Last first day ever!

That's right.  Today was my last first day of school.  Ever!  Until grad school...if that is somewhere in my future.  But for the time being, I'm planning on graduating in May and not setting foot in an another academic establishment for quite some time.

My day started out with a 55 minute Turbo Fire class.  It wasn't my best, but I got through it.  Following the sweat show, I downed half a juicy grapefruit!  Mmmm they are so delicious when in season :) I showered and got ready for my last first day.  Since it was absolutely miserable out today-- 3-4" of snow last night + sleet + rain = disaster-- I threw on leggings, a fleece, and rainboots.  Didn't even bother drying my hair.  Typically, I would try to look somewhat decent, but today was not even worth the time.  I sat down to one of my favorite breakfasts: oats!  Today's variety included frozen strawberries and a spoonful of pb mmm :) 

I made sure to give myself a sufficient amount of time to get to school considering the horrendous road conditions.  I left 45 minutes early and walked into class right at 11:27.  I thought I was going to die at least 7 times on the commute this morning.  I passed four different accidents and was only going 35mph. I HATE driving in snow.

I was nervous for this first day.  Basically because this semester is unlike any other semester I've ever had.  I'm only in class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I intern Mondays and Wednesdays (starting next week), and work on Fridays and Saturdays (hopefully).  With that said, my Tuesdays and Thursdays are jam packed.  Classes literally all day without breaks.  Finding time for food concerns me.  I need to eat!  Today wasn't so bad because in typical first day nature, my first class got out a half hour early, my second class was cancelled, and my third class... ran the whole time.  But the breaks allowed me time to have some snackage :) 

The walk back to my car was treacherous. By the time I got back to my car, I was completely soaked and shivering.  Not fun.  However, the drive home was a lot less scary than the drive there.  Once I left school-- 5 hours later-- the sleet turned to rain and the roads were flooded instead of mountains of slush.  I can handle water in its liquid state.  I came home to momma's homemade chicken soup!  It definitely hit the spot after the day I had.

Now I'm enjoying some TV and banana soft serve with chocolate chips!  Hooray for no school tomorrow!

What's in a name?

Seriously though.  It literally took me days to conceive the name that is my now blog.  And I must say, although it isn't particularly creative, at all, it serves the purpose.  For now.  Anyways, I can't believe I'm starting a blog.  I've only recently started reading them.  Something about the blogging community seemed to pull me in and now I'm hooked.  Maybe it was the crazy similarities I found with other healthy living bloggers.  Maybe it's my love of learning new recipes, or tips on running marathons.  Or maybe I'm just bored.  All of the above?  Most likely.

So why did I start this thing again?  Well, I'm in the process of training for my first half marathon and thought this would be a good way of keeping track of my runs and experience in general.  Up until now I would just tweet my miles and times, but you can only say so much in 140 characters.  I suppose I could have just started a personal journal.  But after reading various blogs, I got the feeling that being able to express and share these kinds of experiences is something much more gratifying.  And so it begins...

Back to the name situation.  I initially wanted to be super creative and witty and come up with this awesome name that would blow everyone away.  Not so much.  I also didn't want to seclude myself and limit this to solely a "runner's blog".  Zerica is my nickname, I guess.  It was randomly given to me in high school as a joke, and pretty much stuck.  The "runs" part of the name is/should be self explanatory. If you don't get it, then don't even bother reading this.  So there you have it.  My desperate attempt at a blog name.

As for today's run, I actually wasn't even planning on running.  I wanted to take today as my cross train day since yesterday was a long 8 mile, 1 hour and 10 minute run.  But Turbo wasn't calling my name and the treadmill was.  When I say Turbo, I mean Turbo Jam/Fire.  I'm obsessed.  I started using the first program, Turbo Jam, almost three years ago in my first attempts to get healthy again.  Once I started running, about two years ago, I began using TJ as my form of cross training.  I definitely prefer the cardio kickboxing to the elliptical or bike any day.  This past summer Turbo Fire was released and I couldn't have been more ecstatic.  Not only were the kickboxing classes more intense, but they also included three HIIT (high intensity interval training) classes.  These are NO joke.  But they keep me accountable and have definitely helped in improving my overall fitness level.  So I bypassed the Turbo and hit the treadmill.  I did a 4 mile pace run in a little under 33 minutes.  I took a .25 mile walk break and then ran another mile with hill intervals.  I've got to say, this is the best feeling run I have had in a while-- which surprised me considering the long run I had yesterday.

Tomorrow will most likely be a Turbo day.  I don't foresee running three days consecutively in my near future.  I really need to get into the swing of blogging.  This kind of feels weird right now, but I'm sure that's normal...

Catch ya lataaaa