How to adapt couch to 5k for treadmill?

Question

I had a look at the "treadmill version" on the c25k website, but it has runs lasting < 2 minutes. The treadmill that I want to use, is very slow changing speeds - I'm concerned that going from walk to run (or back) could take several seconds, and out of a 90 second run, 10 seconds is a lot.

Should I not include the transitional time in the walk/run duration? Or should I count it as part of one or the other? It seems like the rapid walk/run transitions are designed for running outdoors, where it is easy to switch between them - how can I adapt the plan to work with a treadmill?

Answer 1

There shouldn't be any adaptation necessary.

The few seconds that it takes to ramp up to speed will be offset by the few seconds it takes to slow back down to the walk pace, and is a little bit more of a natural effort than most people that just suddenly go from run to walk or vice versa.

So, for the treadmill on your 90 second runs, start the time and change the speed, then at 90 seconds change the speed back down. The speeding/slowing of the belt will counter each other, and should give you a consistent effort across the entire workout time.