(Nearly) Every Spin Playlist

Date: February 14, 2016

Author: astottler

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.

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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!

TOL: Apparently Current Obsessions

Date: January 13, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! Today I’m linking up with Amanda for Thinking Out Loud, for I believe the 2nd time?

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To those who are new, Thinking Out Loud is a fun linkup where everyone shares random thoughts!

So when I was thinking up what to write about today, I realized that the theme seems to be my current obsessions. So we’ll go with it. Sort of.

I’m still obsessed with Raaw Macaw bars. Thanks to nut allergy+gluten restriction, my bar choices are limited to basically Luna bars. Which I was getting dreadfully sick up. Enter Raaw Macaw (note: I am definitely not sponsored, just obsessed). You basically get to design your own energy bar and decide what you want in it, and they’ll make it taste good for you and send them! My first had a date and sunflower seed base, with chia seeds and chocolate chips. I was struck with inspiration last week and designed a second, more sunflower-y bar and immediately ordered it. This has just a sunflower base (it has a less chewy texture), whey protein, cinnamon, sea salt, chocolate chips, and dried tart cherries.
I’m also obsessed with timehop right now, that app that goes through your phone and shows you memories from that day x years ago. I’ve enjoyed watching my kitties grow up again!
We have a new chef at my dorm/house and I LOVE him. The food is amazing, and he is fantastic about making me and my friend GF options. I missed lunch the other day while I was at class, and came home to a sandwich with my name on it in the fridge. And a delicious one at that—BLT with no B and avocado instead! The teriyaki salmon bowls and the Mexican food were insane.
My puppy got her first trim. She is 1000X more adorable. She also seems tiny.
On Sunday I went home to visit my high school friend. I hadn’t seen her since right before I got Chloe! We took her for a looong walk along the bay. I think it’s so beautiful here in the winter.
Going home also meant a home cooked meal. The highlight? Persimmon crisp. SO good. My mom used the same recipe that we normally use for blueberry crisp and I probably ate half the pan.
My roommate currently has some sort of stomach bug. I love her and hope she feels better but I also really, really don’t want to get it to! I’m terrified!
I’m still so obsessed with our new Crossfit sweatshirts. It is the comfiest thing ever.
Speaking of fitness, my spin classes started up again this week! They are seriously a blast. I spent all of the break finding new music, and I think I have about 30 new songs, which adds fresh energy to the class. So far, classes have been filling up, with a wait list! The beginning of the quarter is especially fun because we have a lot of first timers, or people who haven’t done spin in a while. I love watching their progression throughout the quarter! Not so fun? My mic died in class today. It started at 2/3 bars and then was just done. Luckily, I tend to be pretty loud, but I’m definitely losing my voice now!

What are you thinking this week?

Not According to Plan

Date: October 21, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! My brain kind of feels like it’s melted today. It’s midterm week, and I swear doing 200m sprints just takes a lot out of my brain. That’s weird, isn’t it? Anyways, the point is that I feel like I’m making no sense right now but I thought I’d share some things.

Last weekend I found a cat. I was eating outside the house with some friends and it walked right up. I THINK I’ve seen it a couple of times before. It walked right up to the kitchen window. I naturally let it in the door and fed it some leftover trout from a meal earlier in the week. <3

Currently eating this breakfast-apple, cottage cheese, sun butter. It feels like fall! The weather here is…weird. It’s been hot. The leaves are FINALLY changing, so I’ve been itching to get outside and run! I can tell it’s fall, but like I said, it’s weird. Today it was SO COLD (by CA standards) this morning, and then it was like 80.

Last week I woke up at the $%&&%$% of dawn to go to a spin class near home because the class is awesome and my purchase of a class was about to expire. Green smoothie to recover. Class was awesome as expected, and it was still dark when I got out

Indian food last week. It was mediocre but the gluten free naan was AWESOME.

Pulled chicken and veggie sliders on a very dry GF bun. The insides were at least good!

FOOTBALL. I finally made it to a game. We crushed UCLA (YAY) and I had an awesome view (form the end zone) of the most epic catch ever. Google “Stanford the catch” because it was insane. So nice to be out there!

So I lost my phone briefly. I had it at my softball game but sometime from my car to the dugout it disappeared. Long story short, I spent forever looking for it driving all around creation, and it turned out it took an extra set of eyes to find it. I honestly don’t think I ever would have found it. It was in a bag in my car-hidden under a flap. As a result, I got a visit from the pup! She’s getting so big!

You can’t see super well from these photos but the other week I got these long sleeved shirts that I am OBSESSED with. I got them in 4 colors and now I also really want a deep red one.

Awesome lunch-Mexican food made into a salad. The guac was on point.

Whole Foods dinner post-Crossfit. I wanted something on the lighter side with plenty of veggies. I was going to miss dinner, and since we’re currently trying out new chefs, there has not been enough food lately so I knew there would be nothing left. Plus, I picked up lunch for today!

I finally found a salad bar combo that I like! I feel like I’m always the worst at making my own salads. Chicken, grapes, bleu cheese, balsamic. Don’t knock it til you try it! Plus Mary’s crackers.

Finally-I had an interesting spin class today. This is my first time with major technical difficulties. I’ve had the mic die, but this was worse. I was using a playlist I taught last spring to at my other gym, and the choreography was complicated and pretty specific to the songs. Then on the 3rd song my playlist skipped to the 2nd to last song and I couldn’t get it to go back. I was using my Schwinn app, so I switched to iTunes on my phone. That malfunctioned as well! I chose a random playlist and taught a song from it while realizing that a random playlist would never work with the class I had drawn up. While cuing, I scrambled around and found the playlist on my iPod. Thankfully, I had it right there because I use it to play music as people walk in since I have to check them in on my phone. And thankfully, the playlist was on my iPod and it worked! I haven’t been putting them on my iPod that much since I started using my app so it was so lucky! My back up to my back up saved the day!

WHEW. I think it’s about time I go back to studying.

I Drowned My iPod…Again…

Date: January 15, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s little flashback! My mom texted me saying it really showed how tough things were for me then…my gosh yes. I get tired just reading that post! That was also about a month before my body eventually protested and I got super sick with mono.

I really do wish I did more descriptive type of posts though instead of random food dump! I think part of the reason I’m more reticent now is that I don’t psychoanalyze everything that I eat. My posts are therefore more sane.I swear, each year I get more sane. Or something. I was reading some posts from last spring-I was probably the most psycho then. And I ate so much! Mono really messed up my system and I had some crazy eating habits for a while…So anyways. My Thursday.

I have 9am class Tues/Thurs so I woke up nice and early to hit the track for a speed workout. It was really cold-I biked to the track and by the time I got there, my fingers were screaming. I’m such a California wimp. I was looking up weather in Minnesota-it said “feels like -32.” That is literally unfathomable to me. That’s basically absolute zero, right..? It’s so cold molecules have no energy…life is not sustainable…ok maybe not but that’s rough!

Anyways, I arrived at the track to find my iPod dripping wet and completely freaking out. Merp. I have a camelbak water bottle. I LOVE it, but when it gets a little old, it starts leaking pretty badly from the top. Yeah. I wasn’t 100% sure that was the problem initially because my iPod was acting like it was a tech issue, but by the afternoon I could the little water damage indicator was showing. I have a 6th generation nano-it’s perfect for exercise because it’s small and has a build in clip-but I don’t think I’m going to try and replace it with the same model. This is my 4th that I’ve killed-they told me this model was susceptible to water damage more than some others. I lost my first 2 to water damage due to sweat during exercise when I was doing my indoor rowing workouts for crew. And then this past summer I dropped it and the power button jammed. I think it may be time to move on!

The workout went pretty well-8x400m on the track. I wore a watch and tried to keep my pace at 8:00 which was harder than expected, although I’m going to partially blame the temperature. Either way, I have a lot of work to do before my race!

Post workout, I decided to stop in the dining hall for breakfast because I have very little food (as will be evidenced later).

I also had coffee. I have whole milk in my room, and instant coffee, which is a)surprisingly good (it’s Starbucks) and b)surprisingly effective. Better than dining hall coffee! I only needed a little boost, so I put half a packet into a cup of hot milk. Perfect!

I had initially planned on packing a lunch, but since I knew I’d miss dinner I decided to have something a little hardier at the dining hall.

Really delicious bleu cheese and pear flatbread. And then a Napa cabbage salad with miso dressing, curry roasted butternut squash, fried rice, and teriyaki salmon. It was a good one today, and I’m glad I made the decision to go to the dining hall!

I also had dessert-a small coconut lemon square and a couple of cubes of pound cake.

I thought about going back for another one, but after waiting a few minutes for things to settle, I decided not to get too crazy before teaching spin in the evening.

One thing about reading old posts? I remembered that naps are pretty cool. So I took one. I have this weird habit of waking up from naps in a complete daze. I think I dreamt my alarm went off…and then it did? Or maybe I fell back asleep while it was going off, only to wake up again immediately? I don’t know.

I also have a weird habit of waking up from naps and shoving food in my face. I can’t explain this one. I area a few pieces of dark chocolate-the last of the Christmas chocolate that I saved. With one notable exception:

I got these salted caramels from my spin teacher. Instead of going too crazy post-holidays and trying to cut out all sugar, I plan on having one of these every evening. It’s not the only dessert I’ll have, but knowing it will be there later keeps me from overindulging too much. I think when I run out I’m going to fill the box with something else and do the same thing!

Later in the afternoon, I left for spin. I leave pretty early to beat rush hour traffic, and then do Physiology reading while I wait. While spin is kind of a long drive away, I really cherish this time. My car is a pretty fun car to drive (when it decides to cooperate and not give me engine problems), I can listen to music, of course teach spin, but also spend some quiet forced time with my textbook. Physiology is my favorite. I want to know everything about how every system in the body works, down to the molecular level, so I really don’t mind the fact that my textbook is 1200 pages long. It’s just so cool!

Teaching the class went well! I did a different style class then I normally do, just in that I did some different type of moves, like doing a minute long sprint split between standing and seated. It was my biggest class yet though!

When I got back, I wasn’t super hungry but knew I needed to refuel with my paltry supply of dorm room food. I tried to hit all the food groups, focusing on muscle recovery!

Fats-whole milk plus some sunflower seed butter (I have butterscotch, and it’s delicious!)

Vegetables- carrots in the microwave, tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and Greek seasoning

Protein- milk

Carbs-hot chocolate mix

Let’s just go with it, ok? I wanted to try some Starbucks caramel hot chocolate mix I had. Since chocolate milk is perfect for post-workout, I figured this was basically the same thing! I was pleasantly surprised-this was really good! I was expecting it to be super sweet but that was not the case.

While it may not have been the grandest of dinners, it seemed to do the job!

Also-fun fact, I’m going to Disneyland tomorrow with my dorm! I haven’t been since 8th grade so it should be fun!

How have your eating habits changed in the last 2 years? How has your mindset changed?

Making a Spin Class

Date: January 11, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I need to write a spin class tonight, so I thought this would be a good time to do a post on it!

Just a disclaimer-I’m just one of many spin teachers. Everyone has a different style and method, this is just what my process looks like!

1. AUDIENCE. This is super, incredibly essential. Who are you giving the class too? Will they like nothing but Top 40? Will they like country music? Rock? What age group? What is the fitness level? It’s great for you to enjoy your own class, but the students need to enjoy it as well!

2. (Hopefully) go to another instructor’s class for inspiration. This is so helpful, especially since I’m a less experienced instructor! You get a sense of what works and what doesn’t, and song ideas are SUPER helpful!

3. Decide on a profile. I usually come up with a general profile before finding specific songs, and then I try to fill in the songs. This can change too!

4. Find songs. This is the hard part. I can spend hours surfing on iTunes looking for the perfect song. I recently discovered that if you search any song name + “workout” you can usually find a workout mix, which may be perfect if the song isn’t upbeat enough for the class. Generally I search for something with a good beat. I have some go-to songs, but I try to mix it up as much as possible!

5. Decide on the specifics for each part. This is the choreography. More experienced instructors probably don’t need to do this, but I would highly recommend it when you start out! This means when to do jumps, when to do sprints, what you do on the hill, etc.

6. Make sure your songs and profile flow well. Do you want your hill to go from a sprint to a crawl in terms of music? This can definitely work, but you don’t want surprises while you’re teaching, and not every combination works.

7. If you don’t practice the playlist before you teach, at the very least, you need to listen to it. Every second of every song. It’s amazing how many songs don’t sound inappropriate until you imagine blasting them from speakers in class. So check first! Most gyms also don’t allow swearing so watch out for that!

8. If you can, PRACTICE! I often make adjustments to my choreography based on how things feel when I’m on a bike. I’ve also made some pretty bad playlists that I tried prior to teaching them, and was able to make a few simple swaps so they were much better!

That’s just my process-it takes a while to make each playlist, but it’s totally worth it!