Every ski town has one: the hill that everyone uses to prep for a winter of uphilling. As the days start noticeably shortening, the devoted among us start making plans to build the legs needed to capitalize on winter.
I like time in the gym. I’ve done training plans, and they work. But I also think that there’s something to be said for sheer uphill volume to build aerobic capacity and muscular endurance. Uphill fitness is stubbornly specific: you get good at going up by going up, ideally on terrain that punishes you the same way a skin track does.
