Running to Stand Still
Some marathon runners are training in an unlikely setting -- indoors.

By ELLEN GAMERMAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 1, 2005; Page P11

To train for the Oct. 30 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C.,
Ron Eaker gets up at 5:30 a.m., laces his sneakers and sets out on a
2½-hour run that takes him over a 16-mile course. All that, and he
never leaves the house.

Dr. Eaker, a 47-year-old obstetrician from Augusta, Ga., is one of a
growing number of marathoners who train on treadmills. Purists may
snicker, but runners -- many of them baby boomers eager to preserve
their joints -- have embraced the regimen as a way to exercise without
succumbing to asphalt-pounding injuries.

The sporting-goods industry has noticed. This fall, several companies
are unveiling new treadmill lines designed to ease the transition to
long-distance road racing -- a subject of concern to some orthopedists
and trainers who say that a sudden return to blacktop can cause
injuries. These innovations, including video screens and running
surfaces that can be adjusted to soften impact, may be most important
for marathoners who put in miles on the treadmill every day, but they
also appeal to casual joggers and weekend athletes who run short races.
THE GREAT INDOORS
• See three new marathon-friendly treadmill models1.

• Read about training regimens for indoor cycling, rowing and skiing2.




Treadmill runners say that training with a 1% to 4% incline helps
compensate for the lack of wind resistance and the little boost a
runner gets from pushing off a moving belt. Beside touting the
treadmill's obvious advantages -- no weather, no darkness, no traffic
-- enthusiasts say they can make the experience as visually
stimulating as outdoors by running next to screens showing footage of,
say, white sand beaches in Hawaii.

Treadmill manufacturers are billing the new models as high-tech
training equipment that enhances race-day performance. In mid-October,
Nautilus will begin selling a model with a computer program that takes
runners through a 26.2-mile course closely mirroring the uphill
sequences of the Boston Marathon route. Icon Health & Fitness, which
owns NordicTrack, will release treadmills this fall with features that
incorporate benefits of outdoor running, such as running deck
cushioning that can be dialed up to a harder surface or down for less
impact.

But even with sophisticated screen displays, enthusiasts don't expect
to shake the gerbil-on-a-wheel stereotype. "My wife won't even tell
people anymore because the reaction's always the same: 'What's wrong
with him?'" says Dr. Eaker, who passes the hours by watching a tape of
"Chariots of Fire" on TV. A veteran of nine marathons, he says he and
his machine "have a bond."

The treadmill guru is Rick Morris, a 48-year-old trainer in Lone Tree,
Colo., who last year self-published "Treadmill Training for Runners."
He once ran the Disney World Marathon after training indoors
exclusively and finished within three minutes of his personal best.

To Mr. Morris, long runs on open roads are boring. During indoor runs
as long as 35 miles, he watches videos of marathons. Yes, he's had
moments like George Jetson on a runaway treadmill at the start of the
1960s cartoon -- Mr. Morris fell once when he stripped off his shirt
while trying to keep a swift pace. But he says treadmill training is
the best way to guard against injury. And though he agrees that
runners shouldn't hit the pavement for the first time on the day of
the race, he says road running lets them slack off since they control
the speed.

Not everyone is excited to see all these runners going nowhere. Some
orthopedists and coaches assert that runners who train indoors are
more vulnerable to injury when they're abruptly introduced to asphalt,
uneven surfaces, turns, steep up-and-down hills, wind and weather.

Dr. Warren King, an orthopedic surgeon in Palo Alto, Calif., says he
is seeing more injured middle-age runners who have thrown themselves
into marathons without the proper training. Treadmill training is good
for preventing overuse injuries, he says, but dangerous for race day
because joints that haven't been conditioned for the shock are more
likely to break down. "If you're going to train for an event," he
says, "you want to mimic that event as closely as possible. There's
something to be said for pounding yourself into shape."

Nonetheless, wholesale sales of electronic treadmills -- most of which
cost between $1,000 to $5,000 -- reached $1 billion for the first time
in 2003 and topped that figure in 2004, according to the Sporting
Goods Manufacturers Association, a trade group. The SGMA attributes
that increase in part to a marathon boom.

This fall, at least one treadmill event will join high-profile races
like the New York City Marathon on Nov. 6 and the Marine Corps
Marathon. In late October, George Kerns, a building engineer in
McLean, Va., plans to run 50 miles indoors to raise money for a home
for troubled teens. How will he pass the time? "I do a lot of math
problems in my head," he says. But he won't do subtraction: "You don't
want to think negative."

Indoor runners tired of taunts that their pastime is boring can retort
that running outdoors isn't always exciting either. Consider the
102-mile charity run that Navy Lt. j.g. Geoff Weber completed on Labor
Day weekend. The course consisted of two cones one mile apart on a
beach. No treadmill, true. Just a straight line, a countdown clock and
a sweaty Lt. Weber, running back and forth.

Write to Ellen Gamerman at ellen.gamerman@...