Many runners take the opportunity of gym sessions to cross train but there is an invaluable piece of equipment lurking in nearly every gym – The treadmill. Used in a focus way this can provide you with an excellent training session which would be difficult to replicate outdoors.
The first thing to remember when you use a treadmill is that you are not subject to wind resistance (or assistance) as you would be on the road – you are running in a nil wind environment. Some runners will adjust the incline upwards by a half or one percentage point to simulate average wind resistance but it is not necessary if you are happy to stick to a training session that takes you into areas beyond your current capability. The most useful sessions are when you start to “play” with varying the speed. The following session can be adapted to your own capability level and is an excellent way to start optimising the training benefit of a treadmill. All figures given below are based on imperial distances (yards/miles) rather than metric (metres/kms) but the principle is easily adjusted if your treadmill operates in metric measure.
This session is designed to be done only once a week as part of varied training and is aimed at both building stamina and improving speed, particularly over a 6 mile distance. It is necessary to know your current race pace in minutes per mile, then the table below can be used to determine the speed settings for the treadmill for each part of the session.
The basic session is to warm up for a distance of 1 mile then repeat the mile cycle shown below for your time capability at least three times but no more than five times. The session is finished with a 1 mile recovery period – a cool down period
| Current Race Pace in mins/mile | 1stQuarter mile | 2ndQuarter mile | 3rdQuarter mile | 4thQuarter mile |
| 10.00 | 10.30 | 10.00 | 9.30 | 11.30 |
| 9.30 | 10.00 | 9.30 | 9.00 | 11.00 |
| 9.00 | 9.30 | 9.00 | 8.30 | 10.30 |
| 8.30 | 9.00 | 8.30 | 8.00 | 10.00 |
| 8.00 | 8.30 | 8.00 | 7.30 | 9.30 |
| 7.30 | 8.00 | 7.30 | 7.00 | 9.00 |
| 7.00 | 7.30 | 7.00 | 6.30 | 8.30 |
| 6.30 | 7.00 | 6.30 | 6.00 | 8.00 |
In time you will be able to adjust these pace rates and recovery times to suit your improving capability. Try this out for about 8 weeks and see the benefit
