Thanksgiving Eve

Date: November 27, 2013

Author: astottler

If you’re reading this on Thanksgiving, then Happy Thanksgiving! I wanted to pop in quickly to share some eats from Thanksgiving Eve (it’s currently Wednesday night).

Today was our last day in Napa. We decided to go out for a nice breakfast at the hotel restaurant. I ordered fruit with yogurt, which was of course delicious.

What really stole the show was the Belgian waffle. Can you believe I hadn’t had a waffle in months? I haven’t had one at school yet-it used to be a weekly thing! My closest dining hall doesn’t have frozen blueberries to top it with (so totally not worth it) and the lines at the other dining hall WITH the berries are insane, so that’s not happening. But this little guy was fantastic! My family ordered one for the table to share.

Topped with vanilla berry compote.

On our way into downtown, we made a stop at Whole Foods-the granola bar I wanted to eat before my Turkey Trot is no longer carried by my local Whole Foods-sadly we struck out in Napa as well so I’m going into the race on an untested breakfast (YOLO). However, we did see that this Whole Foods had a coffee bar, and decided it would probably be a good idea to test it out.

A cappuccino-of course. I also tried some of my mom’s Pumpkin Spice Caramel latte, and I actually really liked it! I normally can’t do sweet coffee, but this wasn’t too sweet (ok, or that coffee-y). Maybe next time!

After walking around downtown, we stopped in an interesting marketplace for lunch. We decided on a Venezuelan place, and each ordered an arepa.

It should be no surprise that mine had avocado! It also had tofu, plaintain, black bean, and garlic aioli, all on a sweet corn “bun.” Delish!

And since we were in a marketplace, there were plenty of dessert options. I had a pumpkin pie cupcake-it was filled with caramel! I probably could have done without the buttery icing though!

And on our way out, we stopped at an Italian bakery for what were more or less cream puffs-mine was milk and honey.

Dinner later was a new to me flavor of kombucha, plus broccoli and an omelet with mushrooms, spinach, and gouda.

And of course, I’m enjoying plenty of love from this guy.

Now, I’m off to hopefully fall asleep and dream of trotting turkeys! I have my playlist made (which may or may not be half Christmas music), my clothes laid out, and my alarm set! Now I just need to get sleepy…maybe I’ll go read my textbook for school-that should do the trick! Yayy finals in a week.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! Enjoy your Turkey Trots, but make sure to take in all the precious family time you can get!

Fitness Thoughts Monday

Date: November 11, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Is Fitness Thoughts Monday a thing? I guess it’s going to be because I have a lot of fitness thoughts.

I thought I was a lot less sore this morning. But when you have to pump yourself up to walk halfway across the room, maybe that’s not the case. Well, either way, I started the morning off with a timed mile. My legs felt fresh and incredibly sore at the same time-is that possible? My time was 24 seconds faster than my last timed mile (soon after mono), but about 40 s from my PR, but I didn’t feel dead at the end at all, which I think means I could have gone a lot faster. Actually, to be honest, I think that actually might be an attainable 5k pace. Maybe. With lots of adrenaline and fresh legs?

I think I need to get used to running fast again and pushing myself. It’s a totally different mental game, and practice makes perfect! I think next time I would run without my Garmin, and just a stopwatch. Knowing my pace has the tendency to make me a little too complacent-I was already planning on running the race sans Garmin; knowing the pace shouldn’t help me-if I’m not dying I should be going faster! It’s as fast as I can go and that’s that.

After my timed mile, I ran to total an hour of running. My feet started hurting a bit so I found a field and did some barefoot running. It was nice and wet-yuck! Anyways, after half a lap, my foot pain faded away. I ran for about 10 minutes shoeless, and my feet felt awesome. Even when I put my shoes back on, my feet felt better and I was going faster. I might start some runs without shoes just to get feel for proper running form-it’s definitely something I need to work on!

Some more fitness thoughts-I was starting to wonder if I’m lifting too much and it’s hindering my running. And then I realized that last Thursday I was thinking I was not lifting enough. Ohh what soreness will do to you.

Also-today I was really missing rowing. I was looking at some of my rowing friends’ facebook pictures and it made me really miss that time! I miss my team, I miss being in amazing shape, I miss the water.

(I’m in the blue.)

I also miss my rowing body! To be fair though, I actually lost quite a bit of muscle in my legs because I didn’t lift much last fall.

At the same time, today in Physics, I was sitting near one of my former teammates. I had slept a lot in the past few days, and was well rested and alert. She was nodding off the whole class. So there are definitely some parts I don’t miss!

I really do want to gain some of the rowing fitness I had last fall-I think it really did help my running, even if it was only because it increased my pain threshold. The most painful workout I’ve ever done is by far a 6k test. Yes, worse than hitting the wall in a half. A 6k test was an all out sprint on the erg…for about 24 minutes. I want to get serious about working more erging into my routine-it just hasn’t happened so far!

On another note, I actually finished my Crossfit workout in the fastest time all day. How did that happen?? To be fair-I can’t do real pull ups so I did them banded, and I can’t do handstand push ups so I did them off a box. But I did do the front squats at full weight!

(Old pic-I definitely did not do the WOD this heavy!)

One thing that is super frustrating to me right now is my weight. I’m very fit, but I know that the few extra pounds from where I want to be are preventing me from reaching some fitness goals. If I was where I want to be, I’m pretty sure I could do a pull up because I’m getting really close! And my running would be a lot faster too! And I’m a little worried about the upcoming holidays, to be perfectly honest. This all is part of why I made a meal plan for myself-I want to increase my fitness and strength while dropping some body fat. Which means fueling smart-the right things at the right times. For example, after my squat workout on Saturday, I didn’t refuel until at least 2 hours later, and I’m pretty sure that’s part of why I’ve been insanely sore. I stuck pretty closely to my plan today-with a few exceptions:

My roommate is the best. She went home over the weekend and brought these back from her trees. SO good.

I was 3 persimmons and half a Thinkthin bar off today’s plan, which I consider to be pretty good! I just regret the bar and persimmon #2 because they were a little close to Crossfit and gave me a little bit of a stomachache. My food isn’t terribly interesting right now-if I’m not a fan of dining hall food (it just is really boring), I might as well try to eat really clean for performance. But here are a few things of interest!

I’m not sure what I think of this. I guess I’m not a fan-it didn’t taste that spicy but just kind of made my throat burn! And while I do like Kevita, it has Stevia which I really don’t like, and leaves a weird aftertaste.

And my post-workout dinner: sundried tomato chicken sausage, green beans, and brown rice.

Overall, I felt really good today about my food intake. It’s good to eat something besides dates! (I’m only sort of kidding about this. Plus I’m out of dates…)

You know what is interesting though? When I have my favorite dried fruits on hand (mango and dates), I’m not tempted at all by other sweets! And dried fruit doesn’t cause the same cravings that table sugar does, which is awesome.

And yayy we’re only two weeks away from Thanksgiving! I can’t wait for the time off, plus kitty time!

Do you have any Thanksgiving plans?

My family always goes to Napa fro Thanksgiving, but this year we’re going the few days before so I can do a Turkey Trot!

Sweater Weather

Date: October 9, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

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?

So Much Excitement

Date: August 5, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I really should have waited to post again so I’d have more to show you guys, but I’m brimming with excitement. I’ve caught the running bug.

Why is it that we catch the running bug after a race-when we are physically incapable of running? I’m feeling way better now, but I am SORE. I was shuffling around like an old lady all morning. My hips-ouchhh. I guess this is what I get for racing way faster than my training runs…oops.

To further my old lady tendencies, I drank my breakfast through a straw….in the form of a chocolate green protein smoothie. And now the exciting news-what I spent my morning doing! GUESS WHAT? I’m now going to write a fitness blog for my hometown’s local online newspaper! I am so incredibly excited for this opportunity! I’ll share the links with you guys, and of course any fun workouts 🙂

However, I had so much trouble with the site today. I created the blog-it’s called Fitness 101. But man oh man did it make me miss WordPress. The site was not cooperating with me AT ALL. So I have my post sitting here on my computer, with no way to actually post it….

But still, I am extremely excited for this. I saw the ad for the position, and didn’t really think I’d actually get this opportunity. But hey, sometimes you just have to take a chance, right? I can’t wait to actually get some posts up! I’m thinking my next one will be First Half Training 101.

After some frustration, I broke for lunch. English muffin pizzas- pizza sauce (which for some crazy reason we had), spinach, and mozzarella on a whole wheat English muffin. As you can probably tell, all we had was string cheese.

Plus some celery and orange fleshed melon on the side. No, that is not cantaloupe; it’s better! I’m not exactly sure what kind of melon it was, but I think it was a cross between a cantaloupe and a honeydew. SO delicious-it was sweeter than plain old cantaloupe!

After lunch I started ~~plotting~~ planning. My next race is the Nike Women’s Marathon (the half) in October. My goal is to break 2:10. This race is known for being hilly, so I looked up as many reviews of the race as possible. Apparently it’s really poorly run, and the race etiquette is awful. A ton of people walk it, and don’t really move for runners. Even worse, a ton of people commented saying that walkers starting in the wrong race corals, like 9:00 pace. Given all that, it may be a frustrating race for me to try and PR, just because of all the traffic. I’m still going to train for it though!

I’m planning on doing training a little differently. After my race, I know I can run faster than I trained for. Now, to break 2:10, I think my goal is to be to maintain a 9:30 pace on my Garmin-for almost the entire run my Garmin read below 10:00 but I stopped a few seconds to stretch here or there, and walked through water and to take my goo. Plus, hills will definitely slow me down. If I stay below or at 9:30 (which now I really think I can do), I should break 2:10, taking into account the above factors.

Since I now have a half under my belt, I’m going to do training a little differently. I’m going to do speed runs, instead of just trying to get the mileage in. What does that mean? I’m going to mix in some intervals, some repeats, and some tempo runs. All my training will target a 9:30 pace.

But then I started thinking towards the future and getting even more race happy. I decided to make a Race page on the blog-check it out! It has all the races I’ve run, including PRs. Although I’ve only run each distance once, so everything is a PR….

So looking even farther into the future-after Nike, I think I’m going to take a break from halfs. I think maybe a late spring/early summer would be a good time for another one. The Giant Race was an awesome race, and might be a good one to try and PR on a half, but Im seriously considering doing the 10k….and racing to win. First place in my age group (for next year) was 47 minutes. If I ran an 8 minute pace, I’d place. And I think with training that’s definitely doable.

As for the slightly more near term: post-Nike I’m going to train to PR a 5k at the Santa Run. I’ve been dying to do a Turkey Trot, but I’m planning on doing the 10k for that (and probably not trying a PR). I actually looked up my Santa Run time from last year….and it’s a minute faster than I thought it was. I had an 8:01 pace, which means to PR I’d have to break 8 minutes. I do think that’s doable but it’ll take some work.

Here’s to some new PRs this fall!

How do you train for races? What’s your favorite distance? Do you like nerding out about running too? (I’m looking at you Beth.)