DC = Decrease Conditioning?

Training Summary
There wasn't a whole lot of running to speak of two weeks ago and this post is obviously coming quite late but I'll give a rundown anyway.

From Monday through Friday, I chaperoned the 8th graders on their DC trip. It was a great time but was not very conducive to sleeping and, in turn, running. One of the highlights of the trip was getting to go home for Easter. Fortunately, I was allowed to fly home on Good Friday and meet up with the Epiphany crew on the Monday after Easter. I took the train from Baltimore to DC on Monday afternoon and met up with Kate for lunch. After that, I took the train to Georgetown Prep where we stayed during our time in the capitol.

I got in a good run on Tuesday morning and things went downhill from there. The boys slept in the wrestling room of the school and, while lights out was at 11, it was tough falling asleep and the sleep wasn't high quality at all. Also, we walked all day seeing the various monuments and museums, which tired me out even more. I had to be back from my run by 6:45 AM, so it was generally a 5 to 5:30 AM wake up. My left shin was bothering me towards the end of my run on Tuesday and I cut my run on Wednesday short because of shin discomfort. Thursday was basically an off day, though I did get up and run with two of the 8th grade girls for a few miles. They had asked me if I would run with them and, after starting off with two miles in 20 minutes on Monday, they got up to running 3 miles in 24 minutes on Friday. Watching them improve, even just on easy runs over a matter of five days, made me realize how much I want to begin coaching.

Even with the lack of running for the week, it was an awesome experience. The 8th graders are so much fun to be around and Dwight did a great job planning out the trip. In addition to many of the things that are almost standard procedures for a DC trip, we also got to see Senator Kerry's office, watch a Nationals game, and we went to see the monuments at night, which was a neat change of pace. I also went to Arlington National Cemetery for the first time ever and got to see part of the finals for the National Monopoly Championship in Union Station (not a planned part of the trip, but interesting nonetheless).

Monday
70 minutes
Tuesday
90 minutes
Wednesday
40 minutes
Thursday
15 minutes
Friday
30 minutes
Saturday
30 minutes
Sunday
60 minutes
Total
335 minutes on 7 runs (about 45 miles)

Holler of the Week
It was pitch black for the majority of my runs and nobody that I passed on the Rock Creek Park bike path said a word to me as we passed like ships in the night. I don't know that I would ever run that early by choice, but there is a strange sense of camaraderie that you feel with people you see when you run that early, even when no words are exchanged.

Epiphany Story of the Week
On Thursday, we ate dinner at the Georgetown dining hall. They had a station where you could pick out vegetables and they would cook up a stir fry for you. I brought my stir fry back to the table and one of the boys asked me where I got it. I pointed to the station and told him what to do. Three minutes later, he came back with a plate of pasta with a drizzle of tomato sauce on top, five slices of mushroom, a few pieces of baby corn, and some tofu, complaining about how he couldn't figure out what to do. As delicious as his concoction might have been, I decided to help him out and walk him through the process. There is no way my story can do justice to exactly how sorry his pasta dish looked, so below is a picture of his creation and the stir fry I made for him.

Song of the Week
No music for this one...I'll try to get caught up tomorrow and have last week's training and a song.