Gretch Runs

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you all had a good weekend and managed to stay warm.  Last week, we got hit with a huge cold spell, and every day had negative wind chill.  Not a good way to start the year off, but you gotta do what you gotta do to get your training in! I also have a bit of an update!  As you all know, I have been training for the Newport News One City Marathon.  As it turns out, plans changed and I can no longer do that one.  It works out well because I hadn't signed up for it yet (because I knew the day might not work out), and now I have more time to train!  I have been feeling a little under-prepared with all the traveling I did during the holidays, so this makes me feel a lot better.   So- I decided to do the  Hall of Fame Marathon  in Canton.  I was actually already signed up for the half (during their $26.20 promo), and just switched my registration over to the full.  I feel really good abou...

Happy New Year everyone!  It's hard to believe that it's already 2018, but I'm really excited for a new year.  So many good things to come! The past two weeks have been a bit of a whirl-wind with traveling for the holidays.  Dan and I ended up going to visit family in Florida and Tennessee, with a stop in North Carolina on the way.  December was definitely a challenging month with fitting in marathon training with all of my travel (I won't complain or regret any of it because it was an AMAZING month), but I'm kind of looking forward to a more chilled January.  The marathon is right around the corner, so it's time to buckle down! I'm lumping in the past two weeks of training into this post, so here's a look at how my workouts went for weeks 6 and 7: Monday Rest Day! Did some yoga (trying to add this back to my routine) and rested up. Tuesday 3.75 miles / 8:45 pace The weather was absolutely perfect on this run!  My wat...

This was such a great week and one that I really needed!  Since I took some time off during my trip to Hawaii, I was nervous about this upcoming week.  I had a long run on the schedule (16) and some higher mileage during the week.  I knew this could be the turning point in my training (even though it's still really early and I have a long way to go), so I put a lot of pressure on myself to get back on track.  Keep reading to see how I ended up doing! linking up with  Steff ,  Holly  and  Tricia ! Monday Rest Day! (aka recovery from a long day of traveling and being back at work) Tuesday 5 miles / 8:58 pace I had a dentist appointment, so I was working from home and able to get this run done at lunch time.  There was some snow and it was pretty chilly outside, but I loved it!  Nothing is better to me than running in a snowy winter wonderland.  I had my watch away during this run and just ran by feel and k...

Aloha everyone!  In case you don't follow me on Instagram, I was just in Hawaii for the past two weeks! It was such an amazing trip and I can't wait to talk more about it, but today I'm going to be sharing my workouts while I was there.  I definitely didn't follow my training plan and missed lots of miles, but I don't mind having an off week (or two) this early on.  I'm sure I'll make it up! Here's a look at how my last two weeks of training went (along with some Hawaiian music I loved while I was there!) Monday Rest Day! Since Dan was there for work, this was really our only free day to spend together.  We decided to go up to the North Shore and visit all of the beaches possible!  Got in lots of walking but no runs. Tuesday 5 miles I went on a run around Diamond Head around lunchtime, which was really hard!  It was pretty warm out and it's a decent climb to the entrance and back down to Waikiki (the actual monument is...

Happy Holidays!  This week was definitely a challenge, since I left on Wednesday to visit family for Thanksgiving.  I managed to get in my runs (even if they felt sluggish and harder than last week).  I know I'll have weeks like that, so I'm proud of myself for prioritizing my training and not skipping! Here's a look at my training this week: linking up with  Steff ,  Holly  and  Tricia ! Monday Spin at CycleBar / 1 hour I went to a class at a local spin studio with Class Pass and loved it!  I had such a great full-body workout and had a blast.  One thing that's great about this studio is that stats are emailed after the class so you know exactly how well you did.  I ended up getting 7th place in the class I took (out of about 20 people) so I was pretty happy with that! Tuesday 3 miles / 9:48 pace This was my first morning run with all of the Christmas lights on downtown!  It was so pretty and I had a g...

And we're back!  I absolutely love training for races, so I'm excited to kick off a new training cycle (ps- if you want to hear more about the race I'm doing next and why I picked it, read this post!).  This was a great week, filled with some new cross training and fantastic workouts.  Even with some less-than-ideal weather, I was able to fit in all of my runs!  I know I'm not the only person that feels like a rockstar when I'm outside running in a downpour or on a snowy blowy day.  That counts as double mileage, right? As always, here's a look at my week in training!  I liked my graphic so much from Buffalo Creek, so I decided to keep it for this cycle as well!  Maybe it's good luck, since I got a big PR! linking up with Steff , Holly and Tricia ! Monday Body Pump / 1 hour This was my fourth ClassPass class for the month!  I'm working on a full post about all the classes that I tried and what I thought, but this one was a g...

Well everyone, I decided that I'm going to train for another marathon this winter.  The saying is that third time's a charm and I'm hoping that's the case!  Either that or I've actually gone crazy and in a few months I'll be back here crying that my body is not made for marathons.  Only one way to find out! If you've followed me the last two years, you would have seen the ups and downs of my marathon training.  I was training for the Gettysburg Marathon both years, and failed miserably both times.  Let's take a quick trip down memory lane... First time (in 2016), I decided it was a good idea to train for a marathon while I was house hunting, changing jobs, and planning my wedding .  I decided to DNS the marathon and was happy with my decision. slightly better than running a marathon Fast forward to the next year (2017) and training was going great!  I was killing all of my runs and feeling strong....then I got injured.  Took some time ...