Exciting News

Very exciting news! On Friday night, my husband went to Indy to help his parents with some errands, so I decided to go out to a bar with some friends. He had the car, so the plan was that he would come pick me up when he got back into town. He texted me around 11:30 saying he was almost back, so I said my goodbyes and went out to wait for him. When he arrived, I hopped in the car, started talking to him, and he said "shhh!" and pointed to the backseat. He had brought home a beautiful puppy dog!

A new doggie!

We had been talking about getting a dog for about a month now, and he had actually told me that friends of his parents had a 6 month old lab that needed a home. I thought she might be a potential dog for us, but then he had told me that she was a rescue and he wasn't sure if we should get a rescue. This was just a lie to throw me off so that he could surprise me! We spent all weekend deciding on a name, and we ended up choosing Nova.

Because my schedule is being changed around quite a bit with having a doggie around, I'm going to start trying to run in the mornings. I did a very short run this morning, but I had slept longer than I wanted to, so I didn't want to take the time to do a longer run. Tomorrow I'm going to try to knock out 4 miles bright and early.

That's all for now. Time to go play with Nova! :)

It's a Yoga Pants Kind of Day

Yesterday my husband and I ran 6 miles around campus, which isn't an exceptionally long run, but is the longest I've done in awhile, and this morning I was definitely feeling worn out. I decided that even though I had to work office hours in the morning, and give some interviews for a Women in Engineering program in the afternoon, I was wearing yoga pants. Paired with a nice top, they look semi-professional...right? It makes me want to buy a pair of these black dress yoga pants from Betabrand. What a great idea.

Black dress yoga pants from betabrand.com

Maybe it's because I'm hungry, or because it's hot out today, reminding me that it's the middle of summer, but I cannot stop searching for delicious recipes for the grill. I try to eat  as clean as possible, and I tend to primarily maintain a vegetarian diet. I do eat meat every once in awhile, but I make a  conscious effort to avoid it the majority of the time. This means that when I post recipes, they will mostly be vegetarian--give them a chance, they can be as delicious as the meaty alternatives!

First of all, I love this bread recipe by Artisan Bread in Five. It is extremely easy to make, and you can keep the dough in your refrigerator for up to two weeks! The loaves have crunchy crust and a perfect interior. Here's a picture of one of my misshapen yet delicious loaves.

Homemade Bread

Back to the grilling! I found this list of 38 Vegetarian Grilling Recipes, and at the moment, I want to eat all of them! The grilled herb garden pizza sounds especially delicious at the moment. That's all for now--I'll go back to daydreaming about eating copious amounts of food. :)

Introduction to Me!

Hello everyone!

I have been toying with the idea of starting a blog for awhile now, and am excited that I have finally pulled the trigger. First, a little background about me. I'm a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering (ME), focusing on bioengineering. I finished my Master's Degree in the summer, so I am officially a PhD student (yay....kinda!). It's a lot of work, but my focus is really interesting--it's an interdisciplinary project between ME and Health and Kinesiology. It's fun to be merging two departments because I learn so much, and I get to interact with lots of unique students and faculty.

In addition to the academic part of my life, I also enjoy athletics. In high school I was a three season athlete: soccer, swimming/diving, and track. When I got into college, I still swam every once in awhile, but for the most part I wasn't working out very much. This left me mentally and physically unhappy! After graduating in May 2011, I moved to Chicago and started biking everywhere. This jump-started my exercise routine, and the following spring, I began running. I had always sworn that I was not cut out for distance running--I have a long torso but short legs (a swimmer's build! Watch this interesting TED Talk about ideal body types for various sports), but I kept at it. For the first year I ran sporadically, until I decided to sign up for a 10k in the summer of 2013. I followed a training plan for this, and finally started to enjoy running. After completing the 10k, I immediately signed up for a half marathon, scheduled for November. Here is me before the half, feeling cold and nervous.

Me before my first half marathon in November 2013

The half went really well and I decided that maybe I actually liked this whole running thing. This year, in addition to some 5k and 10k races, I participated in a Ragnar Race. This was a relay race from Madison, Wisconsin to Chicago, Illinois, with 12 people per team. Each person runs three separate legs. The running never stops, so there is a good chance at least one of your legs will be in the dark! My legs totaled just over 16 miles. It was hard (recovery doesn't happen well when you stop running and immediately go sit in a van for the next 5 hours), but it was a ton of fun. My team was awesome, and I enjoyed participating in a unique running experience.

Our Ragnar Crew in front of our sweet van

Currently, I'm training for a half marathon (same one I did last year!). This time my husband is running it with me. Which reminds me of something I forget to mention--I'm married! :) My husband is also a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering; this is great because we both have someone who understands the struggles of grad school. He's the smartest, most capable person I know, and I feel lucky to have him by my side. We got married in November of 2012.

Immediately after we had walked out of the church

That covers the basics about me! I hope for this blog to be a space to talk about trudging through grad school, running, cycling, and other components in the life of a twenty-something girl! I hope you'll stick around. :)