Gretch Runs

Hi everyone!  What a week this has been!  I had some ups and downs (which I'll talk about below) so I'm really happy for the weekend.  I have some fun plans (which I'll ALSO talk about below) and also hope to get in my final long run before my half marathon!  Its shaping up to be a great weekend, and I hope that you all enjoy yours as well.  See you next Monday! Linking up with  Mar ,  Cynthia  and  Court  as well as  Heather  and  Momfessionals Nordstrom Sale Picks There are still a few days left in the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, so I wanted to share what I ended up purchasing!  I ended up keeping everything that I ordered and would recommend it all.  Here are my thoughts on each item: Living Proof Perfect Hair Day Set Unfortunately this set is now sold out, but I had to share it anyway because I'm in LOVE (you can buy each piece separately online!).  This was my first time trying an expensive hair brand (I usually use Suave), so I was most

Good morning everyone!  It's the best day of the week - not only is it hump day and the weekend is nearly here, but it's also What I Ate Wednesday !  Today is the day when everyone shares what they're eating, and I love getting new ideas on meals. Today I'm going to be sharing what I ate last week.  This was a day that I went running before work and did yoga at lunchtime, so I felt like I was eating and starving all day long!  This is also my first WIAW that is all plant-based, and I'm so excited to share my trials and errors in vegan eating.  I hope you enjoy! 5:15 : Before heading out the door, I made some espresso and had a Mamma Chia packet.  I prefer drinking espresso in the morning because it's easier on my stomach and a lot faster to drink. I'm usually rushing out the door, so I don't want to drink a full coffee.  A small espresso is perfect!  The pouch is also a great way to get quick energy for my run. Mamma Chia Squeeze Mango and Co

I feel like I'm finally back on track with training, and it couldn't have come at a better time.  With only a few more weeks until race day, everything clicked this week and I'm feeling stronger than ever!  It's nearly time to start tapering, so I'm hoping for a few more solid workouts and a great race.   Let's take a look at my workouts this week! Monday Rest Day! Tuesday 5 miles / 45:30 / 9:05 pace Felt great this morning! Beautiful start to the day- couldn't ask for anything more. Lunchtime Yoga My favorite yoga class!  Today we did a special flow for the full moon.  I've never gone to a teacher that mentioned the spiritual side of yoga and meditation, so it's always so interesting to learn from my teacher.  I always leave the class in a calm, happy mood with loosened up legs, and today was no different! Wednesday 5 miles Same course as yesterday but in reverse. About halfway through there was a guy ru

Good morning everyone!  How was your week?  Mine completely blew by, and I can't believe it's already the weekend!  Work has been absolutely crazy, so I'm looking forward to a relaxing and fun weekend.  I have a few friends coming in to visit and some active plans with Dan (to go along with his health goals ) so it should be great! As usual, I'm going to share my favorites of the week today.  I hope you enjoy, and have a great weekend! Linking up with  Mar ,  Cynthia  and  Court  as well as  Heather  and  Momfessionals Jess Beautician I just discovered this YouTube channel , and I'm hooked!  Jess shares natural beauty products and vegan recipes.  She recently did a daily series on her channel called Vegan June , where she shared what she ate every day.  All of her food looks amazing , and I love the fact that she shows how to prepare it as well as the recipe for everything!  If you're wanting to try out the vegan lifestyle, I would highly rec

Hello!  Dan here, Gretchen's lucky husband. Last post , I confessed that I haven't been the healthy young adult that I should be. I don't put much thought into what I eat and I don't work out or run because I'm generally lazy and because I can entertain myself endlessly by researching random topics online. Before I get too far into this though, I have to say THANKS to everyone who commented on my last post. You were all very encouraging and had lots of good tips. You all taught me to start small and to find healthy activities that I enjoy. So I might as well start with a list of things that I know I enjoy: Rock Climbing Table Tennis Soccer Ice Hockey Small amounts of running Kayaking I DO NOT like going to the gym or lifting weights. I have already joined my work's ice hockey league and we play about once a week. I've been meaning to find a local table tennis club and playing there once a week as well. I went rock climbing t

Hi everyone!  What a busy week this was for me.  Does anyone else seem to have nothing going on for a while, then get TONS of plans all at once?  This was definitely a "tons of plans" type of week!   I was lucky to get most of my workouts in, and my hamstring is finally feeling better!  I think a combination of lower mileage, slower miles and lots of recovery work helped out, and I'm hoping for no more issues during training!  Let's take a look back and see how the week was: Monday 2 miles I wanted to go out for a short run just to see how my hamstring was feeling, and to loosen up a bit.  It was still sore, but going super slow on my run seemed to help! Tuesday Lunchtime Yoga I went to my favorite yoga class this week!  It was another amazing class.  The stretches felt so good, and some of the moves really pushed me.  As usual, this is the most perfect way to spend my lunch break! Wednesday 3 miles I went for three more slow miles,

Hi everyone!  How is your week going?  I'm excited for the weekend, and have a lot to share with you today!  I'm also going to be sharing one thing that is most definitely NOT a favorite, so stay tuned for that.  I hope you all have a great weekend! Linking up with  Mar ,  Cynthia  and  Court  as well as  Heather  and  Momfessionals Olympic Trials source I still can't get over the excitement of the Olympic Trials from last weekend!  Track and Field had some incredibly exciting races (heck- all of them were nail biters), but the top moment for me had to go to Brenda Martinez diving to the finish line to make it on the 1500m team.  In case you didn't hear, she was so close to making it on the 800m team earlier in the week, but got tripped up in the last  few hundred meters to lose her place.  Her attitude afterwards really inspired by me.  Instead of feeling down and out about what happened, she moved on and said that the track doesn't care about he

I can't believe it (and it kind of freaks me out to say) but training is halfway over for the Seawheeze Half Marathon!  Miles have been run, rooms have been booked, planes have been scheduled, and now this race is feeling very real.  Today, I'm going to be sharing a check-in so that you (and I!) can see how I'm doing so far. Training By The Numbers 114.2  - Total Miles I'm happy with where my overall numbers are, but I would like my long run to be longer!  I was hoping to hit 10 miles by this point, but that will be my goal for this weekend. 63  - Current songs on my workout playlist I usually only listen to music during speed workouts, or the second half of long runs!  I only use Spotify, and you can find my playlist here ! 21  - Podcasts in my rotation (current favorite is Young House Love Has A Podcast ) Most of the time I listen to podcasts on 1.5 speed, and I've been listening to so many lately.  It seems like most of the blogs that I fo

Another week of training is in the books, and suddenly I'm half way through my training schedule.  It's so hard to believe that in just five short weeks, I'll be at the starting line for another half marathon!   This was a challenging week for me, filled with lots of ups and downs.  Later this week I'll be reviewing my training up to this point, but for now let's check out how the week went! Monday Rest Day / Travel Day! Tuesday 4 miles Nice and easy run to ease back into training.  After a fun weekend and lots of driving, my legs were dead! Wednesday 5 miles / 43:10 / 8:37 pace Morning speed workout! My legs were feeling much better and really fresh after yesterday's run, so this workout was great.  1 mile warmup, 3 x 5:00 at an 8:00 pace with 5:00 recovery in between, and 1 mile cooldown.  Great run! Thursday 5 miles Such a great morning run!  It was a beautiful, cool morning.  I got to run on my favorite sections