Running Musings

Date: April 11, 2013

Author: astottler

Today started off right, with an on-my-own Crossfit workout! I started by working on my cleans and deadlifts for 30 minutes before I moved on to me WOD. I didn’t max out either lift. One thing about lifting on my own is I could easily be getting into bad habits. I’m having a ton of trouble getting my elbows up on the cleans. The WOD was courtesy of Tina’s blog. It consisted of a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 rep of Bear Complex and burpees, with a prescribed weight of 55 pounds. A bear complex is a clean, front squat, push press, back squat, and then back push press. I knew going in the behind the head push press was going to be the limiting factor. I started at 55, but the second round I dropped to 50, and then 45 for the rest of the workout out. I was surprised I got as far as I did with the heavier bar though. It was a little weird because everything felt super light except the back push press, which I was seriously struggling with. Either way, it was an awesome workout, and I will definitely be feeling it in my shoulders tomorrow!

Breakfast was a smoothie with the random fruit the dining hall had out (after waiting for a while). They were out of fruit for a while, and never restocked the frozen fruit. Annoying! My smoothie included strawberries, apple, and soymilk. It was ok.

Today was absolutely beautiful out. Sorry to all you guys who are experiencing snow/rainstorms right now!

I had a quick lunch at the bookstore.

Minus the bread though. I couldn’t afford to fall asleep in Chem (again-ish). The difference I felt between sitting in class today, with no bread in my system, was like night and day between how I felt Monday. I felt amazing and alert. I’ve felt great and happy all day. Maybe it is the weather, or maybe it’s my super clean eating. I don’t know. Either way, yay!

I had to break out the new sunglasses!

Sorry for the lack of smile. I was in a VERY public place…

I wore them a bit before realizing something was off…

Whoops…

I love these new sunglasses. While I have been known to rock the neon green shades, they simply don’t stay on my face very well…

Exhibit A. (Me and my sis in Santa Barbara 2 years ago! Also note the bash on my shin from box jumps…)

Exhibit B. (End of Senior year.)

Where was I? Outside in the plaza, there was a mariachi band playing.

Also, can I just say there are a lot of tourists this time of year? It’s difficult not to run them over. Meh.

I arrived at Chem early so I sat in the shade of a tree. I overheard some guy talking at the next table about the tons of caterpillars that fall from the tree. “Hmm,” I thought. “I don’t see any caterpillars.”

A minute later a noticed a ton on my backpack. Which led me to believe they could be crawling all over my body. They weren’t, as far as I know…

Snacks after class:

Boring, boring. But delicious. A little while later I went for a run (roughly 4 miles). This was my first time since I was sick doing a double day. Not counting yoga, that is. Mannn was I feeling it. Plus running hasn’t been terribly easy as of late anyways…I guess two-a-days take some getting used to. But it got me to thinking what great shape I was in at the end of last summer, when I ran my 10k. I think I was in the best shape of my life then. Which is probably why I could never PR on my 6k test for crew, I couldn’t really get better. It’s sad how much I’ve lost. I was doing 3-a-days at the end of summer, with some regularity. Mostly because I wanted to do tons of different classes/training sessions, and was training for my 10k on top of that. And a lot because I was bored. I had a lot of time, and nothing else really to do! I would regularly get my butt out of bed super early (5:45 am spin anyone?), go to spin, then go straight from there to do my 10k training run, then straight from there to do my softball conditioning. 3 hours of exercise before 10 o clock! And it wasn’t THAT big of a deal. Just to be clear, I am not recommending doing this!

At the beginning of the year, before crew started, I regularly ran the Dish, which is a roughly 5 mile run from my dorm, with 2 miles of straight uphill. I ran this 2 or 3 times a week, because I had nothing better to do (still wasn’t comfortable with the gym/didn’t know the best time to go). Now the thought of doing this run seems impossible. My run was really a great time to reflect on how much I have lost though. But at the same, all the more motivation to get super fit again! On a similar note, if avoiding bread/grains (and possibly dairy) makes me feel this awesome, then I need to just stick with it! It wasn’t really hard, minus the momentary craving for pancakes at breakfast…but I guess the knowledge that it will put me to sleep is enough to deter me…

Post-run, hot and sweaty picture. Since so so many of you guys post them, I figured I might as well jump on the bandwagon…

Snacks before yoga.

Dinner should have been awesome and ended up being not very good. I thawed a sweet potato (I roasted them at home so they would get that nice flavor),, which was good, but put it in my salad, which was a bad decision. Bad decision #2 was putting in zucchini and carrots which turned out to be seasoned in a sweet way. Ick. The thought of that seasoning…I don’t know why but I really dislike it.

I went back for more chicken and veggies, so get that weird taste out of my mouth….

And since it’s prom season, throwback to my proms!

Junior prom:

I curled my hair. It doesn’t hold a curl.

End of the night (don’t ask):

Straight…

So Senior year I curled my hair and didn’t put hairspray in because I figured, I’d rather have straight hair at the end of the night than straight, stiff hair.

Basically straight already!

How were your proms? What do you think about while running?

Yogurt Overload (Again)

Date: April 10, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! It’s Tuesdayyy. Gah I have to much reading this week. This morning I was up bright and early for a morning spin class. I wasn’t sure how hard the class would be, so going in I planned to kick my own butt. I don’t know if I was kicking by own butt or if the class actually was fairly difficult, but I was dripping sweat in the first 10 minutes. ALways a good sign.

For breakfast I made a delicious protein shake, and tried my new chocolate protein powder, which is Whole Foods brand, and actually quite delicious.

Also in the smoothie was cocoa powder, soy milk, a handful of spinach, a banana, ice, and a few frozen blueberries. If you guys like dark chocolate smoothies, dry added in some frozen blueberries. The subtly fruity flavor gives the impression of dark chocolate, which is my favorite. Also pictured is a hard boiled egg and fruit.

Naturally, I was running late for my 9 am, so I had to bike-sprint to class. After an entire spin class, my butt was burning! Whew. Today was another super windy day. I swear I was constantly biking into the wind. It has a much greater effect than you would think…On the plus side, my soaking hair was completely dry by the time I got to class…

Lunch was a delicious salad that included avocado, chicken, gouda, tomato, and asparagus. Yum!

After my last class was a snack, which I actually photographed today.

My mom texted me today: “US mango consumption has gone up 30% in recent years. Is it you?”

Yes. Yes it is me.

Also for snack:

After doing Psych homework, I took a nap. I definitely haven’t gotten enough sleep these past few days. But here’s the thing about naps. I cannot nap and then not eat a ton when I wake up. I don’t understand it. But it is unfortunate. So there went the afternoon run….

Kefir with peanut butter cereal and sunflower seed butter. And since the kefir bottles are teeny tiny, I had some of this:

With half a slice of zucchini bread and more sunflower butter.

But with a full stomach came the decision to skip yoga. The thought of yoga with a full tummy was enough to make me change my plans. Plus I have quite a bit of work anyways…And since I ate that all around dinnertime, it’s whatever. But I hate when my eating gets in the way of exercise. That is when I have a problem. Plus I think I’ve been going a little overboard on the sunflower butter and yogurt lately, because I’ve been feeling a little gross after eating it (my guess is large quantities of sunflower seed butter…).

Just a heads up, my eating habits are going to be a tad different for a few days. I have rush coming up this weekend, and let’s be honest. Sororities girls will judge each other based on their bodies. To avoid unnecessary bloat and fluid storage, I am going to avoid dairy and carbs for a few days so I look my tip top. Plus I should be avoiding grains anyways since they put me to sleep…So we’ll see how that goes. I can never seem to actually stick to these things…

So since it’s Tuesday, here’s an update on Operation: Get Healthy. It’s…eh. Workouts have been pretty good (until today) although I can never seem to get that afternoon run in. Eating hasn’t been good….Too much. Too much sugar. Way too much snacking. Snacking has definitely been my downfall, as today is evidence of. I really want to get back into running. (Also I keep thinking today is Wednesday…) My goal for this coming week is to run a little EVERY DAY. Now, before anyone gets crazy on me telling me how that isn’t a good idea, let me clarify. I mean at least just a bit every day. Like 5 minutes if it isn’t my main workout. I just want to get back in the habit, get back into running shape, and get faster. I think part of the reason I keep putting off running is that it is the place my out of shape-ness shows the most. I just feel so heavy. Yuck. I guess I don’t want to face myself…But hey, it won’t get better if I don’t try, right?

Science Experiments on Myself

Date: March 26, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

How was everybody’s Monday? It’s my first official day of spring break it it was rather unexciting. Here is last night’s dinner though: citrus grilled chicken, sweet potato, asparagus, and fruit salad.

Dessert was some delicious apple pie from the farmer’s market, with some frozen yogurt.

It was EXACTLY what I had been wanting. Enough of yesterday. This morning began with an early abs class. I absolutely love the class, which is one of the things I miss while at school. But here’s the thing. As we have talked about before, after having mono and not being able to exercise, my abs are probably the weakest part of me. So I woke up sore from yesterday’s ab work. So ouch. This class hurt. As in I couldn’t reach up high to get something because it hurt. And tomorrow will most likely be worse. I had been loosely planning on a run today, but yesterday I decided I would be better off letting my legs rest a little. Yeah, still sore. I think my groins may be sore from spin but I’m not really sure, I’ve never been sore from spin before. But last Thursday at yoga, I didn’t notice any issues until I felt like my muscles were being ripped apart in happy baby pose. An interesting description….And the only thing I had done that week was spin. Oh well. Breakfast this morning was AWESOME. I have TOTALLY been obsessed with yogurt bowls lately. Even though this is only my second one, I’ve been thinking about them a lot. Plus I got some new Icelandic yogurt to try.

It was pretty similar to Greek yogurt, but my impression was that it was maybe a little smoother, or some how stickier (that’s a terrible description, but I don’t know how else to describe it). I topped it with warm pumpkin bread from the freezer and my new favorite, sunflower seed butter. That combo is amazing!

After breakfast I read a little and decided a nap was in order (what else is spring break good for, right??). Around 11:30, my mom and I decided our activity for the day would be to visit a local old farm and see the 20 newborn lambs. We decided to have an early lunch so we would have plenty of time. Since we got eggs at the farmer’s market yesterday, and I knew they’d be really fresh, I wanted to do something with eggs. I ended up doing a spinoff of the bowl from the Korean restaurant on Saturday. I sauteed mushrooms and spinach in teriyaki sauce, and heated up some instant garlic brown rice and quinoa. I topped this with an egg over easy, and dug in!

We also cut up some oranges from the farmer’s market.

Our day’s plans were foiled, however, when we discovered that the farm is closed on Mondays. So what did the day turn out to hold! Spring cleaning! Of our pantry, that is. Our cabinets, fridge, and freezer never get cleaned out unless I initiate it, and we end up with food shoved everywhere and a million of one item because it is hiding in some inaccessible location. 4 cans of beans. 5 boxes of Triscuits. 4 cans of pumpkin. The list goes on. We ended up composting and donating a ton of stuff, and now the pantry and fridge are organized and reasonably empty (in a mostly good way). However there is one issue. We have a huge “sweets” basket, complete with all kinds of candy left over from Christmas. So naturally I had to check if some things were still good. And then I found the Nutella. My family doesn’t eat Nutella much, we only had it because I used it in a recipe. I much prefer Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut butter. Anyway, I figured I would just have a taste before getting rid of it. I’m not a huge fan of the stuff, but I must admit it was addicting! Especailly when I found some crackers that would go bad soon. The end result of this process? Sugar overload. Now I’ve talked before about how I have a pretty bad reaction to sugar, and I fully admit I am a sugar addict. That is why I attempted my No Sugar Challenge. A lot of times when I eat too much sugar I start to feel really hot. I’ve always wondered if this actually raised my temperature a measurable amount, so this time I figured, why not take my temperature? And guess what? 99.0. Slight, but certainly noticeable. Yes. I gave myself a sugar-induced fever. So I think it’s time to seriously cut back on the sweets again…That’s scary!

After cleaning out all our old food, we didn’t want to go to the grocery to get dinner and put more food where we had just cleaned things out, so we were forced to improvise. After several half-baked ideas, we ended up making Mexican bowls. Wow, I had lots of bowls today! My yogurt bowl, my (vaguely) Korean bowl, and my Mexican bowl! We heated up brown rice, fire roasted tomatoes (one of the many cans of tomato products we unearthed), black beans, frozen brussels sprouts, leftover citrus chicken, cheddar cheese (1 of 5 bags of shredded cheddar…) and salsa. Topped with guac from out mini avocados! On the to-do list for tonight is getting them ready to sprout!

Tonight will most likely be low-key. Hopefully tomorrow I will get to see the baby lambs (don’t worry, pictures will be posted). I’m still on the fence about whether I want to go to 6 am spin or 9 am yoga. I think yoga may be more important for my strength, but I would like to do some cardio. Maybe yoga plus a run? We shall see!

What is your idea of spring cleaning?