Run that way - really fast. If something gets in your way, turn

Heidi and I started running about five months ago. She signed us both up for the New York Road Runners and we've been doing their running claasses once a week since. The intention was to get out more (NYRR runs in Central Park), get fit in a different way from just going to the gym, and have fun doing a few races.

What neither of us had counted on was me being fairly good at this. On the last three weekends, we've done a 4M, a 5K and another 4M race, and my mile times have gone from 7:15 two weeks ago to flat 7-minute miles in the last two. Not bad for a 37 year old overweight computer nerd with a desk job!

So it looks like I've caught the running bug. Time to do some serious training and see if I can crack the 25-minute four mile barrier, or the 20-minute 5K, this year. Also time to start doing somewhat longer races - 10K, 15K, maybe even a half-marathon in a year or so. All this is rather unexpected and eats into my not so copious spare time, but as I'm really enjoying it, why not.

In the mean time, Heidi's grumbling a little bit. She's trying to beat her times from the last time she did serious running, back in 2000, and here I am easily outpacing her. It's not fair, and I'll have to make it up to her with back rubs or cooking a nice dinner.

Home ownership looms

After a lot of pain and several high stacks of paperwork, we've got board approval for the co-op we're buying. It looks like I'll be a home-owner in two weeks or so; we'll probably move in April. Time to visit Ikea for lots of bookshelves and go to various places to pick out a new sofa, dining table, chairs, rugs, curtains - it'll be an expensive few months. The new place will be awesome though and I cannot wait to throw the first part there.