There are definitely pros to training for your marathon by using a treadmill. For example, you can train for your marathon no matter what the weather is like outside. Snowing? Doesn't matter, because you've got a treadmill inside. Rain coming down horizontally? Who cares! You have a treadmill, so you can keep running away and training for a marathon in the next few months.

Another definite benefit to using a treadmill to get ready for a marathon is the ability to accurately keep track of your miles. Treadmills offer a number of different options on the computer tracker that can track the exact amount of miles that you have run. You can also track your heart rate, so that you can ensure that you are always meeting your target heart rate-and to make sure that you're not overdoing it. You can program your treadmill to keep you running at a certain pace, so that you can train to run your marathon in a certain amount of time.

Treadmills can also be programmed or used in order to replicate particular situations outside, or to help you train for hills. Almost all treadmills have an incline option which can be changed around either electronically or manually. You can change the incline on your treadmill in order to train for the hills that you will be meeting when you run your marathon.

Sounds fantastic, doesn't it? Well, getting ready for a marathon by using a treadmill is a really great way to go. However, there are a few cons and drawbacks when it comes to getting ready for a marathon by using a treadmill.

For example, running on a treadmill can give you a false sense of what your speed really is. You will probably run slower on pavement, because it's a different surface. Also, running on a treadmill doesn't make up for the lack of wind resistance while you are training inside; there will be wind resistance and humidity to deal with when you are running your marathon outside. You should do some trial runs outside just to make sure that you have a sense of what your preparation is like when you run outside.

Another drawback to getting ready for a marathon by using a treadmill is that your pace on your treadmill probably will not match the pace that you will be running outside. The environments and the surfaces are completely different. This is why even if you do almost all of your marathon training on a treadmill, you should do some practice runs outside so that you can get a much better idea of what your run will be like when you actually run your marathon.

Make sure that you use a minimum incline grade of 1%. This is because running at 0% incline is actually close to running on a slight downward slope. You will have better luck actually running in your outside form when you have a minimum 1% incline grade. Cut back on the speed as you increase the incline, because people slow down when they start running up hills.

Don't forget about cross training. You should be doing squats, leg curls, leg extensions, and calf workouts. And make sure that you actually run outside about once a week so that you can know what your pace is like in outside conditions.