Friday, April 1, 2011

Tribute to National Champion Shockers

Wu-Shock
Before I post what everyone is waiting to read about (my running), I find it necessary to pay a brief tribute to my alma mater, Wichita State University from the mid-major Missouri Valley Conference.  Yesterday, they won the Championship of the NIT basketball tournament in dominating fashion.  WSU defeated five opponents over 16 days, including four from BCS power conferences: the Big 12 (Nebraska), ACC (Virginia Tech), PAC-10 (Washington State) and the SEC (Alabama). The victories, including one over College of Charleston, were by an average of 15.4 points.  They played their best basketball of the season in the NIT.  I have to wonder, since they lost by a combined 5 points to 2 teams playing in the NCAA Final 4 this weekend, how well they might have faired had they played in the NCAA tournament.

This is the first national tournament Wichita State has won, and although not as prestigious as the NCAA tournament, we still had to knock off teams who came in first place in their conference and who beat other top ranked teams throughout the year like Duke, Texas, and Kentucky.








Our mascot is Wu-Shock, and our team name is the Shockers.  A few years back, we adopted a little unofficial hand gesture, called "The Shocker", that independently became popular in some subculture out there.  Every time we beat a team, we say that we gave them The Shocker.  If you really want to know what The Shocker is and are in the mood for something rated R, then listen to one of these songs for an explanation: The Shocker Song, or The Shocker Song 2











Now, back to my running.  It feels like I've been kind of a blog slacker these last couple weeks, not writing any posts, but I either had writer's block, or I just didn't have anything interesting to pass on.  Some might argue, that's always the case with me.

I haven't run any races lately, and I won't run another until April 23rd when I tow the line for a local 2 miler that is sure to be painful while it lasts.  The weekend after that, I will run the Wichita Half Marathon which I should PR in.  To get ready for both these races, I have cut back from my marathon training mileage, and tried to add in some quality speed work.  I also was able to get in about 40 minutes on the stationary bike this week, which is fewer than planned, but it was due to sleeping in too much.


Weekly Mileage
3/26158 min/mi
3/270rest day
3/287intervals 4 x 1M @ 6:36 pace
3/2978.5 min/mi
3/3078.75 min/mi
3/318tempo 4M @ 7:00 pace, 3M @ 7:54 pace
4/158.75 min/mi
TOTAL49




I leave you with a Friday Funny from the World Wide Web.  If all my crunches don't pay off soon, I've now got a backup plan:


15 comments:

XLMIC said...

Hahaha! the AB Hancer! love it!

I really love that Wu-Shock mascot... what a cool little guy. I wish I had gone to a school with a cool mascot :(

Nelly said...

yea I saw the highlights of Wichita State, they looked like they were playing awesome! They put the smackdown on Washington State, Clay Thompson looked like he played terrible that game, haha

And I can't believe the school even allows students to unofficially use she shocker gesture, haha

Indi said...

the shockers kicked butt!!!! I was screaming my head off! We're such a cool school and thus we are the Shockers!!!

Michael said...

Oh my gosh, the Ab Hancer is awesome! Welcome back!

Jim ... 50after40 said...

GO SHOCKERS!!! Probably one of the coolest mascots out there! For sure better than the Jayhawk, which if people would read a little history is not really something to be that proud of ...
Solid week of training - your times look really good. Why is the 2 miler going to be so painful?

Char said...

I like that AB hancer. It would be even more effective if it came with a bottle of spray-on fake tan.

Anonymous said...

What the heck is that?? HAHA!!!!!!!!

ajh said...

Funny!

Jill said...

Congratulations on your team, but what the heck is a Wu-Shock?!?! About as funny as that ab thingamagig!

The Slow One said...

I saw some folks wearing tee shirts that said "Give 'em the shocker!" when I was in Rome, GA one evening. My husband explained it to me. I'm impressed that you guys started it!

Jennifer said...

I love the ab enhancer, I know a few folks who could use one... Nice mileage last week, good pace for that 15. Cheers!

Christi said...

Woo Hoo!! Go Shockers! I went to WSU for a semester back in 1986. Yeah, I am that old. So I am happy that they won!

Big Daddy Diesel said...

LOL!!! The ab enhancer made me laugh out loud

Jess @ Blonde Ponytail said...

Congrats to the Shockers, after coaching in the MVC I am familar with the teammascot gesture! ha!

Your training looks like it has been going well. I love intervals! Varies the distance and def improves speed!

thanks for your "glowing" comment!! ha!

Annette@(running)In the Right Direction said...

That is hysterical!