Weekly Recap: Summer Kickoff

Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning of summer, right? Luckily, the U.K. has a holiday this Monday as well, so it felt very similar to living in the U.S.!

Here’s my weekly recap of life and fitness in London:

Monday: Rest from running; since I ran the Hackney Half on Sunday, I gave my body a rest from running. Instead, I fit in a barrecore class AFTER work, at the Mayfair studio by my office. Barrecore is a “chain” like Pure Barre in the U.S. It was the first time I’ve had a male barre instructor – and he was great! Way more flexible than me, ha!

Tuesday: 7 easy miles before work.

Dustin zipped past me in Regent’s Park and I snapped this photo of him!

In strength training news, I decided to try out Kim Runs the Mitten’s strength program. It’s $20/month and is catered specifically to runners. My first workout was glutes/hamstrings + core on Peloton.

Wednesday: I had early meetings, which is rare, so I worked from home and then snuck out for a mid-morning run with the hopes that I could do a track workout; of course, I arrived there warmed up and discovered it was closed for a private event. Argh! So I just ran an easy 7 instead. After work, I did a second Kim Runs the Mitten workout, which was upper body focused, plus core on Peloton.

Thursday: Second try on that track workout but I broke the rules and snuck onto the track before it officially opened at 7:30. To be fair, there were a handful of other runners on it as well. But we all got yelled at when the person came to open it up; he arrived at 7 and I did ask him if he normally arrives at 7 and he reiterated that the track opens at 7:30…even 7 would be a little better for me, as I could get there right at 7 fully warmed up, do a workout, and be showered and out the door by 8:15, which is the normal time I leave for work…that might be my plan next week.

Anyways, I did 8x600m repeats. 600m felt much harder than 400m the week before! 7 miles total.

This fox was lurking outside the track gate the whole time, keeping an eye on things….

That evening, I joined my theater loving colleagues at Operation Mincemeat at the Fortune Theater in Covent Garden. Have you heard of it? It is so fun and silly, but actually based on a true story about a British plan to trick the Nazis during WWII by planting a fake invasion plan on a dead body. Odd premise, but I swear it was good!

It was a late evening, as the play didn’t start until 8 pm and was close to 3 hours long, plus getting home on the tube.. I knew I wouldn’t be getting enough rest before my Friday morning running plans and that 5:30 alarm came much too early the next day!

Friday: But the alarm was worth it!

My friend Julie that I met on our Antarctica trip was visiting Europe from New Zealand with her family; I met her and her lovely sister at Hyde Park for a 10k run together. Really fun! I’m enjoying this running tour thing 🙂 I took the tube to meet them, ran 10k with them, then ran home for 10.7 miles total.

Long run- done!

After work, we “hired” (rented) a car and drove to Hampshire, about 90 minutes outside of London, to a beautiful hotel in the countryside. Best part? The hotel was dog-friendly with acres of land for the pups to run off-lead.

It was also Ruth’s 4th birthday, so she was very spoiled in her celebration with 3 nights in a gorgeous hotel in the countryside!

We arrived in time for dinner on Friday at the hotel before taking the girls for a long walk on the hotel grounds.

Saturday: Dustin, Ruth, and I ran 4.6 miles along the Basingstoke canal. It was similar to the Cotswolds area of England, with a dirt footpath through cattle pastures and then a trail along the canal.

Absolutely lovely morning run! The weather could not have been better.

After the run, we enjoyed the breakfast at the hotel and then took the dogs for another long walk.

Next we took the car into the town of Winchester, which had a charming high street, a beautiful cathedral, AND an old medieval castle called the Wolvesey Castle.

After exploring, we grabbed sandwiches from M&S and had a little picnic in Winchester park. Perfect May Saturday.

Ruth definitely enjoyed her birthday party in Hampshire…

Sunday: Another run along the Basingstoke canal, this time 5.5 miles. I’m not sure what all we’re going to do today, but I’m sure it will be some of exploring and dog walking. We head back to London tomorrow.

Summary: About 42 miles of running, 2 strength sessions from Kim Runs the Mitten, & an attempt at daily core on Peloton.

Happy Memorial Day to my American friends and family, and cheers to the beginning of summer!

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!