. But, if I was wiser I should have just gone for the very expensive motorized slated treadmill that can do everything and not need any regular maintenance (my flat treadmill I'm cleaning and lubing every month, an annoying but necessary process).
Can you give me an example? A brand name? I may get a treadmill.
Are you saying a Stryd foot pod can show you if your treadmill is inaccurate/needs to be recalibrated? Genuinely curious since I’ve never used one.
I would also like to see an answer to this question.
I am not the guy you asked, but I tested the newest Stryd Pod (not the older versions!) on a treadmill by setting marks on the treadmill band and doing a video, measuring the velocity.
On the treadmill i tested, it was accurate +-0.1km/h in a speed range of 9 to 12km/h. (slope of treadmill was set to 0.5%)
If you have any over striding issues or tendencies, the curved will correct that. It's virtually impossible to over stride on the curved. On a related note, it will help if you're trying to increase your cadence.
If your form is basically perfect, then flat is probably the way to go. As others have said, a good flat treadmill is more versatile.
Do you think this running form improvement is transferable into running ouside, where its flat?
Glad to hear this. I pretty much only use the treadmill for tempo runs when weather or other constraints preclude doing it outside. I was stoked for about 3 minutes when my office gym got a Woodway manual curved treadmill, but then I found it was downright miserable to try to do a tempo run on it. I thought it was just me, that there was something wrong with me, that I was just too dumb to figure out how to run properly on it. I'm glad to hear that somebody with more experience perceives it similarly.
Its a troubling dilemma, which is accurate, the stryd pod or the treadmill. Being an engineer and having access to a very expensive laser surface velocimeter I wanted to solve this problem.
My treadmill (StarTrac 4TR, fantastic machine btw) almost always matched the final total distance of my run (say 10k) to the laser unit. I found myself after the fact changing my stryd pod calibration to match my treadmill. So my standard practice here is, clean and lube my treadmill belt, let the treadmill run for 10 minutes to 'warm up', run the maintenance mode calibration on the treadmill, then run 10k to compare the total distance to the laser. When I am satisfied they match, I change my stryd pod, live, to match the speed of my treadmill. Its an annoying and over the top process, but I can't stand when I get garbage untrustworthy data. Now I am assuming most people don't have this tech, and without it I can't really provide much help, but this is what I found with my older stryd pod.
The pace does not line up linearly with the treadmill. If I set my treadmill to 5:00/km, my stride pod will show 5:10/km~5:05/km. When I speed up to 3:35/km on the treadmill, my stryd pod will match it with 3:35/km. Now shoes matter. Some shoes skew these numbers, carbon plated race shoes vs regular trainers. And time on the treadmill does matter as well, as someone stated earlier. I do see my stryd pod running pace slightly speed up during the course of a run. Say a tempo run that is 90 minutes, at the start I will be 3:40/km, by the end I will be 3:37/km, even though the speed is fixed. This could either be the treadmill is running faster when hot, perhaps less friction, or your running mechanics change over time. Anyways, pretty frustrating. Bottom line, any data you see, be it from the treadmill or stryd, is suspect at best.
I have not used my laser velocimeter on the curved treadmill since it needs to see a uniform surface. The slats have gaps between so I assume the laser will likely not read correctly.
As for a high end treadmill to look, Woodway 4Front. Perhaps one of those technogyms or other similar slatted mills.