In reality, how is the treadmill going to be used? How often, typical workouts, and duration/mileage per session? What is the fitness and running experience (race results?) of potential users?
Such info would be nice to narrow down choices and possibilities, etc.

To be honest, I greatly prefer to run outdoors and only run on a TM when weather or travel necessitates. But two things changed: 1) I just moved from San Francisco to Boston area so I plan to do most of my winter running indoors, and 2) changes to my wife's work/travel schedule means I'll need to train at home when she's own of town and kids are sleeping in early AM/evening in case they wake up / need me.

But to more directly answer your question, I'd say.
Winter/Off Season: 4-5 runs per week on TM, maybe 30-35 mpw. 1-2 longer runs of ~10 miles easy pace (~8:00/mile-ish), 1-2 quality sessions (e.g. 1K repeats @ 5:45 pace, hill repeats @ 5% grade), 1-2 additional easy runs
Race Season: Similar to above running 5-6 days per week, but only 3-4 on treadmill, maybe building to 40-45 mpw for triathlon focused years, with a couple 20 mile long runs and 1-2 short (15-20 min brick runs each week). I might switch to a marathon focus from IM in 2022 (due to having a 2nd kid) where I think run mileage might creep up to 50-65 mpw but bike and swim time will come down substantially.

My wife will likely jog 3x per week, maybe 30-45 min at 6 mph, so I don't know if that matters.

If money is no object, I think Woodway is as good as it gets. Nearly all professional sports teams have them, and they are bullet proof. I've tried a ton of treadmills in high end gyms, and nothing comes close to a Woodway, in my humble opinion.

I bought a refurbished directly from Woodway in 2018, and it has been worth every penny. We use it 6 days a week, and absolutely love it. The Woodway rep said he would buy the refurb from Woodway too, as opposed to buying new if you want to save a bit of $. You basically get completely new components, as the only refurbished part is the frame itself (i.e., new track, new motor, new display, etc). As I recall, it was around $7,500, so $3k+ less than brand new.

No regrets at all, other than I wish I bought one sooner.

Thanks for info.

Of course, there are many treadmills available, and everyone has their preferences. IMO, you might expand your search to also include other brands, including, Landice, Sole, True, PreCor, etc. Whichever you choose, examine the useful features and warranties of each , delivery options, customer service reputation, and go with the best your budget will afford. FWIW, when required to be indoors, I use a Sole F85 for high mileage marathon training (including sub-3hr Boston and New York) and, while not the most boutique/pricey treadmill, it has served me well.

None of these treadmills, while good (Ipreviously owned a commercial-grade Landice) have the "float" feel of the Woodway. Their advertising states that it's over twice as soft to land on as running outside and I believe them. At 60+ years old, that stuff matters with a gazillion miles on the chasis ;-)

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DFL > DNF > DNS

If money is not object, then the two brands to consider are Woodway and Lifefitness.

I was in the industry for a long time, I own a older Lifefitness 95t Elevation, its a beast and a blast to run on. I have a pretty good home gym, not 650 sqft, but better than most. Its nice having a high quality unit in there because you just do not have to think about it, and you, the family, and friends can just beat it up.

This all being said, the only thing I would trade up to is a Woodway, they are awesome. If you have the money, go for it, you will not be mad.

Also, do not buy a refurbished unit, unless you get it from Woodway.

I was lucky in that the used Woodway I bought, came from a training facility where they took care of it first off. But second it was meant for sprinting so it only has 1 arm rail so you could hop on from the side and sprint at up to 16 mph so you could train for the sub 2 hour marathon. But I regress.... Used Woodway, checked out by local treadmill repair company=best investment ever. No complaints. That is what I would do again for sure. Mine is 10 plus years old and still goes strong. Yes I'd buy a newer used one for the more interactive screen. But still can't beat a Woodway

I am kind of an idiot for missing out on two different Woodways this week in Craigslist here locally.. one was $2k and the other was $3500 but he said he was super flexible on price. They weren't perfect but I am sure they would have still been great.

Anyone know how the TechnoGym Skillrun and the Peleton Tread compare to the Woodway as far as running? I don't love the Peleton subscription/classes side of their model but if the treadmill gives the same (or nearly the same) running experience as a Woodway then at $4k is seems like a decent deal.

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Team Zoot

Nothing compares to the Woodway in terms of feel, plus Woodway has also refrained from adding fancy controls that are often the Achilles heel in terms of trouble and repairs. Plus I have never been on any other treadmill that responded as swiftly to input as the Woodway. They are amazing.

I bought a new Woodway 4Front last year in March and last year alone ran over 1000 miles on it. Right now I have almost 780 miles since January 1st with at least 500 on the the Woodway, and the other 280 almost exclusively on trails. Beauty of this new machine- it connects directly to Zwift.

I do agree the Woodway are amazing, our gym has a rediculous number of them and I love how they feel. That's why I asked if anyone has also ran on the other tread/slat based treadmill as I'd love to know how they compare.

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Team Zoot

Money no object? 4Front all the way. I run on one at the gym (Well, did before the world ended) and was able to buy 2 for my remote work locations gym. I’ve ran on everything from sole to precor and nothing touches a woodway.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

I have run on fancy Technogyms and LifeFitness - not the same.

As for Peloton. I would not trust them as they have zero experience with treadmills. It is one thing to improve on a Schwinn Spin bike - quite another to engineer a treadmill

Do you have the base “quickset” control panel that allows you to change include/speed with a single press? That was the one I was looking at as it seems easiest to use. I’m generally more of an analog guy as I find the fancy touchscreens to be fiddly and full of crap I don’t need.

Does the base screen connect with Zwift or was there some “add on” package necessary for that?

I’m also debating whether the standard 0-15% incline will be enough or if I should upgrade to the -3 to +22% version. It seems like being able to simulate decline would be helpful to condition the quads especially since I tend to race a lot of rolling hill courses in real life. It costs an extra $650 which is only 5% more. The bigger difference is the standard model is available refurbished for $10K delivered vs $14K new with the upgraded inclined/decline, and the refurbished is available 4-6 weeks faster (which might be a plus during quarantine mode). Honestly the additional $4K doesn’t really matter one way or another, but just want to get a sense for if the decline is really a useful feature and if not it comes down to new with 5 yr warranty vs refurb but available faster with only 2 yr.

I got the basic screen with the speed dial buttons and they are great and all I needed. And yes it connects to Zwift and I use an IPad for that, thus no need for a fancy screen.

But I too upgraded to the -3 to +22 as I want to train downhill here and there

Im not an expert but i just got the Peloton tread about a month ago and i am incredibly impressed with the feel and function. Very user friendly with the dials and the surface is incredible to run on vs a belt tread...

Not to get off topic, but how close do people think we are to seeing truly 'smart' treadmills?

Are we near the point where a zwift running experience will be the same as zwift on the bike (races, group rides)

I'm not even sure what I mean by smart treadmill, it could control incline but how could it adjust speed (safely).


Asking, because a Woodway sounds well worth it, unless we are about to see a significant change in technology.

My wife wants the Peloton Tread and the Bike. We could get her both for less than half the cost of the Woodway. I just want the absolute best treadmill. My concern is she ends up not doing the classes and I end up compromising for nothing.

Yea my wife already had the bike and really wanted the tread. Our deal was if we got it, she would cancel her yoga and orange theory memberships so this thing will pay for itself in no time! hahaha

She loves the Peloton tread more than me given the wide variety of class options she can participate in. For me, i have a training schedule that i follow so i just run it on manual mode and go... cool part is in manual mode, you can run different virtual trails and courses on the gigantic 32inch screen.

The best part would be if there was a hack to get netflix on that screen... then it would be worth its weight in gold!

I own a Landice L8. And although it is a tank, I’ve been disappointed with it as it shakes so much no matter what I’ve done and who I’ve called.

If I could do it over again, I would get a Woodway

This may be blasphemy here, but I don't like the feel of the Woodway.

I vastly prefer the Technogym

The TechnoGym Unity looks promising. I’ll check it out. Is that the model you have. Why do you prefer it over the Woodway?

I think the Unity is just the screen interface. I don't actually own a treadmill, but I travel frequently and pick my hotels based on treadmills haha

The Unity interface is super easy to use, speed/elevation paddles are great, and I really prefer the running surface over the Woodway. Downside is they cost like $15k new and there isn't much of a used market. The Unity 3.0 adds something like $3k alone.

Still want to try the Peloton at some point. Looks interesting and not a ludicrous price point

Oh, your right. I meant the Skillrun.

The Woodway “QuickSet” interface looked pretty easy to use also. $10-15K was about what I was expecting to spend. The Woodway Quixote came in at $14K after delivery and taxes.

I will preface everything I am saying, by stating that I sold, installed, repaired, and serviced commercial and residential fitness equipment for the better part of my life.

Peloton is a great marketing company, but that said, the value is in their classes, not their product. The bike is a POS, I would take a 10 year old star trac spin bike over it any day of the week. I have not seen or touched the treadmill, but it does look nice. However, who is manufacturing it? Have they been making treadmills for years and years? Will you be able to get parts and service in 5,10, or 15 years? And I can bet you that big touchscreen does not last as long as the other parts, and how much will that thing cost when its out of warranty.

Technogym products are fancy, but they break far more often then their high end counterparts and they are super expensive to fix (think of them as the Ferrari of fitness). When I still owned my business, I got to the point where I would turn down work because they had techno products. Their customer service is the worst.

I am happy to always answer questions when it comes to equipment, since dusting off my law degree I sort of miss the industry.