Thrive in 30

Thrive is a book for a athletes. But it is not only for athletes! Also for the everyday person, who just wants to get a bit healtier and slimer. I must warn you though! The autor is vegan. But not only this, he is also former ironman-athlete: Brendan Brazier. I must confess that I'm a huge fan now because I feel this guy really knows his stuff.
On the other hand I know a lot of people who really don't like reading that much - or spending money on books they might not really enjoy. Especially if it is a topic which they are not really interested in. Therefore, Brendan made up something really great! He's got a page where he gives all the information for free. And in videos. So you don't have to read. No excuses! Sign up here and get healthy!

First Run: Positive

So, my first rather long run today was okay. 22km and I feel okay (though not up to go out to Starbucks as boyfriend#1 suggested). 
Right after I came in I made a smoothie (plum, apple, melon, nectarine) as Brendan Brazier recommends. That felt ok. To the second half of the smoothie I added some hemp protein, which I actually didn't like very much. But on the run I just listend to some podcast-interview and he mentioned how incredible hemp works for athletes. 
But it was just as if my body didn't want it. So I left it standing in the fridge - maybe later. I also had a nice couscous-salad (I hope Brendon would approve) about one hour after the run.
And why all this: to get the fastest recovery as possible. Remember: Only 23 days to train. Let's see what sunday's run will bring.

Bye bye, Rats!

I think, I didn't mention yet but running rat has no rats anymore. It's not because I don't want them anymore. Only commuting between Magdeburg and Leipzig doesn't work very well with rats. My last little boy found a very nice home at a friend of mine. Thank you, Caro!


However I've already decided that I want to go back to my hometown after I finished the job at Magdeburg. So maybe then I've got the time and space to have rats again.
Still, I'll stay the running rat!

Ultramarathon coming up

Probably I mentioned once or twice that my big, big goal is, to run an ultramarathon before I'm 30. Well, I still have three years to train but I guess I could also already try this year. 

I must confess that I really didn't train that much during the past year but I still feel quite fit. 

My motivation just wasn't really well due to the new job and maybe also because my little running partner Joschi is not very fond of running at all. He runs after balls, frisbees and stuff but rather not after me. At least not for more than 30 minutes. That's so booooring!

But now I actually feel that I could still make it. Tomorrow I'll do a two-hour (about 22km)-run to get the feeling again, on Sunday a three-hour-run (about 30km) and on Wednesday a four-hour-run (if I can still walk - so let's see how far I'll get). 

If all these runs go well I'll register for the ultramarathon on 13th of August. Yes, that's right. August. Not far away at all. But I really feel that if you ran a marathon before it is not too hard to do it again. Maybe not as fast but you will still get to the finish line somehow. So I suppose I'll also finish the other 8km after that.

Oh, I didn't mention: of course it is only a 'small' ultra for the start. Only 50km and right here in my hometown. If that's not my chance then I don't know. Maybe next year I've enough passion to run 100km. I also have to go on a trip to the mountains the next day. Guess what we'll do there. Right, we'll climb them. Yeah. Though I'll probably won't climb anything except of my bed.

So well, keep your fingers crossed. Let's see what the next two weeks will bring. :)

Two Months Vegan

Now I'm living almost two months as a vegan. 
As I'm also quite active, some problems developed. I often feel tired and exhausted (may also be due to 3-hour-runs but I did never feel like that last year with the same training). 
Luckily, I think I discovered the solution: I didn't eat enough protein to heal my muscles after the long runs. Great! Finally I've got the permission to devour as much soy stuff as I want!! Soy yoghurt, tofu, soy sausages, soy sauce.. hmmm! 
No, of course it is important to use different protein sources. So I eat as much leafy greens as I can; mixed with even more beans of all kinds (and many, many, many soy sausages and soy yoghurt -MIAM!). So let's see where this will take me - I hope right to the ultramarathon.
Very soon I'll have about two weeks off (Easter Holidays), then the big training starts! I plan to run the first really long run; at least 40km. Of course there will be also many smaller ones. Plus a lot of work for my job AND many translations for my new page.

Running Rat Goes Vegan

I simply felt it was time to change something. I wanted to vegan for a very long time already. But I always thought it must be awfully difficult and I would never make it to swear off cheese, which was my only vice (apart form the chocolate of course).  
And after reading a lot about veganism and its benefits recently I decided, I want to try it for 30 days. A 30-day trial is to circumvent oneself. You tell yourself that it will only be 30 days and if you don't like it you can always go back to your former life style. This way it is very easy to adopt new habits because it is not like 'oh my, now I'll never be able to eat cheese/smoke a cigarette/drink alcohol ... again!'
I was 10-15 days in the trial when I was sure I want to stay vegan. The benefits about which I read were:
-  you have a lot more energy,
- you feel alert, you lose weight (maybe), 
- you have more endurance and 
- need less sleep. 


As I plan to run the first ultra marathon in August 2011 and still have to pass some exams before I finally am really a teacher I thought this might be something for me.
Unfortunately I didn't lose any weight (this was so clear), but I do have more energy. And today I had a revelation: after not running for quite some time (you know: lots of work etc.) I ran 3 hours without any physical tiredness or pain just like that.
And it was really easy: I substituted cheese with tofu, vegan spreads and fruit mash; yoghurt with soy yoghurt, cappuccino with caro + rice milk. The only problem I had was that I had to re-read all the lists of ingredients on products I usually buy to be sure that they don't contain any dairy. I already was kind of vegetarian before I went vegan. Though I was never really strict about this because I never liked meat or sausage. I suppose this is also the reason why I didn't lose weight. I didn't change very much.
I also still eat my chocolate and other sweets like chocolate, banana chips or self-made cookies. Boyfriend#1 calls me a pudding vegan sometimes. ;)


Unfortunately the part about less sleeping didn't occur with me but after all I usually get up before 5 am at the moment so it should be quite natural to be tired by 8/9 pm.
By the by: I also gave up coffee. And I really do feel wonderful. 
The only thing I still miss is SUMMER!!


Here also the German links for those who care:

• Warum vegan?  
• Wie man Kaffee aufgibt

Are we born to run?

The answer is simple: Yes, we are! Incredible TED talk by Christopher McDougall, the author od Born to Run. It summarizes the book perfectly. 
For all people who rather watch short films than read extensive books. 
Though I'd still recommend the book. It's also incredibly entertaining. ;)