What’s A Good Treadmill Speed? Check Out My Experiment!

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Modern treadmills can go fast. Superfast. In fact, some treadmills can go at such a high speed that they can be hard for us mere mortals to keep up with. But just because our treadmills can go at lightning speed, does that mean we should use them in this way? 

Choosing the right speed for your treadmill comes down to what you’re trying to accomplish from your workout. For example, endurance runs may require a treadmill to be set to a high incline at a steady speed. On the other hand, sprints may require little to no incline with a very high speed on your treadmill. 

Although it’s never going to be a case of one speed being suitable for everyone, we can get a pretty good idea of the range of speeds we should be aiming for depending on the workout. To figure this out for myself, I conducted an experiment.

The Experiment

By waking up at 5 AM every day this week, I found the time to fit an extra run into my day by going to my gym and jumping on a treadmill.

To get an idea of what kind of speed is best depending on my goals, I did the following:

• I Selected three different kinds of workouts on different occasions. These workouts were based on weight loss, building endurance and building speed.
• I followed the workout guidelines and from there I selected a speed on the treadmill that felt best for me and was still relevant to the workout. 
• From here, I measured how difficult the workout was based on the speed that I ran at. 
• I also measured the advantages and disadvantages of each workout to give an idea of what benefits and problems are associated with running on a treadmill at these different speeds. 

Key Take-Aways

• There is no single speed for any goal set when running on a treadmill because everybody has different preferences and different strengths and weaknesses. 

• As a general guideline, endurance workouts are best when kept at a frequent, steady pace.

• Sprint workouts work well at high speeds, followed by rest.

• Weight loss means running at a slightly uncomfortable pace but also giving yourself time to recover by walking. 

Background Information

Everyone is different, so it’s highly likely that people can run both a lot faster and a lot slower than me when it comes to the speeds I’m describing. 

To give you some context, I’m a male who can typically complete a 5K in around 25-30 minutes. I tend to focus more on distance running, so I don’t have much experience with speed training. At 5 feet 11 and 182 pounds, by no means am I in fantastic shape, but I’m also not very overweight. Without being cocky, I’d put myself as slightly above average in terms of running ability, simply because it’s something that I do every day. At the same time, I am not a hardcore athlete. 

Hopefully, by bearing the points above in mind, you should be able to make these experiments relevant to your own speeds when running on a treadmill. 

Treadmill Speeds And Type Of Treadmill

For the purpose of this experiment, the treadmill that I chose to run on was the T3XM Commercial treadmill by Matrix, which you can find here. The speeds available for this treadmill go from 0.16-19.3 KM/H / 0.1-12 MPH. For the average athlete, I would say that this is a treadmill with plenty of speed. The incline is also pretty good as it comes with a thrust elevation motor that goes from 0%-15%. This can be great if you’re looking to take the challenge up a notch by increasing the incline. 

Sprinting

Sprinting is something that I was pretty new to. As I said above, I have mostly focused on endurance running. When it came to choosing a sprinting workout, to my surprise, it is much better to practice short, fast bursts of speeds that go on for around 5-10 seconds, followed by a break.

You can find the workout that I chose to do here. I’ll also break it down for you in the points below:

• Set the treadmill to around 75% of your max speed. 
• Sprint for 5-10 seconds
• Rest for 30 Seconds
• Increase the speed around 0.5-1mph and go again.
• Do this three times, then take a 2-minute break.
• Repeat five times. 

Factor	Points To Discuss
Speed	My speed started around 15KM/H (9.32 MPH) and worked up to 17.5 KM/H (10.9 MPH). It took some time to figure out what speed was 75% of my maximum effort. I’d say that when trying to find the right speed on a treadmill, make sure that you’re kept safe with something like an emergency cord and work up to it steadily.
Advantages To Speed	It was exciting to run at a challenging pace, and I felt as if I was getting the most out of the workout by running at such a high speed. I’d definitely recommend picking a treadmill workout with fast speeds for someone who doesn’t have a lot of time and wants to get the most out of their session.
Disadvantages To Speed	Running at high speed means you’re going to need to jump on and off the treadmill a lot and adjust the speed manually if you haven’t got a preset program. This can be a handful. What’s more, this treadmill had an automatic time-out setting, meaning that when I was taking a rest from sprinting, I had to make sure the treadmill didn’t automatically shut down. If you’re someone who doesn’t like to take consistent breaks, running at these speeds could mean a lot of stopping and starting during your workout. Also, as I had to jump off multiple times, it wasn’t possible to track calories and heart rate easily.
Overall Difficulty	Hard- Finding a good speed to run at combined with the constant changing of that speed means a lot of potential guesswork. Running at such a fast speed felt dangerous, too, even though I was armed with a safety strap.

Endurance Running

For endurance running, I chose to run a 5K on the treadmill. For many, this distance is also considered as speed training. Whilst it is on the shorter side of endurance workouts, many experts point out that anything above 3KM (1.9 miles) is considered endurance running. What’s more, it’s safe to say that a 5K is a pretty popular distance. It’s so popular, in fact, that I wrote an entire article on how often a beginner should run a 5K, which you can find here.

Factor	Result
Speed	For this experiment, I chose to run at a pace of 10KMH (6.2 MPH). This allowed me to finish in 32 minutes. This time is slightly longer than usual for me. I chose to run on a flat incline for this one; however, increasing the incline on a treadmill would certainly help your endurance. It’s important to remember that increasing the incline might mean decreasing your speed because of the level of difficulty.
Advantages To Speed	10KMH felt like a nice speed for endurance training, and I was able to stay consistent with it. When comparing this speed to when I was sprinting, it was a lot easier to get an idea of how much work I was doing because I could keep an eye on the calories I was burning and get a good understanding of my overall heart rate.
Disadvantages To Speed	Staying at a steady pace for a long time isn’t the most exciting workout. Although a 5K can be fun to do outside, I wouldn’t recommend spending a long time running at a steady speed on a treadmill indoors.
Overall Difficulty	Easy- Once you get over the boredom that comes with running at a steady constant pace on a treadmill, it becomes really easy to keep things going.

Weight Loss Running

For running for weight loss, I did a HIIT workout on the treadmill. According to experts, HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) workouts are a good option for weight loss on treadmills because they allow you to burn a large number of calories in a small amount of time. The HIIT workout that I used for this experiment was taken from Healthline.

To do this workout, you should do the following:

• Walk at 2 MPH on a treadmill for five minutes. 
• Run at 9-10 MPH for 30 seconds.
• Walk at 3-4 MPH for 60 seconds. 
• Repeat 5-10 times.
• Return to walking at 2 MPH for 5 minutes to cool down.

Factor	Result
Speed	The interesting thing about this workout was that there were direct instructions on which speeds I should be using, so there wasn’t any guesswork involved. Of course, if you’re someone who can’t run at a speed of 9-10 MPH, then you should bring it down a bit.
Advantages To Speed	Just like the speed workout, it was fun for me to mix both fast and slow speeds on the treadmill. Again, incorporating fast speeds into a workout means that you can get through it a lot quicker. It’s difficult to find workouts that both help with weight loss and can be completed quickly, so this was a big win for me.
Disadvantages To Speed	Running at slow speeds, followed by very quick speeds, can be annoying if you’re trying to do it for a long time because it’s hard to get momentum going. This meant that these speeds are fine for a 15 minute run on a treadmill, but I wouldn’t enjoy doing it for over an hour.
Overall Difficulty	Medium – Surprisingly, I only burned around 250 calories during the HIIT workout. This is less than the 350 calories I burned when running for endurance. I still think that this is ok seeing as I ran for less amount of time during this workout. For that reason, it’s worth going at fast speeds. I wouldn’t say that this workout is difficult, but it probably isn’t my most preferred kind of speed or workout.

Is Speed The Most Important Factor For Treadmill Running?

Speed can play a huge role in treadmill running. Finding the right speed can help to determine how your progressing towards accomplishing goals around weight loss, sprinting and endurance. Although treadmill speed is a big deal, I found that during this experiment I needed to consider other things like incline, heart rate and what kind of kit I should be using to get the most out of my run. In fact, if wearing the proper attire for treadmill running is something that interests you I wrote an entire article on the correct type of shoes you need to run on a treadmill You can find that here.

Does Age Impact Treadmill Speed

It’s no secret that age can have a big impact on running. In addition to factors like diet and level of experience, age will have a key role in your overall ability. The general data suggests that the older you get, the slower you will be (on average) when running on a treadmill. For example, Healthline says that typical people in their twenties can walk at a speed of 3 MPH whereas those in their eighties walk at a pace much closer to 2 MPH. If it’s normal for walking speed to slow down as we age, running speed is bound to be the same.

How Fast Should I Walk ON A Treadmill?

During this experiment, I needed to walk when undergoing both the speed and weight loss workouts. So I got a good idea of the ideal walking pace.

A Great Speed For Walking On A Treadmill Is Around 2-5 MPH. If you haven’t walked on a treadmill before, finding the right speed might take some guesswork. Treadmill walking speeds usually vary depending on whether you’re a fast or a slow runner. However, sometimes abilities can play a role when walking too.