Treadmill accuracy

[Umberlemur]

Hello, im planning on doing couch to 10k wanted to ask how do you train for this if most of my training is limited to treadmill, because im guessing the accuracy of speed/distance isn't very accurate, I keep my incline on 1.5 gradient to try and replicate street walking( can only walk at the moment!) Thanks

I’d say a treadmill is accurate enough. Couch to 5K isn’t an exact science. I’d recommend putting the incline up to 2 as standard.

Couch to 5k or 10k is a bit of a misleading name in my opinion because it never actually deals in distance but in times. So the aim is to run continuously for 30 minutes or an hour, not to actually run 5k or 10k.

if I were you I would concentrate on that and worry about the distance when you get there.

And start on c25k not 10k, especially if you’re starting from scratch as I think you are - as I was - from what you say.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy it!

Once you get a bit fitter and more confident - it took me till about Week 7 - you could do a few things to increase your speed. Running short intervals as fast as you can will help. So you could go back to an earlier week and run a 30 second interval as fast as you can manage. Then walk for 90 seconds, then sprint, and maybe do this interval training 3-5 times.

But only when you’re used to running and feel confident running at a slow pace for 20 minutes or so. Then maybe once a week do a short round of interval training. It’s nice to do outside - sprint as fast as possible to the next lamp post sort of challenge.

You can do it on a treadmill, but slightly differently. It helps if you learn to jump on and off the moving treadmill, by holding on to the sides then jumping your feet off the moving belt and onto the solid sides. Then set the treadmill at a challenging speed and set yourself say, to run 10 seconds at 10kph. Then jump your feet to the side and rest for 30 seconds. Then hang on to the sides and get your feet running on the treadmill again (you leave the treadmill running through your rest break) and do another fast interval.

I’m not a runner but i can run for 10 seconds at 16kph. It’s a blast!

Depends entirely on the treadmill. An old one you have at home won't be very accurate, but high-end ones in a good gym will be calibrated.

Not that it really matters for Couch to 5k though- any treadmill will be good enough as you're working on being able to run for periods of time, not very specific distances.