3 spicy treadmill workouts to fire up your legs

There are times when a treadmill workout is a necessary evil (or delight, as you’ll look at it after these workouts). Weird weather, travel, or needing to fit in a very late or early workout can drive you indoors. Instead of dreading a session on the mill, we suggest giving one of these spicy workouts a try. Your legs will burn and time will fly by–you may even find yourself eagerly anticipating your next treadmill run.

Speed-focused interval workout

Warm up with a ten-minute easy jog, followed by three minutes of running drills.

Run two minutes of hard effort (don’t worry about hitting a specific pace for this one), followed by a one-minute easy run for recovery. Repeat four times.

After the fourth round, take a three-minute recovery run (or fast walk).

Run two minutes of hard effort followed by a 30-second recovery run, repeat four times.

After the fourth round take a 3-minute recovery run.

Finish off your legs with four,  40-second intervals at your fastest pace (can be a full-on sprint), followed by a 40-second recovery run.

Cool down by running at a very easy pace for five-10 minutes.

Endurance interval workout

Build up slowly to a speedy pace in this endurance-based session. Before you start this one, find the fastest pace (or effort) you can maintain for one minute of running with zero incline: you’ll start the workout portion of this session at around half of that pace or effort. Don’t worry if that’s tricky to figure out–just go for a rough estimate.

Warm up with a ten-minute very easy run, followed by some drills to kick your legs into action (performed off of the treadmill).

Run for five minutes, increasing your speed by 0.5  km-per-hour per hour each minute. Follow with a two-minute recovery jog.

Repeat these steps six times, starting each set at a starting speed of 0.5 km-per-hour more than your original starting pace.

Run very easily for five to 10 minutes to cool down.

HIIT treadmill session

Warm up with a 10-minute run at a very easy pace, followed by running drills. Take note of what pace your easy run is on your treadmill in order to adjust your pace throughout this session.

Run six 30-second sprints that are 1.5 to 2.5 km-per-hour (faster, if this isn’t challenging enough) more quickly than the comfortable pace you ran to warm up, with a 90-second recovery jog between each sprint.

Cool down with a 10-minute very easy run.

Remember to follow a speedwork day with a recovery or very easy running day.