Now It’s Christmastime

Date: December 15, 2015

Author: astottler

It’s my first full week of break! The first part of this week has been spent doing not so fun things (I was on call for jury duty today), but this weekend was fun and definitely put my in the holiday spirit!

Finals over=champagne.

Friday night I went to my dad’s company Christmas party. I’ve actually been to more of my dad’s company Christmas parties than anyone in the company!

It was a lot of fun and the food was of course delicious! After appetizers and drinks, we had salads and then a family style meal.

I apparently missed snagging a picture of the meal, but of course I captured the flourless chocolate cake for dessert!

And then Sunday was the day of the Silicon Valley Santa Run! This is my 4th year doing it, and the race’s 5th year.

The race was at 3pm so eating beforehand was different. I had my typical yogurt bowl for breakfast.

And then oatmeal plus some chicken for lunch. Plus a couple of these guys: AMAZING. I’m obsessed with glutino’s regular yogurt covered pretzels and the peppermint ones are just perfect.

Then it was go time!

The weather report was not too promising, with rain threatening at the start.

We also brought psycho puppy for her first race experience!

It was maybe a bit cold.

I goal time was under 27:00, which I knew was very doable given I had hit that pace during a longer run earlier in the week. Unfortunately, my garmin couldn’t find me! I was running blind. In multiple senses, as about 5 minutes into the race the sky just opened up. It started pouring like crazy, and given it was already so cold, I couldn’t feel my legs or hands! And then the rain started to hurt more as it hit my skin than it should have. I couldn’t tell if there was hail on the ground or not, but then I noticed there were little balls of ice all over my shirt. There was nothing I could do but push through it; it was definitely the crazier race I have ever done because the weather just felt insane. Meanwhile, I had no idea of my pace but I think I was around where I wanted to be. From the ice, I couldn’t feel most of my body! My garmin finally found me with just over a mile to go, and the mile it clocked was right where my pace needed to be.

Unfortunately, I don’t know my actual finishing time. I’m 95% sure my official time was wrong because it clocked me crossing the start line 6 seconds after the gun start, and there’s no way that is possible. I would guess it was at least 30 seconds, as the start was super slow. It was an especially small race this year thanks to the weather, and since it was small and the start was slow I’m wondering if it picked me up too soon. Ah well. It was still fun!

There’s definitely something to be said for shorter races, especially when braving the elements!

After the race, we bought a cheese tamale and walked through the Christmas display.

Then it was time to go home. On the drive back I tried to take a selfie with Chloe but all she wanted to do was a) sleep or b)lick my face.

Now I feel in the Christmas spirit! In other news, I just found out that I got into the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in DC in April! It’s a capped race, so there’s a lottery to get in. I missed it last year but I got in this year and am SO EXCITED!

How do you get into the holiday spirit?

Nike Women’s Half Round 2

Date: October 18, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! Guess what I did this morning? I ran a half marathon! WOOHOO!

This was my second time running the race. See my recap from a couple of years ago here. I didn’t LOVE it last time-quite honestly I felt it was overhyped. I decided to do it again this year though because I get automatic entry as a student, so this may be my last chance! #senior

A major change from when I did it 2 years ago was the route. They changed it up quite a bit, and I think the hills were a lot friendlier this way. Plus, last time I ran it I was trying to PR and this time I was trying to enjoy it, so that also helps!

I had zero expectations going into the race. I was still sick a fair amount of my training. I was too sick for my 11 miler. I didn’t want to push the pace too much also because I didn’t want to launch myself into a flare. The super good news is that it’s been over 3 weeks without a flare-the longest since I got sick many many months ago. I think there’s a good chance it’s gluten intolerance because I’ve been SUPER strict about avoiding it. Anyways, onto the race!

Since I needed to pick up my packet on Saturday, my parents and I headed up to the city Saturday afternoon. I found my name on the window!

We picked up my packet and visited some of the expo. I didn’t love the way the expo was set up-it was spread out through several different stores in Union Square.

We ended up coming across a food court in Macy’s (which I had no clue existed) and decided to eat dinner while watching the Cubs-Mets game on the TV there. I’ve missed almost all of post-season baseball this year! For dinner, we had Asian Box. I had a bowl with brown rice, Asian salad, pickled veggies, chicken, and a seasoning blend.

It was good to get some veggies and carbs in pre-race!

There was also a Ben and Jerry’s, and I got a small scoop of pretty much the only ice cream I could eat-triple chunk caramel.

We spent the evening watching TV, and I was in bed by 10:30.

The next morning, I was up bright and early! I actually felt pretty good. I think in some of my past halfs, I’ve woken up and was just not feeling a run. I think I was much better rested this time around! My current pre-long run breakfast is a Luna bar (Lemon Zest today) and a big banana. Then, it was time to run out the door!

I was armed with sleeves made from cut up tube socks, but unlike 2 years ago, it wasn’t too chilly!

I had a friend running the race today as well, and we planned to try and meet up if possible. We actually ended up finding each other at the start!

We started out pretty slow-there was quite the bottleneck at the start, and I also wasn’t willing to push the pace. I ran music-less the first half of the race, and we somewhat chatted, and enjoyed the views of the city!

I took my first gu around mile 6. I’ve ALWAYS used Cliff chocolate gu, but I currently have zero tolerance for caffeine, and the chocolate gu has been negatively affection gem lately, so I switched to raspberry for race day (which I had tried all of once before…) and it worked like a charm!

According to the elevation chart, there were 3 main hills. Honestly, it felt like a lot of up and down for the first 2/3, so I’m not sure which hills were specifically defined. The notable hill was the hill overlooking the Golden Gate, which came at mile 10. Thankfully, this led into a huge downhill and with the downhill, I didn’t lose much time on the hill.

One thing I have to give to Nike is the fact that this race ends flat-nothing worse than a hill in the death miles of a race!

One thing I will say-the last 2 halfs I’ve done, I never hit that mile 10 wall when my legs just won’t move, and I think this is a big function of going slower. When I make my next PR attempt, I need to keep better pacing in mind because dying at the end=lost time!

Before I knew it, I was on the final stretch, running towards the crowds and the marina.

And then it was over! I set a loose goal for myself in the middle of the race and I met it, which is good enough my me! It was my slowest half to date, but it was only 3 minutes slower than my previous slowest. That included a bathroom stop, so without that, it was probably only about 1 minute slower. I’ve run 6 halfs, and I’m nothing if not consistent on my times!

It ended up being such a beautiful morning! Couldn’t ask for anything better weather wise-plus it’s FINALLY starting to feel like fall around here!

I should probably also note that I ran with my flip belt. Given my illness issues, I carried all kinds of food-crackers, granola bar, gu. Gotta be prepared!

One thing I will note though-my watch clocked me in at 13.5 miles. I know you gain some distance with weaving, but there’s not way I gained .4, so I definitely think that course was long!

Overall, definitely a fun morning. Nothing is really hurting right now so I’m expecting recovery to go well! That, and I’ve eaten everything in sight today, which usually helps as well!

Have you ever run the Nike Half?

I Survived! (Napa Half)

Date: April 19, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys. Guess what? I survived my 5th half marathon!

I was really unsure how it would go given I missed a lot of training runs, and felt terrible last weekend. I got in all the long runs of training, but the volume of the shorter runs wasn’t really there…my only goal was to finish, to take it slow, and to actually enjoy the race. I feel like I end up not enjoying my halfs as much as I should because I take off like a bat out of hell and then am dying the whole way. So let’s back up.

Pre-race day eats. I tried to keep it moderate but didn’t do the best job. Breakfast of the world’s largest blackberries and gluten-free focaccia (which is amazing btw).

Lunch was a salad with sweet potato pop chips and gluten free cookie dough soy ice cream.

I had some other snacks in there too-gluten free banana bread I believe?

We drove up to Napa in the afternoon and were in St. Helena in time for dinner. Somehow I found a place that had a dish that fit my complicated restrictions.

Grilled asparagus and peach salad.

Chicken with potatoes, mushrooms, and arugula.

Woodhouse Chocolate. I decided trace amounts of dairy were fine since I’m feeling way better.

After an evening of working on Stats homework and baseball watching, I was ready to go when I woke up at 5:45! The race started at 8, and we stayed at a hotel a few minutes walk from the start, but I had to time my food in a specific way. I woke up not feeling that great but it passed pretty quickly.

Breakfast was banana, egg white oatmeal with craisins and a dab of sun butter.

Stretching, as per usual. Notice that blue thing I’m holding? I got a flip belt! I wanted to carry crackers during the race, so I shoved those in with a couple of goos and stomach medicine, just in case!

And then we were off!

I took it super slow at the start. Slower than I ever have before, and it was awesome. I was really able to enjoy the beautiful views of vineyards along the Silverado trail. Another bonus? No SF hills! Only a few minor ones that I was more than trained for. For the race, they closed off the entire road, but on the way home we drove the race route so here are a few shots of that.

This tree was the turnaround!

In terms of fueling, I took about 1/3 of my goo at mile 4.5 at an aid station. I accidentally grabbed gatorade instead of water, but I just went with it. It took a little while for that to settle in my stomach, so I did goo #2 a little differently. I started eating it super slowly at mile 8 (and got a much needed burst of energy!) and didn’t finish it until mile 12. I had to be super cautious that my stomach never got too empty because I knew I’d have stomach issues if that happened.

In terms of how I felt, the hardest miles were maybe 9-10? They were pretty flat, which was just a lot of the same motion. I actually felt better once we hit the hills! Overall though, this is by far the least painful race I’ve run. Around the last 4ish miles I started to think about finishing time and what I wanted, since I knew if I was feeling ok I could probably turn it up at the end. I ended up with some killer negative splits! My last mile was by far the fastest.

I think my official time was 2:15?

This is by far the least painful finish of a half I’ve had. So…that pacing thing? Yeah-something to work on!

After the race I had to refuel thoroughly and carefully. Such a big calorie deficit made me really nervous with my stomach. I had some crackers and a banana right away, and then a Luna bar. Back in the hotel, I had the freaking weirdest thing ever. Coconut oil cream cheese (weird) on a gluten free bagel with….a frozen hard boiled egg. Yuck. Got the job done though….but ew. The frozen egg was the weirdest thing.

Later, I had some polenta.

And I’ve basically been eating everything since then. So we’ll see how I feel tomorrow…

This cookie though…it’s basically free of everything-refined sugar, gluten, dairy, eggs. But SUPER delicious. My post-race hunger laughed at the “serves 2” on the label.

So. In summary. I survived my half and am in one piece. Yay!

Guadalupe River 5k 2015

Date: February 1, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! Today I ran my first race of the year-the Super Guadalupe River Run. I did the 5k! If you’re interested, here’s last year’s recap.

First of all-I ran 2 5ks last winter. Guess how many times it rained in California last winter? 3. 2/3 were downpours on my race days. Go figure. It hasn’t rained here since early December, but earlier this week rained popped up in the forecast today. Seriously-what are the odds?? It ended up being the perfect day though-clear and cool. When I left campus, it was 38 but it warmed up a lot by the 9am start.

I had initially wanted to shoot for sub 26:00 for this race, but on race morning I had few expectations. I probably didn’t eat enough the night before, and since my caffeine incident earlier in the week I haven’t had much of a stomach for food in the mornings. I ate what I could and drank plenty of water.

Breakfast was a granola bar/oatmeal type of deal. I had it before my 5ks last year-it’s just mashed banana, cocoa powder, oats, and chia seeds.

Then, my mom picked me up and we made the drive down. I got there plenty early to pick up my race packet, so there was plenty of time to relax before the start.

By start time, I was actually feeling pretty strong, confident, and ready.

The game plan was to not go at death pace and to pace myself. This actually worked out really well! The race was fun, and over so quickly. Plus, I didn’t feel like I was really dying until the final push. There was another woman in just in front of me for the entire race, and I passed her right at the end.

My official time was 25:59 (although my Garmin measured a short course-I’m not complaining!) I ended up placing 4th in my division, 3 seconds from 3rd (the person I passed at the end must have started just after me). Overall, it was a good race. This is probably one of my favorite races. The fact that the t-shirts say “I earned my guacamole” (because it’s always on Super Bowl sunday) may have something to do with it!

And like I said, it was a good effort but never death. I’m looking forward to hopefully improving more for my 5k at the end of the month! I should do more 5ks!

Afterwards, my mom and I stopped at Panera for lunch(?). It was 10:30am and I had already had breakfast, so that totally counts as lunch, right?

I got a hummus chicken power bowl, which I added avocado to.

And also a blueberry scone. Yum!

I spent the rest of the day studying and watching the Super Bowl. What. A. Game. Go Patriots! That ending was just INSANE. My dorm had a little Super Bowl party and we were going crazy!

This may be bad after the fact but who were you rooting for?

Rock n Roll SF Recap

Date: April 6, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I just completed my third half marathon-Rock n Roll San Francisco! I decided to do this race for fun, not trying to PR because I felt like I was so caught up in the time last race that I didn’t really get to enjoy the race.
Let me just say, I clearly have a sick idea of fun.

TALK ABOUT HILLS. I did the Nike Women’s marathon, which is known for its hills. Well, this was worse. But let’s go through it, shall we?

Saturday afternoon after a meeting, I sprinted home to get up to the city in time to pick up my packet. The expo was well run and not crowded.

Lots of protein bar samples too! I’m ALL about the free samples.

After the expo, I came home and had a pre-race dinner.

Strawberries as big as my face.

Literally.

Plus scrambled eggs, roasted carrots, and toast with homemade raspberry jam (unpictured).

I really think I did everything right for this race. Perfect pre-race food, went to bed early, good pre-race breakfast.

Then, it was race day! As soon as my kitty heard my 4:20am alarm go off, he came running to greet me and ~~cover me with fur~~ help me get ready.

I slightly modified my pre-race breakfast of egg whites, cocoa powder, and banana by throwing some instant oats in there because I thought I needed more calories and carbs.

I also had some strawberries and sort of burnt berry compote on top. I may or may not have forgotten it was still on the stove for a couple too many hours…oops.

And then I put on my new race shirt! I LOVELOVELOVE it!

And then we were off! My parents dropped me off near the start just before 6am, the perfect amount of time to wait in port a potty lines and find my corral. The pre-race was very organized, and I had no problem getting into the correct corral. Plus, it wasn’t THAT crowded (or at least not when I arrived maybe!).

My first half, I wore short sleeves.The second one, I wore long sleeve Under Armour and ended up getting super hot and tossing it 2 miles in (it had seen much better days anyways). This time, I fashioned some beautiful and stylish throwaway sleeves out of my dad’s old socks.

Then, it was go time! As soon as we started, I knew I was feeling good. I was more than ready to tackle the first hill-which came up fast! I tossed my sleeves at an aid station around mile 2, but I would have earlier if I had seen a trash can! Hills have a way of warming you up quickly.

I crushed the first hill. It felt good, I kept a decent pace, and I thought about how much all my hill training had helped. Almost all of my long runs were at least somewhat hilly!

The second hill came up pretty quickly after the first, but we were rewarded with a view of the Golden Gate bridge from waaaay above. I definitely slowed down more on this hill! At this point, I was sort of thinking I could maybe PR this race, but I would see how I felt later on. Goal #1 was to ENJOY this race!

One of my biggest complaints about this race was how crowded it was. It was crowded quite a bit leading up to the bridge, but it was INSANE on the bridge. My legs were starting to feel heavy and I couldn’t keep pace at all in the crowds of people. I lost .07 miles just from weaving going one way across the bridge! It was very frustrating-but I had to remind myself that a) this was for fun and b) if I have my blog URL on my back I need to be a nicer person! (Not that I was rude….but getting there!)

The bridge was surprisingly and noticeably not flat. Very little of this race was flat. Another slight issue was that there was an aid station at mile 4, 8, and 10 but none around 5 or 6 because of the bridge, and 5 is where I normally take goo. I decided to take it early, especially since I was coming off of 2 hills! I took it at 4 and 10.

After it flattened out after the bridge, my legs were really starting to feel heavy and I knew I still had hills-lots of them-at the finish so I decided to give up on trying to PR and work on a) surviving and b) having fun.

Mile 10 and on I could only think of one thing: “What sick, sick person designed this course??” 2 giant hills already, and then the last three-ish miles as hills? That’s just mean. My legs were already done and I was hurting. Since this was a for fun race, I walked a little bit on some of the hilly stretches, a few steps here or there. I knew that at that point I would end up with a time I was happy with anyways.

The ONLY saving grace about the course was that the last half mile was straight and downhill, and you could see the finish from half a mile away. I FLEW down that hill! I think I hit a sub 7:00 at some point!

(See me in the black?)

When I crossed the finish line, I was happy with my time, happy to be done, and noticing how tight my calves had gotten!

It turns out I was only 40 seconds off my PR, and definitely on a more difficult course! I had a lot of fun running this-that being said, I think I’m going to stay away from super hilly races for a little while. My goal race is the Giant’s Race in September, which although it is in San Francisco, is still fairly flat.

Then, I hightailed it over to the chocolate milk tent and found my parents.

Chocolate milk in a bag…?

It was an absolutely beautiful day in the city. When is it EVER sunny in San Francisco??

I quickly scarfed down a free Powerbar (It was Vanilla, and actually really tasty!) and then walked over to the main stage (it’s Rock n Roll after all!) to watch the concert and find one of my friends who came to see the concert!

It was actually a well known (ish) band-The Neighborhood. I know exactly one song of theirs-Sweater Weather. I thought they sounded good but didn’t have the best stage presence. It was definitely the tamest concert I’ve been too!

One thing about Rock n Roll SF-I feel like it was a bit deceptive. They sort of made it sound like there would be a live band at every mile. I didn’t have a problem with the entertainment, I just thought it was a bit misleading. There were no bands until mile 8-just a few jugglers every few miles. There were maybe 4 bands, and only 2 actually had amps and microphones and were playing.

After the concert, it was time for real food! We stopped at Panera where I got a Fuji apple chicken salad.

But then it was time for the real show. Has anyone heard of Bi Rite Creamery? It’s one of the best ice cream places in the area-it rivals Smitten (Nitrogen ice cream)! And since we were up there, it had to be checked out.

I got salted caramel and chocolate with bittersweet chocolate sauce.

If there every was a time for a double scoop, it was after a half marathon. This was really good! I liked the flavors, but my mom’s toasted coconut was amazing.

Overall though, I have to say that my favorite is probably Tin Pot, followed by Smitten. And no, I have zero problems becoming an ice cream connoisseur.

Overall, I’m really happy with how the day went! I went out there and ran for fun (hah) and am more than happy with my time!

So what’s next? Like I said, the Giant’s Race is my PR race. I’m considering doing the ZOOMA Napa half, but I’m concerned it’s going to be really hot! I’m also considering doing Rock n Roll San Jose in October. I will most likely not be doing the Nike again this year. It was a good experience, but not amazing and not something I would want to do every time. My absolute favorite race I’ve done is by far the Giant’s race. It’s not insanely hilly, there’s a lot of crowd support, and it take s you through a whole bunch of sites in the city.

What’s your favorite race?