Back into Back to Back Running

Date: October 28, 2014

Author: astottler

Happy midway-through-the-week! How are you all doing? I’m not doing so great. I feel like someone lunched me in the stomach after that last baseball game….Let’s hope we can rally for game 7! The worst part is I have a midterm right through the end of the game…I’m going to be a mess.

There’s a topic I’m thinking about writing, but that’s for another day. I thought I’d go over some workouts as of late! Let’s take it back about a week, shall we?

Wednesday: 5 mile run. Supposed to be 6 but I was running late! Whoops.

Thursday: 45 minute Soul Cycle class. It kills me that I have no way of going to spin regularly. Once the World Series is over, I should be able to fit more spinning in, at least on my own.

Friday: Track workout! It has been months and months and months since my last one. I started out with my favorite-10x400m. I didn’t kill myself on the pace or anything, but I have a lot of work to do! I followed that up with 200 sit ups because I never do abs. Whoops.

Saturday: Rest!

Sunday: 6 mile run. Longest run post-injury-induced running break! It was pretty uneventful, but my pace was a little bit better! I’m loving this fall weather too. I want to make 6 miles my standard distance for now. I found a perfect turnaround point, so I don’t have to always run with my watch, which is more relaxing.

Monday: 4 mile run. Nothing crazy, just the basic campus loop. This was a big deal though because this is the first time I’ve done back to back runs. It only worked because I took really good care of my feet on Sunday-ice and Advil, plus my night braces! Those things help so much!

Also-Crossfit. We worked on push press and pull ups for the strength portion. The WOD was a 20 minute AMRAP of the follow:

400m run (I wore my running shoes instead of Crossfit shoes and my feet thanked me)

20 wall balls

10 burpees

I finished 4 rounds plus a run, and my hips are feeling it today! One thing I will say though-as much as I hate burpees, all the workouts we’ve done lately have been…50 burpees. Straight. So 10 feels like a breeze!

Tuesday: Morning Crossfit. I love the morning classes but with the cold weather rapidly approaching, my morning days are numbered. I’m not about lifting weights in 29 degrees. Ugh.

For strength, we did power cleans. We did sets of 2, every minute on the minute for 10 minutes, and added 5# every minute. I started at 80 with the goal of working up to 120….yeah there’s definitely something wrong with my math there! I ended up failing fantastically on the second rep at 125# and totally wiping out. Fun fact-if you fall over backwards on your butt on an Olympic lifting platform with enough force, you slide pretty far. I felt ridiculous, but I’m pretty sure no one saw me totally fall.

The WOD was much less eventful!

5 rds:

350 m row(yeah, weird number)

6 thrusters

8 hang power cleans

10 burpees

I ended up using 75#. I tried to use 65, but was promptly told to add weight. Whoops.

And that just about wraps it up! Have a great Wednesday!

Sights On a Long Run

Date: August 17, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Sunday! I guess I still have some energy to blog! Today was my longest run of half marathon training, so I’m OFFICIALLY in taper mode! Yay!

Breakfast was plain greek yogurt+sunbutter+banana mashed with cocoa powder.

As for fueling on the run, I spiked my water bottle with coconut water. Worst. Decision. Ever. First worst decision though was buying plain coconut water instead of pineapple. I actually like pineapple-can’t stand plain. I thought plain would blend better with my water (that I wouldn’t taste it as much) but boy was I wrong. I think I gagged every time I took a drink. Blech.

I actually brought my phone (in case I passed out or died midway-never know!) so I got some pictures of today’s scenic route.

I also made myself choke down some water every mile or so. It was hot and humid today so that was a priority.

At the halfway point, I ate my Cliff chocolate goo. I think this is the only brand and flavor I could ever race with. Every other type I’ve tried (even other Cliff flavors) give me coughing fits. Which is fine on a training run (well, fine-ish), attempting to choke it down without losing a lung would be difficult. I think it is because this flavor is a bit thicker and less sickly sweet. I really wanted salted caramel for this run (because electrolytes) but I didn’t make it to the store on time.

I didn’t have any expectations on this run, other than to try and finish. From the very start, my legs fell into a faster pace. My calves felt tighter running slower so that was that.

Even though I got a new audiobook last night, I ran to music because I wanted to start with something to pump me up a bit. I didn’t plan to have music the whole way, but it was working for me. Plus, my route was pretty interesting and varied. From Georgetown to the river, past Jefferson, over the river to the Mt. Vernon trail, past the airport, back, and then from Lincoln through the National Mall.

I hit Lincoln around mile 10, and it was SO awesome because those were the first working drinking fountains on my run. I only had a bit of water left, and it was the nasty coconut mix so having fresh water was heaven.

Also-funny story. At mile 11, I totally wiped out in from of the Washington Monument. Luckily the ground was smooth stone so I kind of just slid, with just a bit of a scrape and bruise on my knee. Another reason to run in pants!

I finished perfectly at my lunch location of choice.

And out of nowhere, I had just completed my best ever 12 mile training run.

I never really felt like death, and my legs just locked into a rhythm. Hopefully this bodes well for PRing my race! I finished feeling good. And hungry. Definitely an improvement from last week when I just felt kind of gross.

I finished at The Protein Bar, and got a chocolate protein shake and a BBQ chicken “bar-rito” with avocado.

It has quinoa, not rice! So delicious. I’m getting hungry again just thinking about it. Or maybe that’s because I ran 12 miles? I honestly think the 11 mile run the week prior in my training plan is one of the worst-or at least it typically has been in my training! I get locked in a bit more by the time I hit the 12 miler. Also-totally random but on the way back I ran into a friend from school on the street who lives in DC!

On my way back, I decided to check one item off my DC dessert bucket list. Chocolate cream cheese muffin from a nearby coffee shop. It was kind of like marble creed/cream cheese. My weakness. So good. I actually had a chocolate muffin the night before the big run, and I think the carb loading helped.

After cleaning myself up a lot, I met up with a friend for frozen yogurt. I wasn’t exactly feeling it after the muffin, so I just got tart with fruit.

We walked around the National Mall and Capital Building a bit, and then found the Supreme Court!

Take note of the compression socks. Those things are seriously magic.

On my way home, I stopped for a salad-the same one as the other day. It was delicious-feta, watermelon, chicken, etc.

Aaand now I know I’m going to sleep well tonight. I felt so much better all day today than after my last long run! But I am certainly going to sleep well tonight…

What is your worst run of training?

Ski Trip Recap

Date: January 28, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve posted! I had an amazing weekend, but I ate terribly. So I’ll say it right out: yes, I did break my no sugar challenge. I had been walking the edge of the definition of “no sweets” the past few days, and I basically crossed the line by the middle of yesterday. The straw that broke the camel’s back? This little guy:

But more on that later. I’m going to describe the trip in more detail first! Friday we bussed out to Lake Tahoe. This ended up taking a really long time because we hit the worst rush hour traffic. We didn’t get in until around 8, and we left around 2. And the drive definitely shouldn’t take that long! After settling in to our rooms (we stayed in a group lodge), we started on dinner, which was make your own pizza.

I was smart and took a chunk out before it cooked so I could tell it was mine! The bottom was a little black though…we set the fire alarm off multiple times, and that seemed to be the signal that the pizzas were done. I don’t think the ovens there were very good! I also had some carrots and celery dipped in ranch. So the carb and saturated fat fest begins! That was basically all the food this weekend…plus sugar. And see the problem is, as I’ve talked about in my glucose post, too many carbs, especially white ones, make you crave even more carbs. So basically I ate a ton of carbs this weekend. I believe I had a piece on peanut butter on bread after dinner, as well as a granola bar.

I had a fun night hanging out with my dorm mates. There was a hot tub, which was nice. I planned on doing a sizable amount of work this trip, so I hadn’t planned on going in the hot tub and walked out there with my Ochem book. I ended up staying there and leaving my book in a pile of clothes…not a very good idea. My book is now rather wrinkled. Oops.

Saturday morning, it was time to hit the slopes. Breakfast:

Plus, lucky charms. See, I was walking the line. With the blueberry muffin too! I think as my challenge progressed, I got more lax with what I considered a “sweet”.

Before I talk about skiing, let me first say that I’ve only skied once before in my life, 2 years ago. Luckily, I had some friends help me out. One of them hadn’t really skied before either, and the other 2 were decent skiers. After being re-taught how to put my skis on, we hit the bunny slope. It was a lot easier than I was expecting, certainly easier than the slope I went on last time. After 2 runs on that, we decided to try out some other slopes.

We took the main lift up, and enjoyed an absolutely stunning view of the lake.

These are not my pictures, they were shamelessly stolen from my friend’s facebook. But I was with him, so it counts, right?

We got to the top, which was the main skiing area, with a ton of different hill choices. We chose a green. Well, as it turns out, this one was a lot more difficult than the bunny slope. As it turns out, my biggest problem when skiing is slowing down. And stopping. I have a very hard time not going down the mountain like a bat out of hell. Combine that with the fact that there were a ton of ~~obstacles~~ other skiers on the mountain, and I didn’t particularly want to plow down any small children, and we’ve got a bit of a problem. I had very little room to manipulate, or go down the mountain side to side. Sooo I wiped out. I’ve never really wiped out on a real slope before so it was interesting. Luckily my friends helped me figure out how to get up…I was so happy I had my helmet on though, or it could have been really bad, because my first fall I landed right on my head. I fell again. And then I fell on a reasonable slope, fairly badly. And by badly I mean, I wasn’t hurt buuut my poles went flying. And as it turns out, one went over the edge of the slope. So I had to climb down and get it. Now I’m not saying I scaled a cliff or anything, but it was interesting…especially because the snow wasn’t packed in at all, so coming back up the snow just compressed and I felt like I wasn’t going anywhere. But I survived (not that I was ever in danger…) At that point, I decided that falling on my head again was not the best idea (I had a faint, very faint headache, but nothing more than what I’d feel from diving for a softball), so I just walked down the mountain, and took the lift back down.

At that point, it was lunchtime! The ski place actually had quite a few options. I was tempted to get chowder in a bread bowl, but I figured I should probably have some type of nutrient, and I’m glad I did! I got a Mexican salad burrito bowl, with guacamole.

It was good! Someone else got a burrito, and it was actually the biggest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. It was crazy! The food there was super expensive though, but guess that’s to be expected. I continued walking the line with a oatmeal raisin cliff bar and blueberry muffin #2.

Sorry for the terrible picture! Before lunch, I had returned my skis because I figured another bad fall could be dangerous, so I spent the time after lunch plotting how I could get back to the lodge sooner than the bus we took there, which wasn’t going to leave for 3 more hours. I had no work with me, and tons back at the lodge. After much debate and research, a few dorm mates and I took 2 buses, plus walked a mile, and made it back, saving ourselves about an hour and a half. The trip back took a while, but hey, we still saved time!

Back at the lodge, I ate a half a bagel with cream cheese, and yes, another blueberry muffin. Do you see the problem here? Lots of carbs! I worked until dinner, and right before dinner I had some hot chocolate. At this point I realized my sugar challenge was hot, especially since there was a big old chocolate cake staring at me.

Dinner was vegetable lasagna, plus LOTS of bread with butter (definitely had more than is shown here), plus a salad I scrounged up. Now, don’t let those greens fool you. They’re smothered in ranch! There was sooo much cheese and dairy here. Now I understand what my teammates were talking about! Ugh. After dinner was the cake. And believe me, don’t let that small piece fool you! Let’s just say that the cake was sitting out in the open for a while…Plus S’mores…ughhh. I vowed I would eat healthy today, but let’s be honest, that seriously didn’t happen. Saturday was another good night, I got some more work done and then caught up with my friends.

By breakfast the next morning, there was absolutely no fruit left. I’m not even going to go in to my breakfast because it was downright embarrassing, but whatever you are imagining my breakfast is, make it 1000x worse and you’ll have my morning meal. Needless to say I haven’t been feeling too great the last few days! Sooo many carbs! After packing up, we rushed out a little earlier than planned, because there was a big snowstorm coming. We got out around 12, and it was snowing all morning! So beautiful! I tried to get an “it’s snowing picture,” but you can’t see a lot.

During the bus ride back, we hit some pretty bad traffic right away, but I managed to snap a few pictures!

After the bus ride, I’m pretty well rested! My neck is super sore though. It’s partly from sleeping strangely earlier this week as well as this weekend, but I think it’s a little sore from wiping out as well! I only have a few bruises though (on my shin).

We arrived just in time for dinner!

Whole wheat pot stickers and dumplings, brown rice, and salad.

Garlic bread, plus a taste of salmon alfredo. And since today wasn’t going to be a no sugar day, I couldn’t resist trying the red velvet frozen yogurt.

Back in my room, I was still craving sweets, so I mixed up banana with cocoa powder. I think my sweet tooth is finally satisfied. I’m full, but at least none of my dinner sweets were too gross-feeling-inducing, apart from the quantity. Well, this is great, because tomorrow starts No-sugar challenge part 2! I still want to close this out on the same day. I lasted 2 weeks, which wasn’t bad, but I want to continue despite my hiccup to February 10. After a weekend of indulgent eating, I’m ready to get back on track tomorrow! I really want to avoid saturated fat, sugar, and white carbs this week, as I’ve had a bit of an overload this weekend, and I feel a little bit like death! Do you guys ever feel like this? I made myself a meal plan for this week, because I have a ton to get done, and I don’t want to have to worry about what I should eat! I simply check out the schedule, and I’m good to go! One less thing to think about certainly can’t help!

Despite all my complaining about the food, I had an awesome weekend! I’m really sorry I let you guys down on the challenge, but I’m going to pick right back up! And as planned, Tuesday will still be my Zero Sugar day to raise awareness to all the added sugars in foods! I hope you all had a good weekend as well!

Have you ever wiped out badly skiing? What happened?