The other night I ran 3 miles of hills. When I headed out for the run I didn’t really know the route I would take, I just knew that my target was 3 miles. After about a quarter mile in I decided to run a route that would give me four solid hill climbs to really push myself.
As I started climbing the first hill I was questioning my thought process – why? Why run hills? I got to the top, turned the corner and continued to climb. Damn the hill was not ending, and my legs were feeling it. I continued on my way, happy to be able to coast down the next street and take a little break, until I hit the second incline. This one was a tad bit longer than the first, and more steep. I kept moving my legs, pushing myself up the hill, knowing that at the top would be a break in the form of flat ground. The third hill was by far the hardest. It’s the steepest of this route. At the top of the hill there is a sign that says DANGER STEEP HILL for anyone headed down the hill. That’s a testament to the steepness of the hill. I made it about a quarter of the way up the hill before I gave in and started walking. By the time I hit the top of the hill I was beyond happy that I only had one more incline to go. The forth and final climb is the easiest. Not because it’s the last one, but because it’s the least steep of them all. I usually include this in my regular running routes, and when I monitor my pace up the hill it can usually be an upper 10-minute to lower 11-minute pace which isn’t bad considering it is an uphill climb. Doing this hill after the other climbs makes it incredibly easy as exhibited by the mid-9-minute pace that I found myself running up this hill. I finished up the 3 miles and was happy to see a 29:38 time and a pace of 9:51 per mile. Considering last month when I ran this route I finished at a 10-minute even pace, this was just a small victory of sorts.
It wasn’t until later as I was reflecting on the run that I realized a few things. One was that while I was incredibly thankful to be done with the run I realized that I could have kept going. Four or five miles would have been realistic without a doubt, but sometimes our own minds can get in our way. Sometimes we hold ourselves back because we tell ourselves we can’t, and worst of all we believe it!
Running hills is a lot like life. There are hills and hard times, there is flat ground and boring times, and there are the times where life is really easy as we coast down the hill into the next part of our run and our life. When the hard times hit it’s important to keep moving forward; to keep taking those steps forward. Sometimes will be easier than others. Sometimes the distance covered will be larger than others, and sometimes it’s important to just slow down and walk, with smaller steps being taken. In the end you’ll still conquer the hill (aka: the problem).
And just like the other night, when I wanted to stop and give up, and questioned what I was thinking, I’m able to look back and say – “well that wasn’t so bad.” Hopefully I’ll be able to remind myself that when I conquer that route again, and also will remember to remind myself that “this too shall pass” when the next bumpy road hits in life.