The only way I stay motivated is to book myself into a race, so I therefore have a goal. I've noticed that if I don't have a race coming up, that my motivation drops off and I start missing traning sessions.

Even if it's a short race it then gives me a goal. My first goal is finishing, then my second goal is to try and beat a previous/anticipated time.

I also found that having some kind of training scheduled helps me. I have been using the ones from Nike ( http://www.nike.com/bowerman/ then click on "Train" ) where they have schedules for Beginner and Advanced for 5K, 10K and half marathon. Make sure you build up your distances. I've been to the try too much to soon school and have suffered for it with shin splits and hip pain. You don't want to go there.

The key is to get into some kind of daily/every second day routine and to run when you are least likely to get interrupted. I have found that I need to do my traning first thing in the morning, so I tend to wake up at 6:00am and go for a run then ( during the week ). If I miss the 6:00am run it is virtually impossible to find the time to get that run in. Everything else just takes precedence. So I do it first thing in the morning and get it out of the way before either family or work can interrupt it. The other reason for doing it first thing is that I think that is when the air is least polluted in London, from all the car fumes, which I hate.

Also I've found that if I don't get my endorphin kick, I get grumpy both from lack of the endorphin and also from that fact that I don't feel I've achived anything, which then means I'm tense around the house. What a vicious cycle .

In the end no matter how you choose to do it, it takes disciple. Once you've got the disciple side sorted, everything else almost takes care of itself.