Back in the 405

AM: 62 mins.
8 miles
15 mins. core
PM: 31 mins. + 4x100m barefoot strides
4+ miles

After my seemingly neverending travel yesterday, I relished a restful night's sleep (blowup mattress notwithstanding) back in Norman. This morning Jordan and I jogged over to the OU tennis courts to meet Conor Holt and his wife Camille. Conor is the guy who owns Jordan (and the course record) at the OKC Marathon. Camille, a stud in her own right, was a 2008 Olympic Trials marathon qualifier and runs for Team Indiana Elite. I'd met them briefly on Friday night at Jazz in June, as they were in town visiting family, and this would be their last jog in Norman before returning to their home in Indiana.

Not wanting to hold the boys back, Camille and I set off in our own direction for the majority of the run. It was great to talk training with someone who, like myself, didn't really run much in undergrad and has made the majority of her breakthroughs within the past few years. She currently has a 2:42 marathon to her credit and is shooting for the Olympic Trials "A" qualifier of 2:39 at Twin Cities this fall. One unique aspect of Camille's training is that she runs slowly. Like, really slowly. 8:00 to 8:30 on her easy days slowly. We fell into a clip that couldn't have been much faster than 7:50 today and I found myself getting antsy, while she claimed this was quicker than she normally ran on her own. Mentally I would find this type of training challenging, but according to Camille she's made most of her breakthroughs after she decided to take her easy days really, really easy. Definitely some food for thought.

Another big training staple she advocates is iron supplements, specifically in liquid form. My roommate Tanya is big on this as well and I've been thinking for a while about taking some, but the chat with Camille was the push I finally needed to get on the ball. (Later in the morning Jordan and I picked some up at the health food store near Brookhaven and we're already well on our way to a positive life change.)

In the evening, I met Jordan at the Norman High track after he jogged there from work. He needed to do some 200m strides and I really just wanted to do some barefoot running, so I wogged a few shoeless miles on the infield while he went about his business. I capped things off with some barefoot strides before strapping the kicks back on and heading home. Have I mentioned I love running barefoot? Well, I do. Today was a near perfect blend of training and recovery, and I'll definitely take it.