How Treadmills Can Help You Train for a Marathon

Are you training for a marathon? Chances are, if you have discovered this article you are training for a marathon or plan to start training for marathon. If serious marathon training is in your future consider buying a treadmill. In addition to good shoes and having access to a realistic marathon route to practice on, a treadmill can provide the serious marathoner with that extra edge to needed to complete a marathon or shave a couple minutes off overall time. There are five invaluable advantages a treadmill can give to someone training for a marathon. Let’s take a look at what those advantages are.

Consistency
Consistency is required to train for anything from golf to beer chugging. Consistency is required even more so for a grueling marathon that pushes the human body to its limits. Wind, storms, cold, rain, heat, dust, allergies, and wildlife can all conspire against a well regimented training routine. You will probably get a reprieve from unpredictable weather in the spring, but even in good weather there are dangers.

True Story: I had a regular running routine going for about a month at a local bike and nature trail. One day I tied my shoes and stepped on to the trail for another day of training. To my horror I saw a rattlesnake, a poisonous killer rattlesnake on the trail along with half a dozen warning signs that the rattlesnake population was booming and the trail was not exactly safe. Fortunately, I was able to go home and get my training in on a treadmill.

Fitness Programs
Unfortunately, most of us do not have the cash to pay a personal trainer at the gym $50 a session to coach us through an hour of running and body conditioning. Good thing for us treadmills come with personal training programs that can greatly increase the efficacy of a run without paying hundreds of dollars in training fees. Just be careful, some treadmills are better at fitness programs than others. The best training programs usually come from the Icon Fitness family of treadmills that offer their exclusive iFit Live training system. Icon Fitness has contracted with Jillian Michaels of Biggest Loser fame to create effective audio-based training programs.

You can find everything you want to know about the iFit Live training system by visiting iFitlive.com

Easier for Beginners
Are you just starting out? If you are new to marathon training a treadmill is going to be vital to your initial training. Try this, go out, run on pavement for about 5 minutes then go to a Dick’s Sporting Goods store and get the floor-person to turn on the Sole F80 Treadmill. Did you notice how much easier it was to run on a treadmill than on asphalt? Running on asphalt, especially I you’re a beginner will sap energy like a leech. Running on a treadmill with a good shock absorption system is going to leave the body with more energy to focus on running rather than recovery. Using a treadmill is a good way of easing in to the rigor of training for a marathon.

Read My Review of the Sole F80 Treadmill

Heart Rate Control
Have you ever wondered if you’re pushing your heart too hard when training for a marathon? Using a heart rate control program and a heart rate monitor is a great way to gauge how hard your heart is working. Heart rate control uses a sensor attached at the wrist or chest to very accurately monitor heart rate. Users set a desired heart rate and a computer will automatically adjust speed, incline, or a combination of both to keep your heart beating at the rate desired. Marathoners will particularly appreciate heart rate control because heart rate control is an easy way to determine how hard to work your heart and when it’s okay to increase the difficulty of your workout.

Popular Heart Rate Monitors:

Pacing
Pacing is everything to a marathoner. Pacing is something my conditioning coach in high school beat in to me every time he made the class go for a 5 mile or more run. Go too fast and you’ll be ready to quit before you start. Go too slow and before you know it you’re walking to the finish line. Treadmills can do something asphalt never do, make you keep an even pace. Want to do a mile every 12 minutes? Set the speed of the treadmill for 5 MPH. Want a 10 minute mile pace? Set your speed for 6 MPH. A treadmill can get your pacing and timing down in a way nothing else can.

These are my thoughts on using a treadmill to train for a marathon. How has a treadmill helped you train for a marathon or simply get in better shape? Leave a comment and let’s discuss it.