Weekly Recap: Four Weeks Until the Cape Town Marathon

(Look at that happy senior beauty in the above pic! Matilda is still doing great and enjoying her daily walkies in the Heath, bouncing around like a puppy some days!)

I’m here as usual with my weekly recap of training for the Cape Town marathon and life in London as an American!

Monday: 7 sore recovery miles- that 90 minute strength for running session that I did the day before (combined with the travel/jet lag perhaps) left me quite sore! But I shuffled through it. After work, I did an upper body Caroline Girvan workout.

Tuesday: Big workout Tuesday! Warm-up, 4×2 miles at GMP with ½ mile jog in between, cool-down for 13.1 miles total. Whew! Fortunately I was working from home and had a bit more flexibility, but starting Oct 1, that will all go away, as we are now required to be in the office Mon-Thurs, with no flex. I generally was going in already Mon-Thurs, but I did value the flexibility when needed. At least we still have Fridays…

After work, I went to a barre class at Barrecore up the road. It was a burner.

Wednesday: Run commute, 4.5 miles, then 3 miles with my friend Nicole, catching up on the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. I’m hooked! It’s trash TV, but she is also watching, so nice to have a friend to discuss it with.

After work, I took a pilates reformer class at Heartcore. It had been awhile; it felt hard!

Thursday: Rest from running, pilates reformer at Heartcore after work.

I mailed my ballot back on Thursday! I heard that only 3% of Americans living abroad vote; I am definitely part of that 3% and this childless dog lady is proud to cast my vote for Harris and my hometown governor Walz.

Friday: Another big workout, this time warm-up, 3 miles at GMP, jog ½ mile, 2 miles at GMP, jog ½ mile, 3 miles at GMP, for 13 miles again on a workday (though fortunately a wfh day.)

Saturday: My coach wanted me to do my long run Sunday, to give my body a recovery between Friday’s 13 mile session and the long run, but the weather looked very stormy for Sunday. He agreed that I could do it Saturday, but he cut it down from 20 miles to 16 miles. And I was able to join the WMN Run group for their monthly long run. I ran the 6 miles to their meeting spot at London Bridge, and then we ran along the Thames to St. James and Green Parks then Hyde Park and back, for 16 miles total for me.

I was definitely tired from the two big workouts earlier in the week and was happy to only have 16 miles instead of 20 (I’ll still have time for a 20 miler before Cape Town.) It was a small group of friendly ladies for the run, I really enjoyed it!

Sunday: Muddy trail run in the Heath with Ruth, 6 miles.

Summary: 1 barre, 2 pilates, 63 miles of running!

And time for a little cutback week this week before one final push and then the taper. The cutback this week is because we’re heading to Oktoberfest in Munich (Germany) on Thursday! It’s a “bucket list” item for us while living in Europe; we are heading there with a group (6 of us on Friday, 8-10 of us on Saturday. A few members of the group are German- not that you need to be able to speak German at Oktoberfest, but it will be nice to have some German speakers along.) And yes, I have a dirndl (or two) to wear. Stay tuned to Instagram for lots of pictures, I’m sure!

That’s a wrap on this week. Best of luck to everyone running the Berlin marathon next weekend!

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!