Last night I got in my scheduled three miler, which ended up being closer to a 4.3ish miler, but I'm not complaining. Overall things went well. I was tired when I got home from work, but I knew I wanted to get out and get this run done.

It was definitely chilly went I started and for a while I was wishing I had layered one of my lighter fleeces over my Under Armour, but after about the second mile I wasn't feeling too cold anymore and by the end I was really glad I hadn't worn the fleece.

I did try out this new pair of running gloves my mom bought me at an expo. I'm not a fan of running in gloves because they usually make my hands all sweaty, but these gloves rocked and I only found myself wanting to take them off at the very very end.

I did the same route on 16th St. that I did last week and it worked well except for a few a street crossing right at the beginning and end. There's a traffic circle separating D.C. from Silver Spring that is a true pain in the ass to navigate in car or on foot. Lucky for me, a very nice lady stopped and let me cross the street when I had the right of way after a whole of bunch other cars hadn't.

Adding my commute (1.5 miles of walking round trip!) and my stretching to my run, I earned 6.4 points to kick off the HBBC! Not a bad start!

I've got a 6 miler on tap for tonight. Time to hit up MapMyRun for a good route.

Edit:
I was looking for awesome night time/early morning running gear so that I can see where I'm going. I always think head lamps look clunky and I just can't bring myself to strap something on my head. But then I stumbled across this:


It's a running hat, with a little light built into it. How perfect! I want one so badly. Hint, hint Christmas is just around the corner and it's less than $20.

Things are starting to calm down in my world right now. I'm finally feeling like my new house is actually a home. I've got my morning routine pretty much down to a science. (Roll out of bed at six, get dressed, brush teeth, put in contacts, walk to metro, get to work at 7).

Because of my early morning work hours, I'm still trying to get used to this running after work thing. Although I am most definitely a morning person, there is absolutely no way I can drag myself out of bed at 4:30 a.m. to run in the freezing temps. I'll reevaluate 4:30 running when it gets warmer out, but for now, I'll stick to running after work.

Last Thursday, I was able to get a solid 4.5 miler in. I did an out and back course along 16th Street mainly because it's the only road I know that has street lights so I can see and not trip and doesn't require you to cross many busy roads.

Tonight I have a three miler on the schedule and today also kicks off RunToFinish's Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge. So as long as I go out and get my run in, I can start earning some points!

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Moving update:

I bought a bed this weekend! And dropped obscene amounts of money at Ikea. Who knew mattresses and box springs were so freakin' expensive. Not me.

They are also a pain in the butt to carry up stairs (or just carry in general) but BF and I managed somehow.

Seriously, BF deserves a medal or something for helping me yesterday. We borrowed his stepdad's truck to load up the bed and dresser from Ikea, took it all home and then spent like 2.5 hours assembling the bed. We were both so sick of building furniture by the time we finished we didn't even start the dresser. (Plus BF wanted to watch the Redskins game...too bad they lost hehe...that may sound mean, but I'm an Eagles fan and now my team isn't last in the division anymore.)

But man was it nice to sleep in a real bed last night and not on an air mattress! The obnoxiously expensive mattress was so worth it.

So basically I'm forever indebted to BF for his help. I started by paying him back with pizza for dinner. They way to a man's heart is through his stomach right? lol!

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Also congrats to Frayed Laces on her BQ!

Hope you all have a fabulous Monday and good luck to everyone participating in the HBBC!

Again more apologies for being so absent of late. I hate letting the blog slide this much, but I should be getting back to my normal routine soon.

These past few weeks have been absolutely nuts and I haven't gotten a single run in since two Fridays ago I think. Not good for marathon training.

I don't think I've ever explained really about the whole new job-moving thing-trying to find places to run, but here's a quick rundown of what I've been dealing with the past three weeks.

I moved out of York Nov. 14th and went to stay at the BF's place. He and his roommates very graciously offered to let me stay until I found a place to live. I had a week off in between my old job and my new job and I used that time to kick off marathon training and spend most of my days on Craigslist looking for houses and most of my nights visiting those places.

It was crazy and stressful and I hated that I was homeless and bumming off the BF and his friends.

By the middle of that week I had found a nice townhouse with reasonable rent and two nice roommates so I at least had that ironed out. Only problem was, I couldn't move in until Nov. 30 and my job started Nov. 24.

My new job is in D.C. a couple of blocks from the White House. The easiest way to get there is by the metro. My new place is two blocks from a metro station, unfortunately BF lives much closer to Annapolis than D.C. and is about a 30 minute drive from the closest metro station.

So that means last week I had to wake up crazy early, drive to the metro, then ride the metro for like 45 minutes before I even got to work. And then do it all again on the way home. I was leaving the house a little before 7 a.m. and getting back after 7 p.m. Long, long days.

All I wanted to do when I got home was curl up and go to sleep, which is basically what I did.

Unfortunately I had to work the Friday after Thanksgiving so I didn't get to go home and spend Turkey Day with my family. It's the first Thanksgiving in my 22 years that I wasn't with them so that was a little weird. I spent the day with the BF and part of his fam though and we had a great time.

Last weekend I was so glad to sleep in on Saturday before going to watch Maryland soccer in the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament (they won 2-1 and play again this weekend). Sunday was moving day and then collapsing on the sofa and watching football.

Now that I'm in my new place my commute is slashed in half, which is so nice. I still haven't had a chance to run in part because I haven't found a place where I won't get run over and in part because I'm still settling in.

I have no furniture yet (that's this weekend's goal) so I'm living out of boxes and sleeping on an air mattress. I feel like a squatter.

Last night was BF's birthday so I took him to dinner after work and then we walked around downtown and got back kind of late. Tonight I'm going to watch his volleyball game, so more no running for me, but I'm OK with it because I know I'm still settling in and trying to figure out my schedule.

I'll be back to running soon and I'm still fairly confident that I'll be ready for this marathon. I've still got plenty of time.

Just wanted to give you all a quick update on where I've been. I think I've finally caught up on most of your blogs (although I definitely didn't have time to comment on all of them, so my apologies.) I'm so looking forward to getting my furniture and having my parents drop off the last of my stuff this weekend so that I can be moved in for real and settle into a routine. It will be awesome.