Favorite Workout: Treadmill Incline Threshold
by GRP biathlete Luke Brown
I know what you’re thinking. The treadmill?! In a favorite workout?! Excuse me, Luke, but favorite and treadmill should not go together in the same sentence. Well, yes, I know that many of us Craftsburians are pure outdoors folks saying things such as “there’s no such thing as bad weather” and “think about all the people stuck inside on a day like this!” Heck, we don’t even have a treadmill at the Outdoor Center. But I would contend that there’s a time and a place for a treadmill workout.
For me, that has been in May, as I’ve worked my way back into running shape from an off-season followed by a ski-season with little running. Also it’s been really rainy. I hopped on the treadmill to a do a little afternoon threshold work at a specific and consistent grade, was able to avoid downhills, and my wife was next to me, doing the same workout but at a different pace.
Sometimes you just gotta hit up your local YMCA.
The Benefits of a Treadmill
Control - you can control the exact pace and the exact grade so that they are consistent and exactly what you need to accomplish your goal for the workout.
Level footing - while at some point, trail runners definitely need to get used to varied footing, other folks with injury prone ankles may benefit from just being able to focus on the pace. Even if you aren’t injury prone, having a workout that’s specifically for fitness and not challenged by technique or other variables can be beneficial.
Measurable - you can return to the same workout a month later and measure your exact progress with the exact same variables. Have you improved?
Run a workout with friends - it’s hard to drop someone who is on the treadmill next to you.
All in all, I think a good way to look at it is that grinding on the treadmill can improve your fitness so that you are more capable of hitting the trails the next time you have the opportunity.
The Workout
I was looking for access to threshold pace without a lot of load as my tendons, joints, and muscles continued to adapt to running. So I split up the threshold into small chunks and did them on an uphill grade so there’d be more of a strength component and less of a pounding and turnover restraint.
2 sets of 5 x (2 minutes on, 45 seconds off) at 6% grade. This added up to 20 min of threshold which was perfect for my second session of the day and only 2nd running intervals for the year. If you need to start with less, do 1 set. If you are further along in your training, do 3 or 4 sets, working up to 30 or 40 minutes of on-time. I chose 6% grade because it felt like it had that strength component and took some of the pounding off my legs but still had the speed I was looking for. And it wasn’t so muscularly limiting that my heart rate couldn’t get up. Feel free to play around with what grade is right for your goals.
15 seconds of the off time will probably be slowing down and speeding back up the treadmill. That is the one downside of the treadmill in this case. Because you probably shouldn’t be jumping on and off the running belt…
Threshold pace should be comfortably fast, at around 88-92% of your max heart rate or about 2.5-3.3 mmol of lactate if you’re into that. If you don’t have those metrics, go to the pace where you can kind of talk but can only get about half of a sentence out before you really need more air. For me, it’s right before I start to get a little feeling in my stomach like it wants to turn over and just before my legs feel flooded.
No treadmill, no problem
Not a treadmill, still uphill
Obviously I like the treadmill for this workout but if you don’t have access to a treadmill or are a firm anti-treadmill person, you can essentially get the same workout if you go find a steady hill and do hill repeats with the same on/off cycle. Essentially.
I hope you give this a try and have some fun!