Otq dreamer wrote:
In all seriousness curious what avacados number did on the uphill treadmill runs?
Pace,time,grade...heart rate?
I just saw this thread pop up again after a long time, and I noticed a few questions to me that I never responded to.
My upslope treadmill running was almost all at grades greater than 10% -- from 11 or 12% up to just over 20%. (These treadmills were 1980s vintage; I know that treadmills in fitness centers these days generally top out at 15%.) I generally did these sessions running high up on my forefoot, without touching down on my heel, and always in very lightweight racing shoes; running at lower grades -- even 10% -- was difficult or awkward for me to do solely on my forefoot with the right form and ankle flexion. (I'm not a natural forefoot runner, although I trained myself to run higher up on the forefoot over the years.)
Although it was not uncommon for me to do zero-grade treadmill training at about 5-minute-mile pace or faster, I don't recall specific paces at various positive grades; it was more about hitting the right level of perceived intensity. I didn't have a heart rate monitor, nor were there heart rate monitors on the machines themselves. The only times that I recall taking my pulse manually were after very short, steep repetitions, when I was essentially running to failure and my pulse would get very high (presumably, maximal heart rate). My treadmill sessions were often fairly free-form, and depended on how I felt, what kinds of injuries were lurking, and what specific physiological goals I was trying to accomplish. Sometimes, I did long, steady runs at steep grades, concentrating on running form and efficiency, just trying to "float" with very soft footfall and easy arm carriage. For about four weeks before running sub-2:19, when I did nothing but steep upslope treadmill running because of an injury that precluded running on hard, flat surfaces, I sought to run a total amount of time that was fairly close to what I would have been running if uninjured, although the average intensity was probably higher. Upslope treadmill running is not ideal preparation for the pounding of a flat marathon, but it did train me to run with form that reduced impact, which provided some measure of compensation.
By the way, although I no longer run competitively, I stll do treadmill sessions, and I've found that progression runs, gradually increasing the pace at regular intervals for up to one hour, are especially well-suited to treadmill runing and seem very productive. In general, I've always looked forward to treadmill sessions, at least when I've been fit enough to run with good form and intensity.
I'm surprised to learn that the original poster is in his forties. When I returned to serious training after turning forty, I was able to ratchet my volume back up very quickly, but my higher-intensity training and racing seemed stuck at perhaps as much as 15 seconds per mile slower than what I could do in my early thirties, and I had this sense that I just couldn't get back to that earlier level; my body just didn't seem to cooperate. It was almost as if I was experiencing a sense of mortality for the first time. (Sigh.)