Boston, Montreal and Burlington

It has been a few days since I have written in here. I have lots of updating to do! Over this past weekend I went to Montreal with Fred and some friends of ours. I have actually never been to Canada. Before heading up there, Fred and I decided to get our weekend long run in on Thursday night. My right leg had been bothering me a bit from all of the hill work I had been doing, so we did a 14.2 mile run along the river at 6:15pm. We then joined the Crossroads group who were all back from the Woodland run for beers.


I chose not to swim on Thursday morning because I figured it would make the long run too painful. So, instead, I swam on Friday morning at 7am. It was a hard workout, but nice to be in the water. Then Friday night I logged an 8.2 mile run in Brookline on the hills. My shin and my hamstring seem to be feeling better! I used my Garmin for this run and was pleasantly surprised to see that I was able to do negative splits for the run when I wasn't even thinking about it.

This past week I dropped down from two weeks in a row of 51 miles to a 38 mile week. I figured my legs could use the rest. There was no running for me on Saturday or Sunday while we were in Montreal.


While in Montreal we went to the Biodome. You might be wondering why I am posting a a blurry picture of a bird here. Well... this bird was in one of the four Biodome environments and it was AQUA JOGGING!



As you can see, it's body is above the water and it is using its feet to run. This was not a momentary exercise. This bird was doing this continuously. He would start running for about a minute and then take a little break and then start running again. It was quite amusing.







After visiting the Biodome we went into Old Montreal and explored the area. It was really cute with quaint little shops and cobblestone streets. We got crepes at a great creperie so that we could escape from the frigid temperatures for a bit.






Yesterday, on our way back from Montreal, Fred and I stopped in Burlington, Vermont, to go for a run along Lake Champlain. I am most likely going to be moving North this summer to start medical school at the University of Vermont in the fall. I wanted to give Fred a little tour of the area. We did about a 5.5 mile run along the lake for a bit and then through town, down Church Street (a pedestrian walkway with lots of shops and restaurants) and along the water front. We had lunch at the Red Onion. The sandwiches were great but HUGE. I could not actually fit my sandwich in my mouth because of the size of the bread with all of the filling inside as well. We then got desert at a new restaurant (well, new to me) called the Skinny Pancake. Stopping in Burlington for a run was a great way to split up the trip.


Now I'm "back to the grind". This morning I had my 1.5 hour swim and tonight is the track workout. I am hoping to up my mileage again this week and still run a good pace at the Hyannis Marathon Relay that I am doing with Mo, Betsy and Kiirsten on Sunday.