Running on treadmills is boring

audiobooks or podcasts are what I would use rather than music - that way you are following a story. But right now i'm running outside and don't listen to anything apart from the noise of the world. I have my regular runners and walkers to say hi to, and at weekends I run aimlessly through the woods so my pace is constantly changing as I am side-stepping puddles or rocks.

It's the constant pace that kills me with a treadmills. Get outside if you can. When it gets darker and colder I'll be back in the gym switching to Stronglifts 5x5 with only runs at the weekends.

3dogsrunning wrote: »

Run outside?

For me the only thing that helps on the treadmill is to run intervals. I am playing more attention to the time left in the interval than I am to how long I've been on.

+1 Treadmills bore me to death (I'll use mine in winter if there's freezing rain but that's about it....) have you considered running/walking outside?

As to increasing your distance it's simply a matter of being consistent and building up gradually (and probably slowing down a little). When I started running I could barely get around the block with thinking I was going to die, now I run half-marathons and Olympic distance duathlons (it'll be triathlons if I got off my butt and worked on my swimming....)

Patience & consistency are your friends.

randileethomas wrote: »

Any tips for longer distance running? I can't seem to stay on the treadmill for more than 20 minutes, if I'm jogging/running I get tired and need to stop if I'm walking I just get plain bored lol. Any tips so I can stay on the treadmill longer?? I would love for 3 miles to be my normal run. Can't seem to get past 2 miles and that's like a good run for me.

Don't run on a treadmill? Or if you don't have a choice, run intervals on the treadmill.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Walking outside is more fun but since it'll be 101 today when I leave work, I'll be inside watching TV or a movie. Action movies, if you like those like Die Hard help alot too. I realized that in the cinema room at Gold's Gym (when I used to go), if a good movie is on I could watch it twice without realizing how much I was doing or how long I was on

I read on my tablet on the treadmill, which a lot of people think is batkitten crazy, but it works very well for me. I just increase the font size a bit and go to town. It was a godsend over the winter when I was training for my first half marathon and stuck inside a lot (I live in a harsh northern climate with limited daylight in winter and in a very urban area where I don't usually run outside at night for my own safety.)

I love it though, I get a ton of uninterrupted time to plow through novels and I'm capable of staying on the treadmill for two hours with a good book.

Audiobooks are a good option too, and storyline apps like Zombies, Run! that play you short segments of episodic stories with your music between. It's very motivating to me to finish a "mission" or whatever, plus then I can kind of tell "oh, two segments left, I'm almost done", which is helpful.

I also always throw a towel over the numbers so I can't watch them tick by. Helps me a lot mentally.

i save a series to watch on my phone. i don't allow myself to watch the series unless i am on the treadmill.

Winter time only.. binge watch Netflix shows. I have to run outside or I am not happy!