Running and the Future: Training for My 4th Half

Date: August 19, 2014

Author: astottler

That’s quite the title, isn’t it?

Given I just finished the peak week of my half marathon training and now am in wonderful, wonderful taper mode, I wanted to discuss some of my experiences with this training cycle, as well as what’s next.

My training has been mixed. I thought I was going in at a good place because of my weekend Crossfit group runs, but I came to the DC heat+humidity and had my booty handed to me.

The first few weeks of training were not fun. The runs were really hard. It’s easy to consider yourself a half marathoner who can do anything because you’ve done several in the past. But to some extent, the past is the past.

To be honest,after my half in April, I didn’t run that much. I gained a little weight and that made running stink more so I ran less so it stunk even more.

But since training started, I’ve been putting the work in. I’ve worked on my speed at run club every week (aka the run of the week where I frantically try and keep up with my much speedier companions).

I’ve woken up at 5am. I’ve gotten faster each week. I’ve dropped what I gained. But part of me wonders if it is enough for a PR.

I feel so much better after my 12 lie run though! I’m putting it out there now-my goal for this race is 2:05 (my PR is 2:09). It’s a flatter course than my PR race, and I’ve done a half in between that was a MUCH harder course. Plus I’ve been training in the heat all summer in DC, and I will be running in San Francisco. Plus it’s my favorite race ever. So we shall see!

(Sidenote-I actually got a really amazing race photo that I can’t find right now-it’s me cheesing it up with the golden gate perfectly in the background!)

Post half marathon, I will throw myself into training for half marathon of fall #2, at the beginning of October. If I follow my same training schedule and jump in at the right time, it has me running 12 miles the weekend after my half. So we’ll see about that. I REALLY want to break 2:00 in that race. It’s completely flat. I’m a little worried about a couple of things though. 1. It will be warmer (not in SF) and 2. It’s not in SF and I’m scared the scenery will be too boring. But it can’t be that bad, right? Maybe I just love SF. I really want to do a half in DC…

Anyways, after October 4, what’s next? I think I’m going to work on speed work and try to PR again in the winter on a 5k, but I also want to log more miles than I have in non-half training in the past. I’m considering joining a running group back home.

I think in terms of week to week, I don’t want to necessarily to long runs, but instead do more mid-length runs. So, instead of small runs during the week and long on the weekends, do 6 mile runs a couple of times a week, plus speed work. At least that’s what I’m thinking for now!

(Also-my mom clearly rocks at awkward pre/post race stretching pics…Feast your eyes:)

And now I need to go because I have to wake up early to, surprise surprise, run.

The Exorcist Stairs

Date: August 14, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Thursday/Friday depending on when you’re reading this! Now that we’re all caught up, it’s back to your regularly scheduled programming.

This morning I slept in a bit. So…my commute has been weird ever since I moved. It used to take me like an hour. But then one day I was running late-15 min late-I I still got there at the same time. So today I left EVER LATER and got there at the same time. Ok…? How is that possible? So now I get to sleep later and my commute is shorter. A-ok with me!

Workout-wise, one thing I failed to mention yesterday was that I had a weird experience while practicing my handstands against the wall. I was facing the wall, and I’m just starting to learn to get my feet off the wall. I had a spotter, and I actually held it for a few seconds, before falling into my spotters hands…and then I kept going. Not sure what happened with the spotter, but I fell over backwards. It was possible the most graceful fall I’ve ever had-it turned into a nice little somersault. Left me kind of dizzy for a while though!

Moving on.

Here’s a new to me breakfast. Anyone remember my banana/cocoa powder mixtures I used to always make? Well, I decided it is sort of similar to my double chocolate banana bread. So I turned it into a yogurt bowl and topped it with sunflower seed butter. I had this pre-run but it was far too ugly to deserve a picture. This doesn’t look that pretty but it tastes great!

In terms of lunches, here’s a new one. A broccoli/cabbage mix (what I could find at the grocery…) with sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, and coriander (plus salt and pepper).

Plus my new side dish-yogurt+berries+sunbutter.

Tonight, I went to run club again. There was a different person leading it. It was a good one. We ran the Exorcist stairs! I’ve heard people talk about them-apparently they appeared in that movie? I’ve never seen it. But they stink. They are tall. And coincidentally really close to where I live to I should be incorporating them into my runs for these last 2 weeks!

Dinner was simple-tomato soup with added spinach and cheese, and a microwave cheddar quesadilla.

There were also some snacks in there that went unpictured.

Have you seen the Exorcist?

Moving Through the City

Date: July 31, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! Sorry for leaving you guys for a bit-this week has been kind of crazy! I get kicked out of my housing this weekend, so I’m moving to a house across town. On top of that, I’m going out of town this weekend to visit family in upstate New York! I have until my laundry finished to type up this post!

Crossfit wise, I am happy to report I PRed my split jerk this week! And my handstands against the wall are getting worlds better. On the running front, things are looking pretty good as well. Each week is a bit faster than the last one. Running club is making a huge difference, and I consider it the hardest workout of the week. I went tonight, and it was short but sweet because I’m doing my 10 miler tomorrow-since I’m traveling, that was going to be a mess to try to figure out once I’m in NY!

I went to November Project this week, and it was PR week, meaning we run the stairs 13 or 17 times straight for a time. I did the scaled version, but I felt 1000x times stronger than PR week a month ago! Progress!

Food-wise, there’s been some of the same, some more exciting, and some me being lazy and failing to take a picture.

For lunches, I’ve been splitting it into two parts-salad/veggies and then yogurt mix.

Heirloom tomato salad:

Green bean salad:

And then yogurt with sunflower seed butter and blueberries:

As for dinners, I’ve made a couple of “quesadillas.” I couldn’t actually find tortillas at the grocery (what??) so I got some type of whole wheat flatbread thing-it’s pretty similar when filled with cheese and then cooked on a stove.

Round one was stuffed with cheese, tomato, and avocado:

And round two was filled with ground turkey and veggies from the freezer:

On the more exciting dinner front, I went out to dinner yesterday because one of my friends here is leaving this weekend! It was a super late dinner-we met at 9pm. I classily satisfied my post workout hunger before hand with milk from the carton and sunflower seed butter from a plastic fork.

For my main dish, I went with salmon with fried plantains and creamy herb sauce.

And of course, dessert was necessary. I chose the bread pudding, which was delicious (but not as good as my family recipe-I need to make that sometime!).

A perfect end to the night. Needless to say, I’m running on fumes. I didn’t get back until after 11 last night after waking up at 5am for November Project. Hopefully I’ll have some time for some much needed rest this weekend!

Drenched

Date: July 10, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Friday! Anyone have big plans for the weekend? I’m not really sure what I want to do. I might try to check out one of the Smithsonians!

As you may or may not have noticed, I’ve been trying to keep my posts more as daily recaps of food+exercise. It doesn’t get too long and I’m forcing myself to include some things that might have been better left out. Since I’m cooking for myself finally, I can have way more control over what I eat, which is fantastic! I think it will be interesting to see how this evolves over the summer. Plus-ideas, right?

My morning did not start off with a workout. Yayy sleeping!

I got ready and went to Starbucks for breakfast because I was lacking in the quick and easy breakfast food department. Plus I was still a bit woozy from the Benadryl (although everything I took it for seems to be getting better!), so I wanted a little caffeine. I went with a latte because they seem to be really week, plus a spinach and feta wrap.

Lunch was a repeat of yesterday-leftovers! No picture because I was in a meeting. Then a little dessert…

From the vending machine-which I became more familiar with because it gives me quarters for laundry! Not the worst things for you, but definitely not the healthiest.

Later in the afternoon, I also had a piece of banana bread.

After work, I headed to the gym for run club, with the full knowledge that a storm might come in. Hah.

Let’s just say I don’t think I’ve ever been that wet before in my life. If I jumped in a pool, I wouldn’t be that wet. It started to rain about 5-10 minutes in, and it came down hard. We decided to push through it because we got pretty wet, pretty quickly. This is the first time I’ve been caught out in a DC storm. I felt like someone was pouring buckets of water on my head. We don’t get rain like that in CA!

Then the lightning started. It was closer than I would have liked (but not dangerously close by any means!), but at that point, we didn’t really have anywhere to take cover from it so we forged on.

The theme of the run was a hill run. We were going to do hill sprints but it was so wet out we just ran up it. Definitely nothing like the SF hills I’m used to though! Not that I didn’t slog up it, but everyone talked beforehand about how big it was…that’s a SF foothill…

I’m pretty sure I was dying during the run because the pace was so fast, but I didn’t really notice because I was pretty busy trying not to drown. It’s a legitimate concern. How to you keep the water out of your mouth?

When we got back, it was comical how wet we were. And somehow I forgot my umbrella..I was going to go straight to the grocery, but I decided to ride the storm out in SweetGreens over dinner of a guacamole salad.

When the rain let up, I ran into Whole Foods (on the way back) for some quick groceries and a muffin.

Muffins/quickbreads are officially my favorite desserts. I’m calling it-muffins will be the next gourmet dessert trend! At least I hope they are…Whole Foods has such good muffins too.

Meanwhile, I’ve been dreaming up new variations of my banana bread. Chocolate raspberry may be next!

Do you like running in the rain? How do you not drown?

That’s a legitimate question!

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….