Ryan

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Last week, I had a workout planned for Tuesday. Then we had an ice storm. Conditions were so slippery I found myself a couple of times thinking I might have been wise to run on a treadmill. Anyone who knows me knows that means they were very bad.

Why does this matter? Because I made a decision I would hope any one of us would have made without hesitation in conditions like I was facing. I chose to skip the workout and just get in an easy run.

As it turns out, the roads were good enough for me to get in a workout on Wednesday but even then I had to adjust slightly from the original plan. I was still able to do the planned tempo run but there were points where I had to back off the pace to navigate icy stretches.

Especially now, with conditions that can be questionable and when you’re probably still months away from your goal race, make sure you’re being flexible when necessary. Is pushing back today’s planned workout a day or two or even skipping it really as bad as going out in bad conditions and risking injury?

Photo credit: Running by Emeli Persson, on Flickr

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Crank it up!

It’s the time of the year when our best intentions to run outside can sometimes be scuttled. Maybe the roads are dangerous due to snow or ice and drivers who aren’t being as careful as they should be. Maybe we just need a break from running in the snow or extreme cold. It’s definitely possible for most runners to run safely through most winter conditions but not all. Regardless, sometimes we just need a break from the grind.

So what do you do when you decide it’s best for your safety or sanity to hit a treadmill? I know I can quickly lose my sanity doing just an easy run on a treadmill. That’s where, if you can fit a moderately hard run in, you can take advantage of the tool with one of my favorite treadmill workouts.

The workout

Treadmill hill progressions are pretty simple conceptually. On a treadmill, occasionally increase the incline in order to increase the intensity of the run. It’s like a traditional progression run but taking advantage of the fact you’re on a treadmill to increase grade instead of speed.

The benefits

“Hills are speedwork in disguise.” – Frank Shorter

When we’re outside of our racing season, we want to do some speed training but we don’t want to go too intense. This is a workout that will build your strength and speed without beating you up too badly, as long as you don’t try to hang on until you’re falling off the back of the treadmill.

As with traditional progression runs, this is a good stamina workout. It’s also the kind of strength workout that those of us who don’t live on the side of a mountain simply can’t do without a treadmill.

How to run it

Start your run at a comfortable warmup pace and at a 0% incline. You’re going to stay at this pace for the duration of the run but don’t worry, things will get much harder so you don’t need to set a fast pace.

Typically, I’m on a treadmill that can increase incline at 0.5% grade intervals. So I’ll increase the grade by 0.5% every 1/2 mile. So, at 1 mile, I’m setting the grade to 1%. At 1.5 miles, I’m setting it to 1.5%.

Obviously, if you’re on a treadmill that only increases grade by whole percentages, you can accomplish essentially the same thing by increasing by 1% every mile. Or you can get creative with how often you increase the grade and by how much. However, make sure you’re not getting too aggressive. This is a progression run, which means you shouldn’t be maxing yourself out 1-2 miles into the workout. It should be a gradual build up.

Increase until the workout is pleasantly hard. Even when I’m looking for a very hard workout, I always try to end when I feel like I could still increase at least one more time and last a half mile. Remember, it’s a workout, not a race.

Finally, make sure you get some cool down time. At least 1/2 to 1 mile at the end of the run, again at the same pace but at a more gentle grade of 0-1%.

Photo credit: Treadmill2 by benignfun, on Flickr

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

The Treadmill Pace Conversions chart is the most commonly visited page on HillRunner.com. It’s also the page that, by far, I receive the most inquiries about. I’d like to take some time here to address some of the most common inquiries. Below, in no special order, are the most common questions I receive about the chart and my answers.

What is the source of the data for the chart?

In the late 1990s, some post-graduate students gathered data from multiple studies done in the 1980s and 1990s. They used primarily data on oxygen consumption, comparing runners of various abilities running on outdoor tracks at various paces to the same runners running at various paces and inclines on treadmills. The oxygen consumption between methods of running was compared and the data extrapolated to produce this chart.

With the permission of these post-graduate students, I reproduced the chart on HillRunner.com, I believe originally in the early 2000s. Unfortunately, they told me I didn’t need to source them and I didn’t understand the importance of doing so at the time so I didn’t. After a couple computer crashes, I lost track of the original source. I’ve searched for it several times and haven’t been able to find it.

The numbers seem off, what’s up?

Especially at faster paces, I agree. The number do seem off, in some cases by quite a bit. My best guess is that, at faster paces, fewer data points were available because it takes a runner of pretty extreme fitness to run, to take the extreme, 12 miles per hour at a 10% incline on a treadmill. Anyone who knows statistics will tell you that fewer data points means more margin for error.

At more moderate paces, the numbers seem generally reasonable to me.

How should I use this chart?

My usual advice for using the chart is to consider it as a starting point. If you’re aiming for the effort of about an 8:00/mile outdoor run on level ground, then you might start at 7.8 mph at 0% incline or 7.5 mph at 1% incline. See how that feels and adjust as you feel necessary.

Remember, these are roughly speaking just averages of many runners. Some runners may find a specific setting easier than the chart suggests, while others may find it harder. In the end, I believe you should always trust your perceived effort level but this should give you a rough starting point.

Another way of using this is to consider how a workout went. For example, when I am on a treadmill, one of my favorite workouts to do is a hill progression. Every half mile, I increase the incline by a half percent without changing the speed. So, let’s say I ran a progression at 8.0 mph and got up to an 8% incline. How good of a workout was that? Well, I can use the chart to estimate that it was roughly equivalent to an outdoor progression run that topped out at roughly 6:00/mile.

Why is treadmill running different than outdoor running?

I’ve seen several reasons hypothesized. The one that seems to have the most evidence and make the most intuitive sense to me is that you aren’t moving through air. Wind resistance may not seem significant at 8:00 or 10:00/mile but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect you at all.

Can you put this into a calculator or expand the chart to include more paces/inclines?

The chart is not based on a formula and the data does not nicely fit a formula. So I don’t see any way to create a meaningful calculator.

As for expanding the chart, I suppose it’s technically possible to make some inferences. However, I have always been hesitant to do so because it would then misrepresent what it originally was.

Other questions?

If you have any additional questions, don’t hesitate to ask me. I’ll do my best to answer and, if a question comes up often, come back to add it here.

Photo credit: Treadmill by Farhad sh, on Flickr