by Wilhelm Schnotz

Created on: August 01, 2007

The treadmill can be an extremely useful piece of training equipment for any runner. There are literally hundreds of different treadmills out there with various functions and price ranges. Before you buy a treadmill you need to consider whether you actually need one, what functions you require and how much you are willing pay for the treadmill.

The benefits of having a standard treadmill are:

- Can still run in any weather conditions and at any time of day
- Can know current speed, distance run and duration
- Various courses can be ran at different speeds and with the treadmill at different gradients
- Can avoid downhill or uphill running if these cause problems for you
- Less chance of injury while running on the treadmill
- Can watch television or listen to the radio while you run
- Running feels safer on the treadmill
- Soft, shock absorbing surface reduces injury occurrence
- Drink bottle and sweat towel held for you

Those are some of the benefits that are provided to the runner by a standard treadmill. Expect a standard treadmill to cost between $500 and $1000. If you want additional features there are also some other benefits:
- Monitor heart rate; current, average, maximum, minimum
- Monitor pace in min/km or km/h or mph
- Some treadmills have higher maximum speeds of to about 20 km/h
- Some treadmills have more variable gradients of greater than 15%
- Mp3 player or music inbuilt to keep you happy
- Memory of other training sessions
- Large variety of courses
- Larger treadmill more area to run on
- Fold-up or treadmill on wheels

The more you expect from your treadmill the more you ought to expect to pay a treadmill with all of these features might set you back up to $5000. When you buy your treadmill it is a great idea to test it before buying if possible, to check out its features and to make sure it has a warranty of 2-5 years at a minimum. I would suggest that you buy a basic treadmill as your first one and if after a few years it stops working then look into spending more if you really need all the functions and features.

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