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 Equipped with 30 treadmills, lighting evocative of dusk or dawn, and
group training designed to hone the skills of marathoners and
newbies alike, fitness experts say the Mile High Run Club (MHRC)
might do a bit to burnish the image of the most used, least
glamorous, of gym cardio machines.
Billed as the first treadmill studio, MHRC is the brainchild of
founder and program director Debora Warner, a running coach and
group fitness instructor. She said the experience is similar to a
group spinning class with many people on treadmills at the same time
doing a structured class together.
“You can be very specific about incline, duration, number of reps,”
said Warner, 43, “and that helps runners with their pacing outdoors.
I don’t see treadmills as a substitute for running, but it’s a great
training tool.”
The treadmill is the most popular cardio machine at the gym, used by
40 percent of the over 60 million Americans who utilized a health
club in 2013, according to the 2014 Health Club Consumer Report of
IHRSA, the trade association of the health club and fitness
industry.
Nevertheless, it is viewed as drudgery, believes Connecticut-based
exercise physiologist and running coach Tom Holland.
“Running on a treadmill is a pretty horrible experience for most
people and they generally don’t maximize their time,” said Holland,
author of “The Marathon Method.”
He points out that while there is great value to interval training,
steady running has its virtues, too.
“Most running coaches say for every hard workout, you need one or
two easier ones,” Holland said.
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Although Warner's studio is dedicated to running, she noted that big
gyms, such as Equinox, also offer treadmill classes. Crunch, another
national chain, has also been integrating treadmill intervals into
yoga and boot camp classes.
She offers group foundational and advanced classes. Both rely on
repetitions of high-speed or intensity work followed by periods of
rest or low activity, bookended by five-minute warm-ups and cool
downs.
The classes also incorporate about 10 minutes of strength and power
training, such as lunges, plyometrics (jumping), and stability
training, which are all good for runners.
(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Andrew Hay)
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