Gretch Runs

Happy Weekend everyone!  Today, I'll be doing a review of another group exercise I do at my gym called Group Power !  Let's get right into it. First off, the description in our program guide is "This 60-minute barbell program strengthens all your major muscles in an inspiring, motivating group environment with simple, athletic movements such as squats, lunges, presses and curls." I don't exactly look like this when I'm curling..but you get the idea! Let me tell you, this is one intense workout!  For the entire 60 minutes, we're constantly moving and lifting and by the end I'm a pool of sweat!  We work out all the major muscle groups - Legs, Chest, Triceps, Biceps, Glutes, Shoulders, and Core with light to moderate weights.  We also use a step to do exercises like chest presses and split squats. For each song, we focus on one muscle group, and do a variety of exercises with lots of repetitions, set to the beat of the music.  The tempo of the

Happy Friday, and welcome to my very first Top Five Friday!  Today, I'll be sharing my top five races.  This was really hard to narrow down, but these races are all very diverse and were a lot of fun for me to run! (Note- click on images to view larger) Just a Short Run Takes place in March Costs: $35 for 5K and 8.1 miles, $55 for half marathon and 30K There are many races that take place at North Park, which is north of the city of Pittsburgh.  This one is one of the biggest, and one that I've run since I was much younger.  There's a race for everyone- from a 5k to a 30k!  This is a great race for those who are training for the Pittsburgh full marathon or half.  The course consists of rolling hills, but look out for the first hill, which is the biggest!  After that, you just loop around the lake from 1 to 3 times, depending on which race you're running. 5K-Half marathon course- credit to http://www.ichoosetorun.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/screenshot_26.jpg

Happy Thursday everyone!  Thursday is one of my favorite days of the week.  That's usually my meeting day at work, so the day seems to go by really quickly, and then it's Friday! For dinner on Tuesday, Dan and I made homemade pizza for the first time.  They actually turned out really well!  It was both of our first time making a pizza, so I didn't know what to expect.  It was really simple to make, and turned out delicious!  We both used Trader Joe's pizza dough , which was only $1.19 per bag.  They offer plain, whole wheat, and garlic&herb.  I also got all of my ingredients at Trader Joe's. I made a whole wheat pizza with pesto, Manchego cheese, arugula, garlic and mushrooms: Dan made a plain pizza with pizza sauce, Mozzarella and Manchego cheese, chicken, sausage, pepperoni and onions: Here's the basic recipe that we followed: 1.  Let dough sit out for at least 20 minutes (the longer, the better) 2.  Prep your pizza pan/cooking sheet by d

Hi everyone!  As promised, Wednesdays will be devoted to reviews- new products, new places, new classes...something new each week!  The first installment will be of an exercise class that's offered at my gym called Group Centergy.  Enjoy!

Hi everyone!  Thank you all so much for checking out my blog yesterday and for leaving me comments on Facebook and here on the blog!  I'm really excited to be starting this adventure, and hope you'll all stick around and keep in touch! One of my favorite features on blogs is when there is a survey.  It gives the reader more of a look into the person behind the blog.  It also gives me new ideas of books to read, music to listen to, or recipes to try out!  I also thought it would be a good way for you all to meet me and learn more about me.  I found this survey on  Carrots N Cake ...enjoy! Current Book I haven't actually started reading it yet, but the next book in my queue is  My Sister's Grave by Robert Dugoni Current Music I recently found out that with Amazon Prime, you get Amazon Music, where you can listen to and download tons of music for free!  The app also has some great pre-made playlists, so I've been listening to those a ton.  Right now, I'm

Wow, two posts in one day!  Not a bad start, if I do say so myself.  On Mondays, I'll be posting my weekly plan, and wanted to get started right away.  I'll also be including my meal plan for dinners.  I'm trying to get better about planning, so this will help me out! Monday -rest day (I have orchestra rehearsal for a musical I'm in, so I won't be home until after 9:00!) -leftovers for dinner Tuesday -30 minute run -group Centergy class (I'll do a review of this on Wednesday.  This is basically a pilates/yoga fusion class.  I love it!) -homemade pizza for dinner Wednesday -30 minute run -chicken with  Thai Peanut Sauce Thursday -40 minute run -group Power class (I'll do a review of this on Friday.  This is a tough class for me, but I'm trying to build more muscle!) -BBQ Chicken sandwiches for dinner Friday -spin class -leftovers for dinner Saturday -60 minute run -my favorite  Crunchy Cocoa Chili  for dinner Sunday -free  Yog

I finally decided today that I would start to write again!  I've been following tons of different kinds of blogs for the past few years, and have always wanted to really dive into my own blog.  For some reason, I've always talked myself out of writing.  Today, though, I told myself to just go ahead and write, and see what happens.  So, welcome to my blog (again!) I thought it would be a good idea to start off with some goals, including my "New Year's Resolutions" and some other goals.  Here we go.... Fitness Goals: - Run 1,000 miles in 2015 .  I've always wanted to make a yearly mileage goal, so I'm going to try out 1,000!  The year is off to a bad start, mostly because of the terrible Pittsburgh weather (and I'm a wimp), but I finally started to suck it up and run outside. - Break 2:00:00 in a half marathon race.   In training runs and in full marathons, I've broken the 2 hour mark many times, but for some reason can't do it in an actua