As the nights start to draw in and the weather gets worse, I am making moves towards the treadmill for at least some of my weekly sessions. I have normally given up all running over the winter months and swam instead but this year I would like to keep going as it is always hard to start again in March.
How do you train on the treadmill? Any suggestions for getting the best out of it over the winter months?
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I either do a jog to the gym (just over a mile) as a warm up or do 10 mins on the bike to get me going, then I do reps over varying distances and speeds.The mechanics of treadmills mean however that the shortest practical rep is 400m(1/4mile).
I do either 3*2mile at HalfM pace
4-5 *1 mile at 10mile/half M pace
6-8 *800m/halfmile at 10k pace
10-12 *400m/qtrmile at 5k pace
all with 60-90 sec recoveries.
The other one I try is pyramids:
5min warm up at easy pace then 4mins at marathon/halfM/10 mile/10k/5k/5k/10k/10 mile/halfM/marathon paces all with 1min recovs 5min easy warm down.All told 1 hour which I find a good solid workout.
Obviously depending on time constraints and up coming races then I vary the reps.I think the biggest stumbling block (certainly for beginners) is that reps don't have to be short, in marathon training I only do the 400m reps once or twice.For longer events the mile/km reps work better.
Good luck!
My gym has the treadmills programmed for 99 minutes, but the idea of staying on one that long does not appeal, although if I do a spring marathon I'll want to do longer reps.
I use the step machine too, as I can work hard on that while listening to music or watching telly, and occasionally have a play with the elliptical trainer just for a change. But my long runs will be done outdoors even if it rains stair-rods of green ink. I hate running in the rain, but the thought of a couple of solid hours on the treadmill is far, far worse.
I tend to do a 10min warmup at 10kph then do 1-minute sprints at 14kph (i've got short stumpy legs so thats flatout for me) with a 2min 10kph recovery in between. I keep repeating this for 15mins then do a 10min warmdown at 10kph. So total time spent on treadmill is around 35mins.
I then go onto the stepper, rowing machine and then the weights so I always feel like i've had a good-allround workout.