16 Weeks Until the Dublin Marathon

Hello! I’m here with my weekly recap. There’s 16 weeks until the Dublin Marathon, and only 8 weeks until the “French Wine Marathon” or the Marathon du Medoc.

Here’s how training went this week!

Monday: Rest from running, Kim Runs the Mitten strength training after work (upper body) + core

Tuesday: 7.3 mile run before work, Dustin passed me going the other way outside of Primrose park and snapped this pic.

He’s been dealing with a hamstring injury lately, which is a bummer…I hope he’s healthy enough to run Medoc with me in 8 weeks. A hamstring strain seems to be his recurring injury; I’m hoping he can work with a physio to figure out the underlying reason that this keeps coming back so prevent it from becoming an issue ever again.

Wednesday: JPM race day! I decided to jog 2.3 very easy miles before work to shake things out. Around 5:30 pm, my colleague Tina and I gave our bags of post-race gear to another colleague, and then jogged from the office to Battersea park, where the JPM Corporate 5.6km race would be held. It was about a 3 mile warm-up. The race was meant to start at 6:45, but then it was delayed by almost 25 minutes, while we waited in the corrals. A little frustrating! By the time it finally started, I was very ready to just get going already. I’m not used to running in the evening.

The JPM 5.6km race is a global event- they have races in many cities- New York City, Chicago, Boston, Singapore, Frankfurt, London, and more. The races aren’t all on the same day, but they are all 5.6km, which is sort of a strange distance- 3.55 miles.

The London race event is held over two days, Wednesday July 5 and Thursday July 6. My company opted to race on Wednesday, and we lucked out with the weather; it was a nice 73 degrees and no rain. I don’t actually know why the race was delayed, but it wasn’t the weather!

Even though my corral (the green corral- it went red, green, blue, white) was pretty busy, my first mile was still my fastest, with 7:08, 7:20, 7:28, and 7:22 for the final 0.55, for an official finish time of 25:53 or 7:20 min/mile average. The course was a lot more dirt and grass than I expected as well, with about 40% of it not paved.

I was happy enough with the race, though I would have wanted to be a bit closer to 7 min/mile. Now I have a time to try to beat next year! You’re only competing against yourself, right? Well, that’s mostly true, although there was pressure from my work team to try to be the fastest woman at our firm (globally); I had no chance of being the fastest overall, as there are some very fast young male runners that crushed it, but I did manage- just barely (less than 10 seconds) to take that title from a woman in our NYC office. It’s going to be a race between the two of us next year I’m sure!

After the race, we had a private space at a local pub with food and drinks for all participants. It was a late evening out, particularly since Battersea park is south of the Thames and we live north, (London is very spread out!) But all good fun and I’m glad I participated.

With the morning shake-out, the jog to the start, and the race, I ended up with about 9 miles on the day.

Thursday: I was pretty tired, but I got up and slogged through a 5k easy shakeout to get some movement in the legs. I felt a lot better afterwards. I had a networking event after work, so that was all the activity (other than walking) that I fit in.

My office actually has a little viewing area set up outside to watch Wimbledon. I plan to try to get tickets in the lottery to spectate for real next year, though its not easy!

Friday: Finally a wfh day! I ran 7 miles with Ruth in the morning; it was a bit toastier than it had been and I gave her lots of sniff breaks in the shade.

Friday evening, Dustin and I went to the London zoo; in the summer on Friday nights, it’s adults only with drinks and food trucks from 6-9 pm. It was fun! I’m not a huge fan of the zoo (they usually make me sad) but the London zoo was pretty small and they did seem to focus a lot on conservation. I run by the zoo all the time (that’s where Ruth always sees the giraffes) so it was nice to check it out from the inside this time.

The birthday boy! He was on a “zoo crew” as a kid as his local zoo growing up, and has a soft spot for zoos.

One of the best exhibits at the London zoo, in my opinion, was the tropical birds. It was really neat!

Saturday: Long run day! I had hoped to get in 15 miles, but I ended up with 17.4 miles! I only had 2 gels with me and could have used a third, and I had to stop to buy more water twice as it was quite humid. But I had company for the middle miles with a friend I met through one of the running clubs I’ve joined, and it was a slow but steady long run, great time on my feet for Medoc!

I ran east along the canal to Victoria Park and when passing by Camden Market, the canal was totally drained, with the canal boats just stuck in the mud! I had never seen that before; I think there was a mistake with one of the locks, as by the time I came back through, it was full of flowing water again.

Speaking of Camden Market, I had read that there was a statue of Amy Winehouse there, but had never spotted it. I found it!

Victoria Park- it’s been awhile!

Later on Saturday, Dustin and I went to the Strand for a little pop-up event for Asteroid City, the Wes Anderson film we saw last weekend. The event had lots of costumes and sets from the movie- it was neat! Worth the visit.

That evening, we had a birthday dinner at St. JOHN Smithfield, a “nose-to-tail” British restaurant in east London. Very good, would definitely recommend.

Sunday: Solo 7.5 mile run; Dustin is still nursing the injured hamstring and he took the dogs to the Heath while I ran solo. I’m planning to get in a second session of strength training shortly since I only fit in one day this week!

Summary: 51 miles of running, (hopefully) 2 strength sessions, core

I’ll leave you with a picture of our sweet Matilda living her best life at Hampstead Heath. She loves these long summer nights!

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!