Treadmill Training: Time to Stop Pounding the Pavement? | UWA ...

Are you ready for this?

If you?re the type of person who loves to run, or even just looking to get started, you have a choice to make every time you pull on your shoes: will I run outside, or will I jump on the treadmill? Purists may argue that real running is done outside, pounding pavement, but is that always the best way? When is it time to take the rubber off the road and get yourself to a gym?

Before you start getting all hot and bothered by the idea of having to pay to go for a jog, let me just say that I?m a huge fan of running outdoors. I started on the path to fitness by running around the block, slowly extending the distance until I was running 8k out and back along the beach. Since then I?ve run on roads, trails, up hills and down hills, I?ve even run (briefly) on snow. Running outdoors is good for you, but that doesn?t make treadmills useless. There are very good reasons to fill a gym up with them. Here?s 5:

1) Lighter Load
Running on a treadmill is easier. Period. Not having to actually propel yourself forward means less load is placed on the muscles in your legs, hips, and feet at every stride than running outdoors. This is a good thing. It means you can use treadmills as a deload day if you?re a serious runner. Novice runners can jump on a treadmill and avoid getting shin splints, tearing their achilies tendon, or any other of the amazing range of horrible injuries that plague first-time runners. It?s a win/win for everyone.

2) Constant Speed
Want to become a faster runner? Run at a faster pace. It sounds easy, but try doing this outdoors and you?ll quickly realise that accurate pacing can be a nightmare. On a treadmill though? Just set your speed and you?re off. Let?s say you?re trying to increase your running speed to 5min/k. That?s 12k/hour. Outside you?re glancing at your watch every 30seconds trying to make sure you?re keeping pace, and trying to remember exactly which tree was your 1k marker. On a treadmill, it?s all right there on the screen, and the track is spinning at exactly 12k/hour. Perfect training right there.

3) Incline
Not only is this a fantastic way to burn an extra dozen calories per minute, but setting your treadmill to a natural incline of 2-3% will actually make you a better runner. Not because it?s ?more like running outdoors? as you may have heard on runners boards, but because it forces you to use proper running technique.

Most people, especially those without training, land on their heels as they run. This basically sends shocks all the way through your legs, hips, back and shoulders, and can cause some pretty serious injuries over time. Correct running posture is to lean forward from the heels, standing tall, and land with a mid-foot or front-foot strike.

Having an incline of 2-3% puts you into this position naturally, with the slight raise making the front of your foot land before the heel.

4) Running for Time, not Distance (and knowing both)
On a treadmill, like outdoors, you can choose whether to run by time or by distance, but in my experience people tend to opt for the time option far more often on a treadmill than the door when they run outdoors. It just seems to make more sense; afterall you?re not really going anywhere on a treadmill. So you run for 20mins and record your distance after the fact, rather than run for 2k and record your time.

This is a key part of training, and for improving, for 2 reasons. 1, it conditions your mental state to run for a set time, without stopping or slowing down. You have to find the flow. There?s no ?I?ll just run to this landmark, and then that tree?? tricks you can pull, it?s just you and the clock. It can be daunting, but it?s definitely a good way to train.

2, speed becomes more of a factor. If you bust out a 5k run in 30mins (6min / k pace) or 28mins (5min 36seconds / k pace) you?re probably not going to feel like you?ve really improved by that much (even though you have). Reverse that though, and say you run 5k in 30mins, and then run 5.36k in 30mins, and you will notice the improvement.

Short periods of time (like a minute) become increasingly hard to notice the longer we perform a task (like running for 30 minutes). Distance on the other hand pretty much always stands out. While this holds true for running outdoors as well, on a treadmill we can see all the numbers laid out in front of us. We know how much longer we have to run, and how far we can go in that time. It?s not a wait and find out the result later thing, it?s push now and beat your record.

5) What Weather?
Yes it?s a cop-out, but it totally counts. Sometimes it?s too hot, cold, dark, raining, whatever, to actually go outside. We can?t let the weather screw with our progress though, and that means training indoors in air-conditioned, artificially lit, comfortable gyms.

Still not convinced? Try out the Cardio Room down at the UWA Recreation & Fitness Centre. The TechnoGym? equipment lets you play games while you run. Nothing quite like playing solitaire at 13k/hour?

Source: http://www.dailyreplay.com.au/?p=1090

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