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Oct 17 2007

Treadmill vs trail running

Posted by: momgaub in Blogroll, General Cardio, Strength Training, Walk

I’ve heard/read some people’s discussion of which they prefer: treadmill vs outdoor running/walking. Well I’ll add my two cents worth. I prefer (I won’t say LIKE quite yet but I’m working on it) treadmill for the following reasons.

1) I am not very sure footed and have fallen too many times that I feel the need to watch my steps when I am on uneven ground. With the treadmill I am quite sure the tread will be there when I put my foot down and can look around the room or just day dream.

2) When I walk outdoors, because I am not sure of the evenness of the surface I do not push myself for speed. Someone said they feel like they are “keeping up with” the treadmill. For me that is good because when I am on the treadmill I can crank up the speed and push myself a little faster than I might be really comfortable with but know that I can depend on the surface so only have that one thing to worry/think about.

3) As some folks have also mentioned, the weather is NOT a problem inside the gym where the treadmill and the strength machines are.

These may be thoughts more common to the rank novice in the fitness process but that is where I am.

I really do enjoy living vicariously through the blogs on Sweat365, so keep it up everyone. I’m rooting for you.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Blogroll, General Cardio, Strength Training, Walk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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One Response to “Treadmill vs trail running”

  1. Brad Hefta-Gaub says:
    October 17th, 2007 at 8:57 pm

    It sounds to me like you’ve found something that really works for you, and that’s great.

    One thing I like about treadmills is that you can control the pace a lot easier than walking or running outside. At least for me, I have found it to be true.

    One thing that I do worry about, but I don’t know if would effect you, is that treadmills can increase the risk of repetition related injuries because of the lack of variability you mention.

    But I think this is less of a concern with the volume of your program, and the fact that you are not using a treadmill every day. Giving yourself lots of recovery will be good.

    I wonder if you switch up which treadmill you are using? Or if you make a point to adjust the incline or pace (even slightly) for some workouts or sections of the workout. This would give your body a chance to use slightly different muscles at a different rate so as to reduce the risk of repetitive stress injuries.

    Have you asked your primary care practitioner about these issues?