treadmill running
Hello,
So I live in northern Canada and pretty soon there will be snow on the ground. I am just wondering how many of you do the OS with a significant amount of your running on the treadmill? If so, do you do your 5K TT run on the treadmill as well so that you can set up "treadmill running paces" since running on a treadmill can be different than running outside.
Thanks
Jason
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Comments
Jason, first, welcome.
The prospect of snow already would send me packing all the way back to Florida, having moved from there to Iowa already gives me more winter than I think I can handle. That aside, we had a somewhat similiar discussion on the trial members board recently:
http://endurancenation.us.dnnmax.co...fault.aspx
To summarise though, test where you are going to train. If you are going to be spending a significant portion of your winter running indoors on the treadmill then do your 5k vdot test on a treadmill. It may or may not be an accurate representation of your outdoor vdot however the purpose of testing during training is simply to set your training zones, zones set in an environment similar to how you will be training are always preferable.
It might have been talked about in the other thread already, but last year Patrick really encouraged folks to test and train on the treadmill in northern climates.
In my case, even in Rochester, NY, I have really tried to test either outdoors or on an indoor track. When I am forced to use the treadmill (not infrequently), I use the same target paces generated from my outdoor tests and use a 1.0% incline on the treadmill. I would file this in the "it works for me" category and not necessarily take it as advice.
The only other thing I would add in regards to indoor tracks is pay close attention to the length of the track. My indoor track is not a standard 200m track but instead is some arbitrary much shorter distance. Prior to EN I would run a lot on the indoor track over the winter and never had any issues for speed work and other short runs. Last winter as I was preparing for a January marathon I took to doing some of my long runs on the track to escape the treadmill and developed a pretty debilitating case of tendonitis due to the constant turning to one side on the indoor track.
Ever since I am extremely cautious of indoor tracks, still have no issues for short runs but if I am going to be utilizing them repeatedly then I make sure I hit them on the days where the direction alternates to try and disperse the load on my ankles and I certainly will never do any runs longer than about 5 miles on them, if that. If our track was longer though, I'd likely be less hesitant albeit still cautious.
Luckily there is not so much snow here in the winter that I am able to run outside most of the time. I run fast intervals on the TM occasionally but find it a little scary. I feel like I am going to get shot off the back into the washing machine.
Done that. Age 15, on vacation, in the hotel gym. The look on people's faces when they ask what happened, and you start with "I was on the treadmill..." Especially when the injuries look like car skid marks, people are very amused.
I've done 2 OS's now virtually all on treadmill and trainer just for convenience and consistency of training/testing. Gotten faster in the process, but I do find that my TM paces/VDOT are better on treadmill...so when I get out of OS, I try to run outside as much as possible. One nice by product of treadmill training for me has been injury prevention/joint health...nothing running related over past 2 + years that has "stopped" training.
Good luck.
Bill
On the positive side, when spring rolls around and the snow melts it will be a big boost running outside again!!!
Jason,
I live in Saskatchewan and did all of my running on the treadmill last OS. The run's are not that lengthy so it's manageable on the treadmill. Then again I don't mind the teadmill, trainer or pool lines most of the time anyway so I'm probably just an oddity.
If you are going to be doing most of your workouts on the treadmill, test the 5k there. If you get outside or to a track for your sanity every once in a while then realize that snow and ice will slow you down. Also further in the plan there will be track workouts which people also do on the treadmill. I skipped this part as I was just returning to running.
The only thing I would check out is to ensure that you can't out run your treadmill. I don't have this problem but some of the fast people around here do.
Gordon
Teadmill can be a secret weapon in the winter! You can run all the itnervals without worrying about breaking an ankle. It's a necessary evil for many of us, and you can get a lot of quality work done on it.