Half-marathon training has officially started.

Well, kind of.

The half-marathon is 12 weeks away and the training scheduled I’ve created (kind of mashed-up from a bunch of different schedules I found online) happens to be a 12-week one so I guess I have no choice but to get into it.

Having to get into it, however, doesn’t stop me from trying to get out of it.

Yesterday, my friend Stacey gave me a metaphorical kick in the butt when I emailed her to let her know that our post-work run would have to be a quick one because I was meeting some friends for dinner. Her answer was short and not all that sweet. She said we’d do the initially planned 8.5km run because, as I’d told her myself just a couple of days before, running would have to become a priority from now on. She passed the friend test with that one and so I did as I was told and went to dinner with friends a little later.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m okay with the general idea of making running a priority. The problem is putting that idea into action when you have all sorts of day-to-day activities and last-minute plans to work around. The training schedule is extremely demanding compared to what we had been doing up until now. My only rest days are Mondays and Fridays and, with swimming lessons on Tuesdays, fitting in work and running becomes kind of a challenge, especially when you want to have some sort of social life on the side as well.

On the other hand, I’m actually really looking forward to turning running into more of a habit. I have a bunch of deadlines to meet before I leave work today (writing this post is just a way of forcing myself to take a break from it all) and the thing I keep thinking about is how much I can’t wait to leave the office at 5pm and go for a run. Stress-relief, here I come.