Scaling up
Merten, Sunday, February 25. 2007
*Ooops* I just checked the scales at my parents' place. They showed an increase of 2 kilos since I last used them sometime around January, bringing me up to 85 kg weight.
I have never really paid much attention to my nutrition. Before I started speed skating, all the computer work those studies seem to entail made me grow a little belly. My maximum weight was around 93 kg then. Just by skating I have now lost much fat, but there is a good potential to drop more.
The good thing is that I can link the additional weight to not doing a lot of sports lately, plus loads of Coke and sweets during the last stages of my thesis. But as I'm about to start working this Thursday, it seems I'll have to rethink my diet to get in decent shape for the season. Nothing fancy, just a little more discipline.... sub 80 kg, here I come...
Among the good things, the Le Mans 2007 registration is done, and Michi, Mareike and I will once again join the LondonSkaters for this lovely 24 hour race. This will once again be one of my season highlights, time to start planning
I have never really paid much attention to my nutrition. Before I started speed skating, all the computer work those studies seem to entail made me grow a little belly. My maximum weight was around 93 kg then. Just by skating I have now lost much fat, but there is a good potential to drop more.
The good thing is that I can link the additional weight to not doing a lot of sports lately, plus loads of Coke and sweets during the last stages of my thesis. But as I'm about to start working this Thursday, it seems I'll have to rethink my diet to get in decent shape for the season. Nothing fancy, just a little more discipline.... sub 80 kg, here I come...
Among the good things, the Le Mans 2007 registration is done, and Michi, Mareike and I will once again join the LondonSkaters for this lovely 24 hour race. This will once again be one of my season highlights, time to start planning
about:merten
Merten, Tuesday, February 20. 2007
Since I've swapped languages, time to tell you a bit more about myself. I'm 26 years old, and have just finished my Computer Science studies in Bremen. During that time, in 2001, I discovered inline skating as a nice fitness sport. It took three more years until I finally got in touch with inline speedskating, when I was overtaken by a training paceline on a nice road in Bremen. After a bit of chatting I was really eager to try this new thing.
Most of my first exposure and learning happened in London, where I spent several months on an internship. And at the end of my London stay I finally swapped my 4x80 rec skates with my current 5x90 mm custom made boots.
The last two years I trained with a local club (Skate-Connection Bremen). After finishing my thesis I have moved to Hamburg now. My new club, Halstenbeker Turnerschaft, operates one of the few available tracks in North Germany. It is a 250m tarmac oval with no banking, so not of official standard, but very useful for road training. I still keep close contact to the LondonSkaters of course, and am really looking forward to a full week training camp in Sardinia with them in less than four weeks' time. Yeah...
I do not consider myself to be an elite skater (how could I), more like an ambitious amateur. I do have goals of course, on which I'll talk in one of the next posts, but I neither started skating early enough, follow any explicit training plans nor have sufficient technique - yet - to be able to win races or even keep up with the lead packs. So keep this in mind when reading
Most of my first exposure and learning happened in London, where I spent several months on an internship. And at the end of my London stay I finally swapped my 4x80 rec skates with my current 5x90 mm custom made boots.
The last two years I trained with a local club (Skate-Connection Bremen). After finishing my thesis I have moved to Hamburg now. My new club, Halstenbeker Turnerschaft, operates one of the few available tracks in North Germany. It is a 250m tarmac oval with no banking, so not of official standard, but very useful for road training. I still keep close contact to the LondonSkaters of course, and am really looking forward to a full week training camp in Sardinia with them in less than four weeks' time. Yeah...
I do not consider myself to be an elite skater (how could I
), more like an ambitious amateur. I do have goals of course, on which I'll talk in one of the next posts, but I neither started skating early enough, follow any explicit training plans nor have sufficient technique - yet - to be able to win races or even keep up with the lead packs. So keep this in mind when reading
Crossing the finish line
Merten, Tuesday, February 13. 2007
Yay, its done! Finally... I feel free again.
What? Well I've just handed in my Diploma thesis for grading, finishing a project that occupied me since April 2006. A bit like an inline race, doing this thesis had its ups and downs, but nothing beats the great feeling when you finally cross the finish line.
So... with that little obstacle out of my way, I should finally have some more time to do interesting things again. You're just reading the first bit of this, I'll try to update my blog a little more often. My new - as of now - English blog.
Some people might think "Why are you doing this in English now?" and my first answer would be "Don't know, it just feels like the right thing to do." Nobody actually requested this blog to be in English, but given that Michi and me have quite a lot of contacts to skaters based in London and elsewhere, this is an opportunity to open this space up to all those people beyond German. This might include my new colleagues (if I happen to get the job I'm looking for tomorrow)
Anyway, this space is about to gradually change. I'm thinking of updating the design a little, and I need to find a way to get a working mix of English and German content. I'll also scrape most of the categories and tagging stuff which sort of constrain you to stick to the point. Guess it's just going to be an additional "feature" and a "tracks" category for now, with all of it showing up in the main blog. So watch out for updates
What? Well I've just handed in my Diploma thesis for grading, finishing a project that occupied me since April 2006. A bit like an inline race, doing this thesis had its ups and downs, but nothing beats the great feeling when you finally cross the finish line.
So... with that little obstacle out of my way, I should finally have some more time to do interesting things again. You're just reading the first bit of this, I'll try to update my blog a little more often. My new - as of now - English blog.
Some people might think "Why are you doing this in English now?" and my first answer would be "Don't know, it just feels like the right thing to do." Nobody actually requested this blog to be in English, but given that Michi and me have quite a lot of contacts to skaters based in London and elsewhere, this is an opportunity to open this space up to all those people beyond German. This might include my new colleagues (if I happen to get the job I'm looking for tomorrow
)Anyway, this space is about to gradually change. I'm thinking of updating the design a little, and I need to find a way to get a working mix of English and German content. I'll also scrape most of the categories and tagging stuff which sort of constrain you to stick to the point. Guess it's just going to be an additional "feature" and a "tracks" category for now, with all of it showing up in the main blog. So watch out for updates
