6 Weeks Until the Barcelona Marathon

Yay, January is finally over! We are in the great, short (though a day longer than normal) month of February. Spring is on its way!

Here’s how training went for the Barcelona marathon, which is in 6 weeks.

(But first, I did post a recap of our trip to Zermatt if you’re interested. Read it HERE.)

Monday: 7 miles before work, easy recovery run.

Tuesday: Run commute with Tina, 4.5 miles, then an office run around the Serpentine in Hyde Park, 4.5 miles. 9 miles on the day.

Wednesday: I had to host a call at 7 am, but after it was done, I was able to step away and fit in my track workout. Warm-up, 6x800m with 1 min jog/walk in between, then 8x400m hard with 45 jog/walk in between, cool-down to 10 miles total. I zipped back home and logged back in.

That evening, I took a Heartcore pilates class at the Hampstead studio.

Thursday: Rest from running, I took a Pilates class at the studio at the end of our road after work.

Friday: 5 miles with Tina and Tilly from the Mornington Chasers, and then another 4 with Ruth to jog to get some bagels, 9 miles on the morning. The bagel shop allows dogs inside and Ruth was a good little girl waiting in line!

Saturday: A LONG long run! 21 mile loop of London, solo. Lots of podcasts. I didn’t mind it. London keeps it interesting! I saw a lot of the city on this run.

Dustin had actually been back in Minneapolis for the past week- he picked a great week to go there as it was 50F/10C! Quite warm for January.

He was working while there, but had time to connect with friends and family. But that did mean I was on my own with dog duty (of course, lots of help from our trusted Rover dog walkers.) Just not quite as much time to fit in strength training around all the dog walks, but I was happy to get in two Pilates classes and daily core work.

His flight landed around 7 am on Saturday morning; he was back at our flat by 8 am, right as I was leaving for my long run.

That afternoon, we watched the Olympic trials in Orlando (on Peacock); so much fun to watch! What a race. Man, it looked hot for a marathon: 70F/21C and full sun with a 10 am start. I would melt! But it was very exciting as Dakotah Lindwurm from Minnesota is going to the Olympics in Paris!

Sunday: I met up with a few friends to jog to Regent’s Park for the Regent’s Park 10k, did the race at a moderately hard pace (8:08 min/mile average- faster than goal marathon pace, but felt controlled) and then jogged home for 11+ miles. I ran to the race with one group (2.2 miles), did the race with them (6.2 miles), and then jogged back with a different group and took a longer route (3 miles), hence the longer route back home. It’s so great to have some running friends in the neighborhood. It has taken some time but I feel like I’m building a community here (of course, I still miss my Minneapolis friends!)

Summary: Almost 70 miles of running- that’s a lot, even for me!

It was my biggest week for Barcelona training, and biggest week in quite some time. This next week, I’m going to pull back a bit on mileage and focus more on quality over quantity. This week was quantity over quality for sure, though I did have the track workout and today’s 10k, but everything else was very easy paced.

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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