5 treadmill workouts for all runners

Hi everyone! I’m Patty and I blog over at Reach Your Peak. I’m a certified National Academy of Sports Medicine Personal trainer, and an avid runner. I just ran the New York City Marathon this November! Put it on your bucket list!

Now that it’s winter, I’m taking time away from serious runs, and just running when I want to/can. I run mostly on the treadmill now because I don’t get home until after dark, and am afraid of slipping on ice.

The treadmill can be SO boring…I hate it. But through my time having to run on the treadmill, I’ve created a few different workouts I like to do, which I want to share with you. You don’t have to be bored next time you hit the “dreadmill.”

Hilly Workout

I love this workout because you can make this any distance you would like. I usually run about 3-4 miles with this. To make it shorter just make your warm up shorter or make the times you are running on an incline shorter. It’s a great way to get in some hill training during these winter months, and time does go faster!

Quick Hill Sprints

While the above was more of a gentle, rolling hill workout (you should be running them at your normal easy pace), this workout will take it to the next level and leave you out of breath. This will be short, about 1-2 miles depending on your warm-up and how long you “sprint for.”

Start with your warm up, then:

8.0 incline at 5k pace for 45 seconds

2 min jog or walk

8.0 incline +.2 of what your 5k pace was (so if it was 7.0, you’re now at 7.2) for 30 seconds

2.5 min jog or walk

8.0 incline + another.2 (now 7.4 according to example) for 20 seconds

3 min jog or walk

1.0 incline at a sprint

Work your way back down, and repeat as many times as you’d like. Doing it once through usually gives me a mile.

Varying Interval Workout

This is one you can do on the roads too. It’s a great way to vary your speed throughout your run, and you can make it as long as you want.

Warm up, then:

10 seconds at sprint/strider pace

20 seconds at moderately hard pace

30 second easy jog

repeat as many times as you want.

Hill Strengthening

During your normal run, whatever distance it may be, throw in a big incline every half mile or 1 mile. Increase your speed a little, and the trick to this one is, once you finish and flatten out your incline again, you are going to increase your speed even more. So as your incline is going down, your speed goes up a bit. This is great practice for hilly race courses where once you crest a hill you will want to feel strong and pass everyone else who is struggling!

Fartleks

These are just as great indoors as they are outdoors. Just randomly increase your speed and incline as you wish…play around with it!

Hopefully these workouts let you enjoy your treadmill run (at least a little) more than usual. I know looking at a clock and doing intervals helps the time go by faster for me.

For more of my workouts, both running and strength training related, follow my blog! Feel free to tweet me at @PattyRivas13 if you have any questions!
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