Why I HATE treadmills

Training Advice/Discussion General

13 years ago 07/18/2010 11:38pm EDT

I rarely run on them, but when I do, I usually notice that on the display, there is a "track" of lit up dots that show how far into each lap I would be if I were on a track. However, each lap starts in THE MIDDLE OF THE STRAIGHT! One would think that given that EVERY SINGLE TRACK RACE starts at one end of a straight/ start of a curve, this is where the stupid little light up display would start laps, but it does not. Do the treadmill companies just completly ignore this on purpose, or have they never raced on a track? I realize this is kind of an overreaction, but I am bothered by it the entirety of my run every time I use a treadmill.

13 years ago 07/18/2010 11:50pm EDT

re: wiener dog

put a peice of tape/shirt over it.

13 years ago 07/19/2010 9:34am EDT

re: kwlefj;lkwenf

shop around or go to good gyms, different gyms, check of the selection. you get to run top of the line 20K dollar treadmills. crazy star trek stuff. 20k/hr top speed, heart rate, industrial strength stuff. cost a pretty penny though.

13 years ago 07/19/2010 10:21am EDT

re: drinker

It's the way tracks used to be, 4x100 exchange zones were on the turns and such. I guess when they changed track configurations, nobody at the treadmill companies noticed. But as long as we're nitpicking the "tracks" on the treadmill are far too elongated, anyway. If people really had to run turns as sharp as indicated on the treadmills, everyone would be injured by the second week of track practice.

13 years ago 07/19/2010 10:39am EDT

re: back in the day

Yup. For example, if you call up the '71 Dream Mile on youtube, the start/finish is in the middle of the straight and it played a big part in the outcome. If the finish were at the end of the straight, Ryun might have gotten there. But that was part of Liquori's strategy. It was more of an advantage then to have the lead coming off the last turn.

13 years ago 07/19/2010 11:27am EDT

re: wiener dog

You should sleep late man, it's much easier on your constitution.

13 years ago 07/19/2010 12:14pm EDT

re: wiener dog

wiener dog wrote:
I rarely run on them, but when I do, I usually notice that on the display, there is a "track" of lit up dots that show how far into each lap I would be if I were on a track. However, each lap starts in THE MIDDLE OF THE STRAIGHT! One would think that given that EVERY SINGLE TRACK RACE starts at one end of a straight/ start of a curve, this is where the stupid little light up display would start laps, but it does not. Do the treadmill companies just completly ignore this on purpose, or have they never raced on a track? I realize this is kind of an overreaction, but I am bothered by it the entirety of my run every time I use a treadmill.

I am not sure why anyone would care about this. What difference does it make? You aren't running on a track. You aren't going around curves. All it does is show you what fraction of a lap you've done. Imagine the line is a straight line instead of an oval. How is it any different? How about if they just had a lap counter? Or a decimal, fraction-of-a-lap indicator?

I've run races, even into high school, where the race started almost in the middle of the track. Not sure why but that was how the track was marked.

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Why I HATE treadmills

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