Gretch Runs

It's the best time of the year- baking season! I wait all year long for Great British Bake Off to return to my Netflix screen and it's officially here. One of my highlights of 2020 (not that there was much to compete with...) was baking along with the episodes and trying out all of the technical bakes! Of course I have to do that again this year. Week one is starting out with cakes. The bakers were asked to make mini rolls for the Signature Challenge, and an Anti-Gravity Illusion Cake for the Showstopper. What I'm focusing on today (as usual) is the Technical- a Malt Loaf . Something I've never heard of but sounded so tasty and perfect for the cool, crisp days of fall that we're finally getting! The process was pretty simple but very interesting- I started by soaking dried fruit in hot black tea- using English Breakfast of course- and steaming it in the microwave. Once it was out I added baking soda which caused a chemical reaction (not sure exactly what happened b...

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great week and weekend. Mine were great and busy- we had our first friend visit and we had such a blast! I also had my first race since the pandemic started, so it was a very packed week. I got great feedback the last time I did a week of highlights so I thought I would make these more of a regular thing instead of just doing workout recaps! It also helps force me to do something fun everyday so this post isn't too boring. Here's a look at how my week went! Monday Plans for the day (outside of work) : I headed to Jordan Lake as soon as I was done with work. It's a huge lake with beaches, campgrounds, hiking trails and lots of boat docks, and is just down the road from me. I've been wanting to go, and luckily starting in September you can get in for free. I ended up doing a short trail run and then paddleboarding for a few hours. It was so beautiful and peaceful! One thing that went unexpected : I put up our hummingbird feeder after fin...

 Welcome back to the third (and final!) post about my long weekend in Asheville. So far I've shared where we stayed and our day in Lake Lure , and the day that we explored downtown Asheville (featuring lots of breweries). On our final full day, we got out into nature and got to visit a true mountain town. Let's get into it! Hiking Once again, we started our day with a hike. I love getting to hiking spots early in the morning, because the weather is usually nicer and the trails are less crowded! One of my goals for this trip was to do a waterfall hike and a summit hike- and today I got to cross off the second one (don't worry..we'll get to the waterfall later!). After some research, I decided that Lookout Mountain would be the best option. It's located about 20 minutes east of Asheville in the town of Black Mountain, and was a really fun and challenging hike. It's very easy to navigate but pretty much straight up hill for the entire 1.5 miles. Towards the top the...

This week felt like an absolute whirlwind. I always feel like weeks that start with a Monday holiday are hectic, and this definitely was. It seemed like every day there was something going on, with a super busy and social weekend! It was exhausting in the best way possible. Let's get to a recap of my week of workouts! Monday 10 mile Bike Morning bike ride to kick off my Labor Day. Dan and I started at the Art Museum and followed the " Art to Heart " trail, which follows some greenways to head to downtown Raleigh. The trail goes through Meredith College, NC State, and a bunch of parks. Our route was a lot hillier than I expected but was really fun! I loved the parts that were on greenways, but didn't love biking along a few busy roads. It was something that was on my Raleigh To-Do List though, so I'm glad I got to cross it off. 30 min Rock Run with Becs Went out on this run in the afternoon while listening to this fun playlist. I'm finally getting out of my reg...

I'm back today with the second part of my Asheville trip! (Catching up? You can find part 1 here !) I was thinking this could be a two part series, but when I started writing about this day I realized I would have to split it up into three. The trip was just too good! For our second full day, we spent time doing some hiking and exploring downtown Asheville. It was a ton of fun and made me just want to come back sometime soon because there's still SO much we didn't get to do. But without further ado, here's how our day went- Hiking Of course we had to start off our day with a hike! There were so many options to choose from, but I decided on a place that was close to downtown and also free to enter- the Hard Times Loop Trail in Pisgah National Forest. There was a small parking lot at the trailhead, and then we made our way down the trail and towards a small lake. We were able to complete a loop for about a 2 mile hike.  Most of the time we were following a flowing creek, ...