Weekly Recap: Summer in London

Another week has flown by! I’m here with my weekly recap of life in London and training for the Dublin marathon (and the Marathon du Medoc.)

It was a relatively uneventful week, ahead of my family visiting next week. My oldest sister and her 3 kids/husband arrive on Wednesday and are in London through next Tuesday, staying at a hotel for part of the trip and then with us for 3 nights. They’re in Scotland now; I’m very excited to see them.

Monday: Rest from running, I went to barrecore after work at the Mayfair studio again (vs. the Hampstead studio that is close to our flat.)

Tuesday: 7 recovery miles before work, Kim Runs the Mitten upper body strength session after work

Wednesday: “Track” workout- I ran to the free cinder track outside of Regent’s park, which is about 2.25 miles to get there, plus 6x800m at goal race pace (goal pace for the upcoming JPM 5.6km race!) with a 400m jog in between, then cool-down to get home for 9 miles total. A longer one to squeeze in before work, but that’s why I couldn’t use the Parliament track behind our flat; the cinder track is open early, which works much better, even though its a bit farther to get to. It’s also not exactly 400m, but apparently is 386m around! But I just programmed the 800m repeats into my watch and went by that instead.

Our office is celebrating Pride month with various events, and we are encouraged to wear rainbow to work. I was excited to have brought this skirt from the U.S. that worked perfectly (It’s a super old J.Crew skirt.)

Kim Runs the Mitten full body strength workout after work.

Thursday: 7.6 mile recovery run before work, with some trail in the Heath

Friday: I ran 5.6 miles with Ruth before work and then went into the office for a 1/2 day, as my office had its summer party in the afternoon, which was a lot of fun.

Saturday: I slept in a bit after a full day in the sun at the party the day before- seriously, it’s been sunny and 85 in London! It’s wonderful. Dustin decided to join me for the long run and we did 12.6 miles together with a loop of Hyde/Kensington and Regent’s and back. Hot run, but felt pretty good.

After the run, we exercised the dogs and then made our way our west to Fulham to the Hurlingham Polo club for our first polo match! It was a hot day, but the event was really quite fun. Everyone was dressed up and having a great time. We even went out onto the grass to replace the divots after each match, which honestly I only knew from the movie Pretty Woman, ha!

Another full day in the sun, but it was a blast.

Sunday: Dustin, Ruth, and I ran 5.6 miles before I walked to go get a much-needed haircut; now we’re heading out to do some shopping ahead of our visitors.

Summary: 48 miles of running, 2 strength sessions, daily core

I missed including this in last week’s recap, but on Sunday we went out to Stratford to this large-scale art installation, exploring the use of light and sound as art. It was really cool! Here’s just a quick pic; it’s called “Thin Air,” and was an interesting exhibit; I think it might be a traveling exhibition, so I recommend checking it out if it comes to your city.

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!