Here is a little map of the run.

This entry is a little tour of London from pictures I took on my long Sunday run. The first stop was Sigmund Freud’s home near Swiss Cottage. He lived here the last year of his life after escaping the Nazi occupation of Vienna. He died one year later of cancer.

The next stop was Primrose Hill on the way down to Regent’s Park.  I stopped to snap a picture of the London Fog from the top of Primrose Hill.

On my way down the hill I ran into my friend Joyce who is training for the London Marathon. We had a chance to catch up while we ran 2 miles on the Regent’s Canal from the London Zoo to Camden Lock.  Below are pictures of the Camden Town Markets and Camden Lock along the canal.

Regent’s Canal has been one of my favourite long run locations. It’s only 2 miles from our flat and it’s a quiet escape from the buzz of the city. Some parts aren’t that scenic, but on a Sunday morning you are guaranteed to find some nice, quiet stretches to run.

The canal was built in the early 19th century as one of the many project put forth by the Prince Regent and his architect, John Nash.

One reason for bringing my phone along (which allowed me to document the run with pictures) was that I have never run past the Islington Tunnel before. Usually when I get to this 1000yd long tunnel I turn around and it makes a nice 10 mile run out and back from our flat.

Today I continued over ground to the other end of the tunnel and hopped back on the tow path.  I continued for 2 more miles, past Victoria Park.  At this point I was very close to the 2012 Olympic Park. That will be topic of my next post.

I hit the 9 mile mark on my run just as I approached the appropriately named Mile End Tube station.  I hopped on the tube for 30 minute ride back home!

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The run from Hampstead is all down hill to Regents Park. I run down Fitzjohn’s street which is a really nice street with 3 story brick homes much like the ones on our street. On the way down Fitzjohn’s you pass by Sigmund Freud’s old house, now a museum. Fitzjohn’s street, like all other streets in has very rough sidewalks made of large stones. They’ve also been patched in a million places, so you always have to watch where you’re running.

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At the bottom of Fitzjohn’s is an area know as Swiss Cottage. I swam a masters workout at this place last week. Only a 1 mile run from our flat.

From Swiss cottage it’s another mile along Avenue Road to Regents Park. Avenue Road is lined with a lot of really nice homes.

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Once at the outskirts of Regents Park, it’s easy to hop on a trail along Regents Canal. It’s kind of fun to run alongside the canal boats. At the end of the trail, just before Little Venice there are a nice set of steps to run up!

The next section was probably the least fun part of the run. A 1 mile section along Edgeware Road to get to Hyde Park. Next time I will try and find an alternate route. Edgeware is just a busy street, with lots of pedestrians and traffic.

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Edgeware Road runs right up to the corner of Hyde Park, at Marble Arch and right near Speaker’s Corner where you are guaranteed to see a few crazies!!

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Speaking of crazies, for all my triathlon friends, I heard about a race called Arch to Arc that starts here at Marble Arch and ends at the Arc de Triomphe. Only 7 people have ever finished the race which consists of an 87 mile run from London to the Dover Coast, swim 22 miles across the English Channel and then 181 mile bike to Paris……sign me up!!!

From Speakers Corner, it was a 1.5 mile run through Hyde Park and then to Buckingham Palace. Hyde Park is the venue for the upcoming 2012 olympics triathlon. 

I didn’t stay long at Buckingham Palace, there was a sign outside saying no formal changing of the guard happening today. I turned around and headed back home the same route.

Now you’d think there would only be a few crazy people out there willing to join you for that kind of “celebration”. Below are 10 people who knew what they were getting into and all seem to be smiling prior to the start.

(left) Eduard, the birthday boy is showing everyone how it’s done. (right) Fred and Staffan make it look easy.

Here is a nice shot from the bleachers of the whole group coming around the track with Fred and Eduard leading the way.  Thanks to Conrad for taking such great pictures. See everyone next year for 43!

I finished my 2008 triathlon season almost as quickly as it started. This was Heather’s year with her first Ironman in June.   My last race was Sentinel, the week after Pacific Grove.  I’ve done Sentinel numerous times. I really like the course and since it’s local there are always a lot of friends racing.  Of course Kevin was there to cheer with Heather and his grandparents.  It was a beautiful day in Santa Cruz and the race went really well. For the second week in a row I felt great running off the bike and I finished 4th in my age group.

After I retired my swimsuit, bike and running shoes, I headed to the east coast for a 5 day trip to the Outer Banks with my high school friends. This was our 4th trip and we hope to continue the tradition. It was really nice of Heather to take care of Kevin and let me get away for a few days. For the most part we just hung out at our huge rental house on the beach. Off season rates started the day we checked in and we really got a deal on the 8 bed/7 bath house for the week.  We did take a quick trip to see Kitty Hawk and tour the museum. I had been there with Heather years ago, but it was still fun to visit again. We also rented ocean kayaks for the week and had fun taking them out from our beach several times a day.

While I was on the east coast playing,  Heather and Kevin took a trip to the Sacramento zoo with the family. Heather said they saw a lot of animals, but for the most part Kevin was too busy playing in the dirt and picking up rocks to notice the animals. The only ones that caught his eye were the bright pink flamingos.

Just two days after returning from the Outer Banks (OBX to the locals) my parents made a trip to California to visit us..mostly just to visit their grandson!   Nanny brought lots of clothes for Kevin. Below are a few pictures of Kevin modeling his new outfits.

Kevin had a great time showing his grandparents around CA. We went to the beach one day and watched Kevin play in the sand. My Dad and I drove up to the top of Mt. Hamilton and toured the Lick Observatory.  Heather, Trilbe, Kevin and my Dad went to the Tech Museum in San Jose and Dave and his parents took a day trip to Yosemite. In between all those activities we found plenty of time to just enjoy hanging out with Kevin.  We got all 4 grandparents together several times and Kevin really enjoyed that.

Fast forward two weeks and I ran the ½ marathon in the Silicon Valley Marathon/Half Marathon. Many friends also ran and Heather’s brother ran the full marathon. Thanks to “Coach Heather,” I was able to do better this year than last. Her sound advice was to keep a consistent pace throughout the whole race.  (Heather’s editorial note: Everyone knows you are supposed to do this. This was nothing new. He has always just started out too fast and tried to hang on.) I actually ran the same pace (6:15/mile) for the first 8 miles and then the group I was running with decided to pick it up to 6 min/mile pace for 2 miles. That kind of hurt me but I hung on to finish right behind 2 of my friends. Below in the center is a picture of all of us at the finish line doing the “finish line dance.” Heather’s brother Kim set a PR for the marathon in 3:21  He looked strong at the ½ way point and still had a smile on his face. The last few miles got tough but he hung in there for a great finishing time!!

The week after the marathon was our 3^rd wedding anniversary.  We decided it would be fun to get away for a night so we booked a hotel in Calistoga, CA.  Heather’s parents were nice to offer to care for Kevin during our trip.  We had a very relaxing time, wine tasting, roaming around downtown Calistoga and St. Helena and going out to a very nice dinner at the Martini House.  The best part was being able to sleep in until 8:30.  Kevin usually makes that impossible.

Now Halloween is here. Kevin had fun making a jack-o-lantern. He also had a great trip to the pumpkin patch with his grandparents while we were in Napa.

This weekend was a big EEW! Epic Exercise Weekend. This was my second weekend of epic exercise. I was too tired to blog about the first one, so I’ve included a summary of both weekends here.

Ironman Coeur d’Alene is 64 days away. My training has been going quite well. Other than some creaky knees now and again, I’ve managed to stay injury free (for which I was rather pessimistic). I’ll just give you some highlights from my first EEW and then tell you about this weekend.

My first EEW was March 21 – 23^rd. On Friday, my parents and brother and his family went to Natural Bridges Beach. They took Kevin with them and I rode my bike, the long way, to meet them that afternoon. I headed north to Portola Valley and went up and over Old La Honda. Then I rode out toward the coast on highway 84 to San Gregorio. That is one of the most beautiful stretches of road. I turned left on highway 1 and rode down the coast. I hit Davenport at mile 70 and was at a real low point. I called Dave to whine a little. But I had perfect weather, a view of the ocean, and was out riding my bike on a Friday. Dave was in his cubicle, staring at his computer. He wasn’t terribly sympathetic. J I turned left on Bonny Doon Rd and rode some steep sections on Smith and Empire Grades. I saw a few signs like this one:

Finally, I got to go downhill and meet my family at the beach. It was a total of 85 miles with over 6000 feet of climbing. I was pleased with how good I felt at the end.

The next day, Saturday, Laura and my brother and I went for a 65 mile ride in the east bay. We did a bit of climbing and rode by Calaveras Reservoir – another very beautiful stretch of California road. We got lost for a while in Milpitas and added an unnecessary 6 miles onto our route, including a lot of crappy roads and city traffic.

Finally, I ended my epic weekend on Easter Sunday with a 10 mile run. The tiredness really set in about halfway through and it was everything I could do to keep from walking. I averaged a 9:00/mile pace, but was going pretty slow by the end.

A nice easy swim on Monday was about all I could muster.

My second EEW was this weekend. My brother and I did the Tierra Bella Century ride, starting at Gavilan College in Gilroy. It was unbelievably cold at the start, with pretty brisk winds. It was hard to get motivated, since riding the bike only causes more cold winds in your face!

We rode north past the Uvas and Calero Reservoirs. Then we headed east. Around mile 40, we started up a 10 mile climb to Henry Coe State Park. There were some tough, steep sections and the climb seemed to last forever. But for the first time on the ride, I was finally warm enough to take off my jacket! We turned around at the top and came back down and headed south, then east again to the Gilroy Hot Springs. I started whining at mile 70, but then got a second wind 10 miles later. My brother was waning around mile 76. But we saw lots of different people all day, and it was fun to ride alongside for a bit to catch up, hear stories, and get motivated again. The bike lanes were lacking for most of the ride, so we rode single file almost 100% of the time. There were even police cars requesting that riders go single file – the safest option anyway. Other than the 10 mile climb, the ride was pretty flat. Florida flat. Long, straight stretches where you could hunker down in the aerobars and just go like a hamster.

After the ride was over, we switched to our running shoes and caps and went for a 15 minute jog/run. The first 5 minutes felt awful, but after that, our legs forgot that we had been biking for the last 6.5 hours and it felt easier.

The support for this ride was fantastic. They had over 200 volunteers directing traffic, parking, and helping out at aid stations. The aid stations had plenty of food, with quite a variety – hot soup, salted red potatoes, pretzels, fruit, and all the common sugary stuff like cookies, brownies, etc. At the finish line, several Mexican food buffets served enchiladas, rice, beans, and salad. I was “practicing” my Ironman nutrition – seeing if I could drink 350 calories per hour, so I skipped most of the rest stop food. My brother said his PB&J sandwich tasted really good!

After a very, very long day, I got home and made two egg casseroles in preparation for our second annual Great Race brunch. The final stage of my 2^nd EEW was a 12 mile run (on Sunday). Seven of us met at our house at 8am and ran to downtown Saratoga for the start of the Great Race run. The race was 4 miles one direction to downtown Los Gatos. At the finish line, I turned around and ran 6 miles home. Stephanie joined me and we gossiped all the way home – which turned out to be mostly uphill!

John was the top finisher of our group with 9^th place overall (out of 1454). Fred got 10^th. Eduard was the first finisher of our “Dads on Parade” (the fathers running with baby joggers) with a 5:55/mile (!!) and ended 26^th overall. Derek, another baby jogger pusher, is “featured” in the Los Gatos online paper for his 45^th place finish. Dave finished 56th, giving Kevin his first blue finisher’s ribbon. Stephanie ran sub-8 minute miles, and I was happy with my sub-9:00/mile pace (which I held for all 12 miles).

We had 20+ people for brunch after. Our newly landscaped backyard was perfect for the party – lots of patio space, BBQ counter space, and hot tub space! Everyone rehashed the day, ate lots of food, and was entertained by all the kids. We are lucky to have such great friends with which to spend time!