WIAW on Stormy Days

Date: July 15, 2014

Author: astottler

Happy Wednesday! (Feel free to ignore the fact that I’m posting Tuesday night. You get the idea.) As usual, I’m celebrating WIAW with Jenn!

I have lots of good things to share, including a recipe! Yay!

Before I get to food, let’s talk about workouts. I was all set to go to Crossfit after work Monday, but I walked outside to a giant storm, and then the Metro stopped running, so I missed the class, and didn’t feel like going to the late class.

Anyways, this meant Monday was rest and today was a 3 miler! After pouring all afternoon, I decided to take a chance and go for it during a break in the rain. I did my usual 3 mile route.

Yeah. I live here.

And this is not a bad turn around point:

Yes, the Washington Monument is EXACTLY 1.5 miles away, so it should be pretty clear why this is my typical route now!

On the way back, storm clouds began to threaten. It started POURING right as I was running up my block. Talk about lucky!

The run also felt fantastic. I was running on rested and not “just woke up and it’s 6am” legs, plus I’m been working hard in my training, and it’s certainly paying off. This is week 3, and each week I’ve done this route. I’ve done it faster each week, and each week it feels better. Week 1 was super slow for me-10:18 pace. sat week was 9:48, and today was 9:29. And it wasn’t like it was an all out pace, so it’s a good start!

Now onto the part everyone actually cares about. Food.

Breakfasts have been the same old-sunflower seed butter with lots of fruit! Plus chai tea since I’m laying off the coffee.

Lunch Monday was leftovers of Cheesy Mushroom Quinoa plus some yogurt.

Lunch on Tuesday was extra special. I was on trip at work, and the food they prepared us was amazing and beautiful.

I’m not sure how much I should talk about work on here, but I will say this gives me so much hope for the future of America’s school food system!

I piled my plate high with all kinds of delicious salads. One of my favorites was a ginger root salad. This is the first context in which I’ve actually enjoyed beets!

I also got to take leftovers home with me, which made a great pre-run snack/dinner.

And finally-for the recipe!

Coconut Flour Arepas

*Edited to add: this is based on the fantastic Blogilates recipe for healthy quesadillas!

Ingredients

2 T coconut flour

1 ear of corn

2 T water

6 T egg whites

1/8 t baking powder

salt to taste

Directions

1. Mix together coconut flour, water, egg whites, and baking powder in a small bowl.

2. Remove the corn from the cob, and add to mixture.

3. If mixture is too thin, let it sit a moment. The coconut flour may take a bit of time to absorb the water, but this will still be fairly runny. Add salt if desired.

4. In a large pan, add a touch of olive oil and heat the pan.

5. Once pan is hot, pour mixture into pan.

6. When bubbles begin to form on the surface, flip and cook through.

7. If desired, sprinkle with salt, and fill with desired fillings. I used smoked gouda.

Delicious, and comes together in minutes!

What is your favorite type of cheese?

Not for everything, but I love goat brie. If you haven’t tried it, you absolutely need to!

The Easy 5 Miler that Turned into a Tempo Run

Date: July 13, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

So I did end up running this morning. And run, I did. I wore compression socks all day Saturday and Saturday night, so my calves were much better in the morning. I decided to still run in the socks though, just in case!

After a leisurely breakfast and morning, I headed out around 10:30am for an easy, slow paced 5 miles. Or so I thought.

About a mile in, I happened to run into some people from the Run Club I’ve been going to. I ended up joining them. They are MUCH faster than I am-and I’m especially slow for me right now since speed work was long in the past!

The scenery was much better than my planned route though.

And I finally saw the Jefferson Memorial!

Talk about a death of a run though. I ran with them for a bit over 2 miles. We were going at about an 8:40 pace. I have never been so grateful for stop lights! And I’m sure heat wasn’t helping matters!

I took this picture when I broke off from them as proof I was actually running kind of fast (for me).

Granted, my 5k time is much faster than that, but that is a totally different setting and training level! My legs were dead heading back.

But the views weren’t bad.

It’s weird to see the monuments when it is actually light out and crowded! Not so many people there at 6am!

I also found ducklings in the reflecting pool. So cute.

That was definitely not the boring, easy 5 miler I had been picturing, but that should make me faster in the long run (no pun intended). (Well, sort of intended.)

I refueled with a Dunkin Donut breakfast sandwich (my stomach was all weird but I needed food, so something bland) and a DECAF iced coffee. I’m not a fan of Dunkin coffee…it tastes too sour, or fruity or something.

As far as the rest of the day goes, it was low key. Did you guys watch the World Cup game? I was rooting for Germany. For no particularly good reason. People from my University organized a meet up to watch the game, so I watched it there. It was super loud and crowded though. And not going to lie-not the most exciting game, at least until overtime!

For dinner, I made a repeat of last week, but I totally messed it up. I screwed up cooking the quinoa-it ended up drying out a bit, so I added water to the whole thing, and it came out ok, but the texture wasn’t quite as good as last week. Still tasted good though!

Plus leftover brussels sprouts on the side.

Overall, I’d say it was a pretty successful day, although I didn’t do that much! I’m glad I got to finally visit the Jefferson Memorial though!

What did you do this weekend? Who were you rooting for?

I Don’t Understand the Cupcake Craze

Date: July 12, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello everyone!

This morning, I went to another OutRun!

I fueled up beforehand with some banana-oatmeal balls and blueberries.

The workout was fun-it was in a different place this time, and included plenty of hills, including trail running. I generally hate trail running-although to be fair I now have a good excuse for hating it. I have foot issues that are worse on trails-and the foot doctor even confirmed it. Not sure if I ever talked about this specifically but all the pain and numbness I talk about in my feet on long runs is apparently something called a neuroma, which is scar tissue build up on/around the nerve. This is probably from years of bruised feet when I played softball and had the cleats stick up through the shoe into my foot. Anyways-the foot thing isn’t an issue on shorter runs anyways!

I only wiped out on the trail once! By some miracle I landed perfectly, without a scratch. This OutRun was-I guess I would say-an easier workout than the last one. It was a larger group, so there was more pace differential so I didn’t feel like I was pushing the pace much. However, I’ve logged a lot of miles this week-kind of out of nowhere-so my legs were dragging a bit. I was especially worried about my calves. They were super tight, and my left one wasn’t feeling that great, so I kept a close eye on it. Not sure if my “long run” (5 miles) is going to happen tomorrow though, just as a precaution. I’ll play it by ear, but it is definitely not worth it to push myself and get hurt 2 weeks into training. I’m currently wearing compression socks, hoping they work their magic!

My running for the week was as follows:

Mon-off

Tues-3 mile training run

Weds-November Project+running there and back, so ~3 miles?

Thurs-Run Club. Between 3-4?

Friday-4 mile training run+maybe a mile or so at Crossfit?

Saturday-OutRun, about 4 miles

Sunday- (5 miles)

While the mileage isn’t that high, it’s much more than I’ve been running lately. The thing is, I don’t know what to cut out! It’s definitely something to figure out, especially as the long runs get longer.

After the workout, I decided to try my luck at Georgetown Cupcake. The line is always INSANE there, so I was hoping that before 11am, it would be reasonable! It was better, but it was still a wait, and I ran out of water so I was SO thirsty! I bought 2 bottles of water there. Worth every penny.

I had a lava fudge cupcake.

It was a chocolate base with cream cheese frosting and fudge sauce on top.

It was good, and the fudge on top was definitely a nice touch. I don’t get the gourmet cupcake trend though, now that I’ve had a few of the “best” places. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but I could make the same thing, or better, myself at home! Sure, it wouldn’t look as nice, but that’s really not the important part! I’m much more on-board the gourmet ice cream trend that seems to be sweeping the San Francisco Bay Area. How am I going to make liquid nitrogen ice cream at home?? (Wait-new life goal!)

So while this famous cupcake was good, I won’t wait in line for another!

Since I ate a pre-lunch cupcake, I decided I should get some veggies in my system. I happened to pass a SweetGreens-they’re seriously everywhere! I got the seasonal salad, which has peaches, goat cheese, basil, and balsamic. I added chicken.

I really liked the basil in this. It was such a nice touch that gave the salad a whole summer-y feel.

After lunch, I walked around Georgetown a bit, and then walked home.

My afternoon has been really low key. I decided to save the exciting things for tomorrow. I’m meeting up with some people to watch the game, and depending on if I’m running or not, I might hit up a Smithsonian.

For snack, I had some leftover brussels sprouts. They were a little firmer than I would have liked, so I heated them up in the microwave liberally to cook them a bit more. I then topped them with smoked gouda. Delicious.

Since I ate plenty of veggies in my snack (that bowl x2 or 3), I opted for a simple dinner of an egg and some very egg heavy chocolate chip pancakes.

They came out super dense, and not the most amazing things ever, but it got the job done!

Have a fantastic rest of your weekend!

WIRED

Date: July 11, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I hope everyone is doing well! My Friday night plans fell through, so I’m hanging out here blogging, after a super long google+ chat with my family.

This morning, after being stupid and staying up way too late finishing my book, I was up bright and early for half marathon training. 4 miles today! Since I’ve done a variety of pace/speed based runs this week, today was just comfortable pace. It was actually pretty cool out at 6am!

Now I totally get why Anne runs with her camera-there’s just so much to capture here!

Post run, I had the best breakfast ever. It’s been a year since I’ve had a combo like this. I added blueberry lemon banana bread to vanilla yogurt, and topped that with blueberries and sunflower seed butter. Seriously, so good.

Stonyfield has some of my favorite vanilla Greek yogurt because the sugar content isn’t bad. Only 12g including lactose sugars! That’s way better than most!

At work, I got coffee.

Pleas note the size of that cup. It is not big. 12oz. It is not full. But it apparently was WAY too much caffeine for me. I’m pretty sensitive, and it was bad. I felt awful the whole day. And, I have a family history of heart problems with too much caffeine (granted it was from way more than this) so it freaks me out if I get at all over caffeinated. I’m not sure if the coffee here is just extra strong, but it’s gotten to me a lot more than usual. My cappuccinos at school are even on the small side for cappuccinos I guess! The weird thing is it is sort of unpredictable when it’s going to hit me too much. I had a little less than this on Monday and was seriously dragging all day (maybe they slipped me decaf?). Anyways, it was enough for me to vow off coffee all together for at least a week. It will be just tea for a while! Ugh. Not good.

Since I got caught in the storm and didn’t cook last night, I bought lunch. I tried something slightly new-a humus sandwich! It’s just hummus and veggies on a whole wheat pita. It was good! The cafe also has other interesting varieties of hummus that I should try at some point.

Also, because I’m doing the whole full disclosure thing-I had a piece of my weakness, marble bread.

After work, I headed to Crossfit. We worked on headstands (!) (yeah, I’m not good at them) and bench presses before going outside for a running related WOD. Which is probably not the best thing for me right now, to be honest, because this week has been very running heavy. My calves were really tight. I’m doing a fair amount of running this weekend as well, so it’s something I need to watch. I’m also going to have to figure out a schedule that isn’t going to torch my calves running every day. That would be a great way to get injured, especially as the long runs get longer. I’m doing OutRun again tomorrow, and it probably will be one of my last because the mileage is adding up quickly!

After Crossfit, I snacked on some chocolate yogurt while making dinner. Definitely not as decadent as it sounds, but still good! And perfect for after a tough workout.

I roasted brussels sprouts while I chatted with my family, and had a black bean burger to go with them.

I also threw together something I’ve seen going around the blog world-2 ingredient oatmeal cookies. First of all, calling them cookies is quite the exaggeration. They are just banana and oats. I added cinnamon, vanilla, and raisins for cinnamon raisin. These will be perfect pre-run/workout for me though!

And now I’m off to finally catch up on blogs!

Drenched

Date: July 10, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Friday! Anyone have big plans for the weekend? I’m not really sure what I want to do. I might try to check out one of the Smithsonians!

As you may or may not have noticed, I’ve been trying to keep my posts more as daily recaps of food+exercise. It doesn’t get too long and I’m forcing myself to include some things that might have been better left out. Since I’m cooking for myself finally, I can have way more control over what I eat, which is fantastic! I think it will be interesting to see how this evolves over the summer. Plus-ideas, right?

My morning did not start off with a workout. Yayy sleeping!

I got ready and went to Starbucks for breakfast because I was lacking in the quick and easy breakfast food department. Plus I was still a bit woozy from the Benadryl (although everything I took it for seems to be getting better!), so I wanted a little caffeine. I went with a latte because they seem to be really week, plus a spinach and feta wrap.

Lunch was a repeat of yesterday-leftovers! No picture because I was in a meeting. Then a little dessert…

From the vending machine-which I became more familiar with because it gives me quarters for laundry! Not the worst things for you, but definitely not the healthiest.

Later in the afternoon, I also had a piece of banana bread.

After work, I headed to the gym for run club, with the full knowledge that a storm might come in. Hah.

Let’s just say I don’t think I’ve ever been that wet before in my life. If I jumped in a pool, I wouldn’t be that wet. It started to rain about 5-10 minutes in, and it came down hard. We decided to push through it because we got pretty wet, pretty quickly. This is the first time I’ve been caught out in a DC storm. I felt like someone was pouring buckets of water on my head. We don’t get rain like that in CA!

Then the lightning started. It was closer than I would have liked (but not dangerously close by any means!), but at that point, we didn’t really have anywhere to take cover from it so we forged on.

The theme of the run was a hill run. We were going to do hill sprints but it was so wet out we just ran up it. Definitely nothing like the SF hills I’m used to though! Not that I didn’t slog up it, but everyone talked beforehand about how big it was…that’s a SF foothill…

I’m pretty sure I was dying during the run because the pace was so fast, but I didn’t really notice because I was pretty busy trying not to drown. It’s a legitimate concern. How to you keep the water out of your mouth?

When we got back, it was comical how wet we were. And somehow I forgot my umbrella..I was going to go straight to the grocery, but I decided to ride the storm out in SweetGreens over dinner of a guacamole salad.

When the rain let up, I ran into Whole Foods (on the way back) for some quick groceries and a muffin.

Muffins/quickbreads are officially my favorite desserts. I’m calling it-muffins will be the next gourmet dessert trend! At least I hope they are…Whole Foods has such good muffins too.

Meanwhile, I’ve been dreaming up new variations of my banana bread. Chocolate raspberry may be next!

Do you like running in the rain? How do you not drown?

That’s a legitimate question!