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ING Hartford Marathon Training: 9 Weeks Out

Happy Wednesday! This recap is coming a few days late but sometimes spending an evening on the lake with girlfriends after a particularly stressful day sounds 100x better than blogging. Check out this picture from last night’s Bain des Paquis adventure.

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It was so windy that we never got in the lake. Instead, we hunkered down on our beach towels and sipped wine while talking about our weekend adventures and our work week so far.

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Okay, so, now that we’re here, let’s talk about last week’s training, shall we?

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Monday: I really enjoy kicking the week off with an easy run. This week’s 45 minute easy run gave our legs plenty of time to wake up for the week and the views didn’t hurt either. I really value this Monday morning catch up time with Emily when we laugh about the previous weekend’s events.

Tuesday: We headed down to the lake for this progression run and ended up keeping a 9:43 pace for the 45 minutes! Legs were burning by the end!

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Wednesday: Today’s  speed workout was awesome! The workout was 15 minute warm-up, 10 30 second speed bursts, followed by 30 second off, then 10 minute cool down!  We skipped the cool down (oops) due to time so ended up with a great, sweaty and hilly  33 minute workout!

Thursday: Sweet beautiful rest day including 8 hours of sleep!

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Friday: I enjoyed 16 scenic miles through London! I did the first 6 on my own along The Thames and then Charlie was sweet enough to give me a tour of London’s sights and parks for the next 10! You can read more about 10 mile London run here!

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Saturday: I visited Pure Sports Medicine for an hour sports massage which included analysis and plenty of deep tissue work which left me in more pain than expected. The deep tissue helped with my tightness but as she predicted, I was pretty sore for the next 24 hours. Instead of running or doing a workout, I counted the day’s 3 miles walking through London as my workout along with my daily dose of 5 minute strength workout.

Sunday: Bo and I decided to take a spin class together at Reebok Sports Club in Canary Wharf. I still regret using my visitors pass for this class as it was the worst group fitness experience I have ever had. The workout itself was challenging and left my quads quivering more than I wanted due to the 35 minutes of hill work and 10 minutes of sprint during the 70 minute class. However, the instructor was so rude and degrading towards his students that I will never take his class again. No one should ever call any student who is putting forth the effort to sweat and be healthy fat!

So, this week, I want to know what song keeps you sweating these days! My playlist always loves new songs especially over here in Switzerland where I’m probably a bit out of touch!

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I Feel Home

Tonight I felt like I was at home. An old school favorite song of mine from high school and early college days even sang in my head as I cooked.

Even though our furniture isn’t set to arrive until Friday at 8am, I hosted someone in the flat for the first time tonight! Maybe it’s my Southern roots or just my upbringing but there is nothing I love more than opening my home to friends, whether it’s 1 or 20, and sharing a bottle of wine while enjoying homemade meal and conversation.

I realized this morning that I kept putting off hosting my girlfriends merely because I didn’t feel I could properly host without our furniture, fresh flowers and a spotless home. But, an evening like tonight is far more important than any of that. When I realized that Emily was working late and hadn’t gone to the grocery store due to a weekend trip to Amsterdam I thought it was the perfect opportunity to host and use some of the produce on their last legs. IMG_0929

Within an hour of walking through the door the apartment was cleaner than it’s been in the five weeks I’ve been here and the candles aroma filled the apartment.  It wasn’t a fancy evening but it was one more step in making Geneva feel like home versus an extended work trip.

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We laughed over stories from our respective weekends and sipped a local white chardonnay. Since I was starving I put together a quick cheese plate with a Manchego and Brie cheese bought from the store this evening paired with some crackers and cornichons. Our main course was a dinner salad featuring a bed of baby spinach topped with freshly sliced and salted tomatoes, figs, goat cheese, sautéed mushrooms, and grilled chicken sausage. The chicken sausage was a bit random as I swore it was just chicken when I took it out of the freezer this morning in my pre-run morning stupor, but it did the job.

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Scenic London Long Run

Greetings from rainy London!  IMG_0825 I landed in London City Airport last night around 8:30pm, London time. Thanks to Friday Night Lights season 3 and a cold Heineken, the airport wait and the flight went very smoothly. My office offers a free shuttle service to the airport multiple times an hour which is faster than the TPG bus and a very nice perk. It only took 45 minutes from the minute I left the office until I had cleared security and was sitting in the lounge.  IMG_0824

Unfortunately, I was so excited to see Bo that going to sleep last night was not very easy. I finally fell asleep around midnight only to wake up at 5:15am for my 16 mile long run. By 6am I was out the door and heading towards the Thames River path for 6 solo miles in the cool, damp London morning.

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I worked to keep my pace slower than normal during these first few miles as I know how important this is for long runs and marathon training. I also forced myself to sip water constantly as I’m guilty of not drinking enough, especially during cool weather long runs.

By 7am I was standing in Westminster Tube station waiting for my running date. After years of following her on Twitter, I finally had the pleasure of meeting Charlie this morning for a scenic ten mile run around London. Earlier in the week when I asked my London running bloggers if anyone wanted to join for a long run Friday morning, she responded within minutes! Not only did she volunteer to run 10 miles with me but she also took the time to put together an awesome, scenic route that would give me an opportunity to see new areas of the city!

I am so thankful, especially here in Europe, for my blog and the many amazing people it has helped me meet thus far!

Our ten miles took us by some of the well known London sites with one huge benefit – there were no tourists! Running early allowed us to enjoy the paths to ourselves and catch some things we wouldn’t see otherwise such as a stray fox crossing the path, military men training near the park, perfect views of the palace, and streets that were far easier to cross than normal!  IMG_0829 IMG_0830 IMG_0831 photo12 photo13 photo15

IMG_0838Three parks, two palaces, one river, and 10 miles later we ended back where we began, right in front of the Westminster Tube station, within view of Big Ben!

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Running with Charlie was so much fun as it was our first time running together so the conversation flowed continuously and made the rainy miles pass far faster! My pace hovered around 9:55 during my first 6 and around 10:10 during the ten miles with Charlie, perfectly on target!

I am so thankful for a new friend in London and look forward to many more runs and activities together! It’s fun having an expert recommend her favorite workout classes, running routes, bars, restaurants, and shopping in the city!

Choose your city! If you could run or walk through any city in the world tomorrow which city would you choose? Why? I would love to do an architecture run through Barcelona! I never made it there during my summer studying abroad in Cadiz, Spain and have longed to visit ever since!

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