I Ran on a Treadmill for 30 Days, Then Smashed My 5K PR

MY LEGS WERE screaming, my lungs were on fire, and the incline ahead had me stressed. I was in mile two of a local 5K in Maplewood, NJ, and I was starting to question a few choices. Did I really have it in me to be racing this hard on a Saturday morning? What exactly I was trying to prove by chasing kids half my age around the neighborhood, anyway? Even with all those doubts swirling, I kept pushing. I was ready for the challenge, thanks to a shift in my workouts.

I hit a running slump earlier in the year. I was trying to build my weekly mileage, but it was tough to get excited about heading out the door. Bad weather, repetitive routes on a loop, or the long string of solo miles—the spark I had felt on the roads before had dulled.

I turned 50 this past January. Ever since taking up running in 2020, running has been my way of keeping my brain in check and my body from going to seed. I’ve been holding steady at 25 to 30 miles a week, but the whole process of preparing, stretching, and getting out the door was feeling harder. Occasional races kept me motivated, but the familiar routes and similar efforts were growing boring. I started to wonder: Could a treadmill be the training partner I didn’t know I needed?

When I got the chance to test the Aviron Victory Treadmill for a month, I said yes. Running outside wasn’t improving my pace, I figured, so maybe some treadmill work would help me bust through my plateaus. But would I get the mental clarity I’d long enjoyed while outdoors? Let’s get into how it went.

Week 1: Getting Started

What I didn’t fully grasp was how much goes into making a treadmill actually fit into your actual life. I’m 6’2”, which I don’t usually think about until I’m ducking under light fixtures or, in this case, sizing up ceiling height. My house? Not exactly a commercial gym with eight-foot ceilings, hardwood floors, and teenagers trying to sleep. This thing had to fit, literally and figuratively. And it only fit in my basement office, which has carpeted concrete floors and just-high-enough ceilings.

Thankfully, the Aviron’s running deck sits just four inches off the ground. It has six shock absorbers and a flexible surface, so my knees didn’t revolt and my head didn’t knock into drywall every time I picked up the pace. The commercial-grade motor tops out at 12.5 mph, and is quiet enough that the dog didn’t flinch during my early morning runs.

I was hoping that the treadmill would allow me to keep the same training schedule that I had been keeping since training for a marathon last spring:

• Monday/Friday: 3 to 5 mile easy runs
• Tuesday/Thursday: intervals
• Saturday: long run (8 to 13 miles)
• Wednesday/Sunday: recovery days

Surprisingly, the mechanics of running on a belt were not far off from outdoor running. The hard part: tweaking my mentality. With the steady roll of the treadmill, I assumed I’d hop on and cruise at seven miles per hour (the pace for an 8:37 mile) indefinitely. Five minutes in, I was checking the clock every 30 seconds. I pushed through, but by 25 minutes, I had only gone a little over 2 miles and felt like I was hitting mile 20 of my last marathon—at least mentally. Not exactly the first run I had imagined.

The next morning when I came back to the treadmill, I knew I would have to try something different to get past the boredom. Aviron’s built-in 22-inch touchscreen helped; the virtual run feature includes HD videos of scenic trails, beaches, and forests. France, Spain, Portugal, Australia—places I’d never run in real life. I queued up one of my go-to running playlists and headed to Arizona. This time, I wasn’t counting the seconds. It wasn’t exactly like being outdoors, but it did get my mind off counting the seconds. I kept exploring more routes for the rest of this week’s runs.

By the time it was time for my weekend long run, I had a strategy: cue up a movie and cruise. The Aviron’s operating system comes with preloaded games and all your streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, Apple, YouTube, Amazon) so I was covered. I would suggest picking something with car chases or a training montage. You’ll need to match your entertainment with your training energy to keep you on your toes.

THE LESSON: Embrace. The. Tech. You won’t get as much stimuli as you do outside, but streaming services and games can keep you occupied. Give them a chance.

Week 2: Settling In

Part of me wanted to cave and head outside. But a few rainy mornings helped me stick to my plan, and I got more comfortable with the setup. On Monday, I picked a virtual run through Spain and queued up my usual podcast, The Drop. I still glanced at the clock, but not with existential dread. And I held a consistent pace for a few miles. Baby steps.

Tuesday, I dove deeper into Aviron’s software for interval workout guidance, trying a two-mile “surf” session with six hard intervals and one-minute jog recoveries. Having an onscreen coach guiding me felt oddly comforting. I repeated a version of this again on Thursday. And as I finished up, I felt so good that I added a steady mile at the end, just to prove to myself I was making progress.

By Friday, I actually looked forward to my indoor run. I decided to revisit the virtual runs and found myself pushing a pace over five miles in France. A bonus: While you make your way through these environments, you come upon real people who happened to be out while the routes were recorded. These real-life people added to the environment and created a funny meta-moment for me as I came around for a second lap. Would they or wouldn’t they move to the left this time? As I was finishing up, I felt the familiar rush of a good workout.

For Saturday’s long run, I changed things up and combined two runs into one. I spent the first five miles with my local running group, then went back to my house to do the second half solo, finishing my virtual laps with my favorite playlist. This alleviated some mental pressure. I logged in my miles for the week, and was feeling like I was going to enjoy this month.

The Lesson: A treadmill is a tool—not the only place to run. You can mix treadmill work with outdoor work as I did on Saturday. Another option: Mix treadmills and weights.

Week 3: Finding My Groove

Now, I was all in—and appreciating what the tread life had to offer. Monday, I dove into Aviron’s Virtual Coached Classes, trying a 35-minute “Just Run” workout that mixed inclines and speeds. I warmed up with my own concoction, starting with a fast walk, then adding a half-mile per hour every 30 seconds until I felt in a groove.

Tuesday, Thursday, Friday—this week had me logging 3 to 3.5 miles per session. I tried pyramid intervals, progressive builds, simulated hills that put my body through the same burn that my outdoor interval workouts had, but in what felt like half the time. The key to each push: Running with virtual trainers was motivating, so the clock moved fast, especially since I blended in my own playlists. The machine’s system allows you to cue up your Spotify or Apple Music accounts and control the Instructors volume, separate from the music.

My long run? Still split between outdoor group runs with friends, and then back for an hour on the tread. Not that everything was perfect. I was missing some of the structure that made my weekday workouts fly by when I was forced to vacillate between going hard and slowing down for other peoples’ paces.

THE LESSON: Develop your own warm up. On a treadmill, you’re a slave to the machine. Adding a warmup gets you ready to jump into any workout—but treadmill programs often don’t do this well.

Week 4: Seeing Progress

Over the month my running schedule had gone from two days of easy runs and 2 days of intervals to four days of interval workouts. And I was seeing progress I’d never seen outdoors: my quads were getting firmer and my breathing was easier during challenging moments. I seemed to be gaining strength. My weekly mileage was climbing back to where I wanted it to be. I wasn’t ready to run a 5:45 mile forever, but I could hit that pace for short intervals without worrying about flying off the belt.

For my final long run, I stuck with what had been working: group run, then treadmill. This week I threw in 7:30 pace interval miles—short recovery, repeat for an hour. I found a podcast and locked in. It wasn’t exactly easy, but it didn’t drag, either. As I worked my way through the five miles, I couldn’t help but think about how far I had come over these weeks.

The Lesson: You can make progress on a treadmill. And in some ways, it’s easier to track that progress, too. Seeing my pace quicken on the treadmill was satisfying and easy to follow. That’s underrated motivation, too.

Would Treadmill Running Transfer to the Outdoors?

Back to that 5k, my first race after introducing the treadmill to my training. Going up that hill at mile two, my legs were screaming. But I’d spent a month grinding intervals, sprinting fake hills, pushing past paces I didn’t dare try outdoors. That work hadn’t just built speed—it built my confidence.

As the incline flattened and I hit mile three, I found another gear. Not a sprint, and not some miracle pace, either. But something solid. I locked onto the runner ahead and started to reel them in.

When the finish line came into view, I kicked. Not because I had to, or I because have a competition complex. Because over this past month, I learned that you never regret giving it all during your last interval. Passing over the finish line, I brought home a new 5K PR: 22:31. I bent over, breathless, with a big, goofy smile on my face.

Final Thoughts

Did the treadmill make me faster? Stronger? Mentally tougher? Yes, yes—and maybe a little.

I’m not giving up outdoor running. But having the treadmill structure can make me better, too. Even as the weather warms up, I’ll keep the Aviron in my workout rotation, especially when I don’t want to worry about daylights or temps or when I need a boost from virtual coaches or fun routes. Turns out running can be a blast anywhere—even in my basement.

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