Some runners swear by the treadmill, choosing it over running outside. I am not one of those runners. However, over the past winter, the treadmill and I got to know each other a little lot better and I realized that with the right workout, indoor running became less of an ordeal and even kind of fun. Hopefully that feeling will last through the dog days of summer!
Ready to make the treadmill a fun training partner? Try these out – four of the best treadmill workouts for the next time you’re in the gym!
PYRAMID
Pyramid workouts can be done either with incline, or speed. Since the peak of your workout is right in the middle, you benefit from a good warm up and cool down (plus you know it’s only going to get easier after the tough middle stretch). It’s easy to adjust for hills and speed on the treadmill, making pyramids a workout perfect for indoors. Try this incline version for a new challenge:
H.I.I.T.
What’s HIIT? High Intensity Interval Training, baby. What’s that? Well, the short answer is you could just do this workout and find out first-hand. 😉 The longer answer is that it’s a form of interval training, where you’re doing bursts of high intensity anaerobic exercise, followed by a longer recovery period of aerobic exercise. Get ready to sweat (and for only 20 minutes!):
SPEED
Doing speed workouts on the treadmill is easy, since you take the guesswork out of hitting your pace (which can be especially helpful if you’re a beginner to interval workouts). Speed repeats also help make the workout fly by, since you’re paying more attention to the time of each interval, rather than the fact that you’re on a treadmill with no change in scenery. Quarter mile repeats is one of my favorite treadmill workouts – try it out:
WORD GAMES
So, a while back I mentioned that I try just about any way of distracting myself from being on the treadmill, including weird word games, like trying to make different words from a sign outside the window. From the feedback I got, turns out I’m not alone in using word games for distraction. Here are a couple of oddly entertaining games to try next time you’re getting bored on the mill:
What’s your favorite treadmill workout?
What’s more likely to send you indoors for your run – sub-zero, or hot & humid?
I want to hear about it if you try one of these! 🙂
The animal games sounds fun!!
I usually keep the incline at 1.5 but play with my speed. I do lots of progression or pyramid runs on the treadmill – rarely ever steady state!!
Kim recently posted…Growing Up
I’m yet to meet a runner who only does steady state on a treadmill – it would be so hard to do!