Gretch Runs

Another week of training in the books, and it was another great week! Official race training starts in another couple of weeks, and I feel like the base I'm building right now is really great. I also tried some new classes at the gym, which I'm hoping to integrate even more into my training! Here's a look at how the week went- Monday 60 minute spin Really great class and workout today! I really pushed myself and it felt amazing. I also had a friend join me which made it even better. Yoga - Balance This was a really hard one! I'm not good at any kind of hand stand or hand hold positions, so I kind of failed at that. But the rest of it was great! Tuesday Rest Day! Dan and I went out to dinner after work, so I took a much-needed rest day. Yoga - Still As you can imagine by the name, this was a very gentle practice. Good way to end off my rest day! Wednesday 3 mile run It was a beautiful day out, so I was excited to get outside and run! I

Hi everyone and welcome back! Today I'm posting part two of my Cooking from Blogs series, and we'll be diving into one of my favorites- Budget Bytes. There are so many reasons I love this blog- not only are the recipes easy to follow, feature common ingredients, and always taste great- but they also are all budget friendly as the name implies! Anytime I want to watch how much I'm spending, I immediately turn to this blog for inspiration. Once again, I'm going to share a full day of eats with all of you. I actually had the same breakfast and lunch everyday for the week (both were easy to meal prep for work, but more on that in my reviews), and my dinner was a combination of three recipes.  Enjoy! Breakfast :   Mango Coconut Chia Pudding Author's Photo : My Photo :  This was a surprising hit! There are so few ingredients that I didn't think it would have much of a taste, but this is a perfect breakfast for me. I usually can't eat much in

Happy Monday everyone! Today I'm bringing back one of my favorite series- week of workouts. I'm starting to train for my next race soon (Capital City Half!) so it's about time I start to regularly workout again! Here is how my week of workouts went: Monday 15 minute core Earlier this year I downloaded the Nike Training Club app, and it's completely changed the game for me at the gym. I've been trying to do three workouts a week, and target arms, legs, and core (since you can sort by muscle group!). Today was a core day, so I found one called "Quick-Hit Abs" which was really tough but went by quickly. 60 minute Spin Class Really great class today! I'm not the biggest fan of the instructor, but the playlist is always great and I end up with a fantastic workout (plus the time is really convenient for me), so I try to go weekly. Yoga - Nurture I've been doing Yoga with Adriene's 30 day challenge (I always do it in January),

After a whirlwind of a trip to Porto (where it felt like we were always on the move), it felt great to head to our next stop- the Douro Valley. Known as the demarcated region where grapes are grown for port wine, I knew this would be the relaxing part of our trip. We had one tour scheduled as part of our Groupon package, but other than that we were on our own! Day One We left Porto around lunchtime, and made our way east to the mountainside. It was really hilly, with small, twisty roads wrapping around the hills and rivers. The drive took about an hour and a half, and then we arrived to our hotel to relax for the rest of the day Hotel - Douro Valley Palace Hotel This hotel was absolutely beautiful, with a gorgeous view of the famous Douro River (the same river that we had a boat tour on the previous day). There were a lot of different restaurants and bars all over the property, along with an outdoor pool and spa area. Unfortunately, since we were there in the off se

Hi everyone and Happy Monday! Today I'm going to be starting a new series I'm calling "Cooking from Blogs". With it being a new year, a lot of people (including me) are trying to cook more at home to save money and eat healthier! To help inspire myself- I've been pinning recipes from blogs like crazy . The only thing is, I end up not making the majority of these recipes, go back to recipes I've made hundreds of times before, and before long am buying veggie lo mein or pizza because I have nothing  to eat at home! So- to help inspire myself (and hopefully a few of you!) I'll be trying out a full day of recipes from some of my favorite blogs, as well as a few new ones that I've recently discovered! Up first is Love + Lemons , which was recommended by my friend Alexa (spoiler alert- I'll be covering her blog in a future post!). After hearing her rave about this blog, I had to try it out. Here's how the day of eats went. Breakfast :   Overnig

A very happy Monday to all of you! I hope you all enjoyed your first weekend of the New Year and haven't forgotten any goals or resolutions yet (I'm going strong with mine ...so far). I have a fun set of posts that I'll be kicking off today- highlights from my recent trip to Portugal. Dan and I went on this trip during Thanksgiving, and mostly found it by luck. We were a few months back from our trip to Japan early in 2019 and were already itching to go overseas again. Instead of booking a trip right away, we decided to find something months in the future as something to look forward to. We browsed Groupon Getaways (a favorite of mine- check out older recaps from Costa Rica ; Budapest and Prague ; and Ireland and Scotland ) and found a great deal for a week in Portugal! This trip included flights, car rentals, hotels in three cities, and a few scheduled tours. I immediately bought two packages and sat waiting for months for our trip to happen! The first city that