Quote Originally Posted by rocknrollgirl View Post
I would like to preface my question with a word of thanks to all of the great advice and encouragement that you have to offer to all of us on this board. I am an off road triathlete, training for Xterra. Although my my race will be on different terrain, the fundamental issues of training still apply, and your insight has helped.

So that being said..I have a question about your training. It may seem stupid, but here goes.

Why do you run on a treadmill? Is it a weather issue?


Ruth
V - Yes we are all crazy. Glad we got that out of the way.

RnR - That is not a stupid question in the least. I run on the treadmill primarily for weather reasons but also for terraine reasons. Right now with my work schedule I'm usually running when it's dark. It's not that cold here but we get a lot of freezing rain and it's really hard to see the ice patches in the dark. So the treadmill is my best choice right now to avoid injury. Also it is VERY hilly where I live. So on days when I'm more fatigued and feel like running outside might be a challenge (especially since I have a history of pesky hip issues) I might choose to run on the TM. This allows me to control my intensity better and I don't have to worry about how to get home if my hip problem kicks in and I have to stop running.

I would much prefer to run outside and if you do offroad races you should run outside as much as possible. It's the race specific option, so the better one. But then you also need to be more aware about intensity, cuz it's harder to maintain the right training intensity (ie keep things light enough on recovery days and long runs) on trails.

I really appreciate your comments. I've been racing triathlon for about 13 years (with 2 years off from comp for various reasons). Sometimes I feel like I sound like a know-it-all and I wonder if I should post so much. So thank you.

This will be my first year back seriously training and racing. That means placing in the top quarter of my age group field - hopefully. So I'm really excited and I love the supportive atmosphere in TE.