Nothing gets me more excited that plotting out a training schedule for a half marathon or full marathon. There’s something special about planning all the hard work you’re going to do and knowing that you have a date on when you can see all that work come to fruition — you hope.

The Brooklyn Half Marathon is on May 19 and even though New York Road Runners has not opened up registration yet I have to start plotting out the schedule so I’m not, “oh hey, I have a half marathon to run tomorrow.” That actually has happened before. It can be done but it’s not pretty.

I don’t know if I have any specific goals for this one other than the fact that I just want to run the race. But because I didn’t get into the NYC Half Marathon through the lottery and my charity did not put together a team this year I don’t want to miss out on guaranteed entry again. (That was a run-on-ish sentence.) This guaranteed entry means that I have to run in four of the five half marathon series. I didn’t run the Manhattan Half because that was a week before the Miami Half so that leaves Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, and Staten Island. The last three happening during marathon training.

Putting the training plan in my calendar also makes it look like I have a real social life instead of just looking at an empty calendar. I have plans people! Would it be bad if I also added things like stretching and foam rolling into my calendar or does that come across as too desperate?