Hi friends! Welcome to my weekly recap of training for the Vienna marathon – and life in the U.K. as an American transplant!
Monday: 5 mile run before work. Core & barre on Peloton after work.
Tuesday: Run commute to the office- 4.7 miles. Piccadilly is so quiet at 7 am!
Followed the run commute with 3.3 miles with my colleague Nicole. Our firm has a corporate team for the London J.P. Morgan run in July (it’s a globally popular 5.6km race.) Nicole and I are still leading a monthly office run but have decided to add a few more runs together as we approach the race!
Wednesday: Rest day from running!
Well, sort of. My colleague Katherine invited me to join her at Barry’s Bootcamp. We went to the SW1 location in Belgravia for a morning class.
Barry’s Bootcamp is a popular class that is available in many countries, so many of you have probably taken it before! If not, the general idea is that you switch between the treadmill and strength on the floor. It’s a 60 min class; our particular class focused on chest/back/abs for the strength portion.
It was fun- it reminded me a lot of Orange Theory Fitness (without the rowing) or FlyFeet, a studio that I used to go to occasionally in Minneapolis.
I think the running portion was about 3 miles total, split up over the different sections. I told Katherine I join her again, but probably not until after the Vienna marathon! It was a fun change of “pace!”
Thursday: A bit of speed for Thursday! Warm-up, then 4×7 minutes at tempo with 2 min jog recoveries. 8.7 miles total.
Saw my camel friend in Regent’s Park!
After work, Dustin’s company hosted a public arts walking tour for their expat social group. This group hosts monthly events but generally partners aren’t invited. For this one, I was, as they needed more attendees.
It was interesting as the tour was actually near MY office and it was a lot of installations that I had never noticed before. After the tour, we were invited to the agency’s offices to see more art and have some wine.
(Pic from the agency’s office after the tour. This piece is about deforestation in Argentina.)
Friday: Up early to do my long run before the long weekend.
I ran 7 solo, then came up and picked up Ruth for 8 together, for 15 miles total.
Towards the end of the miles with Ruth, I made a stop at the Heath so she could run a bit faster off-lead for a bit! She has never-ending energy, that one…
After the run, we loaded up a rental car with the dogs and our bags to make the 5 hour drive north to an area of England called the “Lake District.“
We had rented a cute little dog-friendly Air BnB in a town called Staveley-in-Cartmel off of Lake Windermere. (Are you a Taylor Swift fan? She has a song about the Lake District on the Folklore album!)
Saturday: We had a bit of a leisurely morning over coffee before Ruth, Dustin, and I headed out for a run. We realized we had just missed the local parkrun right across the road at the Fell Foot park. Bummer!
We ended up just running the same route as the parkrun. It was more of a cross country route over grass, mud, and dirt. A beautiful morning in the English countryside!
We ended with 6 miles total and showered & got back in the car (with Matilda too!) to drive to a well-known Lake District hike called Helvellyn.
The hike to the top and back down would have been around 7 miles and it was marked as “challenging.”
It wasn’t really that tough, but we did start to get concerned about Matilda (she IS 14 years old, after all) as she seemed to be struggling a bit with the climb and the rocks, stumbling a little and out of breath. We cut it short and turned around before we reached the summit to ensure she was okay.
It was still a great hike with lovely views.
We know Matilda isn’t as strong as she once was and are respectful of her limits. She’s such a good girl that I do think she might try to keep up and push herself a little too hard, so we were careful not to do that.
We did a few other shorter walks/hikes in the area after lunch and fully enjoyed our time in the Lakes District, though we still have a whole day here tomorrow, (Monday is a holiday in the U.K., so we are driving back to London then.)
Sunday: Happy Easter!
Another run with Dustin and Ruth at Fell Foot Park (5 miles this time) followed by a day of hiking. This time we did Stickler Ghyll, which started off moderate for about 3 miles; Ruth and Matilda were mostly off-lead and having a blast (except for when we passed through sheep pastures, then they went back on their leads.)
Then there was a more challenging section, where again, it was a bit of bouldering and a lot of big stones to climb, so we didn’t make it all the way to the top as it was a bit too hard for Matilda. We covered about 4.6 miles total and had a lovely time.
Summary: 49 miles of running- much less than the past few months, now that I’m tapering for Vienna. Lots of hiking and walking. 1 Barry’s bootcamp.
That’s a wrap! 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!
Love that get away. You are really the most of your time abroad.
And it’s time to taper.
That went fast
Can’t wait to see how well the race goes.
Thanks Darlene! We are trying to see as much as we can, especially within the U.K. where we can bring the dogs with!
Your trip out of town sounds so much fun! I’m sure it was great to get out of the city for some quiet. Matilda is such a trooper. It’s hard to see them get older.
It’s hard to believe that your marathon is only 2 weeks away!!! I’m sure you are so excited.
Matilda is the best good girl. Yes, its hard to acknowledge, for both us and her I suppose, that she can’t do the same activities any more.
OMG 2 weeks! Your marathon is coming up fast! Glad you made it to the Lake District. It’s so gorgeous there. How did you like driving on the “wrong” side of the street? When we lived there we both had cars and it was a challenge at first, especially because mine had a manual transmission but like anything, you get used to it.
Dustin is always the one driving! He misses it, I do not. Even when we came here in the past, he always drove. I suppose eventually I might have to do it, but for now he’s happy to and we don’t need a car within the city of London.
Looks like a solid week of training and a fun scenic getaway. Hope you all enjoyed!
Thank you.
Stunning photos of the scenery & the dogs! Wow, look at Ruth go!
I hear you about Matilda. Bandit isn’t really so much into hiking anymore either. You are wise to cut the hike short, because they will push to be with us.
The dogs look so comfy in the car!
Totally. Matilda wanted to be part of it, but it was getting beyond her limits. Her back legs just aren’t as strong anymore. Whereas Ruth on the other hand…the girl is so agile and bounds around the rocks! We were worried she would be going so fast she’d go right over a cliff!
You sure stay active 😉 This trip sounds fun, and a nice change of scenery. It’s great that you’re exploring so much while there (in England) and not taking any of the sights for granted.
Thank you Kim! It’s been so much fun exploring parts of the U.K. that we normally wouldn’t have seen on a traditional vacation! It’s a beautiful country.
What a fun week! The hiking looks great. It must be hard to face Matilda’s aging, but she’s obviously still quite spunky. <3
For a “90-year old”, yes, I’d say she’s still very spunky! 🙂
Your photos of the English countryside are beautiful! Your dogs are lucky. The thought of Matilda struggling to keep up breaks my heart a little, but obviously you’re making sure she’s okay and happy. I love the picture of them sleeping in the car- Ruth definitely got tired out on that run!
I feel like the time flew by- two weeks to go, that’s exciting! Enjoy your taper.
You’re totally right Jenny, it broke my heart too, but we were careful to only do what she seemed confident doing and then we turned back, both days. Maybe some day we’ll come back with just Ruth and do more aggressive hiking as it really was beautiful there, but we got a good taste of the area at a level that was doable for our senior citizen 🙂
Wow, only two weeks until your marathon… the time has flown by!
Hope you’re continuing to have a great time at the Airbnb.
Thank you Debbie! It was a lovely long weekend in Cumbria county!
2 weeks to go! Woohoo! You are so ready. What a great place to explore, especially for your dogs. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned the movie “Run Fatboy Run” to you before, but your talk of the race in London made me think of it. I bet you would recognize some of the locations they filmed in!
I have seen that movie years ago, but I have to watch it again now that we live here!
Lovely to see some more Lake District pics. A shame you missed parkrun, they are so varied, as we have no cross-country style business in our one!
This one would have been fun, I wish we would have got there in time (or known about it!) We still ran the course…several times over our stay 🙂
My Rosemary is 14 also and the same as Matilda – she will push herself too hard! I’ve stopped running with her but she definitely enjoys a good walk. And she dashes around the house and yard like an idiot! I just hope she doesn’t slip and hurt herself on the hardwood floors!
Oh my gosh, sweet sweet Rosemary! What a great name and obviously a great pup.
Yes, Matilda still gets the old lady zoomies sometimes! It warms my heart.
There were some wooden stairs at the AirBnb that Matilda struggled with. We often just carried her up and down them to ensure she didn’t slip.
That public art tour sounds incredible! How nice that your husband’s company does that.
The girls are just the best. I love Ruth’s energy and Matilda just seems so sweet. They always make me smile. I hope you all enjoyed your getaway.
Thank you Jenn 🙂 We love them so much.
My company’s NYC office used to pull a team together for the J.P. Morgan Corporate race every year (pre-Covid), but I didn’t know that it was global. That’s so cool!
I can’t believe both dogs posed with bunny ears for a photo – so cute!