It's Been Awhile

A lot has happened since I've last updated this blog.

Since then I ran a PR of 14:12 at the Mt. SAC invitational, crashed and burned at the Payton Jordan Invitational 10k, running 29:35, recorded a top 10 finish at a US road championship, crashed and burned in a marathon, and found out that I had a stress fracture in a sesamoid bone in my right big toe. 

So right now I'm at the tail end of taking four weeks off from running to get this toe healed up and ready to roll again. 

Let's step back and talk about some of the things that have gone on this summer. 

First, the positives!

PR's!  I've essentially re-written the "Personal Best" column of my running resume, thanks to some of my performances this spring.  29:00 and 14:12 weren't as fast as I was hoping for coming into the season, but they're both a significant step forward in the right direction for me.  We didn't try to peak for either of those races, but trained through instead, so that leaves me to believe that there's more in the tank for the next time I step on the track.

Which leads me to positive #2.  Next season I'll be returning to the Steeplechase.  It's been a few years since I've hit the barriers, but I think that it's high time to go back to the track race I love the most.  I think with my progressions in other events, that a big jump in the steeplechase could put me in a position to be competitive on the national stage.  Time will tell, but I'm confident that it will work out.

Positive #3: First top 10 finish at a US Championship!  I ran the US 25k championships a week after tanking the 10k at Payton Jordan, so considering how bad that race went, and how bad I felt most of the week leading up to the race, I was pretty pleased with the outcome of the 25k.  I think that if I went in fresh that a better finish would have been possible, but we live and we learn.  That was a lesson that I learned throughout the spring, after a few frustrating finishes.

The big negative of the spring, and of 2014 thus far, was the Eugene Marathon.  I had my best solid block of training leading into the race, and even though I had a few hiccups, I was confident going into race day.  It was simply not my day.  We went out pretty conservatively and on pace for 2:17, but I could not get comfortable and couldn't get relaxed.  I was trying to convince myself that whole way that it would turn around and that I would have a good patch, but it just didn't happen.  By 13.1 I was feeling pretty waxed and started to slow, and by 17 my race was pretty much over.  I limped in to a 2:33 finish, and with my tail between my legs, came back to the mountains.

Trina and I met a few days later and talked about the race, and talked about my training.  We agreed to adjust some things and take a different approach with my next training block. 

After the meeting, I was taking some time down.  I had had some pain in my foot for awhile, so I decided to go get it checked out. 

Turns out there's a stress fracture in a stupid little sesamoid bone in my right big toe. 4 weeks out. 

So that's a bit  of hiccup in my training, but I've been cross-training my buns off, and am really REALLY chomping at the bit to get back on the roads again. 

Soon. Very soon. 

Then it's time to train for some breakthroughs. 

Nick Hilton
The Moderately Talented Distance Runner