Home› Outseason December 2011› Group Discussion-Outseason December 2011

Running - Treadmill vs the "real deal"

Steve RossSteve Ross
in Group Discussion-Outseason December 2011

I'M just going to put it out there for thoughts and feedback using our Dec group. I am not a believer in using this item to do testing. No terrain, no wind to factor, footing etc.. I use to use the treadmill alot many years ago(5) during the winter months.Then I slowly emerged to exclusively run outside all year round, no matter the weather.

We now have a treadmill in our Ottawa pain cave. I have started using it now again on a regulsar basis. I just recently did my run test outside so new numbers to apply for the next session. What I have noticed on my runs is I have to apply more incline greater than 2% when trying to get into the needed zones. IE doing the Z5 intervals up to 1/2 mile I have to use a 5% grade. To do my Z3 I  have to use 3% grade to get my Heart rate to the desired w/o. All things considered equal I am using the speed/paces assigned to these zones but the HR does not enrter as per assigned vdot. I am away hr lags but not for the whole w/o. Anyone else have issues or comments all feedback welcomed

Comments

  • Keith WickKeith Wick
    I think typically it is harder for people to hold the pace on a TM vs the road if the testing numbers are from the road. I'd ignore the HR and just stick with the pacing as you'll probably be chasing a HR number for a number of reasons. Since you tested outside, I'd be curious as to what the "incline" of your road test was at certain points because if you were going up it would have increased your HR, thus resulting in a higher number than your seeing on a 1% TM incline. Run your paces, just use the HR as a data point over time for an extra comparison factor.
  • Steve RossSteve Ross
    It was a 2.5 km out and back not my normal test run course. Brenda thought it was a false flat going out and up on the way home. It was the only place near that was ploughed that night. My vdot plummeted that night but the run is what it is(no issues there). So in all of that Keith as you alluded not to do "chase HR". I am thinking on doing a treadmill snap shot study till the next testing.I will line up all the numbers speed and pace as per vdot test and use the incline only as the variable to get into the HR zones as per vdot if need be.Then test outside on the same out/back and see the difference. Thoughts!! Good bad indifferent!
  • Coach PatrickCoach Patrick
    Steve, there's a good link on the wiki on how to use incline on the TM to mimic outdoor pacing...
  • Keith WickKeith Wick
    What do you mean by vdot plummeted? If it changed a lot, I'd wonder about the accuracy of that test. Is that just one bad data point and would a retest be a good idea?
  • Steve RossSteve Ross
    @P reading wiki!
    @KW Maybe true wearing bundled up winter kit and footing issue"s do play a part, but it was a 5km with usual all out effort. Next test will b very interesting for sure.
Sign In or Register to comment.