So guys…will you excuse the photo dump if I include lots of delicious food photos, and promise a real post tomorrow?

Ok. Let’s roll with it.

Post-speed work breakfast.

My favorite ever quick bread. Long referred to as “mystery bread” on my blog, its true identity is morning glory bread. SO amazing. Fun fact: the green is from a chemical reaction between the sunflower seeds and baking soda.

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Saturday morning we had brunch with the resident fellows at my dorm. (The RFs are a family that lives in a house connected to the dorm and they are sort of in charge of us.) They made crepes that I filled with lemon juice, whipped cream, and berries, plus a slice of pumpkin bread.

I finally, FINALLY made it out to my favorite ice cream place this quarter. It was amazing, as was expected.

Today (Sunday) I went home. My family went out to lunch at Whole Foods to sample their Thanksgiving fare. We don’t normally make Thanksgiving dinner ourselves, but this year we are. While I definitely want to make our own sides, I don’t think we have any need to roast our own turkey.

Another part of going home is working on CS homework. If Charlie is on top of my homework, that means I don’t have to do it-right?

My little doggy-so tired!

For dinner, we tried a couple of new recipes. The first was roasted cauliflower from Ina Garten’s cookbook. It had panko and parmesan-It was delicious!

We also made goat cheese and broccoli soufflés. Seriously-souffles aren’t too hard to make! And so beautiful too.

Sadly, the soufflé didn’t have quite as much flavor as I would have liked.

And that’s all I have for today! Have a great week-we’re almost to Thanksgiving!

First off, I got new boots over the weekend and I’m sort of obsessed with them.

And the good news is, my feet are too! I got boots with some really good support for my plantar fasciitis, and it’s making a world of difference!

Also new shoes-new running shoes! My old ones took me through a lot. Countless DC rainstorms, through the monuments, and across the finish line of a half marathon! But my feet were starting to feel every bump in the road, and to be honest, my feet don’t need any more reasons to complain!

Here are the new ones! I wasn’t sure about the feel when I first put them on but they felt great on the run! I like the look of the old ones more though.

Old:

New:

So, let’s run through food and fitness, shall we?

I went to 7am Crossfit, and had some healthy pumpkin bread to fuel me. It was perfect! No lightheadedness despite 50000 squats.

In all seriousness though, our new squat program we are doing is why I will not be able to walk tomorrow. I think I did 56 HEAVY squats? And then 50 wall balls. And I already feel it. Yippee. The WOD was 50 wall balls, 800m run, and 30 pull ups.

Good news on the pull ups front though! After losing my pull ups strength over the summer because we never did them, I finally got it back! I was coerced into switching to a very small band during the workout, and then I whipped out a couple of real kipping pull ups afterwards! YES.

Post-workout, protein was very necessary. Yogurt+peaches+sunbutter.

And coffee. I definitely took the time to get a real coffee-a cappuccino!

Lunch was same old, same old from my freezer this week. I only have 2 more frozen meals! Then I need to go grocery shopping. But first I need to make it through this week…

After class, and before a meeting, a rushed to the gym for a quick run to shake out my legs. I did a modified version of my treadmill workout, and was shocked at how well it went. I had no problem knocking out the 8:00 mile, and keeping up with the intervals.(5 rounds of 2 mins @7:30 pace, 2 mins walking.) I ended up covering 3 miles. Seriously though, coffee+not super early+not sore (yet) is a running game changer. Plus, I definitely had some excess energy to burn! I think I may switch my Monday runs to afternoon treadmill speed workouts because I loved it so much. That and my next 5k is in a month and I’m not in that sort of speed-shape yet! Plus, my feet seemed to appreciate the extra cushion the treadmill provided.

Dinner was pretty good in the dining hall today. Rosemary chicken, salad, a little rice, yams with cranberries, plus a baby spinach and cheese pie, which was delicious.

I also tried some of a dessert that apparently is pretty popular but that I still don’t know what it is…

I think it was pudding? Chocolate pudding, whipped cream, banana, strawberries, and what appeared to be some type of ores pudding? It was pretty good.

And that my friends, was my day! Now I’m off to study!

How do you feel about the treadmill?

Chocolate Protein Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 scoop chocolate protein powder

1 T cocoa powder

1/2 frozen banana

1 c unsweetened almond milk

1 pinch xantham gum

1/2 vanilla kefir (you can sub yogurt here)

1 handful spinach

1 large handful ice

Directions:

1. Blend almond milk and spinach together with the half banana first so the spinach can get extra well combined.

2. Add all ingredients but ice and blend.

3. Add ice last, and as necessary for consistency.

This made 2 glasses for me, and the total is about 300 calories. 

And it was just as delicious the second time!

So now on to my life. Yesterday I went to Target to look at summer clothes, and things besides workout clothes to wear in Hawaii. Speaking of which, it’s still kind of a ways out, but I’m looking for guest posters! Email me at astottler @ gmail.com. 

I took the evening off to rest my calf. More on that in a moment. Here’s yesterday’s food!

Lunch was polenta mixed with onion and chive cream cheese and topped with leftover broccoli.

My mom got polenta from Costco, so there’s kind of a ton of that. 

Dinner was vegetarian chili, plus a cilantro lime salad. I love homemade salad dressing-it’s amazing how fresh it tastes! It makes a world of difference in flavor. 

Also, at Target yesterday, I picked up this:

This has freeze-dried yogurt! It was actually really good-the mix had freeze dried cranberries and blueberries as well, and made the perfect snack.

I’ve talked about it the last couple of days, but my calf has really been bothering me lately. It started about 7 miles in to my long run, but it wasn’t very intense so I figured it was nothing and kept going. It wasn’t really bothering me at the time, but it tightened WAY up afterwards. Yesterday morning I ran a little at Crossfit and it was bothering me a bit by the end. I’m extremely frustrated that this is happened given my race is in less than 2 weeks! I haven’t had any problems this whole time (besides my weird foot thing), and of course this would come up right before my race. I skipped today’s run. If it continues to feel better tomorrow, I might test it a little with a baby run (I’m talking like a mile here) as long as there is no pain. I’m confidant that it will feel better in time for the race (or at least good enough), but I don’t want to take any chances. I went to my dad’s physical therapist today who has been known to work wonders, and I’m going back tomorrow. I’m not really sure what’s going on or how serious it is (as in how much my brain is simply just freaking out on me). I really don’t like the idea of having a problem with the muscle. For some reason pulled muscles give me the heebie jeebies. Joint problems? I’ll take it. But NOT muscle tears/strains. Ugh. 

But here’s the good news. I was able to cross train this morning. I took a morning spin class where I was very conservative. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to stand on the bike (extremely carefully of course). I also did some front squats and abs. I was going to use the rowing machine but it stretched my calf a little more than I’m comfortable with. So that’s that. Lots of spinning until I’m good to run again. And ab work, which I so desperately need. I’ve been seriously slacking there. 

I refueled from my workout with a new-to-me yogurt, apple cinnamon. I’m a fan! I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but it was good. Plus half a piece of frozen zucchini bread. 

I hope you all are having a great week! Send lots of healing vibes my way!

Have you ever been injured right before a race or big event? What did you do?

Before weights, I ate a piece of oatmeal bread. Apparently, we’re not doing endurance weights anymore, which means each exercise has a more normal amount of reps. No more 4x50s! The only problem is that I don’t feel like I got a great workout in. I definitely need to go heavier in some of the exercises. I’ve done a lot of squatting, and I think this is one area where I’m actually better than most of my team. I stuck with their weights, and my reps were super easy. I was a little scared to go up too much weight on the first day of these exercises, and I don’t want to mess up with the conversion from kilograms to pounds again…And I really don’t want to drop a bar. As much as I hate failing a lift, it was never as bad when I was with my trainer the last few years. Whenever I’m lifting on my own, I never go as heavy because I don’t want to drop the bar. It’s so embarrassing! It’s super loud and of course EVERYONE looks. Next week I’ll definitely go heavier though! Although we don’t technically have to do a run afterwards anymore, I might add that in again next week. I didn’t today because this week I’m just in survival mode. After weights, I took a glorious half hour nap. 

And guess what? On the way back I saw a black and white cat! It always makes my day when I see him. 

For breakfast, I deviated from my plan a little bit. I had planned on drinking my Chocolate Post Workout Recovery Drink, but I wasn’t feeling it. What I really wanted was a smoothie! I think I’m still having fruit and vegetable withdraws from last weekend! 

Into the blender went frozen strawberries, 3/4 of a huge banana, a piece of watermelon, plain yogurt, and soymilk. This was a good one! The taste reminded my of cotton candy, but in a good way! It was delicious! Putting watermelon in smoothies is awesome. You should all try it!

Class was uneventful. Lunch was good!

A pre-made salad with oil and vinegar dressing, plus a cold mixture of brussels sprouts and tomatoes, and a black bean burger with a little ketchup. The black bean burger was really good! I ended up ditching the ketchup and eating the burger as a topper for my salad. The black bean burgers are always available at the grill, and I don’t know why I never tried one before! It’s a great option if none of the other protein sources seem good/healthy. I also had some fruit. 

During my writing class today, I was struck with inspiration for what my research paper should be on: artificial versus natural sugar. I’m so pumped! I absolutely love learning about sugar. It’s a strange passion of mine…I’ll keep you updated on anything cool I discover! This brings me in to my next topic: I’m back on the no sugar challenge! ANy even better? Tomorrow is my absolutely zero added sugar day! I’ll post what I eat, and what I might normally eat that doesn’t qualify. The idea is to raise awareness for all the sugar added to the foods we eat, especially the foods you wouldn’t think about! I can’t wait for tomorrow’s post! 

Practice on the water today was rough. It was super windy, so the water was pretty wild. I hate days like this! I ended up being in a stable boat though, so it wasn’t terrible. All our practices on the water have had the same format lately: 4×15 minutes. Ok, one for crew tidbit for the day:

Some of you may or may not be familiar with the concept of lightweight rowing versus openweight rowing. Lightweight rowers are smaller, and they have their own team and race against other small rowers. There is a maximum weight limit for lightweight rowers. Openweight rowers are bigger, and can be any size. Many openweight rowers are tall; it is common to have rowers over 6 feet. Right now, I am openweight, but I’m a very small openweight. I’m the shortest person on my team (and I’m almost 5’7″ on a good day). The issue with this is that realistically speaking, I won’t exactly be able to pull as well as some of my bigger and taller teammates. I’m that awkward size: I would be on the taller side for lightweight, and small for openweight. After the fall, when the other walk-ons and I split in to weight classes, I considered dropping to lightweight, but my coach ultimately decided she didn’t want me to have to worry about that yet, because I’m still fairly new to rowing. I was talking to another teammate today about this. We’re similar sizes, although she’s about an inch taller. For this year, I will stay openweight, but next year, I won’t be able to race in a freshman boat, so my chances of getting boated aren’t great. It would make a ton of sense for my to try and drop next year, but I have a year to figure it out! Just thought I’d fill you guys in on the inside scoop of rowing and what may be going on with me in the next year!

Dinner today was…frustrating. The actual meal was fine, but I had to stand in a pretty long line for chicken. This wouldn’t be that bad; I can stand to wait for my food. The thing is, I’m waiting for other people to get burgers grilled up for them. The chicken breast is already cooked, just sitting in a bin…so close yet so far! Nonetheless, I enjoyed a nutritious meal. 

I has some greens topped with a hot chickpea mixture, plus chicken breast (ok, and some ketchup), and some sauteed swiss chard. It’s so nice to get my veggies in again! 

Back in my room, it was time for something sweet.

I just opened this peanut butter. I know, I know, I had said I would wait to open peanut butter so I could give other nut butters some love, but, well…At least it’s a different kind! I haven’t had crunchy peanut butter in a while, and this is currently my favorite crunchy variety. And, as it turns out, it’s amazing on a banana!

Sorry this post was kind of all over! I need to start brainstorming some ways to keep my posts interesting, even on boring days! Tomorrow is zero sugar day! Anyone want to join me??

Have you ever had an embarrassing gym experience?