This isn’t a hill. It’s flat ground.

This isn’t a hill. It’s flat ground.

I’ve been thinking that I want to run another ultramarathon someday.

And if there’s one thing I’m convinced of, it’s that hill training is essential for ultramarathons.

In Japan, with the exception of a few races, such as the Saroma Lake 100 km Ultramarathon, most ultramarathons seem to include plenty of climbs and descents.

This is just my own theory, but if you’re trying to design a 100 km course in Japan, it’s probably difficult to find enough flat terrain — unless you’re somewhere like Hokkaido.

There are likely all sorts of reasons: road closures, mountainous landscapes- due to the unique geography of Japan.

So, if you want to run an ultramarathon, you need to prepare for hills!

That said, hill training is something I never seem to look forward to.

Today, I spent most of my usual 10 km run going up and down the same hill over and over again.

Round and round and round…

From the outside, I’m sure I looked a little strange.

Since hill repeats can be mentally draining, I decided to try a new strategy.

Whether I was running uphill or downhill, I kept telling myself:

“This isn’t a hill. It’s flat ground.”

Which probably made me look even stranger.

There I was, muttering to myself the whole time:

“Flat ground… flat ground… flat ground…”

But when you think about it, in a real ultramarathon, you might face a climb that lasts 10 km or more.

The challenge is how to run that kind of terrain as if it were just another flat road.

Clearly, my mental training still has a long way to go. 🏃🏻‍♂️😅