I have never loved running on the treadmill, but I have been running on the treadmill more than I ever have this winter!
Fortunately, I was able to snag a gently used treadmill from a friend at the beginning of the winter, so I have had a place to do my faster workouts. Most winters I would either run indoors on our 400 meter track here in Anchorage, or use the treadmills at the gym. However, both places now require you to use a mask while exercising indoors. Since I have no desire to use a mask when running, I knew I would have to purchase my own treadmill. Running fast on the snow and ice is not feasible here in the winter, which would leave me no place to run fast. Needless to say, the treadmill has gotten a lot of use.
I have done a lot of longer workouts on the treadmill including many 10, 11, 12, and even 15 mile workouts. They don’t always go by that fast, but I have gotten good at distracting myself during these workouts. Here is a list of ways I have found to beat at least some of the boredom on the treadmill. Because, let’s be honest, the time still drags on much of the time.
5 Tips to Overcoming Boredom on the Treadmill
- Do an interval workout
Running the same pace on the treadmill is extremely boring, in my opinion, and I think most would agree. There is no way these longer workouts I do would go by nearly as fast if I was running the same pace all the time. Most of these longer workouts have been interval, tempo, and threshold workouts, so I am constantly changing the pace and having shorter intervals to fixate on, which definitely helps the time go by faster.
2. Cover up the screen
Watching the track on the screen or the number of miles slowly tick up makes the time go by incredibly slow, so many people will cover the screen with a towel or a shirt so they can’t see that only a mere 0.1 mile has gone by since they last looked at the screen.
3. Watch or listen to something
There is no way I could just stare at the garage door the whole time I was on the treadmill, so listening or watching something is critical. I will often watch something on my phone during my warm up, and then listen to music during my hard intervals, which helps me focus on the hard intervals. I also like listening to podcasts on the treadmill because it kind of feels like I’m on a run with a friend (kind of). Some people enjoy watching movies, others prefer a TV series. There are also the group fitness classes through the Peloton app for example, or NordicTrack has some of their own. Whatever you prefer, this tactic is what probably helps the most to take your mind off the monotony of the treadmill.
4. Change the incline
As with changing up the speed, changing the incline can help take your mind of the boredom of the treadmill. I almost always personally run at a 1% incline, so even just changing the incline by 0.5 – 1.0% every 0.5 mile can help give you little targets/goals to focus on.
5. Acknowledge why you chose to run on the treadmill
There is a place for the treadmill and everyone has their reasons/rational for using it, so acknowledge what that is and know that the other option is probably worse whether that is no run, the cold (or hot) weather outside, the ice that you could potentially slip on, or for me, the fact that running fast outdoors is physically not possible.
I think the treadmill has a time and place, and I am very thankful for mine this winter. If you have any other tips, make sure to leave them in the comments!
Great post! Just wondering how your hr or perceive Effort levels are on the treadmill versus outside. I love the treadmill for the consistency of pacing, but my hr is nearly always higher outside. I use a Stryd foot pod, and 1% incline too…
Interesting! I think running on the treadmill is harder–especially when I haven’t done it in a while. So maybe it’s the opposite for you–as it sounds like you run on the treadmill more than outside (but I could be wrong on this).