Monthly Archives: August 2014

Peak Week

Date: August 13, 2014

Author: astottler

So…one of the reasons for my absence? It’s peak week! Of my half marathon training! Not sure if anyone else actually calls it that, but this week is my heaviest week of running, with the training plan telling me to do 4,6,4, 12. Last week was pretty heavy as well-4,5,4,11. Sooo it’s sort of been knocking me out! That being said, let’s talk about some of my noteworthy workouts from the past week!

Thursday(last week)-run club workout. There was a sub leading it, and she planned out a route right through downtown. As a result, about halfway through (maybe less) we started getting stuck at every. single. light. Which I personally welcomed because I was casually dying. However, what this meant to my companions was that we should sprint the distances between the lights. Dying.

Friday-rowing workout at the gym+abs in the morning-nothing too crazy, just 4 sets of 5 minutes on the erg plus about 10 minutes of abs. To be honest it was an excuse to use the super fancy showers at my gym…seriously, they are amazing.

That evening was Crossfit-Death by Slamballs. This was a 15 minute AMRAP, with every minute starting with 3 burpees, and then 1 slam ball, then 2 slam balls,3,4,5, etc, increasing by one every minute so that the last minute you do 3 burps plus 15 slam balls. If you fail to complete the slam balls, you “die.” Somehow, I “lived.” But barely. Ugh, in the last round I sort of wished I had died earlier! I used a 30# slam ball.

Later that evening, since it was Friday night, I was asking around Georgetown and stopped by the Reebok store. They had a promotion that if you do 20 burpees, you get 20% off. Uhm, yes! I ALMOST got some beautiful turquoise Nano 4.0s but they didn’t have my size. Probably just as well though, because I think I like my 2.0s more-they just fit my feet better! I did however, get this shirt (putting burpee count for the day at 65 if you’re counting):

Saturday: Crossfit-I haven’t gone on a Saturday in forever, and I wanted to work on handstands since I”m getting close! We also did snatches. The WOD was a fun one-sprints in the form of Cops and Robbers (basically tag). It was only 10 sprints, but I definitely felt it the next day…which was…

Sunday-11 miles! This was a pretty uneventful run. I incorporated lots of hills in the first couple of miles, and the end was awful because I messed up my complicated planned route a bit so I got back to near the start at about a mile short, so I had to run in circles for a mile. Which I hate doing-I like pure out and backs. Plus I was dying at that point and contemplated finishing at 10+ but I did it. The best moment though was finishing at the Georgetown waterfront where there was this fountain/sprinkler thing that kids were playing in in their bathings suits. I stuck my head in and it was the best thing ever.

The issue was that after my run I felt really…uncomfortable. I don’t know, not bad, just weird. I walked to a cafe to get some food (and lots of water) into me. I sat at the cafe briefly contemplating whether I was going to pass out, and then realized I was being ridiculous and paranoid. Does anyone else do that-they feel slightly off and then it freaks them out? Anyways, I think the problem may have been lack of electrolytes. It was pretty warm, and while the heat didn’t really bother me, I sweated quite a bit. Given all my races are in San Francisco and I train by the bay, I’m not used to this kind of thing! I think I’m going to try and get salted goo for this week’s run, or carry coconut water or something.

Monday: Crossfit-Not ideal after a long run, but I felt decent and didn’t want to miss squat day.

Tuesday: Rest/yoga. My legs were kind of beat up, and my hamstrings were tight, so this was perfect. It was power yoga in a warm room (~80?), but it wasn’t too intense and my hamstrings got a great stretch.

Wednesday-legs felt restored for my morning 6 miler! Uneventful-I ran to the Lincoln Memorial which I can only do on longer runs now because I live further, and almost swallowed about 50 gnats at the reflecting pool.

And that’s what you missed! I promise to try and be more consistent-but after my 11 miler I lay on my bed not moving for a solid 3 hours. It knocked me out!

Also-I’ve been making an effort to tweet more, so feel free to follow me there!

How do you handle the heat?

2 Weeks

Date: August 12, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

GUYS. I apologize completely for totally leaving you! It’s been a week! I’ve been busy/haven’t had the energy so what do you say we do food pictures today and notes on workouts tomorrow? So this isn’t too insanely long.

Lunch-giant melty chicken pita with hummus:

Dinner out with a friend. We went to a tapas place, and it was phenomenal. Not to mention the adorable baby tortillas on the tacos!

Brussels sprouts with coconut/chipotle?

Guacamole (of course).

Mushroom tacos with fried plantains.

GUYS. The highlight of my life was on Friday. I went to the AVOCADO CAFE. That’s basically a dream come true. It was amazing. I think every item had avocado.

I went with a veggie wrap, and it was warm and delicious and came with roasted sweet potatoes (not crispy enough to be called fries).

I then went to Haagen Dazs and had a really delicious ice cream cone-midnight cookies n cream! I like it way better than Ben and Jerry’s..that’s just too much more me.

I then walked down to the waterfront and pondered how I’m leaving soon. 2 weeks…

Saturday, I went to a place called The Protein Bar. I saw someone tweet something delicious from there, and then I remembered I had seen one nearby! SO I had a guacamole type of salad and a chocolate protein shake. Delicious.

Sunday, post run I had a delicious unpictured meal (sorry, didn’t run with a camera) followed by a post run requirement-giant cupcake from Baked and Wired. It was called unicorn something-vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting. I really like their vanilla-I’m normally a chocolate person but this is very vanilla-y. And the cream cheese frosting tasted just like buttercream. Yum! I’ve liked Baked and Wired more than the first time I was there-the cake this time was very moist.

I went over to a friend’s house for a movie night, and “helped” with some of her leftover peach-gingersnap crisp. It was amazing-the crisp part was made with gingersnaps! It may or may not have also been breakfast because I’ve been too lazy to make my planned breakfast for the week (oops).

As you can tell, I’m enjoying myself. I swear I’m eating more than sweets, but vegetables only look so interesting after a while-I’m pretty sure I’ve shown the same green bean salad 50 times by now.

Also, you may notice I’m not linking up for WIAW. To be honest, it’s just not practical for me right now to try and deal with that while I’m at work, so it’s just not going to get done, so it’s just a regular Wednesday!

WIAW-Soup!

Date: August 5, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! Remember how last post I wrote from the airport during my delay? Well…I didn’t get back that night. My flight kept getting pushed back later and later, and then we were switched to a much smaller plane and the plane was way overweight…so I spent another night in NY. I got to spend some extra time with family at least! Never mind the 6 hours spent at the airport…

Monday’s flight went without a hitch, thankfully!

Anyways, despite that whole debacle, let’s celebrate Wednesday! Thanks to Jenn for hosting the fun!

When I got to the airport Monday, I thought I deserved a cappuccino. Decaf though!

I also picked up a whole wheat chicken wrap with balsamic. So good!

I actually made it back in time for Crossfit that night, and worked on back squats with a pause at the bottom (it’s way harder-believe me!) and handstands. I actually held a handstand! Briefly, but still! I had a spotter, and then suddenly I wasn’t waving around anymore-and it surprised me so much I hopped down pretty much right away! I’ll expect it next time!

Afterwards, I went to Whole Foods for some things for the week and dinner. I had Minestrone with cheddar, and a whole wheat roll. Plus an unpictured kombucha.

Since this is totally relevant to food (not), I’m still going to include it. My new room is really cute!

This morning, I woke up super early to run 4 miles. It was very dark out. And humid. But I felt good and maintained a decent pace-and more importantly didn’t trip and fall on the brick paths!

Since I don’t have run pictures, I’ll show you a few of my new commute…over the Potomac and into a different state…

Breakfast was some amazingly large blueberries and an abnormally large banana topped with sun butter.

Lunch was too ugly to merit a picture, but snack was blueberries and plain yogurt in a sunflower seed jar. Thank goodness too, as I didn’t have any of the right sized tupperware!

After work, I headed to Crossfit. We worked on split jerks, and then the WOD was the following:

10 minute AMRAP partner workout:

Partner 1: 3 curtis P’s (dumbell hang snatch, lunge left, lunge right, push press) and then bear crawl WITH dumbbells the length of the gym and back

Partner 2: hold hollow rock position

Switch after each round.

It was a fun one…not as annoying as I was expecting-I normally hate dumbbell cleans.

After Crossfit dinner was something super easy-balck bean soup topped with cheddar, and a side of corn bread from Whole Foods. The corn bread at WF is way better here than in CA…

And now I’m off to make sure my carrots aren’t burning!

Have a great Wednesday!

Long Lost Cousin

Date: August 3, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I’m currently at the airport waiting for a 2 hour delay. While I’m perfectly happy here with my Wifi, it’s not exactly ideal because I won’t get to DC until late, have a long trip back from the airport, and am living somewhere new. No clue where my room is, and my commute tomorrow is a bit of an unknown. But it is what it is!

Friday morning before I left for the airport, I completed my 10 mile training run. It was uneventful-I ran past the airport though! Decent pace, fine weather, nothing exciting. The morning was kind of crazy-I had lots of stuff to lug around and had to stop by the new place before leaving. As for transportation, I did it all-I ran, walked, flew, took the bus, took the metro, took a taxi, and rode in a car.

Pre-airport treat was a little stop for ice cream. I’m boring and got the one I’ve had before-Chocolate Therapy.

Then, I was off! I went to up-state New York to visit family. I haven’t seen my cousins in 5 years! How crazy is that? I’m the long lost CA cousin-they all live on the East Coast!

I was immediately put to work. My cousin had a graduation party on Saturday, so we were busy preparing for it. I was on cooking duty.

Between Friday and Saturday, I made a cheese, spinach, and artichoke dip:

Cheesecake brownies:

And peach cobbler 100% from scratch. A triple batch. I don’t think the pictures capture the size!

I also helped with macaroni and cheese.

On the day of, there was plenty of food!

I ate my weight in appetizers, so I had no room for a burger. I just went with macaroni and taco salad, plus dessert.

Here’s the crew:

After everyone left, we went through and divided up a whole bunch of old photos. I found some from when I was really young, plus a few gems from my dad’s family’s Christmas cards. The ’70s were a difficult time, my friends. Those clothes…

Here’s me and my sister! I’m on the left.

On Sunday, I had planned on running my 5 miler, but after a heavy breakfast that wasn’t happening. I’m glad I was ahead on my running for the week anyways! We did take a nice long walk though. It was so pretty with all the wildflowers!

That afternoon, we went to an adorable tea place, and got the full spread. Buttermilk scones, clotted cream, and smoked salmon, egg salad, and cucumber marscapone sandwiches!

Despite the fact that I currently feel like I’m going to pop, this weekend did make me think about my food philosophy. I haven’t seen these people in 5 years, and they knew I was really into sugar metabolism, nutrition, and how sugar is not good for you, and they were worried I wouldn’t eat sweets or anything.

I was thinking about this when they mentioned it to me (while I was chowing down on a brownie). I realized that what I really believe in is habits and overall trends. Sure, sugar is not good for you, but if you avoid it for the most part, especially in everyday foods, there’s plenty of space to be healthy and still eat dessert. If you limit added sugars throughout the day, there’s still room in a healthy diet for sweets. I definitely have perfectionist tendencies-not that I ever eat perfectly, but I tend to strive for this (and end up obviously not-you’ve seen what I post here!), but health really isn’t perfect. Our bodies are adaptable, and as long as we eat mostly healthy, I think we function just fine!

Overall, it was a really fun weekend, and I’m glad I was able to come up here to visit my family and their cats. I just hope I make it back tonight! I’m a bit worried because my flight keeps getting pushed back in a tiny airport! Fingers crossed!

When was the last time you visited extended family?