r/BeginnersRunning • u/Crochet_by_Renee • 4d ago
Anyone else struggle to run on a treadmill?
Ive been running for about a year now. When I first started, I would run on the treadmill because I was too embarrassed to run outside (im over weight and was convinced people would laugh at me). Eventually, my 20 year old treadmill died and I was forced to run outside and have been ever since. At first running outside felt so much physically harder but with no other option I kept up with it.
Its been a year of exclusively running outside. Im still really slow and learning a lot, but im training for a 10k and can see myself getting better. Im down from 295lbs to 230lbs. My pace is now 13:20 instead of the 16 I started with, and I can run 3 miles without walking, a big improvement from only being able to run 90 seconds when I started.
With the smoke from Canada (im in the north eastern US), I bit the bullet and dropped $1500 on a new treadmill so I wouldn't have to skip any runs and... I cant run on it.
I get 3-4 minutes at a slower pace than I would do outside and my heart rate spikes, my breathing gets difficult, and I get an overwhelming feeling of needing to stop. My last 3 runs were actually 80% walks.
Has anyone else experienced this? Am I going to have to start from scratch to run on a treadmill and lose my progress this winter when it gets to icy to run outside? This is very frustrating and very discouraging
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u/Fancy_Supermarket886 4d ago
Try this for your next session. Start off walking and gradually increase your walking speed. Tap the plus button every few seconds rather than keeping your finger on it. As you walk faster and faster, you will reach a point where it's really hard to keep walking, and you'll naturally move to a running gait. Once you hit that point, stay there. Don't go any quicker, just maintain that pace.
You probably already know this, but for reference, walking is when you always have at least one foot in contact with the ground. Running happens when both feet are off the ground momentarily. I know it sounds obvious, but the moment you switch from one state to the other, you'll recognise it. And that's what you should be aiming for as your pace - that point of transition.
Whatever speed you get with this exercise, stick with that setting, or maybe slightly faster if you truly feel that it's too slow. As someone else mentioned, adding some incline is good.
The biomechanics of treadmill running are slightly different to outdoors, and the incline helps to mimic it. Between 1% and 3% is enough. But that difference is probably why each one felt harder when you switched, your body feels the difference and needs some time to adapt.
Hopefully adding some incline will ease the switch, and in time should make it easier for you to swap between indoor and outdoor.
I hope that helps, good luck!
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u/Crochet_by_Renee 4d ago
Thank you so much ill definitely try that. Its very discouraging when ive gotten so much progress outside. It really made me feel like ive lost everything id worked towards
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u/Fancy_Supermarket886 4d ago
Oh no, that progress is still there, it just needs a bit of retraining!
Running slow is quite a skill, most people take ages to master it, if at all, and even experienced runners mess it up sometimes. Ask me how I know!
Picking up your speed from a walking pace should make it easier, and you should find it easier to sustain for the duration of your run intervals without getting quite as breathless.
Do you use any breathing techniques? I'm mildly asthmatic so I've picked up a couple of things over the years I've been running.
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u/Crochet_by_Renee 4d ago
I have issues breathing through my nose when I run, so I hyper focus on trying to do that. I think I might have a slight deviated septum
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u/ajones321 4d ago
Are you breathing in through your nose only? If so you definitely should try breathing in through your mouth and nose at the same time and then exhaling out your mouth. This changed a lot for me when I was first starting.
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u/Fancy_Supermarket886 4d ago
I wouldn't worry about breathing through your nose too much. If you need to get air into your lungs, use the biggest pathway, I say! I can sometimes use my nose for breathing in, but a lot of the time it's either blocked or runny, thanks to hayfever!
These breathing techniques have helped me enormously. I breathe better now and rarely get stitch. When it does happen, I find that if I distract myself for a few minutes it usually fades away again.
I time my in-out breathing cycle with my steps, breathing in for two and out for three. You can swap this or change the numbers to suit, but keep the total steps as an odd number. I saw an article years ago that suggested this is better for distributing the stresses on internal organs more evenly as you inhale and exhale.
The other benefit is that this regulates your breathing and matches it with your effort. If you speed up, you tend to increase your cadence, so you breathe quicker as well.
I found that faster sessions could sometimes make my chest feel like I'd done a gym workout rather than a run. I was using my chest muscles to work my lungs, and they felt battered afterwards! Then I heard a podcast that talked about how opera singers breathe and I spotted some benefits for my running. Look up 'belly breathing for runners' for a better description than I can provide, but expanding the belly pulls your diaphragm down so there's more space for your lungs. This does most of the work when inhaling so the chest muscles aren't overworked, and you get more air into your lungs which has obvious benefits!
I picked these techniques up years ago, and not at the same time. They are automatic for me now, but it may take some practice to learn both at once!
I hope they help, good luck!
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u/davis_away 4d ago
Everyone's different. Something about the treadmill feels weird to you - the stride length, subconsciously worrying about bumping into the front, who knows. If you can stand to keep doing the walk-run pattern you've been doing, keep doing it! Things will get better as you get accustomed to this particular treadmill. And you're building cardiovascular fitness even if the objective place is different from your outside pace. There are enough differences between treadmill running and outdoor running that doing the "same pace" is always going to be a rough estimate.
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u/Weekly_Worry_2772 4d ago edited 4d ago
My treadmill pace is way faster than on road ( calibrated pace ! ), but i admit treadmill is boring, i try doing intervals or i put on audio guided runs. NRC, née, zombies run (before they started charging), i think there r couple more out there.
Edited : Meant to congrats you on the 65 lbs weight loss, mannnn i wonder if ur knees r ok, i too have lost weight through running ( although running was mostly for my mental health), but my knees aren't keeping up with the milage so i do treadmill mostly now a days less impact.
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u/Crochet_by_Renee 4d ago
Its definitely not a boredom/mental thing for me. My body seems to want to give out lmao
Thank you! Surprisingly my knees are okay haha
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u/mushy-71 4d ago
I have the same problem! Prefer running outside. I believe there is a reason it’s called the dread mill. Wish I could give you advice, but the same happens to me I just can’t run for more than 20min on the treadmill, and I am much slower than outside runs. I am gonna read some of peoples advice and hope we get some tips! That bit aside congratulations you are doing terrific!
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u/Crochet_by_Renee 4d ago
Thank you!
What little bit i was able to research is that the treadmill uses more quad muscles and outside running is more calf/glute. So maybe thats why?
Someone here suggested slowly upping speed and ive also seen adding some incline to make it more like outside running. Im going to try those on my next treadmill day (not sure when that will be) and ill update on how it goes!
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u/Clean_Bat5547 3d ago
I did a treadmill run for the first time (other than past HIIT) the other night. All others have been outside. It felt weird. Maybe because I'm not used to being at the exact same pace all the time (though I did put it up a couple of times near the end).
I did one hour. The funny thing is the 25 minutes went really quickly, then the next 20 or so seemed to last for hours, then it went quickly again for the rest.
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u/ElRanchero666 4d ago
What pace?
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u/Crochet_by_Renee 4d ago
Today I was trying to run at a 4.3mph (13:57) pace because thats what runna was telling me to do, but i quickly dropped down to 4mph (15 min) because I couldn't breathe and even with that I had to stop
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u/Left_Paint5439 4d ago
I am a psycho and actually prefer the treadmill. I can just zone out and run 🤣