Does the Hill ever end?

I often hear my friends and others speak about running in such a negative light.  So many people dislike running, but by far the biggest complaint I hear from those who do run are hills.  The hill is the nemesis for runners, the arch enemy, the dream crusher, foe, the hated companion, and the maker of misery.

I for one, have learned to give running hills a chance.  I have grown fond of the quick pain they bring about, but also the difficulty the present.  Purely from a training and exercising perspective, hills do wonders.  Consistent hill training is excellent for building muscular strength, as well as endurance.  Running coach Joe Catalano once said, "Many people shy away from hills.  They make it easy on themselves, but that limits their improvement.  The more you repeat something, the stronger you get" (Running.about.com).

While his point is obvious, Catalano is exactly right.  Too many people shy away from hills in their training.  It is easy to have a nice flat run with an easy tempo and rhythm, and lets be honest, nothing ruins a long smooth run like a sharp incline.  Yet we as runners loose something valuable when we choose to skip the hills.

Unless you live in a relatively flat region, there is no good reason to be skipping out on hill training.  According to Runners World, "on uphill sections your muscles contract more powerfully than usual because they are forced to overcome gravity to move you up the hill. The result is more power, which in turn leads to longer, faster running strides".  The benefits of running hills in essence are an increase in running economy, increased strength and form, which in the end all benefit you as a runner.  

As always, running has such a deep connection with the trials of life.  Hills in plain language suck.  They hurt, and they hit you when you are already tired.  Similarly, the events in life can seem to be a battle.  They hit us when we least expect it, and a long uphill battle ensues in which we struggle to make it to the top.  When we see the hard points like an exam, a new opportunity or anything difficult, what does it say about us as people if we simply choose to choose the easy flat path.  

My cross country coach always told me that "the uphill is always followed by a downhill on the other side" when I complained bitterly about the Mount Everest sized hill he made us do workouts on.  Its true in life and running.  The trying moments in life will be lost in the pride and sense of accomplishment we feel from overcoming the odds.  Getting up over the crest of the hill will burn the lungs, yet the downhill will reward us with a small reward.  

So hit the hills, ignore the burn and keep the chest up as you go.  Get up and over and enjoy the road that lies ahead.  

Mind Game

To say running isn't the most glamorous sport is an understatement.  I spent my high school cross country years being made fun of for my uniform "short shorts" and listening to others call running an activity rather than a sport.  I never gave their taunts much thought, because I love the sport, and despite what you classify it as, it is a very difficult sport.In previous posts, I have discussed the pain and difficulty in being motivated to run, which all have to do with the physical pain.  Yet the crux of running and the true difficulty is in the mental aspect.  Running is not the most physically punishing sport like football or rugby, but it is the most mentally demanding.  

In the world of 1980 Boston Marathon Champion Jacqueline Gareau in regards to running,  "The body does not want you to do this.  As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong.  You always go too far for your body.  You must handle the pain with strategy...It is not age; it is not diet.  It is the will to succeed"(running.about.com).  In my last post, I spoke about the ability to push through pain and the mental strength it takes.  Yet mental strength goes past simply pain.

While pain is a formidable obstacle mentally, other factors like distance, weather, stress, time constraints, nerves, or simply a bad day can play an even bigger part.  The difference is that while pain is imminent in running, the unknown that comes with the distance needs to be overcome.

For me the two biggest mental obstacles in both running and my daily life are the distance I have to cover that day, and overcoming a bad day.  When I run I obsess about the distance I have left to run which often demoralizes me.  It ruins my pace and effectively destroys the run.  In my daily life I spend so much time looking forward to the next assignment or the next day that the pressure eventually gets to be too much.  Quite simply I psych myself out.  Having a bad day of running is inevitable, but once I start running and I know I feel slow or tired, I once again feel downtrodden and demoralized.  And in my daily life, having a sluggish day puts me in a terrible mood that I struggle to overcome.

Running a race comes to one pivotal point.  The problems I have with bad days and focusing on the distance are inevitable.  Yet, the one moment will come when a runner must decide to either quit or push on and succeed.  This is what sets running apart from all other sports.  It is this one mental decision that has to be made that will determine the outcome.  We as students have that same moment to determine how we proceed.  This moment of mental decision is truly the core of running and mental strength.  It marks the true primal purity of the sport of running, and it is the reason I have fallen in love with the it's simplistic beauty.














http://running.about.com/od/runninghumor/a/Quotes-About-Mental-Aspects-Of-Running.htm

Pain

In my opinion there is truly no greater analogy for life than the beauty and intricacies of running.  The ups and downs, trials, uncertainty and the almost primal motive parallels so closely with life.  The variety of results, never ending open roads and uncertainty truly encapsulate what life is.  

The closest parallel between life and running is pain.  Haruki Murakami wrote in his book When I Talk About Running "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional".  I think this quote truly embodies the relationship between the adversity of life.  

I have yet to find someone who is a stranger to the lactic acid buildup in the legs or the terrible burn of the lungs.  I guess you could call it the veiled beauty of the sport.  At the bottom line, running truly does hurt.  It is painful and there is no way to escape that inevitability.  

Casual runners, competitors, and enthusiasts young and old have experienced the pain of running.  It hurts to push your lungs to breath faster and heavier.  It is painful to keep your legs moving up a hill or summon the last bit of energy to make it across the finish.  The training, or even a simple day when  you just feel like crap can be downright tough.  

Even more difficult is the mental pain running brings.  It is often said that running is 10% physical and 90% mental.  And I could not agree more.  As I have mentioned before, running is a battle against yourself no matter the level.  Getting out there to actually start the run is difficult, but pushing past the physical pain truly is the battle.  When it gets hard, there has to be a decision to press on and achieve the goal you have set.  Sure, running really can be hard and during a race, the pain is hard to overcome.  But at every point, we as runners can choose to be mentally tough, take control, and beat the whatever the run or race has in store.  

From a more pessimistic view, running is much like the pain in running.  It hurts, its hard, and no matter how long we experience, there will be pain.  Beyond physical pain, we all know life is a mental game, one where we choose our course.  Only we can decide how strong we will be as we traverse what lies ahead.  

What makes running such an important sport is how relatable it is to the journey of life.  There is so much to learn from being as runner and pushing through pain.  By being a runner, you can learn to translate the mental toughness and ability to push through pain in all facets of your life. 

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/running