (- 1,3 kg! = - 2,87 lbs!) = 139,99 lbs or 979938.2716 grains (hihi)
H2O: 51,8 %
Fat: 29,0 %
Muscles: 34,3 %
Bones: 7,6 kg = 16,75 lbs

WAHOOOOOOOOO!

(new)
I finally got around to do a spreadsheet for this whole scale thing. And what I found in going through the numbers was this: I got rid off 2,4 % of body fat since November 27th!!! Which I consider really good news!

(old)
Chris and I watched "Bright Star" yesterday. I'm sorry to say, but this movie sported a lot of lengths. Though it was beautifully made and the actors were good and Fanny's dresses were great.

Keep running!

Yep, track training is it

Okay, first I went on the track and really ran, but not rounds. I didn't have the strength to actually do full rounds. So I ended up running the straights and walking the curve. I also did 3 straights on my balls (feet balls, what the hell were you thinking?! I'm a girl, for crying out loud.) and what can I say, it felt sooooooo RIGHT. I worked mainly on my motions. I was on the track for about 35 min and at the start my Polar had the same behavioural issues like yesterday, but after 10 min it started to work right, so the track stats have to be taken with care. And I don't need to buy a new chest belt and send the old one in. :-D

time: 35 min.
in zone: 17:51 min
HR: 138 bpm

After that I didn't march the big round at the Markkleeberger See, because I didn't feel like it. Since I promised to listen to my body... I have to say, it was a really nice round of about 6 to 7 k. I even got the gift to see a gray heron. I love these birds, they look so elegant.

The stats:
time: 1:08 hr
in zone: 14:05 min
HR: 117 bpm

I also decided to change my training schedule. The runs are a lot shorter and more often, not just 3 times a week. This way I feel, I can do more track work and build my strength in a better way, than with the long and slightly boring runs of the beginners marathon schedule. I really think track work is the best for me at the moment. I'll talk with my coach on January 7th about it.

That's it for today. I hope you're all safely back from your holidays and might have gotten a little session in today.

Keep running

It's coming together, slowly piece by piece

I read a wonderful post called a natural run from Keith yesterday in his blog Keith's Odyssey to Planet Fitness. He trains triathlon for 2 years now and the most important part for me and my current interest was:
"Even as late as last summer I didn't run particularly well, and certainly not quickly, and didn't get any special enjoyment out of it. Enjoyment came from swimming or biking.

However, just recently, in the last few months things have come together and I've had a bunch of good runs. I've been running faster than ever with less effort, and I've been looking forward to running. It seems that my body is finally finding a natural pace because I can actually run at the minimum speeds required to actually run at. That probably didn't make much sense. Most of us can probably walk 6 K per hour (a hair under 4 mph). Now try to imagine running that slow. Mechanically it simply doesn't work for the way our bodies are put together. My problem was that I didn't have the skills, conditioning, or strength to be able to make the leap to an actual running pace until recently. (I'm fully aware I'm still on the slow end of the running pace.)"

So essentially this means for me, I lack the strength and the skills at this moment to run efficiently and in the heartrate range I'm supposed to! And now?
Well, I don't know if it is the right solution, but I'll give it a try and talk with my coach about it next week. The following I will try out for the first time today, right after I finished breakfast and this post.

First I'll go to the track around the corner and do some hard and fast rounds. About two or three, I'll see how it feels. After them I'll get back home and to the loo, because my breakfast is fluid ... After that I'll get my bike, drive to the Markkleeberger See, the big lake from last Sunday and do my long march. I'm curious to see how this works out for me. I'll do it the other way around on Tuesday, to see what's better for me. First strength and then endurance or endurance and then strength.

I find it extremely interesting how all this fits together like a jigsaw puzzle and that Keith wrote about this topic on Friday. Sometimes you could think there is something like fate. Weird, huh?

Oh, by the way, I found Joe Friels blog, though the current posts weren't that interesting to me, since I don't cycle for training at the moment.

I did Tuesdays 10 k yesterday, but my Polar was having a bad case of ill behaviour, so I don't have any stats for you at the moment. We'll see how she does today, might be that the battery in the chest belt is running low.

Keep running.

The 'oh'-effect of reading training literature...

It's really weird, Anne a friend of mine told me just last Saturday that I need to be patient, that speed is the last thing that comes long after I have a good endurance. And she has to know, she ran a lot of marathons in the 1990s. But did I listen, I mean really listen, to her? No, San knows better. I ran for 5 weeks now (I mean in this season, I ran before) and surely I have enough endurance now to do an ultra run.... ahem.

Until I read training literature. Well, two days ago I've started to read Joe Friels "The cyclist's Training Bible-Third Edition". I gave it to my dad as a birthday present, last year or so. He didn't read it. And since I needed something interesting and motivating to read without spending any money I took this. The book is marvelous, well as far as I can tell after 26 pages. Haha.

The point is, that Joe says, beginners tend to overtrain and be impatient. My body needs time to adjust to this training and guess what, it won't do in just 5 weeks! Bugger!!! Hihi. In fact this book is written for cyclists who were training and competing for at least 3 years. This raises a question, if you only ran sporadically, does it count? Probably not. I mean, I only have to look at my heartrate to know my body is just starting out in building the necessary inner infrastructure to run long runs and eventually compete. Even if I make fun of being always one of the last finishers in my races it bothers me. In fact I hate it to be last or second last. Argh. And since I'm chronically impatient, I want to be abled to run a marathon in under 3 hrs, NOW. I don't want to gall kilometers for years. I want to run Boston in April 2010, not in 2020. And thinking of it, I want to do Kona in 2010, too, and leave Chrissie in my dustcloud of black vulcanic sand!!!

Thanks to Joe I've decided to look at it realistically. And I've come to the conclusion, that my body isn't ready to compete in the race on new years eve, at least not on a level that I could live with. I certainly won't end 2009 as the last finisher in a darned 10k-race. So it's speed training at the track around the corner. But I'll do the new years run in the city.
And I've decided that 2010 is all about building endurance and changing my body to an athletes body. I'll lose the excess body fat, build up my muscles and do some races without any pressure, except getting to the finish line and not be last. Sounds like a plan?!

While all of you plan their whole racing year, I'll let my body decide, at least to a certain point.
I ate my last christmas cookies for breakfast, now I'll do the march I skipped on Tuesday due to tummy-aches. And afterwards I'll do some yoga. Enjoy your day.

I hope all of your holidays were nice and that Santa brought what was on your wishlist. I got my new nike sports bra and I love it.

Keep running and melt the christmas fat.

PS: We've got a white christmas

The first one in years! I'm so happy about this.

Hello to Thomas, my new official reader.

Keep Running.

Yesterdays stats and Happy Holidays

Hey everyone.

I hope all of you are well.

As you know, yesterday was speedtraining and here are the stats:
distance: ca. 6 k
time: 58:13 min
in zone: 47:12 min
hr: 140 bpm


After watching a few ironman videos on youtube yesterday evening, I've come to the conclusion that I need to get my pain threshold for training a lot higher. Otherwise I won't be abled to finish the ironman.

These are my training goals for 2010! Doing several marathons and raising my pain and uncomfortability thresholds.


I wish all of you a wonderful holiday, whatever you call it: Christmas, Hanukka, Dance around my new tri-bike. Enjoy the hopefully peacefull time with your loved ones.

The east hall of Leipzigs main station in the evening, 22nd December 2009.

Happy Holidays!

I think I'm going crazy

When it comes to racing my confidence in my body is boasting at the moment. And I haven't got a clue where it comes from. Certainly not from my training results, they're as bad as ever. :-( Don't ask me about todays "speed" training. I ended up marching, because my calves couldn't handle running in the snow. Things like this should shatter my confidence, but no...

Yesterday, when I looked up some tri races, I read about a half ironman race. Funnily enough, I saw the distances and thought: "Well, why not go for this in June instead of the tiny one. I could totally do it."
Uhuh?! Think again girl. I haven't run a whole 10 k in months! But I want to go half ironman on my first tri ever only 6 weeks after my first marathon ever. And this in, oh let's see, 22 weeks! It's official I guess, I'm bloody crazy! And let's not forget the swimming or better the not-swimming in the last few years. If I remember right the last time I swam was 2 1/2 years ago. But yeah, I'll go half ironman in June 2010. HA.

Not gonna happen in 2010. First I need to be a lot better on endurance and then in speed before I can even think of a half ironman. And did I mention that I need to learn freestyle first. There is a lot to do before I go long. And let's face it, even a half distance Ironman is loooooooonnnngggg for me in my current state of (un)fitness.


Just needed to share this, I certainly can't talk about something like this to my family or my friends. They have a hard time already to understand this marathon thing. To them? I am already a nutcase.

Keep running.

Right on time for christmas the snow is thawing

We've got 7.8° C = 46° Fahrenheit today and that means no white christmas! Bugger!!! The weather change was so "dramatic" that I got headaches yesterday evening, I never had something like this before.

Girls thing. Guys can skip!
Today I feel like crap because of the first day of Red Week, so I won't train. Speedtraining is tomorrow anyway and I can use another day for recovery. Hey, even I'm just human. And I know for certain Mark Allen and Dave Scott never had to deal with this monthly crap. One question to you tri girls out there, do you take your period into planing your races or do you just say on this day is the race and I don't care if I have my period then?! I always wondered about that one.

Next topic, guys approved! ;-D
Since almost everyone out there in blogland has put up his or her 2010 race schedule I think I should make mine too. At this moment there is only one thing sure. The Leipzig Marathon on 25th of April 2010. I think I want to do Athens Marathon in October, too. The question is just can I afford it. (There is still no news from little town or Düsseldorf.) I might even do a tiny little triathlon (0,75-21-5 km) in June on Castle Moritzburg, depending on time and having or not having a car. At the moment I have no race bike or neo and I can't swim proper freestyle. But I've decided to start with a masters course on the next possible date, which is end of March.

My big all time goal is finishing Ironman Hawaii. I don't know at this moment where I'll do my first long distance tri, only when: 2013! And I know, that I want to do Challenge Roth and an Ironman in New Zealand. Great planning, huh?

By the way, do you have a new years resolution? Mine is to learn a proper handstand. Because I could never do one and it has nothing to do with triathlon, so...

Two pics from Sunday for your eye relaxation.

Oh, I had a half Gluehwein at the christmas market on Saturday. I'm not into this Gluehwein stuff, I prefer waffles with vanilla cream. I got my last one for this year today, after I've been to the employment agency and the school center where I will take a project management class from January on.

That's it for today. Hope you have a white christmas and not this undecided weather we've got today!

Keep running!

Christmas preps and SCAL(R)E DAY

Hello again.
Have you all got every christmas presents in place? I've got nearly everything ready, and I'm glad about it. I've been to a christmas "party" or better christmas tea with some friends of mine (and their kids). I think most of my presents were appreciated. And I got the coolest thing ever an iPOTT. Yes, you've read right, it's in fact a big cup.

Since I barely leave the house without my iPod, it's a perfect gift. ;-D

Anyway, yesterday was also a training day and it was freezing outside. Temperatures were around -15°C = 5° Fahrenheit. My Dad started on Saturday to talk me out of training, due to the temperatures. Chris and I went anyway, and we were really lucky because we had perfect sunshine, though it was pretty windy at the lake. When I got home after 3 1/2 hours, I had warm feet and frozen thighs, as always. Another reason to get rid of the excess fat, I want warm thighs and for that they have to be nothing but muscles. Well, a girl can dream.

Yesterdays stats:
Distance: ca. 16 k
Time: 3:21 hrs
in Zone: 52 min
heartrate: 118 bpm

Since I did another 5 km on Saturday when I went to an indoor christmas market, I'd say mission accomplished for this weekend and the whole week! Here are some pictures of yesterdays fight against the cold.

Me! I wear running gear under the wider clothes, well, I hate to feel cold.

Chris, she's in fact wearing her bike winter tights.

A tree on a small old cemetry.

On our way to the lake, we found it interesting that the water was still flowing.

The Markkleeberger See, one of the huge (european huge;-) lakes which were made after the open-cast mining stopped in this area. The lake was flooded during the last years, it's actually the first time I went there. And since it's a long round, without too many streets, I'll do my future long runs there. Fun fact: water temperature was a lot higher than air (3°C to -15°C). So I joked about going swimming to warm up. hihi.


Today I had finally the guts to get back on the scale. It's SCAL(R)E DAY!
Weight stats:
weight: 64,8 kg (The scale couldn't decide, it got higher when I stepped on a second and third time, I'll stick with the first measurement. ;-))
body fat: 29,6 %
muscles: 34,1 %
H2O: 51,4 %
Bones: 7,7 kg
Seems like I got a higher bone density and some more body fat :-( But I put on less weight than I thought I did, I wouldn't have been surprised to see something like 66 kg. Well, running is good, but I need to keep an eye on my diet. I'll be more serious on Paleo from now on.

I'm nearly finished with tidying up my room and but I'll run some numbers since I've decided to buy myself a new macbook in February. Mine is driving me nuts. Well, in fact it's the battery, but I won't pay another 120 € for a new battery when I've already decided to buy a whole new macbook in a few months. Originally I wanted to buy it in May, but due to the battery problem...

KEEP RUNNING! Even if your battery gives up. ;-D

Email exchange with little town

as requested, but only a short overview, since I've got a room to tidy.

And before you ask, I haven't heard from them so far. And when I go after the decision dice which I threw yesterday at my friends flat, I'm getting the job in Düsseldorf and not the one in the little town. Which would be fine with me. As long as I get a new job and fast, I'm fine.

Okay. So here is what I wrote in Tuesdays email (it's shortened (no usual blahblah) and I'm not good in translating, so its mostly content not the tone (which was nice, really!)):
" 1. Brochure rack: it contains to much brochures, there is no apparent order, a lot of brochures aren't up to date. buy a rack specifically for presenting brochures (if you've got the money, it costs only 200€s) or adapt the old one for this use. Put it in the entrance hall, for better lighting and accessability.
2. Orientation signs in the stairway. Move them also to the entrance hall and directly next to one another. Reason: better lighting, better readability and no swing door in your back.
3. Put up orientation signs on the first floor, so the visitors know instantly which way to turn to get to the room they are looking for.
4. Door plates: New bigger ones if you have the money or at least bigger writing, since the existing ones are barely readable.

2 positive points of the city: better swim times at the pool than on the big sports pool in Leipzig and the tea in the Café is really good."

Additionally I said that its not meant as criticism but just some small improvements which would have a huge impact.

The answer in short from little town:
"Thank you for your hints and improvements. As you certainly noticed we need to retrofit the whole building, though we did retrofit some rooms and offices.

Our old janitor made some orientation sign, but we put them down, since they were not up to date.

The door plates are actually over twenty years old, but we reprinted them just recently and will do again in January, when the new colleagues start out.

Well, the brochure rack, what can I say to that."

I cut out the usual blahblahblah.


So this is it. I got no other message so far, snail mail, email or phone. What it means? I have no clue. We'll see.

Since the job in Düsseldorf is a 5 year contract and little town offered only a 2 year contract, I think Düsseldorf is the better option (big and cool town, better money, longer contract, better background knowledge on my side and head on in research(yeah, I mean I would love to work at cern), an adult triathlon club for sure, more than one pool, bike shops, young folks, a dream come true!). I just have to get the job, and this will probably take some more time, two months minimum. But as Kandee Johnson said on her blog patience is a virtue. Not that I have any. Impatience is my second nature. ;-)

Okay, this is it.

Hope your jobs go well and you like what you do.

Keep running! It clears your head!

Snow, speed training and nutrition

No, I don't have the job yet. But if everything goes as they had planned I should be told today, if or if not. And the answering email from Tuesday was nice. I'll post the content of mine and theirs in the next post.

In the last few days it snowed a lot in Leipzig and gives it a real christmasly (does this word exist?) feeling. I still have to get some presents, even though I went shopping for them with my friend on Wednesday, but we did get distracted by earrings/necklaces and cosmetics. I even bought the Clinique holiday set, yeah I'm such a girl. So, I'll have to go again today and also finish that darned earring board for my friend.

Speed training
Yesterday was speedtraining and it snowed during the whole session. When I went to it, I had to wait for the street car and in front of the street lights the snow swirled in the air, it was stunningly beautiful, it looked like small diamonds flowing through the air. I wished I could have taken a picture for you. But I wouldn't have a clue how to take it. At least not with my Ixus.

Since I was too slow for the 6:30 group at the last training, I went with the fast beginners this time. And would you believe even them were too fast for me. They ran a 7:15 pace. And I couldn't keep up, because my friend asthma showed up for a long time no see. I guess it was the cold and the pace. So I fell back and ran my own pace back to the track. I got there and did my thing. The fast groups were on there and the slow beginners "group", which consisted of 2 girls. And yeah, they were to slow for me (the beginners, not the fast groups ;-). So I ran my own pace. What I found pretty interesting was, that I'm abled only on the track to control my pace to that extend that I stay under my anaerobe threshold for a whole hour. After that hour, I'll be running in the anaerob pulse no matter how slow I run. Bugger!

Yesterdays stats:
distance: approximately 7.5 km
time: 1:08:54 hr
in zone: 45:50 min. !!!! That is the best result ever. Does that mean I have to do all my training on the track?!!!
heartrate: 153 bpm

After the training I took my aminoacids. Yuk! But they do really help. I don't have sore muscles today.

Sunday will be the next long run/march. 20 km!! Thankfully a friend of mine will accompany me on the first half. She hasn't been training in the last few months and so isn't abled to do the whole distance. :.-( Which is sad, because I tend to get crazy on the last 2 km. I just want to sit down and wait for someone to pick me up. So I start to sing stuff off key and with no connection to the music I listen to. Or putting in little dancing steps or moves. And that is when I do 15 km, how crazy is this going to get when I do the 20?! HELP! Anyone?

Athletes Nutrition!
I read something really interesting a few days ago. We endurance athletes take 19% of our energy from proteins. Which means if you train or race an hour and you burn about 800 calories(I don't, but maybe you.), 19% of them, which are approximately 150 calories, come from proteins. That are 38g of protein per hour. Now think about how long an Ironman is! How much proteins you burn then, you literally burn your own muscles!!!
And what do we do before, during and after the big race? Shoveling carbohydrates in our mouths. No wonder that you need to rest for weeks afterwards and feel like you don't have any muscles at all at your first time back on the treadmill or bike or pool. (I never did an Ironman or triathlon, so I can exclude me here.) Because you didn't replace the burned protein! Endurance sports means burning fat and proteins, you don't need pasta, bread or waffles to race!
Get's one thinking, huh?

Oh, and I just found out, the New Years Run in Leipzig will be!! Yeah. Do you run a New Years Run?

KEEP RUNNING.

Ps: Welcome official reader No. 5.

I'm such a chicken...

would you believe it, guys?! I won't open the answering email to my email to little town from this morning, in which I gave some hints concerning the brochure rack and door plates.

I'm a rascal but I'm afraid of the concequences. Ts, ts, ts.

I was really nice in this email. I said that these hints are solely to improve the city hall and not meant as criticism. And I even closed with two plus points of the town. How bad can the answer then be?! But still, I won't open it until tomorrow. Call me chicken.

Thanks for your support by the way. I don't like sugar coating on bad stuff, this way it's only hidden and not altered to the good or at least neutral.

Change of the topic.
The training schedule was altered due to the upcoming holidays. There will be no training on Christmas Eve! Can you believe it?! Just because some guy was born a few thousand years ago and they change our schedules just because of his birthday party!!!! ;-P

So I had to do 15 k today. And I did it! It took me slightly longer than on Sunday due to some little problems with my tights. No I don't mean running tights, I mean the ones which you wear to skirts! It was freezing again, so I thought it would be clever to wear some tights under my pants. HA. Whatever you do girls, DON'T BUY CHEAP TIGHTS!!! They didn't fit right. I know what your thinking, I had the right size! Due to the non-fitting they felt like sandpaper. And on the last two km I had to slow down significantly.

Anyway, here are todays stats:
distance: 15 k
time: 2:44:53 hrs
in zone: 10:55 min
heartrate: 112 bpm
Last two due to the tights problem. >-(

I'll keep you posted on the job front.

Keep running!

Oh, wow

I have 4 official readers now. Seems like I'm gaining speed in Blogland. ;-)

Welcome, welcome. Your signing up made my day!

And a big thanks for the support from all you lovely commenters (commentees?).

Interview at little town

- What a mess! This day was totally off.

Okay, so I went there by train and because of the shitty schedule of Deutsche Bahn I was there at 10:19 AM which was 2:40 hrs before my appointment. It was freezing cold but I took the time and walked around a bit and had a look at the shops. There was a travel agency opening today. After about an hour I had seen all that there is to see including ramshackle houses. And went into the bakery/café at 11:30 AM at the market and had a peppermint tea to get warm again. My feet were ice blocks by then.

The tea was really good though. 1 point for little town.

15 minutes before my appointment I went over to the city hall, which looks really nice. From the outside! When you get in there is a hall with a big double door at the end of it and two doors on the sides, one left and one right. In this hall you'll see only a small message board with official information. At the doors to your left and your right you don't find any door plates same goes for the double door. So on I went trough the double door at the end of the hall...
And....
I thought I had traveled back through time 25 years ago, back to GDR. Imagine my shock. Miserable lighting, yellowed old-fashioned (I don't mean nice vintage ones!) boards with names and room numbers, barely readable. A shabby rug. It took me a few seconds to figure out, that the office to which I had to go was on the first floor. I took the stairs and the nightmare continued.

When I got to the first floor, there wasn't any direction sign, on which side of the landing the mayors office is. I had to walk to one door and read the tiny door plates to find out who resided in which office. This town has a lot of elderly persons, you'd think the municipality would cater better to their ability of reading small letters or inability in this case. The lighting was as miserable as downstairs. On the walls were some dull and not memorable pictures. There was a "display", a rack, overflowing with brochures. This rack was designed to hold books, not to display brochures, which means that the brochures were restin flat, which gives you a hard time to have a look at the ones on the top shelf. And that are obviously the ones, which were forgotten by time. There was an event schedule from 2006 and even worse a heap of brochures on casualty insurance dating back to 1998!!! Besides that the display was totally cluttered, there was no order, like brochures on topic A on this shelf and topic B on the other shelf. You wouldn't find what could be interesting for you. I was so shocked and still am. And did I mention the crappy lighting.

Then I was called in for the interview. There were three men and one woman. The town mayor, his second in command, the human resources "manager" and I don't remember what the function of the third man was, exept for the greeting and goodbye he never said a word. Now the interview went along. I didn't make a good job on hiding my shock about this town and its problems, because the mayor said I didn't leave a good hair on his town! hihi. Well, I thought I was pretty nice to them, considering that I only stated the fact that they don't have a cinema, which is an important factor for me (I go to the movies at least once a week, now that I'm back in Leipzig, 3 or 4 times aren't a prob for me either). The interview was over after 50 minutes, so I had another 1 3/4 hours in this town and went back to the café until 3 PM. Since the train station has no warm waiting room. (Why would you need one?) And as I said it was FREEZING outside.

(Nah, it wasn't that bad, but I thought this picture to be pretty amazing. Found it here: http://apollo.lsc.vsc.edu/classes/met130/notes/chapter7/f_rain.html)
I got on my train and slept on my way back to Leipzig. I was back home at 5:30 PM.

You wanna know how off this day was for me?! Here is todays Mampf Diary to give you a clue, in this order I ate:
1 protein shake, 2 golden kiwis, 1 cinnamon-raisin bagel, 1 chocolate bagel, 1 éclair, 1 cinnamon-raisin bagel, 1 big mac, 3 toasts with liverwurst, 1 toast with marmelade, 2 golden kiwis, 2 slides of fresh bread with butter and salt , 2 pieces of chocolate. But I didn't eat the cookies that came with the tea! Tough, eh?

I'm so not going on the scale tomorrow! ;-)

Keep rolling, ahem, running.

I did it!

I did my 15 k. I had to battle my inner slouch all the way, but today I succeeded.

The stats:
distance: 15 k
pace: 10.8
time: 2:42 hrs
in zone: 16 min
heart: 113 bpm

Keep running!

Old habits die hard...

I just found myself trying to skip or shorten todays training. The thing is, that I tried to hide it from my mom, something like if I run while she is in the concert, she won't recognize I've only done 3,5 k. Good plan, huh?

But the thing is, I will know that I skipped or shortened again. What I have to get out is this whole rebellion thing towards her. I do this in nearly every part of my life, eat, sleep, sport, work. You'd think I should have grown out of this with 32, but noooooo.....

Okay, time to put on some clothes and get going. Oh, and it's snowing. Just a tiny little bit. I'll see if I can get some nice pictures for you.

Keep running.

First Snow and still undecided

Hi there.
This afternoon it started to snow. It's less then a cm so far, but at least it just gives a touch of christmas to Leipzig.

I'm still undecided if moving to this small town is a good idea. On the plus side it does have a pool! And there are a running and a triathlon club in the next towns. Since I will have a car then, there is no problem getting there. BUT the triathlons training times are made for school kids. I mean, I'll have to work at 3:30 PM under the week, who doesn't?!

But hey, at least it doesn't look that bad anymore. And the pool times at the town are manageable. And the job is really cool at least when I look at the description. If they are nice at the municipality it might work out. I hope so.

And still everytime I think about the size of the town I have chills running down my spine. What to do, what to do...

New Years Eve
What do you do on New Years Eve? Big party in town, party with friends, family or nothing? In the last years I celebrated with friends and it was planned for this year too. The "problem" is: I don't want to go for several reasons.

First there will probably be a friend of my friends which I absolutely dislike. And he doesn't seem to get it, he always gets into my comfort zone and tells me all this new age stuff as if I was interested in it or believed in it and him. Yuk!! And I can hardly tell my friends, he is there and since I don't like him I won't come.
Second reason, all of them have kids in the range from 1 to 3 years which will be there too. That means a lot of screaming and even after they are sleeping there will be no other talk than what kid No. 1 did and what kid No.3 has still to learn and that kid No. 4 was so adorable when it did this... There will be no adult topic for longer than 2 or tops 3 minutes. And I've had that the last years, I have it everytime I meet my friends, I'll have it at our christmas "party". I don't need this on New Years Eve too. Don't get me wrong, I love my friends and if they need to have kids and enjoy it, I'm glad for them. But that doesn't mean I want to have there kids around me and and talk about them, everytime I see my friends. And again, I can't tell them: Oh, since you'll all bring your kids there, I won't come because I find your kids and your constant chatter about them annoying!
Third reason, the food. It's mostly stuff I can't eat without having to pay for it later. And with that I mean feeling sick. I've had this this year. 1st January was hell for me. And since I drank only one glass of champagne, I can't blame it on the alcohol. It was the food. Do I have to write it?

Now, I thought I came up with the perfect solution. I would tell them I can't come, because there is this New Years Run in the morning. Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for my sport! But so far I couldn't find out if there will be a run in Leipzig. I found one for New Years Eve and normally there should have been one on 1st January, but it seems there isn't. On the other hand I could run in the town next to the small town, since there will be a New Years Run. But I would have to get the car from my parents since the train connection timing on that morning is crap and that isn't probable. I'll look further into it.

Will you run a New Years Run?

Two pictures of Ireland for you. I took them as we waited for the ferry to Inishmore.

On the first look it's a canyon, but look further there are people who put this "canyon" in perspective.

I'm glad that I got this picture. I stood there about half an hour to get pictures such as this. And I made tons of pictures where the waves are just on their way up or receding.

Concerning my last post. I was really bad in High School sports, I always came in last and look at me now. I run half marathons and am only nineth last! ;-) If I can do it, you can do it too! Get yourself some good running shoes for christmas and start out on a bright 1st January. You'll love it! (Not necessarily on the first few runs, but later...)

Enjoy your weekend.

KEEP RUNNING!

Just found these quotes

at Tri Diesel's Blog. I had to laugh so hard. You probably know his blog and these quotes, but I want share them anyway.

"If God invented marathons to keep people from doing anything more stupid, triathlon must have taken him completely by surprise." ~ P.Z. Pearce

And his avatar quote (This one is so ME):
"I am so far behind, I thought I was FIRST"

My race history so far:
10 k 2006 -> second last
10k 2007 -> second last
half marathon 2008 -> nineth last
Schluchseelauf (approx 19 k) 2008 -> sixth last
And a forecast if I might:
Leipzig Marathon April 25th, 2010 -> under the first one hundred, but LAST (under 100 women running)

Hello to my new follower. Glad to have you.

KEEP RUNNING!

Working on it...

Okay, so this week I got off track in more than one way. I ate wrong, I shifted training and I did other stuff than I should have.

To get back on track I've made a deal with myself. For every day I eat a proper Paleo Diet I pay 1 € in my earring/makeup glass jar.

For every proper training session I pay 2 € in my earring/makeup glass jar. And for every application I pay myself 10 €. This way I can get myself some treats that don't contradict my goals and go along my new obsessions (benefit cosmetics and earrings).

This was my lunch on Monday, the last proper Paleo one. It's been plaice filet with spinach. Tasty, fast and healthy. I'll replace the plaice with salmon today.

As my body still isn't all right, I'll shift the training again. :-( I'm not happy about it, but you've got to go with your body otherwise you'll get into trouble. The problems might be related to my wrong eating this week. So I hope that I'm okay by tomorrow and get to run then.

Keep running.

Second Miss and an off-topic question

So there are places were we runners have to struggle with snow already. And they feel bad about it. Here is what I thought when I read their blogs: You lucky bastards. To me running in snow is a lot easier than running in cold rain when its already dark. But that's just my point of view.
Weather has gotten worse, it's raining heavily and I'm in a foul mood.

Today I drove to a town, that's about 100 km away. First I got lost because there were no signs, would you believe it? No, the car of my parents has no navigation system. (When I buy my car, this is the first thing I'll install. By the way it will be an Audi A3 TDi with at least 120 PS, colour doesn't matter as long as it isn't red. I HATE RED CARS! Have you seen the new ad for the Audi A3? This spot is awesome!!! Have a look. Oh and I LOVE THIS CAR!) And then it rained all day long.

My off-topic question is related to this town. If a city has only 6400 inhabitants does it qualify as a town? And would you want to live there? These are the questions that I'm pondering right now, since I have an interview in this town on Monday. The job offer is intriguing, but I'm not a small town person. I wouldn't have to skip speed training since it takes only an hour to get to Leipzig by train (car 2 to 2 1/2 hours). But there is no cinema and I couldn't figure out if you can get DSL there. If I couldn't have internet there I'd be lost. I don't need a tv (in fact I haven't watched tv since October), but I NEED internet access.

I chose to skip speed training today in favour of my right knee (and to think about the town). I had problems with bending it this morning and when I got back from my drive, my knee hurt really badly. So I decided, I'll do my speed training tomorrow alone in the afternoon. There is a track a few blocks away, so I'll go there and do fast and slow laps.

Seems like this week is a bit off.

And since I stray so much, why not go all the way. Here are three pics I took in London in November 2007. I was there 3 weeks after I started in my job and yes it was a business trip. On it I shook hands with Gordon Brown the British Prime Minister! (I don't have a photo to prove it. But it's true. Impressing, huh?) If you ever go to London, do yourself a favor, go get a good hotel, that means at least 90 Pounds a night, Hotels cheaper than this are a nightmare.

I took these pictures in the ? Park, as you can see. I only know it was near Oxford Street.

This is my favourite picture of this trip.

And this is what I did on Tuesday: I build an earring board!

Okay, before I start talking about what moisturizer I use, I better quit this post.

KEEP RUNNING!

Moodswing

My mood has seriously improved since yesterday, the weather hasn't. When I got up I could hardly wait to go out and run.

I've run my usual 3.5 km course, because I've decided to split the long distances into run and walk. This way I still improve both running and fat metabolism. Otherwise I probably would have to walk the marathon and I won't have that.

Todays running stats:
distance: 3.5 km
time: 32:39 min
in zone: 18:46 min
heartrate: 154 bpm

Improvements on the last two. Yeah.

And two pictures for you. The blue track called the Testfeld.

KEEP RUNNING!

New Look and my first miss..

Hi,
I thought it was about time to give this blog a new look and some new features. In the sidebar you'll find such interesting things as: my weeks training schedule, my weekly weight shed (no, I don't lose weight, I shed it!) and my run / marched distances in km. (Have you recognised my sarcasm? Find it.)

I haven't trained today and I can't give you a good reason for it. The weather sucked and I had other things occupying my mind so I shifted my 12 km to tomorrow.

Yesterday on the other hand, we've had fabulous weather so I went on a bike ride to get some nice pictures of Leipzig for you. I took a lot and I will share them with you in the next weeks, there is no point in having 60 pics in one post.

First the speed trainings Start and Finish:

This is where we started with the first 1000 m leg last Thursday.

And this is the finish for the 1000 m. The stairs lead up to the central stadium of Leipzig. After the 3 min trot this is the start for the second, fourth, sixth and eighth leg of the Speedtraining.

Leipzigs new town hall and the skyscraper.

Though it looks like a medieval castle, the townhall was build from 1899 till 1905. So it's quite young. The old one was build in 1556/1557. (We've got 2! town halls in Leipzig.)

Rowing in December, you wouldn't think this is possible. But thanks to climate change...

Let's hope our leaders find their courage and decide something useful in Copenhagen this week.
It was marvelous to watch this man, his moves were fluid and really graceful.

And even though it was just 3 PM, we had a wonderful "sunset". (Well the sun didn't set until 4 PM, but it sure looks like a sunset to me.)

That's it for today.

KEEP RUNNING.
(If only I would. *cringe*)

Dr. Wallpaper and Beetroot soup

Hi there, I love it when the weather and my body contradict me and my anouncements! When I got up yesterday morning, we had fabulous sunshine (but it was breath cloud cold) and fine legs. Unfortunately I didn't have time to run, because we had to drive to my grandma's house to repaper her kitchen.
Here are some pics of yesterday. Enjoy.

I took those pictures before we started with repapering the kitchen. Originally the weather was better, but my grandma lives 1 1/2 driving hours in a small village and they mostly have different weather from us. But the sun still showed several times. In the evening it rained. So I had no guilty feeling then.

Now, now, the repapering. First of all let me present: Dr. Wallpaper (my dad) preparing for the good deed.

And now Dr. Wallpaper (Dad) and his fancy, extremely goodlooking assistent (me) repapering the ceiling:

(Pictures taken by mom.)

At 6 o'clock in the evening the whole kitchen was looking shiny new and my grandma gave us big hugs and eloquent thank you's.

Mampf Diary Saturday:
BF: 350 ml chocolate protein shake, 1 golden kiwi (I love them)
Lunch: diced turkey with mushrooms and Brussels sprouts (Have a look at the picture) cooked by my mom

Dinner: 1 Dream Apple, 1 golden kiwi and a butter roll late at night (I know! But I was hungry and had forgotten that I had a bag of nuts left. )

Snacks: 1 boiled egg

Now, let's get to something really tasty and not really paelithic, todays lunch:

Beetroot Soup!

Now before you keel over, I never liked beetroot, but this soup is delicious. I mean look at it!

It's delicious, I've got the recipe from a former flatmate (Thanks Julia!) and changed it a tiny bit, to accomodate it more to the paleo diet.

Ingredients for 3 persons:
1 kg of pre-cooked beetroot
2 onions
1 lemon
200 ml cocos milk (as a substitute for the dairy versions, it actually gives the taste a nice twist, yummy) or sour cream or creme fraiche
some spices you like (BTW go for organic spices. Spices are dried and this means everything is in higher concentration, including toxins and pesticids. So make sure they are organic.)
Olive oil, vegetable broth, Water, fresh Parsley if you like.

Utensils: Pot, stove, a blender, spoons, knife, apron, goggles, radio or iPod or other mp3-player (are there others? ;-)

Preparation (ca. 1 hour for the first time):

Dice the beetroots and onions (don't have to be neat or small, you'll blend them anyway) and sauté them in some olive oil. The temperature shouldn't be too high, if the olive oil starts to fume it's way too hot.

Get some vegetable broth to boiling or water (ca. 500-1000 ml) and give it over the sautéing beetroot-onion-mix. If you used just water get the mixture to boiling before you put in the vegetable broth powder (couldn't find the right english expression). Spice it with pepper and other spices you like. Then you let the whole soup simmer for about 10 minutes.

Time for the blending. Before you do it, let the soup cool down a bit, you don't want to melt your blender! And since beetroot stains are a nightmare, don't wear your best white dress or anything remotely lighter than black and get an apron or something like it.
This is what a blending master in mom's 20 years old apron looks like:

Muahh.

Now blend it carefully, till it's smooth.

Now you can add the juice of the lemon, blend it again. Time for the cocos milk or your dairy product of choice.

The hand belongs to my mom.

Blend it again. Season to taste again. If need be reheat it. And then serve it with parsley or basil.

Enjoy your beetroot soup.

Oh, it's getting late and dark. Time for my 15 km Sunday training march.

Keep Running.

Recovery Day

Where to start?!

Okay, first the speed training with the running seminar yesterday.
We met at 7 p.m. on the testfield of the DHFK (German University for Physical Culture, it is now a part of the University of Leipzig. But if you ask any denizen of Leipzig for the DHFK, he/she will still know where you have to go.) We were a huge group as you can see.

Since the track isn't big enough for 8 different pace groups, the six "slow" groups went down to run at the river bank. (Seems to be the runners route in Leipzig, we met so many.) The training went as followed. We had to run 1 km in the time we wanted to have our normal pace later. Between the "fast" 1 km legs we had 3 minutes of trot. This 1 km we had to ran accordingly to our schedule 6 to 10 times.

So, since I want to run a 6:30 (hahaha, dream on girl!) pace, I had this amount of time to run from the special parkbank to the second stairs, which is exactly 1 km. (I'll see how the weather is on Sunday, to get some pictures for you.) And my schedule said 8 km.

If you've read my post from last week, you'll know that my normal pace is 8:57 min and I only ran 3,5 km then. You're starting to guess it, don't ya? To make things worse, I walked 11 km on Wednesday to and fro the city (5 km one leg), after the 12 km training on Tuesday. Worsest? Yesterday I walked 9 km home through the city. I guessed it was fabulous weather so why pay for a tram ticket when I have legs?! When I got home at 3:45 p.m. my feet hurt already. And then I went to speed training!!! Do I have to write any more?!?

I got there with the tram (streetcar) and walked to the changing room. Meeting all the other runners was really exciting and I couldn't get the grin from my face. Peter, the organizer, called out the groups and so I went to the 6:30 group. HUGE mistake! We trotted down to the start at the river with Katharina (our tutor). Where we started with the fast running. Well the others started. I ended up with two Ladies trailing 100 m behind the group. What a humiliation! And if that wasn't enough, my right calf couldn't decide whether it wanted to cramp or not. After km four I wanted to throw it, but I stuck with the two ladies and did 2 more. After them we trotted back to the track grabbed our things and left. Well before I left the track I trank my vial of aminoacids. Eek, but if it helps. I went home by tram.

When I got home I was totally beside me. I even took a bite from a cookie! Luckily I realized what I did after the first bite and gave the rest to my dad. (Later I was really hungry and ate a buttered roll. >-( ) After that incident I sank into a hot and very relaxing bath and granted myself a chocolate treat - Fioretto!!! (I bought it myself and don't work or write for this company and this is my honest opinion.)

Necessary items to train for a marathon: chocolate treats and a bathtub!!!

http://www.clawfoot-connection.com/Fgallery/clawfoot222.jpg
(This would be my dream bathroom. Sadly my parents have only a normal bathtub / bathroom. But it's better than nothing.)

Oh, and since my Polar didn't work I don't have any stats for you. Sorry. But here is my Mampf
Diary:
BF: 350 ml protein chocolate shake, 2 golden kiwis (the fruit! I'm not a cannibal.)
Lunch: Veal with a Dream Apple and 2 golden kiwis (pic)
Dinner: buttered roll (told ya I was totally off)
Snacks: 1 waffle with vanilla cream, 1 bag of nuts, 1 Fioretto, 1 bite of a chocolate cookie

Yesterdays lunch. Strange but Yummy!

Today was SCAL(R)E DAY! I wanted to know if I had lost some weight since Wednesday, hopefully another 300 grams. I was NOT prepared to see this:

Weight 64,2 kg

Thats 800 grams less. And it wasn't water! It's been bodyfat. The full scale stats are this:
Weight: 64,2 kg
body fat: 29,1 % (minus 0,9 % since monday!!!!)
water: 51,7 %
muscles: 34,1 %
bones: 7,6 kg

So, yesterdays nightmarish training was worth something. My thighs aren't too sore, but we'll see what they say tomorrow. Essentially I took this day off to recover. My mom was really nice and got me some marvelous beef tenderloin (she was so mad at the butcher, because it was really expensive). This is what I made for my lunch today:

Beef tenderloin with sautéd mushrooms and a tossed salad with bell pepper and tomatoes. The dressing on the tenderloin is "Balsamico Cremoso". This was a culinarily marvelous meal. *Sigh* After that I took time to recover more deeply (afternoon nap ;-).

As you can see I'm back on track when it comes to eating Paleo. Next scheduled training is on Sunday. 15 km. Tomorrow my dad and me will repaper the kitchen of my grandma. No other workout, though I thought I would run my 3,5 km but my legs feel crappy. So, I'll give them more rest. And since the weather is bad too, I've got no guilty feeling for not being out in the sunshine.

KEEP RUNNING!!

Leipzig south-western sky, Wednesday, ca. 3:30 pm.