running | super generic girl

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.

It’s not often that I’m entirely sure about whether a decision I make is a good or bad idea. Deciding to stick to my new year’s resolution of running whenever possible, however, has proven to be the best idea I’ve had in quite some time.

I guess I started running a couple of years ago but never took it seriously and was only doing it every now and then, if I really, really felt like it and there was absolutely nothing else to do. A few months ago, however, I started doing it more often and, by the end of last year, I made the decision to make it my main hobby.

I mean, running has everything going for it, especially as a summer activity: it’s free, it can take you to gorgeous locations (if you don’t stick to running around your neighbourhood), it keeps you (well, me at least) away from malls, it’s healthy… Also, the fact that I had a running partner helped incredibly as I knew exactly how easy it was to be lazy and just choose to stay home if I was to go by myself. But when my friend Stacey told me, last year, that she wanted to start taking running seriously as well, our lives really changed (I know it sounds cheesy but they really did).

In the beginning of the year, Stacey and I decided to start entering running events, to give ourselves the necessary motivation to keep on running. We knew it would be easy to do in summer but were already anticipating a tough winter (which we’re only just starting now).

These official running events – that we pay to enter – mean that we feel forced to train for them whenever we can and they work as the incentive we need to get off our lazy bums and put the running shoes on.

We’ll be running on fifth official event of this year this coming sunday – the 10km run which is part of the Hobsonville Point Runway Challenge. We started the list of official running events with an amazing run on Waiheke Island back in January and, other than the over-crowded and overall annoying Round the Bays (Never. Again.), we’ve been doing some excellent runs – the Coatesville Classic in March was an example of a really beautiful run.

We have also just signed up for the Taupo Half Marathon, which will happen on August 7. At this stage, I’m nowhere near close to being ready to run a half-marathon. My longest run so far was a 16km one and I can’t tell you how bored I was. I guess the only way to solve that is to work on improving my times – the assumption being that the faster I run, the less bored I’ll get.

With winter fast approaching and with the half-marathon happening at the height of the cold season, in the centre of the North Island (where it’s really freaking cold!), we’re really going to have to harden up.

I know I have to prepare for a lot of running sessions in the cold and rain but I can’t tell you how excited I am about it. I’m not sure I’ll ever run a full marathon (I mean, really, who has the time?!) but one can dream…