Why can my body not handle running on the treadmill? Stride falls apart after a few miles.

The treadmill acts as a forcing function to keep instantaneous pace within a narrow range, which in turn limits how much flexibility you have varying cadence and stride length (as their product is instantaneous pace), so your strength asymmetry that you were able to mask on the road is rearing up on the treadmill.

You could try asymmetric strengthening exercises. Or run-walking while keeping the same run mileage. Or run in the mornings. For me, the problem with outdoor winter running is not so much the temperature but finding daylight as I really dislike running in the dark.

Hmmm. It’s tricky to know what to say without seeing you run.

As the other reply suggests, it might just be a fundamental difference in strength between your two legs, which is exacerbated on the treadmill. Your right leg might simply be stronger and you’re collapsing your left leg (hence the pain in your hip). Do you do any strength and conditioning work?

Have you tried adding an incline? It might help. Treadmills are useful but different. You’re stopping yourself falling backwards rather than going forward.

Is the machine on before you begin running on it?

Completely different physics

The ground under you is moved using a motor with a treadmill compared to pushing off static ground.

These are good points, thanks for the input. I knew I had issues with my left side, but hadn't considered my left side could be weaker and off the treadmill I alter my stride to compensate. I don't currently do any strength work (besides some light core work) so maybe I will try to strengthen my left side with asymmetric exercises. Did you have anything in mind? Resistance band exercises are the first thing that I thought of since that's what I used back when I did PT.

Last year I did try adding an incline and I felt like it kind of helped, but was hard to say for sure. Definitely wasn't a cure-all. Not running isn't an option though because I'm still training for track races, both indoor and outdoor.

Do you mean is it moving? No, I get on when it is not moving at all and then slowly increase the speed so I'm walking for the first 10-20 seconds while it's getting up to speed and I then I start running.

This. When you're running on the road, a slight misstep might cause you to shorten your stride for a few steps. On the road, it's not even noticeable. On a treadmill, you'd be off the back! Looking at your watch. Turning your head to the side to look at something... things like this can cause a change in pace on the road that's not noticeable. On a treadmill, you instantly start moving towards the back and have to make a conscious effort to speed up to stay in position.

For many runners, this isn't a problem, but for a few of us, it's a huge problem. In your case, you need to see a PT who works a lot with runners. A PT can analyze your weaknesses and give you recommendations for strengthening exercises.

Until then, you could try what I do. I run for a while, step off straddling the belt while leaving the treadmill running at the same speed, and step back on again in 30 seconds. Or, you could run long enough to get your HR into the lower end of your aerobic zone and then set the treadmill at 4% and "run" at a walking pace only speeding up when you need to get your HR back into the aerobic zone.

It's not ideal, but these are workouts you could do while your PT exercises are fixing your muscle imbalances.

This happened to me. First it was only on the treadmill, then it started happening towards the end of races 10k and longer. I would lose coordination and start tripping. I was pain-free and could walk just fine but even jogging required focus. So frustrating and couldn't figure it out for four years (2 marathon DNFs). Saw a few PTs and everyone thought it was from strength imbalances. I did TONs of strength/activation work but nothing helped. Eventually, I started to have some pain and got an MRI. My answer was my patellar tendon and kneecap had moved off kilter and weren't tracking properly. It only became painful when my kneecap wore completely through the cartilage. Hope you get a kinder answer and sooner. I was 28 yo when it started.

This is a problem I struggle with as well. Perfectly fine running outdoors, move me on a treadmill and there's a 50/50 chance I won't be able to finish my run due to ankle pain. Similarly, I also have a history of hamstring injury on the same side. I'm working with a PT currently and we've uncovered quite a large strength difference in the lateral hip rotators.

My strength routine is pretty basic, laid out below (no rest between exercises, complete each exercise 8 times to start, try to build up to 15):

Lateral leg raises

Lateral leg raise with hip internally rotated (toe pointed to the ground)

Holding leg in the air, go to full hip flexion and extension, basically mimic a running stride in the air while lying on your side

Side lying leg circles going forward

Side Lying leg circles going backward

The side of your hip should pretty much be on fire by the end. Try to minimize your back and body moving around, just move at the hip.

You could try varying the speed and incline throughout the run so you have to change up your stride and cadence.

I have this issue and incline of 1.5% or more makes a huge difference.

get a woodway feels like running on the road

Could be a neuropathic thing. Same impact at same angle causing pressure on a lumbar spine nerve -> weakness, decreased coordination

Is this happening at all intensities?

You could have a muscle imbalance from teaching your body to turn left often. Getting a mirror and watching your form when you run on the treadmill has done great things for me, I’d try it if you can, you might see that you’re running a bit unbalanced and that you just aren’t feeling that unbalance until the fatigue starts to set in.

This too, performance wise a flat treadmill let’s you run a bit quicker than normal but i’ve found it’s much harder on my joints than if I just set it to 0.5-1%

As others have stated, a treadmill results in different physical stress on the body than running on the road. As the ground is moving backwards on a treadmill, the strain on your calves will be lower than running on the road (where you will use the calf more in the kickback to propel your body forward). I.e. assuming that you will experience the same force by running the same pace on a treadmill and on the road, the strain has to be handled somewhere else in the body, and will primarily increase the strain on your hamstring and glutes. This might result in more issues on the treadmill than on the road.

In addition, a positive with running on a treadmill (but also a risk), is that you will get pretty much the same stride each time, which will help with run efficiency but will also strain your body in a very monotonous way. Which in turn might also exaggerate the issue.

Increasing incline and lowering pace should alleviate some of the effect of the first point, as you lower force and hopefully put more of the strain on your calves, but keep your systems running at the same effort and therefore get a similar training effect.

Check out Wahoo’s new treadmill. It has a feature called RunFree that allows you to simply run like you would outdoors. Your stride/cadence controls the pace vs traditional treadmills that lock you into a pace.

dcrainmaker.com

Wahoo KICKR RUN Treadmill: First Run Thoughts!

@dcrainmakerblog

As a general rule of thumb, I avoid running on treadmills as much as humanly possible. I save the dreadmill for only the most miserable of sideways almost-freezing rain windy of winter nights. Usually, I make a point of going

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I had this exact problem! It mostly affected me on the treadmill, but then it started to bother me every time I tried to run fast at all. I had to see a PT, and I had a really bad imbalance between my right side and left side. I had to do a lot of strengthening of my "bad" side to get rid of it, it took months of work, but I'm finally back. The worst part was not knowing how to explain it to people, so I totally understand how you are feeling! I avoid the treadmill at all costs even though it's fixed because I'm nervous that that is what aggravates it the most

It’s mental. You get bored and lazy with your stride.

Try to focus more on being quick with your stride.

The notion that running on a treadmill is a lot different than the road is nonsense. Your muscle fibers don’t know the difference as long as you maintain the same running form.