I’m heading to London and potentially Ireland, and Germany in mid February (12-24). I’m planning on bringing my running shoes and want to know what kind of training is available. I’ll be staying in Kensington for most of my stay. Are there any good running parks, gyms I can try out to get some time on a stationary bike or time in a pool?
If there is anyone who wants a training partner for a day or two that’d be awesome as well.
Thanks
Dear Formerly “Brian from Wa”
I just wanted to reply briefly in case i forget tomorrow in office!
London is full of great parks, commons and river bank routes. The following link is a guide to some good routes from a running/tri club in cental london, Hyde Park.
http://www.serpentine.org.uk/routes/
from kensington you should be able to drop into many of these routes easily.
For public pools near you, Imperial College is probably your best bet
http://www.ic.ac.uk/sports/centre.htm
Hope you have a good time
Play with this link to see the parks. Shows Ken Gardens and Hyde Park. Go 2 miles North East and you hit Regents Park. Nearby is Primrose Hill (30 sec hill sprints) and a great sunrise view over London.
Kensington’s a great place to be based for running around the parks or down to the river. Buy yourself a mini London A to Z streetmap on arrival and plan your routes from that.
Thanks a ton for all the info. I think I’m going to be able to figure out my swimming and running, but I’d really like to put some time in the saddle if only on a stationary bike at a gym.
Are there places like 24hr fitness where I can sign-up for a week membership or a drop-in membership at something like a local YMCA? I want to try and stay as consistent as possible in my build up for the World’s Toughest 1/2 in April.
Also, does anyone know of any good tri clubs around the Kensington area?
Thanks
If your going tobe there on a Saturday morning meet with the Serpies at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park at 9 or 9:30am. I can’t remember from last year. It’s a great running history tour as well.
Try running in Reagents parks as well but you’ll have to take the tube to get there.
No longer in London; so don’t know about tri-clubs.
This is the best UK site for info on clubs etc.
http://www.triathletes-uk.org/news.shtml
Try the council leisure centres for gyms.
http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/Sport/KensingtonSportsCentre/default.asp
I found this gym on the web which will be near you and has day membership
http://www.clubkensington.com/
I have absolutely no idea what it is like though.
This tri club will be very close to you also - so you might want to contact them:
Simple
The Serpentine site is the certainly the best place for info on running in central london. They do several group runs during the week.
As others have said, they have a tri group as well so check out the info in that part of the site (for example there are current plans to try to organise a short duathlon in Hyde Park on 15th Feb).
Regarding riding - the problem with health clubs is that for insurance purposes they tend not be keen on day members and, in any event, in the post Christmas period they are currently deluged with new joiners and less keen to be flexible. Perhaps ask where you stay for the local leisure centres.
You could consider bike hire - see links on www.lcc.org.uk . I can’t vouch for any of them.
If you get wheels you could head to Richmond Park (about 3/4 miles to the SW of where you will be). The Park is very cycle friendly - few cars, 20 mph speed limit and worth seeing anyway for the wild deer that roam about.
There are group rides in the Park at weekends (see rides on www.cyclefit.co.uk).
Finally come expecting cold and rain - but I guess you knew that already.
http://www.met-office.gov.uk/weather/europe/uk/southeast.html