Hands down the best treadmill but a new 4Front costs about $15k plus a couple extra grand for tax+shipping.
Thats not within budget for most buyers (except LRC because everyone here makes 250k+ and runs sub-15).
Hands down the best treadmill but a new 4Front costs about $15k plus a couple extra grand for tax+shipping.
Thats not within budget for most buyers (except LRC because everyone here makes 250k+ and runs sub-15).
800 dude wrote:
Woodways are built like tanks (in more ways than one), but they are also one of the softest treadmills you can buy. They're nice if you want to run easy and spare your joints, and they work very well in institutional settings where they get tons of use and don't require much maintenance. At speed, though, Woodways feel mushy and unstable. You don't get the kind of rebound out of them that you get from a track or road. They're basically the opposite of research grade treadmills, which are super-hard (often built into the floor), and feel just like running on the road. I've tested several athletes on Woodways vs. other treamills, and people are consistently working higher in terms of O2 consumption and HR at the same speed on a Woodway, likely because they sap so much of your energy. (No, I don't rely on the treadmill displays to determine the belt speed; I have a separate sensor so I can ensure that people are actually running at the same speed. Most quality treadmills are very accurate in terms of speed, though there's no great way to account for the slight slowing down and speeding up of the belt that occurs with each footstrike.)
I used to have a Landice, which was fantastic, but I recently got Wahoo's new treadmill, which is hands down my favorite of all time. It has a lot of thoughtful features, like paddles (instead of button) to adjust pace and incline while running fast, a rock-solid platform out front where you can set a laptop or ipad, and it displays pace rather than speed by default (seriously, why do treadmills use speed? no runner thinks in terms of MPH). It's also built like a tank, with a great road feel, and it goes down to 4-minute miles, with very fast pace changes. Easy to program custom workouts as well.
Yes yes yes. Validation re my hatred of Woodway noted early in the thread, and yes I mistakenly called them 'Treadway'. My mistake, but they really are awful to run on IMO and I'd never, ever pay the large premium they cost for the awful experience of having them suck all of my energy with every stride.
Landice all the way IMO. There is NO other maker that offers a true lifetime warranty and I'd love to see another user of ANY other brand whose treadmill is still going strong almost 25 years later.
They Suck Ballz wrote:
Yes yes yes. Validation re my hatred of Woodway noted early in the thread, and yes I mistakenly called them 'Treadway'. My mistake, but they really are awful to run on IMO and I'd never, ever pay the large premium they cost for the awful experience of having them suck all of my energy with every stride.
Landice all the way IMO. There is NO other maker that offers a true lifetime warranty and I'd love to see another user of ANY other brand whose treadmill is still going strong almost 25 years later.
If you ever open up a Landice, they're incredibly simple machines, which just a few heavy duty parts that can all be replaced. You can usually find an old L7 or L8 on Facebook marketplace for a few hundred bucks, and most of them have under 1000 lifetime miles on them. (The trick is to find a treadmill that looks like it's in really good shape, then just save the listing and wait; people want to recoup a significant portion of what they spent, but treadmills just sit and sit until they get under $500.) You can hire some guys to move it for a few hundred more. Then get it tuned up by an authorized service company for like $150. You'll have one of the best treadmills on the market, with tens of thousands of miles of life left in it, for like 600-700 bucks.
800 dude wrote:
I used to have a Landice, which was fantastic, but I recently got Wahoo's new treadmill, which is hands down my favorite of all time. It has a lot of thoughtful features, like paddles (instead of button) to adjust pace and incline while running fast, a rock-solid platform out front where you can set a laptop or ipad, and it displays pace rather than speed by default (seriously, why do treadmills use speed? no runner thinks in terms of MPH). It's also built like a tank, with a great road feel, and it goes down to 4-minute miles, with very fast pace changes. Easy to program custom workouts as well.
You are really liking the Wahoo? The belt/surface feels good? I've been debating the Wahoo or the Peloton Tread+ (primarily for the slat experience).
Woodways are super nice, I really enjoy the underfoot feel. Nice and responsive without being too harsh.
The apartment building I lived in last year had a really nice TechnoGym treadmill that I also enjoyed.
When I was in Philly last year for the Broad Street Run I stopped by a local running shop that had a Wahoo Kickr treadmill. I only ran on it for a minute or two to test out a pair of shoes, but I really liked it.
I think the biggest thing with treadmills is the weight and the motor. It has to be heavy and it has to have a good motor. Beyond that it's mostly just personal preference.
I've had a Landice L7 for a couple of decades, and used to warm up on it for 10 minutes every morning before heading outside. However I've rarely used it for more then 10 minutes at a time, the reason being that it bounces up and down. Maybe some runners like that but I don't. I like a solid surface that's just like the ground when I'm running outside.
For that reason I find that running back and forth in the hallway of my house is more practical and enjoyable than running on the treadmill. I can easily run barefoot on the concrete floor, barefoot on a track, and/or barefoot on any smooth concrete surface, all of which are quite a bit easier to run on than a treadmill that constantly bounces up and down.
I've never tried a Woodway, but the fact that it's so stable (and doesn't bounce up and down?) makes it appear to be much easier and more pleasureable to run on than a Landice or any other similar type of treadmill.
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