A friend of mine coaches some local triathletes. One of his premier swimmers (usually first out of the water overall) is having problems with run speed. Can’t seem to get under 7:15s per mile or so. He’s having her work do track speed work, but it’s not helping much. I suggested that running on a treadmill would help her learn to turn over faster. He totally disagrees. I often do my mile repeats on the treadmills because I can set my speed and keep to it.
What does everyone else think?
I agree that treadmills can improve speed. I used to do quarters on a treadmill that went up to 15mph. i could run them about .1-.2mph faster on the treadmill than track. After a couple of weeks on the mill I was running a few seconds faster per 400 on the track.
I knew an OT swimmer who couldn’t break 8min for a mile if his life depended upon it.
Not sure if they can make you faster, but they keep me honest during my intervals. I train by HR and time and you just can’t slow down when it hurts like you can on the track or trails.
k
I agree you can improve your speed using a treadmill. Remember to set the treadmill at 1/2 to 1 percent grade to compensate for running indoors. Treadmill running is very specific and with repeated measured workouts, an athlete can certainly improve their speed.
Jack Weiss
I agree with above posters. I always do my speed and hill work on the treadmill. It’s keeps me honest with speed plus I think it teaches you how to run at an even pace. It’s also sometimes hard to find a place to run intervals (besides the godforsaken track) with no stoplights, traffic, etc. I don’t know that i have a faster turnover on the treadmill though.
FWIW: I always put the incline at 1% on the TM to compensate. Unless, of course, I’m doing hill repeats and then I put it at 3%.
I have been using the treadmill regularly at the gym for runs (4 miles or less) and I think it offers many beneifts such as the fact that often times there is good “scenery” to the left and right no matter how slow/fast I run and the pace of the treadmill helps with speed work. The treadmill I run on most often has a “random” feature that, depending on the selected climb level (0-20), I think will automatically alter the gradient up to 6% (I think) but I have yet to see anything more than 3.9% at a pace of 8 mph.
One run involves a 3-4 mile interval starting at 7.7 mph pace and increases in .1 mph increments every tenth of a mile until reaching 10-10.5 mph and a HR of 155-160 bpm. I hold this for either a specified time or distance (1/4-1/2 mile) then start back down to the base speed. An alternative is fartlek style runs using the treadmills speed input feature - warm up and then go from 7.7 mph pace to 10-11 mph until HR reaches zone 5 then take it back down to base speed for a period of time until recovered to zone 3 then repeat until finished or throwing up, whichever occurs first!
Michael