Thanksgiving Week

Date: November 27, 2015

Author: astottler

Hello! I’m currently in Napa. My parents are watching basketball-not really my thing. I’m all about baseball! But the Warriors are currently making history so that’s cool.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! I’ve had a great week so far.

Tuesday I picked up my Turkey Trot bib!

I also went to home Crossfit, which is always fun! The WOD was a length chipper: 100 double unders, 50 deadlifts (95#), 50 burpees, 50 kb swings.

For dinner, we had a crockpot meal-chicken caccitore! Served over a bed of spinach.

I also made some persimmon bread. I used my classic banana bread recipe, but substituted 6 peeled and blended persimmons.

Wednesday was spent at a killer spin class, and then relaxing with my kitty. He’s a fan of my heated blanket!

For dinner, we made salad with persimmons and goat cheese, and then a spaghetti squash “macaroni” and cheese. Topped with lightly roasted tomatoes and basil.

My Thanksgiving began with a 10k Turkey Trot! This is my 3rd year doing the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot. It’s the biggest in the world!

It was quite chilly-low 30s on the drive up. I came prepared.

A minute before the race started, I dropped my layers minus some ear warmers and gloves.

This race was fun! I tried to keep a pace that was challenging but not so uncomfortable that the race wouldn’t be fun. 2 days ago I realized I ran this race 2 minutes faster than I had been thinking. I remembered 1/3 of the way into the race was that was because my last 10k over the summer was at that slower pace! I realized this as I was cruising at a much faster pace than that haha.

30 seconds faster than last year-I’ll take it!

After the race, we had a snack and then cleaned up before heading up to Napa.

We met my grandpa and uncle there, and then it was time for the buffet!

The highlight, as always, was the butternut squash soup. It’s ridiculously creamy and tastes just like fall. My salad plate featured vegetarian sushi, beet salad which I added goat cheese to, and some cheeses with grapes and honey.

I didn’t catch a picture of my main plain but I has some turkey, mashed potatoes, a taste of sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and roasted carrots.

Dessert was exciting as always.

My dessert was the inside of white chocolate cranberry cheesecake, the inside of pumpkin pie, chocolate covered strawberries, and a little chocolate cup with raspberry mousse.

After the big meal, we gelled out in our hotel room watching The Good Wife.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving food?

Puppy Photo Shoot

Date: November 24, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

My Friday afternoon was spent doing a little photo shoot in the quad with my little psycho puppy. Puppy-ish. She looks like dog now-so grown up!

For this post, I’m going to go over weekend things and then do a little puppy photo dump at the end.

Friday night, I went to my school’s annual performance where we make fun of Cal, our rivals. Saturday was our rival game. I think pretty much every group on our campus is also made fun of, and it’s a good time. So crazy this is my last one though! I also got a free facial with my sister. She won one at a bridal fair, and I got to try all kinds of new skin care products. My skin care routine is very basic-soap-and it made me think about taking better care of my skin in the future. Friday also consisted of me sort of learning to salsa (not well).

Saturday was very low key thanks to Thanksgiving break. I finally made it out for a run around noon, and did a 6.4 mile route in preparation for the turkey trot. I looked at my post from last year…apparently I ran it 2 minutes faster than I had remembered, which means I have to run it fast again this year….although we’ll see. Overall I’m faster than a year ago but I’ll see how I’m feeling. Saturday night was the big game! It was fun and we won! I also stopped by a tailgate beforehand.

^Obnoxious snap sent to Cal friends.

Sunday morning started with a quick workout-6x200m on the track, abs, and some good mornings. Quick and efficient! Then, I headed home for break. The highlight of the day was heading up to SF to watch a tree lighting a Pier 39. It was an absolutely beautiful night-not too cold!

On the way, I stopped at the Ferry Building for some gluten free goods: focaccia and ginger molasses cookies!

The lighting itself was quite festive! Beforehand, a mariachi band played which was awesome. There were disney characters there, and they along with another group sang to light the tree.

What a fun way to start Thanksgiving break!

Monday morning started with a workout at a nearby college-stairs. I did single leg hops, jumps, and running up the stairs. It’s been a while, and my legs were absolute jello, to the point it was hard to drink because my legs were shaking!

It was a pretty low key day-I spent some time with a new book, a purring kitty, and a heated blanket.

That evening I taught my Thanksgiving spin class. For Thanksgiving, I go all out. I showed up to teach in a turkey hat.

I wore it for about a quarter of the class. It quickly became sweaty and itchy, and was about ready to fly away. For the class itself, I continued with the Thanksgiving theme. I decided to simulate a Thanksgiving day. A turkey trot, mimosas, then a trip to the grocery. At the grocery, we had to battle crowds in order to grab the last turkey in the store. Carrying a 20 lb turkey, we made the heavy trek home. At home, we played a little football (we were wide receivers), and then made mashed potatoes. Finally, dinner was served and we were able to enjoy the fruits of our labors, along with dessert (I played the song Dessert by Dawin), and then it was time to slow it down. Food coma, or the calm after the storm. A chance to reflect on this special day, to let go of stress, to just be.

After class, I stopped at jamba juice for a pumpkin smash smoothie. This is like half ice cream, but it’s one of my favorite pumpkin items of the season!

After that, I had softball playoffs in the frigid weather. Unfortunately, we lost the quarter finals and didn’t advance.

And finally-as promised, puppy overload! All photos courtesy of my fantastic roommate.

New Fitness Routine

Date: November 20, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

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?

Pineapple Zucchini Bread

Date: November 19, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

So here’s the thing. Apparently I’ve been withholding a recipe from you guys. Since…the summer. I made it right before coming back to school. I think I originally intended to tweak it, but after eating it from the freezer for the past few months, I think it’s finally about time I shared it!

This was made during my quick bread frenzy at the end of summer. I was DYING to try a pineapple zucchini bread healthified (aka with my banana bread recipe that I use as a base for everything).

So here it is!

Ingredients:

2 bananas, mashed

1 c pineapple puree (lightly chopped in a food processor or blender)

1 c grated zucchini

1/4 c honey

1 t cinnamon

1 t vanilla

1 egg

2 T oil (I used avocado)

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

1.5 c flour (I used a gluten free blend)

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix all ingredients together and pout into a 4×8 loaf pan.
Bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center does out clean!

So I Guess I Should Blog…

Date: November 18, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Ugh, I am so ready for Thanksgiving. We get a whole week off, which is basically the best thing ever. I’m still teaching my Monday spin class that week, and you better believe it’s going to be Thanksgiving themed! I spent my entire run this morning brainstorming and I think I have a solid idea! I’ll be sure to share it next week!

Speaking of sharing…I haven’t blogged much lately. I’ll almost certainly blog more over the holidays, but I honestly feel like not that much has happened, or at least not much Internet worthy. Just typical college stuff.

My high school friend visited, which was super fun! We both wanted to go shopping, so that was enough of a reason! Over the course of 2 days, I basically bought every long sleeved shirt in existence. I <3 long sleeves. The goal of shopping was actually to find lion colored clothes-more on that soon.

We also went to my friend’s Wind Ensemble Concert:

My friend is also crazy enough to want to track down a spotlight with me. There had been a HUGE spotlight in the air all week, and it was driving me crazy not knowing where it was coming from! We took to the streets and tracked it down. Success.

The course? HP. Typical. Gotta love Silicon Valley. We then proceeded to videochat our other high school friend for 3 hours…much needed!

I was met that weekend with quite the delivery-my roommate went home and brought persimmons! The obsession continues.

The following night consisted of dinner with my parents, an awesome prank, and a friend’s birthday party.

I brought a giant cake.

I feel pretty confident that none of the prankees will ever find my blog, so I’ll go ahead and fess up to it here. We got a walkie talkie (they’re pretty cheap off of Amazon these days) and hid it in our friends’ room. The next morning, after 2 hours of sleep I sat outside in 40 something degree weather blasting various things through it-notably the music from both Jaws and Psycho. Nailed. It. More pranks to come.

Other college things. The reason for lion colored clothing?

We had a big themed dinner/party at my dorm. The theme was “Who Run the World? Girls!” So vaguely Beyonce, vaguely vague. Since I sure as heck cannot pull off Beyonce, I was planning on dressing up as the lion from the music video. It actually didn’t end up working out due to a failed effort at coordinating another costume, so I ended up vaguely Beyonce, meaning I wore the one sparkly thing I own, paired with a pencil skirt and heels. Well, briefly heels. I think it’s actually been a year since I’ve worn heels so they definitely did not last the whole night. I think there’s a full outfit picture of me floating around on someone’s phone, but here’s a selfie.

Also noteworthy-hiking the Dish trail with my mom. It was the perfect day for it!

And a visit from the (kind of) pups.

I also went to a football game, which was a crazy and frustrating one ending in a close loss. Unfortunately, I only stayed for half the game because I had a retreat for my sorority.

So that’s college. I realize that is not remotely food/fitness related, so stay tuned for lots of talk of that. Spoiler: I did my final trial for my class project of improving on a fitness endeavor!

Who’s excited for Thanksgiving?