Let's say you run short fast reps on the treadmill like 45" at 8-10% incline, will it be as benefitial as to run them on a hill outside. Running hills on the treadmill is easy to do because you can control the incline and the duration of the rep but is it a waste of time or a good way to train if you don't have hills near your house.
I'm not sure how well hill reps and a treadmill would replace hill reps on a hill, but you should consider a couple factors first. One, a lot of treadmills won't go as fast as you should be going for hill reps. Two, what you describe is very hard on treadmills. If you're doing this on your own treadmill, hopefully you have a service plan. If you're doing it on someone else's treadmill, don't be surprised if they ask you to leave.
One big advantage of uphill work on the treadmill is that you don't have to jog back down between reps, so you can take a relatively short rest and get right back on it.
One note that I remember from my students' treadmill work some decades back: The energy output (metabolic equivalents) when running at 10mph on a 10% incline is the same as that of running 62sec/400 pace on the flat.
I used to do the pre-set hill workouts on a treadmill at the gym. Basically 15 minutes warmup, 30 minutes of the hill routine at a moderate pace, and a 15 minute cooldown. The routine would alternate between 1-2% and 4-5%, changing every minute. The biggest issue was no running downhill.
I definitely felt it and it made hills outside much easier over time.
past his prime wrote:
I'm not sure how well hill reps and a treadmill would replace hill reps on a hill, but you should consider a couple factors first. One, a lot of treadmills won't go as fast as you should be going for hill reps. Two, what you describe is very hard on treadmills. If you're doing this on your own treadmill, hopefully you have a service plan. If you're doing it on someone else's treadmill, don't be surprised if they ask you to leave.
Steep inclines are actually easy on treadmills, gravity is doing most of the work so it lessens the strain on the motor. A negative incline would be really stressful though, because the treadmill would have to pull your weight uphill- which is why few treadmills have this feature.
Some treadmills even come with a baked-in 1% or 2% incline, even when they read 0%, to lengthen motor life and simulate the effect of air resistance.
One downside of outside hill repeats is that the rest periods are too long, so treadmills at least don't have this problem. I think the main issue would be how fast your treadmill can ramp up speed and incline.
lease wrote:
One note that I remember from my students' treadmill work some decades back: The energy output (metabolic equivalents) when running at 10mph on a 10% incline is the same as that of running 62sec/400 pace on the flat.
I think thats a bit too exagerated. 62 400m pace feels way harder than 10mph pace on 10% incline
For the reasons people are saying here the treadmill could be even more beneficial.
Some things can not be simulated though. Throughout our season in XC I have my athletes run short hills on sand and grass. I don’t think the benefits I am looking for from these exercises can be duplicated on the treadmill.
There is a huge benefit from having an athlete put a decent effort for 25-35 minutes on a treadmill at 4-7% which is something I can simulate where I live outside. So I can see a benefit for both.
Meant to say I can’t simulate a 25-35 minute effort at that grade.
OP, if you need or want to do hill repeats it is not a waste of time. It may or may not be as good as outside running but it's certainly a good workout.
We use a local rec center for training but unfortunately their treadmill only goes up to 12 miles an hour- fast enough for me but not many on this site.
Given you run equally fast and have the same incline, there is of course no difference between running outside or on the treadmill.
Practically, the longer intervalls the easier to use the treadmill. Obviously, doing 10sec hill sprints on the treadmill might be hard due to adjusting the speed right. 45sec reps would work well on the treadmill. Easy to steer the intensity right.
Much better. Hill reps on the treadmill are fantastic.
SLoWpacE. wrote:
lease wrote:
One note that I remember from my students' treadmill work some decades back: The energy output (metabolic equivalents) when running at 10mph on a 10% incline is the same as that of running 62sec/400 pace on the flat.
I think thats a bit too [exaggerated]. 62 400m pace feels way harder than 10mph pace on 10% incline
I agree with that observation of how it feels, but I've found the equivalency tables and that's what they say.
Doing treadmill reps like that is a nice segue from more distance-oriented stuff to higher-speed work on the flat.