Treadmill vs Road Running

Audio Transcript

Coach Dylan: Hey Runners Connect fans and friends. Welcome to another episode of Run to the Top Extra Kick podcast.

Today, we have a great question from Joe Watson.

Joe: Are treadmill miles the same as road miles? If you were to set your treadmill at one percent incline, would that be the same? Thank you.

Dylan: Thank you Joe. That’s an excellent question. As many of us put a lot of time on the treadmill, whether we’re working really late, or working really early, or whether we’re trying to get away from the heat or the cold and ice on the road.

The treadmill is a widely accepted exercise and for us runners, it really comes in handy.

We have the advantage when it comes to running during all conditions and during all times of the year, especially when we can’t get outside or we don’t have any motivation to go outside.

To answer your question, is a treadmill mile on one percent equal to a mile outside?

The answer is yes, but while it’s yes, there’s also a lot of positives and negatives that come from running on the treadmill or rather beneficial and not as beneficial, I should say.

While the treadmill at one percent is equal to running one mile outside, in terms of effort and performance, it’s certainly not equal in all aspects.

While you run outside, many of us don’t just run laps around a track or we have a perfectly flat outdoor service.

The treadmill at one percent makes up for the energy expenditure it takes to run outside.

However, many of us run through hilly and grassy terrain that we can’t correctly establish on a treadmill.

We can adjust the elevation of the ascension of the run on a treadmill, but we can’t run downhill and we can hardly simulate rolling hills especially if we can’t go downhill.

The treadmill also lacks in wind resistance, something that helps [00:03:24 wake] sweat and provides a tougher run when running outside.

You’ve probably noticed this as you run in windy weather. It’s harder to run into the wind.

When you’re outside, you’re always running with wind resistance while on a treadmill, everything is climate controlled.

You can technically jump up and down and it would still record your mileage, while on a treadmill.

Technically, what you’re doing on a treadmill is just jumping. We’re not really going in a forward movement like we do when we’re outside.

However, when we adjust it to one percent, we’re still getting an effective workout and it still makes it equal to running outside, but it’s very different, in many ways as you understand.

So while the treadmill is good at finding your pace and staying nice and locked in, it doesn’t help you better lock into or find your pace when you’re running on the roads.

While the treadmill does all the work for you, in terms of getting you up to pace, that takes away from when you’re running outside and you’re trying to find a hard effort pace, whereas on the treadmill, it’s just given to you.

You don’t have to really make too much effort into getting to that pace.

To turn the table a bit not sounding like I’m knocking the treadmill, because I enjoy the treadmill and I do tend to run on it, roughly two to three times a week.

That’s how I get my easy running in, especially when it’s dark outside and I don’t have a great place to run, where there’s lit streets and softer surfaces.

Comparing to the concrete, the treadmill is a bit softer. That goes well in terms of injury prevention. The softer the surface, the less the impact.

The treadmill can also be utilized to simulate certain conditions.

For example, many of the distance runners training for Rio in 2016, trained indoors on the treadmill to simulate the hot and humid conditions.

They upped their temperature to nearly eighty degrees and put the humidity up to 90% and they would get their long runs and their hard efforts in on these treadmills, to simulate certain conditions.

Your run is going to be in hot humid conditions or somewhere where it’s dry.

There are even treadmills these days that are in altitude rooms that can simulate altitude, and you can adjust your treadmill to focus on climbing and ascending distances that would be similar to your race.

Treadmills can also be beneficial in maintaining your paces.

If you adjust the treadmill to one percent and you want to do tempo run, say your tempo run was at eight-minute pace but outside, you really couldn’t get eight-minute pace where you live.

Maybe you don’t have great places and there’s lots of rolling terrain, and there’s just not great places to really get a long marathon effort tempo in, so you decide to go to the treadmill.

The treadmill is a great tool to lock into that pace and just get an idea of what it feels like.

The treadmill also allows us to have better control at these higher speeds, so that when we do go out to the roads, we tend to feel a little bit better at those paces.

It allows us to maintain our paces and our body control at a safe manner. This translates to good form and more efficient foot strikes.

Treadmills are also great if you are practicing fluid intake or your nutrition carbohydrates during a run.

You can always keep a bottle and all your gels nice and stacked up, so that you can practice indoors.

I think that’s a great tool on those longer days when you can’t get outside, when it starts getting colder.

I know a lot of you live in colder or hot and humid places, so getting on that treadmill and really practicing your fuel gets you nice and prepared for race day.

What we’re trying to do is to make it to race day, healthy and prepared.

We can use the treadmill in our cases, with an adjustment of course, to help simulate nutritional factors.

To answer you Joe, using the treadmill at one percent is equal, in terms of effort, to outside miles, if those miles would be flat of course.

You can adjust the grade on your treadmill slightly to adjust for outside even more, and maybe even place a fan for need to simulate some outside conditions.

We should certainly take advantage of the treadmill especially when we’re concerned for safety reasons, or our schedule doesn’t allow for us to go outside.

It could also be your motivation just doesn’t allow for you to be outside.

The treadmill is great for all weather conditions and just about any time of the year really. Thank you, Joe. That was a great question.

For those of you listening that want to have your question answered by one of the runners connect coaches, head over to runnersconnect.net/daily and click the record button to send your question.

I hope you enjoyed today’s episode and if you haven’t already, consider heading over to iTunes or your favorite podcast directory and subscribing or leaving a review.

It would help us reach more runners like you thank you.

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I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you haven’t already, considered heading over to I-Tunes or your favorite podcast directory and subscribing or leaving a review.

It would help us reach more runners like you. Thank you