How To Beat The Treadmill?

I don’t do it often, but two days ago, I had to try it once again.

The plan wasn’t so clear from the beginning, but when I was stepping on the treadmill it was. I warmed up 5-10 min’s slow running and a bit warming up my muscles. We don’t want to risk an injury :)

And then, I reseted the timer on the treadmill and started off running. I immediately went up on a 16k speed.
Ok. So what was the plan?

There was no plan, I just tried not to look onto the timer of the treadmill nor on the way that I still had to go. This sometimes is rather demotivating, as I then always think about how long I still have to suffer :)
So, I just looked in front of me. I guess the first k was quite good, and all the other ones that followed weren’t that devastating.





When I firstly looked onto the timer I was running already over 14 minutes. That was good, as I know the overall times should have been around 19 minutes. 5 minutes I still could go, I thought. Lucky I was right.
When I still had to go 500 meters, I accelerated my speed to 19k and happily finished my 5k run with a time of 18:39 on the treadmill.

What a great experience, the training of the last 6 weeks seems to be worth it. I am sure I could not have run it without it. My feet had the power they needed, I did not cramp and also I did not have any stitches.  This was definitely one of my most successful runs since nearly one year. Great stuff happening here.

I have come one step closer to my goal running the 5k in 17:30. For me this is a high aim, I would have to improve by over 1 minute.


Which tips can I give my fellow runners?

I think the most important thing in running is, to make the training as you feel it is good for you. I mean I think diversity, endurance runs, short speed runs, interval training, additional leg training, etc. Should be done, but I think it’s best to always listen to yourself and what your body wants at a certain day.

I sometimes have the aim to train speed runs, but then I feel that my legs are just not capable of doing this on a high level. What I do then is, adapt the training or I try something completely different, sometimes I even train my body instead and rest my legs for a day.


So, don’t forget to diversify your training but always listen to your body first. If it’s capable of doing the training, just do it! To beat the treadmill, listen to your body and if the body is ok with it, give it your all!

Let me know about your training.