3000 Miles Later…

Date: August 29, 2014

Author: astottler

Hello, hello! I’m back in CA!

Everyone has been complaining about how “hot” it is. It’s 82 and dry. That’s cute. I ran in long sleeves yesterday morning!

In terms of travel, everything went pretty smoothly. I enjoyed one last Sweetgreens salad.

And one last Georgetown cupcake. These are salted caramel and chocolate birthday cake.

The cupcake competition in DC may require its own post.

After packing my bags, I lugged 125 lbs of luggage through the cobbled streets of DC. That, my friends, is why I do Crossfit. Needless to say I had to pay quite a bit in overweight baggage fees…

Immediately upon arriving home, I became a furry mess, as I will continue to be for the next 3 weeks.

Besides cuddling my kitty, I’m going to be putting some work into this blog in the next few weeks. I haven’t had much time to do much with it lately other than throw up posts-my race page is sorely outdated. So be on the lookout for a fun recipe tonight!

In terms of the last few days, yesterday morning I tried out my current pre-run breakfast. Yogurt with cocoa banana and sunflower seed butter.

Then, I headed out for my run. I went out to the bay and my mom walked while I ran. I guess I got a bit faster this summer-it’s really nice to run when a) it’s 20 degrees cooler and b) not 5am and I’m just rolling out of bed to the street.

Lunch out with my family afterwards was a cobb salad with chicken and avocado.

For snack, I had some pumpkin yogurt. Yes, I know it’s too soon. It was good though.

In the evening, I went to my home Crossfit! I’m so happy to be back there! We worked on pull ups, and then the WOD included lots of tire flips. My arms hurt.

For dinner, I made a copycat Sweetgreens seasonal salad.

I also utilized my new knife skills I learned at a culinary bootcamp in DC that I went to for work to cut the watermelon.

The salad included arugula, baby kale, fresh mint, feta, watermelon, cucumber, heirloom tomatoes, spicy sunflower seeds, chicken, and champagne vinaigrette.

It came out really well!

And because we need to end on a cat picture clearly:

Moving Through the City

Date: July 31, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! Sorry for leaving you guys for a bit-this week has been kind of crazy! I get kicked out of my housing this weekend, so I’m moving to a house across town. On top of that, I’m going out of town this weekend to visit family in upstate New York! I have until my laundry finished to type up this post!

Crossfit wise, I am happy to report I PRed my split jerk this week! And my handstands against the wall are getting worlds better. On the running front, things are looking pretty good as well. Each week is a bit faster than the last one. Running club is making a huge difference, and I consider it the hardest workout of the week. I went tonight, and it was short but sweet because I’m doing my 10 miler tomorrow-since I’m traveling, that was going to be a mess to try to figure out once I’m in NY!

I went to November Project this week, and it was PR week, meaning we run the stairs 13 or 17 times straight for a time. I did the scaled version, but I felt 1000x times stronger than PR week a month ago! Progress!

Food-wise, there’s been some of the same, some more exciting, and some me being lazy and failing to take a picture.

For lunches, I’ve been splitting it into two parts-salad/veggies and then yogurt mix.

Heirloom tomato salad:

Green bean salad:

And then yogurt with sunflower seed butter and blueberries:

As for dinners, I’ve made a couple of “quesadillas.” I couldn’t actually find tortillas at the grocery (what??) so I got some type of whole wheat flatbread thing-it’s pretty similar when filled with cheese and then cooked on a stove.

Round one was stuffed with cheese, tomato, and avocado:

And round two was filled with ground turkey and veggies from the freezer:

On the more exciting dinner front, I went out to dinner yesterday because one of my friends here is leaving this weekend! It was a super late dinner-we met at 9pm. I classily satisfied my post workout hunger before hand with milk from the carton and sunflower seed butter from a plastic fork.

For my main dish, I went with salmon with fried plantains and creamy herb sauce.

And of course, dessert was necessary. I chose the bread pudding, which was delicious (but not as good as my family recipe-I need to make that sometime!).

A perfect end to the night. Needless to say, I’m running on fumes. I didn’t get back until after 11 last night after waking up at 5am for November Project. Hopefully I’ll have some time for some much needed rest this weekend!

Yoga Again…Finally!

Date: July 7, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I hope everybody had a fantastic Monday! Mine was good. It wasn’t insanely hot today here-only like 90 and humid. Tomorrow is supposed to be 98…

I’m debating whether or not I should become one of those bloggers who posts shorter posts more often-what do you guys think? Although not that I could really post at work anyways!

Breakfast this morning was simple. I haven’t been feeling the yogurt AT ALL since I got here, so I’ve just been rolling with the lighter breakfast of fruit bowls with sunflower seed butter mountains.

On the way to the Metro, I stopped at Starbucks for a latte. I hardly ever get lattes-typically only if the coffee place has lack luster milk foam (and really strong espresso). The one from Starbucks? Is there actually any coffee in there? So milky…And I didn’t even have time to finish it because it took longer than I was expecting. Ah well.

Lunch today was good (although not as amazing as dinner). I made an extra chicken breast, and sautéed some spinach with spices and nutritional yeast. The sad thing is that little mound of spinach started out as like half a bag…

After eating, I decided to go for a walk in the 90 degree heat to thaw and get out some restless energy. My office building is SO freaking cold! The heat was much welcomed.

Snack in the afternoon was an apple and some oatmeal raisin cookies from the vending machine (super healthy, I know). But a trip to the vending machine was necessary-at this point in my life I desperately need quarters. Yet again, when I did laundry Sunday night, I failed to have enough quarters to actually, you know, dry my clothes. The change machine was broken, and a sign said to try getting change from the vending machines in the building. Yeah…I lost about $3 trying to get it…So I have a TON of wet laundry hanging all over my room. It takes forever to dry in this hot climate! Anyways, at the work vending machine I stocked up on quarters so I can actually finish my laundry and dry my clothes. Wearing wet shorts for my workout was not the most pleasant feeling in the world…

After work, I headed to the gym for Crossfit+yoga. At Crossfit we worked on handstand push ups (or modifications!) and squats. Afterwards, I headed over to a yoga class. It’s been WAY too long since I’ve taken a yoga class, and the classes I took most recently were basically entirely stretching. Anyways, the moral of the story is I’ve become even more tight. Sitting at a desk all day has not been good to my body, and my back has been a little wonky lately thanks to it.

The yoga class was a Power Vinyasa, right up my alley. It was the FASTEST paced yoga class by far that I’ve ever been too! Whew! So many vinyasas, so fast. My arms are going to be sore tomorrow. It felt amazing though. I will definitely be returning, especially as I get deeper into half training!

Dinner was AMAZING. It could be because it was 9 o clock by the time I ate it, but luckily it came together quickly! Inspired by my latest food craze, I decided to modify the coconut flour quesadilla things and make coconut flour arepas! Seriously, SO good. I filled it with smoked gouda, and served it with another side of spinach cooked the same way as for lunch.

A recipe will be coming your way soon!

Now, it’s basically bedtime for me-half marathon training week 2 kicks off in the morning!

Have you ever had an arepa?

DC Workouts

Date: June 26, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

So…I know I have a bit to catch up on but if I can write this post quick enough I can catch another Scandal before bed. SO GOOD and totally relevant to this city!

Yesterday I woke up at 5am (that’s 2am CA time for those keeping track) to run over to the Lincoln Memorial for November Project.

I was shocked by how light-and hot and humid-it was at 5:30am. Since where I’m from it’s always freezing at night, I couldn’t quite believe it!

We all gathered on the steps. Today was “PR day,” which meant running the stairs for time.

Well, for some reason I thought we were doing that once, so I sprinted up the stairs. And then no one was stopping. Turns out we had to do it 17 (or 13) times…I scaled and did 13, partly because I had to leave a bit early. Guys. The Lincoln Memorial has SO MANY STAIRS. Like, you have no idea. THE BURN! Somehow magically I’m not insanely sore today-maybe because I spent the rest of the morning hydrating like a mad woman, but it was definitely a good one, and so peaceful to be running the city so early!

I went to Crossfit that evening because apparently I’m crazy, and everyone seems to think it’s PR week. Well, I did get a PR! I PRed my deadlifts by 10lbs for a total of 245! And my form was way better than my previous PR so that’s good!

And since we’re on the topic of workouts, I went to a run club today that’s through my gym (which I get a membership to as part of Crossfit). I should also mention that it was 90 and humid today. And that I never have to run in heat because I’m from San Francisco and such a thing does not exist…

There were only 3 of us plus an instructor, and the other women looked pretty fast. On the schedule was about a 35 minute tempo run-10 easy, 10 min tempo, 5 min easy, rest of the run tempo. In theory tempo was a faster pace, or 10k pace. In reality, it was me trying not to die. I was doing ok keeping up with the easy pace-it didn’t feel too bad but it was about a 9:00 which is on the fast side for a longish run for me (My latest 10k pace was 8:45). But I was doing fine. I fell behind pretty quickly when the tempo part started but I did what I could. Coming back though, my legs were absolute bricks. During the “tempo” part, I was just trying to keep them moving. So fast runs in hot and humid weather build character, right? I’ll probably go back even though I probably slowed the others down, because it’s good for me and I’m sort of learning the area through a guided run. That was a little extra incentive-better keep up if I don’t want to get hopelessly lost! And hey-official half training starts next week! Although I’m going to keep up my weekend 6 milers until I get to that point.

Foodwise?

I wasn’t sure if I’d have time for breakfast post-November project, but it was a non-issue and I had woken up HUNGRY. So this protein was much needed after 10245412342 stairs.

And I finally worked out my coffee situation. After waking up at 5am, this was a lifesaver.

As a side note, this is a 12oz coffee, which is the smallest size they serve. I had one again this morning and it was WAY too much caffeine, even though I was drowsy all morning. WHEW. Guess who usually drinks baby espresso drinks? THIS GIRL.

Lunch today was kind of awful. I made some cauliflower in the microwave and topped it with hummus leftover from the previous night’s dinner (picture will follow) and it was just a mushy mess. Ick. I also had scrambled eggs with manchego and spinach, which were ok but it was kind of a mess.

Here’s the aforementioned dinner. The craziest thing happened. I heated soup up on the stove. Not the microwave, the STOVE. Am I officially a real person? I took tomato soup and mixed in some fresh spinach, then topped it with cheddar. On the side was some hummus and pretzels, plus my new favorite thing-FROZEN GRAPES! I had some on the softer side which I hate, so I just stuck them in the freezer. SO good!

The tomato soup was Trader Joe’s, and I was really disappointed. I forgot to check added sugar, and this had a fair amount-it tasted sweet. Ugh.

Speaking of which, on my way out of work today, I was hungry and wanted some quickly digesting carbs to fuel my run, so I picked this guy up from the restaurant.

It was pretty tasty, but SO sweet and oily. But my run went well (as well as it could have) so who am I to complain. I just don’t want to make it a habit!

After the afternoon’s run, I stopped at Whole Foods to be lazy as well as to make use of my gift card. I picked up some fruit, carrots, super dark chocolate, and sun butter, plus dinner and lunch for tomorrow. Not having to pack lunch tonight is sort of fantastic.

My dinner was Mexican tilapia over beans, roasted potatoes, and garlicy cabbage and green beans. Plus lots of grapes with sun butter when I got back, and a bit of dark chocolate.

And now I’m at that point where I could go to bed nice and early, or watch another Scandal…decisions….

What Not to Do

Date: June 21, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello from DC! Today was my first day here, and I spent the day trying to figure out where things are and getting the things I still needed. I’ve been eating really well since getting here as well! I’m just going to do a brief recap since it’s around midnight here, but I’m sort of on the wrong time zone still so…

The first thing I saw on the drive to the hotel? First monument sighting!

When I woke up this morning, I was a bit dazed (thank you jet lag). The last couple of nights I’ve had dreams that it was morning and I was in bed after waking up…so it’s just confusing all around. For some reason when I woke up this morning I was sure it was Wednesday and that I needed to get my WIAW post up!

Naturally, coffee was necessary.

As we walk around, I’ve been making note of places nearby that have cappuccinos! For breakfast, we ate at the hotel restaurant. I ordered a side of eggs and a side of fruit.

After breakfast, I headed over to my new Crossfit! It’s at the bottom of what is probably the nicest gym I’ve ever been to-and a membership to the gym and all its group fitness classes comes with my Crossfit membership!

I’m sure I made a great first impression on my first day….guess who decided she wanted to have matching box jump scars?

Yeah…Not fun. At all. If you’ve never hit your shin on a box, you can’t truly understand the experience. I ended up patching myself up and (carefully) doing the rest of the workout, but box jumps are not something I would recommend you push yourself in because missing a jump is the WORST. I made the first one and it was a bit iffy-I knew I shouldn’t have done a second. I haven’t bashed my shin in over 2 years-and my scar on the right side is from doing it twice. It’s really, really awful. This wasn’t even a scrape-it was a dent where basically the skin imploded. I’m also bummed I got a bit of blood on my new Crossfit shoes…

This whole experience definitely shook me up-something about the shock of the injury, plus repeated exposure to lots of gore (I never wanted to see that deep into my leg….) For those especially concerned, we talked to my sister who is an EMT and she confirmed that an ER visit was not necessary, but this has still been a rather unpleasant experience, especially since we’ve basically been walking everywhere around here. After my bash, we walked to a nearby place for lunch, where they were kind enough to give me some much needed ice.

For my meal, I had a salmon salad with goat cheese-delicious! For some reason, I never see salmon salads on the menu, or never order them.

For dinner, we met with some of my parents’ old friends at a nice restaurant. The food was amazing! It’s been a while since I’ve eaten at such a fancy place!

To start, my dad and I split a crab stuffed avocado dish that came with greens with truffle oil dressing. And we know I will never pass up avocado…

For my main dish, I ordered salmon over purple potatoes, which was also excellent. I’ve never been asked how I wanted my salmon cooked before (Medium, Well done, etc), but I was asked twice today. Is this a normal thing? And East Coast thing? I think in CA it’s just always well done…

And for dessert-chocolate lava cake with a molten center.

And now I have to go-it’s past my bedtime in some time zone! And it looks like my run through the monuments won’t happen tomorrow, barring some miracle that magically closes the gash in my shin and makes the bruises disappear…