Hello, hello! I sadly missed my recap last week, but I’m here with a quick two week recap of training for the Cape Town marathon in October. Buckle up!
Monday: Monday “session”: Warm-up, 5×5 minutes at half marathon pace with 90 sec recovery jog in between, cool-down for 8 miles.
Tuesday: Run commute with Tina, then the office 5k for 8 miles total before work, easy pilates reformer at TEN by my office after work.
Wednesday: WFH as I was meant to have some window washers come to our place, but they had to reschedule. But I took advantage and did a longer session: warm-up, 6 miles at marathon effort (this got hard in the final 2, so probably not true marathon effort at this point), cool-down for 10 miles total before work.
That evening, I met up with a few friends to see the musical comedy “Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder” which was fun and silly- reminded me of Operation Mincemeat (which I have seen twice here, and am seeing a third time!) but not quite as good. Trying to be!
Thursday: With a later evening due to the musical, I took Thursday as my rest day with a bit of a lie-in, then took a Heartcore pilates reformer class after work.
Friday: Friday miles with a group of ladies I’ve met through the Mornington Chasers run group, 9 miles total for me with some strides on the track at the end to pick things up a bit. Followed up the run with a quick plunge in the mixed ponds!
After work, I went to a Heartcore pilates class.
Saturday: Long run day! 14 miles with the last 3 at marathon pace.
Sunday: Quick 5 mile run with Dustin and Ruth in the Heath before my sister Cresta arrived from the U.S.! She’s here for the week, primarily to join me at the Taylor concert at Wembley on Thursday. No kids, just her! I’m going to be working for most of the week, but she has a lot on her itinerary to explore on her own this time, and then we plan to meet for dinners in the evening.
We kicked off her visit to with a stop at the Vagina Museum in east London; my sister is an ob-gyn and a few of her doctor friends had mentioned it. It was a small but valuable exhibit about breaking the stigma aorund the vagina!
Then we walked through the Columbia flower market, saw one of the new Banksy in Shoreditch, (the monkeys.)
We finished with dinner at the Black Dog pub in Vauxhall (from the Taylor Swift song on TTPD!) Yes, a lot of our activities might be planned around Taylor…
Summary: 52 miles of running, 3 pilates classes
Monday: I ran 8 very tired miles (and very sweaty!) before work. That evening, my sister, Dustin, and I went to dinner at Chiltern Firehouse, a swanky place in Marlyebone where there are often celeb sightings! Unfortunately, we didn’t spot any celebs, but we had a great time.
Tuesday: Rest day from running! Needed it. That evening, we had dinner at L’Antica Pizzeria in Hampstead.
Wednesday: I took the train to Embankment to meet up with my friend from the U.S., Sarah, and her husband Nick, to give them a quick tour of the London sites- via running!(Sarah and her mom are also going to the Taylor show on Thursday)
We did a 5 mile loop of the Thames. After I dropped them back off at their hotel, I continued on to Hyde Park where I did some intervals (2x 2 min, 3 min, 4 min). 10 miles total for the morning.
I worked from home the rest of the day and then met my sister and Dustin at Gymkhana in Mayfair for an amazing 2- Michelin starred tasting menu. Incredible! There’s lot of great Indian food in London, but Gymkhana was definitely a top meal for me.
Thursday: I ran to the Baker station to pick up Sarah for another London running tour! We ran through Regent’s Park past the new Banksy outside the zoo. (He did a whole animal series this past week in London, ending with this one at the zoo.)
We continued north all the way to Hampstead, where Sarah joined us all for a quick dip in the mixed ponds! She and my sister really enjoyed their taste of Hampstead. I am so glad they got to see the charm of our neighborhood!
I worked for a bit of the morning before getting ready for Taylor! Yes, my second Eras tour (3rd time seeing Taylor- I saw her back in 2018 at the Reputation tour.)
It was such a fun evening, ending with a bit of an adventure getting home in the Midnight Rain. Ha!
Friday: Well, I’ll be honest, I was knackered on Friday morning! But I drank a ton of water + liquid IV and made it out for a 5 mile run with Ruth.
And she was knackered after the run!
After the run, I worked a bit and my sister went to the Highgate Cemetary tour (which she absolutely LOVED) while I took Matilda to the vet, and then we made our way into central London to see Mean Girls the Musical matinee. It was my second time seeing it here, but it was just as fun- if not more- the second time!
We spent a few hours wandering around central before meeting up with my friend Sarah, her mom, her husband, and Dustin at Veeraswamy for more Michelin starred Indian food!
Saturday: We were up early to say goodbye to my sister before her Uber picked her up at 6 am to head to Heathrow to fly back to Minneapolis. What a fun visit it was…but I tired and decided to push my long run to Sunday. Dustin, Ruth, and I ran 7 miles together instead, followed by some core and upper body (via Caroline Girvan on YouTube.)
Sunday: I’m supposed to run 15 miles tomorrow with some marathon pace in there. I’ll come back to this post to update it on how things went!
Summary: About 50 miles of running, ZERO pilates (need to get back to it next week!) and only a minimal amount of core/strength…
Being in London during the Wembley shows has been really fun- even Citymapper, the navigation app that I swear by (definitely use it if you’re traveling in Europe!)
Any of the air conditioned trains were “Taylor’s Version!”
Its not all sunshine and rainbows in London though; you may have seen this on the news- there was a stabbing in Leicester Square (right by my office) earlier this week. A very brave employee at a TWG tea store took down the assaulter.
Well, great work if you made it through this whole post. I don’t blame you if it was a quick skim!
I’m linking up with Running on the Fly and Confessions of a Mother Runner; check out their blogs to connect with other fitness bloggers for workout ideas and inspiration!
(Visited 2 time, 2 visit today)
