Every runner has either a logistical or weather-related reason why they cannot run outdoors on some occasion. Mine usually is that I need to supervise kids (and hence remain in the house) but also complete a given workout. The answer is a gym-quality treadmill. Our family chose the NordicTrack Commercial 2450. This unit has very good build quality and can run indefinitely without overheating (4 amp motor) but is a little sketchy in terms of its ‘brainboard’ reliability. It requires a cold-reboot a couple times each week but an update will hopefully resolve this in the near future. Important for training, it can reach speeds of 12 MPH and 15% grade, so almost every workout I need to complete can be replicated on this machine. A downside is that you need to subscribe to iFit in order to be able to upload custom workouts. But for $99/year this service seems to be a value-add if used regularly and the ability to upload a custom workout is actually very useful. The other aspect to iFit is that it comes with lots of content, including trail videos of actual trails and the speed and incline of the treadmill adjusts to the image of the trail on the screen. Most of these workouts do not exceed more than 1 hour, though, so for long workouts I turn to Treadmill.tv for content to watch that simulates (visually at least) running on a trail. During these long runs I listen to audiobooks on Audible.
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