Do you mind sharing your treadmill track workouts. I have a few regular track workouts but i dont think they are that great to run on a treadmill
whatever you run on a track you can run on a treadmill. 200m through 6km repeats, I’ve done them all on the treadmill. Same with time repeats from :20 to 30min repeats. Although I will say that the :20-:30 sec repeats I typically make about :05 longer b/c the treadmill takes time to get up to speed.
In fact the last time I stepped on a track for a track workout was 2004. Since then every track type workout has been on a treadmill, as well as 90%+ of my tempo and threshold runs.
You just made me feel a hell of a lot better about the amount of time I’ve spent on the treadmill the last few weeks (due to weather, mostly).
I think when I was living in PHX about 60% of my total run miles were on the treadmill over a 4.5 year period.
Off to go run right now in fact…on the treadmill.
I do most of my running outside (CA weather is generally good) but when I am forced to run on the treadmill, I use it so I can get a feel for what a 6 minute mile feels like, a 5:30 mile, a 7 minute mile, etc… I also use the incline feature to really do some good hil workouts. Try going to 15% on a treadmill…there aren’t a whole lot of 15% grade hills out there, and if you can do that at a decent speed, you can do just about anything!
Here’s a workout to do. We got this one from Tatyana Pozdzyakova, the famous Russian runner who won the LA marathon at something like 47 years old. I guess she used to do this in prep for marathons
It is one continuous run ranging anywhere from 3.5 to 6.5 miles, depending upon the weekly volume of running you do. You alternate the pace every half mile/800 meters between marathon race pace and lactate threshold pace. A treadmill is ideal for this. Get in a couple of miles easy and then go right into this workout.
I actually usually do this on a track outside but it seems like a treadmill would be a great place for it
I advocate using the incline. I think you get about 1 min. per mile more “effort” at about 5-6% incline and almost 2 min per mile when you get to 8%. The Daniels book has a chart.
In the winter I often do a little ladder: Say 60 sec. @ 3-4% up to 8-10% with 60 sec. rest (0-1%) and back down. So maybe 6-10 repeats at steeper and steeper @ the same pace, then back down. You can also do this by distance instead of time. Quarter miles for example.
Since I am both a spaz and wuss, running a treadmill really fast is scary (for me). I get psyched out and think too much about what would happen if I just stopped.
a good treadmill workouts:
30mins warmup, progressively faster pace up to “fast aerobic pace”
then 30mins as:
2mins run easy, 8mins run tempo
4mins run easy, 6 mins run 10k race pace (approx. 15-20 sec faster than tempo)
4mins run easy, 2x2min run 5km pace (approx. 15-20 sec faster than 10km pace), 2min jog in between
good workout for practicing running on tired legs