Should Your Treadmill Running Goals Be In Minutes Or Miles?

Running on a treadmill can take mental dedication, even if you have the best treadmill underfoot. You may wonder if it is better if you measure your treadmill time in minutes or if you need to measure your workout time in miles. Well, which you prefer will depend on several factors.

Consider Your Overall Treadmill Running Goals

The first thing you should look at before jumping into your treadmill training is why you are running at all. Depending on what your goals are, it can help predict what workouts and data tracking you should do on your treadmill. Some health and fitness goals you may want to consider as you approach your treadmill training are:

• Trying to lose weight - Best treadmill workouts are high-intensity interval training (HIIT).
• Looking for regular low-impact exercise - Treadmills walks are best, on a well-cushioned machine.
• Improve cardiovascular fitness - Primarily endurance workouts with some interval training.
• Indoor training for races - A mix of all the workouts, from long distance runs to HIIT workouts should be utilized for indoor treadmill training.

Cover Your Treadmill Data When Your Running Goal Is In Miles

When you are running long distances on your treadmill, it can be mentally fatiguing to watch the minutes tick away. In fact, most people who say they can’t stand treadmill running are often referring to how it feels when they watch the time. So, if you want to use your treadmill for running or walking more than 2 miles, then you may be better off just covering the workout screen entirely.

If you are worried that you won’t know how far you’ve gone if the data is covered up, there is an easy fix for this problem. By using a treadmill pace calculator, you can set your pace and know how long a mile will take. Then you can just set an alarm for when you will be done.

For example, say you want to run 5 miles, and your ideal pace is 5.0 MPH. It takes 12 minutes to run a mile at a 5.0-mile pace, so if you set an alarm on your phone to go off in an hour, you will have complete your workout without looking at the treadmill screen.

By fine-tuning your treadmill workouts, you can reach your health and fitness goals sooner and prevent overspending on more fitness gear to try and reach the same goals you can meet with your treadmill.