Treadmills are a great exercise tool for boosting your overall fitness, regardless of what your specific running goals are. You can use a treadmill for general fitness, cross-training, or getting ready for a race when the weather is bad (or even during a pandemic!). Most treadmill models are equipped with the ability to tell you how far you ran, how fast, and for how long. These measurements can help you track your running progress.
Let’s dive into the accuracy of these measurements to make sure you’re tracking your treadmill runs in the best possible way.
How Accurate Are Treadmill Distances
If you like to use a treadmill for working out, you may be wondering how accurate is treadmill distance anyways? It turns out measuring distance and speed on a treadmill are pretty straightforward and relatively accurate. The treadmill computer simply measures how many revolutions the belt makes while your running- a foolproof way to track your distance. Make sure to adjust the distance on the treadmill in miles or km for your preference to avoid any confusion. Then, tracking distance is as simple as looking at the screen.
What’s not accurate on a treadmill tracker? It turns out that the measurement for calories burned is based on an “average exerciser” and is not directly relevant to you. Use these as a general guide rather than an absolute. There are some higher-tech treadmills on the market that may give you a more accurate reading because you can input more personal information.
What is More Accurate?
Outside of treadmill distance tracking, there are a lot of great options on the market these days for tracking your running distance. Plus, many options give up to date metrics like heart rate, speed, and more. Runners love having these easy to use tools at their disposable no matter where they choose to run. Devices like the Apple Watch and Garmin Forerunner use GPS tracking to give extremely accurate distance measurements.
If you want to use your phone or sync your watch to a specific running app there are also tons of reliable high-quality options. Most apps estimate your distance based on your steps. One of the most accurate running applications on the market is the Nike Run App. It’s also worth noting that with proper calibration, all of these options will accurately measure your running distance whether you’re on a treadmill, on a track, or trail running.
Why Does it Matter?
Being able to accurately track your distance and other important metrics is so important as a runner. For simple purposes, it helps you in calculating your speed to get an idea of your current fitness level and how to progress. From there, you then have an accurate way to track progress and work toward your specific running fitness goals. Increasing distance and speed are both easy ways to boost your fitness efforts. For more serious runners, particularly distance runners, they need a straightforward way to track training and race distances with little margin of error.
As a runner at any level, you have access to a wide variety of high-quality tracking devices. If you plan to spend most of your time on a treadmill, it is a great accurate way for measuring running distance. However, if you like to run in a variety of settings you might consider other options like an Apple Watch or the Nike Running App. The added benefits of these options is the additional integration it can bring to your work out plans for easy tracking and progression. No matter what you choose, you can count on the accuracy of distance.
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