Treadmill Marathon Training?

CorkonianRebel

I was just wondering is it possible to train for a marathon or a half marathon just on a treadmill and maybe just doing a few runs outdoors? Would it give you a false sense of how you are doing or is it ok to just use it on its own? Dont get me wrong as I like to run outside too but I am just worried it might be bad in the long run(Excuse the pun!)

Surely once the time is put in on the treadmill that its the same except just for the feel of the outdoors ?

The reason I am asking this is because I am going to a gym using the treadmill but wondering how many runs to do outside in addition to this or am I fine with the treadmill.

robinph

Never even contemplated running on a treadmill myself, but I thought that there was something about your feet not getting used to the harder road surfaces being an issue if you did too much mileage on them?

Oryx

Having run both on a treadmill and outdoors, I wouldnt contemplate training for a long run on one. It has a completely different feel to running outdoors, and part of long distance training is getting your joints and muscles used to the heavy pounding on hard surfaces. A treadmill wont do that. Also the boredom of high mileage on a tready would kill me You wont have the variations of surface and hills you get outdoors either, or the weather . Im not saying its impossible but you are leaving a lot to chance if you dont get well used to outdoor running.

Ive aways heard that you should train for whatever event youre planning in similar circumstances to the event itself. So for road races, train on real roads.