I’m running Boston in April. And I will do some of my run training indoors on a treadmill.
Can someone point me to some terrain data for the course that I can use to roughly adjust the treadmill incline as I progress through the course?
It a net downhill, so you may have to fudge the inclines, unless your TM has a negative % setting (does anyone make something like that?)
Woodways. My old gym had these, very different sensation running “downhill” on a treadmill…would not recommend, especially since they are too soft and do not thrash your quads like outdoors downhill running
I had a feeling the answer would come back “Woodway” LOL
I have run on a number of treadmills that had a up to 3° downhill setting. They were usually very big expensive ones at gyms though. For the op though I would definitely recommend a lot of gradual downhill running. The one time I did it I thought the first half of the race was super easy because of the gradual downhill and then my quads locked up and I waddled the rest of the way.
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My Woodway has neg incline, but besides the added cost it also adds height to the treadmill. Definitely not recommended unless you have tall ceilings. I always regretted ordering that feature, and I actually did it for this exact purpose (practicing for Boston). Anyhow, it is good to get some downhill pounding practice for Boston, but I think most people blow because that first half is very easy and they run faster than they should, not necessarily because of the elevation drop itself. I lived and trained on the course for many years and still could never rein it in.
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I appreciate the warning to rein it in for the first half. I work hard to achieve negative splits, and will continue that work in an effort to not bonk in Boston. Certainly hills at the of long runs are in my future.
Also known as “decline” for those of us who are lazy with words 
Sorry, that was double-plus-un-good mannerwise
Well, you aren’t wrong, but you don’t set the decline on the treadmill, you set the incline to negative!
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I looked at the elevation data for Boston on findmymarathon.com and calculated the APPROXIMATE downhills and uphills. This may help treadmill runners prepare.
The biggest downhills are Mile 0 to 1 (-2.0%), Mile 2 to 3 (-1.5%), Mile 15 to 16 (-2.5%), Mile 21 to 22 (-1.5%), and Mile 22 to 23 (-3.0%).
As we all should know, there also are 4 big hills: Mile 16 to 16.5 (+2.5%), Mile 17.5 to 18 (+2.0%), Mile 19 to 19.5 (+2.0%), and Mile 20 to 20.5 (+5.0%).
I did hills on a treadmill yesterday at +3.0% and it really hurts today. I’ve got some work to do.
Going from Mile 15 to 16 (-2.5%), to Mile 16 to 16.5 (+2.5%) that’s a 5% hill, in effect?
Ouch!!!