Cross trainer 5km time

I used to hit about ~20 mins for 5k on the elliptical at 11/20 for resistance (actually used to do that for an hour). Took a bit to get up to that, didn't really make me a faster runner or prevent fitness loss. Point being, the pace doesn't matter much, just go by heart rate or perceived effort cause it's just not comparable enough to running and you will be using different muscles.

12 is quite a lot, assuming we are using the same scales of resistance. i find 10-11 on my machine to be about equivalent to road running. only if i want to really work the calves and leg muscles I will set it to 12 or 13, 14, for a short workout. so maybe you are trying to pedal at too high a gear, if we use cycling terminology.

i'm male running 35 minute 10ks, for reference.

Thanks. That's very useful info and makes me feel a bit better. 20 minutes 5km sounds insane.

Interesting point about you finding that using the elliptical didn't prevent fitness loss. What would you say the best way to retain fitness without running is?

I feel much more comfortable cycling than using the cross trainer and my speed/time is supposedly intermediate level. Maybe I'll focus on that.

Thanks for the info. It could be that my resistance is too high. Next workout I will go lower.

I find it tougher when the resistance is too low though, as it feels the pedals are going out of control. Does that make sense? I'm worried I'm using the machine incorrectly and that my form is terrible.

It took me many months to get used to doing the elliptical, I had a really stubborn stress fracture so I was on it for quite a while as I transitioned back to just running. I also aqua jogged and cycled for a while before switching to the elliptical. The one thing I would say is good about the elliptical is that you can use it to get acclimated to running lower speeds with a higher cadence. It definitely improved my running economy from that perspective. I would try to keep the resistance on the higher side after warming up (maybe 6 and above) on the elliptical because the lower you go the more you might unconsciously settle into letting inertia do too much of the work. Try to engage your glutes as much as possible. I didn't not find it at all useful at maintaining or improving any kind of speed or V02 max.

Cycling was maybe the least helpful for me, aqua jogging is mentally painful because it's so tedious and you have to constantly monitor and assess how much effort your putting in (vs. Cycling / Elliptical you can go by heart rate / watts / RPM more easily) , but it feels closest to running and you're a lot less likely to pick up an injury from it. So give that a shot if you have access to a pool, but be prepared to shell out for waterproof headphones because you'll likely be very bored by it very quickly.

Good luck!

are you using your arms on those handles that simulate skiing poles? i don't use them, I grab the fixed handles or run with a normal running motion with my arms swinging freely, not holding onto anything. if you are using your arms like you would if you were skiing, then maybe it feels too easy on the legs because your arms are doing a lot of the work.

or if the machine is old it could not have been calibrated for a long time, or is calibrated in a different way to other people's machines. i've used two elliptical machines in the same gym and one recorded a faster speed than the other when set to the same resistance. try a different machine?

but it's probably better to focus on wattage, or heart rate like the other person said. distance and speed will vary depending on the machine.