Feels Like Spring

 After a solid week of double digit temperatures, I think it's safe to say that spring has finally arrived, and not a moment too soon! Although it may be tempting fate, I put away all of our heavy winter things, and I spent all day yesterday doing some heavy duty spring cleaning.

Now that the flat is nice and tidy, I rewarded myself with a nice walk through Regent's Park. If I had any doubts that spring had arrived, those doubts were put to rest when I saw the transformation that had taken place in the park just in the last week. Although the daffodils are starting to fade, the park's gardeners had replanted all of the flowers in the avenues, and the splash of color was beautiful.

The warmth of the sun on our backs made it warm enough for us to shrug off our jackets and continue our walk in just our short-sleeve shirts for the first time in months and months. It was glorious!

In fact, our walk felt so lovely that J and I decided to head back home to change into our running clothes, and we headed out again for a quick run through the park. We're both a bit out of shape after our recent stint of working long hours, but it still felt wonderful even though it took us a while to catch our breath. It looks like we just made it back to our flat in time since the lovely weather has transformed into a sky filled with threatening clouds hinting at rain. Typical.

A Hint of Spring

You could have knocked me over with a feather when the sun peeked out this morning and actually decided to stick around for the rest of the day! I've been feeling a bit lethargic and unmotivated to do anything lately, but once I got a good dose of Vitamin D streaming through my window, I decided to get up and out to run all of my errands I've been putting off for a while.

It seemed like the entire city was out to enjoy the sunshine, and the restaurants had their outdoor seating out in case anyone wanted to do a little basking in the sun. It was still cold as ever, so I beat it home after visiting the library, news agent, health food store and grocery. After a quick lunch at home, I couldn't resist making another foray outdoors to enjoy the sunshine. I wandered over to Regent's Park to see whether any of the flowers had bloomed, and bloomed they did! Lots of people (for a weekday) were wandering about enjoying the day.

Walking to Primrose Hill

The weather has been downright depressing lately, and I've actually been getting enraged at how cold and gray it's been. When I spied a ray of sun peeking through the clouds today, I shrugged it off in the likelihood that the clouds would gather and chase it away. Imagine my surprise when that little weak ray of sun was joined by more of its kind to form actual and substantial sunlight! For London, anyway. =)

J and I were supposed to go for a run today, but I decided it would be nicer to take a walk and savor the first sunny day in quite some time and savor we did - for four hours! We strolled through Regent's Park and Primrose Hill and ended the day with hot soup at the Garden Cafe.

By the way, if you ever want to feed a wild animal, go to Regent's Park - the squirrels and birds come straight up to you to see if you have anything good to eat. On a related note, don't go there if you're scared of squirrels or birds.







Regent's Park has a huge lake, which equals lots of birds and bird poo. Interesting bit of trivia: Did you know that Her Majesty owns all the swans and will go all medieval on your ass if you try to roast one in your oven?







I originally wanted to walk along the canal, but it looked a bit cold for that so I contented myself with watching a houseboat float on by.





Then we traipsed up to Primrose Hill, which is just north of our neighborhood. It's where all the British celebrities like Jamie Oliver and Paul McCartney live in bright pastel colored houses. You can also catch an amazing view of London from the top of the hill if you don't mind the uphill climb. The high street wasn't that great, but it was quiet and free of tourists.







Something interesting must have been going on in that basement...


You can see interesting bits of street art all through London...

No Run Today, and Here's Why...

I actually was thinking about going for a run today despite the fact that it was flurrying all night, but J decided on a snow day and decided to not go into the office. So instead of running, I convinced him to go on a walk through the park with me, and I became very glad that I decided not to go running today.

The pond froze over!

Look what happened to my running route!

I'm guessing the water fountain's in the same state.

More pictures from my film camera...

 

A Wet and Wild Run

After months of relaxing at home and eating Cadbury chocolates and generally just getting fat, I've finally gotten my lardass in gear and went for a run in Regent Park yesterday. Let's just say, it's been a while, and I think J might still be a wee bit mad at me for picking one of the windiest, rainiest day we've had in a while to start my outdoor running regime.

My friend Caleb and I would run outdoors when I was in Ann Arbor and I loved it, but we switched over to the gym after a few months due to cold weather and shin splints. Although swimming laps in the pool was alright, I didn't really enjoy the constant smell of chlorine in my hair and splitting lanes with random middle-aged thrashers. As soon as the weather warmed up, we were back outside running again, and I joined a very posh gym once I moved back to California (word on the street was that Kobe worked out there).

I've been making excuses to not run outside up until now - it's rainy, it's windy, it's cold - you get the picture. Joining a gym seemed stupid since the nearest gym is farther away than the park, and I'd feel silly paying exorbitant monthly fees to run on a treadmill when I can run outside. So running outside seemed like the logical solution but it's been a while since I've run outdoors and never in weather this cold.

Instead of continuing to make weather excuses, I decided to man up and went to the Nike store on Oxford Street to pick up some cold weather gear.  I ended up picking up a water resistant jacket, some gloves, and a headband that covers my ears. I looked like some sort of reflective Nike billboard, but at least I was warmish.

As for the run, it was pretty miserable weather-wise with rain blowing into our faces and having to watch out for slippery leaves and mud patches, but other than that, it felt great. I forgot how good it feels to just flat out run. I won't lie, sometimes it was hard to catch my breath, but I kind of expected it after a three month hiatus from running. Anyway, we ended up running a little further than we expected, a little over 3 miles, and both of us were a bit sore this morning. Regardless, I'm headed out again today with reflective clothes and all. The worst part is actually leaving the flat and facing the cold weather kitted out in lightweight running gear, but once I'm warmed up, I feel like flying.

Scenes from Regent Park

It's took me a while to get the pictures developed, but I took out my trusty Nikon film camera out to Regent Park a few weeks ago. We live right by the park, and I keep meaning to go for a jog there, but the awfully cold weather is keeping me in. I know, excuses excuses...

 

There's also a beautiful rose garden in the Inner Circle, and there are at least fifty different varieties of roses. I guess where there are roses, there must be brides because there's been a wedding party taking pictures there every single time I've visited. I even once witnessed a bridal showdown where both of the brides wanted to do a photoshoot by the statue of some merman and his dolphins. Lesson learned: Don't piss off a chick in a tiara.