DNS

Date: September 19, 2014

Author: astottler

Did not start.

Those are words no runner wants to see. But, I’ve decided to not run my next race-Rock n Roll San Jose-on October 4. Ever since my half about 2 weeks ago, my plantar fasciitis has been flaring worse than ever. After the race, I couldn’t walk for 2 days. I can’t go through day to day life without pain, and my training runs since the race I’ve gutted out. With my plantar fasciitis in the past, running wasn’t too much of a problem, but now it’s become extremely painful. Even worse is that the outside of my bad foot/ankle has started hurting as well.

In top of that, on my long run I felt totally undertrained. I was going to go into the race undertrained and with bad feet-I can’t even imagine what the aftermath of this race would be like.

And then I realized-why? Why would I torture myself to run this race? It’s not the race I trained for all summer-that one is over. (And I’m grateful I was able to explore DC on foot in the process.) I’m not getting paid to do this. No one is forcing me-I’m not a pro-runner. I think as a blogger it’s easy to get caught up in the hype of racing and the seriousness of the process.

So I’m actually doing the smart thing and taking a DNS. I’m bummed about this, but I would be even more bummed by slogging through painful runs leading up to race day, and the pain that would follow, not to mention the risk of a more serious or permanent injury.

The fact that I’m having trouble dragging myself out to run now because I’m lazy (my normal reason) but because I can’t stand the thought of pain is a sign that I need to take a step back. This foot issue was something I could deal with before, but it’s worse than it’s ever been and it’s time for a break. Starting Saturday, I am going to take 2 complete weeks off from running. By forgoing the race, in the day I would have raced I may be able to run pain free again. Worth it.

So expect to see lots of rowing and spinning in the next couple of week! In addition, I will be doing lots of icing, stretching, and rolling. I have comfortable shoes and inserts of every walk of life now. I also got a night brace that I tried for the first time last night, and it seemed to help quite a bit! It basically just keeps my foot in a flexed position so that it is not so stiff when I wake up.

So, that’s where I am right now! Here’s to 2 weeks of rest!

Have you ever had to back out of a race? Do you have any tips for plantar fasciitis?

Taper Eats

Date: September 5, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Guys, we’re officially 2 days away from race day! In terms of workouts, I’m taking it easy. Wednesday was my last run and my last Crossfit. Thursday I planned to do a short run but opted to rest my feet instead so I did absolutely nothing. This morning I went to spin and ran 1 mile to get my legs moving, but tomorrow is another full rest day!

The good news is in terms of running, I feel ready. I still haven’t picked a goal pace so that’s sort of a problem. The bad news is my plantar fasciitis has been flaring this past week and it hasn’t warmed up in my runs like it always did before-I think it’s because it’s not 90 degrees here…

Since I’ve been tapering, I’ve had plenty of time to dream up dinner/lunch ideas. I ever did some more experimental baking! (And then the subsequent eating of course.) So here are some of my “taper week” eats!

Leftover chicken with ketchup, plus roasted carrots and cumin roasted cauliflower. I love the color of the yellow cauliflower! Next time I’m getting purple!

Pumpkin Noosa (yogurt). It’s good-I think it’s a Target exclusive though! Also good-Coconut Noosa.

Cheesy Garlic and Herb Brussels Sprouts-Garlic and Herb Laughing Cow, Maple Apple Sausage (chicken), and shaved brussels sprouts. I also love that this is a super easy dorm meal!

Cinnamon laughing cow+baked (ok, microwaved) peaches. So delicious. Next time I think I’d sauté them together on the stove.

A sandwich from the popular local sandwich shop-turkey and avocado! Plus roasted carrots.

I actually did another little baking experiment-and it came out amazingly well! Like-eat half a loaf in one day well. I’m carb loading, right? Recipe should be up tomorrow.

Oh my gosh. I found this puppy at the local Farmer’s Market-it’s every bit as good as it sounds. I also picked up some maple cinnamon pumpkin seed butter. There’s a stand at the local Farmer’s Market with all kinds of amazing nut and seed butters. I also tried a S’mores sunflower seed butter which was AMAZING but more dessert-y than I was looking for at the time. I’m crossing my fingers that in the coming months a pumpkin spice sunflower seed butter will pop up…

Post-spin chocolate protein smoothie this morning. Man, I forgot how delicious these were! I used frozen banana, Chocolate Designer Whey, cocoa powder, milk, and a handful of spinach.

And lunch today-leftover chicken and leftover cumin roasted cauliflower, plus some spoonfuls of the above sunflower seed butter. Yum!

How do you eat during taper?

It Just Got Real (National Running Day)

Date: June 4, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy National Running Day! How did you celebrate?

I began my morning with a giant hill 5 miler. It kicked my butt. My legs tired super quickly-Crossfit the night before probably didn’t help, but hills have been sort of killing me lately. And yes, I was definitely cursing gravity a bit as I was climbing today!

Breakfast was same old, same old. But in a different bowl! I thought I was out of disposable bowls, and I have a very limited selection of actual bowls, so I used an old jar from one of my fancy yogurts for a yogurt, strawberry/peach, and sun butter creation.

I said I wouldn’t share all my selfies for my selfie a day challenge, but I think today’s is especially pertinent because it involved coffee which was definitely the turning point of my day. I didn’t sleep very well last night, and this morning’s run really knocked me out! I was sort of dehydrated and constantly chugging water, and my whole body and mind were tired. And then coffee. And then I felt 1000x better.

I’m sort of embarrassed by my lunch picture but such is life when you are reaching the end of the year. I had a meatball, laughing cow, and a boatload of carrots.

Today was my last day of classes for the year! Woo! Now just 2 finals and a paper between me and the summer! It’s bad-I’ve been in the summer mindset for a while now. I can’t stop thinking about my summer. I’m super excited. I keep thinking about what each and every day will be like, the fun places I’ll run, the awesome things I’ll cook. For anyone keeping track, I’m going to Washington DC for the summer! I’ve never been there before, so I’m insanely excited! I’ve already been looking into Crossfit boxes and…they seem much higher scale! The one I’m probably going to chose had a whole section on “amenities.” Hah!

Anyways, for snack I had some beautiful blueberries and leftover mashed sweet potatoes.

I considered going to Crossfit this afternoon, but given that the run this morning kind of killed me and the workout was basically the worst thing ever…let’s just say a ladder up to 21 of burpees and push press was worth missing.

I’ve been meaning to eat more dinners in my dorm to eat up all the random food I have, but that hasn’t exactly happened. For some reason the vegetable soup I thawed a few days ago still looks like a block….so there’s that. Instead, I went with a salmon burrito bowl at the dining hall. These bowls are good-I just wish the guar wasn’t so saturated with lemon!

Also-Day 3 of no sugar, yay! Sometimes the whole “no sugar” thing clicks for me and sometimes it doesn’t so hopefully I can hold out!

And back to the title of this post-guess what else I did to celebrate National Running Day? I took advantage of the discount for today and signed up for another half marathon! I am now officially doing Rock n Roll San Jose in October! It’s a month after the previous half, so working out the training for that might be a little funny, but I’m excited! So-what’s getting real?? Guess what I put my projected finish time at? 2:00! I’m now officially committed to trying for that. Suddenly, it seems so doable. I have so much time to get faster, and every half I’ve done has been insanely hilly. I was playing around with a pace calculator, and I’m getting excited! In terms of my training, I start training for my September half on June 30. I really want to PR that race which I think is doable since it’s a flatter race, but my training probably won’t be too crazy this summer because I’m working full days with an hour commute each day. Plus East Coast summer weather…After that race, I’ll take a bit of time off before training hard for a couple of weeks for the October race.

After that, I’ll probably go back into 5k training and speed work! And that’s my year! Whew!

How did you celebrate National Running Day?

The Color Run!

Date: May 31, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! As I type this, my hands are still stained a bit blue. Yes, I’ve long since showered and I’ve washed them dozens of times. Why, you may ask? This morning, my friends/sister and I did The Color Run! I’ve never done a race that was at all like this before, so I was pretty excited! I woke up bright and early to pick up my packet and eat a banana.

I brought a ziplock bag to carry my phone in during the race, but pretty soon just threw in the towel on keeping my phone remotely un-colorful. I wanted to document how pretty we looked after the blue station (my fav color!) and my phone quickly got covered in colorful dust, and then my ziplock decided to refuse to zip. So, here’s a recap mostly with pics!

I think it’s definitely important to document the “before” of a race like this!

Waiting for the start!

When we first started running, my legs felt heavy from standing around and doing a rough Crossfit last night (my #1 sign that I had regained my strength post-illness!) but by the time we went through the first color station, I was warmed up! We didn’t really know what to expect of the color stations. We jogged slowly through while volunteers squirted powdery color onto us.

I think I got the most colored at the blue station! I loved how it matched with my shoes 🙂

Next, we came upon a cloud of purple.

We then proceeded to go through yellow and pink as well. I thought the colors of The Color Run were really pretty. In my opinion, some of the other color runs use much darker colors that blend together and don’t look as good!

Before we knew, it, we reached the finishing shoot and received additional color packets to throw after the race.

I was trying so hard not to get it in my eyes! This is after the first color throw, where everyone just throws their color packets at each other. Note the color of my face: unpainted.

We then met up with the rest of the group for the second color throw. Someone nearby us must have had green, because I got covered in it!

One cool thing is that the race was sponsored by KIND bars, and they had free samples after the race. The exciting part was that they were giving out their new bars that don’t have nuts, so I could actually have one! Yay!

Back to the pictures-notice the color of my face. Well, I was still under the impression that I didn’t have any paint on my face. My cleaned off the best we could (I brought wipes to clean my hands/phone) and then put on our clean Color Run t-shirts to go out to brunch. I didn’t realize I had paint on my face until we walked into the bathroom to clean up a bit…and I realized I had developed quite a nice mustache.

The brunch place we went to was fantastic, and they didn’t seem to mind all the colorful people! (We weren’t the only ones coming from the race!) If you’re ever in San Jose, I highly recommend Bill’s Cafe, on Willow Street. The menu looked fantastic, and it was hard to decide what to get! I ended up ordering the veggie skillet-veggies, egg whites, and cheese atop hash browns, and topped with avocado!

They also had amazing looking pancakes and French Toast, including cinnamon roll French Toast! We all agreed that we need to go there again!

All in all, it was a great morning! I then proceeded to take the longest shower of my life. I’m mostly not blue, and even though I can’t find any dye in my hair, it was somehow dripping blue…I have yet to see how my laundry will look!

Also-PSA: running in workout pants with a hole is probably not the best idea ever. I have the worst chaffing of my life, which is currently patched up with gauze, a bandaid, and Neosporin.

Have you ever done a color run of any type? Or other fun run?

Ending California’s Drought One 5k at a Time

Date: March 2, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

How’s everyone’s weekend going? It’s been a wet one over here! I’m about to go on this week’s long run, and am hoping the run holds off! Yesterday I did a 5k-but we’ll get to that.

I woke up Friday morning and went for a walk. I wanted to do something to get my blood flowing, but seeing as Saturday was race day, I wanted to take it easy!

It started raining just as I slipped into the dining hall for breakfast!

Toast with cream cheese and hard boiled egg, fruit, and spinach with a cheese cube.

After my one class of the day, I had grand intentions of being very productive in a little cafe. As it turns out, out of my 3 tasks I set aside for myself, I forgot the materials for 2 out of the 3. But I did manage to eat lunch!

A veggie hummus wrap.

I spent Friday afternoon running errands and trying to stay dry! Then, one of my best friends from home came and visited me for dinner.

(Super old picture!)

I took her to my favorite cafe, which is outdoors. They were playing a Spanish song that we had to learn together in high school! We walked back to my dorm and ate inside. It was so great to see her!

I ordered a chicken pesto crepe. So good!

She apparently was inspired by my project, so now she’s going sugar free for 40 (or 50?) days! I’m so proud of her!

Saturday morning I was awake bright and early. I had my current 5k pre-race meal of homemade granola bars.

By the time I left my dorm, it was already pouring. We’re in a drought. It’s rained once this winter. Can anyone guess the last time? Oh, that’s right. My one other 5k. Fabulous. We had to park pretty far away (my parents brought me), and I was pretty much drenched by the time we reached the start. We feet certainly were!

The 5k started a few minutes late, and they managed to hold off just enough for the rain to stop.

The race was also a half marathon and 10k, so it was a decent sized race! The course was very nice. Some rolling hills but pretty flat. (I’m planning on doing some long runs here!)

Given that it stopped raining, the conditions were not bad for a PR. The first mile I think went pretty well. I was keeping pace. But then it just wasn’t happening for me. I just did not feel that great out there. This was my slowest 5k to date, although according to my watch I was about 4 seconds off my pace from my last one. The course was a tiny bit long, and I had to stop and walk the last little bit to the finish because it was a giant slippery mud puddle. I actually had to run through several streams because there was so much water coming down that everything was overflowing. We had to run through a foot of flowing water multiple times. I thought my Tough Mudder wasn’t until April? Haha!

I actually saw someone from my dorm in the race! He did super well-he came in 2nd overall!

An while this definitely wasn’t my best race ever, my parents actually got some good running shots.

All done! After the race, there was food. Like, food like I’ve never seen before.They had literally everything! Fruit, bagels, chips, pretzels, hot chocolate, pastries, chocolate cake, brownies, cookies-they even had It’s-it’s! Crazy!

I definitely had to try quite a few things!

While this wasn’t my best race by a long shot, the race was small enough that I somehow still managed to win my age group! Hey, I’ll take it!

I also think this race is a big testament to the project (which I swear I’ll do a recap of REALLY soon!). I have not been feeding my body that well since then, and I did not feel that great out there today, and was definitely slower despite better conditions. I’m working on a plan for the future though. I have been eating a fair amount of sweets lately and I’m getting seriously concerned for me health-nto just because sugar is “bad” but because my heart has been racing a lot and I know my family has a history of heart sensitivities. I’ll talk more about this in the project recap!

After the race, we all went to Whole Foods in search of granola bars. And of course had to get some hot breakfast!

AMAZING french toast casserole, plus fruit and some really spicy Mexican breakfast dish.

I also got some young coconut, pre cut and everything! It was a great snack later in the day.

And since this seems to be photo overload day, here are some pics from my sorority event-we did a Murder Mystery dinner, where we acted out a murder plot and then had delicious Indian food!

Roomie love!

It was a fun night! But I stayed up way too late watching KPop videos, thanks to a friend who is a bit obsessed!

What did you do this weekend?