The Slow Grind: Incremental Progress & Mt. Hood Training
There’s a kind of progress that no one celebrates.
The quiet kind. The early morning reps. The treadmill incline walks. The cold-weather runs. The weighted pack sessions. The workouts where the motivation is low but you show up anyway.
That’s the kind of progress I’ve leaned into while training for Mt. Hood.
Living in northern Illinois, where the land is flat and winters are brutal, is not the ideal environment for mountaineering prep. There are no steep inclines or switchbacks to climb. No elevation to acclimate to. No rocky terrain to navigate.
And yet, the progress is real because progress is rarely about the environment. It’s about consistency.
1. Big Goals Are Built in Small, Repetitive Steps
Training for a technical climb like Mt. Hood requires months of slow, steady preparation. There is no single workout that changes everything.
You get stronger through:
The daily discipline
The “I don’t feel like it” days
The long-term structure
The incremental gains
The compounding effect of repetition
Product leadership works the same way. Major product wins aren’t made during launch week. They’re made in:
User interviews
Prioritization meetings
Iterative UX tests
Documentation
Alignment conversations
Early prototypes
Continuous feedback cycles
Small steps compound. Big steps are rare.
2. Consistency Beats Motivation
Motivation is loud, but temporary.
When I started training, I was fueled by excitement. New climbing gear. Color-coded training plans. The vision of the summit.
But after a few weeks, motivation fades. And what takes over?
Routine
Consistency
Showing up even when it’s inconvenient, boring, or uncomfortable
In product leadership, consistency looks like:
Protecting backlog hygiene
Maintaining clear communication
Sticking to decision-making frameworks
Giving regular feedback
Running retros even when the sprint was messy
Continually re-aligning teams
Motivation sparks action. Consistency sustains it.
3. Constraints Create Creativity
Illinois is flat, very flat.
But that constraint forced me to think differently:
Weighted pack walks
Dumbbell step-ups on sturdy boxes
Treadmill incline sequences
Interval training for endurance
Cold-weather runs for resilience
Strength-building circuits for power
Constraints are not limitations, they’re catalysts.
In product, constraints often lead to better solutions:
Less engineering bandwidth → sharper prioritization
Tight deadlines → focused problem definitions
Limited data → smaller experiments
Early ambiguity → clearer vision
Constraints shape creativity.
4. The Unsexy Work Matters the Most
There’s no glamour in ankle strengthening exercises. Or calf endurance sets. Or balance training. Or practicing self-arrest technique in a snowy field.
But these unglamorous reps are the ones that could save your life on a mountain.
Product leadership also has unglamorous reps:
Documenting decisions
Updating PRDs
Clarifying the roadmap
Defining edge cases
Running alignment sessions
Revisiting the problem statement
No one posts about these on LinkedIn. But they are foundational.
5. Momentum Is the Real Superpower
When you train consistently, something subtle happens.
You stop noticing progress in the moment, and start realizing it in the aggregate:
Workouts become easier
Packs feel lighter
Recovery becomes faster
Hills feel less daunting
Confidence rises
Belief deepens
The same thing happens in product teams:
Velocity increases
Cross-functional trust grows
Decisions happen faster
UX quality sharpens
User insights get richer
Momentum compounds.
6. The Slow Grind Is the Journey
The summit is a moment. The training is the story. The summit is the reward. The preparation is the transformation.
Whether you’re standing on top of a mountain or launching a major product initiative, progress is built through a thousand tiny steps.
Invisible. Uncelebrated. Unsexy. But powerful.
The Slow Grind Is How You Rise
If Mt. Hood has taught me anything so far, it’s this: Great outcomes rarely come from intensity. They come from consistency. You don’t need perfect conditions. You don’t need endless motivation. You don’t need steep hills or ideal terrain. You just need to show up. Daily. Steadily. Intentionally.
Because whether you’re preparing for a mountain or leading a product team: Small steps, repeated consistently, always lead to big summits.
