Going to the Whip

Just to warn everyone, I think the announcing team of Steve Lavin and some other guy (who are presently announcing the OSU home basketball game vs. Purdue), have coined the soon-to-be most over used cliche of this college season...'Chief.' Chief, as in the big Indian (feather, not dot) from the movie 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.' They (I'm not sure which one) used the film reference in regards to OSU freshman center BJ Mullens, who is 7 feet tall. At one point he went out of the game causing Lavin to go into hysterics about how OSU needed to bring Chief back into the game, and how they need to run their offense through Chief, and how if his wife was there Lavin would let Chief sleep with her. Apparently, there's a scene in the movie where Jack Nicholson is shooting hoops with Chief, and he offers the Indian gum for playing well. Do you think this slipped past ESPN's goons? Of course not, so as an appendix to the Chief cliche, we'll be hearing the term 'Fruit Strip Gum' until the end of March Madness as well. I'm opposed to this on numerous levels. First, Fruit Stripe gum sucks. Second, you shouldn't need to be bribed to get up for a game of hoops. If you have that little self pride that you need a pack of gum to get psyched to make it rain 3's on some poor saps mellon...you need to re-evaluate your priorities. That's a fact Jack.

Another thing involving an OSU sports telecast took place a few weeks ago and almost made me fall out of bed. Knowing my propensity for falling this winter this probably doesn't surprise you. For some reason The Ocho was replaying the OSU-Michigan football game from '06 and I happened to turn it on at a point where Brent Musberger made the point, 'Jim Tressel has to be the best play caller in the country folks.' Dear lord, I about pissed myself. While that statement was possibly true at the time, anyone that's watched OSU football since Troy Smith's graduation knows most 3rd graders could predict their plays with around 70% accuracy. I'm sure me and the other 7 people that are sick of Jim Tressel found that statement hilarious. 7-1 vs Michigan though, there isn't much I can say about that. I probably didn't need to put that last sentence in there, but I wanted to for all my readers who are from/or root for U of M. Go RichRod!

Enough with amateur athletes, lets move on to the professionals...like myself in the running world. The past few days have been fairly monumental in my running career as I train for my first competitive half marathon in two weeks. On Saturday I set a personal record for longest run, in terms of both time and distance. 21 miles in 3 hours and 14 minutes. It was a pretty crappy run as there was a shitty head wind for half the run, there was tons of street traffic, and the sidewalks were a snowy/slushy/icy mess. But, knowing that last weekend was my best chance for a long run since I'm going to a wedding this weekend, I perservered and grinded it out big time. I was really psyched, but my legs really weren't. Sunday was a day off since it's the Lord's Day, and oh yeah, it was the Super Bowl, which gave my legs a much needed rest. My liver on the other hand was forced to pick up the slack, I'll tell that story in another post. Then last night I went out for my basic run, I didn't know what to expect after the PR on Saturday so I set out with modest expectations. After the first mile though, I realized I felt good so I started to pick up the pace when possible (the sidewalks were horrendously icy, the worst I've seen due to the temp rise, then re-freeze making for large plates of frictionless ice). At mile 8 I still was kicking ass so I thought I'd turn it up for the last 2 miles (mostly nice sidewalks on OSU's campus that are ice free, thanks THE OSU!). For moments like this, I'm coining my own running cliche...'going to the whip.' This is mainly a horse racing term that refers to when the jockey starts beating the shit out of his mount to get it to run faster. In politically correct terms the jockey is 'asking the horse for more effort.' Bullshit, I ask the lady at Wendy's for another thing of butter for my baked potato, and it doesn't involve me hitting her with a leather whip...unless she's lucky...oh behave! So, I went to the whip for miles 9 and 10 and I responded very well, 10 miles in 85 minutes, 8:30 pace. That's the fastest I've ever run for that distance, quelle suprise. However, my knee is a little sore today from what seems like 31 miles of cross country running between Saturday and Monday. I took it easy and biked mainly today, this week looks to be pretty easy as I head to scenic Frankenmuth, Michigan for a friends' wedding this weekend.