4 Weeks Until the Amsterdam Marathon

Hello all from London! It’s been an interesting week; just four weeks until my 40th marathon. Here’s how training (and life) went this week!

Monday: First run commute from the new place!

It should really only be 4 miles, but I ran through Regent’s Park and missed a turn, so it turned into 7.7. Eeks! I also ran through Green Park and saw all the flowers for the Queen. This was just the beginning; now there are multiple floral tribute areas in multiple parks. It’s incredible. So many flowers.

Monday was also Ruth’s first day at Bruce’s Doggy Daycare. They picked her up in a van (another dog, Archie, from our building goes to Bruce’s too!) and drove her out to the countryside where she had all kinds of fun, with various sniffing challenges and obstacles and just running around! She is signed up to go there once a week. Matilda, at the age of 13, might not get as much out of it, so we are holding off on sending her along at this time.

Ruth had a blast!

Tuesday: Tuesday trail 10k in the Heath before work.

On the days that Dustin and I are both in the office, and Ruth isn’t at Bruce’s Doggy Daycare, we have lined up another dog walker to give the girls a break in the day, via Hampstead Dogsitters. The owner brought her dog over when she met with us. Ruth and Matilda’s first visitor inside the new place!

Wednesday: Track workout! My first time on the Parliament track that I mentioned last week. 3 miles easy, then alternating sets of 800m, rest, 400m rest, with 1 mile cool-down for 9 miles total. I had so much fun and actually hit the paces for once. Yay!

That evening, we walked a bit to the other side of Hampstead to check out the Wells Tavern for dinner. It was recommended by some of Dustin’s colleagues; it was in a quite lovely part of Hampstead (gorgeous homes over there.) Dogs are allowed inside on the main floor (not the upper floor restaurant, which is nicer.)

We only brought Ruth this time; one dog at a time is a bit easier than two! It was her first dinner inside. She actually did a pretty good job.

Thursday: 7 mile run with a lap of Regent’s Park and I cut through the Sculpture park which was neat.

Friday: Finally a wfh day. Ruth and I did a quick 5.5 mile run through the Heath, followed by some body weight strength and core on Peloton (finally…) I’m really struggling to fit in strength. Some of it is motivation without having actual weights to use….

Saturday: 19 mile long run on a gorgeous London morning! Dustin ran with me to Hyde park, then we split up and I had a few miles solos before connecting with my friend Katy, who had 21 miles on her schedule (she’s running London.) Then we split up and I went home, ending with 19 miles for the day.

Post-run, we walked the pups for a good 3-ish miles, grabbing some sandwiches at the M&S Food near us. Then we took the train to Camden where we had appointments to get the Moderna bivalent booster! We actually need the booster to get into the Netherlands. It’s still important when traveling in Europe to check each country’s regulations. The Netherlands requires your last shot to be less than 180 days ago, and ours were not.

It was our first time navigating the NHS; we had to register with a local GP to get an NHS number. And technically this is our first shot in the UK system, so now we need to schedule an appointment with NHS to add the rest of our vaccine history to their files. But for now, at least we are good to get into Amsterdam in four weeks.

*Note we do have private medical insurance here, as many people do, but the NHS manages the vaccines.

The Pfizer bivalent booster isn’t approved here, so Moderna was my only option. All my previous vaccines were Pfizer; I’ve heard that Moderna side effects will hit 24 hours after the shot. So far, I feel okay, but will keep you posted if things change this afternoon.

That night we had dinner in Islington, a new-to-us neighborhood, at a place called Restaurant 12:51. Delicious. Unfortunately, right after dinner, we got a message from our upstairs neighbor that the dogs were barking continuously…so we rushed home on the tube as fast as we could. They seemed fine, so I’m not sure why they were barking. There are foxes in the garden sometimes, so I have to wonder if that was why. I appreciate the neighbor messaging us though, as I don’t want to be that annoying neighbor with dogs barking all night.

Sunday: I was supposed to meet a college friend who is here for the mourning of the Queen (she’s a huge fan) for a run but she cancelled on me in the middle of the night as she wasn’t feeling well. So I slept in a bit before heading out for a run with Ruth & Dustin.

Summary: 60 miles of running! A big week of mileage for me. One more big week before the taper begins.

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!