I’ve spent a lot of time on the treadmill this winter.  While I’m looking forward to getting back outside (possibly next week judging by the long term forecast), I’ve been very grateful for my new treadmill.  I’ve also been grateful for my laptop that I use to watch movies and TV (Netflix, Hulu, DVD) while logging miles.  I’ve never listened to music while running outside.  I have considered it a few times, but have avoided bringing along a music player in part because I didn’t want it to take away from my essential experience of running.  Some people feel just the opposite, and that’s fine by me - whatever works to get you out the door.  When it comes to the treadmill, however, I never thought twice about music or video.  Here are a few of the movies or shows that I’ve watched so far:

• Transformers – High energy action with decent amount of foot chases.
• Eagle Eye – Another action flick featuring Shia LaBeouf with foot and car chases.
• Traitor – A movie about a terrorist plot staring Don Cheadle.
• Spirit of the Marathon – A documentary about marathons in general and the 2005 Chicago Marathon specifically.  It’s a must see for runners. 
• Breaking Away – I hadn’t seen this on in a while.  A goofy old feel good movie about a guy trying to make it as a pro cyclist. 
• Legend of the Seeker – This is a new fantasy genre show I found on Hulu. 
• Eureka – Another TV show from Hulu.

The TV shows have been good for shorter runs.  Sometimes I delay starting them for a mile or two if I’m doing a longer run.  Likewise the movies can be split across a long and a short run.  I’ve also thought about getting some audio books from the library if the movies run dry – no pun intended.

What do you watch or listen to when you’re running?

My wife and I bought a treadmill before Christmas of last year.  It has been great to be able to run regardless of the weather or daylight this winter.  A couple of days ago the weather was warm so I headed outside for the first time in a while.  I was running on a known course – the arboretum at UK - and realize that I seemed to be running at a faster pace based on perceived effort compared to my perceived treadmill effort.  If anything, it should be the other way around.  My guess was that the treadmill was reporting a slower speed than it was actually moving at.  But how do you calibrate a treadmill?  The manual gave a procedure for calibration that allowed the roller diameter to be adjusted prior to running through an automatic calibration procedure.  So here’s how I did it.

I have a bicycle, a wind trainer (rear wheel clamp style), and a bike computer (speedometer).  The following could be done without a wind trainer, but it makes the whole thing a lot easier.  My particular computer (Cateye Astrale 8) uses a rear wheel speed sensor.  I made sure the bike computer was properly configured with the wheel circumference.  I then clamped the rear wheel in the wind trainer as per normal use and positioned the bike such that the front wheel was on the treadmill belt as if I were going to ride the bike on the treadmill.  Next I moved the trainer forward on the floor behind the treadmill until the rear wheel made contact with the belt.  I checked that there were no obstructions then turned on the treadmill at its slowest speed.  As the belt moved it turned the wheels showing the speed of the belt.  I tested the treadmill at six, eight, and ten miles per hour and found it to be moving about 0.2 mph fast.  That is, when the treadmill said eight mph the bike computer said 8.2 mph. 

From here on it was just a slow process of trail and error.  I went through the set up procedure for calibrating the treadmill, each time increasing the setting for the size of the rollers by a couple of points.  I finally arrived at a setting of 2.89 as opposed to the setting of 2.81 listed in the manual.  Once the speeds agreed I let the whole setup run for a few miles to see if the distances would match up as well.  A small difference in speed between the treadmill and bike computer – both of which only read to a tenth of a mile per hour – would easily show up over a distance of a few miles.  Overall I found the two to match up well with the treadmill running perhaps .05 mph faster, which is fine for me.