By Sarah Barker, Outside

If you’re planning for a race with elevation gains, but live at sea level, a treadmill is a great way to simulate that. Photo: webphotographeer/iStock

Seventy and sunny, the snow is finally gone—buh-bye treadmill, right? Not so fast, Bambi. The fast tread to nowhere still has a place in your training schedule. Yes, get out there and enjoy the unpredictable outdoors, but once a week—maybe once every two weeks—let your inner control freak take over and hit the treadmill. Bonus: you’ll probably have the gym to yourself.

Elite runner turned coach, Antonio Vega, did the majority of his Minnesota winter training on the treadmill, but doesn’t completely ditch the treadmill in nice weather. (How elite? He ran a 2:13 at the 2010 Boston Marathon and won the 2010 U.S. Half Marathon Championship.) Part of the raison d’être for the treadmill is that it controls every detail — pace, temperature, incline, precipitation, footing—so it allows you to isolate and work on one specific aspect of your next race.

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