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Step 1
Sign up for a 6-month health club membership in October or November so you can train on a treadmill throughout the colder months. This can be especially helpful if you live in a cold climate and are planning to run a marathon or other event in the spring.
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Step 2
Train on a treadmill when conditions are cold, snowy or icy, but try to find one day a week when conditions and daily schedule will allow you to run outside. This will help keep your body conditioned for the higher impact of running on the roads.
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Step 3
Adjust your training regimen slightly if you find treadmill training easier than running on roads, trails or tracks. Most runners find that their treadmill training times translate into slightly slower times when they run outside.
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Step 4
Simulate the kind of "interval" speed workouts you would do on a track by alternating faster quarter-mile and half-mile repeats with slower recovery periods.
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Step 5
Use a treadmill to do hill training if your surrounding area is generally flat. Hill training and speed training strengthen your legs and your anaerobic running capacity when you add them after establishing a base of slower distance running.
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Step 1
Regulate your treadmill training to avoid injury by adding mileage and speed gradually and slowly. Make sure that you are comfortable with the machine, its controls and its emergency features before you accelerate beyond a walking pace or shift your attention to reading or listening to music. Running outdoors can be a high-impact exercise that can subject you to many different kinds of leg, ankle, knee and foot injuries, especially if you are a beginner or are carrying a lot of weight. Most treadmills provide a cushioned, lower-impact running and walking surface.
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Step 2
Recover from injury by using a treadmill to walk, setting an incline, and gradually introducing some running into your exercise program. You can burn additional calories and get a good cardio workout without increasing impact by walking or jogging very slowly into a relatively steep incline.
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Step 3
Transform your couch-potato time into exercise time by going to the gym for a treadmill workout when your favorite teams are playing. Most health clubs have televisions set up for their treadmill users.
