How do I approach this elevation map with respect to treadmill training?
February 3, 2014 8:55 AM Subscribe
Running the DC half in March. Almost all of my training til then will take place indoors on a treadmill. In preparing my body for the same changes in elevation, I would like to practice my long runs using the elevation map from the race course. How does this translate into my manual adjustment of the treadmill incline/decline settings?
Link to course map and elevation chart: http://runrocknroll.competitor.com/usa/course
I'm not worried about duplicating every little dip and peak, but getting a feel for the general outline is important (the climb from miles 4-6 etc). I want to make sure for that part and others I don't set the treadmill incline too steep, and since I'm not exactly sure what those numbers correlate to I don't know how to approach it.
Link to course map and elevation chart: http://runrocknroll.competitor.com/usa/course
I'm not worried about duplicating every little dip and peak, but getting a feel for the general outline is important (the climb from miles 4-6 etc). I want to make sure for that part and others I don't set the treadmill incline too steep, and since I'm not exactly sure what those numbers correlate to I don't know how to approach it.
I read recently that you should set the treadmill at 1% grade to get a more accurate approximation of running outdoors on level ground. If you buy that, then you probably need to +1 everything above.
posted by COD at 9:31 AM on February 3, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by COD at 9:31 AM on February 3, 2014 [2 favorites]
I've often wished one of the running map programs did a better job with this. The approach I use to figure out grades is to combine mapmyrun (Rock N Roll Half DC course) with the veloroutes grade calculator. If you mouse around the course map on mapmyrun, you will see the steepest section climbs 109 feet from 4.57 to 5.19 miles, which works out to a 3% grade for a half mile. If it was me, I'd probably swag it more like half a mile at 3% and 2 miles at 2%. Mapmyrun will calculate grades for "rated" climbs, but you don't see very many of those.
It really doesn't matter if you get it exactly right, just so you get the general drift of it. In the real world, I'd expect the two little 50 foot climbs at 9 miles and 12 miles to really suck, even though they won't really be that steep.
posted by Lame_username at 2:42 PM on February 3, 2014
It really doesn't matter if you get it exactly right, just so you get the general drift of it. In the real world, I'd expect the two little 50 foot climbs at 9 miles and 12 miles to really suck, even though they won't really be that steep.
posted by Lame_username at 2:42 PM on February 3, 2014
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Distance grade
0.0 ----- 0.0
1.0 ----- 1.0
2.0 ----- 0.0
3.0 ----- 2.0
3.5 ----- 0.5
5.0 ----- 3.0
6.0 ----- 0.0
9.0 ----- 1.0
11.0 ---- 2.0
12.0 ---- 0.0
Is that dip at 5.443 actually there? If so, not too much you can do about it. At least it's brief.
posted by disconnect at 9:07 AM on February 3, 2014