Treadmill Distance Accuracy

kylielouttit

I have an Ironman treadmill and I want to use it to help me train for my half-marathon on May. How accurate is the distance on it?

btuman43

I read somewhere (I think running magazine) that if you want a treadmill to accuretly depict road running that you should set the incline to 1% grade.

Azdak

The distances on treadmills are pretty accurate--they are all calibrated by the controller board, so even a cheaper model is probably more accurate than the clinical models I used to have to calibrate by hand every couple of weeks 25 years ago.

The sensation and the specific movement is slightly different on a treadmill. There is a little more of a "bounding" to the stride and less impact force. There is also no wind resistance, which plays a small but notable role. These differences become more pronounced the faster the speed.

An incline of 1% is usually recommended to offset the lack of wind resistance, as a previous poster mentioned. I also recommend that you make sure you do some road training in the weeks before the actual event. In my experience, there is definitely a transition period when going from all-treadmill training to road running.

kylielouttit

Thanks everyone! I just want to use the treadmill for when it's really horrible outside. I live in Canada so it can be DANG COLD!