Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s top tips for indoor treadmill running
For us Northern Hemisphere inhabitants, sticking to our New Year’s running resolutions can feel all the more challenging when faced with the bleak midwinter. While January is often seen as the optimal time to reset and adopt healthy new habits, it can also present unsavoury weather conditions for runners – especially those who are taking up running for the first time.
Thankfully, you can still hit your running goals indoors on the treadmill, no matter how wet and woeful the outdoor environment. That said, if you’re new to or nervous about indoor training, or lack the motivation to get moving, you might need some tips to help you get started.
Not many tips can beat those from decorated elite runner and Coros athlete Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who, at the age of just 24, is already two-time world champion in the 5000m, an Olympic gold medallist in the 1500m and 5000m and the world record holder in the 1500m, 2000m and 3000m. Since he completes much of his training on the treadmill – to mix up his routine, to dial into specifics and to avoid the challenging weather of his homeland, Norway – we spoke with Ingebrigtsen to discover why he is an advocate for indoor running.
When should you swap outdoor running for treadmill running?
While it makes sense to seek refuge inside when the weather is at its worst, Ingebrigtsen promotes treadmill running year-round, come rain or shine. As he says, when you take your training indoors, you can focus fully on your running metrics and hit target paces without having to overcome obstacles such as bright sunshine, sideways showers, blustery winds, pedestrians and wonky pavements. ‘Treadmill sessions are a very nice way of making sure that the segments you do are 100% going to the plan you set out,’ he says.
Even if you usually do your sessions around a running track or park, or simply up and down a straight section of pavement near home, you can still replicate these efforts on the treadmill. To do this, set the belt to move at your desired pace and elevation for your chosen duration, either by manually pressing the treadmill interface as you move, or – if your equipment supports this – by programming your workout into the treadmill so that the belt changes speed and gradient automatically.
‘You can put on the pace you want and run for the duration. You can make sure that you hit the right intensity without other factors – no wind, no rain, no corners. These are the extra things that you need to take into consideration when running outdoors.
‘We try to do all morning sessions as threshold runs indoors,’ adds Ingebrigtsen, who lives and trains in the Norwegian city of Sandnes, which boasts a generally cold, wet climate. ‘Then, if the weather is good, we go outdoors for the evening sessions – but, 50% of the time, the conditions aren’t great.’
How do you motivate yourself to run on the treadmill?
Not every run on the ’mill has to feel run-of-the-mill. Rather, as Ingebrigtsen notes, you can make treadmill running more exciting by treating it as a game – or target practice, if you like. Can you hit the bullseye with your paces? Can you complete every interval? Can you run further than you ran on the treadmill previously? Small motivators such as these can add up to create a more fulfilling and purposeful indoor workout.
‘For me, I look at sessions on a treadmill as a competition in itself,’ says Ingebrigsten. ‘I use motivation to hit the splits, or aim to complete the session as best as I can. That doesn’t mean running as fast as I can, but by doing everything that the session needs of me.
‘I focus on doing everything correctly because I know the importance of that in the long run,’ continues Ingebrigtsen, who has supplemented his numerous wins on the running track with eight gold medals at the European Cross Country Championships. ‘I’ve never had an issue motivating myself on the treadmill. It’s not supposed to be super fun, but it can be super productive.’
How can you maintain good running form on the treadmill?
Adopting and maintaining good running form is key if you are to run faster and more efficiently – and keep injuries at bay. For Ingebrigtsen, running on the treadmill is an ideal way to boost fitness while concentrating more intently on optimising his running form, particularly after an injury setback.
‘Running indoors on the treadmill can help you to focus on biomechanics if you’re coming out of an injury,’ he says. ‘If everything is 100%, then you can’t change much, but it can be beneficial to run in an environment with a mirror, or where someone is filming you, to see what you are doing. Injuries are a big part of running, but indoor training can give you extra control over those factors as you build back up from injury to normal fitness.’
If you are still skeptical of the treadmill’s worth, consider Ingebrigtsen’s own trajectory. Having suffered a sacrum (base of spine) injury at the end of 2023, then an achilles injury in January 2024, which forced him to miss the indoor season, the Norwegian followed a structured rehabilitation programme – involving treadmill running – to bring him back to world-leading fitness later in 2024. The result? Among other victories, an astonishing 1500m PB of 3:26.73 in Monaco in July, followed by – in August alone – a gold medal in the men’s 5000m at the 2024 Olympic Games and a new 3000m world record of 7:17.55 at the Diamond League meeting in Silesia, Poland. In other words, he knows a thing or two about bouncing back from injury in a big way.
What’s the ideal treadmill set-up?
As a professional athlete, Ingebrigtsen cares about his splits more than many – so hitting his target paces to a tee on the treadmill is important. While he would check his Coros Pace Pro watch for live performance data while running outdoors, for indoor workouts he views this same live performance data on his phone, using the Coros Extender feature via the Coros app. This means that he can view clear, real-time running information on a bigger screen propped up directly ahead of him on the treadmill interface.
‘That way, my running form isn’t affected and I don’t get distracted looking at the watch on my wrist for heart rate data when I’m running at 21 or 22km/hour,’ says Ingebrigtsen, who pays close attention to his heart rate and, as such, wears the Coros Heart Rate Monitor to precisely track his data while training. ‘Having this laid out in front of me and seeing things like heart rate and how far into the repetition I am is very helpful. I’ve been using this quite a bit.’
For more insight into Ingebrigtsen’s indoor training regime and tips on how to get the best out of your own indoor workouts, check out the Coros blog.
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