treadmill incline

Question
does the incline treadmill really simulate hill running? You are not actually lifting your body up anything? You are not actually adding potential energy through increasing your height relative to sea level. The ground is rushing past your feet. It seems like a mental trick more than an actual physical substitute or am I wrong?

Answer
It does simulate hill running quite well. As well as running on the treadmill flat simulates running on flat ground. It does so because the muscle groups you will be using on the treadmill will be about the same as you do running uphill. It's value as exercise is excellent.

I do most of my training in Miami, where there are no hills, but there are plenty of parking garage buildings so those are the "Miami hills". Not being an indoor person I would prefer to run on the bridges and parking garages than on a treadmill, but that is purely for personal preferences, not because there is anything wrong with the treadmill.

However... I still recommend you go out in the real world and enjoy the real thing, just because it is there, for free, and it is more interesting in most places. See the people, enjoy the views, connect to the world around you. There is no simulator for that.