It's crazy right? The officer overseeing our practice runs had us do interval training after taking the practice test and it always involved running uphill.

Upon acceptance into the academy, half of the training was jogging up one of our most steep mountains in Phoenix (South Mountain) so he wanted us to be prepared to do that. More importantly though, when I started running trails and stairs (I found a few parking garages downtown and went to town on them) while it killed KILLED my knees, it dramatically improved my run times. The heart feeling like it's going to explode thing is super real though. Man, it never really feels easier!