This week a friend of mine reminded me of the “false flat” concept. Now, for those of you who are not runners or bikers this might be a new concept so I will explain it.

Imagine you are looking at a road in front of you, a flat road. You run or pedal as you would on a flat road but begin huffing and puffing. You immediately think, “huh, what is going on? Did I forget to hydrate? Did I not get enough sleep? I don’t understand - it usually isn’t this hard.” The whole while you keep pushing wondering what is wrong with you - what you did or did not do that makes this situation harder. And it actually gets harder the longer you go along - it is tougher and tougher to manage the same amount of effort. Only after you are done, when you check your gps or look behind you do you realize “that wasn’t flat, that was actually a hill.” The imperceptible grade to the road, making it look flat and free of obstruction is a “false flat.”