As my blog name suggests, I love to travel! This week, I was fortunate enough to tag along with my husband on a work trip across the pond to London, my favourite city in the world! Between the history, visiting with friends and enjoying a new place to run, I can’t tell you what I enjoyed the most! I do know that the cooler temps were a welcome relief from the same old at home, and we had the most gorgeous weather all week long (mid-60’s as daytime high, sunny, not a drop of rain!).

Sunday: Travel day. I walked some once we arrived to London, but really, there’s not much running that will happen when you don’t sleep on an overnight flight.

Monday: 5.4 mi. I ran east from London Bridge and enjoyed a nice outing around Butler Wharf heading out to Canary Wharf. My Garmin acted up on me for the first mile, registering a really random start location, and therefore said I ran my first mile in 6 min, which is a ridiculous thought (I think I can get it down to 7 min for one mile, but that would be about it!). So in the end, I am guessing I ran 5.4 mi. It may be a little more, may be a little less. But it was nice to enjoy views of the Thames as I went along. I also ended up walking a further 12 mi this day, which is probably not the best idea to give me the rest I need for my 20 miler later in the week.

Tuesday: 5.0 mi. My 5 mi today took me along Regents Canal from Angel Station (Islington) to Little Venice. I’ve walked a part of the canal before, but this was an even nicer outing. Some leaves turning colours, other runners & cyclists enjoying the day, too, and just a sense of relaxation. I did get ‘misplaced’ a couple times when I had to leave the tow path and navigate city streets for a few blocks before hopping back onto the tow path, and I spent a few minutes here and there trying to figure out how to get back to the canal, so my time does not reflect those delays. Add on another 9 miles of walking…

Wednesday: Rest day, unplanned. I woke up exhausted, probably from not being able to fall asleep until 4am the previous night. Listening to my body, I decided to sleep in and skip the run. Which meant that the 10 miles of walking this day would have to do for my workout.

Thursday: Rest day, planned. But yes, still walking. In fact, today was 12 miles of total walking. So much for rest days! But the walking was gorgeous – time spent with a dear friend I know from Cayman (who now lives in the UK) in Hampstead Heath. We could see a crystal clear London sky line from Parliament Hill.

Friday: 20 miles. Done! I’m officially in the club!! Since this was my last long run before the marathon (well, last LONG long run), it was so nice to have a new route and cool temps to get this run in the books. I started out from the hotel, running to Tower Bridge, past the Tower of London, down to Westminster for a quick selfie at Big Ben, then I headed back across the river to the south bank. I continued on towards Battersea and through Battersea Park, back across the Thames on the Albert Bridge and headed to Westminster again. Once there, I dodged the hordes of tourists, making my way to Buckingham Palace through St. James Park, on to Green Park, through Hyde Park all the way to Kensington Palace, where I turned around and headed back to Buckingham Palace, where my husband met me to run the last 4.5 miles. At this point, my back was pretty sore and I needed some water (which he brought). My time for these last few miles was pretty slow (I maintained a nice 9:15-9:30 pace for the first 14 miles or so), some of which was due to being tired and a bit of it was also due to the even larger hordes of tourists and locals who were out on their lunch hour. It was frustrating to say the least! But that’s part of it. My back was super sore at the end, and I think that will be the obstacle I have to overcome at the marathon. Yes, I’m sore but I don’t feel nearly as bad overall as I usually do in the Cayman heat. The cooler weather has certainly helped to make it a more enjoyable 20 miles for sure!

On top of the running, I also walked about another 8 miles, which probably helped my legs recover a bit. This was a true marathon day. Stairs were a bit hard. And there were oh, so many of them!

Saturday: Cross training of … MORE WALKING! A nice ‘easy’ 9.25 miles today as we trekked to a few markets for breakfast and sightseeing, Leicester Square for a show (Book of Mormon) then into Bermondsey for dinner.

Total running miles: 30.4 miles

Total walking miles: my best estimate is about 60 miles. Holy moly.

With this week, I am now only 21 days from the Marine Corps Marathon. LET THE TAPER BEGIN!