Dan White Blogs on Last Week’s Meet in Madison – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/5/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
Following the events of the ZAP Fitness blog two short weeks ago, Coach Gary notified me that my blogging services would no longer be needed. I was, understandably, hurt by such assertions. Yet I was not the only one left unsatisfied. In sports, as in life, there are times when the overwhelming demand of the populous transcends petty feuds and the greater good prevails. It is in these rare times that you must put aside personal pride and sacrifice your morality. Only then can you give the people what they so desperately want. That is, ultimately, what they need. So, here we are again. You have spoken, and I have answered. I have returned as team “bloggist”. Here is my account of the adidas Invitational:
10/1/10 – We departed Columbus for Madison, home of the University of Wisconsin.
The team makes an effort to represent Ohio State well on trips and today was no exception. We like to look as professional as possible when traveling. Everyone wore a shirt and tie except for Volunteer Assistant Coach Jeff See, who made little effort to look presentable. Coach Gary was understandably displeased but allowed Jeff to tag along anyway since his tickets had already been purchased. The rest of us tried to keep our distance.
We had about an hour flight to Milwaukee before a quick 20 minute connection to Madison. Besides Cory Leslie, occupying what I felt to be a rude amount of the already cramped leg room, the flights went smoothly and we arrived in Madison on schedule. After checking into the hotel, we went straight to preview the course. The Thomas Zimmer cross country course is a beautiful place to run. Located behind the University golf course, the cross country course consists of two big loops in an open field. There are some smaller rolling hills and the grass is kept in great condition. Everyone agreed that it was one of their favorite courses to compete on and we were all excited to race.
After the pre-race shakeout, we showered and then ate dinner at an Italian restaurant near campus. I can’t remember the name, but it was delicious. I have to give coach Gary credit here; he always manages to find great places to eat on trips. We left dinner and met in the hotel lobby to discuss our plans for the race the following morning. Coach gave the team specific instructions on how to approach the race. He wanted the guys to get out hard and be around 4:45 at the mile. Coach warned that it would hurt due to the minimal race pace efforts we have had in practice.
Coach, who is a multiple U.S. national champion in cross country and the only American to ever win the short course and long course national titles in the same year, knows a lot about how to approach races. At this point, he explained, we are trying to “callus” our legs for championship season. The goal being that when the races get faster at the end of the year and everyone is peaking, we will have already experienced getting out at a faster pace and it won’t come as such a shock to the system. Coach wanted our top five in before 23:30. He believed that would score us around 200 points.
With a clear understanding of the following day’s goals, we went to bed.
10/2/10
Today was race day. Coach instructed us all to get up no later than 7:30 a.m. Most of us shook out 5-10 minutes easy before eating breakfast at the hotel. Following breakfast, we retreated to our rooms for the final two hours before we left for the course. Hotel rooms can begin to feel pretty claustrophobic when you are forced to sit for this long, especially while your nerves get the best of you before a race.
We arrived at the course about an hour and a half early. After sitting around for about 20 minutes everyone began to get ready. We warmed up 20 minutes easy and then stretched. Coach instructed us to do at least one long stride, so everyone spiked up and did that about 15 minutes before the race. When we finished, we shed our warm ups and collected ourselves before lining up.
Finally the gun sounded and all 21 teams were off. The course starts with a long straight away and it was a bit of a scramble to the front. The race was packed with competitors and the whole course was lined with spectators. Even while racing I thought that it was a great event for the sport.
The team finished ninth overall. Despite the numerous PRs, I’d be lying if I said we were pleased with our showing. While no one was upset with how the race went, we came in hoping to place a little higher. We lost to a few teams that we realize we need to beat come championship season, but Coach thought that the guys handled the pace for the most part. Chad Balyo especially ran well.
Our fifth man came in at 24:45 and we scored a total of 256 points, so we were not too far from the goals Coach had set forth the night before. Still, I think the team feels like we still have a lot to prove. While by no means disappointed, the team will certainly use this race as motivation over the next two weeks and hopefully come back even stronger at Pre-Nationals on October 16th.
The most impressive aspect of our team this weekend was our fan base. Many parents made the long drive to Madison this weekend and we would all like to thank The Leslies, Mrs. Bales, The Fallons, The Greens, and (the always boisterous) Mr. Meyer for coming out to support us.
After the race we cooled down by running the course again and then doing 10 minutes of core strengthening exercises. In total it was a 13 mile day and everyone was pretty exhausted on the ride home. For dinner we went to Pizzeria Uno for Chicago deep dish pizza. It was fitting of its reputation.
After returning, a few of us played some games in the hotel pool. Julian Meyer is super awkward in the water. Although that is to be expected as he is super awkward out of the water, too. Julian’s awkwardness is comparable in all mediums. After the pool I watched Saturday Night Live in my hotel room. It wasn’t the best episode and I felt Bryan Cranston was underutilized, but that is just my opinion. However, I also feel that, despite popular claims that have plagued the show since the 80s, SNL is as funny and relevant as ever. I am a huge fan of the cast as well as the writer Michael Patrick O’Brien (despite being a Michigan alumnus). In short, if you haven’t seen SNL in a while, check it out.
10/3/10
The team got up early for a long run and everyone ran 70-90 minutes. Coach gave us free-range to run as slow as we wanted to go. He described it as “just time on your feet”. We ran easy with volunteer assistant coach Jeff See. Most of us had already come close to our weekly mileage totals, so we stayed near the lower end of the spectrum. The run was uneventful but very scenic. We ran past some wild turkeys and Chris Fallon got really excited. I “talked” to Adam Green for most of the run (it was really just us repeating lines from Eastbound & Down for an hour).
After we checked out of the hotel we saw The Social Network. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. It currently has a 97% on rottentomatoes.com and a lot of early Oscar buzz.
The flights back went smoothly and we landed in Columbus at 9:20 p.m. on Sunday night. It had been a long weekend. From a training perspective it was a success. While we didn’t accomplish all we had set out to in Madison, the team will continue to work hard and progress through championship season.
Thanks for reading, check in again after Pre-Nationals on October 16th. Take care, America.
