I saw an article today on New York magazine’s Science of Us column about a treadmill that is being developed that matches your pace.

It sounds pretty cool. A device is positioned behind the runner, which can tell how close you are to the front of the treadmill. If you are close to the front, it speeds you up. If you are lagging behind, it slows you down. This helps to create the natural pace variance that you get when running outdoors.

I think it would be cool because, as I’ve said before, I don’t know how to tell improvement when doing speed work on a treadmill. Since the treadmill is in charge of what pace I’m running, I never know if I’m actually running at my full potential.

However, if I could speed myself up by picking up the pace, which would move me closer to the front of the treadmill, which would trigger the belt to move faster, I think that would be a better indicator than me just deciding what speed I want to run at, pressing a button, and going.

Anyone else thinks this sounds pretty cool for those necessary evil treadmill runs?