New Fitness Routine

Date: November 20, 2015

Author: astottler

Hello! Look at this-back again already! Guess what? I’m officially on Thanksgiving break! To be fair my week was pretty low-key so it’s not THAT big of a deal but still.

I want to do some fitness updates today. And catch up on food. We’re losing our chef. Again. The new one ended up begin really good after adapting to the needs of the house, but now he’s leaving for a different job. So the search begins again.

In essays, I know you’re never actually supposed to flat out say the structure of how you’re going to prove an argument, but I’m still going to go right out and say-this is the structure of today’s post: Fitness thoughts with food pictures interspersed. Because I have lots of food pictures an don fitness pictures.

Is this not just the most amazing thing ever?? I went back to my favorite coffeeshop for the first time this year after a track workout and was treated to this.

After half marathon training, I was tired. I felt like I had 1000 aches and pains, and I was tired a lot. I felt like my body was put under a lot of stress (um, because it was). At the same time, I was rehabbing my shoulder. Prior to even hurting it, I felt like I had a lot of tightness/tiny aches building up.

Carrot ginger soup with gluten free ciabatta.

When I first returned to Crossfit, back when my shoulder was really touchy, I was really careful not to overdo it. After my half, I decided to make some changes. I want to be the fittest I can be, but I also want to be the fittest I can be for the longest time. I started to realize that I can’t put so much stress on my body. If I want to be running half marathons in 10 years, I need to put in fewer footsteps now.

Example A: Last summer (1.5 years ago to clarify), I was in pretty great shape. I ran a TON. I was half marathon training, and adding other running workouts on top of that. The result? I DEMOLISHED my feet. I could barely walk for a while. My half was far slower than it should have been. I had to take a while off of running completely, and my feet were still a problem for a long time afterwards. This year? I’m not overdoing the running, and my feet have essentially not been a problem (plus I’ve gotten better shoes).

Gluten free veggie panini and vegetable soup with my parents after seeing The Martian.

After my October half, I took it easy with the running. I ran consistently, but I didn’t follow a schedule. I fell in love with my 2.5 mile loop. As a result, it was casual and since my half I’ve been able to run whenever I want, without worrying about hurting myself. At the same time, I’ve also been doing lots of track workouts. Distance wise, they’re nothing. But in terms of intensity…man. (Sidenote-I’m officially done with my class project, and I will do a full write up of that.)

This was make your own burritos-I did a salad. Guac=life.

Additionally, I decided I would only go to Crossfit 3x a week. My shoulder doesn’t need more than this, and my joints don’t either. Every week, I go online and pick and choose which workouts I want to do most (which will be better for my shoulder and which lifts I should practice more), and then go on those days. I don’t need to go every day-I do enough other things.

And honestly? My body feels so much better. My runs don’t feel sluggish. I feel strong. I’m not less fit-there are some things I definitely still want to work on and improve, but with a well-scheduled week of workouts I can do that without stressing my body.

BBQ chicken over a salad with ranch+gluten free toast.

There are times when I feel like I can push myself more and want to do more-which is great! I just have to be smart about how I’m going about it. I want to get some more rowing in. Maybe more spin. Stick to track workouts. It’s all about efficiency and getting the more out of less!

Since this seems relevant-here’s my week of workouts thus far!

Monday: AM run 4 miles, PM teach spin+softball

Tuesday: AM timed 400m trial (plus 800m warm up), PM Crossfit:

At 0:00, 9:00, 18:00, 27:00, 36:00

5 Box Jump Over
200m Sprint
7 Thruster (95/75)
12 Cal Row

Wednesday: AM 5 mile run, PM teach spin+softball

Thursday: AM Crossfit (This one was killer):

5 Min AMRAP @85%-90% x 5 rest 3 between sets

Round 1, 3, 5

4 Burpee
8 Push Press
12 KBS

Round 2, 4

4 No Push Up Burpee
8 Front Squat
24 Double Under

Friday: AM Crossfit:

A: Back Squat @21×1 – 75-80% x 2 x 5; rest 2-3 min
B: BB Reverse Lunge – 6-8/leg alternating x 3; rest 2
+
Alternate OTM x 12

5 DB Row/side
30s Hollow Rock
In 40s – 15 squats + double under

I may do a short little run this evening, or may walk the pup (she’s visiting). Saturday or Sunday will probably be a rest day-depending on how I’m feeling/what my schedule is each day. I want to get a longish run in one of those days though because I’m doing a 10k on Thanksgiving and I haven’t done more than 5 miles in a while (aka my half).

What does your week of workouts look like?

Back into Back to Back Running

Date: October 28, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

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!

On the Second Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me…

Date: November 29, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

2 brand-spanking new workouts!

And 1 amazing family.

Make sure you warm up each movement and work your way up to a heavy weight!

Use a heavy weight for the back lunges and superset with body weight lunge jumps.

For the RDLs, use a barbell at a heavy but manageable weight.

Heel raises 3 ways is: toes forward, toes in, and toes out.

Use the barbell for bent over rows. Make sure not to lift with back.

The conditioning should be quick and straight through. The weight for front squats should be about 50% or less of your one rep max.

Enjoy!

I love the idea of triathlons but I hate swimming. And kind of love rowing. And it’s cold in the winter, so let’s take it inside! Start with a 5k row on the rowing machine, move to the treadmill and run 5k, and then get on the spin bike (or normal bike I guess-not sure how the distances would work out) and bike 10 miles. Bonus points if you race a friend!