Hi,

I have been running regulary on a treadmill and just finished playing soccer, but tonight I took a jog on the street. I was totally winded and tired after about 1/4 mile. I never get that tired on the treadmill and was wondering what the difference would be. Thanks for any help you can give me.

David

The biggest difference is the street doesn't move for you Seriously, I have tried the same thing. While a treadmill is convienent, indoors and doesn't put as much wear on your legs.......it doesn't work you out as well either. It kind of gives you a false sense of what you "can do".

I don't recall where I read the running article, but it said if you want to more closely simulate running outside then you need to at a minimum use a 2.0 incline.

Oh, mrschmelz, you stole my favorite opening line:-)) "The biggest difference is the street doesn't move for you." Just kidding...
(Have you ever tried REAL treadmills? Manual ones? Those are the real challenges:-)))

One other possible reason: the different surface. Treadmill, soccer fields are dream surfaces compared to asphalt or the real nightmare: sidewalk concrete. Hard surface hard on your joints, can cause pain from toes to hip or make you tired much faster.
I have very good shoes (specailly for hard surface), and trained legs, but still my legs can handle much easier 10+ miles on track on weekends than 3 miles on sidewalk on weekdays.

Btw it is interesting, for me treadmill is the real killer. The psychological effect of it. I do not have problem with row machines, with ellipticals, with bikes, but to run without getting anywhere? Neither music, nor tv can help, I feel depressed afeter 15-20 minutes. Fortunately in South CA I can run outside on 350 days/year, but when I travel, sometimes I am limited to treadmills.:-((((

My problem is I am not coordinated enough.....if I don't watch my feet I will start running to the right and fall off of it

The treadmill can actually be more challenging. For 60 minute runs, they "force" you to go at a specific speed. On the street you can subtly adjust your speed to go slower. I know when I run 7 min miles on the track vs. the equivalent on the treamill (8.6 miles/hr setting) I find the treadmill more challenging.
Just my $.02

Absolutely.....

I hit the treadmill 4 times a week. I walk 3 miles a day with a speed of 3.2 and an incline of 4. There is no way I would be able to do that on the street. It's to easy to allow your speed to fluctuate. Even if there are times when I get tired and I let the machine "pull me" it's still forcing me to move. If I were on the street and I got tired I would just end up slowing my pace.

anyway just my .02 cents as well.

Jim

I agree that the treadmill in a sense "forces" you to keep a pace up until you finally can't do it and turn it off. However, if you ran 60 straight minutes on a treadmill at 5.5 MPH you would find it easier than running 5.5 MPH for 60 straight minutes on a road(if there was a way to "make" you keep that pace on the road).