Gretch Runs

Good morning everyone! Today I'm going to be starting a really fun series on my blog- one that I've been wanting to do for a long, long time. One of my very favorite shows is the Great British Bake Off (or the Great British Baking Show as it's called in the US). If you haven't watched the show, it is a baking competition, but has the most pleasant and sweet contestants who are more stressed about avoiding a soggy bottom on their pies than starting drama with their other competitors. It is very different than most cut-throat reality shows and just makes me feel warm and gooey inside. Each week in the competition there are three baking challenges around a central theme (things like cakes, bread, pastry, etc.)- a signature bake, a technical bake, and a show stopper. While the bakers can plan for the signature and show stopper bakes, the technical is a mystery. All the bakers are given the same recipe and ingredients and are judged blindly on the finished product. At the en...

Is it just me or was this the longest week ever? I usually write down my workouts each day in a draft blog post, then write the intro at the end of the week. Now I'm looking back through my workouts and they all feel like they happened a month ago. I guess it was just one of those never-ending weeks for me- how about you? Have the days and weeks been going by quickly or slowly lately?  One special and different thing that I did this week was taking part in a virtual relay race this week with Oiselle called " Womxn Run the Vote ". Our team logged miles and minutes doing workouts to run virtually from Atlanta to Washington, DC (680 miles). The event raised money for Black Voters Matter and was a lot of fun and educational as well. Don't forget to vote- my mail-in ballot is on its way to me and I'll make sure to follow every rule to make sure my vote counts and you should too! Here's a look at my week of workouts- Monday 4 mile run I met up with two friends for a...

If you either read my weekly workout recaps or know me in real life, you probably know that I have quickly become obsessed with the Peloton app. Going from one of those "I don't need an expensive bike" people to "OMG this app has EVERYTHING" happened quickly during the first month of the lock-down (when Peloton smartly extended their 30 day free trial of the app to 90 day). I signed up immediately and the rest is history! While I haven't completely become a Peloton groupie by purchasing their equipment (my Schwinn exercise bike works just fine with their classes), I am indeed a fangirl. I've made my way through nearly 500 classes since then, and wanted to share my favorites in every category! If you're just starting out or looking to switch things up, I hope this post is helpful! I would also love hearing your favorite classes or instructors, so please leave them below (and follow me! My user name is gretchruns :) One more note- while working on this...

Happy Monday everyone! I believe that fall officially starts this week, but it definitely arrived in Pittsburgh. The weather has been crisp and almost cold in the morning and evenings- I have a feeling we'll be shoveling snow before we know it. This was a fun week of workouts- here's a look at what I did. Monday 20 min Bodyweight Strength with Matty Trying to get better about strength so started my week off with another Bodyweight class! These are great because I don't have many weights (and nothing heavier than 10 pounds) so in this one I never feel like I'm missing a good workout. I liked this class a lot and it was a fun start to the week! Tuesday 30 min Rock Fun Run with Andy Woke up to glorious weather- 48 degrees! Perfect for running and I felt amazing, something that hasn't happened for running in a while. Guess it's time to get more consistent and back to my normal mileage! Wednesday 3 mile walk It was a beautiful day and I actually had an hour free for ...

Happy Friday everyone! I'm back today to share my kitchen update, which was a fun and exciting project for me to work on. To be honest, the kitchen was one of my favorite rooms in the house when we first looked. Sure, it's not huge, but the white cabinets, dark gray countertops, and blue walls were all right in my style! I didn't need to make any huge changes to this room, but did a few things to update it and make it look nicer without having to make any big purchases. Here's a look at the before, when we first looked at the house...you can even see the flyers on the counter. My first step was one that I made right away and made a huge impact immediately - switching the cabinet knobs. This was really simple, and I loved how the basic black knobs made everything look more modern and sleek. I repainted all of the walls the same color as the bathroom (Sherwin Williams Gibraltar) since I still had plenty left over. I also decided to paint an accent wall in our "dinin...

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. This was kind of a cutback week of sorts for me in terms of exercise- I had some house projects that I wanted to finish up, and the weather was kind of iffy most of the week. Looking forward to getting back outside this week hopefully!  Here's a look at my workouts- Monday 20 min Bodyweight Strength with Adrian It's been way too long since I've done a strength class and I definitely paid for it...this class felt SO hard.  20 min Groove Ride with Cody I checked off a new type of ride with this class! It reminded me a lot of spin classes I used to go to with more "choreography" (just rising up and sitting down more frequently) and helped those sections go by really quickly while using higher resistance! This did make me miss classes at Zenergy Cycling, which was an actual full-on dance class on a bike and SO FUN. Tuesday 40 min Yoga with Aditi What a great start to the day! Aditi had two live classes this mo...

We're basically at the midpoint of September already (maybe not but might as well be) so I'm sharing my goals a bit late, but better late than never! August was a really busy month and I felt like I was always working on something. I have some exciting news to share below about a new venture I'm starting and some fun projects I completed and have coming up! Let's start with a highlight- we went camping in August! It was my first time in Raccoon Creek but I will definitely be back- it's such a beautiful and huge park. The trip was so much fun and it was a great quick escape. Hoping to camp one more time this year- fall camping is my absolute FAVORITE so I'm excited. Now let's see how my goals went last month!   German Lessons I would say that I did pretty well with this goal- I finished up two seasons of the Coffee Break German lessons, and also worked through a workbook. I also practiced a lot with friends that speak German! It's been so fun (and challen...

Happy Labor Day! I hope you all had a great weekend and are hopefully enjoying a day off today. I had a great week of enjoying cooler temperatures and getting back to my favorite outdoor activities. Now that it's cooling off hopefully there's more to come of that!  Here's a look at how my week went- Monday 20 min Pop Ride with Erik Finished off my tour de instructors with a German double feature- a ride with Erik and a stretch with Irene! I switched my settings to allow German language classes to be shown but for some reason I still can't...so there weren't too many to choose from from these two sadly. I really liked Erik and hope I can find more from him! 30 min Breathe In, Speak Up Slow Flow with Chelsea Really great and difficult class to end my night. Chelsea dedicated this practice to Chadwick Boseman, talking about the various roles that he's played and included music from their soundtracks. She also recognized and thanked her various team members which wa...

Hi everyone! This was a pretty light reading month for me- I was so busy with other stuff that I didn't find a lot of time to sit down with a book. I did finish a few though (and gave up on one dud) and enjoyed them all a lot! Here's what I read in August- You Are Not Alone Shay Miller wants to find love, but it eludes her. She wants to be fulfilled, but her job is a dead end. She wants to belong, but her life is increasingly lonely. Until Shay meets the Moore sisters. Cassandra and Jane live a life of glamorous perfection, and always get what they desire. When they invite Shay into their circle, everything seems to get better. Shay would die for them to like her. She may have to. It feels weird to call this a fun book because the plot is pretty heavy, but it's so enjoyable. The story switches between timelines and different characters, telling the story from multiple points of view. There's a lot of suspense, mystery, death, and deceit- the recipe for a thrilling book....