5 Treadmill Workouts To Keep You Interested

The treadmill can be a runner’s worst enemy or best friend. It all depends on how you use it. It doesn’t have to be boring, and it’s quite helpful in helping you hone in on specific paces. And those paces, when practiced, eventually lead to personal bests! In order to stave off the treadmill boredom, here are five workouts that, while tough, will keep you engaged and working hard from start to finish.

1. Treadmill Hills 30 Minutes

Warm up at a conversational pace for 10 minutes keeping the treadmill at 0.0 incline. Then move the treadmill incline up to 2.0 and pick up the pace to a 10K goal pace for two minutes. After the two minutes, lower the incline back down to 0.0 and lower your pace back down to a recovery pace and jog for one minute.

Ready to pick it up? Increase the pace to just slower than 10K goal and raise the incline to 3.5, run at these settings for one minute. Then do another minute recovery at 0.0 incline. Repeat the above for three rounds, but increase the incline sections by .5 each round. For the final five minutes of the workout jog at a conversational pace for a cool down.

2. Treadmill Hills 60 Minutes

This is more advanced than the 30 minute version so be sure you are ready to tackle this challenge! Warm up for 15 minutes at a conversational pace. Then move the treadmill incline to 2.0 and jog for two minutes. Move the incline down to 0.0 and pick up the pace to 5K speed for one minute. After that minute, move the treadmill incline to 5.0 but keep the pace slow and jog for two minutes. Repeat the above seven times through. Finish with a ten-minute cool down jog.

3. Treadmill Overspeed Training 30 Minutes

This workout will be tough but you’ll get super strong and work on leg turnover for fast race finishes. Remember, you can always push yourself a bit farther than you think. Don’t give up! Warm up for 10 minutes at a conversational pace. Start your first set at that pace and run at that speed for 30 seconds.

Hop your legs onto the sides of the treadmill and rest for 30 seconds. Increase the speed (MPH) by one mph and hop back on for another 30 seconds. Repeat this process, increasing the speed every time. After 10 rounds of increase and rest, work your way back down the ladder. For the final 10 minutes run at a conversational pace and think about how next time, you’ll start and finish even faster!

4. Treadmill Hill Ladder 60 Minutes

For this workout, after the warm up, you’ll want to run at an aerobic pace. To find that pace, stay within about 70% of your all out effort. Warm up with 10 minutes at a conversational pace. Bump the incline up to 1.0 and then work your way down the ladder like this:

10 minutes at 1.0 incline

8 minutes at 2.0 incline

6 minutes at 3.0 incline

4 minutes at 4.0 incline

2 minutes at 5.0 incline

1 minute at 6.0

30 seconds at 7.0

Finish out the hour at a comfortable, but not too slow, cool down pace.

5. Treadmill Speed Work 40 Minutes

Warm up for 10 minutes at a conversational pace. Run two minutes at 10K goal race pace. Then run two minutes at a recovery jog pace. Run one minute at 5K goal race pace, then one minute recovery. Repeat the above intervals, which total six minutes, four times through. Finish with a six minute cool down jog.

Beth is a running and triathlon coach from Florida who began her journey through health and fitness as a high school swimmer. After leading an unhealthy lifestyle while in college she made changes to get back in shape. Since then, she's completed numerous marathons and triathlons and finished her first full Ironman in 2014. She's also a freelance fitness writer and blogger. Her passion is fitness in all forms, though she enjoys running and swimming the most, and she believes in doing what makes you happy and healthy.

Main Photo Credit: Gorodetskaya Nadezhda/shutterstock.com; Second Photo Credit: 4 PM production/shutterstock.com; Third Photo Credit: Microgen/shutterstock.com; Fourth Photo Credit: Syda Productions/shutterstock.com