Treadmill Training Question

In article said:

For the last couple of months I've been concentrating my cardio workouts on treadmill running, a
change from the eliptical machines I had been previously using.

I've gotten to where I'm running approx. 3.5 miles in 30 minutes, 4-5 times a week.

Would I benefit more from increasing my speed or the duration of my workouts?

Duration.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

"Raoul Duke" <[email hidden]> wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

For speed workouts, I do a 30 minute workout. I warmup for 10 minutes then do intervals. I will run
fast for 4 minutes then recover for 2 minutes and repeat this several times. This workout is good
for a couple times a week.

Quoted message said:

For the last couple of months I've been concentrating my cardio workouts on treadmill running, a
change from the eliptical machines I had been previously using.

I've gotten to where I'm running approx. 3.5 miles in 30 minutes, 4-5 times a week.

Would I benefit more from increasing my speed or the duration of my workouts?

Thanks....Dave

"Raoul Duke" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

For the last couple of months I've been concentrating my cardio workouts

on

Quoted message said:

treadmill running, a change from the eliptical machines I had been previously using.

I've gotten to where I'm running approx. 3.5 miles in 30 minutes, 4-5

times

Quoted message said:

a week.

Would I benefit more from increasing my speed or the duration of my workouts?

Thanks....Dave

Wouldn't that primarily depend on what your goal is? I mean, are you training to run a race? 5k?
10k? Marathon? Ultra? Are you just trying to lose weight? What's the deal?

Raoul Duke said:

For the last couple of months I've been concentrating my cardio workouts on treadmill running, a
change from the eliptical machines I had been previously using.

I've gotten to where I'm running approx. 3.5 miles in 30 minutes, 4-5 times a week.

Would I benefit more from increasing my speed or the duration of my workouts?

Thanks....Dave

Why not change the incline to diversify the muscles being used on at least some days - and a little
more bang for your buck? Increase duration a little one or two days, and incline a little on one or
two other days. That would help strengthen your legs for biking also, I would think.

Dot

--
"Success is different things to different people" -Bernd Heinrich in Racing the Antelope

"HardwareLust" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Wouldn't that primarily depend on what your goal is? I mean, are you training to run a race? 5k?
10k? Marathon? Ultra? Are you just trying to lose weight? What's the deal?

Good questions. I'm primarily a bicyclist who would like to be able to maintain - or even increase -
my fitness level during the times of year when I can't ride as much as I like. And, I might add,
I've noticed a definite improvement since I've been running.

Not training for any races, and definitely not trying to lose weight.....6'1", 157.

Dave

unless you want to run shorter races, like 5ks. then i'd work on speed.

m

when man tries to imagine paradise on earth, the immediate result is a very respectable hell.
claudel - 1929

Donovan Rebbechi said:

In article said:

For the last couple of months I've been concentrating my cardio workouts on treadmill running, a
change from the eliptical machines I had been previously using.

I've gotten to where I'm running approx. 3.5 miles in 30 minutes, 4-5 times a week.

Would I benefit more from increasing my speed or the duration of my workouts?

Duration.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

In article said:

unless you want to run shorter races, like 5ks.

He's not even up to a consistent 15 miles per week yet. What kind of speed work can you do off that
base ? If you do a sets of 4x1200 repeats, that's already more than 20% of weekly volume, the way
he's training. At most, he could add some strides, or do a weekly tempo run (but I suspect he's
already doing his training runs at tempo pace anyway).

Quoted message said:

then i'd work on speed.

I think he was asking if he should make his training runs faster or whether he should make them
longer. I take it that when you speak of "working on speed", you have intervals or tempo runs in
mind, and not a uniform increase in training pace.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

"Raoul Duke" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"HardwareLust" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Wouldn't that primarily depend on what your goal is? I mean, are you training to run a race? 5k?
10k? Marathon? Ultra? Are you just

trying

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

to lose weight? What's the deal?

Good questions. I'm primarily a bicyclist who would like to be able to maintain - or even increase
- my fitness level during the times of year

when

Quoted message said:

I can't ride as much as I like. And, I might add, I've noticed a definite improvement since I've
been running.

Not training for any races, and definitely not trying to lose weight.....6'1", 157.

Dave

Ha, same reason I started running! Are you training with a heart rate monitor?

"HardwareLust" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Ha, same reason I started running! Are you training with a heart rate monitor?

I do like to, but the treadmills I use don't have them.

Dave

"Raoul Duke" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

For the last couple of months I've been concentrating my cardio workouts

on

Quoted message said:

treadmill running, a change from the eliptical machines I had been previously using.

I've gotten to where I'm running approx. 3.5 miles in 30 minutes, 4-5

times

Quoted message said:

a week.

Would I benefit more from increasing my speed or the duration of my workouts?

Thanks....Dave

As a cyclist and runner and treadmill runner for decades:

You are doing enough running for health and want to push your limits.

You can do a weekly distance trial, to gradually increase your performance. The beauty of the
treadmill, is the built-in display of speed, time, distance, etc. Even a 1-2% improvement goal each
week will eventually turn you into an animal. For example, 3.5 one week, 3.6 the next, 3.7 the next,
easy week, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, easy, 3.9, 4.0 ... You can help this by doing some short faster pacing,
just to teach the body to move faster without pounding or other inefficiency. In recent times, I got
up to 4.3 miles in a half hour this way, and did 10 miles in 75 minutes, just with a weekly
increment.

You can also do a weekly longer run to push endurance.

It is quite common to use both. Typically, build some distance, a "base". Then, in anticipation of a
race, begin some faster and hillier training. By huffing and puffing for 20-30 minutes once a week,
you raise your AT. By doing sprints you improve VO2Max.

There are strong similarities to training by cycling but also some key differences: on the bike, I
can go to the limit of my legs, distance, hills, speedwork, pacelines till I get dropped, bonk, eat,
recover on the same ride and do this for many hours, etc., do this once a week for a half day, for
six weeks, and be in great shape. Running this way, I would be injured within a week or two.

In cycling, good form comes from maintaining a high cadence, developing supplesse, but you can find
many weekend cyclists who get a great workout with terrible form. Only about 25 percent of them have
sore knees, or whatever. In running, lack of form sidelines runners with injuries, more like 75
percent, as a rough comparison. You can do the equivalent of a "spin" while running to help protect
yourself. In particular, increase turnover to 180 strides per minute instead of 160 or 170, learn to
eliminate overstriding, to make almost no impact noise, no slapping, minimal vertical bouncing, no
exaggerated heel strike. In the gym, you can track yourself in the mirrors, and compare the noise
you make with some pounders nearby.

Running up an incline would be better training for cycling than on the flat, but be careful. I have
trashed my calf muscles many times by doing too much of this too fast. The optional "Hill Program"
on the gym treadmills offers a good compromise as it varies the incline during the run. Another
drill, if you work up to it, involves backwards running and walking. Walking backwards at 3.0 mph or
so, up a ten percent grade works the quads and helps the knees. Running backwards from 4.5 to 7.0
mph works the lower leg, somewhat like skipping rope.

"Bill" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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<snipped some great suggestions>

Thanks....Dave

"Bill" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

"Raoul Duke" <[email hidden]> wrote in message and treadmill runner for decades:

You must hold the worlds record, because there was just a thread about some guy who ran on one for
24 hours, if you've been doing it for decades you should call Guiness world book of records.