Share Your Treadmill Stories: Success or Failure

The good...great in bad weather, for the occasional change from other routes, control of pace in a tempo if you want it.

The bad.....can be dull, it's too easy to focus on data rather than heuristic approach, once blew a hammy because I was too focused on finishing session rather than listening to my body (TM seems to promote focus on workout and less introspection, at least in my case), outside runners will call you a wimp.

The ugly...once fell and lacerated my face and hand during an interval session on a TM. Got back on without stopping the machine, fell again. Started again, finished the session. Moral of the story...never jump onto a moving treadmill.

being in the Navy, I get stuck on a ship for 6-8 months at a time. It sucks but I always took advantage of the treadmills on board. No distractions and being stuck, I would do two a days on the treadmill. I never really had problems with injuries, but I have heard of other people. But anyways, I've always made improvements after a deployment. Before my first deployment I was running low 18s for a 5k, I went down to mid 17's after. I dipped into the 16s after my second deployment. I got really good at pacing too, since the treadmill takes the guesswork out of pacing.

I do a lot of running on the treadmill especially in the winter. Overall I think it's a great tool. I can do, e.g., massive hill workouts that would be impossible in the real world. I absolutely feel that it helps improve my fitness.

But ...

A) Accuracy? Forget about it. You need to work on perceived effort. That's probably a good idea in general anyway, but most people want to know real times. You'll have to break yourself of the habit. Train by time and effort, not distance.

B) Stride -- definitely changes on the treadmill. Personally I notice a lot more vertical movement. I'm not sure why. But it changes things pretty significantly.

C) Soft surface. The first few times back outside in the spring, my ankles get fairly sore. I think it's because of the soft/bouncy surface of the treadmill as compared to the road.

D) You need to be careful to not overdo it. It's all too easy to crank it up, fly through a workout, and wind up hurt. Done that a few times.

E) Short repeats suck. I personally refuse to jump on and off of the moving belt. Some people can and do but I don't like the risk factor. So if I do repeats they ramp up and down a lot more gradually than is ideal. As a result I tend to focus on longer repeats -- half mile plus.

Good luck!

I once rode a bike on a treadmill. Great until I tried to stop by instinctively squeezing the brakes.

I've trained for 5 marathons running almost exclusively (90%) on treadmills

Pros:

1. Train any time (I own my own TM)

2. No worries about the elements. No rain. Don't have to worry about hot days potentially short circuiting a long run

3. Entertainment available (TV/music/books but make sure they have larger type fonts)

4. Controllable elevation change

5. Less wear and tear on shoes

6. No unleashed dogs to worry about

7. No catcalls

8. No worries about having to cross busy streets

9. Easy availability of water/refreshments

Cons:

1. Stride mechanics is somewhat different, but it didn't bother me. Or better yet, I did not let it bother me.

Overall

I did 10% of work not on treadmill to make sure I didn't lose entire feel for running on real surfaces, ramping up as race day approached. Also allows body to adapt to changing outdoor conditions. I was never bothered by TM accuracy (didn't pay much attention to the dials nor what garmin step count or distance approximation said). I ran by feel and average HR, and focused on duration of runs rather than distance. I had no injury issues training, nor during/after the race. I tend to space out on runs, and the tedium was never a problem for me.

the difference is mostly psychological. you can successfully train on a treadmill, but I couldn't motivate myself to do it almost every day. I really like to be exposed to different environments when I'm going for a run, like jogging on a trail, going hard up a hill, cruising through downtown, doing intervals on a track...

but that's just personal taste. some people will prefer the treadmill precisely because they want to watch a movie, say. I sounds almost dystopian to me, but that's just me.

dreadmillll wrote:

I'm gonna have to do most of my mileage on a treadmill this next marathon cycle. I've heard mixed opinions on the subject. I'm mostly concerned about the possibility of injury and the accuracy of treadmills in general when it comes to pace.

I've learned how to enjoy treadmill running this past year. Well, not enjoy it, but tolerate it.

Adding an incline really helps, so something around 1 to 1.5 percent will give good resistance, and take impact off of the knees.

I also, like the fact that I can change speeds whenever I want to, and know that I am actually running at a certain pace.

However, I can't run on a treadmill without music. I don't listen to music when I run outdoors, but I need music while running on a treadmill, so I don't focus on the repetitiveness of the movement.

Also, I put a gym towel over the treadmill screen. That way- my mind is free of any visual distractions, and I don't get so anxious about the time moving by so slow.

The only problem that I have with running on the treadmill is that there is a lot of heat that builds up around me, and it takes me some time to adjust. A runner generates airflow when running outside, so that airflow helps to cool off the body. That's not the case when running inside, so your body will have to send extra blood to the surface of your skin to help cool the body off. That's wasted energy, so you will get tired quicker running on a treadmill than running outside.

Forget accuracy on a treadmill. I use the Garmin 220 with chest strap. I've been running mostly 200m intervals, almost daily, on a treadmill for the past 5+ years and never had an injury. You have to be careful about starting and stopping an interval. Typically, I do a very slow 5 min warmup, followed by about 12X200m (gradually increasing speed) with a 100m recovery walk/jog. By the time I'm ready for the next 200, I've been jogging slowly for about 50-100m so that I have no abrupt starts. There is a bit of an art to starting and stopping which comes with practice. Similarly, your sprint, walk and jogging paces come about as a result of experience. Good music is critical to avoid boredom. There are several good books about different varieties of workouts you can do on a treadmill. Check out Amazon.com, keywords: treadmill workouts. Salazar has a treadmill book out and there are many others.

I cannot imagine spending any length of time on a treadmill working hard and going nowhere. I just can't tolerate that level of tedium. Also, I'm way too clumsy to run on a treadmill. It requires all the mental focus I can muster to avoid falling off the thing or smashing my hands against the front console or the side rails. Thankfully I live in a mild climate where it never snows and running outdoors in the summer is tolerable if you get started early enough.

I would put a HRM on and run on the mill, most of the time the paces are so off the wall different that if you are training for a 3:05 marathon and think that doing ur 7min miles on the mill will help you, you're wrong because a 7:00 on a treadmill for me is the same thing as a 8:15 outside.

Lots of success when injured using it walking up a 15% grade.

I concur....I did most of my training on the dreadmill hence my name when I trained for marathons and did perfectly fine. Definitely a lot easier on the joints especially as you get older. I've done some great long runs and hill sprints on them too.

To Scorpio Runner, no kidding about generating body heat while running on the treadmill! I feel like I loose gallons of sweat...;)

Correction: "I lose"

Overall

1. Forget belt accuracy without a footpod, run by HR or feel.

2. Invest in a tablet if at the gym or get a TV for the TM--they will make the experience tolerable.

Pros.

1. Easy to heat train on a TM.

2. Good for set length hills/downhills (especially if you have access to a TM that goes downhill @ 5%)

3. Can train very early/very late in the day and not worry about running in the dark

4. I have horrible pollen allergies, sometimes I do up to 20 miles on a TM if certain plants are blooming.

5. If you are a woman, less chance to be attacked on a solo TM run

Cons

1. The belt doesn't give the same action to your lower leg, so I think your ankles aren't as strong as if you had run outside.

2. I've torn my left ACL twice. At certain speeds, the belt seems to aggravate my joint issues. This doesn't seem to affect people with solid joints, but if you have an injury...

I have found that reason No. 1 above is reason enough to run on a treadmill at least once a week, especially during the Winter and Spring.

One of the best training threads here. Agree with the experiences of others. Offering a few thoughts.

1) If you are on the exact same treadmill each time, go ahead and use those measurements (distance/time/calories/etc) in comparison to previous workouts on that exact same treadmill. For example a 20 sec improvement at a distance of X would still be a 20 sec improvement.

2) My favorite workout is an ascending 60 seconds "off" followed by 30 seconds "on". As I'm 62, I start off at 6.0 mph for 60 seconds and then bump it up to 6.3 mph for 30 seconds. Then it's back off to 6.1 mph for 60 seconds then on to 6.4 mph for 30 seconds. Then back off to 6.2 mph and so forth.

So I'll start out at 10 min pace and can usually work on and off down to sub 8 minute. What starts as relatively easy for 10 - 20 minutes becomes a challenge in the last 10 minutes. It's a good speed workout for me without a training partner to push me.

3) The treadmill was an excellent place for me to improve leg speed as I was taking maybe 170 strides a minute or less and now I am back up to 180. The timer is right there in front of you so count one leg for thirty seconds and see if you can hit 45 on that one leg.

4) Also to relief the boredom and work both legs, I change my breathing pattern to inhale/exhale focus on the right leg for 4 min and 30 sec and then to the left for 4 min 30 sec. One leg seems shorter/straighter and the other longer/stronger. While maybe not making me faster, at my age I am trying to remain somewhat symmetrical and injury free.

Good luck.

+1 with everything above. Some additional notes:

1. I have an iPad. Get some duct tape to help hold it to the treadmill or book/magazine holders.

2. The best videos to watch are those with action. It's hard to watch anything with real dialogue.

3. My favorite things to watch are trail races on Youtube by a Run Steep Get High. TNF50K and Jim Walmsley Rim2Rim FKT are ones that I can watch over and over again. It's inspirational if I am doing intervals.

4. It's great to train for a point to point race with miles of continuous descent. There are only a few treadmills that can be set to decline at a fast pace.

5. It's using to have fueling easily accessible, so you can train for fueling for marathons.

6. It's generally warmer inside, so it's a little like heat training sometimes. Sometimes I try to find one by the door or move a fan.

7. I live in an area where there are not street lamps, so hard to run at night safely.