Treadmill Workout Calculator

Start with a 5–10 minute warmup at an easy pace (4–5 mph or 6.5–8 km/h). Add intervals alternating between hard effort (30 seconds to 2 minutes at a challenging speed or incline) and recovery (1–3 minutes at easy pace). Finish with a 5-minute cooldown. A common beginner structure is 5 minutes warmup, 6–8 intervals of 1 minute hard / 2 minutes easy, then 5 minutes cooldown. Use this calculator to set each segment and see your total workout stats before you start.

Most beginners start at 3.0–4.0 mph (4.8–6.4 km/h) for walking and 5.0–6.0 mph (8.0–9.6 km/h) for jogging. A 5.0 mph jog equals a 12:00/mile pace, which is comfortable for many new runners. As fitness improves, increase speed by 0.5 mph every few weeks. For incline walking, 3.0–3.5 mph at 5–10% grade is effective cardio without the impact of running.

Every 1% of incline adds roughly 10% more effort compared to flat running at the same speed. At 5% grade, you're working about 50% harder than on flat ground. Incline increases calorie burn, engages more glute and calf muscles, and simulates hill running. A 2% incline approximates the effort of running outdoors on flat ground since treadmills lack wind resistance. Use the Treadmill Elevation Gain Calculator to see exactly how much vert you're gaining at any incline setting.

The 12-3-30 workout is walking at 12% incline, 3.0 mph, for 30 minutes. It was popularized on social media as a low-impact cardio workout. At 12% incline and 3.0 mph for 30 minutes, you cover 1.5 miles and gain about 945 feet of elevation. To build a smart version, add a warmup segment at 0–2% incline for 5 minutes before jumping to 12%, then a cooldown segment at the end.

For general fitness, 20–45 minutes is effective. HIIT workouts can be as short as 15–20 minutes including warmup and cooldown. Endurance sessions for marathon or ultramarathon training can run 60–90+ minutes. The key is consistency rather than duration — a 20-minute workout done 4 times a week beats a 60-minute workout done once. Use this calculator to plan your target workout length by stacking segments.

Yes, this calculator is designed for interval workouts. Add a segment for each interval — for example, 30 seconds at 9.0 mph followed by 90 seconds at 4.0 mph. Stack as many intervals as you need and see the total time, distance, and elevation gain for your entire workout before stepping on the treadmill. You can also mix speed intervals with incline intervals by changing the grade on specific segments. For pace conversion help, try the Running Pace Calculator.

The treadmill is ideal for marathon-specific workouts because you can lock in exact goal pace. Build a tempo run with a 10-minute warmup, 20–40 minutes at marathon goal pace (e.g., 9:09/mile for a 4-hour marathon), and a 10-minute cooldown. For long runs, stack segments at progressively faster paces to practice negative splitting. The treadmill also lets you practice race-day nutrition — eating gels and drinking water at pace — in a controlled setting.

Yes. Many ultrarunners use treadmill sessions for targeted uphill training. Set the incline to 10–15% and hike at 3.0–3.5 mph to build climbing-specific endurance with minimal impact stress. This method, popularized by coaches like David Roche, lets you accumulate thousands of feet of vertical gain in a single session. Use this calculator to plan your total elevation — for example, 60 minutes at 15% grade and 3.0 mph gives you 3.0 miles and roughly 2,360 feet of climbing.

Winter treadmill workouts should maintain your fitness base while keeping you injury-free. Key sessions include: easy runs at 1–2% incline to simulate outdoor effort, tempo runs at goal race pace, incline ladders that step up from 3% to 12% and back down, and progression runs that increase speed every 10 minutes. Stack these as segments in this calculator to plan your exact workout. Many runners also use winter to build vertical gain with steep incline walking, coming out of winter with stronger legs for spring races.