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Treadmill Running, Part III – How To Calibrate Your Treadmill

April 5, 2017 By Run S.M.A.R.T. In Training tips /  

By Dr. Jack Daniels

If you are like me you want to be accurate in how fast you are running, especially when doing intervals, threshold runs or other quality workouts. This requires calibrating your treadmill, which is done as follows:

  1. On the edge of your treadmill running belt make a starting mark with a pencil (have the TM power off at this time), and lay a measuring tape or ruler on the running belt, starting at this mark. Push the running belt slowly around, making small pencil marks when needed and record the accumulating distance from your starting point. Continue measuring until you reach the mark where you started and record the total distance, to the nearest ¼ inch or .5 centimeter. If you are measuring in feet and inches, calculate the total distance in inches and multiply that value by 2.54 to get centimeters. Let’s say, for example that you end up with a running belt that is 542.9 cm.
  2. Convert the cm distance to meters by dividing the cm distance by 100 – 5.429 in the example above.
  3. Multiply belt length by 10 to get the distance traveled in 10 belt revolutions. Example: 5.429 X 10 = 54.29 meters.
  4. Place an identifying mark on the edge of your treadmill running belt; one that can be seen when the belt is moving fast. If it is your own treadmill you may want to put a spot of white paint or white-out that is easily seen and will stay put for some time. White tape can work, but sometimes will not stay put when the belt gets going.
  5. Exact speed of the TM belt is determined by timing 10 revolutions of the belt, as follows.
  6. With the TM running approximately at the speed you want, pick a spot at which you will start timing the white mark as it passes that spot. I often just start and stop timing as my white mark disappears over the back of the TM, but this is hard to do if timing yourself running.
  7. It is best to do the belt timing with the person running on the treadmill who is going to train or be tested since body weight will slow some TM belts down due to friction of a person on the belt. Have someone else do the timing when you are running.
  8. Start a stopwatch as the white mark reaches the designated spot and say “zero” to yourself.
  9. Count 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 for the next 10 times the white mark arrives at your designated spot and stop the watch when you say the number “10.” You may want to time 10 revs a couple times to see if you are consistent. Remember to start with “zero” when you start the watch. Let’s say your watch says 13.03 seconds for those timed 10 revolutions.
  10. Assign the 10-rev time the letter “T” and the distance of the 10 revs (54.29 meters in our example) is given the letter “D.” Meters per minute speed is arrived at as follows:  (D * 60)/ T = m/min       Ex: (54.29 * 60) / 13.03 = 250 m/min
  11. If you want a particular speed, then you can calculate the T needed for that speed as follows: (D * 60)/ m/min = T EX: for 268 m/min   54.29 * 60/268 = 12.15 seconds.

In the example above, 268 meters per minute speed (6:00 mile pace) is achieved by adjusting the TM speed until you get the time of 12.15 seconds for 10 revolutions. I usually try to get close to specific speeds, but don’t spend too much time trying to hit a specific speed; rather just record the speed that is close to what you want and when you plot your data on a graph just use the speed you were actually running at. It is also nice to know what MPH you want to set the TM belt at.

Conversions:  MPH to Mile pace and Meters to Min

MPH to Mile Pace                                               Example: 9.0 MPH

60/MPH = minutes per mile                            60/9.0 = 6.6667 minutes per mile

minutes * 60 = seconds                                    .6667 * 60 = 40 seconds ( 6:40 per mile)

 

Mile Pace to MPH                                                Example: 6:40 pace

Seconds/60 = decimal minutes                        40/60 = .6667 (so total is 6.6667 minutes)

60/minutes = MPH                                             60/6.6667 = 9.0 MPH

 

Meters/Minute to MPH                                    Example: 241.4 meters per minute

m/min * 60 = meters/hour                               241.4 * 60 = 14,484 meters per hour

meters per hour / 1609.344 = MPH               14,484/1609.344 = 9.0 MPH

 

MPH to Meters/Minute                                    Example: 9.0 MPH

MPH * 1609.344 = meters / hour                    9.0 * 1609.344 = 14,484 meters per hour

meters per hour / 60 = meters/min                14,484 / 60 =241.4 meters/minute

 

Meters/Minute to Mile Pace                            Example: 241.4 m/min

1609.344/(m/min) = minutes/mile               1609.344/241.4 = 6.6667 minutes per mile

Decimal minutes * 60 = seconds                     .6667 * 60 = 40 seconds

Min : sec = mile pace                                          6:40 = pace per mile

 

Mile Pace to Meters/Minute                            Example: 6:40 mile pace

Seconds / 60 = decimal minutes                     40/60 = .6667 minutes

Minutes + decimal minutes = min/mile        6 + .6667 = 6.6667 minutes per mile

1609.344 / (min/mile) = meters/min            1609.344 / 6.6667 = 241.4

 

Conversion Summary

The following table summarizes the above calculations by .1 MPH

MPH Mile m/min MPH Mile m/min MPH Mile m/min
6 10:00 161 8.0 7:30 215 10 6:00 268
6.1 9:50 164 8.1 7:24 217 10.1 5:56 271
6.2 9:41 166 8.2 7:19 220 10.2 5:53 274
6.3 9:31 169 8.3 7:14 223 10.3 5:49 276
6.4 9:22 172 8.4 7:09 225 10.4 5:46 279
6.5 9:14 174 8.5 7:04 228 10.5 5:43 282
6.6 9:05 177 8.6 6:59 2:31 10.6 5:40 284
6.7 8:57 180 8.7 6:54 233 10.7 5:36 287
6.8 8:49 182 8.8 6:49 236 10.8 5:33 290
6.9 8:42 185 8.9 6:44 239 10.9 5:30 292
7.0 8:34 188 9.0 6:40 241 11.0 5:27 295
7.1 8:27 190 9.1 6:36 244 11.1 5:24 298
7.2 8:20 193 9.2 6:31 247 11.2 5:21 300
7.3 8:13 196 9.3 6:27 249 11.3 5:19 303
7.4 8:06 198 9.4 6:23 252 11.4 5:16 306
7.5 8:00 201 9.5 6:19 255 11.5 5:13 308
7.6 7:54 204 9.6 6:15 257 11.6 5:10 311
7.7 7:48 207 9.7 6:11 260 11.7 5:08 314
7.8 7:42 209 9.8 6:07 263 11.8 5:05 317
7.9 7:36 212 9.9 6:04 266 11.9 5:02 319
12 5:00 322

More info about Dr. Jack Daniels online training here. Customize a training plan for your next race from legendary Coach Daniels here. 

Tags:
Dr. Jack Danielstreadmill
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