Running the Hills

Today I ran...and as much as I hate them, I ran some hills.  I loathe them and I know they are waiting for me, laughing.  Waiting to suck the last bit of energy and breath from me.  Today, I conquered them.

Training on hills is a must if you want to build strength, power and endurance.  It's not easy - quite the contrary.  Hills make your legs burn, your breathing heavy, your body exhausted.  But, what a feeling of accomplishment when you've made it to the top.

As I was running, I was thinking.  If you don't "run the hills" in life, you never really can know what you are truly made of.

I've had a lot of hills over the past several months, but I keep running.  It's painful.  It challenges my will-power.  The burn sometimes gets the best of me and I slow my pace.  But I keep going.

Funny how a bit of running advice from Runner's World translates into a real world application.  I hope some motivational speaker out there has taken this nugget of wisdom and tucked it into a book or used it in a speech to inspire people.

Everyone should train on hills...at least once in a while.