Benefit to an incline: counterbalance the lack of wind resistance compared to running outside.
Benefit to no incline: legs can move at a quicker pace which probably has some training benefits.
If I don't use an incline, should I add-on a small percentage to my total mileage in order compensate for the lack of resistance that way?
Yes, I believe and others I run with also agree that 1 - 1.5% is closer to running outside. But, be careful. Although the percentage isn't much, a lot of miles on a treadmill at a continue incline may cause leg problems (speaking from experience).
treadmill apologist wrote:
Benefit to an incline: counterbalance the lack of wind resistance compared to running outside.
If I don't use an incline, should I add-on a small percentage to my total mileage in order compensate for the lack of resistance that way?
But you also need to compensate for the added heat buildup from running without any breeze. The added heat makes it harder to run, so for that you do a NEGATIVE 2%.
Therefore, to most accurately simulate outdoor running you need to be at a -.5%
No. If your treadmill is calibrated properly, there is no need to put it on an incline in order to duplicate outside running. The theory that the treadmill somehow does part of the work for you is completely false.
For people who disagree with this I offer you the folowing challenge: Find a properly calibrated treadmill and try to beat your current 5K (or any other distace) PR by a significant amount. You will not be able to do it.
It depends on the pace you are running. Around 7 min pace is where the added incline might be required.
There is a paper in the scientific literature showing an incline of 1-2% equates the oxygen consumption of running on a treadmill to that of running outside. I cannot recall the velocity used in the study, but I think it was right around 7 min pace. If you are running slower, then it is not a factor.
Acually, I have read that article before and I believe it was only at somewhere between 5:00-5:30 where it made much of a difference. Therefore, it would only be required for speed work, but somehow I think that might not be true. Maybe that is based on the heat factor.
For the last 3-4 years I have used a 1.5% incline, with decent results, but I would say those results may be more in spite of the incline than as a result of it. I have recently been rethinking this philosophy based on the aforementioned article and some other things I have read. Running the same time for a hard workout on a treadmill as outside is very difficult with the incline.
I run 100-130 mpw over the winter in a place where the average temperature is 20F, so I try to run outside some, but it is easier to motivate yourself to hit that mileage when your fingers aren't frostbitten. Props to anybody who is able to put in 130mpw in colder weather, but I will stick with the treadmill. When the temps go above 30 and the snow isn't 2 feet deep, I take it back outside.
I love how on these threads people often assume the treadmill speed and distance are accurate. I can promise you, it most likely isn't - not accurate enough to nitpick over wind resistance. If it doesn't feel hard enough - I would rather just go faster than add elevation - cardiovascularly it has the same effect but at the advantage of turning over faster. Treadmills aren't even internally consistent - it may be more accurate at some paces than others.
This isn't rocket science - run the effort that feels equiuvalent to outdoors for that given workout. Ignore the numbers on the machine. If you must quantify, use a HRM to calibrate indoor and outdoor efforts. I have run a sub 31:00 10k on an expensive Precor gym-quality treadmill and on my True, 5:30 pace is tough. Within the same week I have struggled to run 40 minutes on my True at home at 5:30 pace and done 40 minutes at 5:10 pace finishing at 5:00 pace on a more expensive gym treadmill. I have run on different machines of the same model in a club (switching machines after a toilet break) when they are clearly not calibrated the same based on subjective feel, stride rate and HR.
My wife has a Spirit treadmill and at the right effort it tell her she does easy days slower than 12:00 pace and tempos in the mid 8:40's. I can walk at 12:00 pace, but I have to keep up a decent jog to stay on it. My True says I do recovery jogs at 12:00 pace during a long fartleks when I never run that slow for recoveries outdoors during even the hardest shorter track workouts.
Forgive me for beating a dead horse for a moment, but the idea that one needs to run on an incline when running on a properly calibrated treadmill in order to duplicate outdoor running makes no sense whatsoever from the standpoint of physics. The treadmill moves you backwards at whatever pace you want to run. An imaginary treadmill that was one mile long would carry you from one end to the other in exactly six minutes if you set it on 10 mph. There is no counter force propelling you forward, making it easier to run at a faster pace. Therefore when running at a given pace on a treadmill you have to "pick em up and put em down" at the exact same rate that you would when running outdoors.
I think the idea is that elevation adds resistance equivalent to air resistance. I never got this logic, though. Why not just go a hair faster than you would outdoors. If I am running a race and I have a tailwind mile, I'll just go faster that mile to keep the desired effort. Why not do the same on the mill?
woodway
If it's your own treadmill, one big reaason to use the incline feature is that you work harder without the motor working harder.
If you're trashing the gym treadmills, this is obviously not a concern.
"If it's your own treadmill, one big reaason to use the incline feature is that you work harder without the motor working harder."
That is a good point - it is better on the life of your motor to use some incline. Another possible reason I could accpet to use incline rather than speed to increase effort is to reign in an ovelry long stride length (people tend to take longer strides on the treadmill and if you already are a borderline over-strider, this might not be something to encourage).
treadmill apologist wrote:
Benefit to no incline: legs can move at a quicker pace which probably has some training benefits.
This is the only potential benefit to treadmill training that I am interested in.
Is this true? Can we develop a longer stride this way?
We can do all the tough training we want, but if we can't improve the old Stride Rate x Stride Length formula, we ain't going to improve.
What say ye treadmill experts?
According to the stuff I've read, a 1-2% incline will simulate the same amount of resistance you get from the air while running outdoors.
In case you're interested, Jack Daniels talks about it in his running formula book, and theres a chart that shows what various paces at the different percentages of elevation (I believe up to 10%) equate to in regards to running outside at specific effort. For example (this is just made up numbers for the sake of clarification, don't actually have the book in front of me), like running at 7:00 pace at 5% incline is equal to running at a 5:30 pace on level ground. Again, just made up those specific numbers for explanation sake.
It might be worth checking out from the library if you run on the treadmill a lot, just to copy down the graph so you can vary things up.
This was on another thread, but it's an interesting read about treadmill running
I swear some people are just lazy :). Below is the abstract from the artical a few people have mentioned reading once.
The whole point of the 1% incline is to approximate the energetic cost of overground running with air resistance.
Google this for the artical...
Jones & Doust
A 1% treadmill grade most closely approximates the energetic cost of running outdoors.
When running indoors on a treadmill, the lack of air resistance results in a lower energy cost compared with
running outdoors at the same velocity. A slight incline of the treadmill gradient can be used to increase the
energy cost in compensation. The aim of this study was to determine the treadmill gradient that most
accurately re¯ ects the energy cost of outdoor running. Nine trained male runners, thoroughly habituated to
treadmill running, ran for 6 min at six different velocities (2.92, 3.33, 3.75, 4.17, 4.58 and 5.0 m s-1 ) with
6 min recovery between runs. This routine was repeated six times, ® ve times on a treadmill set at different
grades (0%, 0%, 1%, 2%, 3%) and once outdoors along a level road. Duplicate collections of expired air were
taken during the ® nal 2 min of each run to determine oxygen consumption. The repeatability of the
methodology was con® rmed by high correlations (r = 0.99) and non-signi® cant differences between the
duplicate expired air collections and between the repeated runs at 0% grade. The relationship between oxygen
uptake (ÇV O2) and velocity for each grade was highly linear (r > 0.99). At the two lowest velocities, ÇVO2 during
road running was not signi® cantly different from treadmill running at 0% or 1% grade, but was signi® cantly
less than 2% and 3% grade. For 3.75 m s-1 , the ÇV
O2 during road running was signi® cantly different from
treadmill running at 0%, 2% and 3% grades but not from 1% grade. For 4.17 and 4.58 m s-1 , the ÇV O2 during
road running was not signi® cantly different from that at 1% or 2% grade but was signi® cantly greater than 0%
grade and signi® cantly less than 3% grade. At 5.0 m s-1 , the ÇV O2 for road running fell between the ÇVO2 value
for 1% and 2% grade treadmill running but was not signi® cantly different from any of the treadmill grade
conditions. This study demonstrates equality of the energetic cost of treadmill and outdoor running with the
use of a 1% treadmill grade over a duration of ~ 5 min and at velocities between 2.92 and 5.0 m s-1 .
The issue isn't that the treadmill, if calibrated well (which I will already gurantee it isn't), is a hair easier owing to lack of wind resistance, but if adding incline, rather than simply going faster, is the way to make up for it.
This "add 1% of incline" crap is like not swimming 30 minutes after eating. One person says it offhandedly as a way to account for potential problems and then everyone treats it like a rule. I wouldn't pretend that any "pace" on a treadmill equals any "pace" outdoors. I train on efforts. So why botehr calibrating at all. I have one set of ranges I use on my mill to do workouts and another ourdoors, established by subjective effort and HRM.
I would argue that calibration problems, fast or slow, with the mill itself will throw off any attempts to equalize indoor and outdoor efforts that base themselves on using the numbers on the treadmill readout.
If you do most of your runs on a constant 1-1.5% incline you will soon develop hamstring problems releated at a inbalance in the strengths of your quads and hamstrings.
You are overstating your case. You MAY develop an imbalance. This may have been the case for you, but it does not apply to everyone.
Fog is grey wrote:
If you do most of your runs on a constant 1-1.5% incline you will soon develop hamstring problems releated at a inbalance in the strengths of your quads and hamstrings.
Treadmills are a sham. They are a tool of The Man to keep us down. Why don't you just run on a wheel like a freakin' hamster.
Simulate THIS! Just get outside and run. There is a big world to explore. Get off the Habitrail.