I am a runner and help coach our distance runners. All of us (me and the students) feel it is harder on a treadmill. I speculate it is because the surface is a lot different than running on ground. When you are stepping on the rubber it, it drops down much more than the ground does. So your foot strike is dropping lower than normal. This does make your gait a little different. It feels WAY harder to run a 7:00 mile pace on a treadmill than it does on ground. Now, people who aren't running real fast maybe don't notice the difference. Granted, distance runners are not huge people, but I would think larger people would have even more drop down on the rubber, but again, usually they aren't faster runners and probably don't even notice. I have never talked to a larger fast runner to see what they think about a treadmill vs the road. So, I would rather have a headwind anyway. Plus, I can't stand the dead air feeling when you aren't moving through air - yech!
Julie Hilsenteger
Physics Teacher
Centennial High School
3505 SE 182nd Ave
Gresham, OR 97030
503-762-6180 X5573
-----Original Message-----
From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu [mailto:phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf Of Brian Blais
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 5:31 AM
To: Forum for Physics Educators
Subject: [Phys-l] treadmill vs open road
Hello,
I just started running for exercise, and was chatting with some long-
time runners about it, and they had some interesting comments about
treadmills. Most of them felt that running on a treadmill was very
different than normal running, and noted that they felt that they
could run faster on a treadmill. There was one who said it was
basically the same amount of exercise, but felt that he ran slower on
a treadmill. Assuming that we have a completely flat road and a flat
treadmill, I can think of no difference in the physics between the
two systems which would give rise to the different experiences. My
first thoughts were that the difference in experience comes from the
slight irregularities in the open road, which cause balance muscles
to work, ones that wouldn't be needed on a treadmill, but none-the-
less contribute to the workout.
Any thoughts or additional physics that you think comes into play here?