Motivation - treadmills!

[Mrsc26]

Started C25K at the beginning of this year in the depths of January and managed to graduate. However through the late spring / early summer I suffered badly with my knee and couldn't manage more than 10mins solid running. A few weeks ago decided to give it another go, I can't be a couch potato all my life and job at work has become far more sedentary. As I live in the middle of nowhere I had to do my winter running last year by driving to the nearest village to find some street lights, I was extremely lucky as most of my running was completed on an evening and last winter was positively mild so not too many icy days to contend with. This time round I've invested in a treadmill to try and cut down on the time it takes to get somewhere suitable to run in the dark and with the icy weather we've had seems it might have been a good idea.. Does anyone else use a treadmill? Finding it really hard to know how fast I should be running, had this problem before last time I did C25K too, but thought the treadmill would help with this, also I find it incredibly boring and time seems to slowdown, any hints tips or ideas for me. Can't wait for the better weather / lighter days and nights to return, currently in the middle of week 4.

Thanks

[GettingFitter Graduate]

I did most of my running on a treadmill and now and then I use it if it is late at night. Generally for me an easy run is 5.5mph, normal is about 6 and hard anything above 6.5mph. 6 will get you to nearly 5k in 30 mins. I also use an incline of 2 as I think it is easier running on the treadmill than coping with hills and uneven ground of outdoors. Hope this helps Happy New Year

[Toonlou24 Graduate]

Hi. I did the whole of c25k on a treadmill before going outdoors. Now I love outdoors and will never go back to the treadmill!! Even ran in the ice last night! I love it. I used to run to music on treadmill. Actually found slower songs were better as I was running so slow!!! But a variety of stuff on shuffle so I didn't know what was coming next!!! Also had tellys at the gym so I had something to look at. I had to hide the timer with a towel as time dragged!!! I think the speed I did was about 7.2kph if I remember correctly. Can't remember now. It was slow!! But don't worry about your speed. It's all about getting the 30 mins done at mo! Soon be spring!!! Good luck though. Stick at it!!

[rmnsuk Graduate]

I've only just started c25k so anything I say has to be taken with a pinch of salt.

since 5k is 3.1 miles a speed of 6.2 mph gets you there is 30 minutes. So I'm currently running at 6.2.

The only way I've stayed sane on the treadmill is to watch TV, but that's boring too, and they play music not the TB soundtrack. I've just started using the c25k on my iPhone and playing music in the background and that seems to work.

[ZoomZoom Graduate]

I started on a treadmill after I had a wobble outside. Had managed to get my distance up to 10 miles and then struggled with every run, sometimes not even completing 2.5ks.

Anyway I went back to basics - aim was to just run 20 minutes. I struggled with understanding the speed because outside I knew 6 minutes per km equalled 5km per 30 mins or 10k per hour.

On the treadmill it took me two sessions to realise 10k/h was what I could run my 10k run when I was doing well, but like I said, I had a wobble.

Anyway, if tradmill is in km per hour - 4.5km/h is casual walk

- 6km/h is brisk walk (and what I do warm up to)

- 8km/h is a jog and I usually start my run somewhere btw 8-8.5.

- 10km/h is running speed and I aim to do some of my run at this, but not all.

Hope this helps