Probably a bit late to write this as we are now coming out of Winter and into Spring and the majority of us that run will be heading for the great outdoors, but as noted in my last post, I wanted to address the contrasts between running on a treadmill and running outdoors.
Before I get into the differences between running on a treadmill and running outdoors, I must confess that I am a purist at heart. I much prefer running outside. That being said, there are many reasons to run on a treadmill versus running outside and I would never discourage one from running on a treadmill if the alternative was not running at all. I, do, however, feel the need to point out some major differences between the two alternatives.
One of the most significant differences between running on a treadmill and outdoors is that muscle activation patterns are different. On a treadmill, the "ground" or belt is moving underneath of you. Because of this, you are not having to push off as much which reduces the amount of muscle activation in muscles in the back of the leg and thigh or what I like to call part of our "posterior chain". You can mitigate this by elevating the treadmill to a 1% grade, but it is still a bit different as the "ground" you are pushing off of is giving way.
Another difference is your ability to maintain an ideal stride length. Most treadmill decks are somewhere between 5 and 7 feet long. Most of us are very concerned about being "shot out the back" of the treadmill and therefore stay near the front. This tends to make us alter our stride length a bit in order to maintain our position on the belt which can cause us to artificially lengthen or shorten our stride.
The treadmill is also only so wide. This is probably one of the least important difference as we don't want to run with a lot of side to side motion even when running outside as this is a big waste of energy, but at the same token we don't have as much freedom to place our feet wherever we want or change the separation between our feet as easily. This is not a huge issue but being able to alter this separation subtly changes the way you are using your running muscles. Some may argue that this is a bad thing. I, on the other hand, tend to think that it is beneficial for the muscles to experience a little different stress from time to time during your run to help stave off fatigue and help prepare them for unexpected terrain.
Speaking from personal experience, the treadmill tends to "lock you" into a pace. This can be a good thing if you are doing a tempo run that is supposed to be at a particular pace -- assuming the treadmill is calibrated :) This can also be a bad thing if it means you are running more quickly than you need to be. Whether we realize it or not we are constantly changing our pace when we run outdoors, be it due to terrain or just because something in our brain or body decides we need to speed up or slow down. It is hard to spontaneously do this on a treadmill, obviously. Additionally, if you are like me, once we find a decent pace, it is really difficult to hit that up or down arrow to change it. Especially the down arrow as now we KNOW we are giving in to fatigue or weakness or whatever and slowing down. Of course, now that we have GPS watches we can see that when we are outside as well, but it is easier to ignore.
Running on the treadmill means you don't have to deal with the elements. This can also be a good thing, especially if it is crazy hot or very cold, rainy, snowy, etc. However, if you plan to do a race or running event and it is not being held indoors, acclimatizing to the heat or cold is an absolute necessity.
Lastly, the terrain on a treadmill doesn't change. The belt or deck is the same with every footfall. This can be good as it allows for consistency. However, playing devil's advocate, running on uneven terrain is a good way to develop foot and ankle stability and strength as the muscles are constantly being challenged to adapt to subtle changes in the running surface. One could argue that this could set you up for injury as you may roll your ankle or develop an injury due to the foot and ankle having to work to propel you forward AND adjust to the terrain. Very true. But like anything, the more you train your ability to accommodate for these changes in terrain the better you become at adapting to it. This actually REDUCES the likelihood of injury, even when running on even surfaces like a treadmill as your feet and ankles are more "fit" for lack of a better word.
This list of differences between treadmill and overground running is by no means exhaustive. This is not intended to get you off of the treadmill either. This is simply just to point out that although the treadmill is a very good training tool, it is not the same as running outdoors. At the end of the day, how you log your miles is up to you. I am much more concerned that you ARE logging miles than HOW you are logging them.
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