Looking for the wisdom of smart runners out there.
Has anybody had success (ie greatly reduced injury and achieved running goals) by exclusively or almost exclusively running on the treddie?
The reason I ask is that I have a very high injury rate running outdoors, but (knock on wood) very low on the treddie. I already do most of my runs on the treadmill, but my hill repeats and track session I do outdoors. Am tempted to try that but wanted to hear other folks experience with this experiment first…
Do Lionel, Potts, and “old farts” (somehow I don’t believe that!) do even their quality work on the treddie? Also their long runs?
Do you find that you need to do a couple of outdoor runs before the race to get used to running outside or pretty seamless?
I find that…
indoor cycling doesn’t require practice sessions to going outside except for technical / descending bike courses.
2)And with my Vasa erg, a couple of real swims gets me race ready.
Fwiw, I am a 1.32 to 1.34 HIM runner. For all these race results, I have either been injured immediately prior or have only been able to do 2-3 months run training as was coming off an injury. (Hoping to go faster… But who isn’t?
Sure, once in awhile go outdoors and run and ride on some trails, mountains, get off the vasa and swim some pool and OW. But many folks spend most their time indoors now, the two guys I mentioned especially. Hear they do pretty good once outside. For me, I prefer to do a mountain run or two with lots of treadmill, get some good leg speed going downhill while weight bearing, and of course the challenge of gravity going up…
I think you could definitely get away with it, you’d probably be fine but you’d likely want to include maybe an outside run each month or so just to vary it up but that could be more mental than anything.
I do probably 75% of my runs on the treadmill. I’ve qualified and ran Boston and just KQ’d. I do all the different types of runs on it and don’t have an issue. If i were to change anything i’d bump up the incline 1.5%.
So what’s the deal with treadmills not being “real running”?
What I’ve always heard is that you’re just keeping up with the treadmill, and it’s not actually running and it’s unnatural. I’ve always been told to run on one of these: https://www.assaultfitness.com/products/treadmill
Since you power it yourself, it forces you to use correct running form, it actually replicates real running. I know Lionel has the flat version, but it’s not quite the same
I went from running only outside when training for my marathon in March to now running 90% of the time on a treadmill and only 1 time per week outside. I have found that my running has drastically improved by running on a treadmill. I’ve increased my pace / mile by 21 seconds. Just ran 10 miles on Saturday and it was my fastest ever, I was shocked.
I had a stretch a few years ago where I couldn’t run on a treadmill at all without feeling like I was losing my balance. Once I got over that fiasco, I’ve flipped a 180 and have been doing most of my weekly runs on the treadmill. I try to keep the incline at 2+% at all times and it makes my outdoor running feel like a breeze. I’ve also been using aaptiv treadmill workouts which are great at adding variety.
No doubt running on treadmill is a lot safer, and I too convert to treadmill when in rehab from an injury (knee most recently). However the main problem for me was getting the equivalent effort (power) on the treadmill to outside. I spent a long time working this out and came up with this conversion https://goo.gl/g9yvnd and explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XImO3h7ttvw. hope thats helps. bw Alex
due to life responsibilities and work, 95% of my running is on the treadmill.
on a treadmill you can pick your pace and just set cruise control, just like ERG mode on the trainer on your bike. sure, youre “just keeping up with the treadmill” but youre absolutely putting the work in. intervals are easier too, you can set the pace and there is no cheating, you MUST run that pace, no slacking up.
im sure running outside has its benefits, but us AGers have lives and responsibilities. thank god for modern technology and indoor training equipment.
My treadmill running generally depends on the time of year. I’m a teacher and during the school year all of my weekday runs are on the treadmill. Weekend runs are weather dependent, especially in the winter. The longest I’ve run on the treadmill is 18 miles, but watching Netflix or Amazon Prime along with Zwift passes the time.
I do like that it is a lot easier to hit intervals on the treadmill - just set the speed and you don’t have to be checking the watch for pace. It’s done me just fine over the years, and I too recently KQ’d for the first time after a long winter of treadmill running.
When I lived in PHX I used to do about 80% of my May-Sept running on a TM and about 55-60% of my total running on it.
There was a 3 or 4 year period where I did all my fast running on the treadmill.
I have had some athletes who did >90% of their running on a treadmill and they did fine.
The treadmill is an excellent tool for running, lots of benefits to it that you can’t or often don’t get outside. Of course there are benefits to outside that the treadmill can not give you either.
Looking for the wisdom of smart runners out there.
Has anybody had success (ie greatly reduced injury and achieved running goals) by exclusively or almost exclusively running on the treddie?
The reason I ask is that I have a very high injury rate running outdoors, but (knock on wood) very low on the treddie. I already do most of my runs on the treadmill, but my hill repeats and track session I do outdoors. Am tempted to try that but wanted to hear other folks experience with this experiment first…
Thanks in advance
Back at the end of 2017 I trained for a marathon, with a goal of a BQ, entirely on a treadmill. This was mostly due to bad weather every weekend keeping me inside, but also most of my weekday runs had to be inside due to various circumstances. In the 3 months leading to that marathon I ran outside only a handful of times, and only for shorter runs (8 miles or less). I did ALL of my long runs on the treadmill going up to 2.5hrs. I got good at watching movies from the treadmill deck.
On race day, I pulled off the BQ and then some. BQ time was 3:10, targeting 3:05 or better, and I ran a 2:59.
So yes, it is absolutely possible to train for a marathon indoors. That said, I believe the reason I was able to pull that off was because I spent the whole summer before that running outside and training for two Ironmans that year. So I had plenty of “base” run strength built up. So I would caution you that my experience comes with the caveat that while I might not have run outside for three months before a big race and achieved the goal, I did run outside a lot before that three month period.
There are a ton of threads on ST about this.
When I lived in PHX I used to do about 80% of my May-Sept running on a TM and about 55-60% of my total running on it.
There was a 3 or 4 year period where I did all my fast running on the treadmill.
I have had some athletes who did >90% of their running on a treadmill and they did fine.
The treadmill is an excellent tool for running, lots of benefits to it that you can’t or often don’t get outside. Of course there are benefits to outside that the treadmill can not give you either.
For me, the biggest benefit is that the treadmill allows very precise monitoring of pace and effort. When I run outside, I tend to run too fast too often. With the TM, I can set it at a very comfy pace and I can run more miles without injury. I’ll hit 6 months on the TM at end of this week and my avg mpw for the YTD is up to 32 mpw, which if I can keep it up, will be more than any previous year.
My gym has one of these and I love it! You can do easy runs on it along with really hard intervals. Much more natural feel than traditional treadmills.
Something else to consider is combining time on the Stair master with treadmill efforts.
I went from running only outside when training for my marathon in March to now running 90% of the time on a treadmill and only 1 time per week outside. I have found that my running has drastically improved by running on a treadmill. I’ve increased my pace / mile by 21 seconds. Just ran 10 miles on Saturday and it was my fastest ever, I was shocked.
I’m the other way around. My pace is pretty good running on the treadmill with 1% incline, but I’m never be able to match that pace running outside. I run 2-3 times a week on the treadmill and once outside. Because of that reason, I’m a firm believer of running outside is a better workout. I just can’t do it often due to time restriction.
I’ve gone from running a 1:30 half marathon in 2015 to almost going under 1:20 on the same course in 2019 all while getting older (44 now). Along the way I’ve one from mid 19s to high 17s on 5ks. One thing that I’ve consistently done over those years is hit the treadmill. I don’t get that beat up feeling when I run on the treadmill that I get from outdoors. This allows me to keep up the volume and my goal is 200 a month (which according to ST is the gold standard).
I recommend running on Zwift. I keep from getting boring by watching videos of people racing whether it’s a 5k or longer distance. Also, I change around the speeds on the treadmill a lot to mix it up.