How to Stay Fit in Seattle: Running Loops, Rain-Season Training and Mount Si

How do people stay fit in Seattle?

People in Seattle stay fit in two seasons. From roughly June to September the city is outside: running the lake loops, cycling the Burke-Gilman, hiking Mount Si on a Saturday. From November to March the weather turns gray, wet and dark by late afternoon, and the people who keep their fitness through that stretch are the ones with a plan that works indoors. This guide covers both halves: where to run and hike, with distances, what each season's weather does to training, the big Seattle events on the calendar, and how a live coached session fits a Seattle week.

Where can you run in Seattle? Five measured loops and trails

Seattle's running routes follow the water, and most have a known distance, which makes them easy to plan around. These are the five we'd send a runner to first, with figures from each park's records.

Green Lake: Seattle's default 5K

Green Lake Park in north central Seattle wraps a 259-acre lake with two paths: a 2.8-mile paved inner loop and a 3.2-mile unpaved outer loop. The outer loop is almost exactly a 5K, which is why so many Seattle runners use it for tempo runs. The inner path gets crowded with walkers, strollers and skaters, so do fast efforts early in the day or on the outer path.

Seward Park: flat, car-free and under old trees

Seward Park covers the whole of Bailey Peninsula, which juts into Lake Washington in southeast Seattle. Its perimeter loop is flat, car-free and 2.4 miles long, repaved in 2007. Inside the loop are about 120 acres of old-growth forest, one of the last tracts left in the city. Two laps make a solid 4.8-mile run, and the flat path suits intervals: one minute hard, one minute easy, all the way round.

Discovery Park: hills and the westernmost point in Seattle

Discovery Park in Magnolia covers 534 acres between Elliott Bay and Shilshole Bay. Its Loop Trail is about 2.8 miles and is a designated National Recreation Trail, with spur trails down to the beaches and West Point Lighthouse, the westernmost point of the city. The climb back up from North Beach is moderately strenuous: use it as a hill repeat and walk down.

The Burke-Gilman: Ballard to Bothell

The Burke-Gilman Trail is a 19.8-mile rail trail that starts near Golden Gardens in Ballard and runs through Fremont, past Gas Works Park on Lake Union's north shore, through the University District and up the west side of Lake Washington to Bothell. Its first 12.1 miles opened on August 19, 1978. In Bothell it becomes the Sammamish River Trail, which continues about 10 miles to Marymoor Park in Redmond. It's shared with commuting cyclists, so keep right and skip the headphones at rush hour.

What is Seattle's weather like for training, season by season?

Seattle's weather is mild but wet in winter and dry in summer, and that split decides how you train. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's 1991–2020 normals put annual rainfall at 39.34 inches (about 1,000 mm), on 156.2 days a year. November, December and January bring roughly half of it. July is the driest month.

Winter in Seattle isn't cold by Midwest standards. A January day averages 48°F, and snowfall adds up to only a few inches in a typical year. The problem is that it's wet on more than half the days and dark early. Summer, by contrast, is close to ideal: highs in the upper 70s, almost no rain and long evenings.

How much daylight does Seattle get?

That's a gap of seven and a half hours. In June you can finish work, eat and still run Green Lake in daylight. In December, the sun is down before most offices empty out, and civil twilight ends at 4:56 PM. Anyone who only trains outdoors loses the evening habit for four months.

How do you keep training through a Seattle winter?

The way to keep training through a Seattle winter is to make strength work your weekday anchor and save the outdoor runs for weekend daylight. Rain on 18 or 19 days a month and a 4:20 PM sunset make an after-work outdoor run unreliable. An indoor session isn't.

1. 1

   Book three indoor strength sessions a week

   Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6 or 7 PM, at home or in your building gym. They're your fixed points, and the weather can't cancel them.

2. 2

   Run once on the weekend, in daylight

   Late morning on a Saturday or Sunday, when the December sun is up. Green Lake's outer loop or two laps of Seward Park, whatever the drizzle is doing.

3. 3

   Dress for wet, not cold

   At 40–48°F you need a light waterproof shell more than a heavy jacket. Wear something reflective if you're on the Burke-Gilman near dusk; it's shared with cyclists.

4. 4

   Get outside at midday when you can

   January averages fewer than 70 hours of sunshine. A 20-minute walk at lunch, when the light is strongest, is a habit worth keeping on top of your training.

5. 5

   Plan a spring goal now

   Pick an event for April to July, a long hike or a summer ride, so the winter sessions have a purpose.

How do you train for Mount Si and Seattle's hikes?

To train for Mount Si, Seattle's classic training hike, build leg strength and climbing endurance for six to eight weeks before you go. Mount Si rises to 4,167 feet over North Bend, about 45 minutes' drive east of Seattle. The trail is about 4 miles each way with roughly 3,500 feet (1,070 m) of climbing to the summit ridge, and between 80,000 and 100,000 hikers do it each year.

That's an average of almost 900 feet of gain per mile, and the descent is what hurts most people's knees. A strength block for it looks like this:

• Step-ups and split squats with dumbbells, two to three times a week, to build the single-leg strength that climbing needs.
• Slow lowering: three-second step-downs and eccentric squats to prepare your quads and knees for 3,500 feet of descent.
• Calf raises and hip work for the steep, rooty sections.
• One long walk a week with a loaded pack, building up to two hours, on Discovery Park's hills or Seattle's stair streets.

Your coach can see on video whether your knee tracks over your toes on a step-up, which is the single most useful correction for hikers. If you've had knee trouble, get it checked by a doctor or physical therapist first; once you're cleared, our Rehab & Recovery program builds the strength back carefully.

What are the big fitness events in Seattle?

Seattle's two biggest endurance events are the Seattle Marathon in late fall and the Seattle to Portland bike ride in summer, and both make good targets for a training block.

If you're running the Seattle Marathon on November 29, you're about a month out: this is the time for your last long run and then a taper, not new mileage. Strength sessions should get shorter and lighter, not stop. For STP next July, a winter of indoor leg strength and core work, then spring miles on the Burke-Gilman and the Sammamish River Trail, sets you up well.

How do Seattle apartments and building gyms fit into a fitness routine?

Central Seattle is apartment country, and space is expensive. Numbeo's October 2026 average for a one-bedroom apartment in the city center was $2,469.71 a month, so few people have a spare room for a home gym. Many apartment buildings in South Lake Union, Belltown and Capitol Hill have a small residents' gym instead.

A building gym is enough to train well if someone gives it a plan. Use the dumbbells for presses, rows, lunges and Romanian deadlifts; the cable machine for pulldowns and face pulls; the treadmill for incline walking on rainy weeks. If your building doesn't have a gym, a pair of adjustable dumbbells and a mat fit in a one-bedroom. Seattle Parks community centers also run fitness rooms, some free for adults; our Seattle personal trainer cost guide lists what they and the city's gyms charge.

Getting around matters too. Numbeo put a monthly transit pass in Seattle at $108 in October 2026. If you commute by bus or light rail, a home or building-gym session saves you a second trip across town just to reach a gym.

What does a fit Seattle week look like with a live coach?

A fit Seattle week combines coached strength on weekday evenings with outdoor time when the weather allows. MakeMyFitness is live online personal training: each session is 45 minutes on video with a certified coach who watches your form and corrects it as you go. Our coaches are based in India, so Seattle sessions run 5:30 to 10 PM and 5 to 6:30 AM Pacific time all year. Here is how a winter week might look.

In summer the shape flips: keep two coached sessions and add a long Saturday hike or ride. Sessions can be moved with 24 hours' notice, which helps when a sunny weekend appears and you want to head for the mountains.

Find out what a trainer costs locally in personal trainer prices in Seattle, and what to eat around your training in healthy eating in Seattle. See a coached evening on our Seattle page, or browse every city on our US page.