Treadmill runs

Once again, I hemmed, I hawed, then it was too late to do a proper outdoor run, so I got on the treadmill and wrapped up my run inside less than 15 minutes before the sun set (if the sun had been out today). It is already getting dark.

The main reason for the H&H was the weather. It was chilly in the morning–about 4-5C, but I can dress for that. It was drizzly, but promised to be merely “mostly cloudy” later, but seemed to stay kind of drizzly. For running, drizzle is worse than rain because it is finer and mists over my glasses, making it hard to see. I did not relish facing the combo of cold and drizzle.

So I hit the treadmill again, so at least I was good and did my exercise. The only change was not ramping up the speed in the last km. This resulted in me having a faster pace at the end. Go figure.

I ended up with a faster pace than last time, but lower BPM, so that’s nice. Now I rest.

Stats:

Run 904 (treadmill)

Speed: 9.0 (9.0-9.3)
Incline: 1 (1)

Pace: 5:38/km (5:41/km)
Time: 28:19 (28:39)
Distance: 5.03 km (5.04 km)
Calories burned: 330 (338)
BPM: 140 (142)

Parenthetical numbers are from the previous treadmill run.

More stats (the only stat changed is total distance):

Run 902
Average pace: 5:34/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop)
Start: 10:04 a.m.
Distance: 5.04 km
Time: 28:01
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 5°C
Humidity: 86-83%
Wind: light
BPM: 153
Weight: 168.0
Total distance to date: 6,380 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 6 (150/277/427)

I accidentally overslept this morning. Having extra-refreshed myself, I dithered all morning and finally got changed for an early afternoon run, then dithered some more and finally it was too late before it gets dark (the sun sets at 4:19 today), so I just did a treadmill run again.

As this is the third in a row, I have decided to increment the run total on my outdoor run workouts, since I’m putting in roughly the same effort and distance on the treadmill.

The one disadvantage to the treadmill, other than being not nearly as interesting and varied as running outside, is I miss anywhere from 3 to 13 km of walking to and from where I run, which adds up! Perhaps I will step outside before dinner to touch a tree. In the meantime, stats!

I think the slower pace, longer time, lower BPM and calorie burn can all be attributed to how I started the run. On the previous run, I started the treadmill on a slower walking pace, then ramped up and only started timing the run once it was up to its max speed of 9. Today, I started the treadmill (when you push the start button, it defaults to moving at Speed 1), then pressed the Speed 9 button and started timing right after. I’m not sure how long it takes to go from 1 to 9, but my initial lap was 5:46/km and subsequent laps were all around 5:33-5:36 (except for the last one, see below).

Strangely, I tried ramping the speed up for the final lap again, to 9.3 (faster than previously) but still ended up slower. I’m not sure how I can run slower when setting the treadmill to move faster, but maybe I don’t understand physics. Or it’s just a hint to go back outside. Which I will totally do on Wednesday!

Stats:

Speed: 9.0-9.3 (9.0-9.2)
Incline: 1 (1)

Pace: 5:41/km (5:35/km)
Time: 28:39 (28:07)
Distance: 5.04 km (5.03 km)
Calories burned: 338 (347)
BPM: 142 (149)

Parenthetical numbers are from the previous treadmill run.

More stats (the only stats changed are total distance and the run stats for the shoes):

Run 902
Average pace: 5:34/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop)
Start: 10:04 a.m.
Distance: 5.04 km
Time: 28:01
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 5°C
Humidity: 86-83%
Wind: light
BPM: 153
Weight: 168.0
Total distance to date: 6,375 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 6 (165/277/427)

I mean, it looked windy outside, but it was probably 50-50 on it being strong enough for flying debris. Despite mild temperatures and no rain, I opted for another treadmill run.

It as the same as the last one, except I bumped the speed up from 9 to 9.1, then 9.2 for the last quarter km or so. Ironically, my pace slowed down. So much for science!

My overall performance was better, though, with a stronger start and more consistent overall pace.

I don’t want to do something crazy like get used to running on the treadmill, so I will probably try to run outdoors next time. I’m also curious to see if the fountain remains open because I get curious about weird little things like that.

Stats:

Speed: 9.0-9.2 (9.0)
Incline: 1 (1)

Pace: 5:35/km (5:47/km)
Time: 28:07 (29:08)
Distance: 5.03 km (5.03 km)
Calories burned: 347 (355)
BPM: 149 (148)

Parenthetical numbers are from the previous treadmill run.

Yes, for the first time since January, I did an actual run on the treadmill.

I couldn’t recall the settings I used last time, so I just winged it. I knew to set the Incline to 1, which simulates the wind resistance you get when running outdoors. This is somewhat ironic, because the reason I’m running on the treadmill instead of outside on the trail is due to persistent high winds from the BOMB CYCLONE that came in over the area last night. The wind itself is not the issue, it’s more all the flying debris it creates, which I witnessed in one of the many recent windstorms and found somewhat terrifying.

I started the treadmill at a moderate walking pace (5), then switched to 9, which is apparently 6:40/km. At this point I had to run to avoid falling off the treadmill. As incentive, it works well. I completed 5K and curiously, the first lap nearly matched the stated pace, coming in at 6:38/km, which is really slow for me as a run pace. But every lap after that was more akin to my usual pace of late, ranging from 5:30 to 5:41. My BPM averaged 148, which is a bit lower than normal, but still close to normal.

I am satisfied with this, even though I still dislike running on a treadmill. Instead of scenery, I get this for 30 minutes:

Speed: 9.0 (8.7)
Incline: 1 (1)

Pace: 5:47/km (5:35/km)
Time: 29:08 (28:07)
Distance: 5.03 km (5.03 km)
Calories burned: 355 (348)
BPM: 148 (150)

Parenthetical numbers are from the previous treadmill run on January 18, 2024.

Yes, today I got on the treadmill (as it continues snowing outside) and actually did a full 5K run for the first time in about a hundred years. I think the calibration on the watch vs. the treadmill may be off because the laps were going faster on the watch, but I still ran for about 28 minutes, which is about right for a 5K. I may do a short (1-2 km) run later on to recalibrate things.

My shins always seem to get worked over more on a treadmill. I’m not sure if it’s the greater resistance or what, but they did eventually settle down. Since I’m not used to actually running on the treadmill, I contemplated stopping at the 3K mark, but pressed on. Then I thought about stopping at the 4K mark…and pressed on. At that point, only falling off the treadmill would have kept me from doing the full 5K, but when I hit 5K I was delighted and immediately stopped¹See below for why this was not a great idea.

Notes:

• I burned more calories last time when I mostly walked. Sad trombone.
• BPM was only a little higher–this is good!
• Pace was fast at 5:35/km, which does suggest calibration between watch and treadmill is off.
• I got an abnormally high heart rate warning while writing this, probably because I didn’t cool off properly post-run. My bad and I will properly recover next time.

My overall training status is still listed as Strained, because I’ve been a fat lazy bum, I guess (which has been true-ish this month). But things will improve for the rest of the month.

Speed: 8.7 (6.7-8.7)
Incline: 1 (1)

Pace: 5:35/km (8:14/km)
Time: 28:07 (33.09)
Distance: 5.03 km (4.03 km)
Calories burned: 348 (387)
BPM: 150 (142)

FYI, I have done more than six runs on a treadmill, but this was the sixth on my own treadmill. Even though I’ve used the treadmill a lot (especially in 2022) it’s been mostly for fast walks, not actual runs. But today I ran!

Most of the time.

Looking over the precious few previous runs, I opted for a speed of 9, which works out to 6:40/km–a slow running pace for outdoors, but not bad for a treadmill. I expected my legs to catch fire because running and walking use quite different muscles, but to my surprise and delight that did not happen.

But my stamina for jogging is not quite there yet and a few times, maybe for about three minutes total, I slowed the pace down to 7 or 6.5 (my usual; treadmill walking pace until I recovered enough to ramp back up. I went 30 minutes instead of trying for 5 km, but the ultimate goal will be to push on for at least 5 km. until I recovered enough to ramp back up. I went 30 minutes instead of trying for 5 km, but the ultimate goal will be to push on for at least 5 km.

A couple of observations:

• I listened to music, figuring it might be difficult to watch videos, with the head bobbing and all. This meant my eyes naturally fell to the treadmill display. This was bad because staring at the time made it feel like it was passing very slowly. I’m going back to videos or covering the display next time with a towel.
• As noted, the legs held up fine. I guess all the slow burn walking workouts have helped!
• I sweated a lot more.
• At about the 28-minute mark, I suddenly felt I might throw up. I slowed to a walking pace for a minute, then switched back to running for the last 60 seconds.I think this happened due to an excessive amount of phlegm clogging my throat and getting jiggled around (yeah, gross). I am going to talk to my doctor about this, as this much phlegm seems strange and weird.

Other than the relative lack of stamina and the near-hurling right at the end, I thought it went fairly well. It is showery today, otherwise I might have tried outside. Maybe next time!

Stats:

Pace: 6:52/km
Speed: 9 (6:40/km) and 6.5 (9:13/km)
Time: 30:11
Distance: 4.39
Calories burned: 347
BPM: 154

Today I slept in a wee bit, then had breakfast and thought about going for a run. Instead I noodled around for a bit, then walked to the mall, which, given my walking pace, burned 341 calories.

When I got home I thought about going for a run, but time was running out to get to the lake before darkness set in.

So I had a bubble bath, because I bought bubble bath at the mall.

After the bubble bath, I did not think about going for a run, because I was all fuzzy and warm and relaxed. Instead I had dinner.

After dinner I did a 20 minute walk on the treadmill with a speed of 6 and incline of 10. I sweated profusely. After the sweat dried, I got back on and did an open run, planning to stop when the watch declared I had been running for 30 minutes.

Thirty minutes later I stopped. I started the run at a speed of 10 again, but after awhile I wanted to get my heart rate down a bit, so dropped the speed to 9.4, then 9.2. I bumped it back to 10 for the last minute or so.

Overall, it went fine. The first few minutes all the muscles that get worked out in running, rather than walking, yodeled in protest. Things settled down after that and I was left to ponder thoughts like, “Why is my phone randomly pulling up so many Coldplay songs?” By the last few minutes I was getting into that “will be glad it’s over” state of mind because I am still soft and flabby. Then it was over.

A few takeaways now that I’ve done multiple runs on the treadmill:

• I definitely need a fan, because I sweat buckets on this thing. The fan on the treadmill is equivalent to having a baby wave its hand in front of your face.
• Maybe a towel to go with the fan.
• Running without a shirt is kind of nice. I may do this outdoors once I lose most of the tire.
• The downside of going without a shirt is a well-designed shirt pulls the sweat away from your body. With no shirt, the sweat is all, “All right, I’m staying right here.”
• I’m tempted to cover up the display while running. I don’t really like seeing my stats in front of me for the entire run. Maybe I’ll start playing racing videos on the iPad or something.

And the stats:

Distance: 4.47 km
Time: 30:06 
Average pace: 6:44/km
Speed: 9.2-10 km/h
BPM: 153
Calories: 333
Total treadmill distance: 54.11 km
Device used: Apple Watch Series 5

Tonight I got back on the treadmill to try the Sole app, which can sync to the treadmill through the magic of Bluetooth, which is neither blue nor has teeth.

The app has a measly 1.5 star rating in the App Store, but I didn’t check on why. It could be a single disgruntled ex-employee or maybe the app actively kills other apps while they innocently idle in the background. In any case, I use the Apple Watch to track my runs for real, so this app is just be a bonus or alternative to the monochrome LCD on the treadmill itself.

And that’s what it was. There are three views, one that closely mimics the treadmill’s display, but in color, and two others that show the same stats, but in different layouts. It’s nicer than the built-in display simply because it’s in color and higher resolution. It also makes it easy to start a timed run, something I haven’t quite uncovered on the treadmill’s actual controls.

Reaching out to interact with the iPad while running is a good test of balance, of which I have very little. Fortunately, you can still control the run from the treadmill’s panel and buttons, too.

For this mini-run I set a 10 minute goal and in that time I ran 1.51 km and my BPM was a low 148. This was with a speed of 10 km/h, so close to my normal running pace (I’m going to start recording the speed in my treadmill stats, but it will generally be set to 10 km/h). I burned 103 calories or two Timbits. Mmm, Timbits.

I next did a test walk to see how using a mix of incline and speed would turn out. This time I didn’t set a timer, I decided to walk until I had burned another 100 calories. Interestingly, my BPM was 145, nearly the same as for the run. It took me 9:56 minutes to burn 106 calories using the following settings:

Speed: 6 km/h
Incline: 10%

This put my walking pace at 10:17/km, which is pretty decent for a 10% incline. I sweated copiously. I may tinker with the settings a bit more, but this may be as close to the sweet spot as I’ll get, as the incline can only be set to a maximum of 12% and at 6 km/h I was able to keep pace, but nudging the speed up from there made it a fair bit more difficult to keep from moving toward the end of the treadmill and a spot on America’s Funniest Home Videos or whatever the YouTube equivalent is now.

Here are the stats for the run part:

Distance: 1.51 km
Time: 10:04 
Average pace: 6:38/km
Speed: 10 km/h
BPM: 148
Calories: 103
Total treadmill distance: 49.64 km
Device used: Apple Watch Series 5

I think I may try doing at least a mini-run of 10-15 minutes every day, along with the longer 5K runs and, of course, the outdoor runs on the weekend, except when there are blizzards and such.

The second time was more like a “real” treadmill run. I put on the AirPods and listened to music, which made me realize that I was apparently concentrating so hard during the first run that I didn’t notice the sound of the treadmill’s motor at all. It’s not loud, per se, but it’s kind of hard to miss. I could still hear it underneath the music with the AirPods in, but not to the point it was annoying.

I tried the built-in fan. It moves a tiny bit of air and adds to the noise. I stopped trying it.

This time I ramped up to the usual jogging speed of 6 (mph), which translates to about 9.7 km/h. This is the best combo of comfort and speed to approximate running outdoors, though it’s slower. Adding a 1% incline brings it closer and I might try that in the future.

I ran 15 minutes on my first bit of treadmillin’ and went for 20 minutes tonight. I’ll try the full 30 minutes or 5K the next time out. Tonight I definitely felt better on the treadmill and best of all, my left foot feels fine, even wearing the cross trainers without the orthotic. Yay. I also ended the run at 20 minutes on the Workout app, but let it go a few minutes longer on the treadmill itself, ramping the speed down to give me a recovery period, something I neglected the first time. It’s a much nicer way to finish.

Plans for the future may include mounting a better fan, setting up the iPad app that works with the treadmill to see how it compares to the built-in display (the treadmill has a place to hold a tablet) and other stuff I haven’t thought of yet. Jeff brought his magic fingers to play after by helping to execute the right key combo to enter maintenance mode and change the units from miles back to km. That should make it easier on my brain to track progress on future runs.

The stats:

Distance: 3.09 km
Time: 20:04 
Average pace: 6:30/km
BPM: 160
Calories: 241
Total treadmill distance: 48.13 km
Device used: Apple Watch Series 5