Chin up, head down

It's been some time since I've had the energy or interest in putting anything new up here, mostly because lately I feel like I'm in a bit of a rut. My weekends are no longer occupied with long, challenging runs, and I'm not motivated by having a big race to work towards. The only goal I have right now is one that requires a different kind of stamina: Zdenek and I are on the hunt for a new apartment.

As any New Yorker knows, finding a decent, habitable space at a reasonable price in this city is not a trivial task. Zdenek and I seem to have spent every weekend for the past three months (and several nights each week) apartment-hunting on the UWS. If only we could pony up $8K in monthly rent, we'd have signed a new lease a long time ago. But we're a long way from that rent band and, indeed, even further from the "fantastic, gorgeous, spacious" apartment on Central Park West that one broker called us about yesterday. (The price tag: $15,000 per month.)

As nice as it will be to finally move out of our adequate but too-small space and into something slightly more "grown-up," I'm starting to tire of the constant internet searching, emailing to non-responsive brokers, and visiting places that look nothing like the photos (one place we saw last weekend was literally coming apart at the seams and, I think, hadn't been lived in since 1955). I just don't have the energy for this anymore. In fact, I don't seem to have the energy for much at all these days. My running has been sluggish and hard, and my biking is nowhere near the level it was at last year. Zdenek, too, is a bit frustrated by my exhaustion, and spends most of our running or biking time looking back over his shoulder, wondering if or when I'm going to catch up (this morning he just opted to bike without me).

But I need to remember that it's still early days and my biking legs might yet return. I have to relish the freedom from training plans and the option to run only four or five miles, whenever the mood strikes me. I must savor the opportunities to be outdoors and in the late springtime warmth before the oppressive summer humidity moves in to stay. And I need to enjoy the little rewards running gives me along the way: last week I found $1 on my run back from the Park, and yesterday morning I picked up a $20 bill. It may not help the apartment hunt, but it's good motivation to keep my head down and stay moving.