Last Day in DC

Date: August 27, 2014

Author: astottler

Well, this is it folks. I’m (Mostly) packed and ready to go. Assuming my suitcases close (which is still TBD-very much TBD).

When I get back, I’ll probably do a full reflection of my time in DC, but for now I’m just going to have a normal style blog post and recap some food and fitness from the last few days.

Fitness:

Monday-Crossfit. We did one rep maxes for squats. I chose front squat and didn’t PR, but I matched my heaviest weight. Once I get back in my lifting shoes I’ll definitely be able to do more!

The WOD was tough:

8 min AMRAP
15 Wall balls (20-30#/16-20#)
5 Hand release pushups
15 KB/DB swings (32Kg, 24Kg)
5/side Renegade rows (alternate sides)

I used a 20 lb wall ball, and the thing about heavier wall balls is they come down on your face a lot harder/faster. Oof. I believe I had 3 rounds plus 6 wall balls?

Tuesday: 3 mile run+Crossfit

I ran in the morning and happened to run into some run club friends. Which always seems to happen on my runs! It was very uneventful. I think I had a decent pace. I ran a new route and the whole thing was brick sidewalks which stunk though.

Crossfit was my last class! Wahh. We did some split jerk work where we practiced the footwork without actually bringing the bar overhead. Then we did heavy thrusters. I don’t think I’ve done heavy thrusters, just thrusters in the conditioning portion. I think I was doing 85#? My shoulders sometimes get cranky in overhead work.

Conditioning involved outdoor running.

Wednesday: LAST November Project-PR Day!

I haven’t been to NP since moving to a different part of DC because it’s a bit far to run, and I have to get to work early. Today though, I decided to go. I took a bus to get as close to Lincoln as I could and then ran the remaining mile.

PR day consists of running the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial 17 times.

(Note that this doesn’t show all the stairs).

Soo basically you run the stairs…and then just keep going for like 40-45 minutes. I think someone once said it ends up being around 3 miles? Of straight stairs. That’s a lot of stairs. I had never done all 17 sets before since I always had to leave for work, but I did them all today and now my legs are done.

NP may have been my favorite workout here, so it was a fitting way to end my time here. This is also probably the fittest group of people in the city. There were a ton of rowers out today too! I’m a pretty fit person; a can run a sub-10 minute pace for 13.1 miles on an extremely hilly course. And I was one of the last ones to finish. I mean, MAN. Everyone is super welcoming though-so if you’re thinking of going to a NP definitely don’t be intimidated!

Foodwise, I have a couple of things from the past couple of days.

Pita sandwich at work-filled with tons of veggies and hummus.

One last visit to the Avocado Cafe-if you’re ever in Georgetown, go here! They are super nice here too. I had a wrap with chicken, grilled veggies, and avocado.

Dinner last night was courtesy of my gym. Crazy-right? They have Paleo meals. I got chicken with pineapple salsa, grilled avocado, and curry cauliflower. The cauliflower was a bit disappointing but the avocado-ohhh man.

And for my last DC dessert, I decided to try to eat myself into a comma. Or something. This was massive-a brownie sundae.

I made it maybe halfway before throwing in the towel?

Oh, before I sign off, one thing I am NOT going to miss is the mosquitos. They looooove me. And I get allergic reactions to them that none of the usual tricks help. I don’t even recognize my legs. It’s disgusting.

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten this week?

I’m Getting Sleepyyy

Date: July 9, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hope everyone had a great day! Today’s post will be short and will just cover the basics…I am going to get very sleepy in a hurry. I just took Benadryl…my skin had been horrible this past week, and normally I don’t break out like that unless it’s an allergic reaction to nuts. I know I haven’t had any, and I had no idea why it would be, but my mom reminded me my allergy tests showed a minor coconut allergy-I never noticed a reaction before, but maybe since I’ve been eating all those quesadillas? I’ll probably make arepas one more time to get a recipe, but after that I’m going to lay off the coconut for a week and see if anything changes! I will try to make a normal flour version of the arepas as well! 🙂

My morning began at 5am…way too early. This is the first week that getting up was nearly impossible! I ran down to the 5:30am November Project. Given how much I was dragging out the door, I was amazed by how good I felt during the workout! I am proud to say that here in week 3, running the stairs definitely is getting easier!

I am out of non-speckled bananas, so breakfast was different today. I hate bananas that have any brown…I’m more of a green banana girl! Breakfast was a big slice of lemon-blueberry banana bread, and a mug of milk (because I don’t own glasses).

I left early enough to grab an extra big coffee-a grande cappuccino.

This was my lifeline today. Although I was on the edge of over-caffeinated early in the morning, I was still kicking into the afternoon. Tonight will be an early bedtime though!

Lunch was leftovers from last night‘s dinner.

And snack in the afternoon was more banana bread.

After work was Crossfit, where we worked on cleans and handstands, both in the strength portion and in the WOD. My handstands (against a wall) felt really good today!

Dinner came together quickly. I snacked on some banana bread and pretzels while I cooked the chicken and chopped up veggies for a Greek salad!

Favorite salad topping?

I’m a HUGE fan of goat cheese!

DC Workouts

Date: June 26, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

So…I know I have a bit to catch up on but if I can write this post quick enough I can catch another Scandal before bed. SO GOOD and totally relevant to this city!

Yesterday I woke up at 5am (that’s 2am CA time for those keeping track) to run over to the Lincoln Memorial for November Project.

I was shocked by how light-and hot and humid-it was at 5:30am. Since where I’m from it’s always freezing at night, I couldn’t quite believe it!

We all gathered on the steps. Today was “PR day,” which meant running the stairs for time.

Well, for some reason I thought we were doing that once, so I sprinted up the stairs. And then no one was stopping. Turns out we had to do it 17 (or 13) times…I scaled and did 13, partly because I had to leave a bit early. Guys. The Lincoln Memorial has SO MANY STAIRS. Like, you have no idea. THE BURN! Somehow magically I’m not insanely sore today-maybe because I spent the rest of the morning hydrating like a mad woman, but it was definitely a good one, and so peaceful to be running the city so early!

I went to Crossfit that evening because apparently I’m crazy, and everyone seems to think it’s PR week. Well, I did get a PR! I PRed my deadlifts by 10lbs for a total of 245! And my form was way better than my previous PR so that’s good!

And since we’re on the topic of workouts, I went to a run club today that’s through my gym (which I get a membership to as part of Crossfit). I should also mention that it was 90 and humid today. And that I never have to run in heat because I’m from San Francisco and such a thing does not exist…

There were only 3 of us plus an instructor, and the other women looked pretty fast. On the schedule was about a 35 minute tempo run-10 easy, 10 min tempo, 5 min easy, rest of the run tempo. In theory tempo was a faster pace, or 10k pace. In reality, it was me trying not to die. I was doing ok keeping up with the easy pace-it didn’t feel too bad but it was about a 9:00 which is on the fast side for a longish run for me (My latest 10k pace was 8:45). But I was doing fine. I fell behind pretty quickly when the tempo part started but I did what I could. Coming back though, my legs were absolute bricks. During the “tempo” part, I was just trying to keep them moving. So fast runs in hot and humid weather build character, right? I’ll probably go back even though I probably slowed the others down, because it’s good for me and I’m sort of learning the area through a guided run. That was a little extra incentive-better keep up if I don’t want to get hopelessly lost! And hey-official half training starts next week! Although I’m going to keep up my weekend 6 milers until I get to that point.

Foodwise?

I wasn’t sure if I’d have time for breakfast post-November project, but it was a non-issue and I had woken up HUNGRY. So this protein was much needed after 10245412342 stairs.

And I finally worked out my coffee situation. After waking up at 5am, this was a lifesaver.

As a side note, this is a 12oz coffee, which is the smallest size they serve. I had one again this morning and it was WAY too much caffeine, even though I was drowsy all morning. WHEW. Guess who usually drinks baby espresso drinks? THIS GIRL.

Lunch today was kind of awful. I made some cauliflower in the microwave and topped it with hummus leftover from the previous night’s dinner (picture will follow) and it was just a mushy mess. Ick. I also had scrambled eggs with manchego and spinach, which were ok but it was kind of a mess.

Here’s the aforementioned dinner. The craziest thing happened. I heated soup up on the stove. Not the microwave, the STOVE. Am I officially a real person? I took tomato soup and mixed in some fresh spinach, then topped it with cheddar. On the side was some hummus and pretzels, plus my new favorite thing-FROZEN GRAPES! I had some on the softer side which I hate, so I just stuck them in the freezer. SO good!

The tomato soup was Trader Joe’s, and I was really disappointed. I forgot to check added sugar, and this had a fair amount-it tasted sweet. Ugh.

Speaking of which, on my way out of work today, I was hungry and wanted some quickly digesting carbs to fuel my run, so I picked this guy up from the restaurant.

It was pretty tasty, but SO sweet and oily. But my run went well (as well as it could have) so who am I to complain. I just don’t want to make it a habit!

After the afternoon’s run, I stopped at Whole Foods to be lazy as well as to make use of my gift card. I picked up some fruit, carrots, super dark chocolate, and sun butter, plus dinner and lunch for tomorrow. Not having to pack lunch tonight is sort of fantastic.

My dinner was Mexican tilapia over beans, roasted potatoes, and garlicy cabbage and green beans. Plus lots of grapes with sun butter when I got back, and a bit of dark chocolate.

And now I’m at that point where I could go to bed nice and early, or watch another Scandal…decisions….

WIAW-DC Edition

Date: June 24, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

So…I’m secretly excited that I get to link up to WIAW from the East Coast! I always feel so left behind when i wake up at a perfectly reasonable hour and all the East Coasters have linked up! Now that’s me!

I started my morning bright and early. Or something. At least for this jet-lagged CA girl! I have to get up at 3:30am CA time, and I haven’t had a chance to get coffee! Bad combo! Luckily, I’ve determined two nearby coffee places that should work!

Breakfast was plain Greek yogurt, mango+strawberry, and sun butter. I’m not a huge fan of the mango+strawberry for some reason. Trader Joe’s also doesn’t have the best frozen mango though-it’s never quite ripe-so it’s a bit solid.

Today was my first day going straight to Crossfit from work, so I had to commute in my Crossfit shoes because I couldn’t carry 2 pairs of shoes! Classy.

No pictures from lunch because it was a work lunch, but it was a whole wheat pita stuffed with veggies, chicken, hummus, and cheese.

Instead, here’s tomorrow’s lunch which I just packed!

After work, I finally worked out a good commute, I think. I made the Metro by 1 minute after arriving at the station by bus. Walking to Crossfit from the Metro was horrible. DC traffic and cars are the worst. So much honking, so much grid locking, so many drivers who will just run you over…and I had to walk through this horrible traffic circle with like 6 different intersections…Terrifying. I miss California drivers…

Anyway, I arrived much earlier than expected and was able to jump into an earlier class. The main strength was snatches, trying to PR. I wasn’t expecting anything crazy, but I got some good tips from the coaches and easily PRed by 5 pounds from just the hang position (which doesn’t have as much power). This was named the number 1 box in DC last year, and I can see why! And that’s saying a lot given how many there are! So far, each of the classes I’ve been to have had 2 coaches.

The conditioning portion was an 8 minute AMRAP of overhead walking lunges, burpees, and plate rows. I’m not sure what it was, but I felt like I was really able to push myself today!

I realized walking home that I pass Whole Foods everyday on the way back. And I have 2 Whole Foods gift cards. Does that mean I never have to cook? Maybe I’ll pack home cooked lunches for a while and pick up dinner. We’ll see.

I didn’t stop in today, but I had plenty of leftovers so dinner came together quickly. Chicken, leftover cumin cauliflower, roasted sweet potatoes, and some unpictured snap peas.

I picked up some dates and 85% chocolate today, so that served as dessert.

So, I’m tentatively planning on going to November Project DC tomorrow. At (gulp) 5:30am. My logic is that maybe I can shock my system into this time zone? Or drink lots of coffee? It’s a .75 mile run from my apartment, so I definitely need to try it at some point, and tomorrow may just be that point. I calculated that if I leave a bit early, I can get back in plenty of time to shower and catch the metro. But it’s early. We’ll see.

When was the last time you PRed?

Exercising Now and Future Plans

Date: June 19, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Guess what? I’m T-1 day from flying across the country for my internship! WOO! Packing still needs to happen, but future (well, near future) problems, right?

Since I have very few food pictures, I thought I’d spend some time talking about exercise from this past week, as well as injuries and some plans for my exercise when I’m in DC!

Monday-Nike Training Club 30 minute workout with one of my best friends. This one never fails to kill me, but at least I wasn’t too sore after this time!

In the evening, I had my last softball game (since I’m leavening) with my Monday night slow pitch team! We had an awesome game, and my bat was finally alive again! Afterwards, we went out to celebrate, and it was such a great time. My teammates are so much fun!

Tuesday-I had planned to go for a morning run but ran out of time since we were going up to the city. I went to evening Crossfit which was sort of killer. I PRed my overhead squats by 5 lbs, and the WOD was a little too close to 14.5 for my liking! It was a 10 minute AMRAP of 3 thrusters at 65 lbs, 3 over the bar burpees, then 6 and 6, then 9 and 9, and so on. Definitely a rough but good workout!

Wednesday- I got my butt out of bed at the crack of dawn for a spin class with one of my favorite teachers. Since I don’t have a gym membership, I was able to get a guest pass. Such a fun class! Afterwards, I went back to one of my favorite summer running places for a short 2 miles, 80% for picture purposes.

Remember last time I ran there last summer where I almost got attacked by geese? I was grateful to not run into any this time!

Wednesday night, I had a softball game. I did quite a bit of base running, and played shortstop a bit which was fun (I’m normally an outfielder). Unfortunately, I took a particularly ugly swing while at bat and managed to sprain my hand. It feels a little better today, but I’m glad I have some time to rest it before I have to swing a bat again!

Also on the injury front-I went to a different foot doctor today and it seems that I have plantar fasciitis, not tendonitis. Or potentially tendonitis as a result of compensating for my foot pain. Apparently it’s because my calves are super tight and don’t have very good range of motion. The doctor wanted me to do physical therapy, but seeing as I’m leaving TOMORROW I got some stretches to do on my own to try and loosen it up. I also got some more supportive and comfortable work shoes, so hopefully that helps!

In terms of future exercise, the plan is Crossfit tonight, hand permitting. I may go again tomorrow morning, or do a run, before my flight. Saturday I’m planning on visiting my new Crossfit in DC. They seem really nice, and were named the best box in DC last year, so I’m hopeful I’ll love it! Sunday, I want to do a run to explore my new area a bit.

In terms of my general workout schedule, I think I’m going to need to run in the mornings…early….to beat the heat and since I’ll just never get it done after work. I will definitely not be doing this for probably the first week or so because time changes are rough-I don’t need to be waking up at 2:30 CA time to run before work…

Crossfit will happen after work, since I don’t have time in the mornings and since it’s right by my Metro stop coming home. I may try to do some spin or yoga classes at the gym attached to my Crossfit. I’m also eager to try some new (especially budget friendly) workout options, such as November Project (since it’s pretty close to where I’m living). I’m really excited to explore DC on foot, although I know the heat is going to be killer!

Any must see DC things?