Is running on a treadmill acceptable for a long run? (Read 1406 times)

Ok, here's my story, My 20% decrease in heart rate claim is well documented. What you don't know, because no running coach will tell you is that two distinctly different walking techniques exist, one 20% more efficient than the technique you use when you get out of bed in the morning. How you walk isn't a question for you. It was for me. As running is nothing more than power applied to walking http://www.me.utexas.edu/~neptune/Papers/job39(11).pdf The untold story is that Kenyan women are documented to have created a more efficient walking technique http://www.ottopohl.com/Stories/2002_Stories/NYTheads2.htm Why you don't know this story is that since no expert in running can explain how they do it, its not discussed. And the running media wants nothing to do with me, which is why I'm sharing it here. I was invited into Nike's Sports Research Lab to demonstrate and under clinical supervision prove that I'm the first person to figure out how these women walk, as well as the physics behind their technique and extrapolate that into running. Their walking efficiency is what I teach and the heart rate improvements are easy.

Yes the belt is moving and you're not so your body is also amplified in lateral sway (the reason for holding on for balance) which is a byproduct of inefficient walking or running biomechanics.

I have no problem believing that there are substantial differences between running on a treadmill and running outdoors. However, to say that they are because the belt is moving and you are not is simply nonsense. It was funny the first time, but it seems you're serious. The laws of physics are exactly the same in the coordinate frame of the belt surface as they are in the coordinate frame of the ground. If you can show otherwise, you've got a Nobel prize coming.

bhearn then please tell me why people need to hold on to the supports of a treadmill to walk and run, when on the ground they don't.... If one doesn't walk up to the treadmill with a walker for balance assistance, and on a treadmill one has to hold on for balance, then what changes in walking environment besides the moving belt?

bhearn then please tell me why people need to hold on to the supports of a treadmill to walk and run, when on the ground they don't....

Well I haven't spent a lot of time on treadmills -- I do anything I can to avoid it -- but I've never had to hold on to the supports. Do people really do that? Anyway the perceptual environment is very different on a treadmill from outdoors, so it's no surprise at all that that could affect posture and gait, regardless of differences such as uniformity of surface, springiness, etc. I might even go so far as to say that perception of stationarity on a treadmill might reasonably be expected to have some effect. But that's a far cry from your suggestion that the differences are literally because in one case you are "moving", and in the other the belt is "moving". That simply doesn't mean anything. The laws of physics don't know or care who is moving and who is not, in an absolute sense.

I've never had to hold onto the rails the few times I've used a treadmill.

Ultramarathons of 50-100 miles are usually accomplished at speeds much lower than for a marathon or shorter distance span. One hundered mile races finish in times of 24 hours or more. One has to be incredibly careful to how a pace is maintained.

Oh yes, I know. Firsthand, even. Sorry for not being clear. My mention of ultras was for JDF. I had brought up (and then stupidly re-mentioned) my stance on how incline does/doesn't affect running on the treadmill. For a reason I still haven't grasped, "ultramarathon pace" entered into the conversation, which is weird on two levels: 1) the term itself doesn't mean much to me (see the last post on the previous page) and 2) it seemed like a random add to the conversation. Anyway, I believe that running and walking are two biomechanically different activities. And will continue to believe so.

srlopez Read the link to walking and running biomechanics http://www.me.utexas.edu/~neptune/Papers/job39(11).pdf I'll gladly reference questions from it. And please tell me how your personal running technique and walking technique are different. Your body will make changes as your turnover rate increases, but I'm refering specifically to your transition speed from walking to running in this exchange.