SF Workout and Ballgame

Date: June 14, 2015

Author: astottler

Well guys, I am tired but I’m supposed to be keeping the puppy awake, which is not really working out too well. When puppies want to sleep, they SLEEP.

Friday was an awesome first real full day of summer. I started the morning with my current go-to breakfast-oatmeal, eggs, and blueberries.

I cooked the oatmeal on the stovetop with plain soy milk, banana, and vanilla extract. I made a big batch so I’ve been eating the rest of it every day since!

Then, midmorning my high school friend and I headed up to San Francisco for a workout adventure! While in DC, I did some Outruns, were were group runs mixed with bootcamp stops. I thought it would be fun to do it here, so I created a little workout for us. We started at the Ferry building.

And then ran on the Embarcadero towards Fisherman’s wharf. We covered a total of 3 miles, and stopped every half mile for a bootcamp session.

These were our stations:

1. 6 minutes: 1 min each 2x of jumping jacks, mountain climbers, and plank

2. 5 minute AMRAP: 5 squat jumps, 10 lunges each side, 10 plank dips

3. Abs (I’m still sore from this one): 6 minutes, 1 minute each: plank, Russian twist, bicycle, in and out, plank, Russian twist

(Meeting a friendly dog mid-plank.)

4. 3 sets of 10 squats

5. On a bench, 3 sets of 10 each: push ups, step ups, dips

The whole point of starting at the Ferry building (besides the fact that it was flat) was to grab lunch there afterwards, and we were more than ready post-workout! Since I’m not eat gluten right now, I was excited to see a Gluten-free cafe!

I got a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce on a gluten free roll. It was an absolutely beautiful day in the city, so we enjoyed lunch outside with a view.

We stopped at an ice cream place for dessert.

The secret breakfast is their most famous flavor, but I went with salted caramel cacao nib, which was delicious!

I also picked up a gluten free pumpkin chocolate chip muffin to go from the cafe.

That evening, I went to a Giant’s game with my dad-my first of the season. We have the prettiest ballpark.

Unfortunately, we lost, but it was still awesome to be back there! Also-how cool is this-we now have a garden, with an avocado tree!

They have two food vendors there, and I was able to watch the game while enjoying an asparagus salad with truffle oil, and a gluten free flatbread with roasted asparagus.

SO good!

Hopefully next time we bring home the win!

What was your last workout?

Do you watch baseball?

Fitness as of Late and I Made a Casserole

Date: July 19, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy weekend!

I wanted to talk a bit about fitness as of late, more exploring DC, and the big milestone in my life.

Wednesday I went to Crossfit and worked on cleans-as I already stated. I did some single leg RDLs after. Not a lot, and not heavy. But my legs were SOOOORE. Plus I was really sore from all the cleans. But holy hamstrings. Whew. I decided that my hamstrings have gotten weak and inflexible so I’m going to tack some single leg RDLs on the end of my workout every week or so. But not right before run club…

Lucky for me, run club was easy on Thursday. The fast people weren’t there, so we just did a basic 3 mile route at a reasonable place. Super easy.

Friday morning, I had a 4 miler at an early hour. I was taking it easy, but my taking it easy this week was faster than my taking it easy last week, so that’s always good to see! Getting faster!

Friday evening was Crossfit. We did bench presses and negative chin ups. Despite doing bench press most weeks since I’ve been here, I can probably still count on one hand the number of times I’ve bench pressed. For some reason it was just one of those things I almost never did, so I’m sore from that!

Saturday morning I went to another OutRun. This week was the same instructor as the first time I went, and it was a much faster pace than last week’s OutRun! Lots and lots of hills too-I guess I don’t have to worry about the SF hills for my half!

This afternoon, I went to a big mall to get my iPod fixed. I dropped it on an early morning groggy run and jammed the power button down. I had to exchange it, but I’m happy I got the same model-I like that it has a clip!

Afterwards, I stopped at Arlington Cemetery on the way back.

It was so peaceful and quiet there. I don’t think I can accurately portray the sense of respect and honor, so I’m not going to try.

I walked up high onto the hill, with an amazing view of the whole city. I sat there for a while, just looking down on everything. It’s amazing to me how much I’ve fallen in love with this city in such a short time.

On a much lighter note, my milestone is that I’ve officially made a casserole. That makes me officially old.

It has quinoa, spinach, corn, milk, and various types of cheese.

It was good but not great.

Then again, I just threw things together so I had no idea what to expect! Also make note of my loaf pan-aka the only pan I have.

Have you ever made a casserole? How did it turn out?

I Don’t Understand the Cupcake Craze

Date: July 12, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello everyone!

This morning, I went to another OutRun!

I fueled up beforehand with some banana-oatmeal balls and blueberries.

The workout was fun-it was in a different place this time, and included plenty of hills, including trail running. I generally hate trail running-although to be fair I now have a good excuse for hating it. I have foot issues that are worse on trails-and the foot doctor even confirmed it. Not sure if I ever talked about this specifically but all the pain and numbness I talk about in my feet on long runs is apparently something called a neuroma, which is scar tissue build up on/around the nerve. This is probably from years of bruised feet when I played softball and had the cleats stick up through the shoe into my foot. Anyways-the foot thing isn’t an issue on shorter runs anyways!

I only wiped out on the trail once! By some miracle I landed perfectly, without a scratch. This OutRun was-I guess I would say-an easier workout than the last one. It was a larger group, so there was more pace differential so I didn’t feel like I was pushing the pace much. However, I’ve logged a lot of miles this week-kind of out of nowhere-so my legs were dragging a bit. I was especially worried about my calves. They were super tight, and my left one wasn’t feeling that great, so I kept a close eye on it. Not sure if my “long run” (5 miles) is going to happen tomorrow though, just as a precaution. I’ll play it by ear, but it is definitely not worth it to push myself and get hurt 2 weeks into training. I’m currently wearing compression socks, hoping they work their magic!

My running for the week was as follows:

Mon-off

Tues-3 mile training run

Weds-November Project+running there and back, so ~3 miles?

Thurs-Run Club. Between 3-4?

Friday-4 mile training run+maybe a mile or so at Crossfit?

Saturday-OutRun, about 4 miles

Sunday- (5 miles)

While the mileage isn’t that high, it’s much more than I’ve been running lately. The thing is, I don’t know what to cut out! It’s definitely something to figure out, especially as the long runs get longer.

After the workout, I decided to try my luck at Georgetown Cupcake. The line is always INSANE there, so I was hoping that before 11am, it would be reasonable! It was better, but it was still a wait, and I ran out of water so I was SO thirsty! I bought 2 bottles of water there. Worth every penny.

I had a lava fudge cupcake.

It was a chocolate base with cream cheese frosting and fudge sauce on top.

It was good, and the fudge on top was definitely a nice touch. I don’t get the gourmet cupcake trend though, now that I’ve had a few of the “best” places. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but I could make the same thing, or better, myself at home! Sure, it wouldn’t look as nice, but that’s really not the important part! I’m much more on-board the gourmet ice cream trend that seems to be sweeping the San Francisco Bay Area. How am I going to make liquid nitrogen ice cream at home?? (Wait-new life goal!)

So while this famous cupcake was good, I won’t wait in line for another!

Since I ate a pre-lunch cupcake, I decided I should get some veggies in my system. I happened to pass a SweetGreens-they’re seriously everywhere! I got the seasonal salad, which has peaches, goat cheese, basil, and balsamic. I added chicken.

I really liked the basil in this. It was such a nice touch that gave the salad a whole summer-y feel.

After lunch, I walked around Georgetown a bit, and then walked home.

My afternoon has been really low key. I decided to save the exciting things for tomorrow. I’m meeting up with some people to watch the game, and depending on if I’m running or not, I might hit up a Smithsonian.

For snack, I had some leftover brussels sprouts. They were a little firmer than I would have liked, so I heated them up in the microwave liberally to cook them a bit more. I then topped them with smoked gouda. Delicious.

Since I ate plenty of veggies in my snack (that bowl x2 or 3), I opted for a simple dinner of an egg and some very egg heavy chocolate chip pancakes.

They came out super dense, and not the most amazing things ever, but it got the job done!

Have a fantastic rest of your weekend!

OutRun, DC Workouts, and Friends

Date: June 28, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

WHEW.

I have had a busy day, and loved every minute of it!

But first, I have to back up to last night to talk about some food things-new to me places and baking!

For dinner, after passing a multiple Sweet Greens on my way home, I finally decided to stop in. For those unfamiliar with it, it’s a salad place. I was a little surprised by how expensive the salads were but they were made with all local ingredients so I guess you get what you pay for! I went with the guacamole salad (because avocado!) which really did taste like fresh guacamole! It was really lime-y, which I normally don’t love but it was really working here!

After dinner, I stopped by the store to pick up some ingredients for banana bread. I haven’t made it in forever, and while I may not have many cooking utensils, I did get a loaf pan! (And I know I still owe you guys the lemon poppyseed banana bread as well!) Banana bread is my thing. I modified a recipe and I’ve never made a variation that hasn’t worked. On tap for last night was blueberry banana bread! I used my banana bread recipe (adapted from Nancy Clark’s recipe) and omitted sweetener, and added about 3/4 c fresh blueberries. I have a friend in DC for the sumer as well, so she came over to bake with me! I quickly realized I didn’t buy a mixing bowl….so pot it was! My oven is also really weird and tiny, and for some reason the bread was only cooking on the top until I moved it to the bottom wrack, but it still came out well!

I have a 4th of July variation I really want to make-what do you think of red, white, and blue banana bread?

Saturday morning, I was in for a treat. I signed up to do a free OutRun! It’s basically a boot camp mixed with running, for a 90 minute workout, put on by Roam Fitness. The 90 minute weekend runs are free, but there are shorter ones during the week that are not.

Before the workout, I fueled up with banana bread and cherries.

Then, it was go time! I took the metro to get there, and it was a fairly easy trip.

When I arrived, everyone was super welcoming and friendly. I don’t have a lot of pictures from the workout but it was a good one! I think we covered about 4 miles, with bootcamps interspersed. We did all kinds of things, but to name a few: jumping jacks, planks, Indian Runs, stairs, stairs with a parachute, ladders, and abs. The list goes on. It was super fun, but definitely hard. I loved getting to explore the city on foot and go to new places! And guess who I ran into?

Anne, from Fannetastic Food! I actually found out about this workout from her blog, and since I’m now in this city, I figured why not check it out? She was really nice and fun to talk to, and even hung back with me while I was dying going up a hill with the backpack of water! Plus, she answered my constant questions about where we were, since I’m really trying to learn the lay of the land! For more pictures, check out her blog because I’m sure she got more than I did!

Running up said hill was definitely worth it for the view of DC though.

This was a fabulous workout. That being said, you definitely need a fitness base. There wasn’t a huge group today so I imagine the pace groups would split up more if there was, but I definitely found myself pushing the pace a bit, and it was hard! It was so much fun though, and I know these types of workouts and the work I put in now are what are going to help my PR in the fall. Like I’ve said before, I need to run fast to get fast!

Also, you know it was a great workout when you’re starving all day!

Before I go into the rest of the day, I want to spend a moment talking about the DC fitness community. It’s seriously fantastic. I’m soaking up every bit of it and loving it. Just this week I’ve:

-run through the monuments

-run up the Lincoln Memorial stepsx100000 at 5:30 in the morning

-PRed twice at a Crossfit named the best box in DC

-got my butt handed to me at a super hard run club run along the waterfront

-gone to OutRun

It’s a lot for a week, but there’s seriously so many awesome things I just can’t help myself! I’m sure things will slow down once half training really kicks into year, but until then, I’m just going to continue to love it. Plus, everyone is so nice and welcoming!

Ok-back to the regularly scheduled programing (aka food). For some reason I decided that a hot cappuccino was perfect after a hot and sweaty run.

I then snacked on some dried mango while I made some scrambled eggs with Manchego and spinach.

Also, maybe it’s the heat, but grapes have become the greatest thing ever in the past week.

Later that afternoon, I met up with some friends from school who are also here, and we went to the Folklife Festival, which is a cultural type of festival that the Smithsonian puts on in the National Mall. This year’s focus was China and Kenya. We wandered around and watched some shows, and cooking demos! Also, we saw professional storytellers from Kenya! What a cool profession!

Afterwards, we walked over to an Asian Fusion place for dinner. It was fairly far, but I wore my trusty new pink running shoes to save my feet, and man was it a good decision! I walked everywhere tonight! (Hence the above collage.)

For dinner, I had mixed veggie an chicken stir fry.

After dinner, one of my friends split off, and we ended up in an Uber right around the area I had run in that morning! I felt insanely knowledgable because I knew where we were, and how to get to the Metro. Gotta love fitness adventures to tell you where you are! We decided to get ice cream, so took the Metro to a place that ended up being closed. We wandered around until we found a burger and shake restaurant that had frozen custard. That was a good decision, after being out in the hot sun all day!

I chose vanilla custard with salted caramel sauce and chocolate truffle cookie dough. It was delicious!

We then hopped around the city again to see a movie. It was great, wasn’t awful, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

But what a day! I’ve been EVERYWHERE. On the schedule tomorrow is the Farmer’s Market! I have to make the most of this city, right??

Have you ever lived in a city? Any ideas what I should do while I’m in DC?