Strap season, you know, I'm doing whatever it
takes put out never hitting the brace getting
the medals. I'm ready to race Yeah, yeah, yeah
time to get it on life is not a dash live it
like a marathon. Who ready? Welcome to not another
running podcast. I'm your host line six Today
we're killing a debate that never needed to exist.
Treadmill vs outdoor running. Some runners swear
the belt doesn't count, others avoid the road
like it's trying to humble them. But if you're
serious about becoming a complete runner, you
don't pick sides, you build systems. Because
the truth is, the road builds resilience, the
treadmill builds precision. One exposes your
control, the other tests your durability. And
if you're training for something real, a marathon,
a breakthrough season, A stronger version of
yourself? You need both. Today we're breaking
down the physiological differences, the training
advantages, and how combining the treadmill and
outdoor running is a blueprint for becoming a
complete runner. Let's get into it. Universally,
in the running space, the treadmill gets a lot
of hate. They say it's boring, it's easy, it's
cheating, it's not real running. Well, for the
last 14 weeks, I've been training for the Rome
Marathon, and I've utilized a treadmill for about
60 % of my running throughout this marathon build.
So, before this marathon build, I would do all
my workouts on the track. Anyhow, this past winter,
I went to do a workout on the track. It was too
icy, so I had to take it indoors. Well, first
thing I did was I opened up my Whoop app. Got
on a whoop AI and I asked the whoop How do I
get my indoor workout to be as good as the outdoor
workout? The treadmill is inferior, right? We'll
be in the smart geniuses. It is told me What
you can do to make it? about 95 to 100 percent
as close to outside It's turned incline to 1
% incline and that will give you the same physiological
Benefits is running outside. So unless to my
woop and I put the incline on the 1 % incline
and that day happened to be 1k repeat Anytime
I do 1k repeat whether it's on the track or now
on the treadmill My heart rate is redlining.
I'm talking about maxed out feeling like my heart's
gonna jump out of my chest And so when they say
the treadmill is easier That's a lie because
on the treadmill, my heart felt the same way
it did outside. Actually, I think it felt a little
bit harder because on the outside, I'm not a
professional runner. I ain't been running this
long. So my paces tend to drift in and out. So
when I'm running on the track, I look down at
my watch and I'm running 10 seconds faster than
I'm supposed to. Then I slow down and I'll be
running 10 seconds, 15 seconds slower than I
need to. But on the treadmill, You punch that
pace in, and that's the pace you're going to
be running, player. There ain't no, what you
call it, ain't going to be no drifting. And that's
the benefit of the treadmill. It teaches you
how to pace. I was telling a friend one time,
because they was telling me they felt like the
treadmill was easier for them than running outside.
And I said, nah, the fact is the treadmill is
your pacer. Think of it like this. When those
guys are running marathons on TV to break records,
they have pacers. The reason being is because
having something to pace you makes life a little
bit easier. It takes the thinking out. So when
you're on a treadmill, it's doing all the thinking
for you. All you gotta do is just turn, key,
and go. Another benefit of the treadmill is the
ability to change the elevation. This has been
a huge game changer for me and my fitness during
this build. First, on just easy steady state
runs being able to Adjust the incline and simulate
being outside But however outside you don't get
to decide how long the hill is on that treadmill
I can make that hill as long as I want it to
be but the biggest thing that really gets me
excited about the treadmill is in this build
I wanted to play around with the Four by four
method to try to increase my vo2 max and I wanted
to do it as a double on a speed day. So I talked
to my whoop again. I said, hey, man, I want to
utilize the four by four method to increase my
VO2 max. However, at my age, I don't want to
get injured by doing too much speed training.
And my whoop, being the brilliant genius that
it is, said, OK, well, this is what you could
do to take off some of the mechanical load. You
could adjust the incline on the treadmill to
let's say 11 % and then you can adjust the speed
to seven miles per hour on the treadmill and
try to run that for four minutes and see if you
get to that 85 to 95 % of your max heart rate.
So sure enough I went and I did that and I found
that at a 11 degree incline but a speed of 6
.5 that would get me in that sweet spot of the
85 to 95 percent heart rate range. So next week
when I had my speed session in the morning, I
went back that night and I do four minutes at
that incline at a 6 .5 speed and then I rest
for three minutes and then I do it again and
I repeat that four times. Obviously do a cool
down, do a warm up and a cool down. What I'm
saying is your body, it doesn't really know speed.
When you're trying to increase your VO2 max,
it's about getting that heart rate up. And by
being able to simply eliminate that mechanical
stress that you're having by going out running
hard and being able to do it by running, I don't
want to say easy because you feel it. Running
in the incline. at any speed is tough, and doing
it for four minutes at that speed, it feels just
like doing a hard sprint around the track. It's
just different. It blew my mind. I had to share
it with so many people. Like, I could not believe
the whoop is this smart. I like to say, I got
a whoop. Competing in long distance running takes
mental toughness, discipline, and patience. And
the treadmill... will provide all of those things
to you. You have to be mentally tough to sit
on that treadmill for hours at a time. It is
a grind. With that said, the treadmill is not
a direct replacement for outdoor running. Outside,
you experience wind, terrain variability, and
race -specific conditions. There's no race that's
done on a treadmill. Some of the best runners
in the world utilize a treadmill for training.
So if it's good enough for them, it's good enough
for you and me. If someone's telling you treadmill
running is cheating, it's not real running, it's
easy, they are all cap. Blue hat emoji. Don't
even listen to them. Chances are that's just
their ego talking. The strongest runners don't
pick sides, they use everything. The road builds
toughness, the belt builds discipline. Together,
That bill is a complete runner. Thanks for listening.
I'm out.