Boost heart health, learn new skills and fall in love with cardio with this athlete-approved alternative to road running

In February, Anna Gibson finished fourth for Team USA alongside mixed relay partner Cam Smith as ski mountaineering (aka skimo) made its Olympics debut.

It capped a remarkable rise for the Wyoming native. A prodigious runner from an early age, Gibson had only entered the sport 18 months earlier at the behest of teammate Smith.

Rather than in skis and skins on snowy slopes, it was on the dusty running trails of Grand Teton National Park and the vertical kilometer of Palisades Tahoe where Gibson, 26, forged her athletic prowess.

Now the Olympian is setting her sights on climbing to the top of the sport she first fell in love with, a sport she believes all runners would benefit from trying.

Here the 26-year-old explains why we should all head for the trails this summer.

Five reasons why you should try trail running

1. It's mentally stimulating

"You will never do the same run twice," Gibson tells Fit&Well.

"Even if you run the same trail every single day, the environmental conditions change so it's a different experience every time."

If you find road running monotonous, or you've run your local 5K route to death, Gibson says the trails will help you rediscover the joy of lacing up your trainers.

"Those hard days on the road or track, when it feels like such a grind, and you're trying to distract yourself by thinking about other things, those days just don't happen on the trails."

2. It'll make you fitter and faster

Trail running is an interval workout that you don't have to program.

"When running on the road your heart rate will be fairly consistent," Gibson explains. "On the trail there's such varying terrain and surfaces, you will run by feel rather than a certain pace."

You'll go from fast to slow to fast, alternating high-intensity bursts with periods of recovery, naturally as the terrain changes.

That process will boost your VO2 max and lactate threshold, both measures of cardio fitness.

"When starting out, you don't need to even do structured workouts," she adds.

"Just go exploring. Push the distance a little bit further each time and don't worry about your pace. That's how you fall in love with the experience and that will be challenging enough."

3. You'll learn new running skills

For Gibson, that's technical downhill running and staying light on her feet—attributes rarely tested on the road or treadmill.

"Trail running requires quite a bit of agility, depending on how hard the trail is, which is something that's been really fun to train," she says.

One of her go-to sessions involves doing a steady, hard climb straight up a mountain.

"Those are my favorite days," she says.

"Whenever I have them in my training log, I'm like, 'Oh, what mountain should I go up today?' Getting to choose a mountain to go stand on top of is something I just love."

4. It will help you connect with nature

Gibson's number one place to trail run is in her backyard: Grand Teton National Park.

"At altitude, it combines every type of trail going—hard, easy, some stuff that's basically climbing, some in the valleys that's flat, like running along a beautiful lake or river.

"It's one of the most world class places to train," she says.

When in such beautiful surroundings, enjoying the environment while fixated on the ground to avoid tripping on roots and branches, Gibson says she can enter a flow state.

"It's a very meditative experience," she says.

"You're very present in what you're doing, a little bit more so than when you're running on the road. I just really love that about trails. It feels like a really cool experience with the natural world."

5. It'll make you more resilient

"Above all, trail running has made me really tough," concludes Gibson.

"There are a lot of bumps in the road you have to adjust to. Sometimes you fall, sometimes it's too hot, sometimes the trail is really hard and it gets frustrating.

"Knowing I can overcome those things and practice overcoming them every single day I go out trail running has helped me take a lot of confidence in the things I can do.

"Then I go to the roads and I feel like I'm absolutely flying, I'm going so fast, like I can overcome anything."