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What Running Taught Me About Working Smarter, Not Harder
Hustle culture won’t make you better, but this will.
Last Friday afternoon as I enjoyed a relaxing drive up a familiar canyon to see the fall leaves with my family, we passed a location that’s become a source of painful memory and tremendous triumph every time I see it.
On August 26, 2017, I ran my first marathon down that same canyon. I’d trained well and felt confident yet nervous as I began the race.
As I passed milemarker 13, though, I felt my knee start to lock up. It took me a minute to realize that the “runner's knee” I thought I had conquered during training was back.
I painfully walked most of the way to the finish, barely making it.
In hindsight, I was doing the best that I could with my limited knowledge at the time, but I had no idea I was doing it so wrong. I’d been trying to “hustle” my way to running faster and better. And it had failed spectacularly.
Sadly, I gave up on running for a few years.
Then last December, I discovered a book called Training for the Uphill Athlete that gave me hope again. It taught me everything I needed to know about running well and I’ve since used it to see some incredible results.
