Top 5 MDI Treadmill Running Tips

Looking out the kitchen window this morning to discover yet another fresh blanket of snow, I came right back upstairs to get this posted. Originally emailed who-knows-when, and a popular annual subject covered by Coach Kev at winter workouts, it’s one I know I’ve searched for in my inbox more than once.

This winter more than any in recent memory, you’re probably having to come to terms with our conveyor belted friends. If you’re a Sunday long runner facing a long stretch on the treadmill today, this one’s for you.

Coach Kev’s top 5 treadmill running tips:

1) Use zero, hero. 

Use 0% incline, NOT the oft-recommended 1-2% incline.

Though there is very likely a small bio-mechanical advantage to having the treadmill pull the ground underneath you, as opposed to pushing yourself over top of it, it is MORE than negated by the progressive overheating experienced by most runners (under normal/average gym/home treadmill set ups), due to the almost complete lack of evaporative cooling when running on a treadmill. Essentially you’re always running in place, sweating into your own sweat, with little to no air movement across/over your skin to help keep your internal temperature down.

So leaving the incline at 0% helps to cancel out this progressively debilitating phenomenon, which causes most runners, at least beyond the first 2-3km (or 1-2 miles), to find ANY running pace on a TM, even at 0% grade, up to 5-10 sec/km (10-15 sec/mile) harder than running the same pace outside.

2) Dont’ forget about your fans!

If you can set up a strong fan directly in front of you on the TM (or ask if the health club has one you can use)…do so!

If not, then consider adjusting your target treadmill pace by the aforementioned difference (slower) to better match treadmill effort with equivalent outside run speed, especially on runs of over 3-4 miles (6-7km).

If fans aren’t possible, another technique we often use, especially for particularly hard/long tempo or OMP treadmill runs, is to take short (60 second at most) “time out” breaks (hopefully no more than 1 or 2, max 3 through an entire run), at nice, neat round number distances (3 miles, 4.5 miles, etc.) you hit the red kill button, stop your watch (or hit “lap split”), and jump off the treadmill (safely…use the siderunners!), and give yourself a short break to walk around the treadmill, towel off, drop your HR down, jump back on, ramp the TM back up to speed, and start again, hoping to get to the end of your planned total distance without further breaks if you can.

3) Towel down.

Always have a towel within arms reach, and aggressively towel down your shoulders, neck, and face (even arms), at least once per km (or more than once per mile).

Another very useful treadmill trick is always take a moment to figure out which is (or will be over the duration of your planned run) the “shadiest” treadmill available before you step on one (if in a health club…if at home, always set up your treadmill in shade/or away from direct window sunlight). Why? Ever play the “fry ants under a magnifying glass” game as a kid? Ummm…me neither, but I saw other kids doing it! Well, it’s a similar situation, the “heat through glass effect” when the sun is shining greatly increases the air temp (and perceived effort) of treadmill running, so seek the shade (or even better run early or late when it’s still dark!). Note: this also makes it easier to read the displays which are damn near impossible to see on some TMs under direct sunlight!

4) Negative split or bust.

Due to the “overheating dynamic”, it’s more important than ever to employ the negative splitting technique (and very easy to manage, given the exactness of the treadmill settings).

For best results, start at least 2-3 tenths of a mph slower than your target average speed (ie. 7.6 instead of 7.8 or 7.9mph), then every mile add a tenth of mph, such that by halfway through your run, you’re running your target speed, and then during the 2nd half of your run start to press faster than your target average (by 1 tenth mph at a time), so that your overall average nets out near your original target average. This is MUCH more effective and easier (ie. will yield a much lower average HR for the same time/distance covered) than an even split approach.

And it helps keep you busy (ie. having to up the speed every mile) to help delay the almost inevitable onset of “treadmill boredom”.

5) Focus on form. 

The electronic displays and the constancy of pacing afforded by treadmill running, offer both OPPORTUNITY and RESPONSIBILITY to frequently do cadence checks throughout your run.

We feel strongly that you should always be at/close to 90 strides (per leg) per minute throughout your running (outside, inside, fast, slow, whenver, wherever), so you can just pick any “new minute” at various points in your run, and count the number of times one foot falls in 60 seconds (or in 30 sec and double it) to do your cadence check. If lower than 90 per min, move your hips forward, and lift those feet faster to create a shorter, choppier, softer landing stride.

Studies show that when running faster or longer on a treadmill (or anywhere for that matter), when runners start to fatigue, they will slow down both their speed and their cadence. But on a treadmill, unless you manually slow the speed (what self respecting runner wants to do that, huh?), your speed doesn’t slow (to avoid falling off the back!) so you end up taking longer strides (without necessarily realizing it). The resulting over-striding causes an increased likelihood of injury…particularly achilles tendon, calf and hamstring problems.

So check cadence early & often–rule of 90–if not, shorten it up!

Final extra note of warning – “all treadmills are NOT created equal”. Just because a treadmill “says” it’s moving at a certain speed, does not mean it really is! There can be very significant variances in the actual speed of a treadmill vs the displayed speed, trust us! I’ve found treadmills side by side (different makes/models/ages) at a club that felt up to 15 seconds per mile difference easily).

It would be very rare for a treadmill to move faster than it’s displayed speed, but it is very common for treadmill belts to not be moving as fast as their posted speed. Has to due with how well they are calibrated and maintained, so always make sure to try and run on the newest (often “biggest”) TM’s if there are different ones at the health club. This is one case where “bigger” might actually be “better” (more accurate/honest).

Bonus Tip – If you’re interested in purchasing your OWN treadmill to avoid the hassles that sometimes crop up with fitness club mills (and especially if you’re primarily paying for a gym membership FOR use of the treadmills) then you can save yourself a lot of time and money long term by making a smart and informed decision about which treadmill is best for you. Here’s a link to a great review site to make the process easy.