I suffer from the fear of running on treadmills(Treadmilobia?). I have always been an outdoor runner since taking up jogging for fitness over 30 years ago and after moving to distance running in 2001. I have run on treadmills only when I absolutely needed to while travelling either due to bad weather or not being aware of a running route in the neighbourhood. However, ever since the experiences of a couple of years ago, when one time the treadmill I was running on changed speed upwards on its own and another time it came to a complete stop quite suddenly, I have developed a mental block against treadmills. I use then only when I have no other choice - I prefer the cycle or the cross-trainer or the rowing machine for a workout in the gym rather than a treadmill. Recently when I was out of Bangalore on vacation and needed to do a 8Km tempo run at 4:54/Km as part of my 16 weeks marathon training program I pysched myself up since the previous evening calculating and re-calculating the setting for the speed(12.3 Km/hr). However, when I got onto the treadmill I felt scared going beyond 11Km/hour. I somehow inched up to 11.3 Km/hr but felt uncomfortable and scared going beyond that. I ended up doing a 30 minutes run at a modest pace of 5:36/Km. I know of some running friends who do their tempo and even interval training runs on treadmills. I will never be able to do that. On googling I found that a lot of people dislike running on the treadmill mainly due to the boredoom; however there are a quite a few runners who are scared as well like me.
