Treadmills and Smart Strides

by Chris Harland
(Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Treadmill and the smart strides :

"Dear Marius,

I wonder if you could please give your thoughts on how to run Smart Strides (and similar other interval training), on a treadmill?

If it takes say 15 seconds to come down from 5K speed to recovery walk / stopped speed, and another 15 seconds to get back up, it obviously interferes with the 20s at speed, 20s recovery outlined in the Smart Strides Chapter.

Would you still recommend doing them on a treadmill? Or just say forget it, find some way to do them outside?

With best regards,
Chris Harland. "

Answer: Hi Chris and thanks for your question.

My personal way of doing this is to add 3-4 x strides of 20-25 seconds with 30 sec recovery after each treadmill session - on the treadmill ; at about 1-3 km/hr faster pace than your actual session. I would still do this to "freshen up" the legs after the different runs. It would not be as gradual as outside but at the same time give you a nice fresh feeling in your legs.

all the best,
Marius