At Home & Abroad

Coach was jealous of our hard workout yesterday so he had one for himself today. He ran 3 by 2 miles at sub 7 minute pace. He went negative splits every mile. It was a little reversal of roles with Brian and I watching coach workout.

For us, it was 30 or 40 minutes easy. The original plan was to go to Runnymede just like the good old days of winter training. But, we decided to run a mailbox in hopes of seeing coach during his cool down. Well, coach never left DeSmet. To meet the time quota, we did end up going through Runnymede. I extended my lead in Spotter over Brian for the week with a couple Slugbugs on Ladue.

I finished the 10 minutes on my own by running the classic EtoE Rocky Road. Had a bunch of kids that were leaving DeSmet honking and yelling at me as I was coming up Emerson. It was fun. Practice finished up like it always does: stretch, chocolate milk, and ice bath. Woo!

Another solid run to get ready for Sectionals. Brian’s off tomorrow. I have 35 minutes plus 200s. The schedule for this Saturday at Lafayette is a follows:

• 4x800 – 12:00 (Scherping-Potter-Johnel-Pickel)
• 1600m – 1:30 (Abernathy)
• 400m – 2:10 (Pickel & Johnel)
• 800m – 3:10 (Scherping)
• 200m – 3:30 (Durron)
• 4x400 – 4:20 (Scherping-Durron-Johnel-Pickel)

You can find more information here. We hope to see lots of you there. It should be an awesome, very exciting meet.

On a total side note, Jacob Seiler is traveling to Rome. We wish him safe, fun travels. I blogged from Spain last summer and now Jacob is taking the Milk Table Shirt international. Can’t wait to hear about the trip when he gets back. “Milk Table going global, Italian edition.”

Quote of the Day: “Put some clothes on!!!”- Nick Martini screamed while diving by on Emerson Road.

Joke of the Day: “Squirrel! Come back. I want to ask you some questions. And I want to ask your friends questions.”- Scherping talking to the squirrels in Runnymede. He spent a good 3 minutes talking out loud to the different critters in the neighborhood.

2 Fast 2 Furious

No, we were not racing cars or watching an awesome movie for practice today. Coach simply had two fast and furious workouts to get us ready for this Saturday. There might not be two better words to describe these Phase IV workouts. Or Phase 4.5 as Scherping calls it since there are only a few guys left. All three of us brought out our brand new, just in winter training “Snowpocalypse” shits. Yes, they might have came in, kinda late, but they turned out really good. Time to ride all that hard work in the winter to the State Meet. The 800 guys, Scherping and Potter, had the Dream 800 workout. It’s about as short and sweet as it gets: 4x200 with 1 minute rest in between each. They’re goal was to go 28 or faster on all 4. Scherping closed it with a 25 showing his great speed that made him district champ in the 800. His splits added up to a 1:48 dream 800. Potter’s was 1:55 and more importantly he did not throw up. So point Potter!!

Abernathy’s workout was a surprise – coach revealed it as he progressed. It started with a 200 at race pace followed by a 200 jog. Then came a challenging 800 at race pace which he ran two ticks slow with 2:14. Next, another 200 a little faster than the first. After that came the biggest surprise of the workout, 8 minutes standing rest. He’d never had that long of rest for anything ever. But it would be necessary as the 2nd half was tough. It was a 3x400 at between 65 and 66 with 2 minutes rest. The rest must have got Kevin a little too excited though as the first one was a blazing 60.8. He found the pace on the second running a 65.3. For the last 400, he ran a 61.5 showing that speed he loves to unleash on the final lap of a race.

This workout meant it was time for double chocolate milks and an extra cold ice bath. It was a hard yet fun workout. We’re pumped up and excited for the race on Saturday. Let’s Go!!

Quote of the Day: “There are going to be 8 good guys out there. You have to beat them.”- Coach Traughber shouting motivation to Abernathy as he was running his final 400 of the workout.

Joke of the Day: “Brian it’s going to take you longer to put on that bandana than how long your entire workout will last.”- Abernathy as we waited for Brian to get ready when he was already late. It probably ended up being true because he took forever to get it own.

We’re Not Done Yet

Sunday night the seniors graduated. Immediately following graduation was the Final Fling lock-in. After hanging out and having a blast all night, we parted ways at about 4:30 in the morning. It was then time to go home and sleep all the way till practice.

So a mere 11 or so hours later we were up at DeSmet for practice. The work to get through Districts was complete. It is now time to put in the work to get to State.

Today’s work was an easy 60 minute run (Kevin) or 45 minute run (Brian). Of course Brian nearly overslept and missed practice. I called him as I was leaving and he had just woken up. He was late. But it worked out as I did my extra 15 minutes while waiting for him. As for the run, we went south on Ballas. Before turning around at Visitation Academy, we explored campus for a little bit. We pretended to be cars in the parking lot, found an open field with a broken bench, and ran by the defending State Champ’s soccer practice. But, the highlight was definitely the spiral slide. It was awesome!

On the way back we ran on the path in the park at Ballas and Conway (next to the Ronald McDonald House). This path had nice benches that were not broken. Brian concluded that it was because Ronald McDonald sat on all of the benches every day. We also made a stop at the hospitals’ parking garage. As a new DeSmet Alumni, Brian showed his Men for Others spirit when he threw the football back over the fence at the day care.

After practice, it was time for the Track Banquet. It was a great night of food, ice cream, good words, and awards. On the distance side of things the awards went as follows. Michael Callahan took the Most Improved award. To no one’s surprise, Austin Del Rosso won Rookie of the Year. Jacob Seiler received the 110% award. Kevin Abernathy and Alex Potter both got the Leadership Award. And Brian Scherping earned the Most Valuable Runner award.

Jacob who was also gets the unofficial T-bone All 8 Award as he ran for coach Traughber all eight seasons. This was the last Banquet for the Seiler family after a very long run with the DeSmet Cross Country and Track teams. We thank all five of them for everything they’ve brought to the program over all these years.

At the end the seniors took a few minutes to say some thank yous to the people that have made an impact on their time on the track team and at DeSmet as a whole. None of us could have done any of this without our families, friends, and coaches. You are all awesome! Also noteworthy was that senior Kevin Abernathy only talked for less than 4 minutes and 30 seconds (new PR!) much to the approval of the sophomore table in the back.

Title: Despite having the “Final Fling” the seniors are not done with their time at DeSmet. We will proudly wear our DeSmet jerseys this weekend at Lafayette with the goal of representing DeSmet at the State Meet. It was also a bit of the theme of the banquet—great season so far, but it’s far from over.

Click Clank

Today’s practice started with a medal meeting in the cafeteria with the whole team. There was lots of hardware given out—medals from Vianney, Clayton, and MCCs. Scherping picked up a total of 5 and Abernathy had 4. O’Connor, Waller, Martini, Potter, and McGann were among the other distance guys that picked up a medal.


It was time for practice and it was hot. Everyone that was not Scherping and Abernathy had a workout today. They were running 200s and 400s at “really freaking fast.” It was a good workout to get everyone prepped for their final races. I ran 20 plus laps on the track watching the workout for the first part of my 70 minute run. Then Scherping came out after finishing AP Physics and we ran for another 40 minutes or so. A nice run over to the shady Malcolm Terrace Park.

After practice while icing our legs we talked about the importance of getting enough sleep: 8-10 hours. This is especially important for us seniors who are now on a different routine with being out of school.

Don’t forget to bring your uniform for pictures tomorrow. And be on the lookout for our MCC Champions t-shirt.

Quote of the Day: “Coach, will you miss me when I’m gone? And me saying ‘hi coach’ very peppy everyday?”- Scherping to Coach Traughber after practice.

Joke of the Day: “He probably forgot to switch his clock to daylight savings time.”- Seiler on why he thought Scherping was late to practice.

Title: You could hear that noise before and after practice with so many guys carrying lots of medals.

Sunday Sunday Sunday

In order to be in the best possible situation for a great workout, the famous Prom Legs Workout was pushed to Sunday. Abernathy, Potter, and Scherping were joined by freshmen sprinting star, Tristan. With T-bone also in attendance there were only the five of us around.

After a pleasant mile warm-up, skips, and drills, it was time for the fun to begin—hard, butt-kicking workouts. Abernathy had a full Sean Nun Specialty. Scherping and the gang had a really fast 800 race simulator. The seniors brought out the flag shorts for this monumental day (first Sunday practice & Prom Legs+1). Potter and Scherping represented Canada and Abernathy had Ireland.

The Sean Nun Specialty was first created by Coach Traughber and another Missouri coach, Sean Nun. A few years ago, Connor Callahan was the first guy to it. I ran an abbreviated version of it last year. This year I got the whole thing which includes: a couple tempo miles, 800s, and 400s to finish it up. A challenging workout, but a fun one. I was able to nail my paces and then really hammer the 400s. After 3.75 miles of work, I was able to close in 61.5. That topped off a great workout.

Potter and Tristan ran the first set of the workout and then helped Scherping get through the second rep. It involved running a 400 on pace then resting before running a 400 all out. Scherping battled and looks like he is ready to break two this weekend.

This was Tristan’s first day with the distance squad. He ran a record setting 800 (MCC Freshmen, 2:07) on Thursday. That was while also running at 100, 200, and 400. Tristan had a good workout and we hope to see him around more often in the future.

Looking around after the workout, you could tell it was Sunday—everyone was lying around. But unlike at home it wasn’t because it was a lazy Sunday morning, but because all of us were worn out from the tough workout. Then we had a nice barefoot mile cool down. Coach got us some chocolate milk while we were stretching.

Potter vs. Food. Food won again today. We are no longer sure how many points each have. But we are confident in saying that Potter is getting crushed.

Happy Mother’s Day to all our moms out there! Especially the ones that let their sons go to practice on their day. Liz that includes you too.

Quote of the Day: “No matter what happens the rest of the way I want you guys to have fun and know that I have really enjoyed coaching you over the last couple years.”- Coach Traughber to the three senior while they were stretching.

P.S. It’s been a busy week, and there is a lot of good stuff that will be putting up soon. Stay tuned.

Jump!

After returning the MCC Track Trophy to DeSmet on their on their final day of classes, the seniors had graduation practice today and then ran on their own.We got our shield! Way to go guys!
The sprinters had a short practice and then shaved Coach Williams head afterwards. Brian, Jacob, and I had 45, 60, and 75 minute runs respectively.

We at a big breakfast this morning so we decided to kill some time by sitting in on Coach’s freshmen World History class. Jacob and I got 3 out of 5 on and quiz and Brian was too afraid to take it. We helped answer some other questions and then Coach had a powerpoint on the Roman Empire. In case you didn’t know, their greatest legacy is their Law (that will be on the test!). It was Austin’s class and the freshmen enjoyed having us in there and we had a lot of fun learning with them.

For the run we decided to go west on Olive. This meant we got to go over the highway and get in a sweet super weave and some parkour. We eventually made it to Millennium Park, where we decided to turn around. But before we left Brian insisted on us running around the baseball field and going down a slide. On the way back, we realized that we were going to be early. So, we made a stop at the parking garage next to the building with the indoor track. There was nobody around and we all the way up to the top and looked out over the surrounding area.

On the way back down, we did imaginary baton passes on all the turns. We didn’t want to go back to the entrance of the parking garage because it was farther from Olive. That meant that we needed to “break out.” We hopped a wall, balanced on the ledge, jumped the bushes, and ran up the hill to Olive. This was no problem for Jacob and I, but Brian was a different story. He couldn’t quite get the escape thing figured out. It was hilarious when Brian was standing on the ledge looking around all confused about what to do while Jacob and I were yelling at him to jump.

It was a great day for the three seniors. We had an awesome run together and then meet back up that night for prom and had even more fun.
Quote of the Day: (see baseball field at Millennium Park) “Let’s go roll in the dirt. It’s baseball season.”- Scherping.

Joke of the Day: “Scherping, how about you take this question. The answer starts with T.”- Coach Traughber while we were sitting in on his class. It was a True or False question.

AP Workout

Most the team was competing at SLUH today. More complete coverage will probably be up tomorrow.

As for the rest of us, it was time for the big pre-conference workout. I was running miles and 400s. Seiler, Martini, and Austin had 1200s and 400s. The 800 guys (Scherping, Waller, and O’Connor) had 600s and 300s. All of us looked really strong today and hit our paces in the gloomy May weather. With coach at the meet, Potter and I helped will Scherping through the 2nd half of his workout. After the mile cooldown it was time for core. As part of it, Scherping and I added the Boyle Fist Pump workout to prep us for the uncoming Prom.

We had some more good times hanging out and drinking chocolate milk in the AD office. Martini might have made a breakthrough discovery about why we drink chocolate milk instead of white milk. He proposed: Chocolate milk has a kid on a bike on the carton. Extreme. White milk probably has a kid reading a book. Boring.

Now it’s time to rest up and get focused for MCCs on Thursday.

Quote of the Day: “Darn it! Looks like I missed a great workout.”- Coach Traughber when he got back to DeSmet after the meet and was checking out the times from the workout.

Joke of the Day: “Kevin! You should call me tonight and then call coach and link the calls so I can surprise him and say ‘Hi coach!’ and tell him all about the workout.”- Scherping during core. Unfortunately for Brian, T-bone made it back to DeSmet before we left so we just told him about the workout in person.

Best Dressed: kabes & Matt OC. They both brought out some throwback jerseys for the workout. Matt had the mesh 80s jersey; Kevin had the nearly see-though jersey of the 90s. No better way to get ready for the conference meet than to go back to DeSmet roots for extra inspiration.

Title: Both Seiler and Scherping came to practice straight from the AP Psychology test. Even after working their brains for around 3 hours, they had the focus to have a great workout. Big test, big workout. We know one went well. The other we won’t hear about for awhile.

PS- Sorry about the long layover with posts. Bear with us. It’s crunch time at DeSmet right now for the seniors so we’ve been pretty busy. But! We’re working on some sweet posts from last week that should be up soon.

Happy Reading & Running!