Vegas: Rest is For the Dead (Chainsmokers)

Date: July 24, 2017

Author: astottler

Hello again! I’m still working on my IDEA World recaps, but we’ve made it to Friday! It was one of the longest days of my life, but not in a bad way! (Well, it didn’t feel so great on Saturday, but that’s a post for another day.)

Friday morning, I woke up at 4:30 and could not fall back asleep. I think my body was so physically stressed from all the exercise the previous day that it was on high alert. Around 6am, I got up and had a Luna bar and half a nectarine before starting the conference.

My first workshop was another Schwinn class, this one on intervals in cycling. The instructor went over different types of intervals, and talked about studies that supported them.

-HIIT: going above the lactate threshold for a short period of time, with varying recovery times.

-This type of interval has been around forever (early 1900s).

-When riders can decide how long to recover between intervals, most self-select 2 minutes.

-HIIT is really hard! It’s physiologically stressful, so only do it 1-2 times a week. Schwinn really emphasizes cross training (weight lifting/yoga), which I think is amazing! When cycling, you’re in a pretty crunched up position, so if this is all you do, there will be imbalances. Sidenote: I never realized how much shoulder/back is used during cycling until I took 3 classes a day, and then got on a massage chair.

-When instructing intervals, make sure the riders know exactly what they’re in for: how it should feel, and how long.

-Some real bike races start with a “cold start,” meaning the bike is not moving. We did a set of intervals from a stopped position, and that was definitely something different!

-For all out efforts, make sure to offer proper recovery. Suggested: sing-a-longs. If not properly recovered, riders won’t be able to sing.

-HIIT intervals are all out efforts. They are usually shorter workouts, and the studies backing them up are of short workouts. An hour long HIIT class is not true HIIT.

-Tabata interval is 4 minutes with 20s work, 10s off. The study only looked at 4 minutes of work, not tabata after tabata after tabata. This is way over applied. It’s not necessarily bad, but the science isn’t there backing this up one way or another.

-Here’s a sample of a workout you can do: the Copenhagen intervals.

5 minutes. Each minute is:

10s anaerobic (breathless)

20s hard effort (edge of breathless, difficult work)

30s moderate (still working, but not crazy)

Rest for 2 minutes, and do 5 sets.

After my fueling issues the previous day, I wanted to be smarter and more efficient with my calories. I immediately made a flapjacked protein smoothie with the mix and some milk. This was absolutely perfect.

My next session was ICG, and the focus was on power numbers when cycling.

Power is a equation of leg speed x resistance in cycling. The ICG bikes calculate different power zones based on your FTP, or functional threshold power. This is the highest average power a rider can generate when cycling for an hour. The bikes can calculate your FTP based on a 5 minute time trial, and then they light up different colors based on the percent of the FTP you’re working at. It’s super cool! The instructor then gives you instructions based on what color zone you should be riding in, and the front of your bike lights up in that color. It seems like focusing on power is the new trend in cycling (more on this later), and in a lot of ways it’s better than training based off of heart rate because the heart rate is your physiological response to the intensity, whereas the power is the raw intensity.

For this session, we did a really extensive (read: hard) warm-up before doing the 5 minute FTP test. The bikes can also estimate your FTP based off a variety of factors, such as general fitness level, gender, and bodyweight. This is great because you wouldn’t have to do an FTP test for every ride, and new riders would have something to go off of. However, my estimated FTG was way higher than my measured FTP (possibly because my legs were already dead), so trying to stay in the color zone combined with an already tough workout was HARD. Finally, we did our FTP test and then continued the ride with our calculated FTP.

After class, I SPRINTED to the cafe at the Convention Center for lunch. Need. Fuel.

I got a southwest salad with chicken and used light Italian dressing and BBQ sauce as dressing. I also had baked chips because I also felt like I really needed salt! (And carbs.)

After eating, I went back to the expo to check out a few more things.

Highlights: cheerios overnight oats and monk fruit sweetened chocolate/hot chocolate.

Then, it was back to the Schwinn room! I broke into my emergency Cheerios.

This session was on how to WOW as an instructor. Basically, how to make your classes love you! Takeaways:

-Know the club culture, know the class culture.

-Know the members and the staff. Learn names!

-Know your brand. I talked about this in my first post that I wrote on my phone immediately after exiting this session. My brand is my passion. My why is getting to watch and help people transform.

-Study motivation speakers and rock stars to see their presence.

-Have a consistent instruction style, do drills that are actually backed up by science and then share that information!

-Change up your coaching language to keep it interesting.

-Pretend the mic doesn’t work and practice commanding the room (you are forced to have a bigger presence without a voice.)

-End with a “mic drop” moment. People are giving you an hour of their lives, bring it home strong and make them feel glad they came.

-Know your own coaching style and own it.

This instructor was up for the group fitness instructor of the year award, and I can see why. This class was awesome. The best classes are the ones that make you really dig deep and get emotional. The ones that push you to the place that’s almost magical, where you can feel yourself changing. This was my third cycling class of the day, but as I mentioned in the other post, I hit a crazy high power number.

After class, I typed up the post and drank a (free) LaCroix from the expo.

I didn’t even know this was possible, but I got a nasty and super painful bruise on my ankle after class. The rooms had chairs next to the bikes, and when unclipping from the pedals I hit my ankle super hard on the chair, and it immediately started swelling. LaCroix as a fancy ice pack…?

After the session, I left the Convention Center for my next session and was exposed to the elements. I was inside most of the week, and it was SUPER cold.

I ate a NuGo bar in my next session. I really wanted to wait for food until dinner, but I was dying. It was amazing.

My last session was a lecture only: food myths. It was pretty good, but not amazing. I think everyone has their own nutrition philosophies. I don’t agree with everything she said, but I agreed with some of the things.

-Addictive sugar studies have only shown sugar is addictive in rats. Is this really applicable to humans?

-1% of people have Celiacs, and 6-7% have a non-Celiac gluten sensitivity. However, 20-30% of people have cut gluten from their diet because they think it’s healthier. It’s not unhealthy unless you have one of the above issues.

-Coconut oil? Unsaturated fat has heart protective fats, so if you replace those with coconut oil, you’re losing that protectiveness. Not necessarily bad alone, but bad because it replaces something healthy.

-Most people eat too much protein. You only really need 0.8 g/kg bodyweight per day.

-95% of people who lose weight will regain it in 5 years.

-The “all natural” food label doesn’t mean anything legally.

-Juicing can offer a lot of antioxidants (depending on the juice) but still offers a sugar surge.

-Organic foods are not shown to be healthier for consumers, but better for the health of farm workers and the environment.

After the session, I rushed to the magic baseball room to catch an inning of a game before foraging for dinner. My hotel had a number of restaurants, including sushi. I wanted sushi, but there was a wait so I hit up the buffet since I figured they would have sushi. I for sure didn’t get my money’s worth at the buffet, but a Las Vegas buffet is for sure an experience.

I’m pretty sure the foods were 50% fat/oil.

I made myself a salad bar salad, and then got my sushi. I also tried some “Mexican street corn,” which was super mayonnaise-y and soggy, mashed potatoes (mostly butter), and salmon. I left most of the corn for obvious reasons!

I had a small dessert of soft serve and a few bites of cheesecake.

As far as my night, I actually had big plans! I decided that I’m in Vegas and I’m 23 years old, so I should actually go out an do something! When I was walking around with my sister, I saw a few signs for things. I ended up being myself a ticket to see the Chainsmokers at Encore. *Another note: dress code is enforced. I saw someone get kicked out of line for wearing shorts. Here’s a look at my outfit:

I got there a little bit early and explored Encore, looking for a TV playing the Giant’s game.

I finally found a bar with the game on and watched while sipping a gin and tonic.

Can I just say though, going to a NIGHTCLUB in VEGAS is so intimidating. But I decided I needed to just own it and go for it and have fun.

The club was apparently (one of if not) the best in the country? And it was absolutely incredible.

After waiting in line FOREVER, I was finally in. I grabbed another (CRAZY expensive) drink and walked around a little, exploring. I tried my luck at Blackjack and instantly lost $40. I just got really unlucky, and decided that there was no reason to throw away any more money. I see how it would be so easy to do though!

The thing about going to a club alone is that it’s not a huge deal. I made friends.

I did learn, however, that The Chainsmokers were not supposed to come on until 1:30am. Gulp. It was 11:30pm at this point. Would I stay for them…?

I did. And it was absolutely amazing. The club was really awesome and had great energy. Everything I like about this atmosphere is what I like about a spin class. I honesty think they cane really similar. It’s all about the music and the energy!

Here they are!

There was this cold steam that would sometimes shoot out of the floor.

And confetti.

As much fun as I was having, my energy was majorly starting to drop. Around 3, I decided to call it a night and take a cab back to my place.

By the time I reached my hotel room, I think I was more tired than I’ve ever been in my entire life (except maybe 3 hours later when my alarm was going off).

I almost slept in my clothes, and I was rushing around the room trying to get to sleep ASAP. I realized that I had been hungry around 10pm that night so I should probably eat something, so I literally ate cheerios out of a measuring cup while getting in bed.

It was honestly such an amazing night, and I’m glad I decided to just go out on my own and do something I wanted to do.

More adventures to come!

Vegas: All the Cycling, All the Food, None of the Sleep

Date: July 24, 2017

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I hope you enjoyed my first true Vegas post! Next, I’m going to recap day 2. Let’s just say, things kicked up a notch. So….as a cycling instructor I signed up for a lot of cycling sessions. And then I realized that from Wednesday-Sunday, I would be essentially taking 11 50ish minute spin classes. DEAR LORD.

Thursday was the first real day of the conference. My morning started with a 7am session, so I rolled out of bed just after 5:30 and shoved a granola bar in my face.

My first session was just a ride with Stages. This was called “The Power of the Dork Side.”

They used a big screen to take us through a science fiction movie themed ride. My favorite part was the Back to the Future themed part, where they showed scenes from the movie and forced us to pedal fast enough to travel through time. The screen also had our bike effort level. We did a time trial at max effort at the start of class, and the computer on the bike calculated different work zones based off of this (i.e.: work at 70% of max, and it would flash up a particular color).

It was pretty cool! The screen is definitely a fun distraction.

This was for sure my hardest day in terms of exercise, partly combined with a late night prior. After my 7am session, I quickly drank chocolate milk before heading into Schwinn for my next workshop.

At this point, my metabolism was definitely humming along, and I broke into cheerios during the lecture portion of the workshop. Sidenote: I brought an entire box of Apple Cinnamon cheerios and this was an amazing decision. I ate a bag or two every single day of the conference.

Schwinn: Teaching Tips from TED

This workshop was really interesting: they speakers compared leading a cycling class to doing a TED talk. This session really focused on how I, as the leader of a class, should present myself. Here are some takeaways:

-TED talks are great because they are passionate, entertaining, educational, humorous. We want cycling classes to be the same. We have to draw the students in, and try to make class feel like no time has passed.

-The big parts of presentation (just like any persuasive essay from high school) have logos (logical appeal), ethos (credibility) and pathos (emotional appeal). A cycling class is no different. You obviously want to establish credibility (NEVER lie to your students about what’s ahead, i.e. “Sprint for 30s….JUST KIDDING ONE MORE MINUTE). Your riders need to trust you. You establish this not just through credentials, but based on how you look, act, and lead class.

-The first 30 seconds of class are incredibly important, like a TED talk. Draw the class in, command the room, and let them know what’s in it for them!

-Tell stories (emotional appeal), but be relevant and have a point.

-End class with a bang, because this is what students remember. It could be a high energy push, but it could also be a slow hill, with a carefully selected song to pull on the heartstrings (I love doing this too. Their suggestion was OneRepublic’s I Lived, but there are a few the Fray songs I like for this.)

The format of the cycling workshops was to do a lecture, and then a full ride to see how the information is applied.

After the ride, I was exhausted and famished. I downed a mini-protein bar before heading to Opening Ceremonies back at my hotel (it was literally right next to the Convention Center where most of the conference took place.)

At the opening ceremonies, they present awards and have motivational speakers. It’s always so inspiring! Admittedly, I left before the keynote speaker because I was STARVING. I grabbed another Greek salad from the hotel cafe and headed up to my room because I had a break.

Plus a bar.

Because there was a break, I had time for a short but much needed nap.

My first afternoon session was Olympic Lifting! This was mostly about coaching Olympic Lifting. I love Oly, and honestly would love to coach it, but it’s just not a priority right now and probably ever. We learned different progressions for the lifts, though I am familiar them.

Progressions for basic movements (start at one and move on when the previous movement is mastered)

Squat: Bodyweight squat to back squat to front squat to overhead squat.

Press: push up, strict press, push press, power jerk, split jerk.

Clean: hang power clean, power clean, hang squat clean, squat clean.

We practiced the progressions with a PVC pipe equivalent, and then worked with partners giving cues.

The biggest takeaway: FORM is so important! Spend a lot of time working with lighter weights an perfect technique, and only a little time working with heavy weights. I can attest that this is important. In my experience, you can instantly PR if you make a technique adjustment.

At this point, my body was HURTING. I was tired from a late night, and my legs were DONE from the back to back mooring cycling classes. I had another break before my last session, so I went to the Fitness and Nutrition Expo in hopes of finding some free samples with magic energy.

I didn’t try a ton. These things are a lot less fun when you’re allergic to EVERYTHING, but here are a few fun finds!

Cottage cheese with blueberry at the bottom. SO delicious. I love sweet with cottage cheese (I love pumpkin butter with cottage cheese!), and the protein was much, much needed.

Dried figs.

Yogurt-like cheese that was delicious. Like less-tart yogurt.

Super good bars that are literally just bananas.

And finally, life:

Coffee. I know I don’t do caffeine because I don’t do well with it, but this was so necessary. And freaking amazing. They had samples on tap, and I figured a small amount was just the right amount! These canned lattes from La Colombe are super frothy, which I loved. And caffeine.

Finally, it was time for my last session! Another cycling!

This was run by Keiser, and I was pumped to walk in and realize these are the bikes I teach on! This workshop was a really fun one, thankfully, because my legs were done. This was cycling karaoke! Yes, it’s literally exactly what it sounds like, and it’s amazing. I loved the instructor, who was full of personality, and who doesn’t secretly love karaoke? In this class, we cycling to all karaoke music, meaning we listened to popular songs without lyrics, and had a screen with the lyrics displayed. Everyone sang at once, but we also passed the mic around so one person would be projected over the speaker. The instructor walked around the class offering the mic. Fun fact: it’s a lot harder to cycle when you’re singing. It’s hard to breathe. Know that instructors have the same problem when speaking while teaching: it’s harder work to talk/sing while exercising!

i had such a blast I literally didn’t notice I was exercising. I definitely needed that!

Then, I got cleaned up for the IDEA conference party. I didn’t really make friends this year and I didn’t know anyone, so I felt a little weird going solo, but there was food! The first thing I did was get a beer at the hotel bar, because after 3 cycling classes it was much needed.

I’m going to show you my outfit of the night because real people clothes!

For my meal, I had a salad and chicken stir fry over rice.

I decided to not really spend time at the party and call it an early night after a long day. Instead, I got froyo at the 24 hour froyo place (!) in my hotel and carried it to the room with all the Sports screens to watch the Giant’s game.

Chocolate and cheesecake froyo with butterscotch and chocolate chips.

Back in the room I watched some TV shows and ate a Bobo’s chocolate chip banana oat bar. It’s my first time trying this flavor and it was so good!

One thing I do want to mention was the interesting challenge of fueling myself properly. On this particular day, I had a stomachache most of the day. I was constantly hungry and full, because I was burning SO many calories. And the unfortunate fact of the matter is, while my stomach condition is way better than it used to be and is rarely an issue, I still have trouble digesting large amounts of food. So going over my normal daily calories, despite the fact I needed fuel, left me feeling sick, especially at night after froyo+granola bar. After that day, I had to be smarter about what my calories were and when I ate them, and it definitely helped!

Coming up next: actually one of the longest days of my life!

(Nearly) Every Spin Playlist

Date: February 14, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! Happy Valentine’s Day!

I hope everyone is having a fantastic day. Mine is looking good because I just picked up 3 dozen mini cupcakes. 2 dozen of those are GF, because if there are leftovers I might as well be able to eat them, and they’re honestly the most amazing cupcakes so you can’t even tell! The bakery (Sibby’s) happens to be next to my favorite spin studio so I scheduled my pick up time to be right after a class!

GF:

Assorted:

I had to try one of each GF to make sure they weren’t poisonous. The verdict? Definitely not poisonous.

I mostly wanted to pop in and share something new on the blog with you today! Did anyone notice a new tab at the top? Spin Playlists!

I make a new playlist each week. I have a huge list of iTunes playlists, and I keep the choreography for each playlist in the form on index cards in a bag.

Lately though, I’ve been having a lot of problems with iTunes. I taught one class where the songs would not play, and my phone skipped to the end of the playlist (thankfully I had a backup). So songs not playing on my playlists were an issue. Then, I started getting double playlists in my iTunes library. The newest? I just learned that apparently iTunes has deleted songs from about 10 of my playlists! Which is quite the problem when the choreography is song by song! I was able to piece together most of what was missing (thanks to the blog+an app with some of my playlists+memory) but I still have 4 playlists with a missing song. It drives me crazy because 2 of them were some of my favorites! Between Thursday and Friday, I spent about 4 hours cursing at iTunes. Finally, I decided it was time for a backup. My friends have been pushing me to post my playlists for the while down, and this was the final nudge I needed! I screens hotted every playlist from the last 1.5 years that I use to teach.

Screen Shot 2016-02-12 at 4.12.05 PM

Screen Shot 2016-02-12 at 4.09.42 PM

There are now organized chronologically on the new tab! So check it out if you’re looking for some music or workout inspiration!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

All Spin All the Time (+ A Playlist)

Date: September 2, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! WIAW was fun, wasn’t it?

My day today was full of Spin! I started the morning with a 6am class at Revelry, one of my favorite spin studios.I didn’t have any reason to go that early other than the fact that I like that teacher! It was a tough class-we did repeats that were 8 minutes long, trying to beat your energy output each set.

Breakfast afterwards was a Siggi’s blueberry with sun butter and a side of pineapple.

After breakfast and a shower, I spent some time blogging and catching up on blogs. Then, my mom and I tried out a new coffee shop and had cappuccinos (decaf for me) and split a gluten free lavender lemon cookie.

Not a bad cappuccino! Plus, with the start of September, it suddenly feels like fall in California and I love it. It makes the cappuccino and coffeeshop time feel so cozy. The funny thing about fall in California is I feel like it comes suddenly, and is very noticeable for California natives. Sure, it’s still warm and the leaves haven’t changed, but the air feels different and the sun looks like fall.

Afterwards, we took a trip to Costco to buy nectarines. I fell in love with a ruminant blanket (AKA cow) and plush pillow. It was probably made for a 2 year old, but I couldn’t resist! Plus, my kitty already loves it!

Lunch was at Mimi’s Cafe. If you ever go there, get the bran muffin. The bottom is soaked in honey, and it’s served warm. Perfection.

It came as a side to my Asian Chop salad.

I spent the afternoon napping, picking up my car from service, and tweaking my spin playlist that I taught that night. I taught it at my other gym last week, but I have a different audience for this class. Here’s the playlist I used!

Class went well! This class was a free class on campus for dorm staff, and I think it was added last minute and not that publicized. Even so, I had a pretty good turnout, and we rocked the hills!

After class, my mom and I had a simple dinner. Mashed garlic cauliflower, cottage cheese, and roasted heirloom carrots (how fun are those??).

I may have been a bit aggressive with the garlic though. Oh well!

As you can see, it’s been all spin, all the time! Teaching Tuesday night, taking a class Wednesday morning, teaching Wednesday night, and then I’ll be teaching again Thursday morning! I’m loving it!

I’m Going to Idea World!

Date: July 15, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello from LA!

This afternoon, I flew in to attend the Idea World Fitness Conference, as part of the College Discovery program. To say I’m excited would be an understatement! I’ve never actually been to downtown LA before-just in the area. I will definitely do a nice full recap of this trip and the sessions! I am mainly going to spin sessions and Nutrition/Science lectures, but there are also other fun things here like the Urban Party tomorrow night (not really sure what that will be like) and the big Nutrition/Fitness Expo. My morning begins bright and early tomorrow for a 7am spin class by Schwinn. I’m taking quite a few Schwinn courses while I’m here, and since I’m certified in Spinning brand of indoor cycling, I’m very interested to see how the philosophies of the two organizations are similar and different!

My morning began with a simple breakfast of eggs and mango, plus half of a Luna bar.

My workout today was lots of Olympic lifting with my trainer. My snatches were not so good today, but the cleans are getting a lot better, and felt good! Plus, my hip is feeling WAY better. I’m going to still baby it a bit though and try to only squat in a controlled manner (like a back squat, not a burpee). My puppy came to pick my up from my workout since my car was in the shop, and she had her first walk outside since she is almost totally vaccinated!

Once home, I was super rushed to pack, eat, and shower. Lunch was leftovers. Chicken breast, carrots, and asparagus with goat cheese. Plus the other half of my Luna bar.

The trip here was short and uneventful-the taxi ride to my hotel was super expensive and long though because this is LA! I have actually had the worst experience with my hotel thus far in that I wasn’t happy with how they charged me originally, and then it took FOREVER to get checked in. I guess it’s kind of an apartment complex so there’s no lobby to check in at exactly. On the plus side, my room is actually super nice. It’s basically a studio apartment with a full kitchen and everything. I’m less than a mile from the center where the event is held. I checked in today, and while where I’m staying is a good area and the expo is in a good area, Google maps routed me through a not so great area. Given I’m going to be by myself, I’m happy I found a much better (and more direct) route!

I was actually pretty lost trying to find the Convention Center. To make it worse, I walked through the area where the ESPY’s are going on! I finally got close enough to see people with IDEA bags walking away and was able to find it!

I stopped at a Carvery for dinner on the way back and got a salad with kale, avocado, and chicken. Perfect!

On the way back, I stopped at a grocery for some food and snacks. I’m not sure what the food situation will be like, and I’m worried about my stomach acting up, so I tried to really stock up. I’m hoping I’m not eating Luna bars for every meal! I found a salad for lunch tomorrow. I also tried soy nut butter for the first time. The verdict? I like it! It doesn’t seem as fatty as sunflower seed butter (which can be good or bad depending on what you’re looking for), and it definitely doesn’t taste like peanut butter, but it’s nice to mix it up!

It’s about 8pm here now, and since I have quite a big day tomorrow, I’m probably going to watch a little Netflix before calling it a night!

Have you ever been to a conference?