Conor Holt's Departure

Time: 59:20
Distance: 8.04 miles
Pace: 7:23
Map

Meagan and I left the house just before 8:00 am to run down to the parking lot at Timberdell and Jenkins. We were meeting up with Camille, Conor and Scotty for a jog around town. Camille and Conor head back to West Lafayette, Indiana this morning after a brief return to Nompton. Once we grouped up the girls went in one direction and the guys another. We don't like to mix and match much here in the bible belt.

We started out with a spin around a 3 mile loop that Conor maintains he would do all of his long runs on. During one session he says he ran 8 loops of the thing. It's a decent, soft, not too scenic loop near campus. I could maybe run 2, possibly 3 before I would have to venture elsewhere. Eight loops is a bit much. He also claims former Norman resident and current Nike employee, Tom Redding, once ran 9 loops. That's 27 miles on the same 3 mile course!

Our run for the most part was pleasant. The legs weren't too beat up from the 400s yesterday. Conor made mention of a similar workout one of his athletes did this year. Neither Scotty nor I could understand the Irish gibberish that was coming out of his mouth (think Eamonn O'Connor or Enda Johnson), but he was clearly excited about the amount of work. Anyway, point being is that my workout was similar to the Kiwi's workout and he ran ~29:50 for 10k a few weeks later. I guess that's encouraging news.

I finished up the run on Main St., said our farewells and proceeded upstairs.

Slappers

Time: 112:32
Distance: 16.09 miles
Pace: 6:59
Map

We finally caught a break in the weather because when I woke up this morning it was sprinkling a bit. I was told that it was in the upper 60s which is about 10 degrees cooler at the start than recent mornings. I jogged up to the corner of Timberdell and Jenkins where I met up with Carrot Top, Scotty D, Conor Holt and Camille Herron. Conor and Camille are in town visiting family for a few days. Mr. Holt is a former Sooner, OK Runner employee and is the course record holder at the OKC Marathon. He is currently the men's distance coach at Purdue. It was great finally getting to meet the legendary Conor Holt a few nights ago at Jazz in June and even better to put in a run together.

We ran around Norman with no particular direction and even ran into former 1500m school record holder Salah Hussein. Conor gave us a few stories about running in Norman and some of his training philosophies at Purdue. It was a nice change of pace for the longer run. The legs felt strong and I was relaxed for the entirety of the run.

I need to add a new name to the collective list of munters, mingers and wagons. A slapper is basically the equivalent of mmw.