5 Ways to Improve Your Next Treadmill Run
Running on a treadmill isn’t exactly the same as hitting the roads or trails, but it can be an excellent training tool! There are many reasons to turn to the tread instead of running outdoors, including brutal weather conditions (e.g. extreme heat or cold), convenience (e.g. toddler napping upstairs), and safety concerns (e.g. icy roads or a dark, unfamiliar environment). The treadmill also builds mental toughness, and can provide reassurance and flexibility when coming back from injury or illness.
Check out these five tips to help you maximize your next treadmill-based training session!
Remember to Warm-Up & Cool-Down
Photo by Ryan De Hamer on Unsplash
Properly warming up and cooling down are as essential as the workout itself - the same as when you’re running outdoors. Don’t give into the temptation to “get your workout done faster” by cutting these out. To warm up, try walking at 3 to 4 MPH for 5 minutes, then picking it up to an easy jog for 10 - 20 minutes. After your run workout is complete, walk or jog for 5 to 10 more minutes to cool down.
Safety note: Never jump on or off a moving treadmill belt. Start your tread session by standing on the belt at 0 mph and gradually increase speed; at the end of your workout, reduce speed back down to 0 before stepping off the machine.
Target the Middle
If you glance around a busy gym, you’ll probably see runners with their hips nearly touching the front console of the treadmill. While this is a natural and common tendency, it’s also a mistake. Hugging the front of the treadmill both limits your range of motion and promotes poor running form. Instead, focus on running in the middle of the tread deck.
Need a visual cue to help you back up? Try anchoring a length of painters tape on the left-side handrail, several inches back from the console, then extending the tape all the way across to the right-side handrail. When you’re done, this should look similar to the tape at a race finish line. However, you don’t want to break this one!
Don’t Force an Incline
Photo by Intenza Fitness on Unsplash
Have you heard that you need to set the treadmill at a 1% incline to mimic running on a flat, outdoor road? Surprise: that may not be true.
This often-quoted “1% rule” likely originates from a well-known study by Jones & Doust. The idea is that, when running indoors on a treadmill, air resistance is lower as compared with running outdoors, so energy cost is also lower. Running at a slight incline on the tread helps equalize the effort.
HOWEVER, this was only true for study participants who were running at a 7:09 pace or faster! And many of us do the majority of our running at a pace much slower than this. So, the next time you’re on the tread for a “flat road” run at 7:10+ pace, feel free to set the incline at 0%.
Understand Effort vs. Pace
For many people, running on the treadmill does feel different than an outdoor run. This may be especially true for infrequent tread runners.
If you have an effort-based run prescribed for the day, stay in-tune with your body and adjust your pace accordingly. Your easy effort indoors may put your pace faster or slower than you typically see outdoors; it depends on the individual. In any case, try not to get caught up in the numbers, and go by effort instead.
If you have a workout on deck with prescribed paces, you should still make sure you’re being honest with yourself. Does that tempo pace feel more like 5k race pace when you’re holding it on the tread? You may need to pull back a bit.
Ignore Your GPS Watch
When you're on the treadmill, should you trust your GPS watch? Or the screen on the machine? This is a very common question here at Eat Run Thrive!
In short: Go by the speed, distance, and pace on the treadmill console - not by the stats on your GPS watch.
Can your treadmill be miscalibrated? Sure. It's possible. And this is yet another reason to tune into effort vs. precise pace on a tread. However, your GPS watch is almost guaranteed to be inaccurate. GPS watches are designed to track your movement outdoors - not to track you as you run indoors and (basically) in place.
Lastly, if you’ve got a big workout with specific paces to hit, do yourself a favor and calculate these before starting your workout; some treadmill consoles only display speed (e.g. 6.0 MPH), rather than pace. A few example conversions:
5.0 MPH = 12:00 min/mile pace
6.0 MPH = 10:00 min/mile pace
6.5 MPH = 9:14 min/mile pace
7.0 MPH = 8:34 min/mile pace
8.0 MPH = 7:30 min/mile pace
9.0 MPH = 6:40 min/mile pace
Still have questions? Eat Run Thrive Coaching would love to help! Email me or check out ERT’s Coaching Services to learn more.
