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

Date: December 3, 2014

Author: astottler

7 things that haven’t changed in the past year.

After looking at a post from last year’s 12 Days of Christmas about things that have changed, I realized how much really has stayed the same in the past year. So, I thought it would be interesting to look at some of those things!

1. Running. I did 2 half marathons the prior year, and 2 this year. Additionally, my 5k/10k schedule for winter is likely going to be exactly the same as last year. What can I say-I get in a groove! And to be honest, I’m not sure I can do more halfs than this. I tried for 3 and ended up having to drop thanks to chronic injuries. Maybe if I spaced them better? I don’t know-I enjoy the shorter races too-it’s a different kind of training!

2. My workouts in general. I’m in a pretty good Crossfit+running+spin groove right now. Not much different than a year ago!

3. My friends. I feel like friend groups change a lot from Freshman to Sophomore year, but I feel like I’ve kept a lot of the same people in my life this year, which is great!

(This is my roommate and my Christmas card…or something…)

4. My love of cats. I honestly feel like my interests have changed a bit over the last year. Or, at least shifted. This has not changed.

5. My general demeanor. In my first year of blogging, I feel like I was all over the place. I think being at a new place and doing new things can change a lot. But I suppose it is just same old, same old over here! My writing style tends to reflect how I’m feeling and I think it’s a lot more sane and even now, as it was last year.

6. Apparently my love of persimmons. This is a silly one, but my roommate brought back a TON more persimmons as I believe I mentioned before. Guess which year is which?

On that note-my roommate also hasn’t changed!

7. My major. Thank goodness. I think I’ve been all over the place with what I want to ultimately do, but at least I’ve had a clear idea that I wanted to do Biology from Day 1, so whatever I do I’m on the right track and not behind!

In what way HAVEN’T you changed?

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

Date: December 3, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

6 best runs in the past year

Since last year’s theme didn’t really work for this year since I don’t think I actually had ANY guest posts in the past year, I decided to revisit the 6 best runs from the past year!

1. Tahoe Run

There wasn’t a ton of snow this year, so I went for a run in the mountains. I ended up passing a frozen pond and made it to the lake!

2. Super Guadalupe 5k Race

This race was in the middle of my project, so I was feeling fantastic, plus I had worked on speed a lot leading up to the race. Despite the rain, I managed to win my age group!

3. St. Patrick’s Day Long Run (12 miles turned to 14)

Do you ever have one of those days where you just feel like a bada**? That was that day. I finished 2 3 hour finals earlier than I expected, so I decided to knock out that week’s long run. I was excited to try a new route, but I totally screwed it up and missed my term. Regardless, it was one of those runs that just felt good, and it ended up being 14 miles because I didn’t bother to check my map until I was 7 miles from where I started…

4. DC Rain Run

First of all. DC-awesome. Run Club-awesome. Thunderstorm? Exciting. I don’t think you’ve truly lived in DC until you’ve been caught out in a thunderstorm.

5. Monument 12 miler

This was my 12 mile training run from this summer. It was one of those runs that feels awesome, I kept pace, and I think I passed almost every monument! (We can fogey how I wiped out in front of the Washington monument…)

6. First run back from DC

DC was awesome. I loved running there-so many interesting things to see! That said, my first run back in CA was fantastic. I got a lot faster from run club, and the 20 degree drop in temperature + lack of humidity made this run feel great. And yes, after DC, I totally ran in a long sleeve shirt in CA in August.

WIAW-Latest Eats

Date: December 2, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! We all know what that means! Thanks Jenn!

With 12 days of Christmas, I haven’t gotten to share some of the random things I’ve eaten in the past week or so! How tragic would that be?

Also-another exciting note-I entered the lottery for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in DC in the spring. I think the odds I get in are low but how amazing would that be??

Ok. Food. As promised.

Spinach and artichoke soup, from a Buzzfeed article of all things! Topped with parmesan.

Post-turkey trot, pre-Thanksgiving breakfast of mini frittatas and a crumpet.

A really freaking amazing salad in Napa. Avocado, fresh mozzarella, tomato, olive oil, and sea salt. Simple but perfect.

Baby fruit tart from Napa.

Chocolate sea salt caramel cupcake.

Trader Joe’s mushroom risotto with some spinach tossed in.

Carrot soup with cilantro.

Tupperware lunch of leftover broccoli and chicken. (Plus a sweet potato that was scarfed down earlier…)

Dining hall dinner. Roasted veggies and chicken, and a mini veggie pot pie. The highlight was the zucchini, which was roasted with garlic and cheese.

Back to my typical breakfast of yogurt+sunbutter+peaches.

Dining hall lunch on a rainy day-eggplant parmesan, veggies with Alfredo (not my favorite veggies served that day so you gotta do what you gotta do!) and polenta with sundried tomatoes.

And a bonus because how cute is he?

What is something that you haven’t had in a while?

For me it was the eggplant parm-I don’t think I’ve ever had it before!

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

Date: December 2, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

5 things I never thought I’d do until I became a blogger

4 variations on a theme

3 recipes

2 workouts

1 family

Here’s last year’s post.

1. I never thought I’d put so much value into one watch. I only own one watch, and it doesn’t ever tell time. (That awkward moment before the start of the race when you are wearing a big heavy duty watch and you have to ask another runner the time…)

2. Post awkward pictures of myself for the entire Internet to see. See examples of awkward stretching pictures here. Then again, I didn’t think my mother would be so obsessed with taking awkward stretching pictures…

3. Try totally new fitness classes. I was always sort of intimidated by big-name fitness classes, or appealingly upscale studios. At this point, I’m up for anything. I’ve seen so many other bloggers trying a lot of these things, and it makes it way less intimidating to know what to expect going in!

4. Yell at people for touching food before it is properly photographed. If there’s no picture, did it really happen?

Please note that I very nicely yell.

5. Make cutesy graphics. Granted, I don’t do this very often, but knowing how to add a mustache to a picture can be pretty important.

Bonus points if anyone can remember when any of these are from.

The Need to Properly Fuel Post-Workout

Date: December 1, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

So…I had an interesting experience this morning.

When I was in middle school, I used to get really bad migraines. Like, terrible headache, splotchy vision, random numbness, nausea. I haven’t had one since middle school.

But then this morning on the way to class, I realized I couldn’t see. There were just pieces missing-almost like if you looked into the sun and then looked around. I was worried I was getting my first migraine.

By the time I got to class, my vision was much worse and I was really shaky. I was sitting in lecture and I couldn’t see. I couldn’t focus. I felt really weak.

Then, I had another thought. I was worried I had dropped my blood sugar really low. This morning at Crossfit, the WOD wasn’t insane or anything, but we did lots of really heavy squats. As in 90% of max for both front squats and back squats. I had cranberry bread before, and this after:

In my terrible state, I grabbed the sweet potato I packed for lunch and within a few bites, my vision started clearing and I felt less shaky. After finishing the sweet potato, I was able to function, pay attention, and participate although I still felt sort of off. I decided that it was probably due to lack of carbs post workout, and my blood sugar must have dropped really low.

But then as I was walking out of class, my hand went numb. And then my face went numb. And then it passed and I went to buy a muffin to nibble on.

And here we are a few hours later post-muffin+sweet potato + lunch and I feel 100% normal. So I’m not sure-was it a migraine (without a headache? Although I took Advil this morning) or was it poor post-workout fueling?

All I know is I don’t want to take my chances! Next time I’m going to keep a granola bar on hand, and refuel post-workout with plenty of carbs.

Any tips/advice?