Weekly Recap: Running into June

Running into June! And now I am 21 weeks out from the Dublin marathon…and 13 weeks out from the Marathon du Medoc, a.k.a. “the French wine marathon”!

I’m linking up with Kim and Deb for my weekly recap of fitness and life in London. Check out their posts for more information on this great link-up!

Monday: We were still in Hampshire for the U.K. bank holiday, so I ran 7.4 miles there with Dustin and Ruth (our pup.) While in Hampshire, I used the “find a route” feature on Strava, which was really helpful. There were tons of public routes other users had added from around our hotel, so we could choose one from there based on what distance we wanted.

Ruth’s post-run vibes!

Run- shower- breakfast- one last off-lead play time on the hotel grounds for the pups before we packed up our rental car and headed back to London.

That evening I did complete a Kim Runs the Mitten upper body workout (shoulders/triceps) + core on Peloton.

Tuesday: 7 mile run before work followed by Peloton core. I saw my physio (at Nordic Balance near my office) for some soft tissue work and dry needling to help out the IT band. She gave me a few glute exercises to (try to) do daily.

Wednesday: Rest from running- my leg was a little sore from the physio, so felt great to take the day off. I did do a Kim Runs the Mitten full body workout after work + core on Peloton.

Thursday: 7.4 miles with 20 minutes at tempo; I programmed in 4×5 minutes as it seemed more manageable mentally than 20 minutes straight (even though yes…they are the same thing, ha!) and tried to keep them all as far under 8 min/mile as I could, which was generally 7:35-7:45.

Friday: 5 mile run before work with Ruth and Dustin, followed by a coffee and scone at Gail’s at the end of our road. I had a fair amount of walking throughout the day with dog walks at the Heath and a walk to go see another flat (we’re still exploring whether we want to move or not.) Later that day, I did a Kim Runs the Mitten full body workout + core on Peloton (and my PT exercises of course!)

Saturday: Tracksmith Amateur Mile. Ugh. A mile race is so hard, isn’t it? I was dreading this all week, even though I promised myself I wouldn’t back out. No one would care how I did, so I should just go and do the thing.

The Amateur Mile was held at the Tooting Bec track, with heats starting at 1 pm and getting progressively faster. My heat was at 1:40; Tooting Becs is in South London, but we can take the Northern line train straight there from Hampstead. We arrived around 1 pm with enough time for a few miles to warm-up, bib picket, and then the race.

I had never raced a 1-mile on the track; I have done a handful of road mile races, but never on a track before.

My Garmin said I ran a 6:12 but the official time was in the 6:30’s- bummer. Quite a difference. But it’s good to have a target to try to beat next time.

Yes, that kid in the below picture did indeed beat me! In fact, I got last place in my heat (race #4 of #17.) I should have been in a slower heat….

In total, I ran 4.5 miles. After the run, we explored a bit of Clapham, as we hadn’t really been to that part of London before, strolling through the park with an iced coffee before heading back to the north.

Sunday: I signed up to join the Mornington Chasers for their Sunday long run. The pace group was the 9:45-10 min/mile group, which is a little bit slower than I would normally do my long runs, but I was happy to go that pace. We did 13 miles via “the Woods” route that took us through Hampstead Heath, the Heath extension, Goulders’ Green, Highgate Woods, Queen’s Wood, Cherry Tree Wood, Big Wood, Little Wood, Dollis Broos- ALL the “woods” in north London. The pace ended up more like 10:30-10:45 as it was very hilly and all trail. It was a probably a good change for me though, doing my long run on trail!

Summary: 45 miles of running, 3 strength sessions with Kim Runs the Mitten + attempt at daily core

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!

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