Weekly Recap: 5 Weeks Until the Barcelona Marathon

I hope you are all having a fab February so far!

Just 5 weeks until my next marathon, the Barcelona Marathon on March 10th! I’m excited to go to Barcelona for many reasons, one of which is that my niece is studying abroad there, so I’ll be seeing her, which is grand. Dustin is not racing Barcelona. Instead he is running the London marathon in April (he has a good-for-age time as a resident,) so he and my niece plan to be out on the course in multiple places cheering for me, which will be brilliant!

Here’s how training went this past week!

Monday: Rest from running; it was a very big mileage week for me the week before (nearly 70 miles) so I was in need of a rest day. I did an easy pilates class at Ten Health by my office, but kept things low-key.

Tuesday: 7 miles with Ruth before work. It was one of those runs where I felt like I spent a lot of effort keeping her away from rubbish and goose poop…what a rascal.

But she’s cute…

After work, I did an upper body Caroline Girvan strength class on YouTube and some core.

Wednesday: Run commute, 4.5 miles, and then 4.5 miles with the office group. Core and stretching after work.

Thursday: It was pouring and 40F/4C; not a fun morning for a run, but I got myself out the door and managed 5 slow cold wet miles. I was drenched.

It wasn’t all rain this week, I did catch this lovely sunset from the little deck outside of our bedroom.

Friday: Finally a wfh day! I ran 7 miles with some tempo and then ended at the track for 1 mile and an 800m, plus cooldown to 10 miles.

Ducks on the track were my cheering squad!

Saturday: A woman in the Mornington Chasers organized a long run that started with the Finsbury Park parkrun; I skipped the parkrun, but ran to Finsbury Park (about 3.5 miles from our flat) and then joined the group for the rest of long run. It was a group of “strangers,” all people I hadn’t met before, who can be a little intimidating, but I knew that they would be running between 8:45-9:00 min/miles, so I figured I would be okay.

We did a route by the River Lea along the canal; somehow we ended up east of Olympic Park and then to Victoria Park. It was a new-to-me route that linked up some neighborhoods I had never been to, including Stamford Hill, which is home to the largest Hasidic Jewish population in all of Europe. It was neat to see so many people walking around in their beautiful Shtreimel hats on a Saturday!

Anyways, the run itself was grand- new friends, new route, 19 miles done.

I took a nice nap afterwards, and then that evening, Dustin and I went to see Sarah Snook (from the show Succession) in a one-woman play based on the Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

It was…wild, really, as Sarah played 26 different characters! Really well done.

We also ventured into Chinatown beforehand to eat at Speedboat Bar (which is Thai, not Chinese) and WOW, it was a crowded party scene in Chinatown for the Chinese New Year!

Sunday: Dustin, Ruth, and I ran 7 miles early in the morning. It started to rain a bit towards the end of the run, and we witnessed a cyclist slip out on the road (the road gets really slippery in the rain!) and take a terrible crash. Several people came to his rescue and called 999. It was close to the Royal Free Hospital, so hopefully he was taken care of quickly. I remember my orthopedic surgeon from when I broke my leg running in 2018 said the worst injuries he sees are from cycling.

Summary: 57 miles of running, 1 pilates reformer class, 1 other strength session, daily core and stretching. Not as big of a week in mileage and not as many pilates classes, but I feel good about the runs that occurred; it also happened to be a wacky week at work with some changes there to process. Running helped, but it was a little different of a week than expected.

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!