There seems to be a lot of controversy about treadmill incline out there, and I wanted to share my thoughts about the topic with everyone out there. Some people believe that in order to get a workout, you must incline your tm, as it mirrors running outdoors. Others believe that this can lead to injury. My belief is use “everything in moderation.”
I am not a huge fan of using the incline on the treadmill, and it’s not because I’m lazy. I love running outdoors, partially because of the fact that there is always some type of incline (at least around where I live!). But on the treadmill, it just isn’t natural. I’ve had severe problems with plantar fasciitis in the past, and in my case, this is partially caused by using the incline on the treadmill. I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I tend to get carried away, and in the past, I have been known to be a beast with the incline button on my tm. And in the past, this had led to disaster.
Dorothy at Mile-Posts suggests that if you want a workout, then you should set your pace for faster than you would normally expect to run. This is what I usually do (although looking at my pace from the past couple of days, you probably wouldn’t think it, since I’m getting back into the swing of things! But today, I did set my incline at 2% during the second lap. I will admit that I am getting a little impatient, and although I did my “long run” yesterday, I felt the need to run 3.12 miles today at a faster pace than I’ve been doing. Here’s a breakdown of my run on the tm:
Mile 1 – 00:11:00 minute pace at 0% incline
Mile 2 – 00:10:30 minute pace at 2% incline
Mile 3 – 00:10:00 minute pace at 0% incline
Last .12 mile – 00:9:00 minute pace (or faster) at 2% incline
I always like to push myself at the end! This is also a rough estimate based on my tm run. I finished the 3.12 miles at 00:32:59. I always wonder how that works – my average was a 00:10:34 pace. Based on what I had set as my pace, I would have expected it to be better, which makes me think that my tm is a little bit slower at the incline…I’m not quite sure. But the important thing to me today was that I felt like I got a workout, which I have to admit, I didn’t feel like a got much of over the past two days, despite yesterday’s long run. I’m soo looking forward to warmer weather and longer days, when I can actually come home from work and run outside! In the meantime, it will be many tm runs for this girl!
And if you’re wondering what type of treadmill I use, it’s a Livestrong 7.5. It was the brand new version when I bought it three years ago, but of course, it’s now outdated and is old news. I don’t even think that they make this kind anymore, but it works fine for me, which is all that matters. I’ve run up to 10 miles at one time on mine, and have never had a problem. The photo at the top is of the 8.0, which is very similar to mine, just a little fancier. Lis
26.2 x 2 