Gretch Runs

Happy Friday, and happy last day of July!  This was such a great and fun month, so I decided to share my top five moments!  I'm excited for August and to start racing again, as well as (hopefully) some cooler fall weather starting soon. Without any further adieu, I hope you'll enjoy taking a look back at my favorite moments of the month (along with corresponding blog posts if you want to read more).  Please share your top moments of the month!   Fourth Of July Weekend This was such a fun weekend!  Selma had a blast and the lake and got to swim, and Dan and I also had a ton of fun on the boat, jet ski and kayaks.  I would love to live in an area like that some day! Girls Night Out It was so much fun to spend time with friends and paint a cute picture of Selma!  We also got to enjoy a great bottle of wine, so all around it was a really fun evening.  I still recommend trying a class out if you're looking for a fun date night or girls-night-out! Getting a

Hi everyone! Sorry for not posting yesterday, but my actual job and real life have been a bit hectic, and I didn't want to throw up a post just for the sake of having one. I know you all understand, so I'll just move on to today's post! I'm joining in a bit late on a summer reading challenge with the Blonder Side of Life !  One of my main goals this year has been to read more, and thanks to my Kindle I have been a reading addict!  Today I'll be sharing the books that I read in July along with a mini review.  I hope you enjoy, and let me know what you've been reading! Make sure you also check out the Thinking Out Loud linkup!   Running for My Life by Lopez Lomong 10/10 Stars  Simply put, this story is life-changing.  Lomong details his horrific childhood, in which he was kidnapped by Sudan rebels, then later escaped with older boys and ran for three days across the savannah to Kenya.  He eventually became an American citizen and Olympic athlet

Hi everyone!  Happy Tuesday! For today's Tuesdays on the Run linkup, I'll be talking about some fun races that I have coming up.  As always, you can keep up-to-date on my race schedule by checking out my Races page, but I thought it would be useful to go in-depth with four races.  I always love to hear about people's goals and training plans for races, so I wanted to share mine today! Race : Brookline Breeze 5k : August 8th This is a local race that I have never done before, but have always heard good things about.  It's supposed to be a tough, hilly course (my favorite!) so I think I could do well in this race. Goal : 23:59.  My fastest 5k of the year was the Riverview 5k, where I finished in 24:37.  That's another hilly race that I didn't plan on "racing", so I think I could beat that time! Training : I based my training on the Hal Higdon Advanced 5k Plan .  I started the plan late, so I'm just doing the first four weeks on the pl

Hi everyone! I hope that you all had a fantastic weekend. Although I’m not a CrossFit athlete (I have done one WOD, if you’ll remember ), I was completely enthralled with the CrossFit Games this weekend. Did anyone else watch? It’s basically a four-day event with multiple events each day with the aim of finding the world’s fittest athlete. The challenges are intense and the athletes are incredible. It was also really motivating and inspiring to watch the games, so I thought I would switch things up today and talk about some things that I learned from watching the Games! I’ll also talk about how I’ll apply these lessons to my training and running, and I hope it will also help you out as well! By the way, as I mentioned I’m not a CrossFitter, so you might notice that I don’t use the correct terminology. Please don’t make fun of me- I’m learning! Pain is temporary, pride is forever CrossFit Way : As I mentioned, these challenges were tough, and a lot of the time an a

Hi everyone! For me, this week was extremely active and busy.  I can feel myself getting back in racing shape, which is really exciting for me!  I got in a lot of quality runs (mostly in the morning, thankfully) as well as some cross training and biking.  Monday 3.1 miles PM / 27:57 / 8:59 pace Hot, hot day, but the trails were nice and cool.  I ran about a mile on hilly trails, with more hills outside of the park.  I felt really great so my pace was a little faster than I expected. 3.5 mile bike ride In the evening, I took out my bike for my first "real" bike ride!  I went on a pretty easy route around my apartment that wouldn't involve riding near too many cars, and it was so much fun.  Tuesday 4 miles AM / 35:00 / 8:45 pace I headed to the track for my first speed workout in months!  It was already humid and in the mid 70's when I left around 5AM, so I was really happy to have the workout done before work.  1 mile warmup followed by 8x200 wit

Hi friends!  Happy Friday! Before I start with my favorites of the week, I want to remind all Pittsburghers/anyone who will be in the area this weekend that Sunday is the final Open Streets event of the summer!  Open Streets is a huge city-wide event with free fitness classes, sponsored runs and walks, and lots of other fun on streets that are closed off to traffic.  I've always had a great time at the event and hope to see some of you there!  (not sponsored, just really love the event and want to see it be a success!) Source Now that I have that out of the way, let's talk about my favorites from the week!  I was lazy and only chose four favorites, songs and shows.  I guess I'm really ready for the weekend :) Be sure to share what you're loving this week below! Beats By Dre Solo HD headphones in matte purple In my happy place, with my new headphones! After my Apple ear buds finally quit working, I decided it was time to get a nicer pair of hea

I absolutely love doing surveys, and I was so happy when Jamie tagged me to do this one!  I loved reading her answers to the questions, and I can't wait to see how everyone else answers.   I'll be joining in the Thinking Out Loud fun today as usual- now let's get to the questions! The rules are: 1) Put the award logo on your blog. 2) Answer 7 questions asked by the person who nominated you. 3) Thank the person who nominated you, linking to their blog. 4) Nominate any number of bloggers you like, linking to their blogs. 5) Let them know you nominated them (by commenting on their blog etc.) 1.)  If you weren’t happy with yesterday, what would you do to change it? Honestly, yesterday was a great day!  I got in all of my workouts and got to work from home, plus had some amazing food.  You can read about my day here , but there's not much I would change about it to be honest!  Maybe if Dan was home all day that would make it better. Dan + Selma..

Hello!  Happy Wednesday everyone :) Today is going to be a bit of a different post, and I'm very excited to share it.  I love when other bloggers share a "day in the life" post, and I thought that would be a fun way to join the What I Ate (# WIAW ) linkup as well. If you haven't heard of #WIAW, check out this post that explains it.  Basically, I'll just be sharing what I ate for an entire day.  I hope you enjoy seeing what I do on a typical work day, as well as a full day of eats.  Enjoy! 4:45 - Wake up, drink some water, brush my teeth and get changed for running. 5:00 - Leave the apartment and wait for for my Garmin to sync up, and take a Honey Stinger gel.  This was my first time trying Fruit Smoothie and it was delicious! 5:10 - Give up on my Garmin and just use it as a stopwatch.  Run to the track for my warmup, then run 8x200, with a 200 jog in between.  I have a few 5k's coming up in August so I have to get some speed back in my legs!

Hello!  How is everyone doing today? I'll be joining in the  Tuesdays on the Run linkup fun today and talking about "Alternative Medicine for Runners".  I decided to change this a bit and talk about my fast fixes for running (otherwise known as running hacks.)  These are little tips and tricks that I've picked up along the way, and I hope you can learn at least one new thing today.  Make sure to leave your fixes in the comments!  I love to learn new things! Problem: No motivation to run or workout Fast Fix: Go somewhere new When I'm low on motivation, it always gets me excited to go some place new.  I usually stick to to the same few routes, and go to the same workout classes each week.  Driving to a new place to run, or testing out a different class is a sure way to get back into the groove! Fast Fix: Sign up for something Nothing gets me excited to start training again like an upcoming race.  As soon as I feel in a funk, or find myself skipping w

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you all had a great weekend.  There was so much happening in Pittsburgh, and luckily the weather was gorgeous!  Dan and I tried to visit all the events going on, so we were quite busy.  Let's get into this marvelous weekend ! Our weekend started with a day drinking happy hour at Independent Brewing Company .  I tried a Peach-Habanero Stout from Blue Canoe Brewing and Goedenacht from Draai Laag Brewing.  Both were decent but way too strong-tasting for a full drink, so I settled on an Oatmeal Stout from Four Season Brewing.  Dan and I also split a smoked salmon dip with pita chips.  We stopped by Gaby et Jules for dessert.   I've never been there before, but it's an adorable French bakery on Forbes Ave.  There's also a location in Market Square! They had amazing selections of French pastries, and we decided to get a dozen macarons.  So many great flavors that were devoured by the time the weekend was over.  Whoops!