London Long Run

Am pretty focused on training for the London Marathon. In three months since last post I've gotten used to running around Eastcote (our new neighbourhood), but options are limited. This is especially true because it's been very wet recently so although there are some decent woodsy trail runs around here, everything has been very soggy and muddy. There's a nice public track 1.7 miles away, and I've been using it a lot. But my long runs are up to 18 miles now, and that gets boring on a track. And there are lots of sleepy residential neighbourhoods around here that, while good for shorter runs, get repetitive after a while. So in general have been looking for places to run that aren't boring, especially for Sunday long and semi-long runs.

So my solution has been to start doing Sunday runs in central London. I got an Inov-8 Race Pro 22 backpack to carry my gear (mainly warm clothes to change into).

I used it for my first London long run today and it worked great. I took tube to Baker Street and then ran 18 miles around Regent's Park, King's Cross, Camden Town areas. Took a few photos of interesting sights. Ended up at Euston Tap where I had a pint of Lagunitas Day Time IPA then caught tube back to Eastcote from Euston Square.

I think I'll stick with the plan to do Sunday runs in London. I wasn't blown away by the experience but it was more interesting than greater Ruislip, and with time I'll get better at choosing routes and avoiding very crowded sections. I just bought a book called 'Runner's Guide to London' that arrives tomorrow. Next time I'll probably try running along the Thames.