Doing workouts on treadmill

pretty much yeah. you're not getting the same mental gains of holding a hard pace for a while, but physiologically its not a ton different, if any.

I grow softer and softer each year and do a bulk of my mileage in the winter on the mill.

One thing that helped my confidence in getting quality work in was making sure I calibrated my treadmill so I knew exactly what pace I was running. There are a ton of formulas out there for getting this done- super easy and well worth your time!

Where are you guys finding treadmills to work out on? Every gym I've been to is 68-72 with limited air flow. I'm dripping sweat after a couple miles warming up. I'd be sweating buckets by the time I got to rep 2. I'd rather do mile repeats outside even in summer than deal with that.

I've purchased several "good enough" treadmills (Gold's Gym, Precor) from Walmart that go 12 mph and 10% elevation for around $900 -$1000. They usually last me around 4 - 5 years. My current one has around 5,000 miles on it and going strong. I keep a big fan in front of it and watch TV while I run. FWIW, when I was younger, I cranked out a 23 miler on a treadmill and ran a marathon PR 3 weeks later.

I go to my local ymca and yeah the airflow is awful and I drip like crazy! I just tend to be able to run the pace way easier on a treadmill than alone if I had a group of guys going 5:20 pace with me I’d be fine. I feel like the treadmill compensates for that. Im gonna go later on today and do 5 at 5:20 pace on treadmill. Should not be very fun but if I tried to do this on the road alone I think I’d give up and stop pushing myself due to the fact I’m alone.

Based on my experience, yes. I've done about 30 marathon training cycles, some with ALL speedwork on the treadmill, and gotten good results, like top 10 AG at Boston. It started with necessity in the winter and developed into a habit so that now even on nice summer days I'll hit up the mill for 8 x 800 or whatever. Love it.

A useful tool to use when coming back from an injury as the treadmill surface will be kinder on the your legs than the pavement. Also fine for a few sessions if the conditions outside are horrendous and it'll stop you getting the desired stimulus, otherwise I'd use a treadmill sparingly.

I don’t plan on doing much more work on treadmills. I’m going to a freshman in college so I have just been training alone. I move in soon and will be able to start workouts with the team!

Treadmill speeds are not equivalent to outdoor speeds, for a few reasons.

1) They're rarely calibrated correctly

2) Even if they are perfectly calibrated, the pace displayed is the average pace. When your foot is on the belt, however, your mass slows it down. The motor controller increases the power to counteract the extra resistance, but it always lags. As a result, the belt is typically moving fastest when you're airborne and slowest while you're planted.

3) Air resistance at sub-6 pace is significant.

The 1% incline rule of thumb is actually pretty good way of addressing these issues, but it obviously depends on the equipment.

Things that can make the treadmill harder:

1) Heat. Without air movement, you can really start cooking after 30 minutes at a moderate effort. Air conditioning and a fan are pretty good at addressing this.

2) Lack of familiarity. If you don't regularly run on the treadmill, you may actually end up working harder because you'll be tense and focused on staying centered on the belt. This is pretty regularly observed with VO2max measurements. A good lab will tell you that you need to practice running on the treadmill before getting tested, otherwise your numbers won't be reliable.

There's also one thing that can cut either way: cushioned decks. Pretty much every non-research-grade treadmill will be very, very soft. The springiness of the deck can be a little propulsive, sort of like running on a faster indoor track. That said, some decks can be so soft that they're unstable at higher speeds, which can ultimately cost the runner a lot of energy. (Woodway treadmills, notwithstanding their incredible reputation and high quality, are extremely soft, and I would not recommend doing workouts on them.)

I still think the treadmill is a fantastic tool, but ideally you'll use the same equipment every time. That allows you to dial in your equivalent efforts. On most health club treadmills, I need to be going about 20 seconds/mile faster than I would be outside if I want to get my heart rate to the same level.

Tempos are an underrated way to become overtrained and burn out. Better off always taking it slower and can go longer if you want a better workout.

Also, pump the incline up to somewhere between 1-1.5%!

check out this blog on tempo running to understand this better:

georgelewishealth.com

Why You Are Probably Doing Your Tempo Runs Workouts Wrong

Lewis Sheward

This is a must read if you are doing tempo runs in your training. This guide will explain where you may be going wrong in tempos!

Link:www.georgelewishealth.com/post/why-you...

Got a treadmill in my basement & have a couple of really strong fans. But I agree with this sentiment. The assumption seems to be that treadmill running is easier than running outside but often times conditions inside are insufferable & drive up heart rate/effort. If you don't have a cooler set up then it might be hard to dial in a good treadmill workout.

I do a treadmill run almost every day but also workout outside. I’ve not noticed any major difference and the times line up with what I do on a flat track.

Did a 5k TT with some friends inside and did 16:54

Did another one outside a few weeks later and ran 16:57

Plus let’s face it. Summer running with high humidity first thing in the morning sucks solo. Whatever you need to do to get the work done always beats not getting it done.

Heart rate is golden on the treadmill IMO.

I have an easier time running at my outdoor threshold+ pace on the treadmill, but Vo2Max pace or faster starts to get more difficult, so instead of paying too much attention to pace on treadmills, I aim to keep my HR 130-150 for easy efforts, 168-178 for threshold efforts, and hit at least 190 by the end of a Vo2Max effort.

To add to this, my body and i’d guess most bodies will start overheating after 30-40 intense minutes on a treadmill or 50-60 easy-moderate minutes due to the fact that stationary running ruins our cooling mechanisms, which means fatigue metrics will spike around these times.