Happy Birthday + Weekend Updates!

Happy 24th birthday to my best friend, Kelley!

Kelley and I met when I was a senior in high school and she was a freshman at UW. Every April, the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), invites all the senior girls who have been accepted to the College of Engineering to Day on Campus, where they go on a tour of engineering, learn about the different majors, sit in on panel discussions, etc. They also have the option of staying overnight with a SWE member to get a better ‘feel’ for campus.

You guessed it, Kelley was my host. (And my tour guide, come to think of it!)

However, Relay for Life and a formal dance were on the same night, so I didn’t see much of her that night. I still tease her for ‘ditching’ me, but I clearly didn’t hold it against her too much, since she’s now going to be my maid-of-honor!

A year later, I was on the Girl Scout Committee of SWE, which Kelley was co-chair of. Two years later, Kelley and I were in some of the same classes, still in SWE together, and had both accepted a summer job with the same engineering company. We’ve been good friends ever since.

Tonight, we are going to a local bar/cafe to hang-out with friends over a drink or two and dinner.

Happy birthday, Kelley!

On my flight to Ithaca, I read the entirety of The New Rules of Lifting for Women, and loved it! While there were a few little things I disagreed with, I liked that the author explained basics like why you need a rest period between sets. I’ve been told that over and over again, but my analytical mind doesn’t want to do it unless I know why I’m supposed to…now I know why!

I was so impressed by the book that I am going to try the workouts for a few weeks. I did the first workout of “Stage 1″ today, and was surprised by how challenged my muscles felt by the end of the 5 exercises. And because there were only 5 exercises, the workout only took about 30-40 minutes, which I definitely can fit into my busy schedule three times a week!

The book splits the exercises into families so that you have lots of options based on your current ability level and equipment access. I did make a few exercise substitutions since I was working out at home and didn’t have some of the recommended equipment. For instance, I was supposed to do step-ups on a step or block. Since I don’t have a step, I did some dumbbell lunges instead.

You can follow along with my progress in my Project Strength page through the end of the month, at which point all workout tracking will move to Training, since Project Strength will be over!

And speaking of working out, here is my workout plan for the next three weeks. Workout A/B refers to the workouts from The New Rules of Lifting for Women. Hopefully the running plan will be sufficient for my half marathon in a few weeks. I am trying to find the right balance between getting in the training runs I need, without aggravating my knees or shins, both of which have been giving me problems lately!

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Feb 15-21	Workout A, Stage 1	Run 2 miles	Run 4 miles + Workout B, Stage 1	Rest or Yoga/Pilates	Run 8 miles + Workout A, Stage 1	Rest or Yoga/Pilates	Rest or Yoga/Pilates
Feb 22-28	Run 4 miles + Workout B, Stage 1	Rest or Yoga/Pilates	Run 5 miles + Workout A, Stage 1	Rest or Yoga/Pilates	Run 9 miles + Workout B, Stage 1	Rest or Yoga/Pilates	Rest or Yoga/Pilates
Mar 1-7	Easy 4 miles + Workout A, Stage 1	Rest or Yoga/Pilates	Easy 2 mile run+ Workout B, Stage 1	Rest or Yoga/Pilates	Rest or Yoga/Pilates	Rest	DISNEY PRINCESS HALF

Ahh, the half marathon is SO SOON. I’m getting excited!

Recap of my weekend in Ithaca will be up later this week. All my pictures were on Dan’s camera, and he’s emailing them to me tonight–I’ll post after I get them!

And, if you haven’t seen it yet, check out my guest post on Jenn’s blog about bike safety!

Tagged as: Project Strength, Running