Feeling Lucky?!!

Hopefully a little of the “Luck of the Irish” rubbed off on me as I spent the last few days hanging out in arguably the most Irish city in our country: Boston!...and St. Patrick’s Day weekend to boot! As we rolled into town on Thursday evening we passed signs that brought back memories of the historical marathon course: Framingham, Natick, Newton, Brookline, and Copley Square. Finally, Erica had to tell me to shut up about the damn Boston Marathon!

The purpose of our trip was for Erica to attend a case teaching workshop at Harvard Business School. We tried to make it a kind of "play weekend" as well and I also visited a brother-of-a friend who attends Harvard’s Divinity School. What a beautiful weekend! I got some great tours of the prestigious Harvard campus and the weather was awesome with sunny blue skies every day. We stayed right on The Charles River in Cambridge and there was a nice foot path around the river exclusively for bikers, walkers, and runners and I took advantage of that for my Friday 9-miler.

Before traveling I googled, “trail running Cambridge, MA”, and I came across Breakheart Running blog that suggested some great trail routes just minutes from Cambridge. I had a gorgeous 13-mile trail run Saturday morning on The Skyline Trail and Reservoir Trail. Thank you for your report and suggestion Dan! At about mile three I got a little off track and came across another runner (Ryan S.). We ended up finding the white blazes and running and chatting for the next few miles. These trails were perfect training for many of the races I will be attending in the next few months. The 8-mile Skyline Trail was very rocky and had many roots with good elevation change. The Reservoir Trail was very runnable and was still pretty solid early but definitely started getting messy later in the morning as the temperatures rose.

Miles for the week: 50

Monday= Rest/hot tub

Tuesday= Easy 8 miles on Cayuga/Pink Trails with Eric S.—*cold rainy trail run

Wednesday= 30-minute leg massage in early afternoon; Easy 11 miles running from Cass Park to Coy Glen Rd. to run w/ Meka then back to Black Diamond Trail w/ Max; and extra loop w/ Scotie J.

Thursday= Rest

Friday= 9 miles around Charles River in Cambridge (7 miles @ 6:30/mi. pace)

Saturday= 13 miles on Skyline Trail and Reservoir Trail (ran w/ Ryan S. for about 2.5 miles)

Sunday= Easy 9 miles in evening running Warren Rd. Asbury Farrell loop

Well Spring Break is over and back to reality after a much needed moment to catch my breath. Looking forward to heading down to Maryland Thursday evening for Saturday’s H.A.T. Run 50K.

Quote of the week: "Running is a big question mark that is there each and every day. It asks you, 'Are you going to be a wimp or be strong today?'"----Peter Maher~ Irish-Canadian Olympian and sub 2:12 marathoner