Sweater Weather

Date: October 9, 2013

Author: astottler

Hey guys! It’s currently 9pm, and I’m camped out in the lounge blogging because my roommate is sleeping. I’m not sure if she’s asleep for the night or just napping, but I thought I’d give her some peace and quiet. I’m currently trying to burn off a sugar high-and if you know me at all, this likely means I won’t be sleeping for the next 3 days. Me+sugar=bad combo.

But let’s start from the top, shall we?

I woke up bright (well, dark) and early for a morning gym workout. The workout was 10 minutes working on snatches, followed by a WOD of 21-15-9-9-15 deadlifts and squat jumps. The workout originally called for burpees, but that would have taken me much more time than I had. The bar was SO ROUGH. My poor hands were getting torn up so badly! I looked around-and there’s only one bar out of like 8 like that at the gym, but they were all full. I then did 5 rounds of 250m row/7 rdls, and finished with some abs. This workout was nothing too crazy-just something to get my blood flowing!

When I walked out of the gym, I was greeted by this:

The weather is starting cool down a little too-it’s sunny but with fall skies and a little bit of bite in the air. I had a long day ahead of me, and it was chilly, so on the way back to the gym, I stopped for a cappuccino.

BEST. THING. EVER. So worth the extra trip-and I went before getting ready instead of on my way to class, so there was no line.

I seriously love this weather-Sweater Weather! Do you guys know the song Sweater Weather? I think that’s going to be stuck in my head any time I wear a sweater. What I wore today was basically the epitome of fall-boots, a sweater, and a scarf.

I’ve been feeling so put together lately in terms of my outfits (ok, technically I’m still wearing leggings…), and I really do think it makes a difference on my outlook of the world. Here’s a sunny selfie of yesterday’s scarf.

Yes, I live in California. Yes, 70 degrees is considered cold.

Today was just such a productive day, and I feel so much better about my classes. I love Mondays and Wednesdays because I have all afternoon to hole up in a library or cafe and just accomplish things. I actually am not minding problem sets-minus Physics. I don’t mind spending hours working things out-as long as I eventually get it. I’ve said it before, but this is really something I was missing last year.

After class, I tried this new to me yogurt.

I saw it on Beth‘s blog a while ago, and have not been able to find it anywhere! Needless to say, I was super excited.

It was delicious! I ended up throwing a couple of dates I had packed for snack on top, and those really complemented the flavors perfectly. Next time, I would throw chopped dates on top.

Here’s a shot of the cafe. Kind of a basement, but cozy and quiet. Several study snacks happened as well.

Like my placemat? I really need to stop eating ON my school things.

Pumpkin bread. Because we know I’m obsessed.

After finished most of my work, I headed back to my room for a run. Since it was in danger of getting dark, I threw on the only long sleeve neon shirt I had. Is it too soon? I don’t think so.

So I set out for 4 miles-I was really in the mood to run. The weather was perfect, I was feeling great…until like .2 miles in when my calf reminded me that I did 600 jump ropes yesterday…and doing that many after not jumping rope in a month will make me sore. I immediately turned back-with my history of calf issues, I was NOT going to push anything this close to the race. So not worth it. I switched gears and went to dinner instead-not a bad alternative!

A really delicious turkey burger, salad, polenta, and fruit. I love turkey burgers. I should seriously just get 2 turkey burgers and veggies and call it a day-and not mess around with the other suspect items.

Paella-it tasted really fishy, so not really my cup of tea. Oh well, can’t win them all.

Then, tonight I had a sorority recruitment event-cookie decorating. Hence the sugar high. It’s the worst kind too-store bought cookies and store bought icing=my body hates me. Eh, live and learn. Here’s my first creation. Not my best work.

And now let’s talk running. Let’s talk races. Let’s talk about the future. I (obviously) have my next half in ELEVEN DAYS. I am SO incredibly excited-and I feel strangely prepared. It helps I’m not injured (knock on wood) right before the race…But being the overeager person that I am, I’m starting to think about what comes next. Life after half marathon training? Huh? First off-I know if I’m not training for a race I’ll never run. It just won’t occur to me. I’m doing a 10k Turkey Trot in November (obviously), and then I’m doing a Santa Run in mid December. This one is a 5k, and I’m racing it to PR. To be fair, I’ve only done one 5k (last year’s Santa Run). And I hadn’t run in a long time-I was in really good shape from rowing, but there wasn’t a ton of running happening. After my half, I’ll be focusing a ton on running fast. I obviously want to PR, but I THINK if I work hard between now and then, I can break 24:00. We shall see.

So…then what? I want to do the Giant’s race….in August. Maybe the Nike women’s again if I like it. But before then? There’s an abyss! BUT. BUT. I think I found a race-and I’m this close to signing up. Rock n Roll San Francisco on April 6. It should be a fun one-it goes across the Golden Gate bridge! I think it would be a good warm up for the Giant’s race, which is a much flatter course and therefore a better one to run hard for a PR. The timing is pretty good too. So…thoughts? GAHH I’m so excited about everything right now!

It’s almost race day!

What’s the best race you’ve done? Suggestions? Favorite part of fall?

Mental Block and Solving the Mystery

Date: June 10, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I am currently in between finals, and since I feel moderately prepared, I figured I’d give my brain a break and blog. (Hmm the fact blogging is a brain break probably doesn’t speak well of my writing…) Also, can you believe tonight is my last night sleeping in this dorm?? I miss my bed at home! It is wayyy more comfortable!

(Recycled photos- sorry!)

Yesterday was my 5 mile training run. So naturally I chose the biggest hill imaginable for this run! It was…very unpleasant. To be fair it was super windy. Yeah, great idea Aurora, on the windiest day of the year, find the highest, most open space. It was also kind of a wake-up call. I had the whole run to think about running. One thing: I really need to train smarter. As in, stick to the training plan. Running 3 days in a row just does not work for me right now, especially when my 5 mile run was less than 24 hours after my previous run. My legs were shot on the first mile, before we even reached the giant hill. Also, I am kind of terrible with recovery. I nee to roll out more and get back to yoga. My legs are soo tight today, but I sent my roller home, and today is a rest day, so I’m not sure I want to go all the way to the gym just to use the foam roller…

Anyway, the other day, Beth raised a really good point- if I don’t focus on my running, my runs will not be very good, and I can’t put all my effort into them. That got me thinking-why aren’t my runs my priority? I haven’t fallen in love with running yet. Why? Because it is HARD. I think one of the biggest reasons I’ve avoided running is because it forces me to stare in the face of the fact that I have definitely lost fitness in the past few months. Running is where that loss is most apparent. By avoiding running, I am somehow avoiding this fact. Running right now is harder for me than it has been in a LONG time, and the fact that it isn’t as easy as I remember takes away from the pleasantness. So that revelation, mixed with the fact that my sister and her boyfriend smoked me on the run yesterday has made me really decide to dedicate myself to this. The problem is, it won’t get easier unless I do it more. So for running to be more enjoyable, I need to push through. The plan is to put more effort into my runs. I’m going to do some speedwork and hills on my shorter runs- the goal of my longer runs is just to get the mileage in my legs. Tomorrow I’m going to face the dreaded treadmill to get a faster paced 3 mile run in. What type of intervals do you guys do to work on speed? I may also add in some sprints- In the past, I was used to doing sprint-centered conditioning 2x a week for softball, which I am sure helped my running.

Ok, now that that all is out of the way, on to the fun stuff! The advantage of running with someone with a car, is afterwards, you can go out to frozen yogurt. We went to Wildberry, which is BY FAR my favorite fro-yo place. I haven’t gone since I had mono, and I’ve been dreaming about it all quarter! Salted caramel pretzel=the best thing ever. That alone won me over.

I didn’t have my phone with me, but I really wanted to share this all with you guys, so I borrowed my sister’s. Right side is salted caramel pretzel, left is plain tart. OMG SOOO GOOD.

My evening was spent in the library ~~learning~~ studying for Chem. Unfortunately, my brain was finished studying before I was. I tried to revive myself with some tea, but alas, I was done for the night.

I am kind of in love with this mug…

The tea was Strawberry Lemonade. The ingredients were all fruit and flower petals. Is it weird that I was wondering whether the leftover tea leaves would be good in oatmeal?

This morning I had a “final.” We played jeopardy…for 3 hours. The brought us breakfast from an awesome cafe, but I must say, jeopardy with dog toy squeakers as the buzzers is not the most conducive environment for studying for a Chem final! Talk about stressful…

Once it was over, I realized I only had 4 hours to completely master Organic Chemistry. Hah. So it was off to the library again, where I saw this guy:Then it was on to lunch.I ended up eating the insides out of the sandwich since I was having the other bread, and didn’t want a carb crash during my test. And as the title of this post says, I am slowing solving the mystery to this Mystery bread. I cam across something online the other day talking about how sunflower seeds undergo a reaction with baking soda (or was it powder?), causing them to turn green. So that explains that. I really took some time to think about the other ingredients today.

Here’s what I’ve determined that this contains: raisins, sunflower seeds, carrots, coconut. And I have no problem solving this mystery one delicious piece of bread at a time. 🙂

Also, I’ve been trying to figure out what to fuel with for before my runs. In the past, I ate pb and banana on toast. However, nuts cause my skin to break out. And I’m not a big fan of working out on nuts- the fat in them kind of messes with my stomach. And I’m a little hesitant to have grains given my sometimes weird reactions to them (which I plan on getting tested about this summer). Any other suggestions? Also, my sister wants to eat sour gummy worms to fuel during the race. Would there be any problems with that?

I would love some long distance running advice!

Almost Done!

Date: June 1, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Friday everybody!

I can’t believe I only have 3 days left of classes! How crazy is that? What’s on tap for me in these next few week? I have 3 finals, only 1 of which I am actually worried about. My half marathon training continues-more on that in a minute. This weekend I have a sorority fancy dinner, a pledge class planned party, a banquet for my dorm, and sorority initiation. Next weekend I have Kitten Nursery orientation! For those that don’t know, I am volunteering at an animal shelter this summer, and I will be working with kittens-so unbelievably pumped. Throwback to Charlie’s kitten days!

This week I have been in a bit of a food and exercise rut. I’ve missed quite a few workouts due to schoolwork, and I haven’t been feeling that great since schoolwork=not sufficient sleep, plus my allergies have been bothering me. I’ve also had a weird headache, which might be allergy related…it is really stupid though because it is likely that my allergies will improve if I change my air filter….but I have so far been too lazy. Whoops!

As far as workouts go, I got some good stuff in Tuesday. Wednesday was devoted to paper writing and studying. Thursday was morning spin. Today I got in a quick weight lifting workout-nothing too crazy, just to get the blood pumping. So what is the common factor that is missing from my week? That’s right, half marathon training. So far I’ve missed 2 runs, but given that it is midterm/finals season, I’m not too concerned. It is still week 1 and the runs are still short. I want to make one of them up today, but I might do that later tonight after my fancy dinner because I feel like I literally just showered, and don’t particularly care to shower yet again. It is sad that being freshly showered (aka being too clean) has prevented me more than once from doing a workout…

But now on to eats! Yesterday, I went to 4 coffee shops, and spent time working in 3 of them. Don’t worry, I did not get coffee 4 times. Otherwise yesterday’s post would HAVE BEEN LIKE THISSSSSSS.

Here is some deliciousness from the past couple of days:Salad with hard boiled egg, garlic hummus, and some type of corn salad. This was surprisingly delicious- I’ll need to recreate it this summer for sure!I made a chicken burger at the dining hall with a piece of grilled chicken and a whole wheat english muffin. I don’t know why I’ve never done this before-it was so good! Plus a vat of ketchup on the side. My side of the dining hall always runs out of ketchup, so I had to run to the other side to grab a bowl of it. Yes, a whole bowl of it. If I was going to that much effort, I didn’t want to run out!Yesterday morning I didn’t feel that great (thanks 4+ hours of sleep) so after spin, all my body was craving was a green smoothie. I put a ton of spinach in, and this was still tasty! Spinach, yogurt, peaches, strawberries, banana. I think the key was using water to blend it instead of milk. Sidenote- I topped my egg whites with cream cheese to make them more interesting. However, I first topped them with whipped cream on accident…not feeling that!
/>Yesterday’s cappuccino. I had to share this picture because in taking it, I spilled my drink everywhere. The things I do for you guys!Delicious salad- blue cheese, apples, pears, walnuts. I also realized yesterday that if I want any hope of going to the Healthy Living Summit, I need to stop shelling out so much money on expensive salads and fancy coffee drinks. More delicious mystery bread. I have absolutely no clue what is in it, but it’s sooo good. I know it at least has sunflower seeds, carrots, and raisins. Not sure what else though. I need to ask sometime! Hey, I’ll take another excuse to go back!

This afternoon has been pretty low key so far. I am expecting a fun and busy weekend though! I have 3 days of classes, and then Dead Day. Yes, one day (welcome to college…), and then finals! Finals are Fri, Sat, Mon, Tues, Weds, but my first isn’t until Monday. Hope everyone has an awesome week!

Do you ever skip workouts?