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I bet more than one of you readers just said to yourself:  “Treadmill?  More like DREADmill.”  Am I right?  Wow, I sound like a bad comedian.

Anyway, I have to admit that I’m NOT a treadmill-hater.  I consider treadmill time to be the ultimate unplug because there’s really nothing to do except put one foot in front of the other.  Most experts will tell you that effective race training means training in the same conditions as the actual race – on pavement, with hills and wind and rain.  In an ideal world I’d do all my training in the great outdoors, but life happens.

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Let’s take this past week as an example:

I had to fly to a different city for work and while fitness magazines are convinced that great running trails are in proximity to all hotels, they’re wrong.  Speed work on a treadmill in NJ.  I came home to my beloved NC to find the Bradford Pear trees in bloom.  They’re pretty but they mean pollen and I have asthma and my asthma does NOT like pollen.  I managed a few short jogs outside but ultimately did my long run for the week on a treadmill just to keep from developing a lovely hacking cough. Finally, after a particularly long and stressful day, when all I needed in the world was a stress-release run I heard the sound of rolling thunder and saw the flash of lightning in the distance as I laced up my shoes.  I hit the treadmill at my gym during that storm and I’m pretty sure I’d have lost my mind without that run. Folks, I *need* to use the treadmill in my training and I bet some of you do too.

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Four great ways to use treadmills for training:

1.  Hill Intervals.  A lot of training regimens call for running hill intervals of a certain distance or time.  I don’t know about you, but when the good folks who built my neighborhood paved the hills they didn’t take runners into account.  I love doing hills on a treadmill because you can adjust the grade AND push up that hill for as long as you want.

2.  Learning Tempo.  I suffer from common running ailment.  I call it “Horse Running for the Barn Syndrome”.  This occurs when a runner is so keen to finish, she starts her run at an overly-confident, flat-out sprint.  Being able to set a slower speed on the treadmill has helped my body learn a more appropriate – and sustainable – pace for long runs.  In fact, I’ve even matched this speed with some songs on my running mix and if I find myself running for that barn, I flip to one of those songs and get back to my ideal tempo.

3.  Speed Training. It’s very easy for me to convince myself I’m running as fast as I possibly can when I’m out on the street, but put me on a treadmill at an “unattainable” speed and I realize I can always go faster.

4.  Camaraderie.  I often hear seasoned runners tell rookies that the race will be easier than training because you’ll be surrounded by dozens of people moving at your pace and being part of that flow helps keep you going.  If you’re a rookie, take heed – this advice is true.  I’m lucky because there are many runners in my neighborhood.  In fact, there’s one runner who is often out when I am, though running the loop in the opposite direction.  Each lap when we pass each other, he holds up the number of fingers to correspond with the lap.  I don’t know him or where he lives, but his subtle peer support is really helpful.  I digress.

Gym treadmills are almost always busy places.  What better way to get wrapped up in people watching, enjoy the support of a runner on the machine next to you and even engage in a little (even if secret) competition to add some energy to your run?  I saw that image at the top of this post on Pinterest and said “Yep.  Exactly.”!