Weekly Recap: 7 Weeks Until the Cape Town Marathon

7 weeks until marathon #46! Can’t wait to explore Cape Town- and run 42 km of it!

Here’s how training went this past week:

Monday: U.K. bank holiday, so Dustin, Ruth, and I ran together (about 7 miles) and then I jogged to the track to do some 30 sec strides. 8.8 miles total. Followed the run with a pilates reformer class at Psycle Oxford Circus.

Tuesday: Run commute and office run with my friend Tina, 7.75 miles total.

Wednesday: My sister Erin’s flight from Chicago was meant to arrive at 9 am, but due to some wicked storms in Chicago, she was delayed and didn’t get here until after 12. I was working from home, so no problem that she was delayed; she’s one that likes to take a nap when she arrives post-flight too, so I just kept working from home for the day.

That evening, I did the Tracksmith Twilight 5000- yes, a 5k race on the track. Ugh, what was I thinking? And of course, it was quite a hot day for London (upper 80’s F, nearly 30C.) 12.5 laps is a lot of laps, but it was a fun event and I’m glad I did it.

My sister had planned to run it as well, but with her delay, she wasn’t feeling up for doing a track 5k, which I totally understood! The main reason for her visit was the Big Half marathon, not this 5k.

Thursday: My sister and I ran 6.5 miles together, with my usual route through Regent’s park, lots of stops for pics. I love sharing my London miles with visitors!

I worked a bit in the day, and then early evening, we took a street art tour in Shoreditch, which was really interesting. It was cool to learn about more than just Banksy! (Well, there was a Banksy, of course, the same monkey one I visited with my other sister a few weeks ago.)

That evening, we had dinner at Bob Bob Ricard in SoHo, followed by a cocktail at Cahoots, at old underground station turned into cocktail bar.

Friday: Rest from running; we started the day with a guided tour of Westminster Abbey. I have done the Westminster tour a few times with guests, but not with a guide. It took longer than the audio tour (i.e. 2 hours vs. probably 1 hour with the audio guide) but it was interesting and I learned a few new things.

We wandered around central London for a bit after the tour.

Then we came back to Hampstead to regroup before heading to a Princess Diana photography exhibit at St. Katherine’s Docks (a really cute area of London right by Tower Bridge)

Diana’s 80s style is back! She really was an icon. Neat exhibit.

We followed up the exhibit with dinner at Bancone in Covent Garden, and then went to see Operation Mincemeat, a hilarious musical comedy. I have seen it a few times, but wanted my sister to experience as well. She enjoyed it!

Saturday: Hampstead Heath Parkrun (with a special visitor Cari!) I used this as my shakeout run for the Big Half.

It was Cari’s first Parkrun- and she picked one of the hilliest ones, ha! It was great to see her again, after meeting in person in Tromso at the Midnight Sun Marathon.

We followed up the parkrun with a plunge in the Hampstead mixed ponds. Best recovery post run!

We had tickets to the Highgate Cemetery tour that afternoon, but unfortunately we had to go to packet pickup for the Big Half; my sister had tried to change her registration to our address (our packets were mailed to us ahead of time, as was the case for most runners) but somehow it wasn’t changed in time, so we had to go to the London Marathon headquarters in Southwark and wait in an outrageous queue (nearly 3 hours!) to get her packet. It was a bit ridiculous that the line took so long- seriously, 3 hours!

We missed our tour of Highgate and were on our feet for a lot longer than we had hoped. But…she got her packet.

We finally were back in Hampstead around 3 pm and had a late lunch at Ginger & White before relaxing for a bit .

Sunday: The Big Half! I’ll come back to this post to share a bit about how the race went. Weather is looking lovely.

Summary: Cutback in mileage, just 45 miles planned this week, 1 pilates class. It will be a big week next week to get back to marathon training.

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!