Training for 10k - overriding treadmill 60 min max?

michellepearson224

Hi all,

Am about to do my first 10k run in a few weeks and now that nights are darker I've had to move most of my training indoors to the treadmill.

Managed to get to 8.6k tonight (woohoo!) and I reckon I could've got to 10k at a push but the Life Fitness treadmills at my gym go into cool down mode after an hour (I'm not very fast!)

Does anyone know if this can be overridden on the machines so that you can continue without having to reset?

questionfear

Try running 5k, then stop the treadmill and immediately restart it again.

tulips_and_tea

Maybe newer machines are different but a few years ago when I was doing 90 min. cardio sessions I always had to restart the machine. Well, the treadmill anyway. The ellipticals let me do 90 min. without restarting.

Good luck on the 10k!

peleroja

I have to hit stop, then quick start again, once it switches to cool-down mode after an hour, both at my apartment gym and at the regular one (two different treadmill brands.) I don't think there's a way around it, but it only takes a couple seconds.

michellepearson224

Ok thanks all....didn't really want to stop as I lose momentum but might not have a choice! (My other half pointed out that I need to get my 10k under an hour - not helpful!!!)

jgnatca

I'm a brat. I'd switch to a second machine midway.

kristinegift

I haven't found a way. I usually stop at the halfway point and then resume. The ones at my gym force you to "cool down" after 30 mins (reduces your speed by half every minute if you're above 4.0) and turn off at 35, so at least you get 60!! Generous gym!

Working2BLean

An out of the box idea from Triathlon training here.

A workout called a "brick" is where you bike and then immediately run. You can google it. Lots of pro coaches have athletes do them.

It is hard... It blasts your legs. It makes you stronger and builds endurance. It may be helpful to consider one day a week, before and off day...

Ride 30 minutes pretty hard. Then run 45 pretty hard.

It will be a new kind of stress and will get that valuable muscle confusion.

I do bricks once a week for my next tri with a 30 mile ride at 18 mph or so and 10K run.

It has helped me get stronger on the run.

You never know, you may find yourself drawn to sprint triathlons. A 25 mile ride, 5K run, and 400 meter swim

Then you are triathlete!

Have fun with it

Good luck on your run.

Azdak

What model? A number of LF treadmills have a setting called "marathon mode" that has no time limit. Otherwise, 60 min is the max. You have to turn on the marathon mode via the managers configuration menu. Entering configuration mode requires a different "code" depending on the age/model of the treadmill. The best thing would be to talk to someone at the club to change that setting for you. I could give you the code, but it would be a problem if someone caught you messing with the equipment. Depending on the model, if you don't know how to adjust settings, you can mess up the language and some other options.

robertw486

A lot of the Precor ellipticals are the same way, but it can be reset if the club allows. As mentioned above, it requires and access code. Quite a few machines are set up to allow the specific clubs to set a limit.

italysharon

Just ask. If it is not peak hours they shouldn't care.

brianpperkins

Working2BLean wrote: »

An out of the box idea from Triathlon training here.

A workout called a "brick" is where you bike and then immediately run. You can google it. Lots of pro coaches have athletes do them.

It is hard... It blasts your legs. It makes you stronger and builds endurance. It may be helpful to consider one day a week, before and off day...

Ride 30 minutes pretty hard. Then run 45 pretty hard.

It will be a new kind of stress and will get that valuable muscle confusion.

I do bricks once a week for my next tri with a 30 mile ride at 18 mph or so and 10K run.

It has helped me get stronger on the run.

You never know, you may find yourself drawn to sprint triathlons. A 25 mile ride, 5K run, and 400 meter swim

Then you are triathlete!

Have fun with it

Good luck on your run.

I'm noticing a trend in your posts which is recommending advanced training techniques that aren't appropriate for the person asking questions. Bricks aren't even at the beginning stages of triathlon training programs, yet that is your go to advice today for those looking to get a 10k run under an hour or participating in a beginner's running program.

Iron_Feline

brianpperkins wrote: »

Working2BLean wrote: »

An out of the box idea from Triathlon training here.

A workout called a "brick" is where you bike and then immediately run. You can google it. Lots of pro coaches have athletes do them.

It is hard... It blasts your legs. It makes you stronger and builds endurance. It may be helpful to consider one day a week, before and off day...

Ride 30 minutes pretty hard. Then run 45 pretty hard.

It will be a new kind of stress and will get that valuable muscle confusion.

I do bricks once a week for my next tri with a 30 mile ride at 18 mph or so and 10K run.

It has helped me get stronger on the run.

You never know, you may find yourself drawn to sprint triathlons. A 25 mile ride, 5K run, and 400 meter swim

Then you are triathlete!

Have fun with it

Good luck on your run.

I'm noticing a trend in your posts which is recommending advanced training techniques that aren't appropriate for the person asking questions. Bricks aren't even at the beginning stages of triathlon training programs, yet that is your go to advice today for those looking to get a 10k run under an hour or participating in a beginner's running program.

This.

Please stop recommending brick training to beginners - you will cause them an injury.

glevinso

Or we could just stop recommending doing bricks at all because they are useless. Especially for someone asking about running a 10k

Hornsby

brianpperkins wrote: »

Working2BLean wrote: »

An out of the box idea from Triathlon training here.

A workout called a "brick" is where you bike and then immediately run. You can google it. Lots of pro coaches have athletes do them.

It is hard... It blasts your legs. It makes you stronger and builds endurance. It may be helpful to consider one day a week, before and off day...

Ride 30 minutes pretty hard. Then run 45 pretty hard.

It will be a new kind of stress and will get that valuable muscle confusion.

I do bricks once a week for my next tri with a 30 mile ride at 18 mph or so and 10K run.

It has helped me get stronger on the run.

You never know, you may find yourself drawn to sprint triathlons. A 25 mile ride, 5K run, and 400 meter swim

Then you are triathlete!

Have fun with it

Good luck on your run.

I'm noticing a trend in your posts which is recommending advanced training techniques that aren't appropriate for the person asking questions. Bricks aren't even at the beginning stages of triathlon training programs, yet that is your go to advice today for those looking to get a 10k run under an hour or participating in a beginner's running program.

This.

msf74

michellepearson224 wrote: »

(My other half pointed out that I need to get my 10k under an hour - not helpful!!!)

Lol - that is obviously an option as well I guess.

That said if you can run 8.6km now and feel ok I'm pretty sure you can run 10k on the day without too much trouble so maybe don't worry about it too much. You could just concentrate on a quality run for the 60 minutes and then jump off when the cool down kicks in and start flexing. That's probably what I would do;)

FatMoojor

Just limit your run to 1 hour and see if you can increase your pace a little each time. See if you can do 8.7 in an hour next time and then 8.8 etc.

AlisonH729

italysharon wrote: »

Just ask. If it is not peak hours they shouldn't care.

This was my first thought after quickly reading the title.

Then I realized I've never been on the treadmill long enough to know this was a thing...

_Waffle_

The machines at my gym vary. Some let you do 60 minutes and some let you do a whopping 99 minutes. Generally I hate running inside but I had a couple longer runs after an ice storm. I just restarted the treadmill when it stopped.

tulips_and_tea

FatMoojor wrote: »

Just limit your run to 1 hour and see if you can increase your pace a little each time. See if you can do 8.7 in an hour next time and then 8.8 etc.

I think this is probably the best idea yet.

jofjltncb6

Working2BLean wrote: »

An out of the box idea from Triathlon training here.

A workout called a "brick" is where you bike and then immediately run. You can google it. Lots of pro coaches have athletes do them.

It is hard... It blasts your legs. It makes you stronger and builds endurance. It may be helpful to consider one day a week, before and off day...

Ride 30 minutes pretty hard. Then run 45 pretty hard.

It will be a new kind of stress and will get that valuable muscle confusion.

I do bricks once a week for my next tri with a 30 mile ride at 18 mph or so and 10K run.

It has helped me get stronger on the run.

You never know, you may find yourself drawn to sprint triathlons. A 25 mile ride, 5K run, and 400 meter swim

Then you are triathlete!

Have fun with it

Good luck on your run.

Is this approach appropriate for a new runner such as the OP?

Never mind. I see this has been addressed already.

danielssmith

Congratulations on you run. I am just behind you, I@m up to 8K. I have a month to get to 10 and I am pretty confident that I will get than and so will you.
I think, as someone has said, they have marathon mode. Don't use the quick start function as that is limited to 60 minutes. I select marathon using the up key and just keep pushing the time up above an hour and it goes into marathon mode.

michellepearson224

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think my favourite piece of advice is to push my speed up every time - gonna try that

peleroja

michellepearson224 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think my favourite piece of advice is to push my speed up every time - gonna try that

To increase your speed, it's better to incorporate tempo runs and interval training rather than just trying to do your long runs faster.

I'm not an expert runner (so anyone who knows more about this and wants to correct me if I'm making erroneous statements anywhere here, please go ahead) but everything I've been reading suggests that the way to do it if you're running several times per week is to do 1- 2 long, slow runs (increasing the mileage each week - these would be your 4-6 mile runs if you're training for 10K, at a pace that feels comfortable and where you can still talk comfortably) and then have your others be different kinds of runs:

a) tempo, where you do a mile at your comfortable pace, then a mile about 1 min/mile faster than that pace (so if you normally do 10 min miles/6 mph, you'd do a mile at a 9 min mile/6.7 mph pace), then do another mile at your comfortable pace (and then increase the "tempo" distance weekly or every second week, so you're ultimately running 2-4 miles at the faster pace.)

b) speed intervals, where you sprint 200 m, walk 200 m, and repeat 5 times (increasing the sprint distances weekly or every second week), with an easy 1-2 mile run afterwards. Lots of treadmills even have a setting for this or a button to quickly toggle between two speeds.

c) hills, where you either sprint up and walk down for as many repeats as you're comfortable doing, or choose a variable "hills" setting on the treadmill and run at your easy pace for 3-4 miles.

So if you'd normally run 4 times per week, you'd only do a long run (where you're shooting for 10K) once per week, one day would be an easy "recovery" run after the long one (3 miles) and the other two runs would be one of the above options (preferably mixing all of these in.) It'll help increase your speed and stamina on your long runs better than just trying to go further and faster all the time. If you run 5 days, you can add a second "long" run and if you run 3, I think most people recommend dropping the "recovery" run. You can also add cross-training like weights, cycling, or swimming on days you don't run if you really want to get fitter and faster.

I'm working on a half-marathon program right now and incorporating these other runs has made SUCH a difference to how I feel on my weekend long runs. It feels way easier to increase my distance each week than it ever has before, and I'm also managing longer and longer "tempo" runs which means I can now run 5K several minutes faster than I could before.

Sorry for the essay...I just wish someone had told me about this stuff while I was still running shorter distances! It would have been so much easier and less frustrating to make improvements instead of just pushing myself to go further every run.

michellepearson224

Thanks....so much to think about! I usually only run 3 times a week and mix it in with a couple of spin classes and maybe a swim. But right now I'm just panicking about doing the 10k in a couple of weeks so really feel like I should be running more.....

yesimpson

For what it's worth, I trained for my first 10K and half marathon with only running 3x a week, and swimming/lifting weights once or twice.

I think @peleroja has given you some good advice above. I used the same sort of approach she is talking about to train for my half and managed to run it faster than I thought I would be able to. It's also helped me get a new PB at 5K in the last week too.

michellepearson224

Will give it a go....2 weeks to build my speed up!

peleroja

michellepearson224 wrote: »

Thanks....so much to think about! I usually only run 3 times a week and mix it in with a couple of spin classes and maybe a swim. But right now I'm just panicking about doing the 10k in a couple of weeks so really feel like I should be running more.....

With a couple weeks to go, it's better not to step it up at this point - in fact, I think most runners (more so for longer distances, but 10K too) run LESS the week before rather than more, so they're rested and can do their best.

You'll be fine - your only goal at this point if you haven't done 10K before should be to finish, and I'm sure you will. Just stay at a comfortable pace for the first half especially, and then if you feel good you can push yourself a little harder in the second half. Making sure you start a little slow and have enough left in the tank to get through the whole distance is better than burning yourself out in the first half and suffering through the last kilometres.

michellepearson224

Thank you, really appreciate the advice

JoRocka

michellepearson224 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think my favourite piece of advice is to push my speed up every time - gonna try that

don't beat yourself up to much about that if you can't- I run regular 8:30- 9 min miles... and I can barely run a 10 min mile on the treadmill- so a 10K would easily put me at an hr.

Do the best you can- but don't make yourself crazy!!!
I would just start and re-stop at a time when you're feeling good- don't start and stop when you feel draggy- that's going to just.not.help. LOL

robertw486

I hate to engage in the thread drift, but why the aggressive responses to the suggestions on doing bricks? It's a persons opinion, and I've never seen it as some type of exclusive to training level method myself. I was doing bricks before they were probably called bricks, and I'm far from being at some sort of exclusive fitness or training level.



Now back on topic...

I think a lot of people overthink when they run structured races. Think of it as just another run, and unless you have some sort of unrealistic time goal you should be fine. The difference between that 8+ kilometers and 10K is next to nothing unless you're finding yourself exhausted after that hour.

When I used to run (not much more than I had to!) pace was a big factor for me. Since I never really enjoyed running I would either go too slow and kill my time, or go too fast and get winded. Once I found a better way to pace myself I did much better on both times and endurance.