Aliens Are Attacking!

Today could easily be summed up by the text I received from Stack—“Epic workout today”—but here at the Milk Table we’re not about summing things up like that. We give you all the details. But in all seriousness, today was EPIC.

For starters, the some juniors had the ACT this morning so practice was at 2:00pm. It may sound bad, being the middle of the day and what not, but it turned out to be awesome. We had the whole place to ourselves; no rugby, baseball, lax, just distance runners. It’s hard to describe how great it actually was.

It was a speed workout. Most guys did 800s, 400s, and 200s. The middle distance guys did something similar but shorter and faster. Everyone ran really well, hitting pace and just destroying the workout. Tons of cheering and encouragement from everyone on the team to everyone else (top to bottom) made this possible. Guys were out there having fun and working hard. Some people were in “cruise control” or “machine mode” nailing the same pace every time. I ran all eight 200s in 33 and other guys were doing similar.

Today was also the first theme day of the season. Sorry, for those who did not know about it, next time we will be sure to let the whole team know. The theme was matching hat and shorts. Eight guys plus coach all dressed in theme (see picture below). It was awesome; we looked great. It made the day more fun.
After practice, we had a reverse laps cool down. It was exciting. After seven miles of left turns, making some right turns was fantastic. We started to stretch on the turf at the end of the field, but then we thought, “We have this whole place to ourselves, we’re going to the D!!” So the whole team, just shy of 35 guys, meet out in the middle of the field. We formed an unusually perfect circle for the stretching (yes, we were all standing on the soccer center circle). It was really cool. Then Michael came up with the idea to play telephone and that’s where the title came from. Both games started by Patrick ended up being failures, but it was lots of fun for all. Coach Leeman was put out of business for a day because Coach Traughber made Gatorade for everyone; it was a solid mix, very refreshing.

Quote of the Day: “This is a foolish workout.”- Mackenzie S who uses “fool” about as much as anyone can use one word.

Best Dressed: Matt OC. This was hands down the best Best Dressed all season. Matt went all out for the theme, and he looked darn good. With a brand new yellow hat and the new yellow shorts to match, he even smashed the other guys that were in theme. He even had some flasy sunglasses. At the begining of the year, he wasn't much of a contender, but he has been putting himself in postion lately. This was his second win this week. Very impressive.

Mr. Secretary

Due to ACT prep this blog is short and one day late.

I’d like to thank the team for their support for my campaign for Student Body Secretary. As we heard at the end of the day, my campaign was successful. I really appreciated all the congratulations and such at practice.

It was an easy AE run with most guys doing loops at Conway Park. We had a cool experience at the beginning of our run. We saw a another runner that we had seen a couple of times last year. It was cool that we still recognized him from far away after being so long. Every time we’ve seen him he’s been going the other way on Emerson. We call him Army Guy because the first time we saw him he had an Army shirt on. As he was approaching, we waved hoping that he would still give us his signature wave that we remembered so well. He simply threw out and open right hand in our direction from the other side of the road, and all of us got a huge kick out of it. Cool stuff like this make running great.

Quote of the Day: “You look like a male stripper.”- Coach Leeman to Seiler who was still wearing his bowtie from elections. Of course, Seiler then proceeded to take off his shirt.

Best Dressed: Michael C. He has had a great sense of style all year, and would find himself with multiple wins if it weren’t for one thing. That thing being size, he’s a small and still needs to grow into some of his clothes before that fit him well. But, today was different; this shirt and shorts fit him great, and to top it off they were a perfect match. Black with white accent on the shirt and white with black accent on the shorts.

Hey Boys!

First and foremost, today was simply an all-around great practice. This was illustrated in the many different possible blog titles that were discussed during the run. The chosen title was a quote from Liz who shouted it from the new Traughber car as she passed us on Ballas. It beat out the competition because it encompassed the overall awesomeness of today’s practice. How cool is it get a friendly shout out from a completely unexpected person on the run? Ridiculously cool!

Today’s long run (some about 5 miles, others about 11.5) turned out to filled top to bottom with blog content. First of all it was a little different run with a couple things mixed together. Boyle and I ran a nice figure 8 around Creve Coeur. With seven guys upfront there was lots of stuff going on. While on Chasselle we formed a perfect Flying V. Some of us ran most of the run with a dandelion behind our ear. It’s actually way cooler than you would think. It was Potter’s first day away from DeSmet pretty much all season; he gives some insight on what it was like below. We saw like 6 Slug Bugs and got like 5 honks. Today was just lots of fun, running and hanging out.

As my alarm went off, I woke up with a smile on my face. What was so special about today? It was going to be the best practice of the year. Today was the first time in years, that I got to run. Sure I have done tempos and cool downs, but today I got to run. The weather was cool with a breeze and sunny. Nothing was going to keep me inside today.

After a long wait after class, we warmed up and stretched. Coach soon came out. It was not "Potter to the elliptical" today. It was "long run" day. Of course I did not know where I was supposed to go since I had not done a long run since the great Blake Bender stepped away from the team.

There was a big pack in the group today. We formed every formation from the stream line to the flying V. I could not put into words how it felt to be free. Fresh air and dandelions are much better then the muggy sweat feel of the weight room. No buttons. No timer. Just picking one leg up after the other.
It was a day to remember, the day I became free. At least until tomorrow, when I am right back on for 45 on the elliptical.

At the end of the day, after 88 minutes of running and just before getting chocolate milk, Coach told Boyle and me a story about his younger days when he was running for DeSmet. It was really cool.

Quote of the Day: “I actually want to keep running today; it’s so much fun. Everything is just much more exciting with you guys.”- Matt OC referencing running with the top group. I know there were some other good quotes today, so just put them in the comments if you remember.

Joke of the Day: While explaining the workout Coach made a reference to the blog and said he “laughed out loud” when reading yesterday. To this, multiple guys responded, “You LOLed?!?” Coach just said that he didn’t get it, and to stop because it’s stupid.

Alley-Oop Joke of the Day: While on Chasselle, the seven of us had to deal with some traffic, so we went into an intense streamline. Potter never could never quite make it all the way in to the streamline. Boyle said, “Sorry, Potter, there’s no button for that.” Seiler followed up by saying, “Haha, cause you’re not on the elliptical.” Boyle shouts, “Alley-oop! I tossed it up then Seiler slammed it in. Oh yeah!”

Best Dressed: Seiler & Husmann. I’m proud to say that this was easily the most competitive day this Best Dressed contest has ever seen. It took a crazy tiebreaker to decide it. Because of the competiveness of today, there will be honorable mentions. The first goes to Matt B & Nick H. They unknowingly followed the matching theme of the day by wearing their El Camino shirts. The second goes to Glen, who looked really sharp today in some brand new running shorts, and he would have won were it not for our couples. The final honorable mention goes to Boyle & OC. They were quite the couple both wearing the white summer training shirts and black shorts. What could possibly top all this? Well, Seiler & Husmann also had a flawless match today making it a day with three couples. They both wore the Nike Kickoff shirt with maroon shorts. As for the epic tiebreaker to decide this close battle, we had to bring in the big guns. I called upon Coach Russo to help pick. After surveying the pairs, he un-tucked his collared shirt and revealed the Nike Kickoff shirt underneath. The team went crazy as the winner was clear.

Batman 1000s

Today was tough workout that required a lot of hard work and focus. Some guys ran an all-out mile time trial. Bob led the whole way and took first. Good job Bob. The other guys had 6x1000's at 2 mile pace. It was difficult, but they battled through it. Everybody really came together and motivate and encourage others. Anything from, "Hey, you can do this" to shouting cheers. It was a great sight.

Meet Recap:

After an hour and a half of driving to God knows where we finally arrived at the Northwest relays. In recap of the meet today the freshmen finished 5th and the sophomore finished second. The distance portion of the meet started with the freshmen 4x800 meter relay which finished a solid 2nd to last place with strong runs from Glen M, Matt B, Collin S, and Patrick C. The sophomore 4x800 team which featured three freshmen and one sophomore finished a solid 5th place and featured Joe F, Collin V, Justin P, and Matt L. Then came the sprint medley relay where a few of the distance runners ran the 800 in the races (Alex E and John W) and the sophomores won and the freshmen ran a strong race. The last “distance” event of the day was the Distance medley relay. Running for the freshmen were Michael C, Mackenzie S, AJ S, and Husmann and they finished a strong second place which tied the best finish in a freshmen relay all day. Congratulations to anyone I did not mention all of you ran strong.

Michael Callahan.

If you are curious, the title comes from the workout and the Batman sunglass I wore today. Yes, they are awesome. You can even ask coach Leeman who called me Batman multiple times.

Quote of the Day: "Every lap you hit on pace is like putting a quarter in the piggy bank. Then at state you smash open the piggy bank and cash it all in for a medal."- Boyle during the jogging rest as motivation for the team

Best Dressed: Potter. Today, was a unique situation. He won not for what he wore, but what he didn't wear. It was the first day in what seemed like 300 that he didn't have on a Duke shirt. He proudly wore his assortment of Duke shirts throughout the entire NCAA tournament; his dedication and consistency was quite a feat. But it was not this that earned him best dressed. It was simply the classic gray DeSmet XC shirt complimented by the good ole DeSmet Soccer shorts.

Back to Blogging

I'd like to start by formally apologizing to all of the followers and readers of the Milk Table. Between pre-break crunch time and the break itself, blogging became difficult. With the business of this time, the blog was not updated for many days and everyone was restless. Well, I’m back and I’m sorry about the wait. The Milk Table returns with a new spirit and vigor. The posts will be more consistent, so as always enjoy and leave some comments.

There were a couple of noteworthy performances during the Blog’s downtime. At the Webster Groves Varsity Invitational meet on the Wednesday of Spring Break, Potter and Abernathy took gold in the 800 and 3200 respectively. It is no surprise that victory came from these two runners as they each got a shoot out earlier in the week in the Suburban Journal’s track preview. Potter ran a smart race in a crowded field (he got bumped and made a move in lane 5) got earn his second career first place finish. Abernathy also ran a smart race going out under control and using the 8 laps to move up in the field. He made his move on 5th place cross county finisher, Krumrey, with about 150 to go and beat him by 6 seconds for Abernathy first ever first place finish. Nice work job guys and the team expects for good things to come from these two Junior runners.


Today: The freshmen and Sophomores had an easy run and hand-off practice as they were gearing up for the Northwest House Springs Relays. Good Luck tomorrow boys; can’t wait to hear how it goes. The rest of the guys had a nice easy run on Mosley Road. The dominating topic today was LEGOs. We talked about everything LEGO: sets, games, store, and magazine. Mentioned tons of different sets, some recent, some old school: Pirates, Indians, Harry Potter, Star Wars, underground, underwater, outer space, etc. Let’s hear your favorite below. Followed this up with core, weights, and stretching. And finished things off, as always, with a nice carton of Chocolate Milk.

We have a champion! OC takes home the first ever team bracket challenge championship. He edged out Potter by just two points. He picked 43 of 63 games correct and added 11 bonus points for a total score of 112. Some notable performances include coach, who finished a solid 4th, and Michael Callahan, who had the most bonus points with 23.

Quote of the Day: “Rubble!”- the voice from the LEGO Rock Raiders computer game as impersonated by Boyle during the LEGO discussion on the run. If you think that’s a random quote, you obviously didn’t read the beginning of this post.

Joke of the Day: I told this on the run today and here is some background. Over the weekend I hear about a college student studying to become a doctor. His last name was Pepper. So… A Doctor greets someone new at his office, “Hi, I’m Dr. Pepper.” That person would then responds in a very sarcastic voice, “Yeah… And I’m Mr. Pibb.”

Best Dressed: OC. Besides the day after winning the team’s bracket challenge, he secured another victory, this time with a very impressive look. As I assume everyone knows, Duke won the Nation Championship last night and OC took full advantage of this. He got out the blue J.J. Redick jersey and even had some nice shorts to compliment it. What might have been the best part of this was that he even out shined the Duke-crazy Potter in the all-out nature of his appearance.