I live in Denver and I work an 8:30-5:30, so in the wintertime it’s either too cold or too dark for me to do my usual run in the park. Unfortunately I CANNOT stand the treadmill. It’s a necessary evil — something I hate to rely on for training since it’s a snooze fest and a half. But today I got this in my email, and some of these are really important (the stuff about gear I’m not sure about, I mean I just wear the same clothes and shoes I wear outside? but I do have special shoes for my slight overpronation problem, so if you haven’t been fitted, please do that for yourself and spend the $100 on nice shooz. Worth it for sure).

My favorites:

Warm Up and Cool Down

It’s all too easy to just jump on the treadmill and start cranking away at your set pace. This is forgetting that when you run outside your body naturally rolls into its optimal pace. Here’s a basic warm up to help make your workout as safe and effective as possible:

• Walk for 3 minutes: Start easy and build it up to a brisk walk in the last minute.
• Jog for 3 minutes: If you know your marathon pace, this effort is about 1 to 1.5 minutes slower per mile.
• 3 x 20/40s: This is 20 seconds fast, 40 seconds recovery. Goal here is to get the blood pumping and have you ready to hit your intervals / training session at 100 percent.

And let’s not forget about cooling down, too. Ideally you’ll be able to walk your run out. The basic golden rule here is one minute for every mile run; a five-miler will net you about five minutes of easy walking.

Focus on Cadence

The biggest difference between running outside and indoors is that on a treadmill the ground is moving while you stay in place. This is evident when we compare the two: an 8:00/mile effort on your regular run might net you a heart rate of 150bpms and a perceived exertion level of 7. But that same pace on a treadmill has your HR at 140bpms and feels more like a 5.5 than a 7. Don’t be bummed about the difference. Use it to your advantage by improving your form.

There are two ways to run faster: longer strides or more of the same length strides. Increased cadence is the easier part of the “running faster” equation, and a treadmill is the perfect place to get this done. You have a timer right in front of you and little else to occupy your attention. You can actually hear your foot strike and will be able to find the sweet spot for your foot placement (hint: it’s pretty quiet). And you can begin working on a cadence of about 180 foot strikes per minute (about 90 for just one foot).

How do you make the treadmill work?