Gretch Runs

Hi everyone! Today I have a fun post to share- my best purchases of 2020. I usually try to do some kind of roundup like this at the end of every year, and found some fun categories to use from the Beautiful Mess podcast (you can see all of their picks here !). I hope you enjoy seeing some of the random purchases I made this year- some directly caused by COVID and some before that was even a thought in my mind! PS- if you want to see my best purchases from 2019 you can find that post here . Something that felt like a major upgrade Pots and Pans Lately I've been feeling like I'm getting to that point in my life where I'm upgrading things that I got back in college for "adult" versions. A year or two ago I threw out all my old knives to get nice Wusthof ones, and this year I got rid of my pots and pans (which were probably really unsafe to use since they were chipped and scratched up). I decided on this  set after some research mostly because it had all the sizes I n...

It's the end of the year, which makes it a great time to look back and reflect!  I'll be doing this in a few posts, but I'm starting out with my favorite purchases of 2019. This was definitely a year of "quality over quantity" in terms of buying things.  I tend to spend more money on travel and try to cut back on other areas in my life, so when I do make a purchase I try to make it thoughtfully and carefully.  Here are the major purchases that I made! Dog Canopy Starting with a fun one here- we got a canopy for the car for Selma this year.  We decided to lease a new car after having issues with cars that we've actually bought.  In order to keep it clean so we aren't charged with fees if we decide to turn it back it, we wanted to get a cover to protect the fabric seats from Selma's muddy paws.  This ended up being a fantastic purchase, because Selma actually seems to enjoy car rides now, and we don't have to worry about cleaning her off...

Social media can be such a tricky thing.  I've talked about how I'm becoming a "student" of running, which means reading about running and listening to podcasts.  This also means that I've been reading more blogs, following more accounts on Instagram, and basically trying to take in as much information as I can.  As most other runners can probably agree (and I'm guessing this can happen in any kind of sport or hobby), this can get dangerous and you can enter the comparison trap . In some ways this is a good thing.  I see other people crushing their workouts and breaking barriers, and all of a sudden I'm feeling really motivated and want to share my successes as well.  Someone talks about having a crappy day with a million things going wrong in their life, and all of a sudden my so-so day doesn't seem like a good excuse to skip a run and I get it done.  I've found new workouts to try, techniques to improve my form, fueling tips, and get encoura...

Hi everyone! I hope that you all had a fantastic weekend. Although I’m not a CrossFit athlete (I have done one WOD, if you’ll remember ), I was completely enthralled with the CrossFit Games this weekend. Did anyone else watch? It’s basically a four-day event with multiple events each day with the aim of finding the world’s fittest athlete. The challenges are intense and the athletes are incredible. It was also really motivating and inspiring to watch the games, so I thought I would switch things up today and talk about some things that I learned from watching the Games! I’ll also talk about how I’ll apply these lessons to my training and running, and I hope it will also help you out as well! By the way, as I mentioned I’m not a CrossFitter, so you might notice that I don’t use the correct terminology. Please don’t make fun of me- I’m learning! Pain is temporary, pride is forever CrossFit Way : As I mentioned, these challenges were tough, and a lot of the time an a...

Hello everyone!  The theme song today is Changes by Tupac (or David Bowie if that's more your speed).  I hope that you read my post on Paleo Running Momma yesterday, where I talked about what NOT to do while marathon training.  I mentioned what went wrong during the Biggest Loser Half a few weeks ago, and today I'll be talking about what changes I'm making for my next training cycle (which starts soon!). New training plan  I've only used Hal Higdon's training plan for my half and full marathons.  I don't really think it's worked for me for a few reasons, including too many junk miles (which I'll talk about below) and not enough variety.  By the end of the cycle, I was bored and unmotivated.  I decided to try a tougher training plan to really push myself and try to hit my goal time of 2 hours.  I actually found a plan to get sub-1:50 in the half, and will be modifying it a bit for myself.  I'll be breaking it down monthly and weekl...

Hi everyone!  Today, I decided to join in the Tuesdays on the Run linkup with Janelle, Patty,   Erika and April because it's a topic I have a lot of experience with: time management.  I've learned a lot about what to do (and what not to do).  I'll be sharing my top 6 tips for staying organized and fitting in your workouts even with the busiest week.  I hope that my past mistakes will help you avoid some of the same pitfalls!  If you have any good time management tips, please share below, and make sure to check out everyone linking up to see more tips! 1.  Be organized. The most important (and easiest) way to be in control of your training schedule and  improve time management is to be organized.  This might mean downloading an app for your phone, getting a wall calendar, or purchasing a planner.  I've tried all of these, and a planner works the best for me. I recently bought a planner from a shop on Etsy , and...

"We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon." Emil Zatopek, Czech runner; winner of four Olympic gold medals A look at the runs I've completed this year   Well, after a rather long absence, I am finally writing again.  Throughout the past months, I've gone through so many ups and downs with my training that it was almost depressing to try to write all about it.  I've had a few injuries and lost weeks of training which really scared me and almost made me want to give up and run the half marathon again, which I know I can complete.  However, I kept telling myself that I made this promise to myself and to so many people to complete the marathon this year, that it would be such a let down to give up. I know that I would always look back on this failure with nothing but disappointment.   Lately, my training has been phenomenal....

Hello everyone! Last week, I had the privilege of hearing Arianna Huffington speak at Penn State, and she inspired me very much during her speech. She has been one of my idols for a while, and she's a big inspiration to me. Wanting to thank her for taking her time to come to my school, I sent her an email, which she followed up with an invitation to submit an article for the website . Over the weekend, I worked on an entry about-what else-running. Below is what I submitted. I'd love to hear your thoughts and hopefully one day it'll end up on the Huff Post! I am high right now. I got out of class about an hour ago, and couldn’t even go back to my apartment before getting my fix. During class, I kept imagining the amazing feeling I’d soon have, the feeling I have now. I feel free, happy, completely and utterly alive. I just got done running six miles, and I have runner’s high. ​ Runner’s high, a term coined in the 1970s, can more accurately be describ...

Believe deep down in your heart that you're destined to do great things. - Joe Paterno Last post I said that I felt that I was running for more than myself, and that couldn't have been any more true this past week. When the news of Joe Paterno's death swept the campus, people were very upset and emotional. After hearing all of the stories of his philanthropy and love of Penn State, I was so moved and thankful for him...more than ever before. Every run I did that week I did for Coach Paterno, and did it with the intensity, desire, passion and dedication he expected from everyone. Rest in peace, Coach. I had great workouts last week. I did a long run of 8 miles on Monday, easy run of 3 miles on Wednesday, and a tempo run on Friday. During the tempo run, I did an easy 1-mile warm up and cool down with 3 miles at a 8:30 pace. I'm taking a volleyball class, and last week we began our first tournament. This consists of playing three games per day three times a week fo...

This might be a weird title for a post of a running and training blog, but I was listening to the song by Florence + the Machine , and one line in the song stuck out to me: Run fast for your mother run fast for your father Run for your children for your sisters and brothers Leave all your love and your longing behind you Can't carry it with you if you want to survive This line really resonated for me. I feel like I'm no longer running just for my own satisfaction, but for all of my friends and family. They're all just as invested in my progress and training as much as I am, and truly motivate me every day to keep working hard. No longer am I just running fast for myself, but for everyone in my life as well. Running is also an extremely emotionally and physically intensive activity. To me, it's much more psychologically taxing than physically, and in order to do well I always have to leave all doubt or uncertainty behind in order to "survive" this process, and ...

Hello! Well, it's been a very hectic few weeks, and I have to admit that my training has suffered quite a bit due to life happening all around me. Last weekend, I took a trip home for my grandparent's 50th anniversary. Here's a picture of our beautiful family: We've had some unseasonably warm and beautiful weather in State College. Luckily for me, my boyfriend is a wonderful photographer, and took me to a gorgeous wooded area and got some pictures. Here's one of my favorites: I squeezed in some workouts and runs as much as I could. I did have a terrific run this weekend and did my longest training run yet: 9 miles. Even better news for me was the fact that my 9th and final mile was my fastest! (my Nike watch gives mile times for each mile run, then tells you your fastest and slowest miles). Here's a look at the runs I completed the past two weeks and used my watch: I'm now over 150 miles on my watch! I c...