Treadmill 5k Test (majority of running outside)
I do the majority of my running outside and have done all my 5K tests to date outside, but due to the snow and ice, I think I'm goint to have to do my next 5K test on the treadmill. I know there is a lot of info and discussion on performing your 5K test on a treadmill, but how do you compare it to previous outside running tests? In addition, if I'm shooting for a new vDot, how do I know it's accurate?
This message approved by the "Runners with the Treadmill Blues"
0
Comments
There are several facets to this topic:
Every treadmill and person is different, so it will be difficult for you to make an accurate prediction. If you do test on the treadmill, it would be best if you pick one (i.e. your own if you have one) that will be the same for every test. Also the paces you derive from a treadmill test may not carry over to outside, so you may have to guesstimate them.
I'm in the same situation as you. Luckily I have my own treadmill, and over the years I have found there is no way I can run as fast on it as I can outside. It is probably 10-15s/km too hard, and even this number may vary with speed (i.e. at easy speeds it feels more close to what I am doing outside but at fast speeds it feels a lot harder and I can't keep up).
In the future I think I will schedule a 5k- 10k race in the fall before the OS to to get a sense of where I am fitness wise and get some outdoor paces, but do my testing on the treadmill to benchmark my fitness.
As far as protocol goes it has been recommended to go at 2%, but I think this is too much. I prefer 1%, but on my treadmill but even 0% feels ok. If you are just using the treadmill as a testing tool pick an incline that works for you and use it every time.
What I did is pick a starting pace close to MP (outside MP +10s/km) and bump up every couple of minutes until I got to just faster than HMP by about 6-8 minutes, and then I bumped up the speed by 1 tick every minute to reach terminal pace by 13-14 minutes. Then I tried to hold on and bumped it up even more when I had 1-2 minutes left. My legs sure felt like I had done a 5k after and I think my HR profile was pretty similar to an outside effort, although my time was much slower than what I could do for 5k outside.
Fellow outdoor running enthusiast here. I recently went through a similar ordeal myself.
You really won't be able to compare your indoor and outdoor pace. You will only be able to compare this treadmill test to a future treadmill test.
Like Satish, my indoor vDot is lower than my outdoor vDot. I know this because the outdoor training zones I calculated based on my indoor testing felt way too easy. I could almost have a conversation while running at what was supposed to be "Threshold Pace".
My advice:
Option A: Treadmill test
1. Estimate your current outdoor 5k speed. (25:00, for example)
2. Add 1 minute to that estimated 5k time. (26:00)
3. Treadmill 5k test. Run first mile @ adjusted 5k time. (26 minutes / 3.1 mil = 8:23/mi).
4. Adjust pace every 0.5 mile as needed for the remainder of the test.
5. Record your time for future comparison purposes.
6. Set outdoor training zones based on result.
7. Adjust outdoor training zones as needed.
Option B: Wait for the snow & ice to clear, do your test then*
* not sure if this is a RnP-approved method
Hi Jason,
Satish is right: "Every treadmill and person is different, so it will be difficult for you to make an accurate prediction."
My $0.02: don't try.
Do your best to get an accurate treadmill VDOT; use that to set your treadmill paces; stick to the same treadmill because calibrations can vary quite a bit - a mile on one is longer than a mile on another.
If you do get a day when you can train outside, either bump your old paces up by a vdot (based on 7+ weeks of consistent training at the prior vdot), or test again and your test result becomes your new outdoor vdot.
If you really want to be able to convert back and forth between a given single treadmill and outdoors, then you can do that based on the treadmill gradients that have been posted, but it will be imperfect at best.
Post back if you want the links to the treadmill-incline charts and I'll dig up the thread from a couple of weeks back.
Hope this helps.
Russ
Jason - the primary purpose of the testing in the OS is to define your training paces. Thus, you should test in the environment where you are going to train. E.g., if you will be doing your training on a track, test there. Training on the roads around your home? Test there.
If you just can't test where you will be training, you can use the test paces as a starting place. Then, go by what happens when you try them out in the alternate environment. For the shorter intervals of 45s-4 minutes, it's kinda tough to use HR. But you can go by what happens as you progress thru the wko. If your time for each interval increases, the pace is too fast. If you can slam the last interval 20-30s/mile faster than the earlier ones, you went to slow.
This is actually good for you, to learn what RPEs go with which training paces.
Here is a little article that debunks that running at a 2% incline is like outside: http://www.hillrunner.com/jim2/id110.html
There was a comment I read recently (Running Times?) that suggested that 1% incline be used to promote proper form and push off. It is likely that incline, like paces, also varies between treadmills.
If you do most of your running outdoors and the snow/ice situation is a temporary problem I would wait until it clears and test outside.