Monthly Archives: July 2013

Speed Demon

Date: July 9, 2013

Author: astottler

Hey guys! I just wanted to pop in here really quickly before WIAW with my Summer Shape Up Week-whatever goal!

Last week’s goal was to make a reasonable meal and exercise plan and stick with it. Along with my attempts to avoid snacking, this actually worked out pretty well. I got all my workout in, with the exception of the hiccup that was Wednesday’s run-but I was only a mile short so it’s close enough! The problem? It was really hard to plan things so far out in advance, so I didn’t plan the weekend….so my weekend eating could have been more organized. Next time, I think I need to do a mid-week check in on meals for the rest of the week.

Now before you see tomorrow’s WIAW, remember that it includes things I ate before writing up this post. ANYWAYS. My goal is to eat gluten-free for a week. I’ve stuck to mostly eating this way, with a few notable exceptions. Here’s what happens. Since I haven’t yet gotten tested, I start believing that gluten doesn’t affect me-I’m still not sure. However, this little guy convinced me otherwise.

After a healthy lunch, I figured it would be fine. And, the whole cafeteria smelled like chocolate chip cookies! Well, I got a stomachache immediately after eating this. At first I thought, well that’s not necessarily the flour. But then I got the whole foggy-headed-can’t-stay-awake thing during my class. That convinced me even more.

Another thing-I’m starting to get a gut feeling that gluten gives me a stomachache. Really scientific, I know. You know how when you get food poisoning from a certain food one time, and then afterwards, thinking about that food makes you feel sick? I don’t exactly get that, yet I can just FEEL flour is doing it to me. When I think about these foods, stomachaches come to mind. It’s kind of like the whole nut thing. When my face first started breaking out like crazy and I was searching for the cause, I had a feeling it was nuts, yet I couldn’t quite believe it. Now, I’m 100% sure because I never eat them anymore and my face is fine, but occasionally when I have a little peanut butter, my face goes insane. So that’s this week’s goal. So what’s been going on in my life?

I got a flat tire yesterday. From running over a rock…what?

This is no where near how flat it got-luckily I was super close to where I was going, and it didn’t even deflate enough for me to tell until I looked at it. When we went to the tire place, the guy looked at all the tires on the car and determined that they’re starting to crack. The tires are 8 years old, and apparently when they get old they get brittle and start cracking, meaning that at any moment, most likely at high speeds, they were likely to blow out. So this whole flat tire thing might have been a blessing in disguise. I’m going to be driving this car an hour on the highway every day, and I can’t even imagine how bad a blow out could be.

There’s a dent on the inside of the rim which has to be fixed before we even get new tires, so for now I’m rocking the spare tire.

Notice that little the spot where it says 50 mph max? Yeah, I’m going to be a real speed demon these next few days. I either can’t take the highway, or will be that obnoxious person chugging along in the right lane 20 mph below the speed limit. Yeah, I think I’ll stay off the highway.

And since I owe you a food picture, here’s last night’s dinner.

Potato and corn chowder topped with cheddar cheese, along with asparagus. Yum!

And one last thing. For a while Matt has been encouraging me to do a Whole 30. So here’s the plan. I’m going to take it slow and start with a Whole7 (7 days instead of 30), and then go from there. Here’s the ingenious part-I’m going to do it the first week back at school. there are a few reasons for this, the main one being that the first week is an opportunity to start setting new habits in a new environment, so why not start off super healthy? Also, my parents won’t hate me for bringing more food restrictions into our house, I can grocery shop before I get to school, and the food at school that’s non-Whole30 isn’t really that great so I’ll be less likely to be tempted. So that’s that! See you all tomorrow for WIAW!

Have you ever gotten a flat tire? What happened?

Long Runs and Yogurt

Date: July 8, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Well, it’s Monday. After blogging, I’m going to drive down to school to put in some hours in the lab, and then go to the library to catch up on reading for my Psych class. For that class, we also have an assignment where we choose a health behavior to change. I chose sleep-Im trying to get 8 hours a night. Guess how that’s working out? Yeah.

So let’s talk running. Sunday was my 11 mile run. I have a whole routine down now. Wake up at 6:45, eat breakfast, and leave at 8:30 for a 9:00 run. Since I run by the bay, I have to run early to beat the wind. I had my typical pre-run breakfast.

I felt much more confident going into this run than last week’s 10 mile run. For some reason, 10 miles seems like so much, and anything beyond that basically seems the same. If I could do 10, I could do 11 right? I wanted to pick up the pace a little bit from last week too.

I started off having no trouble with my “goal” pace. I say that in quotes because it’s my ideal pace but not what I was expected to maintain (spoiler-I didn’t maintain it). Immediately, I was feeling better than last week. This could be for a number of reasons. 1. I had logged more miles the week leading up to this run than last weeks. I skipped a longish run last week. 2. I had already done a long run and probably most important-3. I didn’t do a killer leg workout 2 days before, so my legs weren’t sore at all (my arms though were a different story). Moral of the story? Do heavy leg days early in the week. Anyways, the run.

I swear the longest part of the run is the mile or two leading up to the turnaround. And the miles right after the turnaround…I did stop to walk a few steps every few miles to get try and get some feeling back in my toes. Gosh I love my feet. I really shouldn’t complain-my feet behaved much better than expected and much better than last week. I think I was landing with a slightly different part of my foot, so for a good part of the run my big toe was numb, but it didn’t hurt because I wasn’t striking on the nerve I usually hit it on.

I took my goo at the halfway point. It was really disappointing. I tried the Power Bar brand of chocolate and it didn’t taste good. The Cliff bar kind from last week was better, and had a better list of ingredients. I just never got a chance to make it back to the store to pick up another one. Here’s a question for you runners-for a half marathon, do you fuel once or twice? Before training, I was thinking I’d do it at miles 5 and 10, but at this point I feel like by mile 10 I just want to power through until the end.

Here’s the crazy part about this run- my slowest miles were definitely the middle miles, but my fastest was the 11th mile. What?? Like, it was probably a minute faster. Ok…I obviously need to start running the rest faster! It’s funny-I’ve been listening to an audiobook on my long runs, and beforehand, I discovered that only if I hit my “goal” pace would I finish my run before my audiobook ran out. Hey, it’s extra motivation! I ended up running out at the VERY end of my run. Nothing too terrible. So that was that!

Here’s the view of SFO from after my run:

I actually felt better after this run than after the last one, in terms of ability to move. I was stupid though and didn’t wear my compression socks, and my calves were sore already yesterday afternoon. Whoops.
What’s the best thing to do after a run? Go yogurt shopping obviously!

Heaven right there my friends. It’s been too long!
By the time I got home, the post-run-crazy-hunger began setting in. I was sooo salty from my run and my body was craving salt like crazy. After a few handfuls of cheddar popcorn from the Farmer’s Market yesterday, I was ready to break open some yogurt. I tried pineapple Chobani, which I’ve never tried before.

Topped with some gluten free granola from the Farmer’s Market, blackberries, and sunflower seed butter. Perfect!

I spent the rest of the afternoon being lazy. And desperately trying to keep up with the 1000 incoming text messages I was receiving. Bloggers sure are a talkative bunch (but I love them for it). Saturday night I went to dinner with my friend, and when I got back I had 148 texts. I felt so popular-I’ve never gotten that many before! Haha.
Dinner last night was leftovers, plus corn on the cob. At the Farmer’s Market, there was a huge line for a corn vendor. I mean, the line was going around the corner, and no other vendors ever had any type of line. Plus, they weren’t the only ones selling corn. Naturally, the long line made my mom WANT this corn. We ended up walking away with 10 ears. It was really good-but enough to cause a giant line? I don’t know.

On the side was leftover chicken sauteed with white wine, mushrooms, and zucchini. Kettle corn was also consumed. Farmer’s Market seriously have the best kettle corn.

I also was dying for some fro-yo, so I made a little fro-yo sundae.

I topped vanilla frozen yogurt with chocolate sauce, fresh strawberries, and whipped cream. YUM.

And staying true to the title of this post, here’s this morning’s breakfast-another yogurt bowl.

Stoneyfield vanilla greek yogurt, gluten free granola, a chopped up nectarine from the Farmer’s Market, and a scoop of sunflower seed butter. I really like Stoneyfield-it’s smooth and not super sweet. My biggest issue with the Chobani that I’ve tried is lack of tang, at least for the key lime and pineapple flavors. I feel like those should be at least a little tangy. Maybe the new key lime? I’ve only tried the one in the flip.
Also, I love this new granola. It’s only sweetened with maple syrup, but it’s still not that sweet. It was a great maple-y flavor because of this. Technically, it’ Coconut, Cranberry and Cocoa Nib, although I don’t taste the cocoa as much. No complaints here though! I need to go get ready for the day-have a great Monday!

What is your favorite flavor of yogurt?

Grilled Peach and Chicken Salad

Date: July 7, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

As promised, here’s the recipe for the delicious salad I had on 4th of July! I don’t have the exact measurements for the toppings, so just add to taste.

For the salad:
Grilled Chicken
-we marinated it with Greek seasoning
Goat cheese
Grilled peaches (just cut in half and place on the grill)

For the dressing (adapted from Cooking Light)
3 T red wine vinegar
2 T olive oil
1 T minced shallots
1 T fresh chopped parsley
1 t Dijon mustard
1/8 t salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 garlic clove, crushed

Just mix up the dressing, and then throw everything together. Enjoy!

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?

SFO

Date: July 6, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

For those of you who don’t know, a plane crashed while landing at SFO (San Francisco airport). The plane was coming from South Korea. So far, 2 are known to have died, but the final injury and casualty count has not come in. I sincerely hope that no one else has been hurt. My thoughts and wishes go out to the victims and their families.

I’m so grateful for social media. This is particularly shocking and tragic for me-I’ve flown out of that airport tons of times. I’ve landed there safely just as many, for which I am grateful. It’s crazy because I run along the bay near the airport. I’ll be running right there tomorrow, and the view of the airport will give my run a little more meaning.