Can I use treadmills for mountain training

Treadmills are a game-changer if you don’t have mountains around to train.

But you can overtrain or injure yourself if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Keep these 7 principles in mind when you start using the treadmill:

1) It’s never race-specific: there are no downhills and the surface is 0% technical. Use treadmill training as one aspect of your mountain training, not for all of it.

2) Ease into it: your body works differently when you go uphill, give it time to get used to that. Start at lower inclinations and a maximum of 2 sessions a week.

3) Understand the purpose of your training: use lower inclinations for a cardio stimulus and a higher one to bring out that leg power.

4) Calculate your race inclination(s): to train race-specific you need to know the inclinations of the climbs at your event. Practice those closer to your big race.

5) Be mindful of your effort: trail runners hate walking in training, but if you need to practice 10-15% climbs, you’ll walk 100% of the time.

6) Focus on recovery: these workouts are HARD, so fuel, stretch & sleep more after these sessions.

7) Add weights (advanced): if you want to increase the intensity of your power-hiking sessions, add weights. Don’t run with weights. You’ll hurt yourself.

These are just some introductory principles to help you understand treadmill training.