Monthly Archives: June 2013

What I Did on Father’s Day

Date: June 17, 2013

Author: astottler

Since Sunday was my long run day, I thought it would be fun for the family to go on a picnic. My sister and I would get to run in a more interesting location, while my parents could walk around. I had the perfect place in mind-San Bruno Mountain, a wildlife preserve and park just outside of San Francisco. I did some volunteer work there a few years ago, and I ran on the trail once last year. The views are breathtaking-you can see the whole bay.

I decided to try a different pre-run breakfast-a Thinkthin bar and fruit, plus a small cup of kefir.

I’m not sure this is going to necessarily be enough to fuel for for 13.1 miles, but I think I’d rather hit a wall than have stomach issues. This breakfast ended up working out quite nicely for me.

After packing up the car and herding everyone out of the house, we drove up to the park. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we were greeted by this scene:

Now, while fog stinks and would obscure the amazing views, that wasn’t the main problem. The main problem was the 1000 mph winds. I have never seen fog and clouds move that fast before! It was absolutely crazy! Despite the long drive up, it was determined that it was not worth it to run and picnic there. My parents suggested another trail by the reservoir. This is one of my absolute favorite places-it is so pretty! I’ve always wanted to run there, but I had no idea there was a trail!

Sadly, we couldn’t find the trail because there was construction on one of the roads. However, I remembered that there was a road nearby that is closed off on Sundays for bikers (I’ve been wanting to bike there since I ran into the road closure last summer attempting to get someone nearby!). A closed off road right along the reservoir? Perfect!

The scenery was so beautiful! The run was hard. I was with my sister, and she started off much faster than I was comfortable giving I had to run 6 miles. It was also hilly, and I was well aware that the hills and wind were in our favor on the first half of the run (it was an out and back).

I was definitely playing mental games with myself during this run. I kept up with my sister for the first half, which was my goal because I’m the one with the GPS watch, and I wanted to make sure she turned in the right place. I sent her off pretty soon into the second half (right around where the hills started) because I could tell I was only holding her back. While running with someone faster is good to push yourself, when it is kind of demoralizing when you get to the point where you can’t keep up (hence, some of the mental games). And then I spent a good couple of miles reflecting on WHY I wasn’t faster. Finally I convinced myself that HEY, I was still running 6 miles, and in a still pretty decent time. Hills can really humble you!

Around miles 3-4, my feet started bothering me, like they usually do at that point. My index toe on my left foot was in a lot of pain…any idea why that would be? It kind of goes numb, but really hurts when I step on it…I think I’m going to try a new brand of running shoes. Towards the end, I also started to get a really painful blister. I pretty quickly realized it was from the slant of the road (the road was crowned) causing my foot to rub, so I took advantage of the fact that the road was closed.

Hey, why NOT run directly in the middle of the road?? It definitely helped!

The final stats?

Not too bad! I was happy with the run. And tired. 8 miles next week is getting out of my comfort zone. Specifically, I’m not sure how my feet will hold up. If I got a pretty bad blister doing 6 miles, how will 13.1 be? My feet will toughen up, right??

We decided to take our picnic home at that point since there was no where there to set up. It was the perfect day to eat on the patio though.

What’s sad is that you guys may not even know that I have a dog. This is Billy. The cats kind of take precedence in our household….

I wanted to try this new chai tea that we got at Whole Foods the other day, and after the run, it sounded absolutely fantastic.

I added a touch of honey, almond milk, and ice. So refreshing!

Our picnic lunch was a make-you-own Cobb salad. Mine included chicken, hard boiled egg, artichoke hearts, soy beans, onions, olives, and tomato, all tossed in garlic ranch.

For dessert, we had frozen eclairs, which thawed perfectly during our run. <a

So delicious! Everything was cool and refreshing-can you tell I was a tad thirsty? For my next long run, I need to take water, and start practicing with gu. Any recommendations?
The rest of the afternoon/evening was spent as a family watching Suits.

I swear, this is the only way she’ll actually sit on my lap! Silly cat. My family may or may not have watched the whole season of Suits in less than the past week…
Dinner was picked up from Fish Market, one of my Dad’s favorite restaurants. I had the mahi mahi with an artichoke, basil tomatoes, and mixed veggies. Plus some sourdough on the side!

Plus this guy-I got this at Whole Foods the other day and these are seriously the best things ever. I’ve gotten it twice before, but never really seen it at Whole Foods since. BUY THIS. Peanut butter+oatmeal. You can’t go wrong. This might be good for pre-race fuel too…<a

I hope everyone was able to spent time with their fathers on Father’s Day! This was the first year in 9 years that I wasn’t at a softball field on Father’s Day!
What did you do for Father’s Day?

Scenes from the Weekend

Date: June 16, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Father’s Day to the most amazing dad ever! (Since I know you will see this)- thanks for everything you have done for me-the hours spent at the softball field in catching in the backyard especially!

Since I’m a bit behind, let’s go through the weekend in pictures. Also- check out my guest post at Miranda Runs!

New shoes! I got them at the Nike outlet months ago and am finally breaking them out. I’m not sure how I feel about them yet-but I guess at this point it’s been almost a year since I got new running shoes…wow I was definitely not aware it was that long. The amazing shrinking power of spinach! I was mock Korean bowls for dinner the other night. I sauteed mushrooms and spinach with teriyaki sauce, then served that with garlic and herb quinoa-brown rice mixture and an egg.Obligatory cat photo. If you follow me on Instagram (which you should! fitnessissweet), you will be quite familiar with my cats. (But I swear that’s not ALL I post.)

I went back to Crossfit Saturday as well! We are still doing a ton of Intro stuff, but here’s a WOD for you all:

2′ on 1′ off

burpees

wall balls (ugh)

lunges

overhead squat (with pvc)

I got 166 reps total! So far I’ve only been going to Intro classes, but I intend on signing on for real, and hopefully doing more things. There is an on-ramp program where you go for a month and they teach you everything, in a more individualized way. I decided that even though I know the lifts, since it is individualized, it should be a good opportunity for me to work on my technique. Post-Crossfit Indian food buffet. I generally don’t do too well at buffets, so I tried to load my plate up with salad (it’s under the yogurt sauce).

After lunch, I FINALLY made it out to Whole Foods. I tried some new-to-me products:I have been out of my probiotic supplement for like 2 weeks now, and we haven’t been to stores that carry them. After reading about how awesome Kevita is on Lauren‘s blog, I decided to give it a try! It was good! I’m actually not a fan of things that are sparkly, but I enjoyed it! They also make coconut mango, but Whole Foods was out. I bet that flavor would be sooo good. I found this in the gluten free section, and I was pumped! I am kind of trying to avoid gluten, and I was looking for an alternative to put on yogurt to granola. Let me tell you-this stuff is delicious! It’s chocolatey, with the perfect amount of crunch! I can’t wait to try it in yogurt. I interpreted these to be a healthier version of Doritos, which they basically were. And another bonus-they weren’t neon orange! Haha.

Saturday night I also went to the fair with my best friends from high school!

Fair food:

In terms of healthiness, I certainly could have done worse!

My absolute favorite part of the fair is the pig races. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the pig races, basically, a whole bunch of miniature pigs or piglets run around a small track, while the crowd cheers them on.

We also went on the ferris wheel. I’m kind of afraid of heights, so I haven’t been on a ferris wheel in a really long time, and I had no idea what to expect. It was simultaneously awesome and terrifying. I may or may not have had a death grip on the pole in the middle the whole time though…The view from the top!

Since this is already pretty long, I’ll recap Sunday tomorrow. I have to go to bed-I have a big day planned! Early morning abs class plus some lifting on my own, and then my first Bikram class with a friend! I may go to spin in the evening with a different friend if I am still alive (doubtful). Any advice for surviving yoga in a 105 degree room? Hey, if I can play softball in that kind of heat, this should be fine, right??

Have you ever done hot yoga? Thoughts?

A Day of First: Kitten Nursery and Crossfit

Date: June 14, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey everybody! I just got a Twitter and Instagram so follow me at @fitnessissweet and fitnessissweet!

Yesterday morning was another early wake up call-I had the morning shift at the kitten nursery at the animal shelter. Before running out the door, I had a quick breakfast of yogurt with banana and sunflower seed butter.

As soon as I got there, we went right to work. We had to clean out the kittens cages, weigh them, feed them, play with them, and then set up their cages again. When we took them out of the cages, we kept them in cardboard boxes, and then carried the boxes to a table and took them out there to play and eat. They were pretty mischievous- the boxes were so hard to close because little paws and heads kept popping out!To put it in perspective, most of them weighed about .5 lbs. The next pictures are the group of kittens we took care of last. Since we were basically done after them, we had them out for longer to play and socialize with them. This group was fast asleep when we took them from their cage. Anyone who has had kittens knows this is a recipe for disaster! Kittens have this instant on switch that brings them instantly from 0 to 60! These guys were rambunctious! So much so that the little stripy kittens wouldn’t even eat at first, they were so busy playing! On top of that, they kept trying to wander around. When there are 4 kittens on the table and one of me, there are going to be problems! They kept trying to climb onto the windowsill. The white and striped one was quite the adventurer- somehow he made it off the table without me even seeing him get near the edge! By the time we were all done though, all the kittens were snoozing. We then went back to the other kitten nursery where the even younger kittens are. These kittens can’t really eat on their own, so we learned to feed them with a syringe. It was pretty difficult-the kittens were pretty fussy! I ended up finally being able to get some food in by wrapping the little guy up in a kitten burrito. I managed to feed him enough-he even went for the food bowl a little himself! Soon though, he stopped opening his mouth, and a minute later, he was fast asleep! Having a tiny kitten fall asleep in your arms is the best thing ever. I can’t wait to go back!

When I got home, I wanted a snack, which turned into a snacky early lunch.

Edamame Leftover sweet potato fried from dinner the previous night. Turkey roll ups-big leaf lettuce with deli turkey, onions, avocado, and ketchup.I also wanted to try and recreate the delicious iced tea from the previous day. I brewed Earl Grey tea with mint leaves, and then added ice, almond milk, and a touch of honey. I loved how refreshing the mint made it, so I concentrated on that aspect. Overall, it was good but nothing really like what I had had the previous day. I think it would have been better with coconut milk, or something slightly thicker than almond milk. And the Earl Grey tea flavor kind of overwhelmed the mint. But it was quite thirst quenching all the same!I then spent some time on the old blog, attempting to figure out Twitter. I sent this to my friend asking her what it meant my username was. #clueless

If you follow me on Instagram, you can see tons of cute cat pictures such as this one 🙂Before I knew it, it was Crossfit time! It was in a warehouse right next to an indoor batting cage where my high school softball team would occasionally practice.

First, let me just say- I loved it! Everything about it-I love throwing heavy things around. I really liked the warehouse atmosphere as well-it seemed very hard core (in a good way). If you are thinking about trying Crossfit, do not be intimidated! Everyone is super nice and of different fitness levels! We began with a warm up run and stretching with the regular class, and then another new person and I broke off with a trainer to be assessed and to go through a mini WOD. The WOD we did was actually one I had done on my own before,but a shorter version. I had had to modify it when I did it at the gym at school, and it was much harder yesterday.

10 AMRAP

100 m run

5 pull-ups (banded for me)

10 push ups (chest all the way to the ground)

15 air squats

I made it through 5+ rounds in the 10 minutes. I really, really loved the atmosphere. The workouts are very similar to what I did with my trainer at the gym in the past, and the atmosphere is more what I liked about softball conditioning with other people, except everyone actually cares about working hard!

The only thing for me is since I know all the Olympic lifts (there are very few Crossfit moves I don’t know), I would really like to try and skip some of the Intro classes and dive right into the normal WODs. I really don’t want to have to sit through classes learning the lifts I’ve been working on for the past 3 years. Plus, watching everyone throw heavy weights around kind of had me drooling-knowing I can do the lifts at the same weight that they are make same want to join right in! I totally could have done the normal WOD! I need to try and see if I can somehow be fast tracked at least a bit.

But I really, really loved it. I would say I’ve been bit by the Crossfit bug, but I know I’ve been obsessed for much longer! I’m going back again Saturday, and I seriously cannot wait!

Dinner was black bean soup from this Whole Foods recipe. We didn’t want to have to wait for the beans to sit, so we got canned, and probably didn’t add enough beans, because it was pretty liquidy (normally it’s pretty thick). Still delicious though! I highly recommend this recipe. HOWEVER. One major modification I made was using vegetable broth instead of water in the soup. It’s super plain without, but has a ton of flavor with!

My bowl was really weird/pathetic looking so I took a picture of my sister’s instead!Plus a side salad.After dinner, my wimpy mouth was burning! What better solution than frozen yogurt (with chocolate sauce)?What a fabulous way to end the day!

Have you ever done Crossfit? WHat did you think?

Throwback (Run) Thursday

Date: June 13, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! Check out my guest post on Mangoes and Miles! I wrote about a topic near and near to me-avocados.

Yesterday was my first day of summer, and I must say, it was a really awesome day! I slept in until…5:10…but hey-it was well worth it to attend my favorite spin class! Plus, my kitty came into my room about 10 minutes before my alarm demanding to be petted. And waking up to a purring cat is way better than waking up to an alarm!

After spin, I had a 4 mile run to do. I decided to do a throwback run-last summer I clearly remember one of my first training runs. I went to early spin and then drove to a neighborhood fairly close by, which is flatter and prettier than where I live. I completely forgot to bring my Garmin, so I decided to run for time instead. I planned on 40 minutes, but I lengthened it to 45 because I kept stopping for pictures, plus a had a minor goose incident. More on that in a minute. I made a playlist on my phone of all the songs I listened to last summer to really throw it back. Confession: for some reason whenever people do throwback Thursday on facebook with their pictures, it drives me crazy. I have no idea why…

I enjoyed the wildlife of suburbia- geese!

Ignore the slant-this was my first attempt at a picture while running (without stopping). What’s funny is this lagoon is actually where we rowed some of the time. It’s also a 2k racecourse, so I would have raced here quite a bit if I had continued with crew. That’s so weird to me because I never knew people rowed here. I mean, I basically grew up in this area; half of my friends live here, and I went to violin lessons right around here, and then, I later rowed here.

There are geese everywhere around the lagoon. If you were to see the geese as they were in this photo, you wouldn’t think anything of it, right? You’d just run through and expect them to move. So I started to run towards them. But…they didn’t move! SO I decided to just run through them and run around them. As I got closer, they started hissing at me! They were hissing and screaming and running closer to me!

So naturally I stopped to take a picture. What you can’t see is that there was a goose right next to me on my left hissing. At that point, I was kind of stuck. I was in the middle of the pack, and I didn’t know which direction to go in!

Luckily, I did get out in one piece, unscathed. But it was terrifying. I guess the bird around this lagoon are kind of aggressive. One of my teammates had a scary experience with an aggressive swan chasing her!

Being done with spin and a run by 7:45 am is such an awesome feeling. Breakfast was cottage cheese mixed with chia seeds and thawed blueberries.

An even more awesome feeling than that? Taking a midmorning nap with your cat. He’s such a sweetie! Sadly, I have no pictures, as I was unconscious.

Lunch was a leftover turkey burger and freeze dried sesame edamame.

I also had one of these guys-it was good, but similar to the coconut creations I’ve made in the microwave, so in the future I’d probably just do that.

A little later in the afternoon, I met up with Kaitlin for coffee. She’s about to graduate, so I was lucky to catch her before she leaves! We went to Philz Coffee, which was a cute little place where they hand make everything.

We were both a little overwhelmed by all the different types of coffee! Since I know very little about coffee, and I didn’t want to have much caffeine that late in the day, I went with iced chai tea.

I got mine with milk and honey. They add mint leaves to it as well. I really, really enjoyed this. It was super refreshing on a hot day, and while the chai flavor was subtle, I really liked the flavor the mint added.

I also enjoyed an oat bar, which had various types of dried fruit.

I had a really great time talking with Kaitlin– I’ve never met up with a blogger before! She’s totally awesome and you all should check her blog out.

Thanks Kaitlin!

We met up more near school than home for me, but that worked out really well because I kind of forgot to turn my room key in, and school was on the way back. I had to say goodbye to people again! I also had to help my sister move out which was…a process. For the record, I was out in an our (besides the packing). I was there for 3 hours, my parents were there for longer, and she’s not even completely moving out! She’s living there (kind of-it’s complicated) this summer! But I did score a homemade cupcake from her fancy cupcake holder which she made for a class project.

In addition, she and her boyfriend made cinnamon rolls from scratch that were ready right before we were done!

They were sooo good, but I could only have a few bites before my heart started racing!

And FINALLY we were home for dinner. My family was having pesto pasta, but I felt like I could use protein more, so I microwaved egg whites and spinach and topped that with pesto instead.

And dessert:

I had been out of sunflower seed butter in my dorm for quite a while, so this was AMAZING.

Have a great day everyone! Kitten nursery post to come, as well as my recount of Crossfit (my first class is tonight!).

Where is your favorite place to run? Have you ever met up with a blogger?

WIAW-SUMMER

Date: June 11, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! Happy WIAW! Thanks a lot to Jenn for posting, as always!

First, what’s up with this being a running blog now? Haha, I feel like that is all I have been posting about lately! More on that in a minute. Some of you may remember way back in the day when this was more of a rowing blog! I started this blog during rowing training camp, so for the whole 10 days, the posts are pretty much:”We ate. We rowed for 2 hours. We ate again. We rowed again. We ate. We ran 6 miles.” etc…So in that spirit, more on running in a bit! First some delicious food.

After frying my brain in a 3 hour chem final, an amazing salad and frozen yogurt were necessary fuel to motivate me to study for my next exam.I LOVE FROZEN YOGURT.

My last breakfast at the dining hall of the school year!I’m cool and I eat french toast from a bowl. But that way the syrup stays separate and doesn’t drench it.

And then, FINALLY SUMMER! Yay!

After my final, it was packing time. It took me about an hour to move out, after I was pretty much already packed. Seeing an empty room was so weird!Yeah, I have a lot of stuff…And last dining hall meal of the year! Plus, since I had to thaw out the freezer, helping my roommate eat her frozen baked good was kind of a necessity.

And then….HOME! Home is where the heart is? Pshh. I disagree. Home is where the cats are.

And the first thing I do when I get home? I raid the pantry. This is what I found for a snack:These things are so good! I’ve gotten single serving packs from whole foods before in different flavors, but these are from Costco, so there’s no messing around with a wimpy single serving!

And then it was time to run. Last night I pumped myself up for a really good run today-on the treadmill. First, I want to thank all you guys so much for your advice and encouragement on running! I decided I would go at a good pace on the treadmill and just push through- after all, no matter how bad it was, it could not possibly be as bad as a 6k test (this is a test for rowers-it is 6k as fast as possible and it is basically torture. Like the worst thing ever. Seriously).

So I went out there today and had a really, really great run. I seriously could not have done it without you guys! I was thinking about you all during the entire run (as well as counting down every .01, and calculating how much I had left-1/50 down, 1/25 down). I busted out 3 miles in 24:27. This went way beyond my hopes- I am sooo happy with this! I can’t remember the last time I ran 3 miles this fast! I guess that’s what a day off, plus ton of foam rolling will do for you! So thank you all SOSOSOSO much, your comments seriously motivated me!

Post run happiness.

And after my run, it was straight to yoga! This was much needed. It’s been far too long since I’ve gone to yoga. I think it should help my tight legs as well.

And now for my first home cooked meal! Turkey burgers in a lettuce wrap, with homemade ketchup from this recipe, sweet potato fries, and brussels sprouts.

After dinner, we had some frozen cookie dough we were planning on getting rid of because no one was a huge fan, but I wanted to see if you could microwave frozen cookie dough and get a decent result. The answer? YES.

If I have learned anything from this past year of college, it is that you can make anything in the microwave. That and the many varieties of mold found on old food (oops).

And to celebrate summer, I had a small slice of my frozen birthday cake!

Sooo sleeping in on my first morning of summer? I’m still trying to decide how insane I am, and whether or not I want to go to a 5:45 am spin class.

In other news, my first Crossfit class is on Thursday! SO excited!What is your favorite thing about summer?