This is my last week of base building before I start “officially” training for the 2020 Tokyo Marathon! And I’m on a vacation within my vacation! An Inception vacation!
I don’t have high hopes for my running this week in terms of mileage, but I do plan to get out a few times to enjoy the scenery.
Monday, October 21
I woke up to rain and decided to have a chill morning. I checked out of my Airbnb and into the hotel where I’ll spend the next three days. Next up, food! I hadn’t had fries yet on this trip, so I immediately rectified this:
So good!
I then hung around the hotel, waiting for Camille to arrive. If I was going to run today, it should have been during this time…
After Camille arrived, we walked around, got pancakes, walked around more, got dessert (I had churros), and then went to The Flying Dutchman, a very cool bar. It was 8:30pm and the jet lag started hitting Camille, so we then went back to the hotel and called it a day.
tuesday, october 22
After plenty of sleep, we went for a run in Vondelpark! Camille is completing a 10K training plan for Sunday’s race, and today called for a 5 minute warm up, 50 minutes of running, and a 5 minute cool down. We completed a total of 5.4 miles, and it went great!
Afterwards, we went to Albert Cuypmarket for food, then went to get amazing cookies from Van Stapele Koekmakerij. Expensive, but so good!
The line was long, so we ended up running to make our canal tour. The tour was amazing, and we had so much fun riding around and relaxing. In the evening, we went to Foodhallen, an indoor food court. I had a bahn mi and this amazing gin and tonic:
Camille then went swing dancing. I have two left feet, so I went back to the hotel and relaxed (and called Lior and worked on this post). We then went to Melkweg later in the evening, for Techno Tuesday. It was better than I expected, but to be fair the only reasons I agreed to go were that there was no cover charge and the club was only a few minutes walk from the hotel. I stayed out until 12:30am, which for me is practically unheard of.
wednesday, october 23
Camille and I were both dragging our heels, but went out for a run, doing a 4 minute warm up, running for 30 minutes, and a 4 minute cool down. It was 3.3 miles in total.
We then showered and went for food. The open-faced sandwich was decent, but the lemon pie was the true star:
We then went to the Rijksmuseum, which was fantastic. We spent about an hour and a half in the museum before hitting the wall.
Rembrandt’s Night Watch is currently being analyzed so that it can be restored.
My favorite was this painting of asparagus
Afterwards, we returned to Albert Cuypmarket, I ate herring, and we both ate waffles. We then returned to the hotel to relax for a bit (Camille had to work. I took a nap.) We then went to van Kerkwijk for dinner, at the recommendation of our bout tour guide from yesterday. The food was good, the service was ambivalent at best (which was the case for every place we went except for Flying Dutchman), and it was a nice end to our time in Amsterdam.
Thursday, october 24
After checking out of our hotel, we went to breakfast and then boarded our train to Paris! Once we arrived we walked around a bit, but mostly just ate lots of sweets. I then felt sick but accompanied Camille to a swing dancing event. It was lame so we didn’t stay too long.
A pretty storefront I saw
Rose macaron!
friday, october 25
Today we woke up and went running! This was helped by the fact that this hotel has a small electric kettle in the room. We ran 5.1 miles along the Seine, it was very beautiful!
After, we went on a walking tour, where we (well, I) learned about many of the sites we ran past. After a food break we went to Musée d’Orsay and saw a lot of beautiful Impressionist art.
Also the inside of this clock face, which I thought was cool
We then walked through Jardin des Tuileries and walked along Champs-Elysées to the Arc de triomphe.
We then went to dinner, which was very heavy and stereotypically French…and delicious!
saturday, october 26
We woke up, got food, and went to Jardin du Luxembourg, before going to pick up our race bibs for tomorrow! We then went to Sacré-Cœur, where the view was pretty but it was so crowded.
We then had a crepes break. I got one so chestnut cream. Our tour guide yesterday mentioned this, and it’s so tasty!
Crepe with chestnut cream and a mountain of whipped cream!
Camille and I then parted ways for a few hours. She went swing dancing and I returned to the hotel to go for a run. I ran 6 miles to/from the Eiffel Tower!
Later, we went to a nearby bar/jazz club with a friend of Camille’s, to watch a friend’s jazz set. It was fun, but I went to bed way later than planned.
sunday, october 27
We got an extra hour of sleep, thanks to daylight savings! We then ran the La Voie Royale 10K! Click the link for the race recap!
After the race Camille was feeling a bit under the weather, so after I ate a crepe filled with chestnut cream AND a sandwich (I didn’t eat much before the race and it was already 1pm when I went to get food), I went to see the Catacombs! It was a very cool and interesting experience.
Camille was feeling better, so we went to get macarons and then hung out in the hotel for a bit, before going to dinner.
Total distance: 26.2 miles
I managed to combine running and travel relatively well! I’m excited for next week and beginning to do more speed work as I “officially” begin marathon training!