How to Do Halloween College Style

Date: October 30, 2013

Author: astottler

Hey guys! Now that I don’t have any super pending due dates, and it’s not super late at night, as promised, I’m getting a little more creative with today’s post. Just a note-clearly when I’m super frustrated with my homework and Apple’s STUPID version of excel, the best thing to do is blog.

So, without further ado-here is how you do Halloween-COLLEGE style.

1. Make your muscles scream with this workout!

This is definitely a shoulder burner. This is a WOD I did over the summer-the prescribed weight is 65# for the thrusters. JELLO ARMS. I swear I had every intention of doing this today, but I did a million and three push pressed last night at Crossfit, so anything overhead was NOT going to happen today. So enjoy this one for me! It’s a quickie-just add to the end of your workout for a little conditioning. Speaking of workouts, I’m thinking of occasionally posting weekly workout logs so you guys get a sense of what I’m doing.

2. Make your friends scream. Don’t shower after said workout. (For the record, I swear I always shower before class!)

3. Want an easy last minute costume idea? Be Frankenstein. Try this workout!

You legs will be so sore I GUARANTEE you’ll be walking like Frankenstein. No costume needed!

Note: Best done 1-2 days before Halloween for maximum Frankenstein-walking effect.

4. How to avoid eating too much candy-alternatice title: learn how to create a black hole. Place outside dorm room in building filled with college students. It’s amazing how fast it disappears.

5. Make a haunted house in your dorm room. Forget scary “eyeballs” and “brains.” My three week old dirty tupperware is MUCH scarier.

6. Dress up as a 12 year old dressed up as a zombie and go trick or treating. (Ok, I’ve never actually done this myself.)

7. Make your own version of a “zombie run.” Why pay money to be in a race with zombies when you can create your own? SImply dress up as a zombie and chase after ~~unsuspecting victims~~ runners. You’re just helping them run faster, right? Best done at dawn or dusk. Or in the complete darkness of night.

8. Use treats to your advantage. Passing out candy to your dorm? Make it count. Last year I passed out these-

On the surface, it clearly made sense since I was a baseball player and the Giants were in the process of winning the World Series. However, I also had the mission of converting everyone to Giant’s fans so this was my way of getting that whole “subliminal mind control” thing to work its magic.

This year? We passed out Halloween candy. We’re clearly trying to break the curve people! Sugar messes with you brain, right? It’s midterm season-I need all the help I can get!

9. Spend all night in the library studying. Which is what I’ll actually be doing. The struggle is real my friends.

At least I have a friendly face to keep me company!

Have a great Halloween everyone!

Are you dressing up? What are you doing for Halloween?

A Chill Day

Date: October 5, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Are you guys all having a good weekend? I definitely am! And Sunday marks the official 2 week out point for my race! I’m starting to get excited!

I haven’t really posted in a few days (besides my scheduled post) so I have a kind of random selection of pictures from the last couple of days.

Thursday morning started with Crossfit-lots of deadlifts! I refueled appropriately:

Nothing too crazy happened during the day- I got a veggie wrap for lunch with hummus. I didn’t actually bring money with me, and it was the only real food I could afford with the few dollars in my backpack.

And my pumpkin butter obsession continues (more on that in a minute!). One thing about dorm life-I have the tendency to buy something and eat nothing but that item until it is gone, which is really quickly. And then I buy something else and the cycle repeats. I guess this is what happens when grocery trips are infrequent…Well, the pumpkin butter is certainly disappearing quickly! I made “paleo oatmeal”-I wasn’t trying to make paleo or oatmeal, but I threw a ton of things in a bowl and that was what I got! This was applesauce, egg whites, chia seeds, coconut, and almond milk. Topped with pumpkin butter! It really was just a medium for pumpkin butter. I wanted pumpkin oatmeal, but I don’t have any oats….so there’s that.

That evening at flag football, the soreness from a full week of heavy lifting began to set in, and my hamstrings began a war on me that would last another day. I also did the spin class I wrote for myself that evening-it turned out to be pretty good! I definitely have a tendency to do a lot more in the saddle than out…talk about a quad burner! I really don’t like the spin bikes at school-they feel really plastic-y, and I don’t really get the feel of the road. It’s more like moving your legs with resistance that spinning-but the quad burn can definitely sneak up on you!

Afterwards, it was pretty late so I refueled with hot chocolate. Kind of. Another #dormlife problem-no milk. And as much as I love almond milk, it has almost no protein. I mixed (not very well based on all the powder floating around) chocolate protein powder, brown rice syrup, a little honey, cocoa powder, and almond milk and heated it up. Perfect. Kind of.

After my workout, a little socializing while drinking this concoction, and doing a pre-lab, I was beat. I woke up yesterday morning still really tired. I debated skipping my 5 mile hilly run, but I knew I’d never be able to fall back asleep because I had already gotten up. The run went pretty well-these are some intense hills. It took a while for my legs to loosen up, but I’m glad I got some hill work in. There was just one glitch-my shoe inserts. I think they do help prevent foot pain, but they give me the worst blisters-it’s only one foot for some reason, but I took them both out halfway through the run (so I’d be even). My foot hurt a little by the end of the run-so I’m not really sure what I should do at this point.

Here are some random eats from Friday:

My roommate and one of my other friends baked banana bread-you better believe I was all over that!

After my run, my legs kind of tightened up and all the soreness from the week hit. My hamstrings felt like death-I can’t even remember the last time they were that sore! After a 2 hour Chem lab (we finished 2 hours early!), my legs felt 100x better. Which was good given I had flag football practice. I swear, I’m so bruised up right now! I may or may not have bar shaped bruises going up my legs…at Crossfit, I got a big bruise on the front of my leg because I kept dragging the bar against my leg doing cleans. Smart one Aurora.

(Finally fading)

Plus, I’m getting a little beat up playing football. I guess that’s just what happens in sports-I used to be pretty bruised up from softball regularly.

Back to food. GUYS. I had the best idea. Pumpkin butter. Cottage cheese. I really liked how the pumpkin cream cheese was creamy and a little savory-but it’s too rich to eat with a spoon (or is it?). I found out that a little market on campus now uses meal plan dollars (part of our dining plan-I NEVER use them) and they actually sell really good, useful stuff. It’s basically a mini grocery. And meal plan dollars are like free money.

I immediately dug into the cottage cheese.

YUM. But for my next snack, I kicked it up another notch.

Cottage cheese. Sunflower seed butter. Pumpkin butter. Apple chips. That’s gourmet my friends. Or at least college gourmet. SUCH a good combo. Too bad I’m out of cottage cheese…and apple chips…and almost pumpkin butter.

This morning I managed to sleep in until 9-which is a pretty big accomplishment for me! I hit the gym first thing-but I wanted to give my legs a complete rest day after this past week, and before tomorrow’s 9 miles. I did something I’ve never done before-arms and abs day. I NEVER do arm workouts-I usually do full body workouts, and occasionally leg days. But I didn’t want to do anything that put any stress on my legs at all. My workout ended up consisting of mostly pull ups and planks. I’m so close to being able to do a full pull up-only 25 pounds of assistance, which is such a huge improvement. My goal is to get it by Thanksgiving! And with the quantity I did today, I should be able to get there!

After my workout, I was starving and more than ready for brunch. I was really hoping to get a smoothie, but the line was insane, as was the waffle line. I still haven’t gotten a waffle yet this year!

But then again, I’m never going to complain about copious amounts of guacamole.

Giant Mexican salad. I also had a biscuit and this frozen fruit.

I spent the day doing nothing too crazy. I realized that Netflix streams season 8 of How I Met Your Mother. I was considering going to the football game today, but I decided to just hang out. Dinner with How I Met Your Mother? That sounds just right to me.

I made a scramble with the last of my spinach, plus laughing cow garlic and herb and pesto. I finally peeled myself away from the screen to do laundry, which is where I am right now. I discovered that blogging is the perfect thing to do while doing laundry!

And with that, I’ll leave you all to your weekends! I’m going back to the trail by the bay to run, so I’m visiting my cats and grabbing lunch with a high school friend also home this weekend.

What are your favorite TV shows? What other things should I put pumpkin butter on? What amazing pumpkin products should I try? Can you tell I’m obsessed with all things fall?

Never Have I Ever….

Date: August 9, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Friday! Anyone planning on getting together with friends this weekend? I have the perfect game for you. (Ok, maybe it’s more of a workout…but still!)

Have you played Never Have I Ever? There are a ton of variations on this game. You go around and say things you’ve never done, and if the people in your group have done them, they lose a straw, put a finger down, etc. The goal is to find things that you haven’t done that most others have. But here’s the catch. Instead of putting a finger down, we’re going to steal some fitness! Assign a move to each person-this is the exercise everyone who has done the thing must complete for that person.

Example: Person 1 is Susie. Susie’s move is 25 burpees. Susie has never been to Europe but I have, so I have to do 25 burpees. Tom’s move is jump squats. He states he has never had Mono, but I have so I have to do 25 jump squats. Get creative-make each other suffer!

Here are some ideas for workout moves:

Burpees

Squat jumps

Push-ups

Sit-ups

Squats

Deadlifts with a milk carton

Plank

Calf raises

The possibilities are endless! And remember:

Friends make friends suffer. 🙂

Have you ever player Never Have I Ever? What is one thing you haven’t done?

Burnt Out and Burnt

Date: July 6, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

First I want to take a moment to recognize the tragedy of the plane crash at the San Francisco airport Saturday afternoon.

I haven’t gone into much depth with my workouts lately, so let’s talk about that here!

Here’s a good one for you to try. It’s tabata style, meaning you work for 20 seconds, and then rest 10 seconds. You repeat this 8 times, for a total of 4 minutes. In the following workout, you do a full tabata of each exercise. Hand release push ups are where you lower yourself chest to the ground, and then bring your hands up off the ground, and then back down and complete a push up.

We did this at Crossfit Tuesday night, and combined with a warm up full of Romanian deadlifts, my legs are still sore! I actually Rxed the deadlifts, at 95 pounds.

So let’s go through some of the workouts this week.

Monday: Abs class and Spin with one of my favorite teachers. I actually saw her at the Farmer’s market today!

Tuesday: 4 mile run-2 miles were intervals. Yoga class. Crossfit that evening with the above WOD. I also practiced handstands! I’ve never done them before and actually got kind of close against the wall. Between those and a ton of downward dogs after not much yoga, my shoulders were done.

Wednesday: Morning spin, 4 mile run (split up. I hate the treadmill). A Jillian Michaels group exercise class. This class convinced me that I’m way too uncoordinated to teach any type of group exercise (hence why I want to teach spin. Not a whole lot of coordination is necessary).

Thursday: 10 mile easy bike ride

Friday: 4 mile run, Crossfit with this WOD:

10 Minute AMRAP

5 box jumps

7 burpees

10 dumbbell snatches

We worked on pull-ups then and my arms were sore. I also got a couple of double unders-progress!

Saturday: Crossfit. The WOD was:

400 m run

6 chin ups

10 push jerks

15 toes to bar (or knees…up in my case. I’m not that flexible)

It was a good one! I’m glad they are finally letting my lift the big weights! Heehee.

Ok, so I know this seems like kind of a lot of exercise. But my body seriously can handle it-crew was 2-a-days every day, and was a lot more intense. Plus, I’m doing a ton of different things so it’s not the same muscle groups every day.

Ok, so I know this seems like kind of a lot of exercise. But my body seriously can handle it-crew was 2-a-days every day, and was a lot more intense. Plus, I’m doing a ton of different things so it’s not the same muscle groups every day. Right now I’m feeling good so I’m just going to go for it. You know how I was talking about how I lost so much muscle in my arms? I’ve done a lot of upper body strength stuff this week and I swear my arms have already grown. Crazy!

Next week is my heaviest week of half marathon training, so a lot of non-running stuff won’t be in there then. So let’s talk running.

The title of this post pretty perfectly describes my last run. Burnt Out and Burnt. I made the mistake of doing 2 treadmill runs, both over my mental treadmill limit (which is 3 miles, if you’re interested. And that’s barely). The first one was okay, I did intervals which made it a little better. Then, I thought a 5 mile treadmill run on Wednesday morning would be a great idea. Hah. I gave up after a mile. I then did 3 more miles that evening on the treadmill (again. Yeah, I’m really smart). It was not fun. I can’t accurately describe my hate for the treadmill. I don’t get how people train for long races only on the treadmill!

Friday, I ran down at school after working at the lab. I was feeling pretty burnt out pre-run. This is the hard point of the training-the load gets heavier and you’ve been doing it for almost 2 months. Beth knows what I’m talking about! I had loosely been planning on trying to beat my last time for this particular run. ….And then I realized trying to do a pace run when I’m already burning out would be stupid, so I ran un-timed and un-Garmined (yes that’s a word). Plus, my Garmin was dead. I always wondered what it takes for it to run out of battery-I used it for about a month before bothering to charge it and it was fine. This time, I accidentally left it on, which I figured out when my purse beeped and it was dying. Sad.

Anyway, running without my Garmin was a good decision. But the run wasn’t very pleasant, and it was 100% my fault. I wore my new shoes and didn’t wear my anti-blister socks. I figured it would be fine since it was only 4 miles but things didn’t really work out that way. I think my new shoes might be a size too big. My other Nikes have always been half a size down, but the guy at the store at first thought I’d be a full size up. Anyways, my feet were rubbing like crazy and burning up! At some point I didn’t know whether I’d be able to finish. The 4 mile run isn’t that important. I’d rather not finish and not have blistered feet for the 11 miler. I ended up finishing, but it wasn’t the prettiest thing.

Where am I going with this? I need to be smarter about not burning myself out. Why run on the treadmill if I know I hate it? I just need to get the runs done, and not worry too much about speed, etc. And I feel better about tomorrow’s 11 mile run. The unfortunate thing is I need to start training for my Nike Women’s half like a week after I run this one. I think I’m going to train this a little differently though. I’m going to take an extra week off and jump into week 2 of the training plan, and I’m probably only going to run 3 days a week instead of 4. I think the plan is especially important the first time around, and it’s not worth burning out. So we’ll see how that goes! And since this post has had like no pictures, here are some scenes from my weekend.

How do you prevent burn out?

Dirty Thirty

Date: July 2, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I finally have a workouts page! Expect more to come. Here’s a prettier version of a workout I already posted. It’s a no-equipment, full body workout that incorporates, jumping, running, and strength. Enjoy!

Forward squat jumps: jump forward (covering distance)

In and out- balance on tailbone, hands on head, and bring your knees in toward your chest while crunching up

Plank dips-plank position on elbows, and lower hips to the ground, then raise up

Cross leg sit up cross- sit with your legs crossed, and then do a sit up, crossing one arm over to touch the ground in front of you

Let me know if you try this! A modification you could do is Filthy Fifteen (15 reps of everything).