The secret to running uphill without quitting

My running path nowadays consists of a series of uphills and downhills. It’s really hard running up, and it’s really easy going down. That’s pretty straightforward to understand.

When I see ahead of me the plain flat land rise until I can’t see beyond the peak, I start to run nonsense numbers in my head. It’s the worry and exhaustion panicking, trying to prepare for the thigh burns and knee pressures. It’s going to hurt, they say to me. Here are the options — they lay out all sorts of cards for me to pick — you could slow down into a snail-pace jogging so your legs won’t be strained as much or you could ignore the incline and count from zero to hundred to pass the time or you could distract yourself with watching houses you pass by or you could keep your eyes fixed on the tree that stands at the top of the hill so you have something to reach or —.

It’s all jumbles. My body is trying to do its best for me, and I’m grateful. But it’s all jumbles. More often than not, when I picked those cards and used them to motivate myself to keep running, I failed to follow through.

The secret I learned is to keep your head down.

Don’t look at what’s ahead of you. You’ve actually already done that, so you know you are about to run uphill. But once you know that, put your head down and look at the ground.

Count the lines between the road blocks under your feet. The leaves and twigs rolling around in the wind. Little critters crawling and jumping. Your left feet in front of the other and then right foot in front of the other.

Let your body feel the burn of running up, but don’t let your eyes know how much of that hill you’ve run up so far. Once you see how much of it is left, it tempts you and tells you that you’ve done enough or you are too tired to finish it.

Just focus on what’s immediately in front of you: one foot forward at a time.

I’m practicing that secret myself. I don’t always succeed, but I’m happy to count the times it does. The hindsight realization of how much I was able to run up the hill without knowing it at the moment gives bigger gratitude and satisfaction than I imagined.

So there you go! Just keep your head down. Once your body tells you it’s not being tortured by going uphill anymore, look up. The new scenery will give you a big exhale of relief and a smile.