Gretch Runs

Happy Holidays everyone!  I'm just stopping by quickly today to share my training last week.  It was another great week of workouts and I'm really happy with how my training is going so far.  I had one little hiccup where my leg started to bother me, but luckily it only hurts when I'm resting and not when I run.  I'll keep an eye on it!   Otherwise, this was a great week and I'm looking forward to a bit of a cut-back week and relaxing.  I hope you all have a great week! Monday 3 miles / 28:45 / 9:35 pace I took this run really slowly.  My legs felt a bit heavy and tired, so I didn't push it at all.  I also felt a little twinge in my left quad / inner thigh area so I didn't want to hurt myself. Tuesday Rest Day! My leg was sore in the same spot when I woke up, so I decided to take a rest day and hope that it doesn't get worse.  I still did my core workout and the yoga video for the day! Wednesday 5 mi...

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!  I'm excited for this weekend and have some fun plans.  I have a short and sweet post to share today, but I wanted to wish you all happy holidays.  I'll be sharing my training post as usual on Monday, but otherwise I'm taking the week off to relax and refresh. Reward Program Haul At the beginning of the year, I made it a goal to not spend any of my reward money so that I could treat myself in December.  I did that, and now I get to treat myself!  With Discover, I used my cashback to get a new pair of running shoes and Bluetooth headphones .  I cashed in some of my Ibotta rewards (I ended up earning $205 this year) for a new gym bag .  Finally, I got a check in the mail from Ebates for $153!  Not bad :)  FYI-I included all of my referral links, so if you haven't signed up I would get on it and earn money next year!! Play! By Sephora The gifts just kept coming this week, because I also got my Decemb...

Happy Thursday everyone! Today's my last day of work for the year, so I'm excited for today to be over and to relax for the next week. Last week I talked about my races for the first half of 2017, and today I'm going to be sharing my planning.  As I mentioned, I'll be running 3 races in preparation for a full marathon in April.  This will help me break down the long 20 weeks of training and also test my fitness along the way!  I picked out two plans to follow and made a few changes to them.  Here are some thoughts on each, along with the changes I'll be making: Training Phase I Right now, I'm following Kara Goucher's half marathon training plan , with a few modifications:  I'm making my long runs a bit longer and switching a rest day to Thursday (instead of Friday).  Other than that, I'm really liking this plan and think it's doing a great job of building a strong base. The mileage comes in right at my comfort zone (25-30s) and the ...

I'm so happy today, because I finally remembered to join the What's Up Wednesday linkup!  I always forget to write my post, then see other bloggers sharing, and make a mental note to join next month.  Well- I finally did and have lots of fun stuff to share!   Let's get to the interesting stuff and talk about what I'm...... Eating - a bunch of leftovers.  I'm trying to cut back on spending this month, which includes grocery shopping!  So far this month I've only spent $45 on groceries, and I'm done for the month.  I've been having lots of lentil soups, curries, and veggie burgers! Aldi's- I heart you Reminiscing about - 2016.  I'll probably do a recap blog post about everything that's happened in the last 12 months, because 2016 has definitely been the most meaningful and best year of my life! love and marriage, go together like horse and carriage Been up to - Working, running, socializing, repeat!  I've heard that w...

What a week!  I have to say that this was probably my best week of training...ever.  Every workout that I did was great and I felt really strong.  I'm starting to get into tougher workouts, and I'm handling everything really well so far.  By the laws of running, that means I need to get ready for a few awful weeks now. We also got some bad weather this week.  Luckily, I was able to move around my workout schedule and didn't have to miss any runs.  Lets hope that this continues and I can stay off the treadmill as long as possible!  Here's a look at my week: Monday 3 miles / 28:55 / 9:38 pace Never miss a Monday!  I almost did miss because we had an offsite work event, but I still made sure to get in a few miles.  We went bowling which I'm counting as my strength training for the week...it's hard work! In the evening, I did my core workout and yoga video. 30 days of yoga challenge: Yoga for spinal health Tues...

Happy Friday everyone!  Instead of having a regular Top Five post, I wanted to share a virtual house (and cube) tour of my Christmas decorations.  I have to admit that I don't have anything extravagant this year, but I'm happy with what we have.  I didn't buy any new decorations and just used up what we had in our old apartments!  I'm hoping to take advantage of post-Christmas sales to pick up some new decorations for next year.  I hope you enjoy! First up is the office!  I kept things pretty simple and just hung up a hand-made ornament garland that I made a few years ago and a Merry Christmas sign. We also have a cardboard deer (named Wilson) that hangs on our wall year-round and is decorated for the seasons.  I'm loving Christmas Wilson! I kept the dining room table simple, with a tartan runner, a hand-painted tray, fake poinsettias in my fish vase, a white pinecone, and a snowman votive holder.  I love how everything looks togeth...

Today is the day that I always look forward to- when I have all of my races planned out and my training schedule written down.  Besides lacing up a new pair of shoes for the first time, is there any better feeling for a runner? If you saw my weekly training recap on Monday , you might have noticed that I have "Gettysburg Marathon" as the title of my training.  I decided to have a redemption race for the marathon that I never ran last year .  There was a lot going on in my life at the time, and it just wasn't the right year for a marathon.  2017 is going to be that year and I will complete (at least) one marathon! The Gettysburg Marathon is on April 23rd, which gives me a 20-week training period.  Since this is a pretty long training schedule, I'm going to be breaking it up into different chunks with a tune-up race after each chunk. First up will be the Chilly Cheeks 10 Miler in January.  I've never done this race before, but it seems like a smaller ...

Happy Wednesday!  Today I'll be joining in the What I Ate Wednesday linkup with a look at a day in my life.  My days have pretty much looked the same for the past few weeks and I'm in a really good routine. I thought it would be interesting (or maybe even helpful) to show what my day of food looks like now that I'm starting to train for a marathon and keeping up a vegan lifestyle.  I feel like I'm eating constantly (or thinking about my next meal), so here's a look at what I ate yesterday: 5:30  - Wake up, take out Selma, get ready for work.  I already have my running clothes laying out along with my bag and lunch packed for work.  I drink some espresso and have a fruit pouch before leaving. 6:15  - Go out for my run.  I have an easy 3-6 miles on my training plan and I end up doing 4.25.  It was a bit cool out but it felt great! 7:15  - Get to work after showering and changing at the gym.  I'm starving on my (very ...

Hi everyone!  For today's Tasty Tuesday, I'm excited to talk about a new meal service that I tried out called Green Chef.  So far, I've tried out Hello Fresh and Blue Apron, and this one is by far my favorite so far. Like all of the other meal services, I was able to select the week that I wanted to get a delivery, pick a day, and see the menu ahead of time.  Instead of only having two selections- vegetarian and omnivore- Green Chef has tons of options.  They have meals for vegans, vegetarians, omnivores, carnivores, gluten-free, and paleo.  They all range in price, and the vegan meal is $11.99 per meal.  This is a bit more expensive than the other services, but I think well worth it. All of the ingredients that are used are organic, and everything in the box is recycleable.  The packing material is compostable as well, which is a nice touch. Now that we went over the service, let's get into the meals!  I got three meals and each se...