Why do many sub elite runners underestimate the treadmill?

Boring treadmill

Boring thread

Was it Gerry Lindgren who used to do a major portion of his mileage on a manual treadmill?

gym recently got a treadmill that goes to 30 degree elevation. should be called a trudgemill. getting back on a 15 degree mill I thought it was broken. I love them. If you are boring get a game boy and wallow in the floor.

I have just started using it regularly and am loving it; being able to run at a precise, consistent pace for anything longer than a short interval is extremely helpful, I am convinced that I am training better.

It's not the sub elite that underestimate the treadmill, it's the never elite 27:30 8k college stars that post on here that underestimate the treadmill.

I remember when Ken Martin did his 2-hour long runs on his treadmill, for quite a number of weeks and placed 2nd in NY City marathon, with 2:07. If you can handle 20-mile runs on a treadmill, 26 miles in a race will fly by.

Hog wrote:

I remember when Ken Martin did his 2-hour long runs on his treadmill, for quite a number of weeks and placed 2nd in NY City marathon, with 2:07. If you can handle 20-mile runs on a treadmill, 26 miles in a race will fly by.

2:09:38 clean.

I hate treadmills. They were litteraly invented to punish criminals.

i did a great 13 miler on the treadmill once (for my standards) and then the next day i tried running outdoors. running outdoors was so much harder, i had to try harder to go fast and i felt very wobbly the whole time. running on a treadmill is not that great. it's way easier to do something on a treadmill because it's all flat and it's much easier to go at faster speeds on a treadmill. sure you may break a sweat, but it's still easier.

plus the faster on a treadmill you go, the slower it actually is if you actually went outside

It's not the same as running outside, on the treadmill you just lift your feet up and down while the belt moves under you. The mechanics are completely different and dont translate to real running at all.

You are talking of deluded idiots, people who carry a chip on their shoulders and think they know it all when it comes to running. There is a reason they are not ELITE with those lousy figures you just mentioned. There is a fair share of REAL ELITE runner who can attest of the value of treadmill running, you should really care about what they say, not the to the 2:40-3:00 joggers.

Like cereal????? wrote:

I hate treadmills. They were litteraly invented to punish criminals.

Then don't use them. Anyone pointing a gun at your head forcing you to use one?

Everything has its place. I love it for: long inclined workouts, crazy weather, kids forcing me to be home, or just the added calorie burn at the end of the day. I don’t think it replaces road running, but it is a great tool to have. I have done three twenty milers on them and they were all enjoyable because the alternative was either snow storms or not running.

I don't want to buy a treadmill or deal with a gym membership. The number of days in my typical training cycle that are so bad that a decent workout can't be had are pretty limited. I also find it more rewarding and mentally better to deal with the uncomfortableness of whatever weather you have to deal with.

I used to hate the tread--now I love it as a father that does his runs at 4:30am. There is nothing fun about running in the dark/cold, so most of my weekday mileage is logged on the 'mill. Only time it stinks is if I want to do workouts faster than 5 min pace, so I save that for that weekends.

The treadmill is best when used in combination with a heart rate monitor. With HR, you always know what sort of effort you are getting. And for what it's worth, I run about the same pace at the same HR on the road or the TM. So they are about equivalent for me. I do find that a hard TM workout will leave me more sore than an equivalent road workout. Perhaps my stride or foot-strike is changed a bit.

I train on the treadmill 1 hour @ 6.5 grade at least once a week. I generally do 6 min on/4 min float pieces. Time goes by real fast and I can gradually increase the intensity over time. No way is the treadmill a replacement to running outside, but I can gauge my aerobic fitness very precisely while missing those nasty days out in the rain/snow.

I love my treadmill. Bad weather, bad winters, nothing beats it. Even sometimes getting home later than usual from work. Instead of taking 20-30 min. to get several layers of clothing together, getting dressed and out the door when its cold, just jump into some shorts and a T and hit the treadmill. Also, tempo runs. Just set it and forget it. Icy roads, darkness.... no matter. Comparing tempo runs under exactly the same conditions is also more valid. Its not the be all and end all of everything, but it shouldn't be dismissed as ineffective either. Boring? Put on a DVD, its great. Running the other day watching Kipchoge break 2 hours, highly motivating.