What's your Sport?

This week I tried out the Eastside YMCA. I took the cycle class on Monday, Intense Fitness on Tuesday and Body Pump yesterday. Looking at the schedules for the upstate Y's, the Eastside seemed to be the only place that offers early morning (6AM and 5.45AM) classes*. From what I saw this week, it's pretty much the same crowd no matter what class it is and that's nice and easy for the new kid. Almost everyone in yesterday's class was complaining about the same soreness due to the Tuesday class (too many hamstring exercises).... Shared pain is half the pain.

*Correction: Actually, the Caine Halter as well as the Travelers Rest Y do have early morning classes, I just plain oversaw this fact.

As said, it seemed to be pretty much the same folks in those classes, so the instructor welcomed me personally and asked for my name... The instructor on Tuesday introduced herself personally as well after the class... So much friendlyness is almost suspicious... JUST KIDDDING... It's really nice! :-) After yesterday's class, the instructor asked me, what my sport is and I just answered "triathlons", because that pretty much sums up my workout routine these days.

That got me thinking this morning on my way to work... Yes, I did one triathlon in my first season, but does that make it my sport???

I tried out a lot during my school days and was never a complete failure at anything. That even holds true to the time when I started gaining weight. I still was one of the first people to be picked in a school PE team sport setting and actually was sooooooo close to receive a prize at my graduation for my performance in PE, if there wouldn't have been this one semster that I "only" got a B+ instead of A- or better.* There was really not much I didn't at least try for one season. The sport, that I was dedicated to for the longest time was competitive gymnastics. On second place we have several years of handball (the European Handball, not the American handball) and dancing/ ballet. Throw in a season here and there of athletics and table tennis and you start to get the picture.

*Short explanation here: In Germany the last two years (12th and 13th grade) of high school determine your final graduation grades. Those two years are broken up in four semesters. In order to get the PE prize, you have to have an A- or better in each semester.

When I started getting back into shape, the triathlon thing really came very natural and completely unplanned. I always enjoyed to swim and actually swam before I learned how to ride a bike. Same thing when I finally started to bike. In rural Germany as a kid, having a bike was what you needed to get to the community pool, your friend's house, organ lessons etc. The running portion is Terry's "fault". He always told me to get into running, because it will make a huge difference in my weigh loss efforts... And he was right about that. All of a sudden, I had everything together that was needed to do a triathlon and it was the carrot, I was chasing until race day in May of this year. Even though I just ended up doing one tri this season, the tri sports just give me a lot of joy and a variety to my workouts that feels healthy and balanced.... So yes, I am a triathlete and a cyclist and a runner (I really want to love running again!) and a Salsa dancer... But how does all of that fit into a one minute conversation between the end of the early morning class and heading out to start the day? So as of now, I'll stick to triathlon as my sport!

On other news: I heard this morning, that the Gamecocks won a big game last night. I concluded that there will be plenty of donuts in the office and chose to skip breakfast in favor of the donuts. Well, our donuts supplier took the day off, so I didn't have breakfast and didn't have donuts... Fortunately, I always keep granola bars in my desk drawer and had the sense to at least pack some fruit.

Tomorrow is the Race for the Cure at the CU-ICAR campus in Greenville. Why don't you come out there and cheer for the people that will be walking and running the 5K course. Even better, just sign up for it and join the crowd! :-) The online registration is already closed, but you can still sign up in person before the race! Or if you won't be able to make it out there, please donate for this cause... As of now, they are at around 60% of their fundraising goal, every gift is appreciated, no matter how big or small.

Someone Please Explain This To Me!

Lately, I try to keep up with the news again. The Google Reader has been a valuable tool in these efforts. I have several subscriptions of US and German content providers that I can access from any computer with internet connection and my cell phone... Don't you love it?? :-)


Last week I came across a news report on Spiegel.de that said that the U.S. government want to start charging a fee of USD 10.- for tourists entering the U.S. I thought they were kidding at first, especially because this was the first thing, I ever heard about this. I guess, it's just not a topic of interest for U.S. citizens since they won't be charged. So earlier this week I did some research in the German (Spiegel/ Tagesschau) press and none of them sound very happy and I have to agree. This whole thing is a complete joke.


The official name for this joke is "Travel Promotion Act" and the goal is to set up funds in order to promote tourism in the USA. It applies to every tourist that doesn't need a visa for a short term visit which are most European and several other nations if they are participating in the "Visa Waiver Programme".


Can someone explain this logic to me please?? I want to get more tourists into my country, so I let them pay, in order to support the tourism industry in their advertising? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I understand that the tourism industry suffered over the last year due to the economic downturn, but this is the wrong way to approach the problem. Especially since this fund (public sector) will be controlled by the leaders of the American tourism industry (private sector) and those leaders (e.g. Disney and Marriott) are still busy posting huge profits even in these rough times. You are supposed to make the country more attractive for visitors and not more frustrating. It's already bad enough as it is. Immigration is taking forever because every tourist gets asked the standard questionnaire, finger/ hand prints and photos are taken. I actually have friends and family that tell me, they don't want to be treated like criminals and therefore choose not to visit this country. Adding a fee to these procedures won't make things any better, because it will prompt more people to decide against a trip to the U.S. no matter how many Mickey Mouse commercials they are going to see on TV!


I read this article in the Washington Post by Jim DeMint and I think he nailed the topic as did Ambassador John Bruton from the Delegation of the European Commission to the USA in his statement. I don't have anything else to add. Hopefully some members of the house of representatives will read this and hopefully it's going to influence their decision to not vote for the Travel Promotion Act.


My blog isn't intented to be political, but reading about this just fires me up every time. The U.S. is still the most powerful country in the world, but even this country cannot survive on it's own. Our economy depends on other countries, just as much as they are interlinked with ours. The economic downturn showed that in a very scary way. The Travel Promotion Act gives the promise of supporting the tourism industry with good chances to make things even worse for it... Also, I think the world economy has bigger fish to fry right now and work together rather than to upset each other with ridiculous ideas such as these.

Fighting the Flab

Today is my Dad's birthday! Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Papa!! :-) As usual over his birthday, he got a couple of his sailing buddies together and they charter a boat for a week in e.g. the Baltic Sea. I called him on the cell phone when it was already afternoon over there and he sounded like he had a good time sightseeing in Flensburg. According to him, the weather still leaves some room for improvement but overall it's okay. Safe sailing!

This is not only my Dad's birthday, but also the first full day of fall and in the Runner's World blog from today, you find tons of reasons, why this is good news for us runners! :-)

But this is not what I wanted to talk about today, because I want to talk about my FLAB!

Like I mentioned previously, I lost a lot of weight in 2008. I did this with a mix of change in nutrition and a lot of exercising... Cardio and strength. That combination is the oldest recipe in the world and I believe the only one that actually works in order to keep the weight off over time. The strength training helps with toning up the body which is especially interesting, if there is a lot of stuff on you that needs toning up and on top of that, added muscle mass means your body has a higher resting metabolic rate. My exercise routine included one hour of strength exercises specifically for sculpting. Of course, you use your muscles and build your muscles during running and cycling as well, but the strength training gives you the opportunity to balance out your muscle mass over the whole body, since you mostly use your lower body to do these sports (nice article on muscular imbalances here).

Over the summer I pretty much slacked off on the strength training and focused mostly on the tri sports and maybe some yoga. Yupp... And now I am paying for it big time! I am trying to re-vamp my exercise routine in order to adapt to the new living location as well as the fact that fall is here and long evening rides are pretty much out of the discussion... Sorry, call me a sissy, but I am just not feeling like riding my bike in the dark. I started out with the Boot Camp Class last Saturday and yesterday I tried out an "Intense Fitness" Class which is basically the same thing with a different name. Well, I wanted to join the early bird run at the Cleveland YMCA this morning, but every time I turned around in bed last night, I woke up, because something was hurting bad. So I reset my alarm to 6AM and slept in. Good choice. Today I don't walk, I waddle... Very attractive indeed. Neither the class on Saturday nor yesterday felt like a hard effort to me. I was able to keep up with the class no problem, but as it turns out, I lost a lot of my muscles and now they are screaming at me. Last year I started out working on 100 consecutive push ups... I never made it to the 100 as I gave up six or seven months into the whole deal, but at the very end of it, I was able to squeeze out over 80. In those classes they make you do push ups too and it's amazing how much I struggle with doing 20 now.... I can do them, but it's tough.

That reminded me of this month's motivational story in Runner's World about Dr. Ed Wolfgram. At 76, he is currently training for the Ironman World Championships in Kona next month. In the article, they quoted him saying:

"You can't put fitness in the bank. You have to maintain it."

Looking at my recent knee issues, I feel like there was an overuse thing going on while I was ramping up my mileage a tad too fast. But talking to my chiropractor, the possibility of muscular imbalance was mentioned over and over again. Seeing, how my body is reacting to strength training, makes me think that there is quite a possibility that exactly this is the case. Believe me, this would be the preferred diagnosis, because it would be a fairly easy fix. Also, I still have some flab to tighten up and therefore I would kill several birds with this stone.

Running feels like hard work for me these days. I hardly get any mileage in. Last week it was a whopping total of 3.79 miles only topped with the 3.88 miles run that I did tonight. The run was fairly good, speed-wise and also my knees held up pretty good, but it still feels like hard work at the moment. I know things come in seasons and right now, this is not the season for running for me... It will get better sooner or later... I will start to love running again... hopefully.

Welcoming Karma Into The Family

Karma (Sanskrit: कर्म kárma (help·info), kárman-

"act, action, performance"[1];

Pali: kamma) in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect (i.e., the cycle called aṃsāra) originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist philosophies.[2].

'Karma' is an Eastern religious concept in contradistinction to 'faith' espoused by Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), which view all human dramas as the will of God as opposed to present - and past - life actions. In Eastern beliefs, the karmic effects of all deeds are viewed as actively shaping past, present, and future experiences. The results or 'fruits' of actions are called karma-phala.[3]

Above you can read the wikipedia definition for "Karma". In our case, Karma is the new dog. She came to our house maybe two months ago. I won't go into the details here, but Terry and I didn't have anything to do with the decision that there will be a dog in our house or the naming process. Despite the circumstances under which she made it in our lives, she is a good dog and whenever she finally gets the "Don't pee or poop in the house!"-rule, she will be a GREAT dog. Of course, she's a mutt... A mix between a lab retriever and a greyhound with the greyhound appearance pushing through mostly. But judge for yourself...

Don't get me wrong, Terry and I love dogs. We both had dogs in the past and know what kind of a responsibility they are. So, when we were presented with our new dog, we both were not happy. It had nothing to do with Karma, since she really is a sweet dog, but with the fact that we got this responsibility delivered without our agreement. If we wanted to have a dog, we would have gotten one... But we wanted to be flexible with our free time activities and be able to just go out of town over the weekend, without having to make arrangements all over the place. Because of that, we decided to try to find a new home for her. The thought of just taking her to the pound didn't sit well with both of us, therefore we asked around if someone wanted a puppy and also put and ad in craig's list.... And nothing happened. Weeks went by and none of our friends, family or co-workers wanting the dog, there was no response to the ad... Until last week.

Sometime last week, I sat in the office in front of the computer checking my e-mails, while Karma was sitting next to me on the floor to keep me company... Finally someone has seen the ad and responded to it, wanted to know, if we still had her. My heart dropped... I looked at the screen, then looked at her... She looked up to me, with her brown eyes, the long eye lashes, her big old floppy ears... Putting her head on my lap... Looking very similar to this:

"CRAP!!!" was my first thought. The ad has been online close to four weeks by then and I really didn't expect a response anymore. I told Terry about it and over the course of a long conversation, we decided to take the bullet and keep Karma along with all the responsibilities that come with a dog... Not looking back anymore at the circumstances under which we gotten here in the first place (this one is very tough for me... I am working on it). Even though she is already in the house for several weeks, I just consider us having a dog, since we made this decision last week. And if there was a piece in my heart left that she didn't win yet before last week, she has it by now... Of course it helps that she made incredible progress when it comes to her house training! :-)

Because we always felt like having her was a temporary situation, we held off on doggy purchases. So last weekend we finally got her a bed and retired the old yoga matt that she used until then. We also set out on a quest to find a used dog house, only to end up building one Sunday night... Well, Terry and kid did the building and I think they did a most fabulous job with it, even if it's not quite done yet. Have a look here...

And that's how Karma entered our family and may it be a good one! :-)

Ode to South Carolina

In the Cleveland YMCA they have TVs in the locker rooms (and sofas in front of the TV). Crazy, don't you agree? I thought the whole idea of going to the gym is to get off the couch and away from the TV, but I guess that's just me. Anyways, while I was getting changed last Thursday, I saw this clip from SNL that I posted above. I thought that was VERY funny, but let me get something straight here... South Carolina doesn't deserve this! And it's not SNL's fault, but the politicians of this state seem to set us up for being joked about like this! The Sanford affair is still fresh on every one's minds and now the "You Lie!" incident... Nicely done! :-( Whenever my parents in Germany read something in the paper about SC, it's something bad... Good news don't travel this far about the state. But let me say this, SC see is a wonderful place and don't make conclusions on it based on those recent headlines (or old headlines... I heard bad representation of SC has a long tradition)!

Given that South Carolina is the only place I ever lived in the U.S. (though I visited several others) and also given, that I didn't choose this state to be my new home, because it was determined by where the company is, I feel very lucky!

And here are my top ten points why (applies mostly to the Greenville area):

1) the ocean is close
2) the mountains are even closer
3) the subtropical climate
4) the colorful mix of people that decided to make the area their home
5) downtown Greenville with Falls Park
6) Peace Center and Bi-Lo Center with great performances on a regular basis
7) the active running community
8) the active cycling community
9) the active Salsa community
10) downtown Charleston with the restaurants and bars

You see... Awesome state... People just completely misunderstand us... And it didn't take me long to put this list together.

If you don't have the privilege to live here, come visit. If you are related to me or if I know you personally, there is a good chance that you will have free accommodation to your disposal during your stay.

Sometimes, I Don't Know What I Say

Yeah, I know…. We all have these moments, but I mean the headline quite literally. English is not my native language and that presents challenges to me even after 9 years of classes in school, 2 years in college (I didn't take English all the way or wasn't able to... Can't remember), 0.5 years in England and over 4 years in the USA . After such a long time, you would think I have it down, but there are still things I don't know… And maybe never will. You can compare it to the first five questions people get ask in "Who wants to be a Millionaire". If you didn't grow up in that country, you just don't have a chance. Funny enough, the things I know or don't know are very random... according to BF. There are things he kind of expects me to know and on the other hand, I often enough surprise him with an expression or saying that he never thought I can know. How I pick up the vocabulary I use, I don't know. I guess it is highly influenced by the people that I talk to every day and by TV.

During my school time, I had my share of hours and hours of endless repetitions in order to keep up with the class. Early in college, I started to read books in English and that was quite a reality check. At this point, I studied the language for around ten years, but making it through my first English book (other than the small pamphlets we had to read in class that were tailored to our level) was quite a task. At this point, I kissed the illusion good-bye of understanding every word in every sentence and moved to the approach of keeping on reading as long as I think I have a general idea about the content and only pull out my dictionary, if I wasn't able to make any sense out of the sentence or the paragraph. So I moved on from studying translations to learning words based on which context they are used and up to this day, I stick to this most of the time.

Using this approach always has a moment of truth whenever I first use a particular word myself. If you never looked up the translation and just thought you know what something means, it can get quite interesting. I learned that three things can happen, when I try out a new word: 1) Nothing. I got the word right and used it right... Everything is good. 2) Blank looks... Then I just hope that I didn't offend anyone. Or 3) Blank looks followed by the question, if I meant so and so... This happens mostly, when I skew up the pronunciation. This method has worked pretty good for me. I learned that people are very forgiving, when they notice that I am not a native speaker... That helps a lot to overcome fears of embarrassing yourself. It also helps me while I write this blog, that people most likely are not going to tear me up over a funny sentence or little mistakes. My mum and dad always say: "Only if they speak a foreign language as well as you speak English, then they can judge you." That's not a bad ankle to this topic either...

On other news: It feels like fall has arrived in South Carolina. It has been pouring down for the last two days and they say it's not going to get better over the next couple of days. If it's not raining, fall is my favorite season of the year... It's not too hot and not too cold and whenever the fall leaf foliage is coming into full swing, it's just plain beautiful. In the meantime, it takes some adjusting. I don't feel like running or cycling in the rain, so today I decided to try out something new and joined a Boot Camp class this morning. It was really fun, the workouts were tough and it felt good to do things a little different for a change. I think I might go back for more next Saturday... Depending on the weather... If it's nice than I just have to be outside, while I still can this year!

Making your Own Reality

Ever heard of the "Law of Attraction"? The bottom line of this law is, that your thoughts and wishes shape your reality. Mostly they talk about your positive thoughts and how you will get anything, if you really really want it. But honestly, I think that also applies to any negative thoughts and fears that linger with you for a longer period of time. This hypothesis is the center piece of the 2006 book "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrnes, that I haven't read yet… But a friend of mine did an excellent job on capturing the essence of the book on a canoe trip and so I feel like I got a pretty good picture. This is a highly controversial topic and a lot of very smart people are doing a lot of discussing around this. I think of it more as an aspect how people are able to influence their own reality than a universal law, but that's just my two cents.

Nevertheless I want to share a couple of stories now and let you decide, if our own wishes or fears shaped our reality!

• A couple of mornings a week, I get up early to get a run or nice walk with the puppy in. In this time of the year, it's still pitch black dark outside by the time I hit the road, so I am outfitted with a headlamp and even put a flashing light on the puppy. The streets in our neighborhood have long stretches of bushes and woods and even though I am not very skittish when it comes to this kind of thing, I still avoid looking into the woods/bushes with my headlamp because I just don't want to see a pair of eyes staring at me. I shared this with my BRR team before we did our night legs and we knew that those routes will go right through the woods. Fortunately, I have never seen glowing pairs of eyes… Until yesterday morning. On my first early morning walk after we were having this conversation and joked about it back and forth, I didn't see one pair of eyes, but two… In different spots. The second pair belonged to a little kitty, the first pair I didn't even investigate, because the eyes were so wide apart that I assumed it was bigger than I wanted to know.
  
• Last year BF, the kid and I went to Charleston SC. One day out of the weekend, we spent on the beach. BF has this paranoia about sharks and basically refuses to swim in the ocean. I told him over and over again, that I have been to this area several times and never seen a shark. Sure enough, BF walked along the shoreline and basically just stuck his feet into the ocean, when the lifeguard instructed everyone to get out of the water and then I saw my first living shark outside of an aquarium. It was a small* one and I joked that it probably would just nibble on us a little… Still, it was a shark. This little story actually was the reason why my friend told me about the book.

* updated 9/19: Terry wanted me to correct this statement. According to him, I am largely underestimating the size of this shark.

Hmmm… All my examples are out of the animal kingdom, but I think that just shows how outdoorsy we are! :-)

• To also have a positive example for this theory, here is one more: After I came back from by internship in England in 2000, I always said, that I want to go abroad for a longer period of time. I was sharing this desire with my family and friends, mentioned it in my job interviews, when it came to my goals and the "where do you wanna be in 5 years" type of questions, kept my English skills up to date and in general an open mind… At least that's what I want to believe. Only one year after I started with the company, a position opened up in our U.S. subsidiary and people remembered the statement I made in my interview and half a year later, I had my first day here. What I am saying is, that I never actively pursued this, but was just rather going with the flow and it positioned me in the right spot.

When you read information about racing, they also give you the advice to envision yourself crossing the finish line and what kind of feeling that this is going to give you (example here). They say that doing so, will help you stay motivated and focused in your training and eventually will help you with the mental challenges of completing a race. Once again this doesn't only apply to your athletic career, but also your professional life. It holds true to the fact that you have to work hard, stay dedicated and focused in order to succeed with any goal that you set in your life. Whatever attitude you have will shape your reality and therefore let's all try to be as positive as we can and surround ourselves with other people that have a positive vibe.

While I am writing this, I also have to give myself a little kick in the butt. Right now, I am still in the process of settling in at my BF's house. The move is just three weeks ago and of course, there are still boxes sitting around unpacked…. And of course moving in together is a whole lot of change for everyone involved that just needs some getting used to and also some time for all of us to establish a new routine. These days, I catch myself focusing on the negative a lot, like the longer commute, the increased household responsibility, the decreased privacy (I was used to live on my own for a long time) and other stuff, that I don't even what to go in detail here. Instead, I should focus on the many positive things that came with this move like, that I am able to spend a lot more time with the person I love, that we live in an area with almost endless outdoor possibilities, that the house is big enough to hold every one's stuff without the feeling to suffocate and tons and tons of other things. I guess, I have my marching orders now… I will focus on the positive changes, this move has brought into my life and that is going to help me to work through the not-so-positive ones and I believe that this is really going to make a difference in how the settling in process is going to proceed for me.

When I started this post, I really wasn't sure, what my point is going to be in the end. But while I was going with the flow, I think I found it on the way! :-)

PS: It's FRIDAY and guess what was sitting on one of the cabinets at work this morning? Of course… DONUTS!... AND…. CAKE…. I know, sometimes we go a little overboard around here!