Super Saturday

Today was a practice focused on recovery. Being the day after the first meet for most and a tough workout for the rest, it made a lot of sense. Coach switched it up and everyone ran for a certain amount of time on the practice fields. We also did extended stretching and had our first session of a team favorite – partner stretching. The core workout was followed some full team light weights. Doing running motions with free weights is always fun and surprisingly fairly difficult. There will be more of that in the future, so remember I-H-J. An all-around good practice with the recovery much appreciated.

During the top group’s 30 minute field run, the rules of the new & popular speed skating were finally discussed and settled. There is a lot of excitement now that the game is under control and regulated. The game is all about focus, control, and jockeying for position, oh and also a weed-whackerish play-by-play announcer.

Now the best part of day for those involved was the pancake breakfast at the Traughber’s after practice. The runners that worked the hardest and put in the most miles received the prestigious invite earlier in the week. Excitement built over the course of the week, and breakfast surpassed all expectations. The food was ready when the 17 hungry runners arrived at the Traughber household with the help of the most excellent directions. Liz made a fantastic breakfast. All of the food was delectably delicious. The menu included fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, sausage, and pancakes (plain, blueberry, and chocolate chip). We would like to thank Coach and Liz for the hospitality and Liz for making all the food.


As part of the pancake breakfast, there was a smoothie contest. It featured frontrunner Boyle, challenger Potter, and dark horse OC. It was thing of beauty seeing the competitors setting up their blenders and getting out their ingredients. It was decided that the winner would be picked by popular vote of all in attendance who were given a spoon to sample all three smoothies. The excitement built as the blenders roared to life. The sight, sound, and smell of the event were alone enough. But things got much better when everyone stated tasting the smoothies. After all three blenders ran dry, when went around the room and tallied up the votes. And the winner was… OC!! In a surprise upset. The final count being OC-8; Boyle-5; Potter-3. But it should be noted that Boyle carried the important votes of the cook and me. It was one heck of a contest. All three were great.


For any interested here are the smoothie recipes:
Potter: About 2 cups apple juice. 2-3 spoon fulls of plain yogurt. Fist full of frozen strawberries, peaches, pineapple, mango, berry medely and the occasional banana. Ice to make thick.
Boyle: Handful of the following: pineapple, strawberry, blueberry; add one banana. Add apple juice and ice ratio to determine thickness. Enjoy
OC- receipe & message: here are the ingredients and steps for creating my world famous smoothie: 1. pomegranate blueberry V8 V-fusion 2. vanilla yogurt 3. ice 4. frozen blueberries, blackberries and raspberries (i got all of mine in a pack from Trader Joes) 5. frozen yogurt
directions 1. blend yogurt and juice until smooth 2. add frozen fruits and ice and blend until smooth 3.add the frozen yogurt and blend 4. ENJOY

thanks for everyone who voted for me, i could not have won this amazing award without you.
PS- thanks Coach Traughber and Liz for allowing a bunch of out of control bros come over to enjoy some delicious pancakes, eggs and sausage.
~~~ OC


Best Dressed: Scherps. He was able to take care of the competition even though he was on the elliptical. Following Boyle, Scherps went with the bandana. But it wasn’t just the bandana, but he matched it to his red shirt. Nice work!

Another Day at the Office

While most of the team was still sleeping some members of the Desmet distance team got off to an early start today. A group consisting of Potter, Stack, Scherps, and myself started the day off right by pumping some iron before school. It was great way to start off the day and to get in the mood to take care of some business.

Good luck to all those that race tomorrow! Remember all the hard work that you have already put in and for many the miles over winter. Run fast run hard and go take care of some business.

After taking care of their running business for the day a group of runners consisting of: France, Potter, The OC’s (little and big), Kabes, the sailor, and myself. Went out for a team dinner at 5 guys burgers and fries. During me and Kabes run we had passed 5 guys and got hit by the smell which instantly made us crave some burgers. The executive decision was made at that moment that we would have a team dinner there after practice. To sum it up “Runners smell 5 guys and we eat it”- France.

Quote of the Day: ZBoyle “You can’t run the 4x800 by yourself.”

NCAA tournament begins today make sure to check your brackets. Keep an eye out for Mr. Danglefest LAX BRO (COD) he plans on going to the ship.

Joke of the Day: Just as the top group set out on their run today, Boyle turned to everyone and said “I’m in my business clothes today, got my pinstripes.” Everyone looked at him and noticed he had on shorts that were about 5 inches in length and a hat and then busted out laughing. Yes, they had pinstripes, but that didn’t quite qualify them as business attire. And the rest of the run was filled by many other business related jokes. (Written by Kabes)

Kiss Me I'm A Runner

No better way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day then with some cruise intervals. With another perfect day weather wise the Desmet distance team took full advantage of the day by having a stellar workout. The workout was made even better with the presence of returning Desmet legends Chris France, Connor Callahan, and Rob Garwitz who joined us on the track.

Joke of the Day: During our cool down today we started doing some speed skate racing were we jockey for position. The joke is kind of hard to explain but to simplify it we have discovered that the announcers that call the horse races sound like weed whackers.

Spartan Runners of the Week: It is still early in the week but I think it’s safe to say that the trio consisting of Chris France, Connor Callahan, and Rob Garwitz receive split honors for runner of the week. These three men helped push a stalled car whose owner needed help. But even more impressive was that they then continued to do their track workout. Special mention goes out to my boy C-Baby who did 5x1 miles at 4:58 pace.

Quote of the day: T-Bone: “Injuries are overrated”

Best Dressed: Boyle was well aware of today being St. Patrick's Day and came out rocking all green. There was lots of green today from the team, but none could top him. Not only were his warm-up shorts green, but so were his workout shorts. He even topped it off with a very stylish green bandana. Boyle knew how to take advantage of a themed day, and can now call himself the best dressed (at least till tomorrow).

Great Day for LSD

With great weather back in St. Louise today was a perfect day for doing some LSD (Long Slow Distance). And now with T-Bone’s tip of the day we know how important these runs are. The top group today which consisted of Kabes, returning alum France, and myself used this opportunity to explore the rarely visited roads that exist on the other side of Olive Rd. It was a great adventure and fun was had by all.

WEAR YOUR GREEN TOMORROW! With tomorrow being St. Patrick’s Day make sure to wear your green. Green head bands, green shorts, green shirts, anything green. Rumor has it that those not wearing green (and also not having a watch) will do push-ups.

If you haven’t done so already make sure to make your bracket for the NCAA basketball tournament. Winner receives a full year of bragging rights. Follow the directions on the March 14th post on how to do so.

Best Dressed Award: Today’s award goes to the man leading the fight against the very real threat of aliens. Often times we take our safety from these creatures for granted so today we award Patrick C. the best dressed award for not only defending us from aliens but being always ready for their attack. Commonly seen wearing camo shirts Patrick C. complemented the shirt perfectly today with a pair of shorts with matching gray.

P.S. I am still waiting for my trip to Ireland

Return of the Jedi

There was lots of excitement at practice today. For starters uniforms were given out, and to the surprise of all, Varsity Cross Country jerseys were included for some of the team. One runner was so excited to hear this he high-fived someone and would have kept high-fiving if he wasn’t told to stop by Coach Russo. Okay, yes, that guy was me, but how could I not; this has never been seen before.

Next, the team was graced by the presence of two outstanding alums, both now running in college and in town on spring break: Connor- one year removed, and France- two years removed. It is always great to see faces of the past return for practice.

Now on to practice. We started with the new drills. We’re definitely getting better at them, probably because Coach had us walk through some of them. And that is where we find the Joke of the Day: Matt OC was struggling with the B-Skips and coach called him an Ostrich.

Then came a great hill workout by all. From top to bottom the team looked strong. Boyle and I convinced Connor to run one hill with us. Overcome by the presence of a Legend, we ran the 200 meter hill 3 seconds fast. It was fantastic; moments like that are to be savored.

The top two groups also enjoyed some simulated short track speed skating on the warm-up and cool-down. It was filled with tons of position jockeying.

Best Dressed: Matt L. He had the best coordination we’ve seen all year. His long sleeve shirt was a flawless match with the blue accents on his navy shorts. Excellent job Matt, keep up the good work.

Lots of stuff happened today and I wasn’t able to hit it all so put in some comments and fill in the gaps.

Selection Sunday

Sunday is a day of rest for runners and that normally will include rest from this blog too. Most of us take the day off to recharge for a another week of practice, and a few jog a very easy 30 or so minutes, which by the way is an excellent time to break in a new pullover. Yes, Sunday is a great day. Today's rest filled Sunday is made even better by, as the title indicates and most of you already know, it being Selection Sunday—the day the NCAA DI Men's Basketball Tournament is set. Now you may ask yourself, “What does this have to do with the team?” That is a very good question, and here is the answer. The distance team has an online bracket challenge in which you are all high encouraged to participate. Follow this link to Yahoo! Sports.

From there, select "Join a Group" and then "Join Group." Now it will ask you for a Yahoo ID, either put yours in or create an account (it's free). Then you will see two boxes, in the first type in or copy and paste this ID#: 49122. In the second box you put in the password: milkman. Boom! You're in. Finally, name your bracket (be creative) and make your picks. Good Luck to all! This should be a lot of fun.

Please note: The scoring for this is most likely different from what you have seen before. It works like this: Scoring: 1st Round- 1 point for correct pick; 2nd Round- 2 points for correct pick; Sweet 16- 3 points for correct pick; Elite 8- 6 points for correct pick; Final 4- 10 points for correct pick; Championship game- 20 points for correct pick. And there are also Bonus Points: For any correct picks where the underdog wins, you will receive bonus points equal to the winning team's seed minus the losing team's seed.

A thanks to Potter for setting it up.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. Let the trash-talking begin.