My first work week (and many more) in UK

I started working on Tuesday, October 1. I used some vacation days before I started because once I started working, I knew it was going to be hard to leave the office. I woke up quite early. I think I set up my alarm clock around 4 AM. I had a little fear that I would accidentally slept in on my first day of work. I walked Chloe to Regents park. It was so weird to be there pitch black. I had to be very careful crossing the street, not because of the cars but the cyclists. Their little lights were blinking from a short distance and they zipped past me. It was crazy to think they still rode in groups in the dark. They had some light but it was still dark. After that, I took a shower, ate breakfast and headed to the tube station. There are two tube lines that run to Waterloo tube station, where I had to switch to Waterloo train station to take the train to Woking: Jubilee  (grey) and Bakerloo (brown). My temporary flat is within 5 minutes of walking distance to Baker Street station. The first day I took Bakerloo line, soon I realized that Bakerloo has 2 more stops than Jubilee prior to Waterloo. Mental note: take Jubilee, not Bakerloo. The tube ride itself is around 8-10 minutes. In the morning, the tube runs every two minutes. Since I got there around 7AM, the stations are not crazy busy. 

The purple line is the route from Baker Street to Waterloo. You see where Regents Park is on the map. 

This is Waterloo, huge station. As I approach the station coming from Woking, I can see London Eye.

Once I got to the Waterloo. I took two lifts to the train station level. Yes I said I lifts, not elevators. If you stand, you stand on the right. If you walk, you walk on the left. I walk, it's like stair masters. I struggle finding time to work out, so I take every opportunity to pump my heart rate higher. Once you get up to the train station, you see a giant board above you. I think Bakerloo has 18 lines, so it's like at the airport, you find what train line is your destination. 

Like this. Okay since I leave early, it's not this crowded.

It's more like this. 

The first day I took the train, I didn't pick the express train to Woking. Mental note #2: memorize the Express train leave times. The train ended stopping at several other stations. The fastest train is around 25 minutes. I bought a season pass ticket. You can choose 1 month, 3 or 12. I bought one month. The  daily rate ends up to be the same anyway for all season passes. 

The left is the season pass. The blue is the tube card, Oyster card. You can load up and it deducts the tube fee every time you go in and out of tube stations. 

The train ride is nice, smooth, not busy at all. I always get a seat, quite the opposite from tubes. Many people work in London and live outside of London. I'm going the opposite direction. Once I arrive at Woking station, it's 5 minute walk to the office. Total commute time is 45-50 minutes one way. It's long but it's much nicer than sit in Atlanta traffic even in lesser time. I pass a couple of coffee shops and cafés so if I ever forget breakfast or lunch, I can always grab something on the way. 

I'm not going to bore you with work details but just like anything, the first few days or weeks on the job are a lot to take in. I got home tired, my mind is exhausted from thinking. I slept well every night but I struggle to fit in work out in after work, commute and walking Chloe. I cook and bring lunch to work every day. I eat lunch at my desk, so I pretty much work all time from the I get in until I leave. I still have some responsibilities from my US job, so I use lunch time to catch up on that. 

When I move to my permanent flat in a few weeks, I will join a gym, not sure which one but I will find out. I don't miss training and racing, even after I read race reports, but I miss doing hard cardio. A few times I run and jog with Chloe, she's quite good. She runs straight most of the time. 

The last two days I ate bad, not bad food but just couldn't stop eating after I get home from work. I need to stop this, not sure why I'm doing it. Lack of workout plus eat a lot equal to gaining weight. I can't afford this because I can't buy a whole new wardrobe, everything is pricey here, and I feel blah. Talking about food, my big boss came last Friday to Woking. He was touring Europe for some meetings. A few of us went to dinner at Strada, an Italian restaurant by Tower Bridge. This is the view from our table.

A ship was passing. The bridge was up.