Couch to 5k on a treadmill

[BetsyBloom]

I am just starting couch to 5k but I’m going to be doing it all on a treadmill at home.

I have borrowed the treadmill from a friend who doesn’t use it. It measures speed in km/h but I’ve no idea what speed to use. Does anyone know please?

I’ve done the first two sessions of week 1 using 5 for walking and 7 for running. Is that about right or should I tweak a bit?

It's simply what speeds work for you, so just trial and error. If you're running/walking at 5 or 7 kph and you feel you could comfortably do it a bit faster, toggle it up 0.1 or more. You're just starting and you want to find a pace that you feel you can sustain. Everyone is different. I did the whole C25k on a treadmill too and probably did the walking at 5 and maybe eventually ran at 7.5/7.8ish. I realised there's always going to be folk who can run faster or slower so just stopped worrying about it and focused on what felt right for me. Good luck!

Yay for you!!!
I hope you enjoy it!

Have a play around. Find an easy walking pace, then add bits to find a fast walking pace. Slightly more than this will be your slowest jog, ie a speed where you will naturally have moments when both feet are off the ground. The couch to 5k will guide you and you can work on your pace afterwards. If you can manage it with a slight incline (0.5 to start) all the better, as treadmills are kind of like running downhill.

Thank you. That’s helpful. Good idea about an incline. I’ll have a look and see if our treadmill is able to do that.

just turn the speed up until you're moving at a comfortable jogging pace. I'd brisk walk at 6.2-6.5km/hr and jog at around 8km/hr. Anything in between is an uncomfortable too fast to walk but too slow to run properly sort of pace for me, but do what works for you! In my experience, treadmill speed doesn't bear much resemblance to your speed outside anyway. Also, you don't have to use the same speed throughout......ideally you should be able to turn up the speed a little for the last couple of sets rather than needing to turn it down.