Why Is Treadmill Running Harder?

Audio Transcript

Coach Hayley: Hey everyone.

I hope you are having a great day and thanks for joining me for today’s episode. If you have a burning question that you would like one of our expert coaches to answer on the show, head over and submit it at runnersconnect.net/daily.

Today, Jay asks, “I’ve only recently gained access to a treadmill during the gym and it seems like when I get on it for an easy run it 10 minutes a mile which is a slower than what I used to shoot for the easy road runs.

It feels like a harder effort than it does outside. Still within the range of what I call easy but is that just a psychological effect or is there something physical about treadmill running the makes it harder?”

Hayley: Treadmills can be useful, especially in the winter months when it can be unsafe to run outdoors.

However, once they have the benefit of being convenient they do have some drawbacks. Running on a treadmill doesn’t force you to work on your pacing it’s running outdoors does. It’s all done for you. It can also be dull and feel harder for some.

The physiological reasons are why this is a case. So, Jay the first thing I’d say is make sure you’re running at the pace you think you are. If you are using Garmin indoors then it might not give you an accurate reading like it does outdoors.

If you’re using display on the treadmill, check that it’s calibrated correctly. Just because it saves you running 10 minutes per mile doesn’t necessarily mean that you are.

If there aren’t any problems there, then we need to consider why running on the treadmill for a harder.

You’re not alone in this there have been studies that show that perception of effort is higher on the treadmill, so you feel like you’re running faster at slower paces.

Scientists have instructed runners to run around a track and then self-select the same effort on the treadmill.

The paces they ran on the treadmill was significantly slower. However, it is likely that this is psychological as running on a treadmill should actually be physiologically easier as there’s less wind resistance, meaning that you lose less oxygen at a slower pace.

However, you can counteract this by the way by setting the chaplain a one percent incline. There are several theories why running on a treadmill can feel more difficult.

You might be using slightly different biomechanics like a slightly different running gait. If you aren’t used to running on a treadmill, slightly different running gate could convince your brain that you’re working slightly harder even if you aren’t.

The treadmill propels you forward making you rely more on your quads than your hamstring muscles.

If you aren’t used to this, perhaps it tricks your brain to thinking that you’re running a little harder than you are.

Another factor might be the fact that the speed on the treadmill is constant. When you run outdoors, you’ll likely naturally speed up and slow down even just slightly.

Outdoors you also likely make slight changes to your stride length and frequency for variables like hills and roads.

Scientists suggest that this could make things feel a little harder because you can’t change no movement pattern at all. Maybe it’s more fatiguing on our brain.

How could we forget that monotony of running on the treadmill, but for ages time can seem to last forever and this alone could have effect on how fatigued you feel.

I guess we don’t know for sure why the treadmill feels harder. The fact is that you’re not alone and for some people it just does.

If you’re in that camp, you might want to take some of your harder workouts outdoors. For easy runs, it’s fine to just the speed of the treadmill so that it does feel easy.

However, physiologically speaking, you’re unlikely to be working as hard at the same speed indoors, if you’re struggling to achieve the speeds in your faster workouts indoors that you would be able to outdoors, it might be worth trying to do some of those key workouts outdoors.

It has the added benefit of improving your pacing skills as well as teaching what certain paces will feel like under race day conditions. It also ensures that you still are working in the right physiological effort range.

If it feels hard to feel inside you might not quite reach the speed that you’re going to need to get those physiological benefits, if you do your harder workouts indoors.

I get that the treadmill is a convenient tool if you’re struggling to fit training in dark nights or icy roads.

By all means, continue with that and do not be afraid to adjust those running paces for those easy and longer runs if they’re feeling just a bit harder than they usually do.

Hopefully that has given some runners some reassurance that they aren’t alone so thanks for asking Jay.

For those of you listening that want to have your questions answered by one of the writers couldn’t coaches, head over to runnersconnect.net/daily and click the record to send your question over.

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