I have to trust that the track has been properly surveyed and is, in deed, 400m in lane one measured 30 cm from the curb.

Obviously you have never worked for the government

i think the TM is a really useful training tool. Like super useful. Not only does it increase your focus and impose a discipline which makes you stronger, as lily said, but it allows you to train more consistently without problems of weather and temperature and other conditions.

One mistake i made last summer was running outside in the heat everyday. Even in the mornings the heat took something out of me and i ran fewer miles. In my mind the heat was making me stronger, but in reality i was cheating myself out of fitness because i was running less. This summer I plan on doing a lot more TM than last for that reason alone.

I was employed by them from Dec 1973 through June 1976.

Then they must have removed all memories of that period from your mind. They can do that if they have to, as far as I know.

This thread took an interesting twist.  Here's my take on the mill.

The very things that make the mill inviting - avoiding the vagaries of heat, cold, wind, elevation, etc - are the very things that make it important to get outside.  Come race day, it is nearly guaranteed that you will have those things thrown at you.  I have run a half marathon with winds gusting to 40 m.p.h.  I have run a marathon in 100% humidity.  I ran a 5K in direct sunlight when it was 92 degrees in the shade and the race started at noon and was on unshaded pavement for its entirety.  Making the appropriate adjustments without being thrown for a loop is a good skill to have in your pocket.

Another valuable skill is learning the concentration necessary to hold your pace.  You don't have to concentrate on the mill.  You can let your mind wander because the mill will do the pace for you.  My splits for my 800's yesterday were:

2:58

2:57

2:56

2:58

2:57

2:57

3:02 (told you I lost concentration)

2:58

Because I was on the track, I didn't have to deal with elevation changes but I did have to deal with changing wind and direct sun vs some cloud shade.  I think that developing that focus during intervals helps me to hold my pace late in a race and I have managed to run very even splits in most of my races.  I attribute that in no small part to the concentration I have developed at the track.

However, there does come a point when running outside is futile.  If it's 95 degrees with high humidity, there is no way you'll survive a six mile tempo run at tempo pace nor will you last through something like 8 x 1,000 @ 3K-5K pace with 400 recoveries.  In either case, you'll overheat and be reduced to walking or you'll have to run significantly slower from the start and in that event, you lose some of the benefit of the workout.  It's also kind of hard to hit the track when it's covered in snow.

As for a treadmill being calibrated precisely, I'd have to see the protocol followed to buy the precision of the calibration.  It takes very, very little error in your calibration to be off by 5 seconds per mile.  Moreover, even assuming it was correctly calibrated yesterday does not mean that it is calibrated correctly today.  A GPS can be slightly off as well.  They're generally only accurate to about 20 feet and that's 3-5 seconds per mile.  A track is almost always accurately measured although an admittedly careless contractor could lay it out as 400 meters at the inside of Lane 1 rather than 400 meters at 30 cm from the inside of Lane 1.  The accuracy of the track is why I like doing repeats there.  Plus, being at the track makes you feel like a bad ass compared to the folks who show up and walk around the track gabbing on cell phones.  

Brad, you are right that making the proper adjustments when wind, heat, etc... are thrown at you in a race, is very important. And it's something that you will learn if you run outside in those conditions. However, like I say often, I have run in all of those conditions (I'd even say more than you have yourself, at least for marathons...) and I've adjusted just fine, even without having outside experience. After 5 years of running, I have the experience of my own body, I can feel when something isn't right and I can adjust my racing accordingly. Training in high humidity, or strong winds, may make you mentally tough (and so does running 24 miles on a TM...), but it sure as heck doesn't make you faster if you cannot do your intervals like you should be doing... just sayin'...

Brad, you are right that making the proper adjustments when wind, heat, etc... are thrown at you in a race, is very important. And it's something that you will learn if you run outside in those conditions. However, like I say often, I have run in all of those conditions (I'd even say more than you have yourself, at least for marathons...) and I've adjusted just fine, even without having outside experience. After 5 years of running, I have the experience of my own body, I can feel when something isn't right and I can adjust my racing accordingly. Training in high humidity, or strong winds, may make you mentally tough (and so does running 24 miles on a TM...), but it sure as heck doesn't make you faster if you cannot do your intervals like you should be doing... just sayin'...

You also had several marathons that involved serious fades in the last 6.2 miles.  That would not appear indicative of making the correct adjustments.

 

You also had several marathons that involved serious fades in the last 6.2 miles.  That would not appear indicative of making the correct adjustments.

That had nothing to do with the conditions on race day. It had everything to do with the fact that I am ambitious to a fault.