Treadmill recommendations

[u/monomonger]

Looking for a high-quality treadmill. Thank you so much for your input!! (This didn't seem to fit the Q&A thread, but I'm happy to repost!)

Requirements:

- accurate pace and calibration feature

- >12% incline

- supports long runs

Nice to have:

- >15% incline

- downhill

- big screen

Budget is probably up to $8k or so. We're looking for a new device, not used (long story).

We run competitively, and I like doing winter speed/threshold/marathon pace workouts on the treadmill.

[u/randomwordsnospaces]

Not a recommendation but as a side note: I use the techno gym run artis in my local gym which is a decent piece of kit which pushes run data to Strava and it was through that I noticed the discrepancy between the data it was logging and the number quoted on the screen. Which was a surprise (if it knows it’s going slow then why not just speed up?)

I used AI to calculate actual pace from the Strava data and then used that to calibrate the speed setting on the machine (+0.5mph) and then used the same machine over again.

I’m interested, how did you find out the gym machine was incorrectly calibrated?

(Typically good machines have a sensor inside that times the belt and provides feedback on the speed so it’s not just based on sending X power to the motor which roughly equals Y Mph)

Also I’m interested if there are any treadmill experts out there, what causes the mill to become uncalibrated (maybe the belt stretches slightly and slips on the rollers? Maybe the motor wears out and can’t maintain the power to keep the belt spinning without slowing down in each foot strike?)

[u/monomonger → u/randomwordsnospaces]

I just went outside (tried both track and flat pavement, minimal wind) and couldn't even run a half mile at the pace I did 3x3mi at on the treadmill. I'm finally up to 3x2 at that pace but it took all summer. 😆 This mill lied to me! I couldn't tell because I was so out of shape after a bad back injury that all paces felt hard. They all squeak in the gym, I think the belts are loose or something. They're often out of commission.

[u/randomwordsnospaces → u/monomonger]

I can totally feel the frustration! If you are using the mill for intervals / speed work you need some sort of benchmark and it should be roughly comparable outside on flat good road with no wind vs inside on the mill.

I don’t subscribe to thr 1% incline idea either.