Cross-country teaches you to hate hills in September and thank them in November.

The thing that costs you most in training is usually the thing that pays out last. Hills are pure punishment in the early season because you are only experiencing the cost side of them. The benefit turns up months later, in a race where your legs handle a climb that breaks other people. Gratitude runs slow because the payment and the return are separated by weeks.

Name the part of your training or your schoolwork that you currently dread most. Keep a plain log of it, dates and what you did, nothing else. By November you will be able to see what it bought.