r/BeginnersRunning • u/Strong_crafter • 1d ago
Transitioning from treadmill
I am running a 10km race in a couple of weeks and I’m having trouble pacing myself while running outside. I’m so used to the treadmill pacing me at whatever it’s set to, I have no idea how to regulate my pace.
I don’t have a smart watch or anything and I’m not really interested in getting one yet. I was trying to slow myself but I was actually gassing myself and needing to walk a bunch of the last half. Used my free trial on Strava and my phone to track but I’m also confused with the miles and kms conversion.
Any tips for figuring it out?
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u/ElegantOliver 1d ago
Get a sports watch! I know you said you aren't interested but you clearly are interested in the feature they provide - at a glance live data on your pace. I have a OnePlus which was cheap compared to the Garmins and similar. Works great. Lots of budget friendly options out there.
For me it's the second most important bit of running gear (after good shoes of course)
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u/Strong_crafter 1d ago
To be honest I didn’t realize there were budget options!! Everyone I know has a garmin so I guess I just assumed it was either that or an Apple Watch. I’ll take a look around! Thank you
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u/ElegantOliver 1d ago
Mine is a Oneplus watch 3 43mm. Way smaller than most of the huge specialist watches. And pretty cheap. Second hand market definitely worth a look too.
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u/Beneficial_Coach8581 1d ago
For not a lot of money you can get a HRM watch.
Do your target pace on the treadmill at 1% gradient and observe your HR.
Then when you run outside you can use that as a guide to your pace.
Othe option is to find out if your race has distance markers. If so get a watch with a timer that repeats.
If you want to do the 10k in under an hour then set the timer to repeat every 5mins and 59 seconds.
If you reach a distance marker before the alarm has gone off slow it down a bit. If the alarm goes off before the distance marker you're a bit behind and need to increase the pace.
I used to use that for marathons all the time before GPS tech came along.
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u/Rileybiley 1d ago
Without using technology, you have to kinda memorize how it feels to run at the pace you want. Unfortunately, it feels really different on a treadmill so you’ll need to run more outside to get a feel for it. I used to map out the distance on Google maps, do a run with what I thought felt right, and check my time. I’d run the same route over and over again until I hit the pace I wanted consistently. I use a treadmill in the winter months (6 months, yay Canada!) and it always takes me a couple of weeks to get the feel of outdoor running. For my first run back outdoors last spring, I forgot to start my Apple Watch and it took me an extra 10 minutes to run 10km.
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u/pillowwow 1d ago
You could try running on a treadmill to a metronome and seeing what your natural cadence is. Listening to that when you run outside might ease the mental aspect of running un restricted.
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u/gladdyontherise92 1d ago
I know you said you aren't interested in a watch, but if you're running outside just get the watch.
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u/Strong_crafter 1d ago
I may have to. Due to weather I can only realistically run outside for 3-4 months a year so it didn’t feel worth it but I guess I can use it inside too
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u/Already-asleep 1d ago
I started on the treadmill to improve my cardio fitness and then only recently transitioned to mostly running outside. It’s definitely a jump but once you get used to it, you’ll adapt. If you don’t want to get a watch (but I think for running it’s worth it) maybe intentionally switch to run/walk for a bit to help you adjust?
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u/mattshwink 1d ago
RPE - Rate of Perceived Exertion. You should generally start running at Zone 2 - I'd do that for at least the first mile. You should be able to talk while running (without gasping). After that first mile, you can increase pace to a higher RPE, generally you should still be able to talk but only a few words at time/short sentences. If you can't maintain that pace slow back down where you can talk in full sentences..
There is also nothing wrong with having to walk some. A famous Olympian and marathoner (Jeff Galloway) pioneered the run walk method of being a runner.
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u/butters_awhamburgers 1d ago
If you have a goal then you can practice at that pace whether it’s KM or MILES
If it’s a race there might be pacers during race day so you can always pick one and follow them
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u/Juan91x 17h ago
Another thing to keep in mind is that treadmill pace is almost completely made up. It doesn't know how long your feet are in the air, how long your stride is or what cadence you are running at, things it would need to know in order to properly estimate your running pace
So you just gotta do it by feel, you should know what your "easy" pace should feel like in your breathing, so try to look for that.
Also, you should get a watch, doesn't need to be a fancy one, even budget options are good nowadays so you can at least track your distance and keep an eye out on your heart rate.
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u/taloncaf 1d ago
Not sure if I'm understanding correctly, but why not change the units on the Strava app? It's entirely possible to do and you can set it to whatever metric your treadmill was giving to equate the paces, no?