I completed my first week of "blog" runs with a treadmill jaunt yesterday and 4 loops around Ft. Greene Park today. Both runs were 3 miles long, and those 6 miles rounded out my week total to 19.1 miles. The goal will be to fall between 16 and 20 miles every week until my official marathon training begins. But since I ran 3 miles on a treadmill and then 3 outside, I wanted to take a moment to talk about treadmill running in general.
Before I started training for the NYRR runs that I completed in the last 8 months, I was almost exclusively a treadmill runner on cold days. When you live in the Northeast, you almost don't have a choice-- the pavement is often covered in ice which can land you on your rump faster than...well, fast enough. I also really enjoy running to televised sporting events and programs, so there was an added incentive to run indoors. The fact that Crunch's TVs rarely work is a story for another day-- but I often found myself in the purple gym and on a machine.
Once I started running outside, I noticed that my hamstrings were tighter. To be honest, I have never been a great stretcher-- so I attributed my tightness to that. Certainly, some of the blame belongs there-- but then I got a tip from a trainer about treadmill use and how it improperly trains you for running outside.
Though this guy is cornier than me (and that is saying something), this article does a nice job of explaining the problem. If you can't stand his writing-- just google the topic and you'll find something similar.
http://jamieatlas.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/treadmill-running-vs-outdoor-running-which-is-better-the-debate-continues/
Bottom line is a 50/50 outdoor/indoor split won't kill you. But running exclusively on a treadmill can lead to injury. Thankfully, I avoided one and my butt and hamstrings are in fine form. Um. Yeah.
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