Ever since I can remember, I’ve started my weekday afternoon & Sunday morning long slow distance (LSD) runs heading up the same road every time. It’s a nasty pull which is around 1.3km long. By the time I reach the top, I’m grumpy and the average pace on my Garmin has shot up to over 9mins/km. It’s always the worst part of my run but for years now, I’ve convinced myself that it’s “good to do uphill training” and that at least the run home is “all downhill”.

But when I received my May running schedule from my Coach, I needed to factor in an 8km route so I decided to run a different way. Instead of going all the way up, I turn left at the first main road and sort of run the route in the opposite direction. The biggest benefit is that I don’t start my run huffing and panting and vloeking the run. Yes, I do still encounter some hills and yes, I’m still hitting that downhill on the way home. But I guess mentally I don’t start my run feeling like I’ve got such a huge mountain to conquer before I start.

Why I never thought of it before is beyond me. I think we easily fall into a rut. We often think what we’re doing is the best thing. We don’t like to change. It’s too difficult to think up something new so we just go with the flow.

The biggest lesson is that in life, there are always big mountains to climb. They’re often at the beginning of our journeys. But there’s always more than one way over that mountain and yes, sometimes, an easier more fun way too! Find it!