Treadmill or running on the open road?

[lodgi]

For the best results run on the road as much as possible

Your best sticking to tracks or fields if you can. Running on the road a lot f@#k up knees. My mate who is 17!!! failed the army medical because of his f@#k knees (he used to be a good footballer and ran every day on the road).

[Bruce McDonald]

Yeah mate, well pointed out. When i was talking about roads, i meant the outdoors in general opposed to the treadmill (i didnt put it properly though). Thanks for pointing that fact out. We wouldnt want to give any bad advice would we?! (no sarcasm intended)

Cheers,

~Bruce~

[combat-engineer]

Does anyone know how fast you have to do the 1.5 miles if your going for the royal engineers? I thought everyone had to get 11.5 no matter what they went for?

[= Jay =]

yeah 11.30secs is a good time to do it in....but you have a Total of 14mins...but you don't want to do that.

so just go as fast as you can.

[lodgi]

Oi bruce you bugger, most people run on the road you know. My mate getting fit for the army at the moment is running on the road, he's going for an engineer role though (is it REME?) so he won't be doing much.

[Bruce McDonald]

Mate, no offence intended to you. I myself run on roads, paths, tracks and all that. I dont have a problem with any of them. I would like to stop this fussing and fooling now, before we start an argument. Friends?

Cheers,
~Bruce~

[Tab]

All your work in the forces is on the roads so get used to them

[lodgi]

I know you was only taking the michael brucey.

[Bruce McDonald]

Yeah its alright right lodgi.

Cheers,
~Bruce~

[voodoo sprout]

This reminded me about a little thing I've been pondering. Many people here have mentioned that running on roads is bad, running in boots is worse, and running with weights will kill you after two and a half paces. Well, not precisely, but you know what I mean . And given that I've had similar advice from the AFCO, I was wondering how much this stuff is just being very, very cautious? As the military do this stuff all the time as Tab pointed out. One RM careers officer I talked to said that the difference is that people do that in the military because they have to, but just because someone is telling you to do something can't make it more healthy.

So to getg ot the point (I'd probably better stop burying it under a pile of nonsense now ), what is the real difference between military fitness and what we're doing? Are we being more careful than we perhaps need to be, or is it that in the military people do get the problems mentioned around here, but just put up with it? Or something completely different?

[Ric]

Hi,

i read that you use approx 13%less energy when running on the treadmill as compared to running on roads. You don't get wind resistance on the treadmill etc.

[gunner75]

Running on sand provides a more rigorous workout but to the extent of putting more stress on the feet. The Road/grass argument is, in my opinion, just words of caution to prevent people from injury. Roads or any hard surface put more stress on the joints and muscles around them therefore making them more susceptable to injury. In theory grass/softer surfaces absorb the forces created from running and as a result you are less susceptable. People will choose to be as cautious as they like and in general if it feels ok will train how they want. I made the mistake of training like an idiot, thinking after a long period of no training I could suddenly start off as I left years ago.Big mistake. I ended up with overuse injuries which due to a lack of training knowledge escalated into more complicated ones. Result? out of action for long time! Im now getting back into the swing of things and my training mantra is soft tracks,hard sensible workouts and plenty of rest!