Marathon training (mostly on a treadmill)?

Jcd40B

Well-Known Member
Thinking about training for a marathon again, except now I'm a regional airline pilot and life is a little different. Anyone do it? Reason for the title: I have a hard time popping into a new city, having a short amount of time to exercise, and finding an outdoor route to run that's of appropriate length, especially if we get put in a strip mall/commercial area or even a downtown area can be hard (I run in rural areas at home). So, I'm thinking a lot of my training will have to be on the treadmill.
 
Do you use Strava? I would use that to scope out good running routes in new cities. It worked pretty well being on reserve and never knowing where I was overnighting. This is how I did the majority of my first 1/2 Ironman run training. Treadmills work well with limited time or poor weather, but sometimes the equipment isn't maintained and can throw a wrench in your workout plan.
 
Do you use Strava? I would use that to scope out good running routes in new cities. It worked pretty well being on reserve and never knowing where I was overnighting. This is how I did the majority of my first 1/2 Ironman run training. Treadmills work well with limited time or poor weather, but sometimes the equipment isn't maintained and can throw a wrench in your workout plan.
I'll check it out. Thanks
 
I’ve done seven marathons. I hate treadmills. Five miles is about my limit on a treadmill. One of my favorite things about running is all of the different routes and favorite places I’ve discovered on the road. I’m going to make up a 16 mile run in SFO tomorrow.
 
On my last, last deployment, our doc did an entire marathon training plan, and then full marathon on a treadmill.

I think the longest I did (on a treadmill) was 10miles, and gne was right, it gets very boring.
I use map my run a lot. Good enough app for the runs I do during overnights, but I find myself running 2-3 miles on the gyms treadmill more than I run outside.
I hate city street runs. Too many people who don’t get out of the way, (walking 3 abreast) oily exhaust, garbage and sewer smells. I’ll take a muggy treadmill over that.
 
Longest I’ve ran on a treadmill was 24 miles. Tip- Have a show or a game to watch.
And madness was cast upon mankind. And the sons could not find the things the fathers had placed among them just the day before. Dogs and cats, fornicating together. Surely the end times are upon us. ;)
 
I second Strava for finding routes. Going on runs during overnights through towns and cities I've never been to makes this job so much more enjoyable. Once you have an account on Strava, go to Dashboard- My Routes - Create New Route. Type in the city you're in, and then click on the gear icon and choose Global Heatmap. This shows you where other people are running and will generally result in good runnable routes. All of this is included in every pilot's favorite price point- free.

I would say about 70% of my running still ends up being on the treadmill. I think the treadmill helps build up a little bit of mental toughness because it's so boring.
 
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