KneeSaver wrote:
In an effort to take some pounding off the knees, I'm thinking of moving to Treadmill / Elliptical.
How do you guys count this in your weekly milage?
Miles are miles and they should all be counted.
Don't forget you are using your mileage count to measure the length of time you are working on aerobic fitness.
"Over analysis leads to paralysis" STOP OVER ANALYSING THIS GUYS
Um none? wrote:
Why are you counting mileage at all? Just run for a certain amount of time whether on a treadmill or road/trail. This obsession with "milage" (sic) is ridiculous. It is meaningless.
Given my username, I think it's my obligation to speak up here in defense of tracking mileage. Having data about how much you are running each week can be valuable for many reasons. For example, analyzing your training from the past can help you learn about what is most likely to work in the future. Tracking mileage also helps guide your daily training to avoid running more or less than intended over longer periods of time.
If training volume didn't matter for performance (or injury risk, etc), there would be no reason to track it. But it does matter, a lot. Obviously the distribution of paces you are running matters too. You can't capture a week of training, with dozens or hundreds of possible variables, with a single number. But total volume - along with maybe a couple other things like average pace, miles spent at or below race pace, etc - is one of the most important key summary statistics that matters for performance. That makes it a useful thing to track.
(One caveat - tracking time instead of distance is a reasonable alternative. Distance makes more sense to me personally, because ultimately running is about finishing a set course, rather than running as far as you can in a set amount of time. But that's just a personal preference. In terms of technical merit, I think it's debatable - distance correlates closely with total running energy consumption, while time correlates with number of steps taken. The key point is that while neither one captures the full picture, either one can be a very useful proxy to track your training.)
And to answer the OP's question, I wouldn't count elliptical miles towards mileage total. This is for the same reason that I wouldn't count biking or swimming miles - while you might be improving your cardiovascular fitness through these activities, there are many other physiological adaptations to running that these non-running activities will not trigger. I personally like to deal with this issue by summarizing my training as, for example, "60 miles running + 3 hrs cross-training".
Since you don't pick up your feet on the elliptical, I count it as race walking mileage.
You think watching tv is the same as running? You are a moron.
You just replied to a 5 year old post. Speaking of moron….
Knee problems come often from overstriding. Video yourself from the side and look if your leg is almost straight while landing. This would be bad. You have to address your running form first and then how you count the miles. Treadmill miles = road miles