Gretch Runs

This past weekend, I completed my fourth and final triathlon of the year! Going into this year all I wanted to do was do more tri's so I could find out if I really liked them or not, so I think I can successfully check that goal off. My final one was the same that I did last year- the Wrightsville Beach Sprint Tri- and I improved in some areas and got way worse in some. Let's go over the race! Swim If you remember from last year, this was the one leg that I was really dreading. I was so nervous about it but I ended up doing way better than I expected. This year I went in with the goal of just going for it and pushing as much as possible because I worked really hard on swimming this year! As soon as we started, I just immediately kicked off and went for my freestyle. Just like last year, the salt water kept me afloat and made it really easy to keep going!  I surprised myself by actually swimming the entire distance and not taking any breaks- I didn't really feel tired at all...

Another great week in the books! This one was a little lighter on official workouts, but I got in some fun cross training (if you can call it that...) as well as another sprint tri during the weekend! I'm still a few weeks away from my goal race for the year, so I'm using all of the races I've done so far as practice for the main event. Here's how the week (and race) went- Monday 30 min frisbee golf Finally went out to play frisbee golf- our first time in a while! It was brutally hot and sunny out, but in the shade it felt much better. We went at lunchtime so only had time for about half of the course but it was so fun to get out there. Tuesday 1500 yard swim This morning's swim felt amazing! I started with a warmup, then the main set was 4x200 repeats. By the time I was done, I was close to 1500 so I extended my cool down a bit to hit that number! This was one of those days I could have kept swimming forever and got in a good groove. Wednesday 20 min run Short and ...

Good morning everyone! I had my second tri of the year over the weekend, and also had a great week of workouts! Starting this week I'm officially in training for my longest tri ever- the Olympic distance. I'm equal parts excited and scared! I'll share more about my training for that soon, but in the meantime here's how a week of training and racing went- Monday 3 mile run Started the week with a lunch run. I was still really sore and tired from our backpacking trip, so I wasn't sure how this would go and was happy that I felt relatively good! I did another Peloton run that had intervals of jogging, running, and sprinting that helped the time pass by really quickly. Tuesday 12.5 mile bike This was one of my best training rides ever- I didn't feel like I was pushing that much but checked my watch at one point and realized I was going much faster than I thought! When I got home and uploaded to Strava, I saw that I set a PR on every single segment, which was crazy t...

Over the weekend I finished my first triathlon of the year! I decided on the Triangle Triathlon because it's really close to my house and is in a beautiful park that I was excited to get to race in. As another plus, they have a sprint and mini sprint, which was perfect for my first race of the year. The mini sprint was made up of a 400 meter lake swim, 8.5 mile bike, and 1.5 mile run. As I was racing I was so happy that I signed up for the mini (which was about half the distance of the sprint) because it was harder than I expected and I was TIRED!! Here's how it went. Swim: 12:51 The swim was in Harris Lake and went around two buoys in the water. I liked how we stayed close to the shore so it felt very comfortable for someone like me who's not a very confident open water swimmer. As soon as we started, I tried to find a spot to start swimming and get some open water. There was so much chaos at the start (which is the only thing I don't like about triathlons) so I just k...

Hello everyone! I'm here today to recap one of the best race experiences that I've ever had (spoiler alert?). I think one reason why it was so amazing was that I went in extremely nervous, not sure if I would even be able to finish the swim, and ended up exceeding my expectations and doing what I think is a great job!  Here's a quick run-down of the race and some thoughts on the event if you're looking for a sprint to do next year. Set-Up Dan and I got to Wrightsville Beach on Friday morning and headed to packet pickup. We decided to move to the Novice division (we signed up for the Age Group category and then realized that would put us towards the front of the pack when we really belonged in the back!). We got color-coded swim caps to make sure we started in the correct group, as well as numbers for our run and bike portions. After getting our packets we dropped off our bikes in the transition area and checked out the swim start and finish. It looked SO far and I start...

I'm so excited today to be sharing a race recap- which has not happened in a LONG time. I've run a few small races in the past year, but all have been for fun with not goal in mind. For this one- I followed a training plan and had some goals so it felt very different- scary but also good to be back in that mindset of pushing myself. The race was in Charlotte, which is an easy 2 hour drive from Raleigh. I went with a bunch of friends from my run club, and we rented an amazing house together! I think it helped with my race day nerves a lot to have so many people around to help distract me, and also to pump me up before the race. On Saturday morning, parking was really easy at the race and there were lots of porta-potties ready to go. I got my bag checked quickly and was off to the starting line before I knew it! The weather was absolutely perfect for the race- clear and 34 at the start that warmed up to mid-40s by the end. It was really sunny as well but felt great since there wa...

What a whirlwind this weekend was!  Even though I was only in Indianapolis for 24 hours, it seemed like days , and I had a really great trip.  Nothing really went as I planned it (most notably the race), but I had such a fun time and I'll be recapping everything today. Dan and I drove up to Indy on Friday morning.  It was a pretty easy 6 hour drive, and as soon as we got in and checked in to the hotel (we stayed at the Hyatt Place downtown, which I highly recommend), we headed to the City Market for some food.  There was a vegan restaurant called Three Carrots , so we got sandwiches- mine was a seitan BLT that hit the spot, while Dan got a pulled BBQ wrap.  We also stopped by the tap room for some local beers! After stopping by the Convention Center to pick up my packet and meet up with Jess to make plans for the morning, we stopped by the Bankers Life Fieldhouse, which was across the street from our hotel, to see how much tickets were for that night...

Good morning everyone!  I'm back today to share part three of my Big Island recap.  This was definitely a busy day- starting out with a race and ending on top of a mountain.  This was also our final full day on the island, before heading over to Oahu.  Read on for what we did and where we ate! Kona Quarter Marathon One of my 30x30 goals is to complete a race on each birthday (starting at 25).  I turned 28 while we were in Hawaii, so I knew I had to find a race!  Luckily, there was one nearby, in the resort area of Waikoloa Village.  I ran in the quarter marathon, but there was also a full, half, and 5k.  With so many races going on at once (and different start times) I was really impressed with how organized everything was, and we started right on time! The race itself was ok- we ran a loop around the resorts and then had an out-and-back on the highway.  The weather was beautiful, sunny, and hot, so my goal for the race was...